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John Kenneth Norman MacKenzie (born March 1964) is a Canadian-born business executive. Since September 2017 he has been the Chairman of BHP, the Australian-based multinational mining company. Prior to that he spent 23 years at the Australian global packaging company Amcor, where he was CEO and Managing Director from 2005 to 2015.

Early life, education, and early career
Ken MacKenzie was born in Montreal, Canada in 1964. He received a Bachelor of Engineering degree in mechanical engineering from McGill University. From 1987 to 1992 he was a management consultant with Accenture.

Amcor
MacKenzie joined Amcor in 1992. During his first 13 years at the company, he managed businesses across the Americas, Europe, Australasia, and Asia, lived in North America, Australia, and Europe, and worked in all of Amcor's major operating divisions including PET, flexibles, tobacco packaging, and closures.

He was Director of Engineering and Information Technology from 1992 to 1995 at Amcor PET Packaging, in North America. From 1995 to 1997 he was Director of Finance and Administration at Amcor PET Packaging.

He then moved to Australia and became General Manager of Corporate Sales and Marketing at Amcor Containers Packaging Australasia from 1997 to 1999. From 1999 to 2001 he was Group General Manager at Amcor Flexibles Australasia, where he oversaw eight plants in Australia and New Zealand with sales of over A$300 million.

From 2001 to 2005 he was Group Managing Director at Amcor Rentsch and Closures, in Europe. There he managed eight tobacco packaging plants and 12 closures plants located throughout Europe, Asia, and the Americas, which reached total gross yearly revenues of approximately A$1 billion.

CEO and Managing Director
In 2005 Amcor appointed MacKenzie as its CEO and Managing Director, succeeding Chris Roberts. Within the first two years of his tenure, he replaced 75% of the company's top 80 managers, and in 2005 instituted a three-year overhaul of the company's portfolio called "The Way Forward", in which underperformaing businesses were fixed, sold, or closed. In 2009 he developed a longterm company-wide program called the "Amcor Way" emphasising five key elements: safety, customers, talent development, capital discipline, and cost control.

MacKenzie focused on growing Amcor into a global leader with large scale in a few packaging categories – particularly key flexible and rigid plastic containers – rather than manufacturing in smaller packaging categories with less pricing power or economies of scale. He was responsible for the demerger in December 2013 of Amcor's Australasia and Packaging Distribution (AAPD) business into a separate company called Orora. The spin-off allowed Amcor to focus on making flexible- and rigid-plastic packaging and tobacco packaging mostly for overseas markets, while Orora managed the fibre, glass, and beverage-can packaging markets in Australia and New Zealand and packaging distribution in North America and Australia.

Under his leadership, the company made a significant turnaround, including divestment of non-core businesses, strategic acquisition of companies, improvement in financial returns, and a substantial increase in innovative and sustainable packaging products. During his tenure he oversaw 30 mergers and acquisitions, including the well-timed purchase of Alcan Packaging from Rio Tinto in 2010 at the bottom of the market, and rationalised Amcor's portfolio by focusing on faster-growing sectors. He doubled the company’s return on capital to 20%, increased its market capitalisation by more than 150% from US$4.5 billion to US$12.5 billion, boosted its share price by 80% over ten years, and increased annual net profit from US$294 million to US$680 million. MacKenzie led the expansion of the company into emerging markets. He transformed Amcor from an Australian business to a global enterprise, with operations in more than 40 countries and a headquarters in Zurich, Switzerland. During his time running Amcor, MacKenzie was a multi-year winner of the top chief executive accolade in the Australian Corporate Confidence Index.

Mackenzie retired from Amcor in April 2015, after ten years as CEO and Managing Director.

BHP
MacKenzie joined the BHP board of directors as a non-executive director in September 2016. He is a member of the board's sustainability committee.

He became Chairman of BHP on 1 September 2017, replacing Jac Nasser, who had held the post for seven years and who had announced in October 2016 that he would step down. BHP's senior independent director who led the recruitment process cited MacKenzie's "extensive global executive experience", "strategic approach", and "proven track record of delivering value for shareholders", adding that "He has the operational and financial capabilities as well as the rigour necessary to effectively oversee BHP's capital allocation framework." The announcement of MacKenzie's appointment was made in June 2017, and he then spent three months engaging with shareholders and other stakeholders around the world; afterwards he stated intentions to review BHP's capital allocations and board-appointment review process.

In his first year as Chairman, MacKenzie formed a board and management working group to review the company's capital allocation framework. The results streamlined and simplified the internal process of capital allocation, and improved communication between the board and management during the evaluation of new projects, acquisitions, or shareholder returns. He also reviewed the skill sets needed for BHP board members going forward, and delivered a new "skills matrix" that includes an "emphasis on technology and commodity value chain expertise", as well as proven skills and experience in capital allocation and cost efficiency; in addition, protecting BHP's "social license", or public acceptance and trust, are emphasised. He also introduced a target of a nine-year term limit for board members, in alignment with British companies.

Additional activities
MacKenzie is on the advisory boards of the private equity firms Adamantem Capital and American Securities. He is also a senior advisor to McKinsey & Company.

He is a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Company Directors and of the Australian Institute of Engineers.

Personal life
MacKenzie lives in Melbourne, Australia with his wife and two children. He is fluent in French and German. His interests include skiing and yachting.