Glencore CEO’s First Big Move: Chasing Mining’s Toughest Prize

Glencore Plc’s attempt to seal mining’s biggest deal in a decade has thrust Chief Executive Officer Gary Nagle into center stage. Little known outside Glencore before taking the job nearly two years ago, the energetic South African is pursuing one of mining’s most unattainable targets, in a bitter brawl that’s headed for a potential climax this week.

While the bid for Canada’s Teck Resources Ltd. is Nagle’s first major move as CEO, the deal itself was dreamed up under his predecessor Ivan Glasenberg, who privately tried and failed to get it done in 2020. Nagle was involved in those efforts too, according to people familiar with the matter, as head of Glencore’s coal business and already earmarked to replace the man that hired him two decades earlier.