Brian L. Roberts: Taking It To The Next Level

Brian L. Roberts was born on June 28, 1959 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and also currently resides there. His father Ralph J. Roberts co-founded cable provider Comcast Corporation. Brian only had one job in mind and this was to work for his father’s company.  He obtained his Bachelor of Science from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania in 1981.

Brian was appointed president of Comcast in 1990. He became CEO in 2002 and chairman in 2004. Along the way he built Comcast into the largest cable-television operator in the U.S. The firm is the owner and manager of NBCUniversal, which operates 30 news, entertainment and sports cable networks, the NBC and Telemundo broadcast networks, television production operations, television station groups, Universal Pictures and Universal Parks and Resorts.

Aside from this Comcast is majority owner of Comcast-Spectator, which as major stakes in the Philadelphia Flyers NHL hockey team and the Wells Fargo Center, a large multipurpose arena in Philadelphia.

Brian has been active outside of Comcast. He is a member of the Board of Directors of the National Cable & Telecommunications Association (NCTA) where he served as Chairman for two consecutive terms from 2005 to 2007 and from 1995 to 1996 a time when the landmark deregulatory 1996 Telecommunications Act became law.

Brian is Director Emeritus of CableLabs, which is the research and development consortium for the cable industry; he served three terms as Chairman. He is a member of the CEO only, Business Roundtable, an organization based in Washington, D.C.  Brian also served on the President’s Council on Jobs and Competitiveness.

His leadership skills have been recognized in business and in the industry.  In 2009, Institutional Investor magazine named him one of America’s top CEOs for the sixth year in a row. In 2011, he and his father were inducted into Babson College’s Academy of Distinguished Entrepreneurs Hall of Fame. In 2012, Fortune Magazine recognized Brian as “Businessperson of the Year.

Brian is an exceptional business executive who brought Comcast to the next level.

 

Masami Yamamoto: Steering A Technology Juggernaut

Masami Yamamoto has been the president of Fujitsu Ltd. since April 1, 2010. Prior to that he was the Corporate Senior Executive Vice President until April 1, 2010. Yamamoto also served as Corporate Senior Vice President since June 22, 2007. Other positions he held includes as Corporate Vice President of Fujitsu Semiconductor Limited. He also serves as Director of Fujitsu Technology Solutions (Holding) B.V. Yamamoto has also been Representative Director of Fujitsu Limited since June 2010.

Yamamoto holds a Bachelor’s in Electrical Engineering from Kyushu University. This degree comes in handy with the kind of company he is heading. Fujitsu is a top information and communication technology (ICT) company. It provides a wide range of technology products, solutions and services. Fujitsu employs around 170,000 people in over 100 countries. The firm reported consolidated revenues of $47 billion in the fiscal year ended March 31, 2013.

The firm is among the world’s top five provider of servers. It has around 97,000 patents worldwide and Fortune magazine has named the company one of “the World’s Most Admired Companies’ in 2013. It’s one impressive technology juggernaut that Yamamoto is heading.

Xu Jianyi: Leading An Important State Enterprise

Xu Jianyi is the chairman of FAW Group Corporation. While we can say all state enterprises are important this one is crucial. FAW Group Corporation is a Chinese state-owned automotive manufacturing company which is based in Changchung, Jilin, China.

Having a running car manufacturing company in any country is not only a symbol of how far a country has come but also the fact that there is a lot of technology involved in this industry.  It also belongs to the manufacturing sector and can be a proxy for the manufacturing capability of a country.

Xu Jianyi was born on December 24, 1953 in Nanjing, Fushan City in Shandong Province. As has been the practice he joined the Communist Party of China (CPC) in June 1986. Xu began working in 1970. He graduated with a specialty of automobile from Jilin Industry University. Xu also earned a Master’s Degree in Holland Maastricht School of Management.

He has solid grounding when it comes to automobiles. Xu was named Designer of No. 1 designing office, chassis design section in FAW R&D center in December 1975. He also has international exposure having been a visiting scholar at the American Engineering Technology United Co., and Ford Automobile from January 1988 to September 1990.

Xu rose through the ranks. Among his positions include being Deputy General Dispatching Leader at FAW Group in June 1995. He was named Deputy General Manager of FAW VW in January 1996. In September 2000 Xu became a standing member of the CPC FAW Group Committee and Deputy General Manager of FAW Group.

What is unique about business executives in China is they also hold political positions. Xu was appointed Assistant Jilin Provincial Governor and member of the CPC Jilin Provincial Government team in November 2003. He also became a standing member of the CPC Jilin Province Committee in May 2007.

As to the company he now heads it was founded in 1953 and currently employees 133,000 individuals worldwide and sells products in 70 countries. The company has totals sales in excess of 7 million vehicles worldwide.  FAW is one of the “Big Four” Chinese automakers.  Xu heads very important company indeed.

Federico Ghizzoni: Leading A Huge Institution

There are many company employees who are new to the job. Some get promoted and reach very high positions just like Federico Ghizzoni. He was born on October 14, 1955 in Pianza Italy. Ghizzoni has a law degree from the University of Law in Parma.

Ghizzoni began his career as a customer relations manager at Credito Italiano’s Piacenza Branch. He became the Head of Credit & Marketing Department at Piacenza Branch then later took on the role of Branch Director in Trieste between 1988 and 1989. Rising through branch banking Ghizonni was eventually appointed Deputy General Manager to Credito Italiano’s London Office.

More promotions came along with more international assignments in places like Singapore. Ghizzoni began to work at Koc Financial Services in 2003; a 50-50 joint venture of Koc Holding and UniCredit Group. After more senior executive roles he became the CEO of UniCredit in September 2010 and Chairman of the Supervisory Board of UniCredit Bank AG in Munich.

The institution Ghizzoni heads is huge. It is a leading European commercial bank with an international network covering 50 markets. It has more than 9,200 branches and more than 150,000 employees. UniCredit does business in 20 European countries.

Tidjane Thiam: Glass-Breaker

There are individuals who are the first to achieve certain milestones and serves as inspirations for others to follow. Tidjane Thiam is one such individual.

Thiam was born on July 29, 1962 in Côte d’Ivoire. He is a descent of two prominent African families both on his mother’s and father’s side. His father was an Ivorian cabinet minister after the country’s independence. An uncle was a prime minister of Senegal.

Thiam was an achiever in his own right early on. He was the first Ivorian to pass the entrance exam of the École Polytechnique in Paris in 1982. Thiam graduated from École Polytechnique in 1984 and from École National Supérieure de Mines de Paris in 1986 where he finished on top of his class.

He was awarded as scholarship in 1986 to study for an MBA at INSEAD and joined the “McKinsey Fellows Programme’ in Paris. In 1988 he earned his MBA from INSEAD and was on the Dean’s list. Thiam worked for McKinsey & Co. until 1994.

He was personally requested by the new President in Ivory to become the CEO of the National Bureau of Technical Studies and Development (BNETD) in 1994. Aside from his role at BNETD he formally joined the cabinet and was appointed Minister of Planning and Development in 1998. During his stint in the government he initiated many applauded projects and also promoted privatization.

His government service came to an end in 1999 after a military coup. Thiam was abroad and returned to the country where he was promptly arrested and detained for several weeks. He was later released and offered a government post which he decline. Thiam left the country in early 2000 and returned to the private sector.

After working for several companies he joined Prudential plc in 2007 and became CEO in 2009. Thiam became the first black person to head a FTSE 100 listed company. Being only human Thiam has had his missteps. In April 2013 he became the first FTSE chief executive to be censured by the watchdog, FSA because Prudential failed to inform the regulator of a planned bid.

Due to improved profits and share prices his pay and position have not been affected.

 

Pierre-André de Chalendar: The Sure Path

Not everyone can take the selected and proven path to success in the French corporate world. The selection process begins in the school you qualify in. Then there is employment in the government sector followed by good posts in the private sector.

This is the path that Pierre-André de Chalendar took. He was born on April 12, 1958 in Vichy, France. He graduated from ESSEC business school in 1979 and École Nationale d’Administration (ENA) in 1983.

Pierre then worked for the government at the General Inspection of Finance (IGF) from 1983 to 1987.While in government he went on to take a number of increasingly important roles. Pierre became Financial Inspector in 1984, Project Manager from 1987 to 1988 and Deputy Director from 1988 to 1989 in the General Directorate for Energy and raw material of the Ministry of Industry and Energy.

Then the shift to the private sector; he joined Saint-Gobain as Vice President for Corporate Planning in October 1, 1989. Pierre moved up the ladder assuming a number of senior management position. He became the CEO in 2007. Pierre became the Chairman and CEO in June 3, 2010; the proven but highly selective path to success.

Saint-Gobain is in the habitat and construction markets with net sales of 43.2 billion euros in 2012.

Alberto Weisser: Global Agribusiness

We sometimes take for granted how food reaches our table. We just buy them from the grocery store. Yet how the food got there can be a very interesting story. It can travel from one country to another. The packaging may come from one place and the food itself from another. In fact ingredients of a food may come from different places.

To make this all happen there must be an organization in place. Someone has to connect all the elements from planting to delivery. It can involve a complicated global supply chain. While there are some many ideals about food production, the reality is there also has to be economies of scale to make the food production and agribusiness activities sustainable. Aside from profitability, sustainability must also be considered.

One company that has for over a century been engaged in agribusiness and has helped in the sustainability of food production is Bunge Limited. It is a leading food and agribusiness company with integrated operations that encompass the world. Its operations start from the farm field to the retail shelf.

The man who had until recently been the CEO and is now the Executive Chairman is Alberto Weisser. He served as Chairman and CEO of Bunge Limited from July 1999 to June 1, 2013 and January 1999 to June 1, 2013 respectively. Weisser joined Bunge Ltd., in July 1993 and served as its Chief Financial Officer from July 1993 to 1999.  Before that he worked for the BASF Group in various finance-related positions for 15 years.

Bunge had been impressed with the performance of Weisser for after spending a little less than six years as Chief Financial Officer he was given the top post.  Weisser has a Bachelors Degree in Business Administration from the University of Sao Paulo, Brazil.  He has participated in several post-graduate programs at Harvard Business School. He also attended the Management Development Program of INSEAD in France.

Weisser’s over a decade tenure as CEO has greatly influenced Bunge which has been in existence since 1818. The firm has more than 35,000 employees working in around 40 countries.

Murilo Pinto de Oliveira Ferreira: Industry Veteran

When government owns a substantial part of a company you can bet it will raise a lot of noise publicly when the company is not doing well. Government is basically run by politicians. They may genuinely be concerned but they also get political mileage. They will want changes in top management.

The problem here is if the one who will get appointed is the favorite of some powerful politician and may not be the right person for the job. Fortunately for Vale SA, which is considered the second largest mining company in the world, the choice in 2011 was an industry veteran.

The one chosen to lead the mining giant was Murilo Pinto de Oliveira Ferreira, he was appointed as CEO of Vale in the early part of 2011. Prior to his appoint the Brazilian government which has direct and indirect stakes in Vale had frequently criticized the company in recent years for not spending more on domestic steel and fertilizer output to generate jobs.

His appointment eased concerned about a less qualified person holding the CEO post. Ferreira is an over 30 year industry veteran. He started his professional career at Vale in 1977 as a financial and economic analyst. He would later perform important roles such as CEO of Vale Inco, which currently integrates Vale’s operations in Canada.

They chose the right man at the right time calming market concerns.

Carlos Ghosn: The Great Transnational CEO

Perhaps there are other CEOs who experienced a life living in different countries. None has come out as super achieving as Carlos Ghosn. Carlos was born on May 9, 1954 in Porto Velho, Brazil.  His grandfather emigrated from Lebanon to Brazil at the age of 13.

In 1960 Carlos along with his mother and three siblings moved to Beirut, Lebanon. He was six years old at the time. Carlos finished his secondary studies at a Jesuit school in Lebanon. He earned an engineering degree in France at the École Polytechnique in 1978 with the final year’s specialization at the École de Mines de Paris.

Carlos joined tire giant Michelin in 1978 as manager of the Le Puy plant in France.  He eventually became Chief Operating Officer of Michelin’s South American activities in Brazil. Carlos job was to turn around a losing operation which was being battered by the hyperinflation in Brazil.

What he did next would help define his management style. Carlos formed cross-functional management teams to determine best practices among the French, Brazilian and other nationalities working in the South American division. The experience in multicultural Brazil formed the bases of his cross-cultural management style and emphasis on diversity as a core business asset. The division returned to profitability in two years.

With his successful stint in South America he was appointed Chairman and CEO of Michelin North America in 1989. Looking for better opportunities he joined Renault as Executive Vice President in 1996. Aside from handling activities in South America Carlos was also responsible for research, automobile engineering and development, manufacturing, powertrain operations, and purchasing.

Renault bought a significant stake in Nissan in 1999. Carlos joined Nissan as CEO in June 1999 while still maintaining his responsibilities at Renault. Nissan was in trouble at that time with debt of $20 billion and only 3 of 48 models making profits.

He executed a painful downsizing removing 21,000 Nissan jobs (around 14 percent of the total workforce).  Carlos also sold prized assets. In one year’s time he was able to return the company to profitability and continues to do so.  He became CEO of Nissan in June 2001

Aside from his top post at Nissan Carlos is also now the Chairman and CEO or Renault. Carlos Ghosn, a one of a kind transnational super achiever.