Chang Zhenming: Chinese Financial Executive

Chang Zhenming was born in Beijing, China in 1956. He worked at the Dining Hall of the School Affairs Department at Tsinghua University from 1971 to 1977. In 1979 Chang studied Japanese Literature at the Beijing International Studies University, finishing in 1983.

With his knowledge of Japan he received on the job training from 1984 to 1985 at Daiwa Securities in Japan.  Chang started his career at China International Trust and Investment Corporation (CITIC) in 1985. His first position was as deputy manager of the Treasury Division and held various positions such as deputy manager at CITIC Industrial Bank, in charge of foreign exchange and bond businesses.

Chang moved to New York in 1989 as the deputy representative at the CITIC Office. He held this position until 1992. During his time in New York he earned an MBA from the College of Insurance.

In October 1992 Chang was appointed vice president of CITIC Industrial Bank. He became in charge of fund raising through issuing of bonds in the international market, foreign exchange and securities.  Chang became assistant vice president, executive director and vice-president of CITIC from January 1994 to March 2002. He was in charge of establishing the securities, insurance and trust branches of CITIC and non-banking financial business.

He made a major career move in 2004, leaving CITIC to accept the position of vice chairman and president of China Construction Bank.  Two years later though in 2006 he was back at CITIC this time as vice chairman and president of CITIC Group.

CITIC Pacific a subsidiary of CITIC Group made unauthorized bets in the foreign current market in October 2008 and lost $1.9 billion causing senior officials of the subsidiary to resign. In April 2009 Chang was commissioned to replace the chairman and managing director of CITIC Pacific.

Back in 2000 Chang was put in charge to turn around CITIC Ka Wah Bank which was already on the verge of bankruptcy. By 2002 the bank was back on its feet.
  

Enrico Tommaso Cucchiani: Italian Business Executive

Enrico Tommaso Cucchiani studied Economics and Business Administration at Bocconi University in Milan from 1970 to 1975. He then completed research work on multinational corporations at Harvard Business School in 1975. Enrico holds an MBA and Fulbright Fellow from Stanford Graduate School of Business from 1975 to 1977.

He started his career in 1977 serving at Continental Illinois National Bank and Trust in Chicago, Illinois. Enrico then moved to McKinsey & Co. Milan/New York from 1979 to 1985.  He was then General Manager of fashion house Gucci from 1985 to 1992. 

Other positions include being CEO of Llyod Andriatico, SpA, a subsidiary of Alliance SE, Head of Insurance Europe of Alliance SE (formerly Allianz AG). He has served as Member of the Management Board of Alliance SE from October 2006 to December 21, 2011 and Head of Insurance Europe (& South America) from January 2010 to December 21, 2011.

Enrico has been Managing Director and Member of the Management Board at Intesa Sanpaolo SpA since December 22, 2011, and served as its CEO. Intesa Sanpaolo is the second-largest bank in Italy. Enrico has been trying to institute reforms in the bank but had several clashes with major shareholders.  He finally resigned in September 2013 after a 21 month tenure.

A business executive of vast and varied experience Enrico has had a sterling career but also knows when to exist when he can’t do things his way.

Dr. Severin Schwan: Roche CEO

Dr. Severin Schwan was born in Austria, in 1967.  He studied economics at the universities of Innsbruck, York and Oxford earning a degree in 1991. He obtained a Doctorate in Law at the University of Innsbruck in 1993.

 Dr. Schwan has been a Roche company man all his life. He began his career as a trainee at Corporate Finance at Roche in Base, Switzerland.  Dr. Schwan earned a promotion in 1995 when he became Head of Finance & Administration at Roche Brussels.

He continued his rise through the ranks becoming Head of Finance and Informatics at Roche Grenzach, Germany and Member of the Executive Board of Roche Deutschland Holding GmbH in 1998. Dr. Schwan continued his fast rise in the organization becoming Head of Global Finance & Services, Roche Diagnostics, Basel in 2000.  

In 2004 Dr. Schwan became had Head of Region Asia Pacific, Roche Diagnostics, Singapore. In 2006 he was promoted to Chief Executive Officer Division Roche Diagnostics. Dr. Schwan finally got the prized job of Chief Executive Officer, Roche Group in 2008.

While company employees can work their whole life and not be promoted to the top position, Dr. Schwan reached the top post in around 15 years.  The company he leads it by no means a small one. Roche is one of the largest firms in the world.

Roche is a researched-focused healthcare company which discovers, develops and provides diagnostic and therapeutic products and services. The pharmaceutical company was founded on October 1, 1896. The founder Fritz Hoffman-La Roche, was among the first to recognize that the industrial manufacture of standardized medicines would be a major advancement in the fight against disease.  The firm today, has more than 80,000 employees and its products are sold in over 150 countries.

Roche is among the world’s leading healthcare companies with two strong core businesses: diagnostics and pharmaceuticals. In 2012 group sales was at 45.5 billion Swiss francs coming from oncology sales, and clinical laboratory businesses.

Dr. Schwan continues to lead the company through more milestones.

Koichi Miyata: SMFG Head

Koichi Miyata joined Sumitomo Mitsui Bank in 1976 after graduating from university. In 2003 Koichi was appointed as a director of Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation (SMBC). He was then appointed in 2006 as a managing director of SMBC. In 2009, he became a senior managing director. 

Koichi in 2010 was appointed as a Director of SMFG (Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group). This is the umbrella organization of which SMBC is under. In this position he was the Deputy Head of the Treasury Unit of SMFG as well.  In April 2011 Koichi was appointed President of SMFG. He was now the head of a very large financial group in Japan and the whole world as well. 

One advantage presented itself when Koichi became president. The financial world was still recovering from the financial meltdown in 2008. Japanese banks which had more prudent outlook were largely insulated from the worst part of the crisis. 

His Group bought carefully chosen assets from struggling European lenders. They are looking at acquisitions abroad and pushing strongly in China. As a result Group net profit in the April-December (2012) period increased by 34 percent from a year earlier.

As expected of a competent leader, Koichi has taken advantage of opportunities that came about.

Robert A. Niblock: Lowe’s CEO

Robert A. Niblock earned a bachelor’s degree in accounting from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. Before joining Lowe’s he had a nine year stint with accounting firm Ernst & Young. Robert came on board at Lowes in 1993. He has held a number of key positions such as director of taxation, vice president and treasurer, senior vice president, and executive vice president and chief financial officer. 

Robert was promoted to president in 2003 and held the position till 2006.  He was elected as chairman and CEO of Lowe’s Companies in January 2005. Robert reassumed the title of president in 2011.

He holds a number of positions outside of Lowe’s as well. Robert was elected to the board of directors of ConocoPhillips in 2010 and serves on its audit and finance committee. He is a member and currently serves as secretary of the board of directors of the Retail Industry Leaders Association. Previously he served as the organizations chairman in 2008 and 2009 and vice chairman in 2006 and 2007. Robert is also on the board of directors of BEST NC (Business for Education Success and Transformation in North Carolina).

Robert is in charge of a very large publicly traded corporation. Based on Forbes Magazine ranking Lowe’s is one of the largest corporations in the world. The firm was founded in 1946 and has grown from a small hardware store to the second-largest home improvement retailer worldwide. 

Today Lowe’s runs more than 1,825 stores in the U.S., Canada and Mexico. It serves around 15 million customers each week and employs more than 245,000 people. Its stores stock 12 product categories ranging from appliances to tool, to paint, lumber and nursery products. Lowe’s has 40,000 products in stock, 500,000 items available online at Lowes.com and over 500,000 more products available by Special Order. 

Lowe’s Companies, Inc. has been publicly held since 1961. Its shares trade on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). Sales for fiscal year 2012 stood at$50.5 billion and net earnings of $2.0 billion.

Robert leads one of the biggest companies in the world, a job many business executive wished they had.

Ian Merchant: Top British Energy Executive

Ian Merchant was born on February 9, 1961 in Croydon. He went to the independent Trinity School of John Whitgift. Later he earned a BA in Economics at the University of Durham.

From 1983 to 1992, Ian was an accountant for PricewaterhouseCoopers. In 1992 he joined Southern Electric, which later became Scottish and Southern Energy (SSE) in 1998. Rising through the ranks Ian at the age of 41 became the CEO of SSE in 2002. The firm has around 9.5 million electricity and gas consumers.

Ian held this position until June 30, 2013 when he officially resigned. His £1 million bonus did get in the news considering the fact that he was already resigning. He actually waived some future bonuses that were supposed to be awarded to him. Towards the end of his 10 year leadership role there had been complaints about higher energy charges and doorstep mis-selling.

Yet the experience he has in the industry means he is still in high demand. He was recently appointed a non-director of aerial “drone” firm Cyberhaw Innovations.

Mohammed H. Al-Mady: SABIC CEO

In a push to diversity from just producing plain crude oil, Saudi Arabia created SABIC to also take advantage of crude’s by-products. A fresh graduate student from the University of Wyoming joined SABIC at its inception and would later play a big role in its growth and development.

Mohammed H. Al-Mady obtained his B.S degree at the University of Colorado at Boulders in 1973. Studying further he earned an M.S. in chemical engineering from the University of Wyoming 1975.

He joined Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (SABIC) at its inception in 1976. Al-Mady has held various key positions within the company and climbed through the corporate ladder.  He was finally appointed Vice Chairman and CEO of SABIC in July 1998.  Having been in command of the company for over a decade Al-Mady has contributed significantly to the company’s continued growth.

For his stewardship of SABIC and other activities Al-Mady has received many awards such as an Honorary Doctor of Science Degree by the University of Colorado at Boulder in 2012; Company of the Year (Chemicals) by the People’s Choice Stevie Award in 2011; and elected by Colorado Engineering & Applied Science College among the gifted students with global scientific and industrial contributions in 2010.

SABIC was created by royal decree in September 1976. It began the move into using the by-products of oil extraction to produce value-added commodities like chemicals, polymers, and fertilizers which were targeted for export.

As a consequence, in the late 1970s and early 1980s the fishing village of Al-Jubail transformed into a modern industrial city with the Royal Commission for Jubail and Yanbu building the infrastructure, and SABIC constructing the factories.  In 1985 the company’s total production was 6.3 million tons (mmt). It reached 69 mmt by the end of 2012.

In 2011 profit was at $7.8 billion with total assets standing at $88.74 billion.

While always looking towards the future Al-Mady can look back at the significant role he has played in SABIC’s growth and development.

Dr. Marjin Dekkers: Bayer Chairman

Scientists with interest in the field of business can become top executive of large companies too. Take the case of Dr. Marjin Dekkers.  He was born on September 22, 1957 in the Dutch city of Tilburg. Dr. Dekkers earned his undergraduate degree in chemistry from the Radboud University of Nijmegen (Netherlands) and his PhD in chemical engineering from the University of Eindhoven (Netherlands).

From the Netherlands Dr. Dekkers crossed the Atlantic and began his professional career as a scientist at the corporate research center of General Electric in the U.S. He gained valuable experience working in various units of the company.

In 1995 he joined AlliedSignal (later Honeywell International Inc.) Dr. Dekkers then became the chief operating officer of Thermo Electron Science Inc. in 2000. He later became the president and CEO of the company which is the leading manufacturer of laboratory instruments in the world (following the acquisition of laboratory supplier Fisher Scientific the company was renamed Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc.)

Dr. Dekkers joined Bayer as interim CEO of Bayer Healthcare on January 1, 2010. Since October 2010 he has served as chairman of Bayer’s management group.

Bayer is a global company which had sales of €39.7 billion in fiscal year 2012 and employing around 110,000 people.

Francisco Rodriguez: BBVA Chief

Francisco Rodriguez was born on October 19, 1944 in Chantada, Lugu, Spain. He graduated from the Universidad Complutense de Madrid in 1970 with a degree in Economics and Business Sciences. 

Francisco’s first job was as a computer programmer at an IT company in 1964.  His interest then shifted to finance and he left the computer industry to become a stockbroker in 1983. Francisco ranked first among the candidates who took the stockbroker exam in 1980.

In four years time he earned enough money to start his own brokerage firm, FG Inversiones Burtsátiles. It was the first and largest independent brokerage firm in the country. Francisco sold this company to Merrill Lynch in 1996 for $30 million greatly increasing his wealth.

His brokerage business also allowed him to establish connections with people in the political arena. In 1996 a new government was elected in Spain. In the process Francisco was appointed as chairman of the Argentaria banking group. The government chose Gonzalez to complete the privatization of Argentaria which was formed in 1991 in a merger with government-controlled banks in Spain. The government still owned 25 percent of the group which had 16,000 workers.

Francisco instituted far-reaching reforms in the banking group. It included merging three main units, refinancing its expensive assets, reducing costs, as well as taking the painful action of cutting jobs.

A major event happened in the Spanish banking industry when two of the largest banks, Banco Santander and Banco Central Hispano merged.  This convinced Francisco to merge with Banco Bilbao Vizcaya (BBV) in 1999 as not to be left behind.

Francisco became the cochairman of the newly formed BBVA sharing responsibilities with Emilio Ybarra who was the CEO of BBV.  A serious crisis occurred in 2000 when it was found out that BBV had been involved in illegal activities such as money laundering, slush funds, and bribery. The illegal activities involved BBV before the merger. Francisco took actions to correct the wrongdoings; it also led to the resignation of the cochairman and other employees.  There were 27 person indicted in connection with the scandal.

This left Francisco in sole command of BBVA. Since then he has pushed for the expansion of the bank’s operation overseas. With his computer programming background he has also championed the use of technology to improve banking efficiency and profit.