Mark Tucker: AIA CEO

Mark Tucker from England, was born on December 29, 1957. Mark initially wanted to be in the sports profession. He was a trainee professional footballer and made appearances for Wolverhampton Wanderers, Rochdale and Barnet. Mark never played a first team match. He would excel in a different profession. 

He took up Business Management at the University of Leeds and later qualified as an accountant at PricewaterhouseCoopers. Then Mark joined Prudential in 1986 first working for Prudential Portfolio Managers. He rose through the ranks and became Chief Executive of Prudential Corporation Asia and an executive director of Prudential plc. Mark joined HBOs as Finance Director after leaving Prudential in May 2004 due to the lack of upward opportunity. 

In early 2005 the CEO of Prudential was ousted and Mark rejoined Prudential this time as CEO. He stepped down from his post in September 2009 stating he had achieved all he wanted in the role. 

Mark joined AIA Group Limited in July 2010 and is an Executive Director and Group Chief Executive and President. He is also the Chairman and CEO of AIA Co. and AIA International. 

What is now AIA was founded more than 90 year ago in Shanghai, China. It is one of the largest independent publicly listed pan-Asian life insurance group. As of May 31, 2014, it had total assets of $159 billion. 

Jim Rohr: Accomplished Executive

Jim Rohr was born on October 18, 1948, and is a Cleveland, Ohio native. He earned a bachelor of arts degree from the University of Notre Dame in 1970. Jim took up further studies and earned an MBA in 1972 from The Ohio State University. 

Jim has been connected to one company in his entire professional career having worked at PNC Financial Services Group, affiliated or predecessor company.  He joined the group in 1972 and held various marketing and management positions. Among them as president and vice chair and president and chief operating officer. Jim was promoted to chief executive officer in 2000 and chairman in 2001. 

He was immediately faced with a major challenge when he assumed the CEO post. PNC was forced to restate its 2001 earnings because it had shifted $762 million in underperforming assets and loans to accounts that were removed from the company’s balance sheet.  Jim was able to handle the scandal properly and guided the banking corporation out of troubled waters. 

Yet this took a while as Jim faced problem which included the stock of PNC loosing around half its overall value during 2001. As could be expected during shareholders’ meetings there were those demanding for his resignation as CEO. Jim and his team prevailed. PNC’s net income began to rise in 2004 and the following year the financial institution earned a company record $1.3 billion.

Jim did not stop there as he led PNC in acquiring other banks turning the company into a major regional bank. One of the major acquisition was during the height of the financial crisis in 2008 when PNC acquired National City Corporation which doubled the size of PNC making it briefly one of the five largest US banks. 

Jim was bestowed 2007 American Banker’s Banker of the Year Award. He retired as CEO in 2013 and as executive chairman in April 2014 having served at PNC for 42 years, including 13 years as CEO. 

Arundhati Bhattacharya: State Bank Of India Chairperson

Arundhati Bhattacharya was born on March 18, 1956, in Kolkata, West Bengal, India. She earned both her Bachelor’s and Master of Arts degree from Jadavpur University. 

Arundhati began her career at the State Bank of India as a probationary officer in 1977. In her 36 year career with the bank she has held positions in the various departments gaining extensive knowledge and experience in the many different aspects of banking. This experience includes working in foreign exchange, treasury, retail operations, human resources and investment banking. 

She has served in the New York office of the bank. Arundhati has taken part in the introduction of a number of new businesses including SBI General Insurance, SBI Custodial Services and SBI Macquarie Infrastructure Fund. She became Chairman on October 2013 becoming the first woman to do so. 

Arundhati now heads the largest lender in India which has assets of  around $380 billion. She also introduced a two-year sabbatical policy for women employees for child or elder care and is serving on a team to create blueprints for the first all-women bank. 

Stephen Chazen: Occidental President & CEO

Stephen I. Chazen was born in 1946. He earned a bachelor’s degree in Geology from Rutgers College. Stephen obtained a master’s degree in Finance from the University of Houston and later earned a Ph.D. in Geology from Michigan State University. 

Stephen became a Managing Director in Corporate Finance and Mergers and Acquisition at Merrill Lynch. He then joined Occidental Petroleum in 1994 as Executive Vice President for Corporate Development a position he held until 1999 when he became Chief Financial Officer as well as Executive Vice President for Corporate Development. In 2004 Stephen became Chief Financial Officer and Senior Executive Vice President. 

He became the President and Chief Financial Officer in 2007. Then in 2010 he was appointed as President and Chief Operating Officer. Stephen became President and Chief Executive Officer of Occidental Petroleum Corporation in May 2011.

Since joining Occidental, Stephen has recommended and implemented the company’s acquisition and divestiture strategy which has been a key factor in Occidental’s transformation into a major oil and gas company. He has been a successful executive in the financial services industry and this financial and management expertise along with his over 30 years experience in the oil and gas industry has enabled him to make valuable and significant contributions to Occidental. 

It has been stated that according to a study by the Graziadio School of Business and Management at Pepperdine University, under his leadership, Occidental earned $3.4 billion in economic profit in 2011, and increase of $1.6 billion from 2010, making him the most value-generation business leader in Southern California. 

Stephen was a previously a member of the Board of Directors of Washington Mutual, Inc. He is the Chairman of the American Petroleum Institute’s Board of Directors and serves on the Boards of Aquarium of the Pacifica and Catalina Island Conservatory. 

Occidental Petroleum Corporation is an international oil and gas exploration and production company, and its OxyChem subsidiary is a major North American chemical manufacturer. The company in 2013, earned net income of $5.9 billion. 

Xiaochu Wang: China Telecom Chairman and CEO

Xiaochu Wang, in 1989, graduated from the Beijing Institute of Posts and Telecommunications. He later earned a doctorate degree in business administration from the Hong Kong Polytechnic University in 2005. 

He was Deputy Director General and Director General of the Hangzhou Telecommunications Bureau in Zhejiang province. Wang became Director General of the Tianjin Posts and Telecommunications Administration and Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of China Mobile (Hong Kong) Limited. He was Vice President of China Mobile Communications Corporation. Wang became President of China Telecommunications Corporation and Chairman of the board of directors and a Non-executive Director of China Communications Corporation and Honorary Chairman of China Communications Services Corporation Limited. 

He has been Chief Executive Officer of China Telecom Corp. since October 29, 2004. 

Wang was responsible for the development of China Telecom’s telephone network management systems and various other information technology projects.

China Telecom is one of the largest publicly trade companies in the world having wireline access lines in service for around 156 million, wireline broadband subscribers of about 100 million and mobile subscribers of around 186 million. 

Steve Williams: Suncor President And CEO

Steve Williams earned a bachelor of science degree in chemical engineering from Exeter University. His is also a graduate of the advanced management program at Harvard Business School and also the business economics program at Oxford University.

Steve held various executive positions at Esso Petroleum Company Limited, an affiliate of Exxon. He then moved to Octel Corporation in 1995 where held a number of number of executive positions. Steve joined Suncor Energy Inc. in May 2002. He was an Executive Vice President of Oil Sands at Suncor Energy Inc. Steve served as Chief Financial Officer and Executive Vice President of Corporate Development at Suncor Energy until May 30, 2003. He served as the Chief Operating Officer at Suncor Energy from March 5, 2007 to May 1, 2012. 

Steve became the President of the company on December 1, 2011 and then also Chief Executive Officer on May 1, 2012. 

While his predecessor was known for making bold decisions such as the 2009 deal worth $22.9 billion to acquire Petro-Canada, Steve  has taken a more measured approach given the environment he came in. When oil prices collapsed the company made huge losses with debt totalling more than $13 billion. While being more cautious it does not mean at the expense of profitability. Steve is more concerned with profitable growth than growth for the sake of just growing. 

Given the assets the company currently has which includes 27 billion barrels of resources on the books with 23 billion of it oil sands, Steve looks to better operational efficiencies than major expansions which means improving their technological capacities. He has also made it clear that investments in the company’s future will not dry up. 

Steve is a fellow of the Institute of Chemical Engineers and is a member of the Institute of Directors. He is one of 12 founding CEOs in Canada’s Oil Sands Innovation Alliance (COSIA). He is also a member of the Canadian Council of Chief Executives.

Takanobu Ito: Honda CEO

Takanobu Ito was born in August 29, 1953 in Tokyo, Japan. He graduated from Kyoto University and joined Honda in 1978 as an R&D Engineer. Takanobu rose through the ranks and held various positions of importance along the way. He has been an executive of Honda R&D since 1998 and was promoted to President and Director of Honda R&D in April 2009. Previously Takanobu had been appointed Senior Managing Director of Honda R&D in June 2001, after Director of the company in June 2000, following the position as Executive Vice President of Honda R&D Americas, Inc. since April 1998.   

By the time he was appointed to the Board in 2000 he was already well known in the automobile industry as “the engineer behind the legendary Honda NSE supercar of the 90s”.  He assumed the top post of CEO, President and Representative Director of Honda in June 2009.

Takanobu became CEO in very challenging times during the financial crisis. The year 2011 wasn’t as good either given the earthquake and tsunami that hit Japan. There have also been quality issues raised about Honda cars. He has been working hard in making a major transition to keep Honda among the pack leaders in the car industry. 

Herman Gref: Sberbank CEO

Herman Gref was born on February 8, 1964, at Panfilovo, Pavlador Region in Russia. Hermann served in the Soviet Army from 1982 to 1984. Specializing in jurisprudence he graduated from the Faculty of Law of Omsk State University in 19990. Herman then took a postgraduate course at the Faculty of Law of Leningrad State University from 1990 to 1993.

He was first legal adviser at the Committee for Economic Development and Property, Administration of Petrodvoretz, St. Petersburg from 1991 to 1992. Herman was appointed Head of Petrodvertz Regional Agency of the Municipal Property Committee, St Petersburg Mayor’s Office in 1992. He served as Chairman of the Property Committee and Deputy Head, Administration of Petrodvoretz from 1992 to 1994.

Herman continued his rise through the government bureaucracy he was appointed in 1994 as Deputy Chairman and later, First Deputy Chairman of the Municipal Property Committee, St Petersburg Mayor’s Office.  From 1997 to 1998 Herman was Vice Governor and Chairman of the Municipal  Property Committee of St Petersburg Mayor’s Office.

Then Herman’s career took an even bigger turn as he began to hold office at the national level. He held the post of First Deputy Minister of the State Property of Russia from 1998 to 2000. Then for more than seven years from May 2000 to September 2007, Herman was the Minister for Economic Development and Trade of Russia. This is a very high ranking position that raised his stock as an executive.

He was also considered an economic liberal who viewed that any business where profit is to be made should belong to the private sector.  Herman was a supporter of Russia’s entrance into the WTO.

Herman made the transition to the private sector becoming the CEO and Chairman of the Board of Serbank of Russia in November 2007. One of the things he wanted to do upon taking the posts was to ensure “maximum openness and transparency” in the bank’s decisions.

A stated by Serbank it accounts for around one-third of Russia’s banking system serving more than 110 million customers in Russia alone, which is more than half of the country’s population.