Andrew Penn: Telstra CEO

While a good number of CEO rise from the bottom of the corporate ladder in one company, others like Andrew Penn made their mark in another company before being hired to a new company which they will eventually lead. 

Andrew Penn was born on January 1, 1964, in the United Kingdom.  Andrew earned an MBA from Kingston University and a FFCA from the Advanced Management Program of Harvard Business School. He moved to Australia in 1992. 

From  1990 to 2011, Andrew worked for National Mutual which later merged with AXA Asia Pacific. While at AXA he held a number of positions. Andrew was Chief Executive for Asia and spent time based in Australia, Hong Kong, Thailand and Indonesia. Richard was Group Chief Financial Officer, as well as Chief Executive Officer for Australia and New Zealand. He was  Group Chief Executive of AXA from 2006 to 2011. 

Richard joined Telstra in March 2012 as Chief Financial Officer and in May 2014, Group Executive International was added to his responsibilities. He was promoted to CEO on May 1, 2015, following the retirement of David Thodey who hired him. 

Gavin Patterson: BT CEO

British Gavin Patterson was born on September 6, 1967, in Altrincham, Trafford, Greater Manchester, England. He holds a degree in chemical engineering from Emmanuel College, Cambridge. 

While a chemical engineer by training Gavin excelled in marketing in the corporate world. He spent nine years with  Procter and Gamble and became European Marketing Director for the Patene line of hair products. He then joined cable company Telewest in 2000, managing their television services. 

Gavin then joined BT in 2004 as the Managing Director of the company’s consumer division. He launched BT Vision which provided on-demand TV and subsequently was responsible for their broadband offerings like the optical fiber service, BT Infinity. 

Coming into BT, Gavin was a contrast in personality. BT had a conservative culture while he was known for his flamboyant appearance of romantic black hair and open shirt collars which reported had up to three open buttons. His management style is a mix of relaxed, stylish marketing with aggressive cost-cutting. 

Gavin was appointed Chief Executive, BT Retail in May 2008 and joined the BT Group plc board in June 2008. He also spearheaded the company’s involvement inn the evolution of digital TV services. This includes being a founder partner in YouView and the creation of BT Sport which launched in August 2013. 

In September 2013, Gavin was appointed Chief Executive Officer of BT Group PLC. 

He is a non-executive Director of British Airways and a Trustee of  The British Museum. Gavin was on the advisory board of the Cambridge Judge Business School from 2010 to 2013 and was President of the Advertising Association from 2011 to 2014. 

BT serves the needs of customers in the United Kingdom and in more than 170  countries around the world, its is one of the world’s leading communications services companies. The firm’s main activities are the provision of fixed-line services, broadband, mobile and TV products and services as well as networked IT services. 

Stéphane Richard: Orange Chairman & CEO

French national, Stéphane Richard was born in 1961. He graduated from the highly regarded École national d’administration (ENA) in 1987. Stéphane also earned a degree from the École des hautes etudes commerciales (HEC) in Paris.

Between 1992 and 2003 he was Deputy Chief Financial Officer of Compagnie Générale des Eaux, the main French water supplier; Chief Executive of property corporation Compagnie Immobilére Phénix; and Chairman of CGIS (a major property corporation and service provider) which is now Nexity.

From 2003 to 2007, Stéphane was Deputy Chief Executive Officer of Veolia Environment and Chief Executive Officer of Veolia Transport, two divisions of a service and utility transnational company. During the same period he also became a Director of France Télécom.  Stéphane was appointed Chief of Staff of the French Minister for the Economy, Industry, and Employment in 2007. He held the post until 2009.

He joined the Orange Group in September 2009. Stéphane was appointed Deputy Chief Executive Operations Officer on October 5, 2009. He became a corporate officer as Associate Chief Executive on January 1, 2010 and was appointed Chief Executive Officer of Orange Group on March 1, 2010. Stéphane has served as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer since March 1, 2011. 

Takashi Tanaka: KDDI President

Takashi Tanaka was born on February 26, 1957. He earned an electrical engineering degree from Kyoto University. Takashi also attended graduate school at Stanford University.

He joined KDDI in 1981. Takashi has risen through the ranks and among the positions he has held include Associate Senior Vice President (June 2007), Senior Vice President, Director (June 2010) and was appointed President on December 2010.

KDDI a Japanese telecommunications operator and given the highly competitive environment Takashi has to keep the company on its toes. When he became head of KDDI the company was already facing two years of profit decline in its mobile devices division. It had difficulties in transition to smart phones. This led to subscribers looking for service elsewhere.

Arresting this decline became one of his priorities. He understood that the company has significant human resources which could be tapped.  KDDI in 2012 partnered with HTC, the Taiwanese manufacturing company to sell HTC J mobile phones in Japan.

Takashi has pushed for a two growth strategy using the assets the huge telecommunication company already has at hand most notably having both mobile and fixed-line businesses.  By 2013 KDDI was already achieving increased profits. 

René Oberman: Telecommunications Man

While many top executives have become successful at running companies in different industries René Oberman has been happy working in the telecommunications field. If you are focused and interested in a particular field then chances are you’ll be successful just like Oberman.

In the case of Oberman he has been extremely successful as he is the current Chief Executive Officer of German telecommunications giant Duetsche Telekom AG. He has held this position since November 2006.

Oberman was born in 1963 in Dusseldorf, Germany. He started his career working as a business trainee at BMW AG. The he decided to go off on his own and founded a company in 1986 which marketed and distributed telecommunications equipment and provided technical services. He had now joined the telecommunications industry and has never left.

Hong Kong multinational Hutchison Whampoa took notice of his company and eventually bought it in 1991. The resulting entity became Hutchison Mobilefunk GmbH and Oberman was Managing Partner. He was the CEO from 1993 to 1998. This firm would then become one of the first network-independent service providers for digital mobile communications in Germany.

Oberman then solidly got himself involved in the German telecommunications industry when his joined Deutsche Telekom as Director of Sales and Member of the Board of Management, T-Mobile Deutschland GmbH in 1998. He then became the CEO of this company in 2000. The following year Oberman assumed more international responsibility for the European business of T-Mobile International AG & Co. KG as Board Member of the European Operations and Group Synergies.

He was the CEO of T-Mobile International AG & Co. KG from 2002 to December 2006. Oberman was also Member of the Board of Management of Deutsche Telecom AG. During his tenure Deutsche Telecom continued is mobile business growth and was one of the world’s leading mobile operators.

Oberman assumed the CEO role of Deutsche Telecom AG in November 2006. While his current contract with the company ends in 2016, he made a surprise announcement at the end of 2012 that he would be leaving the company at the end of 2013. Oberman wants to take on a more entrepreneurial pursuit as head of Dutch cable operator Ziggo starting January 1, 2014.

While he’ll be joining another company it’s still very much in his chosen industry of telecommunications.