Page 184 - Jan 2013

184 | Business World Magazine | January 2013
to share with them that might help them
on their way.” That is an attitude that De-
vex is very conscious of, and Mr. Bell says it
has garnered them a lot of respect. Devex –
which became 14 years old in March, 2011
– was originally founded by current CEO
and President Dr. Guilherme Bastos Alva-
renga. At the time, Alvarenga was studying
operational research in the mining industry,
and in particular he was looking at the chal-
lenge of optimizing the mining process. “He
believed, based on technology around at
that time, that he could come up with some-
thing better,” Bell says. “Today SmartMine’s
optimization module, which he founded,
is actually a core part of our technology. I
guess the rest is history, and a product called
SmartMine was born.” Bell himself spent the
majority of his career pre-Devex working in
the mining and engineering sectors of other
companies like Mincom Limited and Bent-
ley Systems Inc. His forte, he says, is techno-
logical strategy and innovation. “The biggest
challenge for me has always been where to
add value, especially in mining.” At Devex,
he is responsible for Australia, Asia and in-
ternational expansion initiatives. “We’re also
looking at how and where we can add value
to other regions such as Eastern Europe and
eventually Africa as well.”