Mr Sato was appointed as a director in April 2013. He is Mitsui & Co., Ltd’s nominated non-independent director. Mr Sato is a member of the Finance & Investment Committee and the Safety, Health, Environment, Community & Sustainability Committee. He joined Mitsui in 1975 and held various positions mainly in the steel making raw materials business within that company including Executive Director of Mitsui Coal Holdings (2002-2004) based in Brisbane, Senior Vice President of Mitsui Singapore (2006-2009) responsible for Asia Pacific, and from 2009 until his retirement in 2013 he was the President & CEO of Mitsui Raw Materials Development based in New York.