BHP Billiton PLC Share News (BLT)

* CEO says aspirational goal for "gender balance" at alllevels

* Chairman led push for productivity, efficiency

* Samarco victims stage protest (Adds comment from Nasser, CEO, context)

By Barbara Lewis

LONDON, Oct 20 (Reuters) - BHP Billiton Chairman Jac Nasserwill not seek re-election at next year's annual general meeting,he announced on Thursday, saying after 10 years at the top andoverseeing the initial response to the Samarco dam disaster, itwas time to retire.

Nasser said he had intended to resign last year but agreedto stay on at the world's biggest miner to provide stability asBHP responded to the disaster in Brazil.

Now the "basic structure of the Samarco response is inplace," Nasser said in a speech at this year's Annual GeneralMeeting (AGM), he would not seek re-election, but would carry onleading the board in the interim.

BHP's Chief Executive Andrew Mackenzie in a separate speechsaid the company had set a 2025 goal of achieving "genderbalance at all levels of the organisation over the next decade".

The 12-strong board has three women members.

Mackenzie declined to be drawn on whether there might be anyparticular considerations in deciding the new chairman, sayingthe board was engaged in an ongoing succession process.

Asked whether the new chairman might be a chairwoman, Nassersaid "why not?" but he would not insist on a woman, addingchanging the gender balance would take time.

As someone who grew up in the northern suburbs of Melbourne,Australia, Nasser, 68, said he had never expected to lead globalcompanies.

He was named chairman of BHP in August 2009 and had joinedthe board as non-executive director in 2006.

Before that, he was CEO of Ford, where his reputationas a cost-cutter earned him the nickname "Jac the Knife".

At BHP, Nasser experienced the China-led commodities boomand the bust, which the company had weathered better than peers,he said.

"We kept a solid A credit rating through the valley of thecommodity price death," he said.

BHP had been ahead in enforcing a shift away from unfetteredspending to a focus on productivity and efficiency, he added.

Nasser said he hadn't given much thought to what he would donext, but it was the right time to move.

"Whenever you join a board, I think you always have sometimeframe in mind. My timeframe was in the order of 9 to 10years," he said.

His last year has been what he described as "one of the mostchallenging periods" in BHP's history, largely because of theSamarco dam burst in which 19 people died. Samarco is a 50/50joint venture between BHP and Brazil's Vale.

Brazilians impacted by what Brazil says is its worstenvironmental disaster were among those who staged a protestoutside Thursday's AGM in central London.

Mackenzie said the company was working flat out to rectifythe damage and compensate those affected. (Additional reporting by Mamidipudi Soumithri in Bengaluru;Editing by David Goodman and David Evans)