With its top lawyer poised to step down at the end of the year, global mining company Rio Tinto has tapped Barbara Levi Mager to take the reins of the London-based firm’s legal department.

Mager is a longtime in-house leader for Swiss pharmaceutical company Novartis International AG and Sandoz, a division of Novartis. She begins her new job at Rio Tinto on Jan. 1, 2020, following the retirement of the company’s current chief lawyer, Philip Richards. 

Barbara Levi Mager of Sandoz.