Tyler Anderson/National Post.Aaron Regent, the new CEO of Barrick Gold Corporation, prepares to take his seat during a press conference announcing the his new appointment in Toronto, Friday Jan. 16, 2009.

Aaron Regent is the right man to run Barrick Gold Corp. because he has proven that he can run a huge mining operation in the bad times as well as the good times, company founder Peter Munk said Friday.

Mr. Regent, 43, officially took over as chief executive of Barrick on Friday after winning the job in December. He previously held senior management positions at Falconbridge Ltd., Noranda Inc., and Brookfield Asset Management Inc.

In introducing his new hire to the media, Mr. Munk said he was most impressed with the way Mr. Regent guided Noranda and Falconbridge through the brutal downturn in the industry early this decade, when metal prices were slumping and mining companies were struggling to stay afloat.

"It's easy to be a big shot in the commodity business when the commodity goes through the roof. It's tough to run Noranda, it's tough to look at options at Falconbridge when base metal prices are collapsing and your options are narrower. And that's the atmosphere when Aaron really excelled," Mr. Munk said.

Mr. Munk added that Barrick will have to look at "global solutions" as it tries expand its leadership position in the industry, and he thinks Mr. Regent's background makes him ideal for that. Mr. Regent was involved in some very tough decision-making in recent years, including a controversial proposal to sell Noranda to a Chinese company.

Barrick's CEO search lasted for the better part of a year, and Mr. Munk said the company attracted many excellent candidates as the price of gold had one of its best rallies ever.

"Imagine having flown in people from Sydney and Melbourne, from Johannesburg and London, and the guy we hired is not only in Toronto, but the next door building," he said.

Mr. Regent's comments were more guarded, but he reiterated that Barrick has a proven formula for success and he does not plan to make any major changes to it.

His biggest challenge will be replacing the company's reserve base and maintaining a growth profile. Barrick's production likely declined in 2008 from the year before, and its stock performance has been mediocre for years as investors worry about its ability to keep growing production.

Mr. Regent did say that Barrick's scale and experience will allow it to take on more challenging projects from a political or operational standpoint than many other companies can handle.

"The company is in an exceptional position to meet that challenge [of replacing reserves]," he said.

He added that Barrick will continue to grow through three main avenues: exploration, project development, and acquisitions.

It is acquisitions in particular that allowed Barrick to become the world's biggest gold company in just 25 years. And given the annihilation of the junior resource sector, Barrick has more opportunities than ever to do deals right this minute.

Mr. Regent said he is not feeling any added pressure to pull the trigger on a transaction, but also that Barrick can act quickly when opportunities come up.