GOLD: Barrick launches share ownership for employees

[caption id="attachment_1003716787" align="alignleft" width="177"] Barrick executive chairman John L. Thornton explains the new global employee share plan to workers at the Turquoise Ridge mine in Nevada.[/caption] TORONTO – Last November, Barrick Gold Corp. launched a global employee share plan, with the aim of making every employee an owner of the company. More than 10,000 workers are receiving an initial grant of 25 common shares that they must hold for as long as they work for the company. Calling the plan the first of its kind in the world, executive chairman John L. Thornton talked recently about taking the company back to its roots. He recalled the days of Peter Munk and his friends who initiated a trust-based culture within the corporation. Now Thornton wants to recreate that trust. “We want people who are all in. They are all in emotionally, and they are all in financially. In engaging with external parties, particularly with shareholders, we want to say: ‘Listen, it’s not that we’re aligned with your interests—we literally have the same interests, because we’re all owners here’,” he said. ”We believe that in the Twenty-First Century, being a partnership organization is distinctive, commercially compelling, and likely to lead to greater success.” Please visit www.Barrick.com to learn more about the plan and the company.