Steve Easterbrook: McDonald’s CEO

British Stephen J. “Steve” Easterbrook was born in 1967 and grew up in Watford. He was educated at Watford Grammar School for Boys. Steve earned a natural sciences degree at St. Chad’s College, Durham University and played cricket. 

After graduating from university he trained as an accountant with PricewaterhouseCoopers. Steve joined McDonald’s in 1993 as a financial reporting manager in London. He also spent 18 months at “Hamburger University," the McDonald’s corporate training academy near Chicago. 

After working in numerous roles in operation and finance he was named vice president for the UK’s southern region in 2001. He was promoted head of McDonald’s UK in 2006. Steve became in-charge of more than 1,200 outlets and an estimated £35 million marketing budget. In this role he implemented a major restaurant design, emphasized employee training, and adding health options to the menu which resulted in turning around the business in the region.

In 2010 Steve was named president of McDonald’s Europe, overseeing 7,000 restaurants in 39 countries. Initially he had been given the newly created role of global chief brand officer. McDonald’s made a U-turn on the decision after just two months and moved Steve back to London to look after its European business. 

Some are of the opinion that this situation made Steve leave McDonald’s in 2011. He landed a new job as chief executive of UK restaurant chain PizzaExpress. He was responsible for growing the number of outlets from 400 to around 600. It was a short stint as he left and became head of Wagamama, the noodle chain, in 2012. 

Steve returned to McDonald’s in 2013, this time finally taking up the global chief brand officer role permanently at the company’s headquarters in Illinois. Under his term the company began experimenting with more upmarket restaurants in Australia and made dramatic changes to its menu in the US. 

Steve became CEO of McDonald’s on March 1, 2015. He faces a major challenge as the company has been experiencing a continuous declining in sales. McDonald’s sees him as the man who can get the job done. 

John Strangfeld: Prudential Financial Chief

Not every employee will one day become CEO of the company they work for. This position goes to only a chosen few. One of those who had enough skill and talent to get the top post is John Strangfeld.  

John earned a B.S. in Business Administration from Susquehanna University and got his MBA from the Darden School of Business at the University of Virginia. 

John has been a long serving employee of Prudential Financial having joined in July 1977. Over the 35 years he has been with the company he has held various managerial positions. John has worked both in the U.S. and abroad for Prudential including a six year stint in London.

Among the positions John has served in include Chairman at PRICOA Capital Group (London) Europe from 1989 to 1995. He was the Senior Managing Director of the Private Asset Management Group from 1995 to 1996. He became the Chairman and CEO in 2008 after having been the Vice Chairman responsible for Prudential’s U.S. Businesses, which include both the Investment and Insurance Divisions.

Prudential Financial, Inc. is one of the largest companies in the world and has been in business for over 135 years. It has operations in 38 countries and territories with asset under management amounting to $1.076 trillion.

John belongs to a group of elite business executives who lead huge corporations.

 

Leading A Mining Giant

Tom Albanese is the chief executive officer and board member of Rio Tinto one of the largest mining firms in the world. Albanese was born in New Jersey on September 9, 1957.  He equipped himself well academically for the job earning a bachelor’s degree in mineral economics from the University of Alaska Fairbanks. Later Albanese got a master’s degree in mining engineering from the same university.

As it often happens the path to the top is not programmed. Early on Albanese did not imagine himself heading Rio because he worked for another company called Nerco.  In 1993, Nerco was acquired by Rio and Albanese was on his way to getting the top job.

He held various management positions and was appointed chief executive of the Industrial Minerals group in 2000. Albanese was then named chief executive of the Copper group and head of Exploration in 2004. 

Outside of Rio he has been a director of Ivanhoe Mines Limited from 2006 to 2007, director of Palabora Mining Company from 2004 to 2006. On the academe Albanese since 2009 has been member of board of visitors, Duke University, Fuqua School of Business.

The company that Albanese heads has a unique structure. There is Rio Tinto plc, a London listed public company based in the U.K. and Rio Tinto Limited, which trades on the Australian Stock Exchange and has headquarters in Melbourne. These two companies are called the Rio Tinto Group, joined in a dual listed companies (DLC) structure as a single economic entity. Rio has five principal product groups – Aluminum, Copper, Diamonds & Minerals, Energy and Iron Ore; with two support groups: Technology and Exploration.

Due to its size a whole country’s economic situation can have a huge impact on the company.  Take for example the case of China. Rio and Albanese watch closely the economic growth of this country as it has a significant impact on its bottom line. Last year with the cut in the forecast for Chinese growth Rio had to also cut its on sales and profitability forecast.  Albanese had to also make the tough calls to cut costs including jobs.  He also refused to receive a bonus when the company did not do well.