Nicholas Akins: American Electric President & CEO

Rising through the ranks of one company, Nicholas Akins would eventually lead a company that is even much bigger than the one he started out with. 

Nicholas “Nick” Akins holds a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from Louisiana Tech University which he earned in 1982. He also obtained a master’s degree in electrical engineering from the same institution in 1986. Nick rose through the ranks at Central and South Western Corp. (CSW) before the company merged with American Electric Power (AEP) in 2000. 

He served as vice president of industry restructuring for AEP then vice president of energy marketing services. Nick served as president and chief operating officer for Southwestern Electric Power Company from 2004 to 2006. He then served as  AEP’s executive vice president of generation from 2006 to 2010.  

Since 2010, Nick has been the CEO and president of AEP. In the company’s history he is the tenth president and sixth CEO. 

American Electric Power Co., Inc.  is headquartered in Columbus, Ohio and generates annual sales of more than $17 billion with around 21,830 employees. It is a public utility holding company that engages in the business of generation, transmission and distribution of electricity. AEP does business through the following segments: Vertically Integrated Utilities, Transmission & Distribution Utilities, AEP Transmission Holdco, Generation & Marketing and AEP River Operations. 

The Vertically Integrated Utilities segment engages in the generation, transmission and distribution of electricity for sale to retail and wholesale customers through assets owned and operated by its subsidiaries. The AEP Transmission Holdco segment engages in the development, construction and operation of transmission facilities through investments in wholly owned transmission subsidiaries and joint ventures. 

The Generating & Marketing segment engages in non-regulated generation: and marketing, risk management and retail activities. The AEP River Operations segment engages in the commercial barging operations that transports liquids, coal, and dry bulk commodities primarily on the Ohio, Illinois and lower Mississippi Rivers. 

The company was founded on December 20, 1906. 

Hyoung-Keun Lee: Kia Motors Chief Executive Officer

While there are many individuals who famously dropped out of college and successfully built and led multibillion dollar companies, there are also those who made it big by trying the true and tested approach of having a college degree. 

Hyoung-Keun Lee holds a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from Seoul National University. Rising through the ranks Lee served as President of Kia Motors Europe and also served as President of Kia Motors since August 2009. 

Lee, also known as Hank is now Chief Executive Officer of Kia Motors Corporation The company was founded in 1944 and is headquartered in Seoul, South Korea. Kia Motors has around 44,542 employees with annual sales in excess of $44 billion. 

Kia Motors Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, manufactures, distributes, and sells motor vehicles and parts in South Korea, North America, Europe, and internationally. The company offers passenger cars, recreational vehicles, and other commercial vehicles. It is also involved in leasing vehicles and providing vehicle maintenance services. The company sells its products primarily through a network of distributors and dealers. 

Zhang Dongning: Bank of Beijing President

There are many paths to success, for Zhang Dongning, he started out as a teacher in middle school and eventually found his path to lead a multibillion dollar bank. 

Zhang Dongning earned a bachelor’s degree from Capital Normal University in 1983. He obtained a master’s degree in management from Xiamen University in 2005. Zhang was a teacher at Beijing Xihongmen Middle School from 1983 to December 1987. He served as Director of the Office of Youth League Committee of Daxing County from January 1988 to November 1988. Zhang worked in the Education Division in the Beijing Branch of the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China from December 1988 to December 1995. 

Zhang then served as the General Manager of the Training Department of Bank of Beijing Co., Ltd. from January 1996 to March 2005. He then served as General Manager of the HR Department from March 2005 to December 2008. 

He continued his rise through the corporate ladder and by December 2009 he was appointed Vice President of Bank of Beijing, holding the position until August 2013 whereupon he was named President of the bank. 

Zhang who is an economist, leads a bank with around 9,193 employees and generates sales in excess of $12 billion. Bank of Beijing is headquartered in Beijing, China and engages in the provision of banking and financial services. It operates through the following segments: Corporate Banking Business, Retail Banking Business, Treasury Business, and Other Business. 

The Corporate Banking Business provides banking services for corporate customers such as deposit taking, loan lending, trade finance, agency service, entrusting services and credit assurance. The retail Banking Business provides banking services for individual customers such as saving, investment saving, entrusting, bank cards, credit and individual assets management, settlement, agency and credit assurance. The Treasury Business includes trading of derivatives from interest rates and foreign exchanges, money market trading, securities investment, as well as assets and liabilities management. The Other Business segment includes covers other services not handled by other segments. The bank was founded on December 8, 1995.  

Dian Kang: New China Life Insurance CEO

Dian Kang holds a bachelor’s degree in Engineering, graduating in 1982 from the University of Science and Technology of Beijing (formerly known as Beijing Institute of Iron and Steel Engineering). In 1984 he graduated from the Graduate School of Academy of Social Science of China earning a Master’s degree in Economics. Dian is a PhD candidate at the Cambridge University, United Kingdom. 

Among his various roles in the business industry he has been the Chairman and Director of New China Life Insurance Co., Ltd. since December 2009. He was appointed Chief Executive Officer of New Life Insurance Co., Ltd in February 2013. 

Dian heads a company with more than 56,000 employees and sales in excess of $23 billion. New China Life Insurance is headquartered in Beijing, China. The company engages in the provision of life insurance services. Its principal activities include underwriting life insurance policies denominated in both RMB and foreign currencies, including life, health and accident insurance products; acting as agent for domestic and international insurance companies among other insurance and finance related activities. 

Rakesh Kapoor: RB CEO

Rakesh Kapoor was born on August 4, 1958, in Bareilly, India. He attended Modern School, New Delhi, India and has a BE (Hons) in Chemical Engineering from the Birla Institute of Technology and Science (BITS), Pilani. He took up further studies and holds an MBA from XLRI - Xavier School of Management, Jamshedpur, India. 

Rakesh joined RB in 1987 when it was known as Reckitt & Colman before it later merged with Benckiser. He served in various positions such as: Regional Sales Manager, North India; General Manager, Indian Southern Region; and Regional Marketing Director, South Asia. Rakesh was appointed Global Category Director, Pest Control in 1999. 

After the merger he was appointed Senior Vice President, Home Care. Rakesh was named SVP, Regional Director, Northern Europe in 2001. He was named EVP, July 2006, with responsibility for global category management, research and development, media, market research and strategic alliances. 

On September 1, 2011, Rakesh was appointed CEO. He replaced Bart Becht, who had assumed the role since the firm was formed in 1999 as a result of the merger of Benckiser with Reckitt & Colman. 

The company that Rakesh leads has 37,200 employees and generates sales of over $14 billion. It is headquartered in Slough, England. Reckitt Benckiser Group Plc is a manufacturer and marketer of branded products in household, health and personal care, selling products through more than 60 operating companies in almost 200 countries. The company analyzes its revenue based on health, hygiene, home and portfolio brands together with RB Pharmaceuticals and Food. RB’s geographical segments include: Europe and North America (ENA); Latin America, North Asia, South East Asia and Australia and New Zealand (LAPAC); and Russia and CIS, Middle East, North Africa, Turkey and Sub-Saharan Africa (RUMEA). 

The key brands of the company include Durex, Gaviscon, Mucinex, Nurofen, Scholl, Strepsils, Airborne, MegaRed, Move Free, Bang, Clearasil, Dottel, Finish, Harpic, Lysol, Mortein, Veet Air Wick, Calgon, Vanish and Oolite.

Reckitt Benckiser announced in 2014, that it was dropping its full name and would be known as RB. Rakesh stated that the old name was “a bit of a mouthful” and the name change would make life easier. 

Joseph Hooley: State Street Chairman & CEO

Joseph L. Hooley earned a bachelor of science degree from Boston College. He joined State Street in 1986 and has since held various leadership positions with increasing responsibility.

He led the US Mutual Fund sales organization then joined State Street’s shareholder servicing joining venture with Kansas City-based DST systems. Joseph served as president and chief executive officer of National Financial Data Services from 1988 to 1990 and then became president and chief executive officer of Boston Financial Data Services from 1990 to 2000. 

Then in 2000, Joseph returned to State Street to manage the firm’s global investment servicing business. In that period he played an instrumental role in the firm’s strategic acquisitions, including Deutsche Bank’s Global Securities Services business in 2003 and Investors Financial Services Corporation in 2007. Joseph was named vice chairman in 2006 and in 2008 was appoint president and chief operating officer. As of 2010 he became chairman and president of State Street.

State Street Corporation is one of the largest companies in the world providing financial services to institutional investors with $27.3 trillion in assets under custody and administration, and $2.2 trillion in assets under management as of September 30, 2015. 

Masaki Sakuyama: Mitsubishi Electric President & CEO

Masaki Sakuyama was born in 1952 in Hyogo Prefecture. In 1977 he joined Mitsubishi Electric Corporation as an engineer in the company’s Kobe Works. Masaki rose through the ranks and in 2008 was named Executive Officer and Group President of Energy & Industrial Systems Group of Mitsubishi Electric. 

In 2010, he became Senior Vice President and General Manager of Corporate Strategic Planning Division. Masaki’s star was clearly on the rise when in 2012, he was appointed Executive Vice President and Group President of Semiconductor & Device Group. On April 1, 2014, he became the President and CEO of Mitsubishi Electric. 

The company that Masaki leads is one of the largest publicly trade firms in the world. It generates annual sales in excess of $40 billion and has 124,305 employees. It was founded in 1921 and is headquartered in Tokyo, Japan. 

Mitsubishi Electric Corporation manufactures and sells electrical and electronic products and systems all over the world. The Energy and Electric Systems segment offers turbine generators, nuclear power plant and power electronic equipments among others. 

The company’s Industrial Automation Systems segment offers programmable logic and computerized numerical controllers, inverters, servomotors, human-machine interface, hoists, magnetic switches among others. 

Its Information and Communication Systems segment provides wireless and wired communication systems, surveillance camera, satellite communication and radar equipment, antennas, missile and fire control systems, broadcasting and information systems equipment, data transmission devices, network security systems and more. 

The firm’s Electronic Devices segment offers power modules, high-frequency devices, and optical and LCD devices. Its Home Appliances segment provides LCD televisions, air conditioners, air-to-water heat pump boilers, refrigerators, electric fans, ventilators, photovoltaic power generation and hot water supply systems, LED and fluorescent among other products.

Having risen through the ranks Masaki knows a lot about the company from first hand experience. This will surely come in handy when making decisions about the company’s future and how capable the company would be in executing plans given his bottom to top experience. 

Ma Huateng: Tencent Holdings Chairman & CEO

Ma Huateng was born on October 29, 1971, in Chaoyang District, Shantou, Guangdong, China. He graduated from Shenzhen University. 

In 1998, Ma co-founded Tencent. Its first offering Tencent QQ, an instant messaging tool became very popular in China. The company soon expanded and is now one of the top three Chinese internet companies along with Alibaba and Baidu. 

Tencent’s QQ instant messaging reached a total of 784 million active users by end of September 2012. This was an increase of 10 percent over the previous year. The company’s mobile messaging application, WeChat, has surpassed 200 million by the end of 2012. Tencent’s diverse services include web portals, e-commerce, and multiplayer online games. Online game like Legend of Yulong and Legend of Xuanyuan increased revenue by over one half up to $5.1 billion, with a $1.5 billion profit margin. 

Ma is also known as Pony Ma and in 2007 and 2014 was named by Time magazine as one of the world’s most influential people. With a net worth of $18.8 billion as of January 2016, Ma is one of the top 100 richest people in the world. 

Richard Gonzalez: AbbVie Chairman & CEO

Richard Gonzalez who is in his early 60s is one of a very few CEO who does not have a college degree but this did not prevent him from rising in the highly competitive pharmaceutical industry. He rose to become Executive Vice President, Pharmaceutical Products Group, of Abbott Laboratories where he led the global pharmaceutical business, including commercial operations, research and development and manufacturing. Richard also served as President and Chief  Operating Officer, before he briefly retired. 

This was in 2007 when he was diagnosed with throat cancer. He retired for about two years then went back to work for Abbott. What was fortunate for Richard was the decision that the company would be split in half to better address the future environment. The company AbbVie was spun off from Abbott Laboratories 2013, where it used to be part of the medical devices and nutrition business.He became Chairman & CEO of AbbVie. The company has as its prized asset the anti-inflammatory drug Humira. With sales of $12.5 billion in 2014, its is one of the biggest drugs in the world.

One of his boldest move was buying cancer drugmaker Pharmacyclis Inc for $21 billion. The key drug of Pharmacyclics is Imbruvica, a cancer drug that may possibly match Humira with its worldwide sales promise. AbbVie is forecasting its portion of peak sales from Imbruvica to be approximately $7 billion. Since the drug is being marketed with Johnson & Johnson, total end-suer sales for may be as high as $12 billion for Imbruvica. 

AbbVie, Inc. is a research-based biopharmaceutical company headquartered in North Chicago, Illinois. It engages in the discovery, development, manufacture and sale of a broad line of proprietary pharmaceutical products. The company’s products are used to treat rheumatoid arthritis, psoriasis, Crohn’s disease, HIV, cystic fibrosis complications, low testosterone, thyroid disease, Parkinson’s disease, ulcerative colitis, and complications associated with chronic kidney disease, among other indications. It also has a pipeline of new medicines, including various compounds or indications in Phase II or Phase III development. 

The company that Ricard leads employs 26,000 people and has annual sales in excess of $19 billion.