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.