José Ingnacio Sánchez Galán: Iberdrola CEO

José Ingnacio Sánchez Galán was born in Salamanca, Spain in 1950. From Salamanca José moved to Madrid and earned a degree in electro-mechanical industrial engineering from the Escuela Técnica Superior de Ingenieria (ICAI) at the Universidad Pontificia Comillas. 

José as has a degree in Business Administration and Foreign Trade from the Instituto Católico de Administración y Direcctión de Empresas (ICADE) at the Universidad Pontificia Comillas and also earned a degree in General Business Administration and Foreign Trade from the Escuela de Organización Industrial (EOI) of Madrid.  He is multilingual speaking in English, French, and Italian aside from Spanish.

In 1972 José started his professional career at Sociedad Español del Acumulador Tudor. From a number of executive positions he managed the firm’s international expansion. José managed Industria de Turbopropulsores (ITP) in the early 1990s, from its foundation, he promoted the design manufacturing and maintenance of aircraft engines and gas turbines. While at ITP José integrated technicians from the naval sector in Bilbao, when it underwent restructuring, he was able to redirect their professional activities towards aeronautics.

His career in highly technical and advanced industries continued; from 1993 to 1995 he was the chairman of Eurojet, the European consortium which developed and manufactured Eurojet 200 engines used by the Eurofighter. José became the CEO of the newly created Airtel Móvil (today Vodafone Spain) in 1995.

He was appointed executive vice-president and CEO of Iberdrola in 2001. José was promoted to executive chairman in 2006. He has been credited with the company’s transformation which among others is today one of the world’s largest electricity companies and a global leader in wind energy. This multinational group has operations in dozens of countries comprising major companies like ScottishPower in the UK, Iberdrola USA and Elektro in Brazil.

In 2013 Iberdrola had 32.26 million customers of electricity and gas. It employed 30,680 employees. Gross profit stood at €12,467.7 million. José has had great success at Iberdrola. 

Alexander Wynaendts: Aegon Chief

Alexander Wynaendts was born in 1960 and is a Dutch national. He graduated from Graduate Ecole Supérieure d’Electricité, Paris and has a degree in economics from University of Paris, Sorbonne. Alex started his career with ABN Amro in 1984 working in Amsterdam and London in the Dutch bank’s capital markets, asset management, corporate finance and private banking operations. He joined Aegon in 1997 as Senior Vice-President for Group Business Development. 

Alex became a member of Aegon’s Executive Board since 2003, overseeing the company’s international growth strategy. He was named Chief Operating Officer in April 2007.  Only a year later he was promoted to CEO and elected Chairman of Aegon’s Executive and Management Boards.

Alex leads a sprawling organization. Aegon offers insurance, pensions and asset management in more than 25 countries. The firm is listed on the Amsterdam and New York stock exchanges.  It has A-level ratings from the three main credit rating agencies.

Aegon manages more than EUR 460 billion of its own and its customers’ investments. It has millions of customers and employs more than 26,500 people. Aegon was founded in 1983 following the merger of two Dutch insurance companies, AGO and Ennia. The firm’s history goes back over 150 years though. Today, it is one of the largest insurance companies in the U.S. and is number one in the Dutch group pensions market. 

Ian Narev: Commonwealth Bank CEO

Ian Narev’s parents both survived the Holocaust. They left post-war Europe to start a new life in New Zealand were they met and got married. They shortened the family name from Narewczewitz to Narev.

Ian was actually a child star at the age of 12 appearing in “Children of Fire Mountain”, the 1979 television series in his native New Zealand.  Instead of focusing on acting he change priorities and did very well in his academics. He graduated from the University of Auckland with a degree in English and law. He was also the Editor-in-Chief of the Law Review.

Ian did his masters degree in international corporate law in 1994 at Cambridge University in the United Kingdom. He was the top student of his year. Ian earned a Masters of Laws in International Relations in 1998 from the New York University where he was a Hauser Scholar.  

He worked as a lawyer specializing in mergers and acquisition then later joined consulting firm McKinsey & Co. as a consultant in the financial institutions practice of the firm, working in strategy and organizational change engagements for four of the 10 largest financial institutions in the U.S.  Ian worked in McKinsey’s New York, Sydney, and Auckland offices between 1998 and 2007. He became a global partner in 2003, and from 2005 until he left in 2007 was head of the New Zealand office of McKinsey.

Ian joined Commonwealth Bank, one of the largest banks in Australia and the world in 2007. He was Group Head of Strategy and was responsible for corporate strategy development, mergers and acquisitions and major cross-business strategic initiatives. He led the Group’s $2.1 billion acquisition of Bankwest in 2008 and the Group’s investment in Aussie Home Loans.

Then on January 2009 until September 2011 Ian was Group Executive, Business and Private Banking, which is one of the Group’s six operating divisions. It has about 200,000 business customers, 1 million trading customers, and employs over 4,000 people.

For his outstanding work Ian became the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Commonwealth Bank on December 2011. 

Michael Creel: Enterprise Products Holdings CEO

Michael Creel graduated from McNeese State University in Lake Charles, Louisiana with a bachelor’s degree in accounting. He is a Certified Public Accountant.  One thing nice with an accounting degree is its need in any business. You will need someone with an accounting background in any business sooner or later.

For Michael he made use of his accounting and business skills in the energy industry.  After working in various energy related companies and rising in stature along the way he was finally appointed CEO and a Director of Enterprise Products Holdings LLC on November 2010.  Enterprise Products Holdings was born out of a number of mergers and acquisitions.

While not popularly known the company that Michael heads is quite impressive. Since its IPO in July 1998 the company’s asset base has been increasing from $715 million to $38 billion as of March 31, 2013.  Acquisitions and organic growth have been responsible for this increase.

The company Michael leads has 50,000 miles of natural gas, NGL, crude oil, refined products and petrochemical pipelines. Its salt dome storage has 200 million barrels (MMBbls) of NGL, refined products and crude oil storage capacity and 14 billion cubic feet (Bcf) of natural gas storage capacity among other capabilities. 

R.K. Singh: Former Bharat Petroleum Head

In 1974 R.K. Singh completed his B. Tech. in Mechanical Engineering with Honours from Banaras Hindu University (BHU). He then had a brief stint in Hindstan Lever and Hindalco after which he began his career at Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd. (BPLC) in 1978.  Singh then started his journey up the corporate ladder holding a number of important positions in both the Marketing and Refinery division at BPCL.

Singh has played a crucial role in the implementation of the project for setting up a new 6 MMPT grass roots refinery at Bina through Bharat Oman Refineries Limited (BORL), a joint venture company of BPCL and Oman Oil Company. Singh also played a significant role in the entry of BPCL into the upstream business of exploration and production which is being done through Bharat PetroResources Limited (BPRL), a wholly owned subsidiary company of BPCL.  

Great talent gets recognized and for Singh it led to being appointed as Chairman & Managing Director of BPCL on December 9, 2010. Before he was appointed to the position, Singh was the Director (Refineries) of Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited. He was promoted to this position on March 6, 2006 and was responsible for the operations of the refineries in Mumbai and Kochi and that of Numaligarh Refinery Limited, as subsidiary of BPCL. Aside from this he also directed the research and development, corporate planning and international trade functions.

BPCL is a state-controlled listed company in India. For it to be state controlled means it must be a very large company which it is. Thus Singh’s achievement in the company has had to some degree also impacted on the whole Indian oil industry as well.

BPCL was originally Burhmah Shell Group of Companies which was taken over by the Indian government on January 24, 1976.  It was renamed Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited on August 1, 1997. It was also the first refinery to process new found indigenous crude (Bombay High), in the country.

In October 1, 2013 S. Varadarajan took over as head of BPCL succeeding Singh.

Fujio Mitarai: Returning President Of Canon

Fujio Mitarai was born on September 23, 1935 in Kamae, Oita, Japan. While many heads of technology companies have business or engineering backgrounds Mitarai came with a law degree. He studied law at Chou University.

He was Corporate Auditor of Dai-ichi Mutual Life Insurance Co. and later joined Canon Inc. in April 1961. He became President of Canon, U.S.A. Inc., a subsidiary of Canon Inc. in 1979. Mitarai became the Managing Director of Canon, Inc. in 1985 and later served as In-charge of HQ Administration starting January, 1989. Among other positions he promoted to Executive Vice President in March 1993. Mitarai became the sixth president of Canon, Inc. in 1995. He was elected Chairman in March 2006.

Mitarai employed a unique management approach blending eastern and western styles to shape Canon, Inc. into a very successful company. He executed a large overhaul of the company which allowed it to return to profitability. His style of management has been dubbed “the Mitarai way.”

In 2010 Mitarai resigned from the Chairman position and became Chairman Emeritus. It seems like his talents are still needed as he returned as President in 2012.

  

Xiaochu Wang: China Telecom Chairman

The Chairman of the Board of Directors and CEO of China Telecommunications Corporation, is of Han nationality and a graduate of the Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications. For further studies he went to the Hong Kong Polytechnic University and obtained a doctorate degree in business administration in 2005.

Wang was the director-general for telecommunications bureau in Hangzhou and in the same position for the post administration bureau at Tianjin City.  In this role he led the information technology projects including the China telecommunications and telephone net management system. For his work Wang was bestowed the third award of national science and technology advancement and the highest awards in science and technology advancement from the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications. International Investor Magazine also gave him the Best CEO in China award.

Other positions that Wang has held include Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of China Mobile (Hong Kong) Limited, Vice President of China Mobile Communications Corporation, President of China Telecommunications Corporation, Chairman of the board of directors and a Non-executive Director of China Communications Services Corporation Limited.

Wang is the Honorary Chairman of China Communications Service Corporation Limited. He has over 30 years management experience in the telecommunications industry.  In his mid-50s Wang has managed projects in very large scales owing to the fact that China is a very large country. China Telecommunication Corp. is one very large company whose customer base is even larger than the population of entire countries. It is the world’s largest CDMA Mobile operator, the world largest broadband operator, and the world’s largest wireline operator.

The firm is an integrated information full services operator providing basic telecommunications services like wireline telecommunication services and mobile telecommunications services and value-added telecommunications services like internet access service and information service in China. At the end 2012 China Telecom has wireline access in service of around 163 million, wireline broadband subscribers of around 90 million and mobile subscribers of around 161 million. The firm’s H shares and American Depository Shares are listed on the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong Limited and the New York Stock Exchange, respectively.