C Ramakrishnan: Tata Motors President And Group CFO

Chandrasekaran Ramakrishnan graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in Commerce and is a Chartered Accountant and a Cost Accountant. In 1980 C Ramakrishnan joined Tata Motors Limited as a Junior Accounts Officer in H.O. Accounts. He handled corporate treasury and accounting functions as well as management accounting. C Ramakrishnan was responsible for a two-year company-wide IT project covering R&D, manufacturing, sourcing and sales & service. He then worked in the Chairman’s Office for the last 6 years. 

C Ramakrishnan was part of the high profile team that forged the recent alliance with Italy’s number one care maker Fiat. He was deeply involved in working out the details of the deal with Fiat. He served as a Vice President of the Chairman’s Office and Executive Director of Finance of Tata Motors. C Ramakrishnan is a group veteran and has been involved in various large activities related to Tata Motors. 

He has been the Chief Financial Officer at Tata Motors Limited since September 18, 2007 and serves as its President and Compliance Officer.  In July 2015 he was promoted to group CFO. Now CFOs of all Tata Motors subsidiaries like Jaguar Land Rover, Daewoo among others will report to him. 

C Ramakrishnan serves as Director of Tata Motors Insurance Services Limited, Jaguar Land Rover India Limited, Fiat India Automobile Limited, Tata Cummings Limited, Sheba Properties Limited, Tata Daewoo Commercial Vehicle Co. Limited, Jaguar Land Rover Automotive PLC, UK, Tata Motors (SA) (Proprietary) Limited, Tata Hispano Motors Carrocera, SA, Tata Motors (Thailand)  Limited and Tata Service Limited. He serves as a Non-Executive Director of Tata Technologies Limited and Tata Motors Finance Limited. C Ramakrishnan has been a Director of TML Holdings Pte Ltd, since February 4, 2008.

He was awarded the Indian Industries best CFO award at the CNBC TV 18 CFO awards held in October 2010. C Ramakrishnan was also conferred the CFO of the year for India, by Asset Triple A Transaction Banking Awards 2011, among various awards he has  received. 

Tata Motors is the largest automaker in India. 

Bhavesh Patel: LyondellBasell CEO & Chairman

Bhavesh “Bob” Patel holds a Bachelor of Science degree in chemical engineering from The Ohio State University. He also went on to earn a Masters in Business Administration from Temple University. 

Bob joined Chevron Corporation in 1990 where he worked for it and its affiliates for more than 20 years. Among the various positions he held was as general manager, Asia-Pacific region, based in Singapore, where he led all of the company’s activities in the region. Before joining LyondellBasell, Bob was general manager, Olefins and Natural Gas Liquids for Chevron Phillips Chemical Company, where he was responsible for all aspect of the company’s largest business lines. 

In March 2010, Bob joined LyondellBasell as senior vice president, Olefins &  Polyolefins (O&P) — Americas, where he successfully restructured the business to take advantage of the shale gas expansion in the US. Bob would get more promotions and was appointed by shareholders to the company’s Management Board in April 2014. 

Bob was named Chief Executive Officer in January 12, 2015, and also became the chairman of the Management Board. 

Diversified chemicals company LyondellBasell Industries is based in Rotterdam, Netherlands and has sales of over $45 billion with more than 13,000 employees. 

Rodney McMullen: Kroger CEO

Rodney McMullen was born in Pineville, Kentucky. His parents didn’t have a stable and secure job. If the economy wasn’t doing well they would get laid off. Thus the life that Rodney experienced was one of moving from one location to another where factory work was available. 

He was an only child and his parents wanted him to have a better future and encouraged him to get a college education. Rodney’s parents were able to save up for one year’s college for him. He made it through the University of Kentucky by working at night as a stock boy at Kroger in Lexington, Kentucky. He first worked there in 1978. To get by Rodney picked up every extra shift he could. He worked every job in the store from the dairy to the deli. 

Rodney’s life is characterized by going the extra mile. He was not only a working student at UK but aside from his undergraduate degree he also got a master’s degree all in four years time. 

He was asked by the local vice president for operations if he wanted to work at Kroger towards the end of his studies. So instead of joining an accounting firm as was his plan, Rodney began working as an accounting supervisor in Kroger’s Charlotte, North Carolina, division office. This choice would turn out to be  a good one for him and Kroger as well. 

Rodney was good in the office able to increase work productivity when the personal computer was introduced. He was eventually moved to the Cincinnati head office. Rodney played a critical role in Kroger’s restructuring in 1988, when corporate raiders from Wall Street were attempting to take over the company in a leverage buyout. He also oversaw the integration of the $13 billion Fred Meyer acquisition in 1999 that turned Kroger into the largest supermarket chain in the US. Rodney was also moving up the corporate ladder becoming the executive vice president of strategy, planning, and finance in 2000.

In 2014 he finally got the top post of CEO at Kroger the $100 billion in sales corporation. 

Daniel Falque: KBC Belgium Business Unit CEO

Daniel Falque earned a Master’s Degree in International Relations, and Faculty of Economics, Social and Political Sciences at Université catholique de Louvain in 1989. Daniel then began is professional career in 1989 serving as  Production Inspector at Belgian insurer, De Vanderlandsche NV and stayed with the company until 1991. 

Daniel then joined Deutsche Bank AG (Belgium) in 1991 as a Credit Analyst and served as Corporate Relationship Manager of SMEs from 1991 until 1997. Then from 1997 until 2001, he headed Large Corporations and Co-ordination Centres. Daniel was Managing Director, Head of Corporate and Investment Banking from 2001 until 2004. 

Serving in other capacities at Deutsche Bank he later joined KBC in 2009 and has been the Chief Executive Officer of CBC Banque SA since July 1, 2009. Daniel has been the CEO of Belgium Business Unit at KBC Group NV and KBC Bank NV since May 3, 2012. 

KBC Group SA/NV engages in the banking industry and is one of the largest companies in the world with sales of $14 billion and 36,258 employees.

Alison Cooper: Imperial Tobacco CEO

Alison Cooper was born on March 31, 1966. Her growing years were spent in Kingston-Upon-Thames, Surrey. Alison attended the nearby all-girls’ grammar school,  Tiffin Girls’ School. She went on to earn a degree in mathematics and statistics from Bristol University. Alison spent a gap year teaching on voluntary basis in Kenya after she earned her degree. 

She initially wanted to become a teacher but then decided to enter the corporate world working as an auditor for accountancy firm Deloitte, Haskins & Sells in Bristol. The company was involved in a merger and later became PriceWaterhouseCoopers. While employed there, Alison worked closely with the Imperial Tobacco Group on acquisitions. 

In 1999 she joined Imperial Tobacco Group as Group Finance Manager. Two years later she rose up the ladder and became Group Financial Controller and was responsible for the financial management and control of the Group, including the financial evaluation of acquisitions, corporate planning and development, and investor relations. 

Alison was involved with Imperial Tobacco’s purchase of the German tobacco group Reemsta, in 2002. She was also involved in the acquisition in 2007, of Franco-Spanish maker of Gitanes and Gauloises cigarettes.  

Alison was named Regional Director of Western Europe in 2005 and in 2007 Corporate Development Director. She was named Chief Operating Officer in 2009.  Alison became the Chief Executive Officer in March 2010 upon the departure of Gareth Davis who held to post for the past 14 years. 

After assuming her new position Alison embarked on changing the company mindset from being a tobacco manufacturer to be a FMCG (fast-moving consumer goods) company. 

On the issue of having more women in the board room as well a running companies she is of the view that she does not support the introduction of quotas intended to increase female participation. She actually finds it rude to women and believes it should be based on merit. 

Steve W. Laut: Canadian Natural Resources Director & President

Steve W. Laut earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Calgary. Steve joined Canadian Natural Resources Limited in 1991 as Senior Exploitation Engineer and rose through the ranks becoming Vice President for Operation in 1996. The following year he was named Senior Vice President of the company. In 2001, Steve was promoted to Executive Vice President of Operations holding that position until 2003. 

Steve became President of Canadian Natural Resources Limited in April 2005 and serves as its Principal Executive Officer. 

Before bagging the top post his career saw him hold various positions including Reservoir Engineer and Production Engineer with Poco Petroleum, Adams Pearson, Petro-Canada, Dome Petroleum and Unocal.  

Steve has been a Non-Independent Director of Natural Resources Limited since August 1, 2006. He serves as a member of the Association of Professional Engineers, Geologists and Geophysicists of Alberta (APEGGA). 

Canadian Natural Resource is one of the largest publicly traded companies in the world. It is a senior independent crude oil and natural gas exploration, development and production company. 

Robert D. Marcus: Time Warner Cable Chairman & CEO

Robert D. Marcus graduated magna cum laude with a BA degree from Brown University in 1987. Robert was a Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar at Columbia Law School where he earned a JD in 1990 and was also an editor of the Columbia Law Review. 

After Columbia Law School he joined the law practice of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison and stayed there until 1997. Robert joined Time Warner Inc. in 1998 and held various positions such as Senior Vice President for Mergers & Acquisitions. In August 2005 he joined Time Warner Cable as Senior Executive Vice President in charge of corporate groups such as  mergers and acquisitions, law, business affairs, programming and human resource. 

Robert led Time Warner Cable’s spinoff from Time Warner in 2009. He also initiated its move to a publicly traded company in 2007 as well as spearheaded several key acquisitions and mergers that expanded the company’s footprint and services. Under Robert’s leadership, Time Warner Cable put forth a disciplined capital allocation strategy that has been followed by many other leading S&P 500 companies. 

He became TWC’s Chief Financial Officer in 2008 and held the position until mid-2011. Robert was the company President and Chief Operation Officer beginning December 2010. 

During Robert’s term as COO, TWC invested to support future growth, enhanced its network and improved critical infrastructure. Residential and business product offering were expanded, with significantly faster data speeds and advanced multi-platform video products. He is firmly committed to creating a customer-centric organization, with a mission to connect TWC’s customers to the world, simply, reliably and with superior service. 

Robert was appointed to TWC’s Board of Directors in July 2013. He became the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer on January 1, 2014. 

Robert serves on the board of directors of Equifax Inc., as well as the board of several organizations, including the National Cable & Telecommunications Association (NCTA), the Museum of Moving Image among others. 

Christopher Crane: Exelon President & CEO

Christopher M. Crane studied Electrical Technology at New Hampshire Technical College and attended Harvard Business School’s Advanced Management Program as well. Chris previously held a senior reactor operator certification. 

He joined Exelon Corporation in 1998. He served as Senior Vice President of Commonwealth Edison company since July 1999. Chris has been in the nuclear industry for close to 25 years and has served progressively more responsible leadership roles. Dave joined ComEd as a Vice President of BWR (boiling water reactor) Operations in October 1998 and served until July 1999 and was a major part of the ComEd nuclear program recovery. 

Dave would eventually become President and Chief Operation Officer of Exelon Corporation overseeing one of the US industry’s largest portfolios of electric generating capacity, with a multi-regional reach and the nations largest fleet of nuclear power programs. 

In March 12, 2012, he was promoted to Chief Executive Officer aside from retaining his role as President which he was appointed to on 2008. 

As President and CEO Dave heads a leading competitive energy provider in the country. Based in Chicago, Exelon does business in 48 states, the District of Columbia and Canada. 

David J. Lesar: Halliburton Chairman & CEO

David J. Lesar was born on May 30, 1953, in Madison, Wisconsin. He earned a bachelor of science and an MBA degree from the University of Wisconsin - Madison. A Certified Public Accountant Dave spend 16 years working with Arthur Andersen. He was a Partner at Arthur Andersen and served as Commercial Group Director of Arthur Andersen. Among the accounts he worked on was Halliburton, the energy giant. He would eventually join Halliburton.

He was an Executive Vice President of Finance and Administration for Halliburton Energy Services from December 1993 to June 1995. Dave was Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Halliburton Company from June 1995 to June 1996. He was President in May 1997 and Chief Operating Officer from June 1997 to August 2000. 

Dave became the Executive Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Halliburton Company in August 2000. 

He serves as a Director of the America Petroleum Institute. Dave serves as a Member of the Advisory Board of The British-American Business Council. He also served as a Director of Lyondell Chemical Company since July 28, 2000, and served as an Independent Director of Agrium Inc. from May 12, 2010, to May 6, 2015. 

Publicly listed Halliburton was founded in 1919 by Erle P. Halliburton and is based in Houston, Texas. The firm offers services and products to the energy industry related to the exploration, development and production of oil and natural gas. It operates through two segments: Completion & Production and Drilling & Evaluation. 

The Completion & Production segment delivers  cementing, stimulation, intervention, pressure control, speciality chemicals, artificial lift, and completion services. This segment consists of Halliburton production enhancement, cementing, completion tools, boots & coots, multi-chem and artificial lift. 

The Drilling & Evaluation segment provides field and reservoir modeling, drilling, evaluation, and wellbore placement solutions that enable customers to model, measure, and optimize their well construction activities. This segment consists of Halliburton drill bits and services, wireline and perforating, as well as Halliburton consulting and project management. 

A company will sales in excess of $32 billion Dave leads a huge organization whose performance affect the lives and businesses of so many people.