Every month, The Northern Miner gets to know a different executive in the mining industry by asking them about everything — except mining.
This month, we feature Jody Kuzenko, president and CEO of Torex Gold Resources.
Q: What was your first job?
A: I was an assistant dance teacher. Growing up, I danced competitively — think every day of the week at the dance studio. Classes and costumes were expensive — well beyond what our family could afford. When I turned 12, if I wanted to keep doing it, I had to trade teaching hours for class hours.
Q: If you weren’t in mining, where would you be?
A: In the words of Luke Combs (yes, I am a country music fan) — “I’d still be doin’ this if I weren’t doin’ this”. There is wisdom in the song — find what you love to do and that takes you where it takes you. For me, I would find a platform from which to make a positive difference in the lives of the people I touch and, hopefully, by extension, make a small contribution to a better world.
Q: What is the most used app on your phone?
A: Stocks and News – shows me what I need to know on any given day.
Q: What’s your favourite reading?
A: Two types of reading for me:
- plane reading where I am focused on anything from self-development (ranges from cut-off grade theory to books about organizational safety to all matters of leadership); and
- mindless reading late nights where I want to shut my brain off – six characters max, and the big question is whether they find the killer at the end of the book.
Q: What do you drive?
A: Once our daughters were off to university and we were done hockey runs, we traded in the old SUV for a Nissan Altima — still bought it used though — paying the price for a new car offends my sensibilities.
Q: Favourite band?
A: The Tragically Hip. Best Canadian band. Ever.
Q: Marvel or Woody Allen?
A: I don’t understand this question. I am frequently on the receiving end of jokes at work because I live in pop culture oblivion. I have never seen a Marvel movie. One of my VP’s just the other day had to explain to me that it was Beyoncé in a picture she was showing me (yes, I have heard of Beyoncé — and no, I didn’t recognize her — it was an old picture!).
Q: Window or aisle seat?
A: Window. At a giant 5 ft. 1” I don’t need the leg room and get to see some of the beauty of mother nature doing her best work.
Q: Favourite sports team?
A: Sudbury Lady Wolves — what can I say, many years as a hockey mom.
Q: What’s your kryptonite?
A: My now young adult daughters asking me for just about anything. That, and Baileys in my morning coffee — if you know, you know.
Q: What are you really into these days?
A: Walking outside. Clears the mind. Heals the soul.
Q: What are you avoiding?
A: I tend not to avoid or procrastinate. If I don’t want to do something, I generally get straight at it so it doesn’t linger on spin cycle in my mind.
Q: What’s your biggest fear?
A: After recently surviving Hurricane Otis in Acapulco with 27 of my team, I would say being trapped in a hotel room with no escape in a category 5 hurricane ranks right up there.
Q: Who is your mentor, guide or guru?
A: I have been blessed with several outstanding mentors along my way. If I had to choose, I would say that (former Anglo American CEO) Mark Cutifani rises to the top of the heap. His leadership on all matters of mining is nothing short of inspiring.
Q: What have you learned along the way?
A: To listen more than I speak.
Q: What’s your next task?
A: Growth for Torex — deliver our Media Luna project in Mexico to set us up for decades of mining in Morelos and acquire another asset.
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