Our Leadership

Mr Bainbridge was appointed as a director on 1 September 2022 and appointed chairperson of the Company on 25 March 2024. He is a member of the Risk Committee and the People & Culture Committee.  Mr Bainbridge has extensive senior executive experience, primarily in the oil and gas sector across exploration, development and production. He has worked in a variety of jurisdictions, including North America, Europe, Asia and Australia. His most recent executive role was as executive general manager LNG for Oil Search Limited. Prior to that, he served in senior executive roles at Pacific National and BP Group. Mr Bainbridge is currently a non-executive director of Beach Energy Limited and Newcrest Mining Limited. He is also chairman of the Global Carbon Capture and Storage Institute, and Sino Gas and Energy. He was previously chair of the Papua New Guinea Sustainable Development Program.

Stephen Mikkelsen was appointed chief executive officer and managing director in 2023, after originally joining Sims Limited in 2018 as the global chief financial officer. He is a member of the Safety, Health, Environment, Community & Sustainability Committee. He brings more than 30 years of finance and executive management experience to the company.
Prior to joining Sims Limited, Stephen held senior leadership positions at AGL Energy, including serving as chief financial officer from 2006 to 2012, followed by group general manager retail energy and executive general manager energy markets. Before his tenure at AGL, Stephen was the chief financial officer of Snowy Hydro from 2001 to 2006. Stephen is a member of Chartered Accountants Australia & New Zealand.

Ms O’Toole was appointed as a director in November 2014. She is chairperson of the Audit Committee, and is a member of the Risk Committee and the People & Culture Committee. Ms O’Toole has extensive executive experience across a number of sectors including over 20 years in the mining industry and, more recently, in transport and logistics which included managerial, operational and financial roles. She has been chief financial officer in three ASX listed companies, MIM Holdings Limited, Queensland Cotton Holdings Limited, and Aurizon Holdings Limited. Ms O’Toole currently serves as Chair of Transurban Queensland, and as an independent director of Pacific National Rail Group, Great Southern Bank (formerly Credit Union Australia), Alumina Limited and Sydney Airport Corporation Limited. Ms O’Toole serves as the chair of the Audit Committee or Audit and Risk Committee of each of Pacific National Rail Group, Great Southern Bank and Alumina Limited. Ms O’Toole holds a law degree and is a Member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.

Mr Dempsey was appointed as an Independent Non-Executive Director in April 2024. Mr Dempsey will also serve as a member of the Board’s Audit Committee, further strengthening the Board’s governance and oversight capabilities.
Mr. Dempsey has more than 35 years’ experience, having served in numerous roles as a senior executive, strategic advisor and investment banker. Most recently, Mr. Dempsey served as the Chief Financial Officer of TPG Telecom. He previously served as Chief Financial Officer at Alumina Limited, Senior Adviser, Finance at ANZ Banking Group, and Head of Investment Banking (Australia and New Zealand) at JP Morgan. He is a non-executive director of IFM Investors.

Mr Kato was appointed as a director in November 2018 and is Mitsui & Co, Ltd’s nominated non-independent director. He is a member of the Risk Committee and the Safety, Health, Environment, Community & Sustainability Committee. Mr Kato started his business career in the iron ore division of Mitsui, where he gained considerable experience relating to the mining industry, which became the backbone of his long career at Mitsui. After completing two assignments in New York and attending MIT Sloan School of Management, Mr. Kato held various positions in Mitsui’s oil and gas divisions. In June 2020, Mr Kato retired from his position as a counsellor to Mitsui. He is a director of Obayashi Corporation, a leading global construction company.

Ms Hirschfeld was appointed as a director on 1 September 2023.  She is a chemical engineer with 20 years’ experience with BP in oil refining, logistics and exploration in Australia, the United Kingdom and Turkey. She also served as a logistics officer in the Australian Army Reserve.

Ms Hirschfeld has extensive experience on ASX, NYSE, private company and government boards.  She is currently the Chair of Powerlink Queensland, an independent non-executive director of Central Petroleum, and a board member of Spark Infrastructure RE Limited, its subsidiaries and related entities (which includes the Boards of SA Power Networks and Victoria Power Networks (Powercor and CityPower)).  Ms Hirschfeld previously served as a Board Member and president of UN Women National Committee Australia and non-executive director of Energy Queensland, ToxFree Solutions, InterOil Corporation, Broadspectrum, Snowy Hydro and Queensland Urban Utilities. Additionally, she was a member of the Senate of the University of Queensland for 10 years.

Ms Hirschfeld is a fellow of the Australian Institute of Company Directors and the Academy of Engineering and Technology.  In 2019, she was appointed a member of the Order of Australia (AM) for significant service to engineering, women, and business.

Mr Gorman was appointed as a director in June 2020. He is the chair of the Safety, Health, Environment, Community & Sustainability Committee. Mr Gorman served as the global chief executive officer of Brambles Ltd for seven years, retiring in February 2017. Prior to Brambles, Mr Gorman held a number of senior executive positions over a 21 year career at Ford Motor Company, culminating in president and chief executive officer of Ford Australia from 2004 to 2008. He is a director of Worley Ltd, a global provider of professional project and asset services, Orora Ltd, a packaging solutions specialist, and Alcoa Corporation, a global leader in the production of bauxite, alumina and aluminium products. Mr Gorman holds a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from Tufts University, a Master of Business Administration from Harvard Business School and a Global Master of Arts in International Relations and Affairs from Tufts University. He serves as a trustee of the Maine Chapter of The Nature Conservancy.

Ms Binns was appointed as a director in October 2021. She is a member of the People & Culture Committee and the Safety, Health, Environment, Community & Sustainability (SHECS) Committee. Ms Binns has more than 35 years of experience in the global resources and financial services sectors, including 10 years in executive leadership roles at BHP in Asia and 15 years in financial services with Merrill Lynch Australia and Macquarie Equities. During her career at BHP, Ms Binns’ roles included vice president minerals marketing, leadership positions in the metals and coal marketing business, and vice president of market analysis and economics. She was also co-Founder and chair of Women in Mining and Resources Sg (WIMAR Sg). Prior to joining BHP, Ms Binns held a number of Board and senior management roles at Merrill Lynch Australia, including managing director and head of Australian research, head of global mining, metals and steel, and head of Australian mining research. Ms Binns is a non-executive director of two other ASX-listed companies, Evolution Mining and Cooper Energy. She is also a non-executive director for the NFP Carbon Market Institute (CMI), and a member of the Advisory Council for JP Morgan, Australia & New Zealand.

Stephen Mikkelsen was appointed chief executive officer and managing director in 2023, after originally joining Sims Limited in 2018 as the global chief financial officer. He is a member of the Safety, Health, Environment, Community & Sustainability Committee. He brings more than 30 years of finance and executive management experience to the company.

Prior to joining Sims Limited, Stephen held senior leadership positions at AGL Energy, including serving as chief financial officer from 2006 to 2012, followed by group general manager Retail Energy and executive general manager Energy Markets. Before his tenure at AGL, Stephen was the chief financial officer of Snowy Hydro from 2001 to 2006. Stephen is a member of Chartered Accountants Australia & New Zealand.

Brad Baker joined the Company in January 2018 as group chief human resources officer.

Brad has more than 25 years of HR management experience in plastics, metal processing and mining services industries and he brings extensive global operations HR management and board level experience with US and Australian publicly listed companies, most recently as senior vice president of Human Resources for Boart Longyear.

Gretchen Johanns joined the Company in November 2018 as group general counsel and company secretary.  Gretchen has more than 20 years of experience as a senior legal advisor with U.S. publicly listed companies in the information technology, service and media industries.  Prior to joining the Company, Gretchen served as deputy general counsel and corporate secretary at Xerox Corporation.  Previously, she served in various legal roles at Time Warner Cable Inc.

Gretchen received her law degree from Cornell University and a Bachelor of Arts degree from Grinnell College.

Ingrid Sinclair was appointed global president, Sims Lifecycle Services in February 2019. Prior to that, she was the vice president of recycling for Sims Recycling Solutions U.S. Ingrid has been in the electronics recycling industry for more than 20 years, and she spearheaded innovation in electronics recycling operations for 10 years.

Prior to joining Sims in 2007, Ingrid began her career as a chemical process engineer at Glencore Canada (formerly Noranda) where she spent 10 years in various international commercial and operational roles. In addition to being trained as a Six Sigma Black Belt, Ingrid has a bachelor’s degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Ottawa and a Master of Business Administration from Concordia University.

John Glyde was appointed managing director of Australia & New Zealand Metal in August 2017. John has been with Sims Metal for over 30 years, holding progressively senior leadership roles across the business in both Australia and the US. Prior to his taking his current role John was chief operating officer for Australia & New Zealand Metals from 2015 to 2017, and previous to that position was the general manager, Queensland Metals.

Rob Thompson joined Sims Limited as the global chief commercial officer for Sims Metal in 2022, with worldwide responsibility for both ferrous and non-ferrous buying and sales.

Prior to joining the company, Rob was the vice president of sales and marketing for Gerdau North America. He has more than 30 years of global metal recycling and steel industry experience. Previously, Rob served as the vice president of raw materials, as well as leading other areas, such as Logistics, Sales and Operations Planning (SOP), and Rebar Fabrication. Earlier in his career, Rob was the global process owner of Metallics for Gerdau Corporation in Sao Paulo, Brazil, and the director of ferrous trading for Triple M Metals, Canada. He graduated from the University of Toronto with a degree in Economics.

Warrick Ranson was appointed to the position of group chief financial officer in December 2023. He brings more than two decades of extensive executive-level experience from senior positions within blue-chip corporations, operating across global markets in the mining and resources industries.

Prior to joining Sims Limited, Warrick served as chief financial officer at OZ Minerals Limited for nearly six years where he was instrumental in guiding that company through a period of substantial growth and value creation. Previously, Warrick spent approximately 18 years with Rio Tinto in various roles. Warrick is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Australia, a graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors, and holds an MBA from the University of Oxford.