Annual Lunch 2025

Marnie is a minerals processing engineer with extensive mining experience having held a number of senior leadership and operational roles across a range of commodities including gold, iron ore, diamond, base metals and coal.

She has been on the Board of Northern Star since October 2022 and has been providing strategic advisory services to a number of West Australian businesses since February 2025.

Marnie spent 17 years with Rio Tinto; her last role being Managing Director of Rio Tinto’s Battery Materials business where she was responsible for building Rio Tinto’s battery materials portfolio through targeted investments in assets, technology and partnerships. Prior to this, she was Managing Director of Rio Tinto Borates & Lithium overseeing Rio Tinto’s Borates operations in California and Europe, as well as the Jadar lithium project in Western Serbia.

Marnie holds a Bachelor of Engineering (Minerals Engineering) with Honors from the Western Australian School of Mines in Kalgoorlie. She is passionate about the mining industry and the role the industry plays in the energy transition, as well as developing future generations of leaders.

She is a busy mum and step mum to five teenagers and loves to keep fit and healthy in her spare time.

Dr Clark is Chancellor of Monash University. She was the founding Head of the Australian Space Agency. She is a non-executive director of CSL Limited, a member of Bank of America’s Australian and Global advisory boards and Chair of MITRE Australia. Earlier roles include a non-executive director of Rio Tinto, CEO of CSIRO and Vice President Technology at BHP. She served on the Board of CARE Australia.
Dr Clark holds a BSc from the University of Western Australia and a PhD from Queen’s University, Canada. She is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Technology and Engineering, the Australian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy and the Australian Institute of Company Directors. In 2014, she received the Companion of the Order of Australia award (AC) for services to Australia in innovation and science.

John’s professional qualifications are as a mining and exploration geologist; however, his career has expanded well beyond this. His working life includes roles in corporate affairs, human resources, organisational design, exploration geology, mining operations, safety, and transformation. His extensive experience in the minerals industry, both in Australia and internationally, crosses a diverse range of executive leadership, technical and advisory roles.
Currently now in a senior advisory role in the Australian gold sector, with Agnico Eagle, he is active in lending his insights to improvements in the minerals industry. In his career he has been a consistent advocate and supporter for Diversity and Inclusion focused initiatives, including Mentoring and WIM programs. His experience in the modern Australian and international minerals industry allows him to offer a hands-on perspective to proposed strategic initiatives, in particular in areas of Risk, Safety, Community Partnerships and Indigenous Relations.
Recently John has taken on his first not-for-profit Board role with the Dementia Alliance in Victoria.
Outside of work he and his wife, Vicky, have a passion for visiting wild and environmentally pristine parts of the world; and look forward to sharing these experiences in coming years with their 5 grandchildren.