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. 

Roberto Egydio Setubal: Itaù Unibanco Holding CEO

Roberto Egydio Setubal earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Production Engineering from Escola Politécnica Da Universidade De São Paulo in 1977. He went on to earn a Master’s Degree in Engineering from Stanford University.

Roberto has had a distinguished career in the banking industry. Among various positions he has held at Utaù Unibanco include being general manager from 1990 to 1994. Roberto has served as executive vice president of Itausa since May 1994 and has served as director since April 1995 and president and chief executive officer since April 1994.  He has been vice chairman of the board of directors since March 2003.

Outside of the bank he was the president of the Brazilian Federation of Banks (Federacao Brasileira de Bancos – FEBRABAN) and of the National Federation of Banks (Federacao Nacional de Bancos or FENABAN) from April 1997 to March 2001. Among others Roberto serves on the international advisory committee of the New York Stock Exchange.

Itaù Unibanco Holding is one of the largest companies in the world. Founded in 1944 and based in Brazil it has sales of $67.16 billion with 95,696 employees. 

Greg L. Armstrong: PAA CEO

Greg L. Armstrong graduated from the Southeastern Oklahoma State University with a degree in accounting and management. Greg is also a Certified Public Accountant. He has been with Plains All American Pipeline (PAA) or its predecessors since 1981.

Greg among other positions held was Corporate Secretary of Plains Resources Inc. from 1981 to 1988. He served as Vice President and Chief Financial Officer from 1984 to 1991. Greg had been the President and Chief Executive Officer of Plains Resources, Inc. from October 1992 to May 2001.

Since January 2010 Greg has been the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of PNGS GP LLC and General Partner of PAA Natural Gas Storage, LLC. Plains All American Pipeline L.P. is a publicly traded master limited partnership which completed its IPO in 2010. Greg is the CEO of this firm. 

PAA gets majority of its revenue from the transportation, storage, terminalling and marketing of crude oil and refined products. Under Greg’s management, PAA has greatly enlarged its influence in natural gas storage, acquiring the remaining 50 percent interest in PAA Natural Gas Storage in 2009.

Greg sees the big role and demand natural gas will have in the country and is taking the necessary steps so that PAA can greatly profit from the situation. 

Robert A. Niblock: Lowe’s CEO

Robert A. Niblock earned a bachelor’s degree in accounting from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. Before joining Lowe’s he had a nine year stint with accounting firm Ernst & Young. Robert came on board at Lowes in 1993. He has held a number of key positions such as director of taxation, vice president and treasurer, senior vice president, and executive vice president and chief financial officer. 

Robert was promoted to president in 2003 and held the position till 2006.  He was elected as chairman and CEO of Lowe’s Companies in January 2005. Robert reassumed the title of president in 2011.

He holds a number of positions outside of Lowe’s as well. Robert was elected to the board of directors of ConocoPhillips in 2010 and serves on its audit and finance committee. He is a member and currently serves as secretary of the board of directors of the Retail Industry Leaders Association. Previously he served as the organizations chairman in 2008 and 2009 and vice chairman in 2006 and 2007. Robert is also on the board of directors of BEST NC (Business for Education Success and Transformation in North Carolina).

Robert is in charge of a very large publicly traded corporation. Based on Forbes Magazine ranking Lowe’s is one of the largest corporations in the world. The firm was founded in 1946 and has grown from a small hardware store to the second-largest home improvement retailer worldwide. 

Today Lowe’s runs more than 1,825 stores in the U.S., Canada and Mexico. It serves around 15 million customers each week and employs more than 245,000 people. Its stores stock 12 product categories ranging from appliances to tool, to paint, lumber and nursery products. Lowe’s has 40,000 products in stock, 500,000 items available online at Lowes.com and over 500,000 more products available by Special Order. 

Lowe’s Companies, Inc. has been publicly held since 1961. Its shares trade on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). Sales for fiscal year 2012 stood at$50.5 billion and net earnings of $2.0 billion.

Robert leads one of the biggest companies in the world, a job many business executive wished they had.

Li Yue: Leading The World’s Largest Mobile Network

Li Yue is the CEO and Executive Director of China Mobile Limited which is listed in the New York Stock Exchange and The Stock Exchange of Hong Kong Limited.  He has been Executive Director since March 2003 and CEO since August 2010. While many may not be aware of it the company is the world’s largest mobile network and has the world’s largest mobile customer base.  It is the leading mobile service provider in Mainland China.

To put it into perspective, at the end of 2012 the company and its subsidiaries had a total customer base of 710 million. That’s more than twice the population of the U.S.  Compared to 2011 there was a net increase of 60.7 million customers. That figure is just couple of millions below the entire population of Great Britain.

Li handles the company’s operations and management which is clearly a huge task. He has risen through the ranks and thus has the necessary experience to run this gigantic company. Li is also the President and director of CMCC and CMC. He was previously Deputy Director General and Chief Engineer of Tianjin Long-Distance Telecommunications Bureau.

Li took up his education mostly in the Chinese region. He has a bachelor’s degree in telephone exchange from the Correspondence College of Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, a master’s degree in business administration from Tianjin University and a doctoral degree in business administration from Hong Kong Polytechnic University.

Leading this enormous firm also means having a large compensation package; Li received a total of over $2 million in 2011. While Western executives are known to earn more, it’s a huge compensation nevertheless.

Larry J. Merlo: The Perfect Fit

In the corporate world you can find many CEOs who are basically on top because of their great management skills. In fact some of them have come from different fields and brought over to run another company. There are also those who are in the industry they were trained for from the very start.

This is the case with Larry J. Merlo.  He is a pharmacist by training and since March 1, 2011 has been the CEO of CVS Care Corporation a company traded in the New York Stock Exchange. The firm is a leading provider of integrated pharmacy health care.

Merlo began his career as a pharmacist at People’s Drug. The company was acquired and became part of CVS/pharmacy.  Having been promoted over the years, he played a major role in the transformation of the firm from CVS/pharmacy, a large regional drug chain, to CVS Caremark, the nation’s largest pharmacy health care provider.  While fostering organic grow Merlo is well-known for integrating major acquisitions. Under his stewardship, CVS accomplished some of the most successful acquisitions in the history of retail pharmacy.

The man who started out as a pharmacist ended up being a great executive as well and as a trained pharmacist he knows his industry inside out.