Rio Tinto appoints new director

Tuesday, 06 June 2006

Rio Tinto is pleased to announce that Michael Fitzpatrick was today appointed an independent, non executive director of Rio Tinto plc and Rio Tinto Limited with immediate effect.

Michael, who is 53 and an Australian, holds honours degrees in electrical engineering from the University of Western Australia and in arts from Oxford University, where he was a Rhodes Scholar.

He recently sold his interest in, and ceased to be a director of, Hastings Funds Management Ltd., the pioneering infrastructure asset management company which he founded in 1994. He is chairman of the Victorian Funds Management Corporation, which manages funds on behalf of the State of Victoria, and of Treasury Group Limited, an incubator of fund management companies. Michael also holds a number of other non executive directorships.

He is a commissioner of the Australian Football League having previously played the game professionally, and is a former chairman of the Australian Sports Commission.