Alex Molinoroli: Johnson Controls Chairman & CEO

Alex Molinoroli was born on October 7, 1957, in Parkersburg, West Virginia. Alex holds a Bachelor of Science in electrical and computer engineering from the University of Southern Carolina, graduating in 1983. He later earned a Master of Science in business from Northwestern University in Chicago, Illinois. 

Alex joined Johnson Controls in 1983. He held increasing level of responsibilities for controls systems and services sales and operations, and was Vice President and General Manager for North America Systems and Middle East for building efficiency business. 

He championed the development of consistent and effective sales management disciplines within Johnson Controls and has worked to expand that consistent approach on a global basis, involving more than 300 sales offices in close to 50 countries and was promoted to vice president and general manager for the  North American Systems business. 

Eventually in July 2013, the company announced he would become CEO on October 1, and Chairman of the Board of the company on January 1, 2014. 

Johnson Controls, Inc. is a global diversified technology and industrial business company. It has around 168,000 employees with annual sales in excess of $42.93 billion and headquartered in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. 

Nicholas Akins: American Electric President & CEO

Rising through the ranks of one company, Nicholas Akins would eventually lead a company that is even much bigger than the one he started out with. 

Nicholas “Nick” Akins holds a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from Louisiana Tech University which he earned in 1982. He also obtained a master’s degree in electrical engineering from the same institution in 1986. Nick rose through the ranks at Central and South Western Corp. (CSW) before the company merged with American Electric Power (AEP) in 2000. 

He served as vice president of industry restructuring for AEP then vice president of energy marketing services. Nick served as president and chief operating officer for Southwestern Electric Power Company from 2004 to 2006. He then served as  AEP’s executive vice president of generation from 2006 to 2010.  

Since 2010, Nick has been the CEO and president of AEP. In the company’s history he is the tenth president and sixth CEO. 

American Electric Power Co., Inc.  is headquartered in Columbus, Ohio and generates annual sales of more than $17 billion with around 21,830 employees. It is a public utility holding company that engages in the business of generation, transmission and distribution of electricity. AEP does business through the following segments: Vertically Integrated Utilities, Transmission & Distribution Utilities, AEP Transmission Holdco, Generation & Marketing and AEP River Operations. 

The Vertically Integrated Utilities segment engages in the generation, transmission and distribution of electricity for sale to retail and wholesale customers through assets owned and operated by its subsidiaries. The AEP Transmission Holdco segment engages in the development, construction and operation of transmission facilities through investments in wholly owned transmission subsidiaries and joint ventures. 

The Generating & Marketing segment engages in non-regulated generation: and marketing, risk management and retail activities. The AEP River Operations segment engages in the commercial barging operations that transports liquids, coal, and dry bulk commodities primarily on the Ohio, Illinois and lower Mississippi Rivers. 

The company was founded on December 20, 1906. 

Hyoung-Keun Lee: Kia Motors Chief Executive Officer

While there are many individuals who famously dropped out of college and successfully built and led multibillion dollar companies, there are also those who made it big by trying the true and tested approach of having a college degree. 

Hyoung-Keun Lee holds a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from Seoul National University. Rising through the ranks Lee served as President of Kia Motors Europe and also served as President of Kia Motors since August 2009. 

Lee, also known as Hank is now Chief Executive Officer of Kia Motors Corporation The company was founded in 1944 and is headquartered in Seoul, South Korea. Kia Motors has around 44,542 employees with annual sales in excess of $44 billion. 

Kia Motors Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, manufactures, distributes, and sells motor vehicles and parts in South Korea, North America, Europe, and internationally. The company offers passenger cars, recreational vehicles, and other commercial vehicles. It is also involved in leasing vehicles and providing vehicle maintenance services. The company sells its products primarily through a network of distributors and dealers. 

Zhang Dongning: Bank of Beijing President

There are many paths to success, for Zhang Dongning, he started out as a teacher in middle school and eventually found his path to lead a multibillion dollar bank. 

Zhang Dongning earned a bachelor’s degree from Capital Normal University in 1983. He obtained a master’s degree in management from Xiamen University in 2005. Zhang was a teacher at Beijing Xihongmen Middle School from 1983 to December 1987. He served as Director of the Office of Youth League Committee of Daxing County from January 1988 to November 1988. Zhang worked in the Education Division in the Beijing Branch of the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China from December 1988 to December 1995. 

Zhang then served as the General Manager of the Training Department of Bank of Beijing Co., Ltd. from January 1996 to March 2005. He then served as General Manager of the HR Department from March 2005 to December 2008. 

He continued his rise through the corporate ladder and by December 2009 he was appointed Vice President of Bank of Beijing, holding the position until August 2013 whereupon he was named President of the bank. 

Zhang who is an economist, leads a bank with around 9,193 employees and generates sales in excess of $12 billion. Bank of Beijing is headquartered in Beijing, China and engages in the provision of banking and financial services. It operates through the following segments: Corporate Banking Business, Retail Banking Business, Treasury Business, and Other Business. 

The Corporate Banking Business provides banking services for corporate customers such as deposit taking, loan lending, trade finance, agency service, entrusting services and credit assurance. The retail Banking Business provides banking services for individual customers such as saving, investment saving, entrusting, bank cards, credit and individual assets management, settlement, agency and credit assurance. The Treasury Business includes trading of derivatives from interest rates and foreign exchanges, money market trading, securities investment, as well as assets and liabilities management. The Other Business segment includes covers other services not handled by other segments. The bank was founded on December 8, 1995.  

Dian Kang: New China Life Insurance CEO

Dian Kang holds a bachelor’s degree in Engineering, graduating in 1982 from the University of Science and Technology of Beijing (formerly known as Beijing Institute of Iron and Steel Engineering). In 1984 he graduated from the Graduate School of Academy of Social Science of China earning a Master’s degree in Economics. Dian is a PhD candidate at the Cambridge University, United Kingdom. 

Among his various roles in the business industry he has been the Chairman and Director of New China Life Insurance Co., Ltd. since December 2009. He was appointed Chief Executive Officer of New Life Insurance Co., Ltd in February 2013. 

Dian heads a company with more than 56,000 employees and sales in excess of $23 billion. New China Life Insurance is headquartered in Beijing, China. The company engages in the provision of life insurance services. Its principal activities include underwriting life insurance policies denominated in both RMB and foreign currencies, including life, health and accident insurance products; acting as agent for domestic and international insurance companies among other insurance and finance related activities. 

Rakesh Kapoor: RB CEO

Rakesh Kapoor was born on August 4, 1958, in Bareilly, India. He attended Modern School, New Delhi, India and has a BE (Hons) in Chemical Engineering from the Birla Institute of Technology and Science (BITS), Pilani. He took up further studies and holds an MBA from XLRI - Xavier School of Management, Jamshedpur, India. 

Rakesh joined RB in 1987 when it was known as Reckitt & Colman before it later merged with Benckiser. He served in various positions such as: Regional Sales Manager, North India; General Manager, Indian Southern Region; and Regional Marketing Director, South Asia. Rakesh was appointed Global Category Director, Pest Control in 1999. 

After the merger he was appointed Senior Vice President, Home Care. Rakesh was named SVP, Regional Director, Northern Europe in 2001. He was named EVP, July 2006, with responsibility for global category management, research and development, media, market research and strategic alliances. 

On September 1, 2011, Rakesh was appointed CEO. He replaced Bart Becht, who had assumed the role since the firm was formed in 1999 as a result of the merger of Benckiser with Reckitt & Colman. 

The company that Rakesh leads has 37,200 employees and generates sales of over $14 billion. It is headquartered in Slough, England. Reckitt Benckiser Group Plc is a manufacturer and marketer of branded products in household, health and personal care, selling products through more than 60 operating companies in almost 200 countries. The company analyzes its revenue based on health, hygiene, home and portfolio brands together with RB Pharmaceuticals and Food. RB’s geographical segments include: Europe and North America (ENA); Latin America, North Asia, South East Asia and Australia and New Zealand (LAPAC); and Russia and CIS, Middle East, North Africa, Turkey and Sub-Saharan Africa (RUMEA). 

The key brands of the company include Durex, Gaviscon, Mucinex, Nurofen, Scholl, Strepsils, Airborne, MegaRed, Move Free, Bang, Clearasil, Dottel, Finish, Harpic, Lysol, Mortein, Veet Air Wick, Calgon, Vanish and Oolite.

Reckitt Benckiser announced in 2014, that it was dropping its full name and would be known as RB. Rakesh stated that the old name was “a bit of a mouthful” and the name change would make life easier. 

Joseph Hooley: State Street Chairman & CEO

Joseph L. Hooley earned a bachelor of science degree from Boston College. He joined State Street in 1986 and has since held various leadership positions with increasing responsibility.

He led the US Mutual Fund sales organization then joined State Street’s shareholder servicing joining venture with Kansas City-based DST systems. Joseph served as president and chief executive officer of National Financial Data Services from 1988 to 1990 and then became president and chief executive officer of Boston Financial Data Services from 1990 to 2000. 

Then in 2000, Joseph returned to State Street to manage the firm’s global investment servicing business. In that period he played an instrumental role in the firm’s strategic acquisitions, including Deutsche Bank’s Global Securities Services business in 2003 and Investors Financial Services Corporation in 2007. Joseph was named vice chairman in 2006 and in 2008 was appoint president and chief operating officer. As of 2010 he became chairman and president of State Street.

State Street Corporation is one of the largest companies in the world providing financial services to institutional investors with $27.3 trillion in assets under custody and administration, and $2.2 trillion in assets under management as of September 30, 2015. 

Masaki Sakuyama: Mitsubishi Electric President & CEO

Masaki Sakuyama was born in 1952 in Hyogo Prefecture. In 1977 he joined Mitsubishi Electric Corporation as an engineer in the company’s Kobe Works. Masaki rose through the ranks and in 2008 was named Executive Officer and Group President of Energy & Industrial Systems Group of Mitsubishi Electric. 

In 2010, he became Senior Vice President and General Manager of Corporate Strategic Planning Division. Masaki’s star was clearly on the rise when in 2012, he was appointed Executive Vice President and Group President of Semiconductor & Device Group. On April 1, 2014, he became the President and CEO of Mitsubishi Electric. 

The company that Masaki leads is one of the largest publicly trade firms in the world. It generates annual sales in excess of $40 billion and has 124,305 employees. It was founded in 1921 and is headquartered in Tokyo, Japan. 

Mitsubishi Electric Corporation manufactures and sells electrical and electronic products and systems all over the world. The Energy and Electric Systems segment offers turbine generators, nuclear power plant and power electronic equipments among others. 

The company’s Industrial Automation Systems segment offers programmable logic and computerized numerical controllers, inverters, servomotors, human-machine interface, hoists, magnetic switches among others. 

Its Information and Communication Systems segment provides wireless and wired communication systems, surveillance camera, satellite communication and radar equipment, antennas, missile and fire control systems, broadcasting and information systems equipment, data transmission devices, network security systems and more. 

The firm’s Electronic Devices segment offers power modules, high-frequency devices, and optical and LCD devices. Its Home Appliances segment provides LCD televisions, air conditioners, air-to-water heat pump boilers, refrigerators, electric fans, ventilators, photovoltaic power generation and hot water supply systems, LED and fluorescent among other products.

Having risen through the ranks Masaki knows a lot about the company from first hand experience. This will surely come in handy when making decisions about the company’s future and how capable the company would be in executing plans given his bottom to top experience. 

Ma Huateng: Tencent Holdings Chairman & CEO

Ma Huateng was born on October 29, 1971, in Chaoyang District, Shantou, Guangdong, China. He graduated from Shenzhen University. 

In 1998, Ma co-founded Tencent. Its first offering Tencent QQ, an instant messaging tool became very popular in China. The company soon expanded and is now one of the top three Chinese internet companies along with Alibaba and Baidu. 

Tencent’s QQ instant messaging reached a total of 784 million active users by end of September 2012. This was an increase of 10 percent over the previous year. The company’s mobile messaging application, WeChat, has surpassed 200 million by the end of 2012. Tencent’s diverse services include web portals, e-commerce, and multiplayer online games. Online game like Legend of Yulong and Legend of Xuanyuan increased revenue by over one half up to $5.1 billion, with a $1.5 billion profit margin. 

Ma is also known as Pony Ma and in 2007 and 2014 was named by Time magazine as one of the world’s most influential people. With a net worth of $18.8 billion as of January 2016, Ma is one of the top 100 richest people in the world. 

Richard Gonzalez: AbbVie Chairman & CEO

Richard Gonzalez who is in his early 60s is one of a very few CEO who does not have a college degree but this did not prevent him from rising in the highly competitive pharmaceutical industry. He rose to become Executive Vice President, Pharmaceutical Products Group, of Abbott Laboratories where he led the global pharmaceutical business, including commercial operations, research and development and manufacturing. Richard also served as President and Chief  Operating Officer, before he briefly retired. 

This was in 2007 when he was diagnosed with throat cancer. He retired for about two years then went back to work for Abbott. What was fortunate for Richard was the decision that the company would be split in half to better address the future environment. The company AbbVie was spun off from Abbott Laboratories 2013, where it used to be part of the medical devices and nutrition business.He became Chairman & CEO of AbbVie. The company has as its prized asset the anti-inflammatory drug Humira. With sales of $12.5 billion in 2014, its is one of the biggest drugs in the world.

One of his boldest move was buying cancer drugmaker Pharmacyclis Inc for $21 billion. The key drug of Pharmacyclics is Imbruvica, a cancer drug that may possibly match Humira with its worldwide sales promise. AbbVie is forecasting its portion of peak sales from Imbruvica to be approximately $7 billion. Since the drug is being marketed with Johnson & Johnson, total end-suer sales for may be as high as $12 billion for Imbruvica. 

AbbVie, Inc. is a research-based biopharmaceutical company headquartered in North Chicago, Illinois. It engages in the discovery, development, manufacture and sale of a broad line of proprietary pharmaceutical products. The company’s products are used to treat rheumatoid arthritis, psoriasis, Crohn’s disease, HIV, cystic fibrosis complications, low testosterone, thyroid disease, Parkinson’s disease, ulcerative colitis, and complications associated with chronic kidney disease, among other indications. It also has a pipeline of new medicines, including various compounds or indications in Phase II or Phase III development. 

The company that Ricard leads employs 26,000 people and has annual sales in excess of $19 billion. 

Samuel Tsien: OCBC Group CEO

Samuel Tsien earned a Bachelor of Arts degree with Honours in Economics from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). He has 36 years of solid banking experience. From 1995 to 2006, he was President and Chief Executive Officer of Bank of America (Asia), and Asia Consumer and Commercial Banking Group Executive of Bank of America Corporation. 

Before joining OCBC Bank, Samuel was the President and Chief Executive Officer of China Construction Bank (Asia) when China Construction Bank acquired Bank of America (Asia). He joined OCBC Bank in July 2007 as Senior Executive Vice President, in charge of the Group’s corporate and commercial banking business. He assumed in 2008, the role as Global Head of Global Corporate Bank with added responsibilities of overseeing the financial institution and transaction banking businesses. 

Samuel who is in his late 50s was appointed Group Chief Executive Officer on April 15, 2012. 

Overseas-Chinese Banking Corp. Ltd is one of the largest public companies in the world with annual sales of over $8 billion with 29,512 employees.  It engages in banking, life assurance, general insurance, asset management, investment holding, future, and stockbroking businesses. The bank’s headquarters is in Singapore. 

R. Milton Johnson: HCA Chairman & Chief Executive Officer

R. Milton Johnson is a native of Nashville, Tennessee. He holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Belmont University. He worked as an accountant with what is now Ernst & Young and spent a couple of years working with HCA accountants. So when he joined HCA in 1982 he had been walking the halls of their headquarters since 1980. So he had actually been involved with HCA right after graduating from college. 

During the period HCA had a large international presence, Milton worked with executives responsible for managing hospitals in the Philippines, Singapore, Australia, and Saudi Arabia. He developed relationships with many of those men and women over time. R. Milton even helped them with their personal tax returns. When HCA offered him a position in the tax department, it wasn’t as if he was joining an unfamiliar company in fact is was quite the opposite. 

In 1987 he was head of HealthTrust tax department when HCA spun off the company. He came back to HCA as vice president of tax when HealthTrust was taken back in by HCA. 

R. Milton climbed the corporate ladder becoming senior vice president and controller, then executive vice president and chief financial offer. In 2009, he was appointed to the board of directors of HCA.  In 2011, he was named president of HCA. In January 2014 ,he began serving as the company’s CEO and on December 2014, he also became chairman. 

R. Milton leads a huge organization, a close to $36 billion integrated healthcare system that includes around 166 hospitals, 113 freestanding surgery centers, and more than 35,000 affiliated physicians  in 20 states and the United Kingdom. The company has its in payroll 220,000 employees of which around 35 percent are registered nurses. 

Milton is a committed volunteer and has held offices in a number of organizations within the community. He is currently a co-chair of Partnership 2020 with the Nashville Chamber of Commerce and serves on the boards of Nashville Health Care Council and the United Way of Metro Nashville, among others. 

Chang-Soo Kim: Samsung Life Insurance Co CEO & President

There are many huge corporations run by competent managers who are not that well know internationally. Chang-Soo Kim runs one of the largest companies on the planet and must therefore have what it takes to handle such a large responsibility. 

Chang-Soo Kim is a business administration graduate of Korea University. Among the various managerial positions he has held include serving as Vice President and Head of Plant and Machinery Division of Samsung C&T Corporation. He was also the Chief Executive Officer and President of Samsung Fire & Marine Insurance Co., Ltd. 

In January 28, 2014, Kim became Chief Executive Officer and President of Samsung Life Insurance Co., Ltd. He also serves as an Executive Director at Samsung Life Insurance Co., Ltd. 

Samsung Life Insurance Co., Ltd. was founded on April 24, 1957, and is based in Seoul, South Korea. It engages in the life insurance and financial services business. The firm runs its businesses through the following divisions: insurance, loan, corporate pension, fund and trust. It conducts its business within the domestic market and to overseas markets.

It is one of the largest publicly listed companies in the world with 5,353 employees and sales of $24 billion. 

Lamberto Andreotti: Bristol-Myers Squibb Chairman

Lamberto Andreotti was born on July 6, 1950, in Rome, Italy. He earned an engineering degree from Sapienza University of Rome. Lamberto would later earn a Master of Science degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. 

He worked for a number of pharmaceutical companies such as Farmitalia Carlo Erba, KABI Pharmacia and Pharmacia & Upjohn. Lamberto then joined Bristol-Myers Squibb in 1998 as Vice President and General Manager, European Oncology and Italy. He rose further up the executive ladder holding roles of increasing responsibility. Lamberto was elected to the Board of Directors in 2009. In 2010 he was named Chief Executive Officer, he served in this role for five years. 

Under his stewardship, the company transformed becoming a leader in the biopharma industry. The company is now known for its robust pipeline and portfolio of innovative medicines, it has also pioneered the increasingly promising field of immuno-oncology.  Earlier in the year he announced his retirement as CEO to coincide right after his 65th birthday to devote more time to his personal life. 

Since Lamberto assumed the CEO role, based in early January 2015, company shares have gained around 196 percent compared to 90 percent for the S&P 500. Lamberto is now the Chairman of Bristol-Myers Squibb, the pharma company that generates annual revenue of around $16 billion. 

Bristol-Myers was founded in 1887 by William McLaren Bristol and John Ripley Myers in Clinton, New York. Squibb on the other hand was founded in 1858 by Edward Robinson Squibb in Brooklyn, New York.  The Squibb corporation served as a major supplier of medical goods to the Union Army during the United States Civil War, providing portable medical kits containing morphine, surgical anesthetics, and quinine for the treatment of malaria (which was endemic in most of the eastern United States at that time). 

Bristol-Myers Squibb was formed in 1989, following the merger of its predecessors Bristol-Myers and the Squibb Corporation. 

Chung Mong-Koo: Hyundai Moto Co. Chairman

Chung Mong-Koo was born on March 19, 1938, in Tongchong County, Gangwon Province, South Korea. Chung is the second son of the late Chung Ju-Yung, the son of a peasant farmer, who after the Korean War, repaired trucks for the US Army and went on to create a conglomerate that help set South Korea on a direction to becoming an export powerhouse and the fourth-largest economy in Asia. 

Chung graduated from Kyungbock High Schools and holds a Bachelor of Science degree in industrial engineering  from Hanyang University. 

Chung succeeded his father as chairman of the Hyundai Motor group which is made up of 42 subsidiaries and is the second largest Chaebol in South Korea. He was convicted of embezzlement and breach of fiduciary duty on February 2007, but was given a suspended sentence and was fully pardoned by President Lee Myung-bak. To make amends, Chung agreed to donate $1 billion over several years to benefit Korean society. 

Even though already in his mid 70s he is very much active in the group’s management and is said to personally head monthly quality reviews with senior executives. 

Benoît Potier: Air Liquide Chairman & CEO

Frenchman Benoît Potier was born in 1957 and is a graduate of the prestigious École Centrale de Paris. In 1981 he joined Air Liquide as a Research  and Development engineer.  He became a Project Manager in the Engineering and Construction Division. Benoît was later named Vice-President of Energy and Development in the Large Industries business line. 

He continued his climb up the corporate ladder and was made Director of Strategy & Organization in 1993. The following year we became head  of the Chemicals, Metal & Steel,  Oil and Energy Markets.  In 1995 Air Liquide appointed him an Executive Vice-President with additional responsibilities over the Engineering & Construction Division and the Large Industries operations in Europe. 

In 1997 Benoît was named Senior Executive Vice-President  and was appointed to the Board of Directors in 2000. In November 2001 he became Chairman of the Management Board. 

Benoît reached the position the only a select few will every achieve, he was named Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of L’Air Liquide SA in 2006. 

With more than 50,000 employees and over $20 billion in sales, Air Liquide SA is on of the largest publicly listed companies in the world. The company Benoît heads is headquartered in Paris, France and was founded on November 8, 1902, by George Claude and Paul Delorme. 

It supplies gases, technologies and services for the industry and health businesses. Air Liquide SA operates its business through three segments: Gas & Services, Engineering & Construction and Other Activities. 

The Gas & Services segment engages in the supply of gases, which is organized by geographical areas such as Europe, America, Asia-Pacific and the Middle-East and Africa. The Engineering & Construction segment designs, develops and builds industrial gas production plants for the Group and third parties. It also designs and manufactures plants in the traditional, renewable and alternative energy sectors. The Other Activities segment primarily operates its business through two businesses: Welding and Diving. 

George Cope: BCE and Bell Canada President & CEO

George Cope was raised in Port Perry, a small town in Ontario, Canada. He played basketball for Western University until a knee injury sidelined him. George earned a Business Administration (Honours) degree from Ivey Business School at Western University and was conferred an honorary Doctor of Laws from Western in recognition of his success in telecommunications and his dedication to promoting mental health awareness. 

George was President and CEO of  cellphone provider Clearnet for 13 years. The company was bought out by TELUS Mobility in 2000 and George eventually wound up as President and CEO of TELUS Mobility. 

He became president and CEO of BCE and Bell Canada in 2008. 

BCE Inc., is a telecommunications and media company that provides wireless, wireline, Internet and television services to residential, business, and wholesale customers in Canada. The company operates through Bell Wireless, Bell Wireline, and Bell Media segments. 

The company operates approximately 30 conventional TV stations; and 39 speciality pay, pay, and pay-per-view TV channels; 106 radio stations; 10,500 advertising faces; and 200 Websites. 

Wolfgang Büchele: Linde AG CEO

Wolfgang Büchele was born in 1959 in Geislingen, Germany. He holds a degree in chemistry graduating from the University of Ulm, Germany in 1984. Wolfgang completed his doctorate in natural sciences  with special field in inorganic chemistry in 1987.

From 1984 until 1987 he was an assistant in the Department of Inorganic Chemistry at the University of Ulm,Germany. 

Wolfgang began his career as a research chemist at BASF AG, Ludwigshafen in 1987. From 1990 onwards, he held various executive positions in Ludwigshafen, Germany and Hong Kong, China. In 2001 he was named President for Eastern Europe, Africa, West Asia Regional Division. Wolfgang became President of the Performance Chemicals Division in 2003. In 2005 he was appointed President of the Fine Chemicals Division. 

Wolfgang became a Project Advisor  at The Blackstone Group International Partners LLP, London, UK in 2008. Then from 2009 until 2011 he was member of the Board and CEO of BordsodChem Zrt., in Budapest, Hungary. From 2012 until 2014 he was the President and CEO of Kemira Oyj, Helsinki, Finland. 

With his and solid leadership experience in the chemicals industry it wasn’t a surprise when he was named CEO of Munich, Germany based Linde AG.

The Linde Group, registered as Linde AG was founded in 1879 by Carl von Linde in Germany. It is now a multinational industrial gases and engineering company. Linde AG is the world’s largest industrial gas company by market share and by revenue as well. The company’s shares are traded in all the German stock exchanges and in Zurich as well. The Linde share price is also included in the DAX 30 index. Aside from its Munich headquarters there is also some supporting headquarter functions in Surrey, England. 

The Linde Group has more than 600 affiliated companies in over 100 countries, with customers in the industrial, retail, trade, science, research, and public sectors. It registered revenue of €17.047 billion in 2014 on assets of €34.425 billion. 

Marc N. Casper: Thermo Fisher Scientific President & CEO

Marc N. Casper earned a bachelor’s degree in economics from Wesleyan University. Marc obtained an MBA with high distinction from Harvard Business School. He began his career as a strategist at Bain & Company and later moved to Bain Capital. 

Marc was President-Americas for clinical diagnostics provider Dade Behring, Inc. He later became President, Chief Executive Officer and director of Kendro Laboratory Products. He then joined Thermo Fisher Scientific in 2001 as President of the Life Sciences sector of Thermo Electron. 

In 2003, he was named Senior Vice President, and in 2005 was given responsibility for all of the company’s operating divisions. After the merging creating Thermo Fisher Scientific in 2006, he was named President of Analytic Technologies. Marc was named Chief Operating Officer in 2008.  In October 2009, March became President and Chief Executive Officer of Thermo Fisher Scientific. 

Thermo Fisher Scientific, Inc. (NYSE:TMO) is the world leader in servicing science, with revenues of $17 billion and approximately 50,000 employees in 50 countries. The company helps customers accelerate life sciences research, solve complex analytical challenges, improve patient diagnostics and increase laboratory productivity. 

William Thomas: EOG Resources Chairman & CEO

William “Bill” Thomas holds a Bachelor of Science degree in geology from Texas A&M University at College Station. Early in Bill’s career, he held various technical positions such as district geologist, senior exploration geologies and production geologists. He began his career as a district engineer, at Dowell, an oil field services company. In 1979 he joined an EOG predecessor company as a production engineer in the firm’s Sonara offices. Bill also led EOG offices in Midland and Corpus Christi, where he was named Vice President and General Manger in 1988. 

Bill spearheaded EOG’s move to explore horizontal share potential with the development of EOG’s Barnett Shale Play in North Texas and other key resource plays. While baed in Fort Worth, Bill was Executive Vice President and prior to that was Senior Vice President ang General Manager, beginning in June 2004. He moved to the company’s Houston headquarters in February 2011. 

He was named President in September 2011, and President and Chief Executive Officer in June 2013. In January 2014, Bill was named Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of EOG Resources, Inc. He has been with EOG and its predecessor companies for over 36 years. 

Bill is a member of the American Association of Petroleum Geologist, the Forth Worth Geological Society and the Texas Independent Producers and Royalty Owners Association. He is an advocate for EOG’s community charity activities, and Bill and his wife Jane serve on the board of Casa de Esperanza. He is an active church member and is a strong supporter of international relief efforts through Samaritan’s Purse. 

EOG Resources, Inc. is one of the largest independent (non-integrated) crude oil and natural gas companies in the United States with proved reserves in the United States, Canada, Trinidad, the United Kingdom and China. EOG is listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) and is traded under the ticker symbol “EOG”.  As of 2014, the firm’s net operating revenues was at $18 billion and net income was $2.9 billion.