One of London’s more controversial and colorful tycoons, Roland (Tiny) Rowland, will resign from the trading company Lonrho PLC, which he has run for three decades, Associated Press reports from the British capital.
The Lonrho group is made up of about 900 companies that operate in 80 countries, mining gold, platinum and coal, and operating ranches and coffee and tea plantations, among other activities. Among its assets is a 45% interest in Ashanti Goldfields, a large gold producer in Ghana, West Africa. Rowland, 76, who earned the nickname “Tiny” because of his great height, was known for working behind the scenes in Africa. He drew fire two years ago when he did business with Libya in defiance of United Nations sanctions. After meeting with Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi and selling a big stake in a hotel chain to the Libyan government, Rowland said he hoped “to give a lot of enjoyable annoyance to everybody.”
Rowland’s departure had been the subject of months of speculation amid reported feuding with his rival, German businessman Dieter Bock, who along with Rowland shared the titles of joint managing director and chief executive at Lonrho.
Rowland will resign his executive positions with Lonrho effective Dec. 31, but will continue to serve as a director until March. He will then retire from the board but continue to receive his current salary, expenses and benefits until the end of 1995.
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