Brian Menell is a South African businessman with interests in mining, agriculture & agri industry and banking. He is the CEO and Chairman of TechMet Ltd.

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

Biography

Menell was born in 1965 in

Johannesburg Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu language, Zulu and xh, eGoli ), colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, or "The City of Gold", is the largest city in South Africa, classified as a Megacity#List of megacities, megacity, and is List of urban areas by p ...

. His grandfather, Slip Menell, was the co-founder in 1932 of the

Anglovaal Anglovaal Group was one of six large South African holding conglomerates that had interests in mining, finance and industry. It was formed in 1933 as the Anglo-Transvaal Consolidated Investment Company Limited with interests initially in mining. In ...

Group, one of South Africa's largest diversified mining and industrial groups of companies. His father was the philanthropist and businessman, Clive Menell, who died in 1996. President

Nelson Mandela Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela (; ; 18 July 1918 – 5 December 2013) was a South African anti-apartheid activist who served as the first president of South Africa from 1994 to 1999. He was the country's first black head of state and the ...

gave the address at Clive's memorial service in Johannesburg. Menell was educated at the

Rugby School Rugby School is a public school (English independent boarding school for pupils aged 13–18) in Rugby, Warwickshire, England. Founded in 1567 as a free grammar school for local boys, it is one of the oldest independent schools in Britain. ...

in the UK. He holds a BA (Hons) from the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universit ...

in political science and economics.

Career

Mining

Prior to joining Anglovaal Group, Menell worked for the

De Beers Group De Beers Group is an international corporation that specializes in diamond mining, diamond exploitation, diamond retail, diamond trading and industrial diamond manufacturing sectors. The company is active in open-pit, large-scale alluvial and ...

in London, Antwerp and

Windhoek Windhoek (, , ) is the capital and largest city of Namibia. It is located in central Namibia in the Khomas Highland plateau area, at around above sea level, almost exactly at the country's geographical centre. The population of Windhoek in 20 ...

for eight years. He originally joined the company as a diamond sorter. Menell was Principal and executive director of Anglovaal Mining Ltd. which owned

precious metal Precious metals are rare, naturally occurring metallic chemical elements of high economic value. Chemically, the precious metals tend to be less reactive than most elements (see noble metal). They are usually ductile and have a high lu ...

base metal A base metal is a common and inexpensive metal, as opposed to a precious metal such as gold or silver. In numismatics, coins often derived their value from the precious metal content; however, base metals have also been used in coins in the past ...

ferrous metal In chemistry, the adjective Ferrous indicates a compound that contains iron(II), meaning iron in its +2 oxidation state, possibly as the divalent cation Fe2+. It is opposed to "ferric" or iron(III), meaning iron in its +3 oxidation state, such a ...

and diamond interests across

Southern Africa Southern Africa is the southernmost subregion of the African continent, south of the Congo and Tanzania. The physical location is the large part of Africa to the south of the extensive Congo River basin. Southern Africa is home to a number ...

. Menell and his brother Rick retained control of Anglovaal until its sale in 2001 to create the largest South African empowerment controlled company,

African Rainbow Minerals African or Africans may refer to: * Anything from or pertaining to the continent of Africa: ** People who are native to Africa, descendants of natives of Africa, or individuals who trace their ancestry to indigenous inhabitants of Africa *** Ethn ...

. During his time with Anglovaal he was also a 50% partner in the

Venetia diamond mine The Venetia Diamond Mine is South Africa's largest producer of diamonds, since 1995. It is situated close to the South African town of Alldays in the Limpopo province and is located within the 360 km² Venetia Limpopo Nature Reserve. The open ...

. De Beers' acquisition of Anglovaal's interest in the mine for $600 million was the largest in the company's history. Since the sale of Anglovaal, Menell has managed or been a key participant in projects and businesses across sub-Saharan Africa. In 2017 Menell founded and continues to serve as chairman and CEO of TechMet Ltd, an investment vehicle for a portfolio of technology metal projects. TechMet acquires and manages projects that produce, process and recycle the key strategic technology metals that go into batteries, electric vehicles and robotics – cobalt, lithium, nickel, tin, tungsten, rare earth metals, vanadium and graphite. Menell is the chief executive officer of the Kemet Group which invests in and manages mining and other natural resource projects across the African continent, and advises certain African governments on resource policy and major transactions. He also serves as Chief Executive of Tinco Investments Limited (an integrated tin and tungsten producer). Menell is a former Director and Chairman of Shore Gold Inc., one of Canada's largest diamond exploration companies.

Other ventures

In 2004, Menell became a founding partner and executive director of the

A1 Grand Prix A1 Grand Prix (A1GP) was a "single-make" open-wheel auto racing series that ran from 2005 until 2009. It was unique in its field in that competitors solely represented their nation as opposed to themselves or a team, the usual format in most fo ...

auto racing series. He is a Director and Chairman of Sallfort Partners AG, a

private banking Private banking is banking, investment and other financial services provided by banks and financial institutions primarily serving high-net-worth individuals (HNWIs)—defined as those with very high levels of income or sizable assets. A bank that ...

joint venture headquartered in

Zurich Zurich (; ) is the largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is located in north-central Switzerland, at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich. , the municipality had 443,037 inhabitants, the urban area 1.315 mill ...

. Through the SG Menell Charitable Fund, Menell invests in disadvantaged communities in both South Africa and the rest of the developing world. Menell has been quoted in Bloomberg and the

Financial Times The ''Financial Times'' (''FT'') is a British daily newspaper printed in broadsheet and published digitally that focuses on business and economic current affairs. Based in London, England, the paper is owned by a Japanese holding company, Nikke ...

on technology metals, and in the Financial Times as an expert on the

diamond industry Diamond is a solid form of the element carbon with its atoms arranged in a crystal structure called diamond cubic. Another solid form of carbon known as graphite is the chemically stable form of carbon at room temperature and pressure, b ...

, African resources, African politics, and resource nationalism. He has spoken at The Times CEO Summit, The Mines and Money Conference, and The New York Africa Forum.

Personal life

He is married with two children. His wife, Emma Menell is the founding Director of Tyburn Gallery in London, UK.

References

External links

TechMet Limited website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Menell, Brian South African businesspeople South African motorsport people A1 Grand Prix people Auto racing executives Living people Year of birth missing (living people)