NEWS RELEASE
Date 16 October 2001
BHP Billiton Director Resigns - Ron Mcneilly
BHP Billiton announced Executive Director Global Markets Ron McNeilly would
retire from the Board at the conclusion of today's BHP Billiton Limited
Annual General Meeting.
Mr McNeilly was appointed to the BHP Board in 1991 and is the Group's
longest serving director. He joined BHP as an 18-year old Commercial Trainee
and, during 40 years of service to the Company, has acted as the head of
Transport, Steel and, more recently, Minerals.
BHP Billiton Chairman Don Argus paid tribute to Mr McNeilly and wished him
well for the future. Mr Argus said: "This is an appropriate time for me to
thank Ron, on behalf of my Board colleagues and all shareholders, for his
service to BHP and, in more recent months, BHP Billiton.
"Ron acted as the Company's Chief Operating Officer during most of 1998
before Paul Anderson joined us.  This was a particularly difficult time,
made considerably easier by Ron's leadership throughout that period.  He
assumed responsibility for the Minerals Division in January 1999 and headed
that group through to the completion of the merger."
Mr McNeilly will continue to see through his merger integration
responsibilities and will leave BHP Billiton at the end of this calendar
year. As recently announced, Mr McNeilly will be Deputy Chairman of BHP
Steel Limited when that new Company is publicly listed next year.
Further news and information can be found on our Internet site:
www.bhpbilliton.com
Australia                                 United Kingdom
Dr. Robert Porter, Investor Relations     Marc Gonsalves, Investor Relations &
Tel:    +61 3 9609 3540                   Communications
Mobile: +61 419 587 456                   Tel:    +44 20 7747 3956
email: Robert.Porter@bhpbilliton.com      Mobile: +44 7768 264 950
                                          email: Marc.Gonsalves@bhpbilliton.com
Mandy Frostick, Media Relations           Ariane Gentil, Manager Communications
Tel:    +61 3 9609 4157                   Tel:    +44 20 7747 3977
Mobile: +61 419 546 245                   Mobile: + 44 7881 518 715
email: Mandy.J.Frostick@bhpbilliton.com   email: Ariane.Gentil@bhpbilliton.com
South Africa                              United States
Michael Campbell, Investor & Media        Francis McAllister, Investor
Relations                                 Relations
Tel:    +27 11 376 3360                   Tel:    +1 713 961 8625
Mobile: +27 82 458 2587                   Mobile: +1 713 480 3699
email:                                    email:
Michael.J.Campbell@bhpbilliton.com        Francis.R.McAllister@bhpbilliton.com