Gregory D. Wasson: Pharmacist At The Helm

Many corporations are run by individuals with business degrees. Some of these individuals come from well-known business schools like Harvard. Gregory D. Wasson runs a huge enterprise but his college degree was not in the field of business. He graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Pharmacy from Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana in 1981.

Greg worked as a pharmacy intern at a drugstore chain in 1980 while he was still a student. After earning his degree he managed several Houston drugstores for the company and was promoted to district manager in 1986. Greg was an excellent manager as evidenced by his promotion to regional vice president of store operations in 1999.

More promotions came along the way. He became vice president and executive vice president of the company’s Health Initiatives unit and pharmacy benefit manager in 2001. Other promotions included becoming company vice president in 2004 and executive vice president in 2005. Greg became company president and chief operating officer in 2007 and then appointed CEO in 2009.

Greg is not the CEO of a just a big company he’s leading the biggest one; the Walgreen Company or simply Walgreens. It is the largest drug retailing chain in the U.S. with around 8,300 stores in all 50 states as well as the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and Guam.  For 2012 the company had revenue of $71.633 billion and 176,000 employees.

He may be a pharmacist by training but Greg is all business in reshaping Walgreens so it remains competitive and dominant in the decades ahead. While he can’t even get himself to gamble away $100 in a casino, Greg is different in the corporate setting spending $1.1 billion to acquire New York-based pharmacy chain Duane Reade, Inc. in 2010.

To augment Walgreen’s online presence Greg paid $429 million to buy Drugstore.com in 2011. He also led the over century old company to venture for the first time outside North America with a $6.7 billion cash-and-stock deal for 45 percent stake in Alliance Boots GmbH, the European pharmacy and health-and-beauty-retailer creating the world’s largest buyer of prescription drugs, with a network of 11,000 stores in 12 countries.

Wasson is reshaping and taking the company to new directions in a very bold manner.

Gerry R. Heminger: Marathon Man

Nope we’re not referring to Gerry R. Heminger as a diehard runner. If there’s anything that he has been diehard about then it has to be Marathon Petroleum Corporation (MPC). He has been with the company for over 38 years and counting.

Heminger earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Accounting from Tiffin University in 1976. He also obtained an MBA in 1982 from the University of Dayton. To further hone his executive skills he graduated from the Executive Management Program at the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania.

Heminger knows MPC inside out having held numerous positions in the company. He spent five years in a number of financial and administrative roles. Heminger spent three years in London as audit supervisor of the Brae Project. He has also held several marketing and commercial roles with the predecessor of Speedway LLC.

A number of his higher executive roles include president of Marathon Petroleum Company LLC in September 2001 and executive vice president – Downstream of Marathon Oil Corporation. In July 2011 he assumed the top positions of President and CEO of Marathon Petroleum Corporation.

MPC has headquarters in Findlay, Ohio and employs around 28,000 individuals and is a member of the Fortune 500. It has around 9.5 percent of the total U.S. refining capacity.  It’s a company well worth working with for more than 38 years.

Vittorio Calao: The Second Time Around

It may be the case that the position you think will go to you goes to someone else. It could be that the position wasn’t meant for you or it simply wasn’t the time yet. The latter was the case with Vittorio Calao.

Calao was born on October 3, 1961 in Brescia, Italy.  He graduated from Bocconi University with a degree in Business. Highly intelligent Calao earned, with Honors, an MBA from Harvard Business School.

He began his career in London working as an investment banker at Morgan Stanley. In 1986 he was back in Italy as a Partner in the Milan office of McKinsey & Co. His work covered telecommunications, media and industrial goods. Calao was also responsible for office recruitment.

Around a decade later Calao joined Omnitel Pronto Italia and reached the position of Chief Operating Officer before it was taken over and became Vodafone Italy. When you’re good at what you do even the new owners will notice. Calao didn’t have to worry about his employment status. By 2001 he was the Regional CEO for Southern Europe and the following year even joined the main board of Vodafone Group.

Calao was a rising star at Vodafone and was in line for the top post. As things turned out the CEO position became open but it went to someone else. Calao resigned from Vodafone and joined RSC MediaGroup, an Italian publishing company, where he was appointed CEO in July 2004.

Things did not go very well at RCS MediaGroup. There was criticism from shareholders concerning the group’s governance and strategy.  Calao resigned from the company and rejoined Vodafone in 2006 as CEO, Europe and Deputy Chief Executive. 

He finally got the CEO post in July 2008 succeeding the man who got the job instead of him. His resignation at RCS MediaGroup was actually a blessing in disguise as it gave him another crack at the top post at Vodafone. A winner never quits.  

Anshu Jain: Challenges

Anshu Jain was born in Jaipur, India, the son of a civil servant. He earned an economics degree at Sri Ram College of Commerce at Delhi University and obtained an MBA from the University of Massachusetts Amherst in 1985.  He is now the co-CEO of Deutsche Bank the biggest lender in Germany and the largest continental bank in Europe in terms of total assets.

What is interesting about Anshu is he is an Indian national holding a British passport and speaks very little German. Given his hectic schedule there’s very little time for him to learn the language but he has been trying his best and even gave a two page introductory speech during the 2013 annual stockholder’s meeting in German.  

The world has become more international but having a non- Germany speaking co-head has made some people uneasy, especially when banking is all about trust. He got to this position by helping Deutsche Bank become one of the largest investment banks in the world when he joined the company in 1995.

 Yet it is also this side of the bank which as caused many problems including criminal investigations and charges against employees. Jain himself has not been accused of any wrongdoings. He has worked out of London, does not speak much German and has sold products like sophisticated derivatives that few people totally understand and view with suspicion.

Despite these challenges Jain along with co-CEO Juergen Fitschen who is a native German are working to shore up the bank’s capital and cut costs including laying off thousands of workers. Jain understands his job and challenges simply have to be overcome.

Francois Pérol: The Fast Track

Some talents are screened out early on even before they start their careers. It usually begins by going to schools known for producing top executives.

This is the path Francois Pérol took. He went to the right schools which set him up for good government positions and eventually business executive positions. It’s not a guaranteed path; you have to compete and many talents go to the same schools but only a few get to go as high as Francois.

He graduated from the HEC School of Management and the Paris Institute of Political Science. Francois was also a student at the Ecole National d’Administration (ENA), the school for high-flying civil servants.  He started his career as an auditor in the General Inspectorate of Finance in 1990.

Over the years he would rise in the government bureaucracy. Francois was appointed Deputy Secretary General of the Interdepartmental Commission for Industrial Restructuring (CIRI) in 1994. He moved to the French Treasury Department in 1996 as the head of the Financial Markets Office.

As Francois rose in rank his exposures also increased in the international scene when he was the Secretary General of the Paris Club, responsible for international negotiations with debtor countries. This was from 1999 to 2001. Other significant positions Francois has held include being deputy Chief of Staff to Francis Mer, Minister of the Economy, Finance and Industry in the French Government from 2001 to 2004.

Like many star civil servants Francois also became involved in the private sector when in 2005 he became a General Partner of the investment bank Rothschild & Cie. He went back to government when he was appointed deputy Secretary General at the Presidency of the French Republic, in charge of economic issues in May 2007.

Francois served as Chairman of the Management Board of Caisse National des Caisses d’Epargne (CNCE) and CEO of Banque Fédérales des Banques Populaires (BFBP) and on in August 2009 became Chairman of the Management Board of BPCE, the product of the merger between CNCE and BFBP.

Groupe BPCE is the second largest banking group in France with 117,000 employees meeting the needs of 36 million customers of which 8.6 million are cooperative share holders. A huge financial institution which is led be someone with deep experience and exceptional talent.

Sean O’Connor: Dealing With Risk

Sean O’Connor is the Chief Executive Officer of INTL FCStone. While many CEOs reach the top post after having worked for many years in the company, O’Connor took another path. He earned his spurs at other companies. With his credentials he joined INTL FCStone as CEO in October 2002.

Before becoming the CEO at the company O’Connor was already the CEO (from 1994 until 2002) of Standard New York Securities, a division of Standard Bank. O’Connor was also Executive Director of Standard Bank London, Ltd., from 1999 to 2002. This is a United Kingdom bank and a subsidiary of the Standard Bank of South Africa.

What is unique about INTL FCStone is the company’s market capitalization is below $400 million but it’s one of the largest companies in the US in terms of revenue. In fact other companies close to it in terms of revenue have market capitalization in the $50 billion range.

How the company he runs makes such huge revenues is because it deals with risks and volatility. Due to this O’Connor and his team can also get caught in a bad year. It’s all part of the territory though and O’Connor continues to make the necessary adjustments so that this large commodities brokerage company can get back to its winning ways.

Wang Yilin: Business And Politics

While business and politics are two distinct fields it is inevitable that the two engage with one another. Businessmen have to deal with politicians since they are the ones who shape the policies and laws that could be favorable or unfavorable to a businessman’s interest.

For China business and politics are very much intertwined. While the once communist country now allows private ownership, many enterprises are still run by the government and the individuals who run these companies like a private business must be members of the Communist Party of China (CPC).  You could say these individuals are highly talented since they must be astute businessmen who have to also play political roles.

One of these talented individuals is Wang Yilin. He is the Chairman of the China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC). Wang is also member of the 18^th CPC, Central Committee, Central Commission for Discipline Inspection.

To be sure he didn’t reach these very high positions simply by great networking. Born in 1956, in Jiangsu Province, Ganyu County, Wang earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Petroleum and Geology and Exploration from the China University of Petroleum in 1982. He also obtained a Doctorate degree in Mineral Prospecting and Exploration from the China University of Petroleum in 2002.

Wang began his career in 1982.  Among the positions he has held include being the Deputy Director of the Petroleum Management Bureau, Xinjiang, Uygur Autonomous Region, Karamay City, Party Secretary of Xinjiang Petroleum Administration, Director and Party Secretary of Kamaray Municipal People’s Congress Standing Committee and First Party Secretary of Kamaray Military Sub-district.

After a number of promotions he became Vice President and Party Leadership Group Member of China National Petroleum Corporation in December 2003. Wang became Chairman and Party Leadership Group Secretary of CNOOC in April 2011.

CNOOC is China’s largest producer of offshore crude oil and natural gas. It is also one of the largest independent oil and gas exploration and production companies in the world and is listed in both the Hong Kong and New York stock exchanges.

Wang leads a very important company in China’s business industry and his years of experience in both the business and political worlds are now paying off.

 

  

Yi Jun: Top Construction Head

We’ve heard about the large construction companies in the U.S. and their construction projects. What don’t know too well as the construction companies in China that have made inroads in the US and around the world. Just like any large company they are headed by top-notch managers like Yi Jun.

Renovation of the Alexander Hamilton Bridge in New York City, New York; ventilation shafts for the 7 Subway Extension also in New York City; Haier companies building, South Carolina. Nope these weren’t projects done by a U.S. construction company. These projects were undertaken and completed by the China State Construction Engineering Corporation (CSCEC). This is a Chinese construction firm that is reputedly the third largest in the world and the 20^th largest general contractor in terms of overseas sales.
To be sure the company had done projects closer at home such as the missile test center of the Shenzhou Space Center; the Airport Passenger Terminal in Hong Kong Chek Lap Kok; and many more projects.

The person who is leading the company is Yi Jun who sits as Chairman. To be sure he wouldn’t have been appointed to head such a large company without the necessary background and experience. He certainly does having a bachelor and master degree in the field of engineering. He joined CSCEC in 1982. Before being promoted to the top post among the positions he has held was as project manager of CSCEC Beijing Lufthansa, director and general manager of China State Construction Contracting Company, chairman of the Board and president of China State Construction International Company Limited and other positions.

Yi Jun is one of a handful of capable leaders who head large construction companies outside of the US.