Company context
The company manufactures engineered materials used to protect high-temperature industrial processes from heat, chemical attack and mechanical wear. Its performance depends not only on manufacturing efficiency but also on mineral quality, formulation discipline, customer-specific qualification, installation reliability and the ability to predict campaign life inside mission-critical furnaces and kilns. The enterprise operates multiple plants and service locations, purchases specialised minerals through domestic and international channels, and supports industrial customers for whom an unplanned shutdown can be substantially more expensive than the refractory product itself.
The Board is seeking an Independent Director who can interrogate the relationship between accounting results and the underlying technical economics. The appointment is intended to deepen oversight of standard costing, yield losses, slow-moving formulations, customer claims, contract profitability, capital allocation and the resilience of critical raw-material supply. The successful candidate will help the Board distinguish sustainable margin improvement from temporary price, mix or inventory effects while preserving the long-term technical credibility on which customer relationships depend.
The Board mandate
This is not a conventional financial-review seat. The Director will connect the Audit Committee's work with plant reality: batch traceability, recipe governance, mineral substitutions, energy intensity, quality deviations, site-service obligations and warranty exposure. The Director should be capable of asking whether an apparently profitable order remains attractive after installation support, shutdown mobilisation, rejected material, performance guarantees and working-capital consumption are fully recognised.
The mandate also covers strategic resilience. Certain minerals and binders may face geopolitical concentration, logistics volatility, grade inconsistency or abrupt price movements. The Board requires independent judgment on dual sourcing, beneficiation capability, supplier qualification, long-term offtake arrangements, inventory buffers and responsible substitution. The role must balance continuity of supply against cash tied up in specialised inventory and the risk that a technical change invalidates a customer qualification.
Strategic and governance priorities
-
Rebuild the Board's view of economic profitability. Challenge product, customer, plant and service-line contribution after freight, installation labour, technical support, claims, financing cost and inventory obsolescence. Ensure that contribution analysis is used for decisions rather than only for post-period explanation.
-
Strengthen standard-cost governance. Review the discipline for updating mineral prices, energy assumptions, labour standards, yields and overhead absorption. Require clear variance bridges separating purchasing, formulation, throughput, quality, downtime and mix effects.
-
Oversee raw-material security. Evaluate critical-mineral mapping, single-source exposures, country concentration, supplier financial health, port and route dependencies, safety-stock logic and the technical lead time needed to qualify alternatives.
-
Challenge inventory quality. Seek evidence on shelf life, dormant grades, customer-specific stock, rejected batches, returnable packaging and material held for projects whose schedules have changed. Ensure provisioning reflects recoverability rather than ageing alone.
-
Improve contract and warranty accounting. Examine the boundary between product sales, installation services, performance guarantees and maintenance obligations. Test whether revenue recognition, cost accruals and claim provisions reflect enforceable commitments and field experience.
-
Govern capital deployment. Scrutinise debottlenecking, new presses, kilns, automation, beneficiation facilities, renewable-energy investments and laboratory capacity using throughput constraints, qualification timelines and downside scenarios—not headline capacity additions.
-
Elevate plant-control assurance. Review weighment, recipe access, batch coding, scrap recording, energy metering, subcontracting, stores controls and maintenance spares. Ensure internal audit includes unannounced physical and process verification.
-
Protect technical integrity. Require formal approval of formulation changes and mineral substitutions, including laboratory validation, customer consent where required, traceability and post-deployment monitoring. Commercial urgency must not bypass technical gates.
-
Address customer and sector concentration. Assess exposure by industrial cycle, operating site and procurement group. Challenge whether share-of-wallet gains create correlated receivable, shutdown or claims risk.
-
Improve receivables governance. Separate contractual retention, disputed performance claims, documentation gaps and genuine credit stress. Require named resolution paths and prevent overdue balances from being disguised through fresh invoicing or informal set-offs.
-
Oversee energy and transition economics. Review furnace energy intensity, fuel-switching choices, renewable procurement, carbon-related customer expectations and the financial integrity of environmental claims. Demand measurable baselines and Board-visible returns.
-
Strengthen related-party and channel controls. Examine distributors, logistics vendors, mineral traders, service contractors and entities connected with insiders. Ensure arm's-length testing addresses total economics, not merely invoice price.
-
Prepare for severe operating events. Test response plans for kiln failure, contaminated mineral lots, prolonged utility interruption, labour disruption, cyber compromise of production systems and a widespread product-performance complaint.
-
Raise disclosure quality. Help management explain volume, price, mix, raw-material pass-through, working capital, capex productivity and material risks consistently across statutory reporting, investor communication and internal Board papers.
Decisions expected at Board level
The Director will be expected to contribute independent judgment on major capacity additions; long-term mineral contracts; entry into unfamiliar formulations or end-use segments; plant consolidation; technology licensing; acquisitions of small technical businesses; large customer guarantees; impairment of underperforming assets; exceptional provisions; and the adequacy of resources assigned to safety, quality and internal audit.
For every material capital proposal, the Director should seek the binding constraint, ramp-up curve, customer qualification path, incremental working capital, sensitivity to mineral and energy prices, and post-investment accountability owner. For acquisitions, the Director should examine technical-IP ownership, hidden warranty history, environmental liabilities, key-person dependence and the compatibility of quality systems.
Audit and risk oversight agenda
The successful candidate will help establish a quarterly Board dashboard covering gross-margin bridges; plant yield and scrap; off-specification batches; customer claims; inventory ageing by technical recoverability; mineral concentration; energy per tonne; receivable disputes; capex benefits realised; audit findings overdue; safety incidents; and forecast liquidity under downside conditions.
The Director will meet periodically, without executive management present, with the statutory auditor, internal auditor, Chief Financial Officer, quality leadership and the head of risk. Matters involving possible management override, commercial pressure on quality decisions or unexplained adjustments must be capable of reaching the Audit Committee directly.
Candidate profile
Candidates should bring at least 25 years of senior leadership experience in industrial manufacturing, engineered materials, process industries, metals, industrial minerals, audit, finance or capital-intensive operations. Strong preference will be given to individuals who have served as a CFO, Audit Committee Chair, business head, plant-network leader, risk leader, statutory-audit partner or senior executive responsible for multi-site performance.
The Board values the ability to read financial statements deeply while engaging credibly with technical and operating teams. Experience with commodity-linked inputs, standard costing, long qualification cycles, export markets, industrial contracts, plant capex and complex working capital will be particularly relevant. The candidate must be willing to visit operating locations and test whether Board information corresponds with conditions on the ground.
Eligibility, independence and conflicts
Active inclusion in the IICA Independent Directors Databank is mandatory. The candidate must satisfy all statutory independence requirements applicable to a listed company and be eligible for appointment under prevailing corporate and securities law. Any current or recent connection with competing material producers, major customers, mineral suppliers, distributors, auditors, lenders, promoters or material service providers must be disclosed at the outset.
The role requires freedom from commercial advocacy, consulting dependence and relationships that could impair objective judgment. Candidates must be prepared to comply with annual independence confirmations, code-of-conduct requirements, trading-window controls and continuing education obligations.
First 100-day priorities
- Review the last eight quarters of margin bridges, cash conversion, inventory movements, claims and capital expenditure.
- Visit at least two manufacturing locations and one customer-service operation.
- Examine the critical-mineral map and the qualification status of alternate sources.
- Conduct separate sessions with the statutory auditor, internal auditor, finance leadership, quality head and operations leadership.
- Identify three reporting changes needed for the Board to see technical and financial performance together.
- Review the most material open audit findings, disputed receivables, warranties and underperforming capital projects.
First-year outcomes
Success in the first year will be evident through a more reliable profitability architecture; explicit Board oversight of critical minerals; sharper inventory and claim provisioning; capex reviews based on realised benefits; closure of high-risk control gaps; and Board papers that connect plant behaviour, customer obligations and reported earnings. The Director should leave the company better able to protect cash, technical integrity and long-term industrial relevance through the cycle.