Hi everyone, this is Dale Henderson from Pilbara Minerals. Can't wait to have a chat with Tim on Euroz Hartley's Finding the Front in a minute.
Welcome to Euroz Hartley's Finding the Front, where we get to know the people who front some of Western Australia's leading companies, providing you with real insights into the way they think and approach things, both in business and in life. Get the volume adjusted in your car or your headphones sorted, and settle in for a great story. Here's your host, Tim Banfield.
Welcome everyone to the final episode of Euroz Hartley's Finding the Front for 2024, our Christmas episode, and what an episode it is. As always, for those of you who are not familiar with Euroz Hartley, we are a proudly Western Australian diversified financial services company that specializes in the provision of institutional sales, corporate finance, targeted research services, and of course, private wealth. If you would like to learn more about Euroz Hartley, please don't hesitate to contact us or visit our website at www.euroz.com. On behalf of all of us at Euroz Hartley, we wish everyone a very Merry Christmas, and thanks a lot to everyone who has listened into Finding the Front this year. As the podcast goes from strength to strength, don't hesitate to send it on to your friends if you love the show, and we look forward to bringing you some more great episodes next year.
Well, the special guest we have on this episode, our last for the year, is an absolute leader in his field. Our guest is none other than Dale Henderson, the Managing Director and CEO of lithium heavyweight Pilbara Minerals, stock code PLS. Dale grew up in New Zealand. He absolutely thrives on a challenge and loves what he does for a living. His career has a common thread of growth companies and resources. Dale provides a deep dive into the challenges and opportunities of the lithium sector, and it really is so insightful. So without further ado, it gives me a huge pleasure to introduce to Euroz Hartley's Finding the Front the Managing Director and CEO of Pilbara Minerals, Mr. Dale Henderson. Welcome, Dale. Euroz Hartley's Finding the Front, it's so good to have you on the show.
Thanks, Tim. Thanks for having us.
Oh, good on you. Look, I know we're at the back end, it's the Christmas episode, and you were on the home stretch, but you managed to squeeze us in, so we really do appreciate it. Thank you.
Good on you, Dale. As we've discussed offline and that sort of thing, one of the key points with Finding the Front, which we really enjoy, is learning a lot about the corporate leaders within Western Australia, and you're certainly one of those. Massive effort leading Pilbara Minerals, and you've done for some time. But just to look back at how you got there is really quite interesting. And I did a little bit of research around it, and it's amazing that, you know, you are a proud Kiwi and you're from the beautiful little town of Timaru.
That's right. I normally keep the Kiwi thing a bit under cover, but yes, I'm a Kiwi.
No, it's great. Well done. So tell us a little bit about growing up in Timaru.
Yeah, well, Timaru is a smaller town, and it's on the border of two of the sort of bigger rugby provinces, being Otago and Canterbury. So we were on the borderline. Another rugby-loving city, as is all of New Zealand. And yeah, that's where I went to high school and grew up.
I did, socially. It was a bit of an expectation at the school I went to.
And look, did you enjoy primary school and that sort of thing? You know, you embrace it?
Yeah, of course. Yeah, no, I think, um, your school was fine, and our high school there at Timaru all went well. Yeah, Timaru Boys' is the school there. At the time, they adored sport. It was always the first matter on the agenda of the assembly, of how did the first 15 go on the weekend, etc., etc. Yeah, and, you know, later years when we got to uni, we used to sort of joke of how do we actually get to uni, given that focus on sport from the school.
What about academics? Did you find it easy?
I was okay, yeah. I did okay at school. I was, yeah, not top of the class, but I was up there. And yeah, academically, yeah, did okay through school. And of course, that got me into uni, where I fared pretty well there as well.
Well, fared pretty well, I'd say a fair bit of an understatement. I mean, to start with, I suppose, when I look at your schooling career, I noticed that you were a prefect and a house captain, so you clearly had a bit of leadership potential early in life. Did you enjoy that part of school? And I suppose this follow-on to that is, did you know what you wanted to do when you were leaving?
Yeah, yeah, no, I sort of grabbed any of those leadership opportunities as they came along. You know, prefect came with additional clout and privileges, which was always good at high school, so that was part of the drawcard for that. But yeah, certainly, yeah, no, embraced school life, and those leadership opportunities were, of course, a good setup for future years.
Yes, Dale, it's quite well documented that your last year at school was clearly a successful one because you were awarded a scholarship. It was quite pivotal in your life, as it turns out.
It was. It was awarded by, it was a national scholarship awarded by the Keystone Trust, which was originally the Binks Property Education Trust.
But I was reading an article written by the Trust, and it was quite interesting how they described the impact. They interviewed you and the impact that it had on your life. But I just, the final paragraph of the article I thought I'd just talk to is that it quotes here: 'He looks back to Timaru and remembers where it all began. When I reflect on the scholarship and the role of the Trust, it has had an enormously positive impact on my life. I'm incredibly grateful to the Trust and those connected to it.' Tell us a little bit about that. What was the impact?
Yeah, no, it was, look, I didn't think I was going to get a scholarship. I remember the last year of school and reading myself for university, and we all sort of gathered whatever scholarship applications were possible. You know, there was a handful available, of which this was a particularly attractive scholarship, which I didn't think there was any chance, frankly, that was going to work out. But yeah, lo and behold, yeah, I was successful. It was quite a full-on process, which involved, you know, flying up to Auckland and panel interviews and that type of thing. And it was a sort of a four-year type scholarship, which certainly covered all the tuition fees, so it was certainly material. And yeah, obviously the award to me was a big surprise, but it sort of awakened me to, gee, you know, maybe this will be okay, and these guys are backing me.
Yes, and gave you a confidence level. Is it something that you sort of, not so much was missing, but you just sort of thought it reinforced that there were opportunities for you that lay ahead?
Yeah, definitely. It just opened my mind, and it brought me into a different circle of, well, it was all new. So the industries connected to that scholarship, the people involved, you know, these were your business leaders who were running the biggest property companies in New Zealand and some of the engineering houses, etc., etc. So sort of overnight, I started to meet, shake hands with very, very successful business people, and so that sort of expanded my awareness geometrically, which was pretty amazing.
So that flowed into the university, and that scholarship enabled you to go to the University of Canterbury.
And for the listener, Dale did reasonably well. He graduated with a Bachelor of Engineering with first-class honors. So you clearly did embrace academics. You really did get stuck into it, enjoyed it.
Yeah, I don't know about enjoy. It had its moments. I was pretty determined to do well, and you worked hard. And, you know, I worked with a great cohort of students where you'd lean on each other and help each other, and that all went well. Yeah, and as those years rolled on, I just got really, really determined that I wanted to leave with first-class honors, and yeah, I was fortunately successful to do that.
So coming back to it, after getting the scholarship and understanding a little bit about building engineering and that sort of thing, with that first-class honors, did you really know then, right, I'm going to look for building opportunities, project-driven opportunities, that sort of thing, when you left uni? Because I'm sure you would have had options.
Yeah, probably going into uni, I wasn't sure what it is I wanted to do. And I just knew I liked building stuff, and I enjoyed the thought of scale builds and production. And it was for that reason I thought about getting into engineering in the first place. And yes, so off I went to uni. And by the end of uni, as to which pathway to take, yeah, look, I didn't have a view really. But I thought going to a broad-based engineering consultancy is probably a good start. So I didn't have a particular pathway in mind, but ultimately I ended up going with a company which gave me more diversity of experience.
So you ended up with a New Zealand engineering company called GHD, and that was a broader sort of mixed engineering consultancy style of organization?
Yeah, yeah. So GHD is international and have a large presence in Australia. And even back then, they had a very large position across the market. And that role was actually at GHD's first office, which was opening in Christchurch. So I was their first graduate. And the gentleman who employed me was the former CEO of another big consultancy who'd come into the frame for GHD for the purpose of growing their business, of which the Christchurch office was a key center. And yeah, I was their first graduate, and yeah, took up the challenge. It was very uncertain what I'd be working on, given it was a new office, and I ended up working on all sorts of different projects and tasks.
That would have been quite exciting.
It was, yeah, plenty of variety.
Yes, yes. So what did you take out of that? Just a great foundation in terms of setting you up for further roles?
Yeah, definitely. I think the diversity of experience was great, and the fact that it was a small office meant that it wasn't too loud, and it meant that I ended up being in meetings with some of the very senior managers he had employed, and got to watch them in action and watch them work through and wrestle with really big projects, big problems, working with the client. So it was, looking back, a fantastic learning ground.
One of your influences in that role was a gentleman called Derek Crombie, ex-CEO of Montgomery Watson, and he had a bit of an influence on you in that role. One of the things that I took out of it was the advice he gave to you was always focus on delivery, get delivery right, the money takes care of itself.
Yeah, so Derek was the one who employed me that I mentioned for that role in the office. And yeah, he was very much at the back of his career, incredibly well respected in the industry. And he really took me under his wing and taught me many things. But one of them was the point you raised there, that he impressed on me early on that delivery is king. Just focus on delivering well, and he'd say the rest will take care of itself.
Yes, yes. After that role, you moved to Australia. So what brought that on?
Yeah, yeah. So went to Australia chasing the excitement of bigger projects and the adventure to go abroad, and I got all of that in spades, ending up in one of the iron ore expansion projects where I spent a bit of time, and then I moved again off to the Middle East.
In Australia, did that provide you sort of insights? You landed up in the Pilbara, didn't you?
That's right, yeah, in Newman, yes, yes, yes. Hope Downs 1. So I got to be involved in the initial construction of that project and into the ramp-up phase. So it was an indoctrination into FIFO work in the Pilbara and everything which comes with that. And yeah, it was a fantastic, again, another fantastic learning ground.
It was a stark contrast to Christchurch.
How did you handle the heat when you first arrived?
Yeah, a bit of a shock to the system, but I think everyone goes through that before you know what I was acquainted with.
And then off to the Middle East for Oxy Petroleum or Occidental Petroleum.
Yeah, that's right, yeah.
So that would have been an amazing experience.
It was. And I had it in my head that I wanted to be in the oil and gas industry for whatever reason, and I was always drawn to the potential of the Middle East, having known a little bit about the incredible growth and development, etc., etc. So I had an opportunity to go there, care of my former boss who I'd met in Australia, who I was working for, had moved to the Middle East. And yeah, he needed help. He was in charge of a large-scale expansion of an oil field project in the desert of Oman. And yeah, he called me and said, 'Look, Dale, we need a bit of help here. The expansion is not keeping pace with the drill rigs. Can you come and help?' And I said, 'When do I go? When do I arrive? Let's go.' And yeah, he went on to say, 'But look, I can only convince my boss to give you a three-month trial because you don't have any oil and gas experience, you're unproven. But who knows, if you get here, you do three months well, we'll see where it goes.' So that was actually the start of what ultimately became a multi-year stint. And I sort of arrived really ready to prove myself and demonstrate that this is a good hire and I'm here to stay. And that's actually what played out. And yeah, it was a really formative couple of years of my career where I was just thrown bigger and bigger challenges, both in project expansion but also in operations and engineering. And I grew with that challenge and just loved it. Really, really intense period working in, frankly, the middle of nowhere. Back then, there was no roster day off, so you'd work actually weeks at a time. So yeah, looking back, I don't know how we did it, but a really intense period. But as I say, just learned so much, not only about engineering and hydrocarbons and all that sort of stuff, but lots of team leadership stuff, culture. It was a cultural melting pot out there. We had Omanis, of course, being the locals, but we had a Pakistani and Indian workforce, and the expat team was a mixed bag of United Nations from all around the world. So through all of that, there was all sorts of cultural challenges, which, frankly, that's actually what I learned the most about. It was more about the cultural challenges than people, where as I went there thinking, 'Gee, I'm going to learn about engineering and hydrocarbons from an oil and gas producer.' And I did learn that, but it was actually the other side which that's actually what I learned the most from.
It was a pretty rounded experience when you think about it.
Yeah, definitely. It set me up well for years to come.
Tell me what you took out of that team part of the learning experience, because it seems to have resonated with you as well when you look further forward.
Yeah, I think, you know, that period, as I said, was formative. And as it relates to people and leadership, I think, you know, the learning there was we're all the same. You know, I think we know that, but it's funny how people, we all lose sight of that. And in that particular situation we had out there was many different cultures. It was really a first-principles learning experience and what's required to lead people and to lead actually a big group of people to achieve big outcomes. And when I say sort of first principles, a lot of the people working with, well, you couldn't actually speak to them, couldn't actually speak the language. So, you know, some of the things we had to get into was, you know, how do we enroll the workforce? How do we get language right? How do we set them up to succeed, etc., etc. And this was all interspersed with all sorts of cultural requirements. There would be certain religious holidays which would jump up and surprise us, which we had to cater for. And we had at times between some of the different cultural factions, tensions would emerge. And within the Indian subset, the caste system that they have actually presented some challenges. So all of this was sort of playing out. And, you know, bringing you back to your question, yeah, it's about listening, it's about good communication, it's about enrolling people, about setting them up for success. So it was a very acute situation which required that you had to do a great job across each of those dimensions, which in other more Western-based environments, I think we take some of these things for granted. But in that particular environment, you really had to work hard to get those foundational pieces right. And I think it's because of that particular environment, I think looking back, yeah, I learned a lot, which ultimately equipped me with some skills which I then used later.
Yeah, you carried with you. So you were there for around five, six years?
That's right, yeah, yeah.
And then you decided to move back to Australia. Was there any reason for that? You just thought, right, I've done enough time here?
That was pretty much it. So I'd had a fantastic couple of years out there and really moved up the chain, growing with the growth that occurred there, both in projects and operations. And it just felt time was right to move on. And it wasn't the easiest place to work, by the way. It was literally in the middle of nowhere. It looked like a desert in all directions, very hot, very dry. And yeah, I thought time's right for a new challenge. And yeah, so I thought, okay, it's probably a good time to transition. And before I sort of took another role, I thought, gee, I probably should go and have a bit of an adventure. So yeah, I did take a bit of time off there and did some climbing and mountaineering and did a lot of travel globally, which was a fantastic period before I re-entered the workforce, which was back in... I was...
That must have been late 20s.
Late 20s, yes. So you've had quite a foundation when you think about your time in Christchurch with GHD, and then moving up into the Pilbara, doing a bit of work there with Hope Downs, and then going into with Occidental Petroleum. And that, I mean, what is very formative. Coming back into Australia, what sort of role were you looking for when you decided to come back with that skill set in mind?
Sure, sure. So at this time, I decided I'm a hydrocarbons guy. My time in the Middle East, and I had a fairly firm view about that. So as I came back to Australia, I was most interested in those roles. And as it turned out, and I'd still been actually liaising back with Oxy about the potential of going back to the Middle East, but this time in Muscat, in the capital of Oman, which is a potential opportunity. But as it happened, I ended up having sort of four offers all at the same time, including going back to Oxy. One was actually with BP, and one with Worley Parsons, and another miner all sort of landed. And out of all that, I decided to actually go with the Worley Parsons opportunity. And the sort of the promise there that I had with Worley was they said, well, we'd like to put you on one of these hydrocarbon programs we've got, but we've just signed up a contract with a growing miner. We really need someone to help us out with it. Will you go and set it up? And I said, oh, look, you know, I really want to get back to hydrocarbons, but you know, that's what you'd like me to do, I'll do it. So this was my entree into FMG, where FMG was at the T45 level. They were just starting the T155 project, and they, yeah, Worley was supporting that, and they needed some help with the port expansion component. So I mobilized to that. So this was again another sort of three-month commitment that ended up being two and a half years.
And a bit like my time at Oxy, I just kind of grew with the project as well, and obviously really enjoyed it.
I had a blast. And again, it was another one of these intense experiences. In FMG's case, you know, they, as you know, they needed to get things built and operational rapidly. That was the mandate, and I did in that environment.
You said that was all under the banner of Worley, but you were doing the job for FMG.
You obviously did a pretty reasonable role there because you ended up joining FMG.
Yeah, that's right, yeah. So after that stint at the port, I was seconded to Chevron for a period, and yeah, then I was approached by Peter Mitchell, the Director of Development for FMG, who had, you know, got to know me from afar. And Peter was really the chief architect for a lot of the expansion that FMG did. And yeah, someone who's, yeah, he's got incredible standing in the industry and well respected, and certainly I looked up to him. And yeah, so when Peter called me and said, Dale, we've got this new project coming, we'd like you to run it, I'd like you to come and work for me, I thought, gee, I can't say no to that.
So you were Project Director for the Iron Bridge magnetite project?
