Leadership Team

Mr Gerard M Bond is an experienced and accomplished executive in the global resources and finance industry. He was appointed as Executive Director and President & Chief Executive Officer of OceanaGold in April 2022.   Mr Bond’s commodities experience includes gold, copper, nickel and aluminium. He has an extensive background in corporate finance, mergers and acquisitions, treasury, and human resources, and has held numerous senior executive roles across North America, Europe and Australia. He has a proven track record of driving performance and delivering on business potential.   Prior to his appointment at OceanaGold, Mr Bond was the Finance Director and Chief Financial Officer at Newcrest Mining Limited for 10 years, from January 2012 to January 2022. Before joining Newcrest he was at BHP where, over his 14 years there he held various senior executive roles in Mergers and Acquisitions, Treasury, as Deputy CFO of the Aluminium business, CFO and then Acting President of the Nickel business, and finally as BHP’s Head of Group Human Resources. Prior to joining BHP he worked in Corporate Finance for Coopers & Lybrand.   Mr Bond holds a Bachelor of Commerce from the University of Melbourne and completed a Graduate Diploma in Applied Finance and Investment from the Securities Institute of Australia.

Marius van Niekerk was appointed Chief Financial Officer in May 2023.   Marius is a mining executive with approximately 25 years of broad-based mining and technology industry experience spanning South Africa, the UK (London), Mozambique, Singapore and Canada. Prior to joining OceanaGold, he spent the vast majority of his mining career working for various operations and corporate centers across BHP and Newcrest where he focused on strategy, functional excellence, energy negotiations, M&A commercial integrations, technology advancements, First Nations engagements and a range of value delivery and synergy initiatives.   Marius has experience in aluminium, alumina, energy, energy coal, gold and copper and prior to joining OceanaGold he was the VP Finance-Americas for Newcrest. From 2019-2023 he was responsible for both commercial integrations and financial oversight of the Red Chris and Pretivm/Brucejack mines in British Columbia, Canada. Prior to joining Newcrest, Mr van Niekerk also spent 13 years with BHP where he held a number of senior leadership roles including VP Strategy and Design (Global Group Business Information Services), Head of Finance (CFO) Energy Coal South Africa, Project Director – Energy Southern Africa, Head of Finance (CFO) Mozal Aluminium smelter and Global Financial Controller – Aluminium. He was also director and shareholder of clean-tech start-up in Niagara focusing on copper extraction.   He holds a Bachelor in Economic and Management Sciences from the University of Pretoria (South Africa), an Honors in Accounting Sciences from the University of South Africa and he is a Chartered Accountant in South Africa and a CPA Ontario, Canada. Marius is a graduate of the University of Toronto / Rothman Business School – Institute of Corporate Directors Program in Canada and holds the ICD.D designation.

Liang Tang was appointed General Counsel and Company Secretary in 2016 and is a practising lawyer with a broad range of legal and corporate experience in the gold mining sector, including capital markets, debt financing and corporate and commercial law.   Prior to joining OceanaGold’s legal and company secretariat team in April 2009 Liang was a commercial lawyer in private practice.   Liang holds a Bachelor of Commerce, a Bachelor of Laws, and a Master of Laws from the University of Melbourne.

Ms Michelle Du Plessis commenced as Executive Vice President and Chief People and Technology Officer in March 2023.   Michelle has over 25 years of experience in human resources, transformation and executive leadership across multiple industries and countries.   Prior to joining OceanaGold, Michelle spent 15 years with BHP in operational and strategic roles, leading a cross functional improvement and transformation function and most recently leading Global HR operations. Prior to that Michelle worked for other international organisations including Whirlpool and Murray & Roberts spanning human resources; health, safety, environment and community; operational management; continuous improvement and transformation portfolios.

Peter Sharpe is a mining executive with more than 25 years of broad-based industry experience spanning Australia, Papua New Guinea, North America and South America. Prior to joining OceanaGold, Mr Sharpe spent the vast majority of his career working for various operations across the three major mining companies of Newcrest, South 32 and BHP.   At Newcrest, Mr Sharpe held senior leadership roles including General Manager at Cadia, General Manager at Lihir and most recently as the Director of Integration for the recently acquired Pretivm Resources in Canada. Prior to joining Newcrest, Mr Sharpe had 18 years with BHP and South32 where he held a number of senior leadership roles including VP Operations Cannington, Asset President NSW Energy Coal and VP Colombia Coal where he represented BHP’s 33% JV interest in Cerrejon in Colombia. He holds a Bachelor of Engineering (Civil) from the University of Newcastle.

Ms Megan Saussey was appointed to the role of Chief Sustainability Officer in December 2022. A respected sustainability leader, Megan has more than two decades of experience spanning upstream oil and gas, energy infrastructure and property development across Australia, Papua New Guinea, North America and the Middle East. Her deep expertise at operational and corporate levels includes social performance, human rights, climate change, environment, and a range of stakeholder engagement functions on large and complex projects.   Prior to joining OceanaGold, Megan was the General Manager Sustainability at APA Group, where she built a new sustainability function and led the enterprise transformation for net zero and climate change. Megan’s previous experience includes nine years at Oil Search Ltd where she held a range of leadership roles including SVP Social Responsibility and Environment, and 14 years at Lend Lease in both Australia and the US. For eight years to 2020, Megan was a non-executive director of the UN Global Compact Network Australia, where her responsibilities included Acting Board Chair and Committee Chair. Megan has a Masters in Business Administration and a Masters of Laws (Human Rights) from the University of New South Wales and is a graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.

Craig Feebrey was appointed Chief Exploration Officer in November 2015.   Craig is responsible for exploration and geology across the Company and Chairs the Resource and Reserve Steering Committee.   Craig is an experienced geologist with over 25 years of global exploration and commercial success. He has held several executive, senior technical, and management positions across major international mining organisations and junior exploration companies. Craig’s major focus has been in gold and copper exploration, business development, and mining across Australia, Asia-Pacific, and the Americas.   Craig is a Chartered Professional Geologist and holds a Doctor of Philosophy (Geology) and Master of Science from Hokkaido University, Japan, and a Bachelor of Science and Graduate Diploma of Science from the University of New England, Australia.   Craig is a fellow of the Society of Economic Geologists, and a member of the Australian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy, and Australian Institute of Company Directors.

Bhuvanesh joined OceanaGold in January 2024 as Chief Technical and Projects Officer.   He has over 25 years of experience in operational and technical roles across multiple commodities and mining methods, driving safety performance, operational excellence, and sustainable transformational change.   Most recently, Mr. Malhotra was Technical Director (Copper and Simandou) for Rio Tinto, based in Brisbane Australia, where he was accountable for championing technical and operational excellence to maximize asset performance, including business evaluation of sustaining and growth options across the value chain, driving long term strategic goals. This role included management of a global portfolio of assets in North America, Mongolia, South America, Australia and West Africa.   Prior to that, he held various operational and technical roles at Rio Tinto, including General Manager, Technical Services and General Manager Operations for the West Angelas and Robe Valley operations for Rio Tinto Iron Ore.   Bhuvanesh holds a Bachelor of Mining Engineering from Nagpur University, India.