Brian Krzanich: Intel CEO

Brian Krzanich was born on May 9, 1960 in Santa Clara County, California. Of Croatian heritage, Brian obtained his bachelor’s degree in chemistry from San Jose State University. He also holds a patent for semiconductor processing. Brian’s career has not taken him to faraway foreign lands. In fact he has been connected all his life with one company based in the state where he was born. Yet if you get to work for computer chip powerhouse Intel, there’s really no need to be moving far from California anyways, especially if one day you get promoted to the top post.

Brian joined Intel in 1982 in New Mexico as an engineer. Since then he has held a number of senior leadership roles within the manufacturing organization of Intel. Brian has been noted for his open-minded approach to problem solving and listening to customer’s needs which has extended the company’s product and technology leadership and created billions of dollars in value for the company.

He led a broad transformation in 2006 of Intel’s factories and supply chain, improving factory velocity by more than 60 percent and doubling customer responsiveness. He was eventually promoted to COO in January 2012.  Brian finally got the top post when he was promoted to CEO of Intel Corporation and elected a member of the board of directors on May 16 2013. 

Kurt Bock: BASF CEO

Kurt Bock is the CEO and Chairman of the Board of Executive Directors of BASF SE. He was born in 1958 in Rahden, Eastern Westphalia, Germany. This is a small town with a population of 16,000 and where Kurt also grew up. Starting in 1977 he studied business administration at the Universities of Münster and Cologne and also at Pennsylvania State University in the United States. Kurt received his diploma from the University of Cologne in 1982. He then completed a three-year research stint at Bonn University and received a doctorate in economics in 1985 for the said university.

  

He joined BASF through the Finance Division in 1985 and became Staff to Chief Financial Officer in 1987. Kurt was promoted in 1991 to Head of Technology, Planning and Controlling in the Engineering Plastics Division.

Kurt made a major decision and left BASF in 1992 to become Senior Vice President of Finance at Robert Bosch GmbH. He also did well there becoming Managing Director at Robert Bosch Ltda., Campinas, Brazil. BASF though was able to get him back in 1998 as Chief Financial Officer of its North American division. Kurt became the President of BASF’s Logistics and Information Services in 2000.

In 2003 he became a member of the Board of Executive Directors and the firm’s Chief Financial Officer and also 2007 onwards Chairman and CEO of BASF Corporation, New Jersey, United States.

In 2011 Kurt became the Chairman of the Board of Executive Directors, BASF SE. He is responsible for Legal, Taxes & Insurance, Strategic Planning & Controlling, Communications & Government Relations, Global Executive Human Resources, Investor Relations and Compliance.

BASF is a chemical company and it is interesting to note that Kurt does not have a chemical or science background and his strength is in finance. Yet at BASF only 50 percent of board members are required to have chemistry credentials. They probably realized that having all managers and senior executives with chemistry backgrounds may make the company too narrowly focused.

Kurt has proven himself to be a capable CEO producing profits for BASF, one of the world’s leading chemicals companies, when analysts had other opinions. 

Steven Kandarian: MetLife CEO & Chairman

Steven Kandarian was raised in West Hartford, Connecticut; his parents Lillian and Albert Kandarian came from Armenia.  Steven received his B.A. from Clark University. He earned his J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center and obtained his M.B.A. from Harvard Business School.

He began his career as an investment banker with Rotan Mosle, Inc., a company based in Houston, Texas. Steven became a managing director at Lee Capital Holdings and later founded and was managing partner of Orion Partners, LP, a private equity firm headquartered in the Boston area.

He  was executive director of the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) from 2001 to 2004 and helped lay the groundwork for the enactment of the Pension Protection Act of 2006.

Steven joined insurance company MetLife in April 2005 as executive vice president and chief investment officer (CIO).  He has also overseen since 2007, the company’s enterprise-wide strategy, which identified key areas of focus for the company. He played a major role in MetLife’s reduction of exposure to sub-prime mortgaged-backed securities keeping the company in sound financial footing after the crisis.

Steven was appointed CEO of MetLife in May 1, 2011 and chairman on January 1, 2012.  MetLife generated $68.2 billion in revenue in 2013. 

Yang Mingsheng: China Life Chairman

Yang Mingsheng is a Chinese national who was born in 1955. He is a Senior Economist who graduated from the Faculty of Financing of Nankai University majoring in Monetary Banking with a Master’s degree in Economics.

From 1980 to 2007 Yang worked at the Agricultural Bank of China. He held a number of positions in that institution including Vice President of Shenyang Branch, Head of Industrial Credit Department and President of Tianjin Branch. In 1997 Yang was named Vice President of the Agricultural Bank of China and in 2003 became President.

His long years of experience in the financial industry include being the Vice Chairman of China Insurance Regulatory Commission from 2007 to 2012.

In March 2012 Yang became the Chairman of China Life Insurance (Group) Company. He also became the Chairman of China Life Property and Casualty Insurance Company Limited in March 2012. Yang became Chairman, Executive Director of China Life in May 2012.  Other positions added are as Chairman of China Life Insurance (Overseas) Company Limited in January 2013, and the Chairman of China Life Asset Management Company Limited in 2013.

Yang leads a huge company, China Life is the largest insurance firm in China headquartered in Beijing. The firm traces its beginning in 1949. It was floated on the New York Stock Exchange and Hong Kong Stock Exchange in December 17 and 18, 2003 respectively and was the world’s largest IPO of that year.  It became the first Chinese insurance company to be listed in three markets when it was successfully listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange on January 9, 2007.

Just to give a better picture of the size of the company Yang heads, it has more than 653,000 exclusive agents in China with 88,000 bancassurance outlets and 54,000 account managers and financial advisors. It also has 17,000 direct sales representatives in China and around 177 million long-term individual and group life insurance, annuity contracts and long-term health insurance policies in force.

China Life with estimated total assets of $326 billion is now making more investments aboard in search of bigger profits. 

César Alierta Izuel: Telefónica CEO

César Alierta Izuel was born on May 5, 1945 in Zaragoza, Spain.   In 1967, César received a Bachelor’s Degree in Law at the Universidad de Zaragoza (Spain).  Three years later after earning his degree, he obtained a Master’s Degree in Business Administration at Columbia University in New York, USA.

In 1970 César began working at Banco Urquijo as a Financial Analyst. Later he became General Manager of the Capital Markets at Banco Urquijo in Madrid. In 1985 César founded Beta Capital and served as President and Chairman.  From 1996 to 1999 he was the CEO of Tabacalera, the tobacco company.

In July 2000, César became the Executive Chairman and CEO of Telefónica. He has been an effective CEO and in September 2005 received the Global Spanish Entrepreneur award in New York by the Spain-US Chamber of Commerce. This distinction is an acknowledgement of his job as president of Telefónica, leading the firm to entry into the Dow Jones Global Titan 50 index. Telefónica is the first Spanish company and one of the very few in Europe to be part of this index, made of the world’s 50 most successful, global and largest companies. 

Carlos Brito: AB Inbev CEO

Carlos Alves de Brito was born in 1960 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.  He earned a degree in Mechanical Engineering from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. He worked for Shell Oil and Daimler Benz.

Carlos was working for Shell Oil and had been accepted to Stanford Business School but couldn’t afford it. This was in 1987 and through a friend of a friend met Jorge Paulo Lemann who along with partners at Brazilian investment bank Banco Garantia ran a scholarship program for promising young people in their early careers.  Carlos got the scholarship.

After earning an MBA degree at Stanford, Carlos joined Brahma in 1989. This was a Rio de Janeiro-based brewer Lemann and his friends just bought. Carlos worked under Marcel Telles, a partner of Lemann and learned the art of cost cutting. Carlos would later be known for being extremely accomplished as a cost cutting executive who also had a knack for solving problems.

He rose through the ranks at Brahma. The firm merged with Sao Paulo-based competitor Antarctica in 1999 to for Cia de Bebidas das Americas, or Ambev. Carlos was appointed CEO of Ambev in 2004. Just a few months later Ambev announced a merger with Belgian beer giant Interbrew which had brands like Stella Artois and Beck’s.  Interbrew, the third-largest brewery, bought Ambev, the fifth-largest, for $11.5 billion to form InBev which instantly became the No. 1 beermaker in the world.

Carlos became zone president of North America and moved to Toronto.  He became CEO of Inbev at the end of 2005 at only 45 years of age. In 2008 Anheuser-Bush (AB) was successfully taken over forming AB Inbev. Later 1,400 employees lost their jobs. Carlos also promoted bright stars from lower ranks at AB. He was able to shave-off $2.25 billion in expenses.

Carlos and his team are fond of numbers measuring employee performance and promotion is always based on merit, laggards don’t stay long in the company. Some like his management approach others don’t but one thing for sure it has helped AB Inbev continue to grow and profit.

Luiz Trabuco Cappi: Banco Bradesco CEO

Born on October 6, 1951, Luiz Carlos Trabuco Cappi began working when he was 12 years old at a textile factory before joining a small department store in Marilla, a coffee-producing town around 250 miles west of Sao Paulo. He spent his early years running errands to Banco Bradesco, the second-largest non-government bank in Brazil.  Perhaps even then he already harbored thoughts of running the bank one day.

Luiz graduated from Faculdade de Filosofia, Ciencias e Letras de Sao Paulo, with a graduate degree in Social Psychology at Fundacao Escola de Sociologia e Politica de Sao Paulo. In April 1969, he finally began his career at Bradesco where he once ran errands to as a young boy.  He has held a number of positions with the banking sector. Luiz has held the position of Chief Financial Officer, heading Bradesco Insurance where he excelled and ultimately responsible for the listing of Bradesco at Level 2 in the New York Stock Exchange.

On October 10, 2009 Luiz became the Chief Executive Officer of Banco Bradesco.

Hiroo Unoura: NTT President & CEO

Hiroo Unoura was born on January 13, 1949.  He obtained a B.A. in Law from the University of Tokyo in 1973. Hiroo joined Nippon Telegraph and Telephone (NTT)  also in 1973. He has held various posts in different aspects of the company including traffic operation management, sales promotion, and human resource management including labor relations, and corporate strategy planning and implementation.

In 2002 Hiroo became Senior Vice President and Head of Corporate Strategy Department as well as becoming Member of the Board. In 2008 he was appointed Senior Vice President, Head of New Business Promotion Office and President of NTT Investment Partners.

Hiroo was a significant player in planning and promoting NTT Group’s Medium-Term Management Strategy, focusing on FTTH and mobile broadband service development and NGN (Next Generation Network) vision released in 2004, accelerating transformation from traditional network career business to global-IP-based solution company as a “Service Creation Business Group” released in 2008, and executing acquisitions of Dimension Data plc. in 2010 and Centerstance Inc., in 2012.

Hiroo was promoted to President and CEO in June 2012. He has been taking the initiative in developing a new vision, “Towards the Next Stage” released in 2012, introducing a concept of a “Value Partner” for supporting customers’ transformation through offering global cloud services.

NTT is one of the largest companies in the world but just like any company it has it vulnerabilities. This comes primarily from the domestic front due to the fact that the Japanese telecommunications market is fast approaching the point of complete saturation. Thus NTT will be stuck in a market which will eventually have no growth. It had to rethink its approach in order to survive and prosper.

It is not the only Japanese company that has realized this and competitors like Softbank have already acquired a major U.S. mobile phone carrier, eAccess and also announced plans to take over Sprint Nextel by purchasing a 70 percent stake.

Given the huge resource at Hiroo’s disposal he can make many things happen and hopefully they are the right ones.  

Joe Kaeser: Siemens CEO

Joe Kaeser was born on June 23, 1957 in Arnbruck, Germany. Joe earned a degree in business administration from the Regensburg University of Applied Sciences. He then began his professional career joining the Components Group of Siemens in 1980.

Joe rose through the ranks of Siemens holding various management positions. Among them was a term at the Siemens Components Operations in Malacca, Malaysia from 1987 to 1988. He was named Vice President of business administration of the Opto Semiconductors Division in 1990.  Joe was promoted in 1994 to Executive Vice President and Chief Finance Officer aND later as CEO of the Group’s American subsidiary Siemens Components, based in Cupertino, California and also at Siemens Microelectronics, in nearby San Jose.

More promotions followed including the role of Chief Strategy Officer. Joe was eventually appointed as CEO of Siemens AG on August 1, 2013.

Siemens is a dominant global player in the industries it does businesses in. The firm groups its businesses in four sectors. These are: The Energy Sector, The Healthcare Sector, The Industry Sector, and the Infrastructure and Cities Sector.