Rio Tinto on Tuesday named Simon Trott, the head of its iron ore division, as its new chief executive officer, replacing Jakob Stausholm, who announced his intention to step down in May. Trott, a more than 20-year veteran at the world's biggest iron ore miner,

Simon Trott jokes that he didn’t want to follow in his father’s footsteps and become a farmer because of the vagaries of the weather, and the threat of drought and failed crops.