Sir Ian McLennan KBE (1909-1998) was chairman of BHP from 1971 to 1977. Dux of Scotch College Melbourne in 1927, he studied electrical engineering before joining BHP in 1933. He worked in Whyalla and then in Kalgoorlie before becoming boss of the limestone quarries in Devonport, Tasmania in 1935. When war broke out he was in the middle of a BHP cadetship in Newcastle; by the war's end he had risen to the job of assistant manager. Through the 1950s and 1960s he progressed steadily through the ranks of BHP to gain the top job in 1971. He was three times President of the Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy, and business leader of the Australian Trade Mission to China in 1973. He served on many advisory bodies including the Immigration Planning Council, the Joint War Production Committee, the Ian Clunies Ross Memorial Foundation, the ANU and the CSIRO Advisory Councils and the Australia-China and Australia-Japan business committees.
