RIO TINTO ALCAN

Johannesburg

Olivier Dufour approached Tracey in January 2007 as he needed a headhunter to assist him in recruiting a business developer for the Industrial Sector. He had two positions to fill that year, one in the aluminium arena, and one in the mineral/chemical field.

Tracey was tasked with sourcing candidates who had been responsible for new business through identification of new opportunities, the growth of customer and product bases, competitor intelligence, and who had a successful track record. In terms of conduct and ethics, the person had to reflect a high level of moral judgement in all decisions and actions. The individual had to be excited by defining markets and market solutions, dealing with clients on a strategic level and defining and changing sales strategies as Alcan SA grew and gained momentum.

She successfully placed the business and then had to work on finding Olivier’s replacement (Managing Director, AIN SA) as he was due to leave SA and return to France. She successfully filled this role for AIN SA. Once Neville Breytenbach took over the reigns from Oliver, she placed two further roles in Neville’s team, namely a financial accountant, and a Business Development Manager.

COEGA ALUMINIUM SMELTER

Port Elizabeth

As a result of these successes, Olivier referred Tracey to Myriam Blouin Director Organizational Development and Training, and she began to work on the Coega Aluminium Smelter Project. The first assignment was to source a Corporate Affairs executive, who would be based in Port Elizabeth. She flew to Port Elizabeth to meet with Josey Girard, HR Director for the CAS project, and to see the smelter in progress. She also started dealing with Robert Valdmanis and had to do some benchmarking exercises for him in terms of the way other international companies with a presence in South Africa structured their Corporate Communications, Public Affairs and Marketing divisions. This research assisted Robert in terms of working out headcount in SA.
She worked intensively on the project, dealing with many of the stakeholders, and placed the following roles:

  • Corporate Affairs Executive, Port Elizabeth
  • HR Manager, Port Elizabeth
  • Plant Procurement Manager, Port Elizabeth
  • Personal Assistants, Johannesburg office, for Robert Valdmanis and Brent Hegger
  • Project Procurement Manager, Port Elizabeth
  • Organizational Development and Talent Management Coordinator, Port Elizabeth

MICHELIN

Johannesburg

Having worked with the French community here in SA, Tracey was referred to Michelin South Africa’s Managing Director, Gilles Boudou. Tracey successfully placed the following roles at Michelin:

  • Personal Assistant to Gilles Boudou.
  • Replacement for this Personal Assistant when she was promoted to a Marketing role.
  • Tyre Sales
  • Representatives: Passenger Cars, Truck and Mining
  • Financial Manager
  • Management Accountant
  • Credit Manager
  • Human Resources Manager
  • Warehouse Manager
  • Marketing Intelligence Manager

VERKOR

France

Tracey began the journey with Verkor in March 2020, when the company had not yet been officially incorporated and consisted of only the co-founders. Since then she has recruited battery experts from
around the world for Verkor and has assisted Verkor in the setting up of an HR recruitment
function for the company, outlining the necessary steps and processes in order to ensure that Verkor
is able to attract talent in a highly competitive marketplace. Tracey has successfully placed many
Principal and senior Process Engineers, Product Engineers, logistics and supply chain staff, key
account managers, business developers, the Head of Procurement, the Head of Project Management,
digital and Industry 4.0 engineers, and MES Engineers. She continues to assist Verkor as they
scale up and move into production.

As a result of her success with Verkor, Tracey has been referred to other start-ups within the InnoEnergy stable, and is recruiting for both Solar and Green Steel startups, recruiting C level roles such a CEO, COO, Chief Commercial Officer, Chief Procurement Officer and Chief Technology Officer.

These positions will be based throughout Europe.