Marius Kloppers: Nice Retirement

Marius Kloppers is an overachiever in every sense of the word. At 44 years of age he became the CEO of BHP Billiton, the largest resource company in world. This was in 2007.

He was born in Cape Town, South Africa and graduated with a Bachelor of Chemical Engineering degree from the University of Pretoria. Marius earned a PhD at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He also holds an MBA from INSEAD. Among the companies he worked for before joining Billiton in 1993 was McKinsey & Co.

Marius has been noted for his role in overhauling the global iron ore market to market-based pricing rather than annual contract talks.  He has also led in daring bids to take over rival Rio Tinto, Rio Tinto’s iron ore business, and Potash Corp. These all failed due to concerns from regulators.

Marius won praise for leading BHP through the global financial crisis in much better condition than industry peers. He did not do well with expensive bids for shale gas assets in the U.S. which led to $2.8 billion in writedowns in 2012. A 58 percent drop in profits for the second half of 2012 finally caused him to resign as CEO on May 2013 and retire on October 2013.

His retirement payout could add up to $45.4 million. That’s certainly a nice retirement package. At only 50 years of age we may not have heard the last from Marius Kloppers.

Steven H. Collis: Success In The U.S.

When we think of globalization most often we think about the products that can now go from one country to another. We sometimes forget about the human talent movement that has been taking place. People of all nationalities have been moving in different countries to make their own success stories.

One person who has had a great amount of success is Steven H. Collis. Steven is from South Africa. He completed his articles of clerkship with Price Waterhouse and received his Charter Accountancy license in 1986. This is the South African equivalent of a Certified Public Accountant. Before he emigrated to the U.S., Steven served as a member of the Johannesburg Stock Exchange.

He was a Principal and served as General Manager of Sterling Medical in Irvine, California. Stevens then joined ASD. He was General Manager from 1994 to 1996. With good performance he became Executive Vice President of ASD Specialty Healthcare, Inc. from 1996 to September 2000.

His next assignment was as Senior Vice President and President of ASD Specialty Healthcare Inc., a segment of Bergen Brunswig Corp, from September 2000 to August 2001. The year 2001 also saw the merger of Amerisource Health Corp. with Bergen Brunswig Corp. which was a $7 billion union of two former competitors forming AmerisourceBergen Corp.  

The merger did not stop Steven’s steady climb up the corporate ladder. He founded a subsidiary, AmericasourceBergen Specialty Group. This subsidiary works with manufacturers to deliver specialty products such as biotechnology drugs, plasma derivatives and cancer treatments to physicians and patients. He served at this subsidiary, based in Dallas, Texas as President from September 2007 to September 2009. 

Steven then became Executive Vice President and President of AmerisourceBergen Drug Corp., which is the biggest subsidiary of the company with revenue of $60 billion. He was promoted to President and COO of AmerisourceBergen Corp. in November 2010.

With the retirement of his predecessor, Steven became the President and CEO of the company in July 2011.  He heads a company that provides wholesale drug distribution and related services which had revenue of $79.5 billion in 2012.

Steven has had a very successful career in his adoptive homeland; another example of how globalized the world has become.

Gail Kelly: Top Banker

It’s a common practice for some executives to have protégés and fast-track them to one day run the company. For Gail Kelly she worked at major banks in Australia and became the CEO for two banks. For her it can really be said that it was her talent that brought her to the top more than being a protégé of a more senior executive.

Rising to the highest post of a company is challenging enough and not everyone gets that lofty position. For Kelly it’s been tougher. Unfortunately the way human society is setup the woman is usually the one expected to raise the kids and take care of the household.  So unless you partner is willing to be a househusband (in Kelly’s case her husband is a pediatrician) it’s one hell of a balancing act.

Kelly only gave birth twice but has four children because she had triplets. Imagine having to raise three babies of the same age at the same time. As she recalls there was a time she forgot to drop one of her kids to school only realizing the child was at the back seat of the car when she was already at the company parking lot. There was also an instant when she had one of child admitted to a hospital (where her husband worked) so she could get some much needed sleep.

Her banking career has been marked by outstanding work.  Originally from South Africa, she started as a teller in 1980 for a South African bank. She quickly rose to managerial positions. In 1997 Kelly and her husband decided to move to Australia. Applying with the four major Australian banks she was hired in a senior position at Commonwealth Bank.

Once again she proved her worth and rose through the ranks. She was so good that in 2002 another bank, St. George hired her as CEO. There Kelly increased profitability and capitalization. This led to rumors of her returning as CEO of Commonwealth Bank in 2005 when its CEO was set to retire.

She stayed on at St. George Bank then became CEO of another major bank, Westpac in 2008. St. George was subsequently taken over by Westpac the same year.

Gail Kelly has simply been a notch above the rest.

Global Scale Talent: Graham Mackay

Talent is not limited to only one country or even a select group of countries. It’s found everywhere. We have seen people rise out of obscurity from different parts of the world.

Graham Mackay was not born in the U.S. or China but has left his own mark in the world stage. Born in South Africa, he was not the founder, nor the son of a founder of any company. He joined a company as an employee and through his skills and talent transformed it into one of the largest beer companies in the world.

Mackay joined the South African Breweries Limited in 1978, and rose through the ranks holding key senior positions in the group.  Aside from brewing beer the group was also into other businesses including hotels and something as unique as having a subsidiary making windscreens.

Mackay was appointed Group Managing Director in 1997 and Chief Executive of South African Breweries (SAB) plc when it was listed in the London Stock Exchange in 1999. While the company came from a country that faced a host of problems notably apartheid, it did not stop it from doing business in many parts of Africa and the rest of the globe.

Mackay orchestrated the transformation of the company into the number two beer maker in the world. He led a number of successful acquisitions of other companies including resorting to aggressive takeovers. Mackay also focused the company on selling beer, non-core businesses like the hotels and windscreen company were sold off.

Among the acquisitions that took place include the Czech lager group Pilsner Urqell, Peroni of Italy, Bavaria of Columbia and Dutch group Grolsch. The company became SABMiller with SAB buying 100% of Miller Brewery Company (the second largest brewer in the U.S. by volume)  in 2002. This move made SABMiller the second largest volume brewer in the world.

The iconic Foster beer company of Australia has also been acquired by SABMiller, further solidifying the company’s global presence.  In his early 60s, there has been some talk of Mackay’s retirement. Whenever that will be he not only left his mark in the local South African beer market, but also in the rest world.