Jennifer Maki

Early life

Not a lot is known publicly about Jennifer Maki’s family and early life. She is 50 years old. Maki is an accomplished mining executive and finance expert with strong leadership experience in public mining companies operating in complex international jurisdictions.

Maki holds a Bachelor of Commerce from Queen’s University and has earned the ICD.D designation from the Institute of Corporate Directors. She is a certified accountant who started at one of the Big 4 accounting firms and in 10 years there, tried a variety of industries before finding her niche in mining.

Career

Before her role as Executive Director at Vale SA, Maki held several other positions within the company’s Base Metals unit, including Chief Financial Officer/Executive Vice-President from 2007 to 2014 and Vice-President/Treasurer from 2006 to 2007.

She also played a significant role in managing Vale’s Base Metals businesses outside of Canada, serving as a member of the Board of Commissioners for PT Vale Indonesia Tbk (PTVI) from 2007 and as its President Commissioner from 2014 to 2017. In addition, Maki served as Chair of the Vale Canada Pension Committee from 2010 to 2017, overseeing assets of $3 billion.

Prior to her time at Vale, which began in 2003, Maki worked at PricewaterhouseCoopers for a decade. She holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree from Queen’s University in Ontario, Canada, and became a Chartered Accountant in 1996.

When she worked for a Big Four accounting firm as a CA, she had a big client, Inco Ltd. At the time, she describes the client as “always doing interesting and complex transactions.” Because of her passion for what they were doing, she joined Inco Ltd. in 2003, and in 2006, it was acquired by Vale. Many of her colleagues left during the acquisition but she stayed on, leading ot a number of great career opportunities.

She has skills in internal controls, strategic financial planning, mining, finance, mergers and acquisitions, financial planning, credit, business strategy, corporate finance, and management. These are all skills she has used throughout various positions she has held with the companies named above.

Maki did an interview with ey.com where she talked about women in mining. As a member of the Board of Directors at Pan American Silver Corp., Baytex Energy Corp., and Franco-Nevada Corporation, she discussed the opportunities and lessons she has learned throughout her career.

The Leading Women in Mining video series showcases female role models in the section who aim to inspire and advance tomorrow’s women leaders in mining by sharing their career journeys and lessons learned. She was interviewed by Stephanie Porter, and they talked about some really great topics that showcase Maki’s experience within the industry.

In this interview, she’s asked about lessons she has learned throughout her experiences that helped advance her career path. Maki says: “First and foremost, I worked really hard. That’s for sure. And I know a lot of people work really hard, but one of the key things in my experience was I wasn’t afraid to try new roles or get involved in projects that kind of scared me. When we’re uncomfortable in a role or in a project, it shows that we’re really growing.”

She goes on to talk about how she had great mentors along the way, and supporters who knew when to push her out of her comfort zone and to take on channeling roles while she was growing and developing. When asked about who some of those role models were, she names her old boss and a senior executive at Inco Ltd.

When talking about how other young up-and-coming women in the industry can find their own success, she also talks about the importance of having a career coach. Maki says: “As my career went on, I had a great career coach that helped me, just go through life and go through challenges that I was having in roles and questioned me. And also somebody to talk to about, how I was feeling or what was bugging me or if I wanted to do something I didn’t know how about to go about doing it, having that kind of impartial voice to help you through those moments was very valuable.”

In this same interview, she talks about the importance of attracting women to the mining industry so that there can be more diversity in this field. It’s easy to see why she is such a valuable leader and role model to other women in mining and women in STEM.

Net Worth

The net worth of Jennifer Maki is not publicly known.