Gavin Patterson: BT CEO

British Gavin Patterson was born on September 6, 1967, in Altrincham, Trafford, Greater Manchester, England. He holds a degree in chemical engineering from Emmanuel College, Cambridge. 

While a chemical engineer by training Gavin excelled in marketing in the corporate world. He spent nine years with  Procter and Gamble and became European Marketing Director for the Patene line of hair products. He then joined cable company Telewest in 2000, managing their television services. 

Gavin then joined BT in 2004 as the Managing Director of the company’s consumer division. He launched BT Vision which provided on-demand TV and subsequently was responsible for their broadband offerings like the optical fiber service, BT Infinity. 

Coming into BT, Gavin was a contrast in personality. BT had a conservative culture while he was known for his flamboyant appearance of romantic black hair and open shirt collars which reported had up to three open buttons. His management style is a mix of relaxed, stylish marketing with aggressive cost-cutting. 

Gavin was appointed Chief Executive, BT Retail in May 2008 and joined the BT Group plc board in June 2008. He also spearheaded the company’s involvement inn the evolution of digital TV services. This includes being a founder partner in YouView and the creation of BT Sport which launched in August 2013. 

In September 2013, Gavin was appointed Chief Executive Officer of BT Group PLC. 

He is a non-executive Director of British Airways and a Trustee of  The British Museum. Gavin was on the advisory board of the Cambridge Judge Business School from 2010 to 2013 and was President of the Advertising Association from 2011 to 2014. 

BT serves the needs of customers in the United Kingdom and in more than 170  countries around the world, its is one of the world’s leading communications services companies. The firm’s main activities are the provision of fixed-line services, broadband, mobile and TV products and services as well as networked IT services. 

Steve Holliday: National Grid CEO

Steve Holliday was born on October 26, 1956, in Exeter, United Kingdom. Steve earned a  Bachelor of Science degree in Mining from the University of Nottingham in 1978. He began his career at Exxon joining the energy company in also in 1978.

Steve spent 19 years of his early career at Exxon leaving the company in 1997. While at Exxon he gained experience in the various aspects of the oil industry.  By the time Steve was 30 years old he was the operations manager of the Fawley refinery. This was the largest refinery of Exxon outside the US. From 1990 to 1994 he was assigned to the US. In his last post at Exxon he was responsible for the company’s international gas business throughout Asia and the Far East, where he led several projects associated with the development of new markets, including China. 

Before Steve joined National Grid he was on the Board of British Borneo Oil and Gas as was responsible for the successful development of its international business in Brazil, Australia and West Africa. He also played an important role in the merger of the company with Hardy Oil & Gas in 1998. 

Steve joined National Grid in March 2001 as the Board Director responsible for the UK and Europe. In October 2002, National Grid Group plc and Lattice Group merged, after which he became responsible for the Group’s electricity and gas transmission business.  Steve was promoted from Group Director (responsible for worldwide Transmission operations) to Group Director responsible for UK Gas Distribution and Business Services. 

Steve became CEO in January 2007. He has also been a Non-Executive Director of Mark & Spencer plc since 2004. 

Steve leads a behemoth. It is an electricity and gas company that connects consumers to energy sources through its networks. The publicly traded company connects more than 7 million gas and electric consumers to energy sources in the Northeast US. In the UK it runs the gas and electricity systems. 

Andrew Witty

Sir Andrew Philip Witty is the CEO of pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline. He was born on August 22, 1964 and earned a BA in Economics from the University of Nottingham. Andrew was knighted in 2012 New Year Honours for services to the economy and the UK pharmaceutical industry.

In 1985 he joined Glaxo UK as a management trainee. He rose through the ranks and held a number of positions in the UK such as Director of Pharmacy & Distribution in Glaxo Pharmaceuticals UK, Director of Business Development of Biocompatibles Limited and International Product Manager of Glaxo Holdings PLC.  Andrew has also served outside of the UK as Managing Director of Glaxo South Africa and Area Director of South and East Africa.

His expertise has also been used outside of Glaxo from 2000 to 2002 serving as an economic adviser to the Governor of Guangzhou, China.

After further promotions he was appointed President, Pharmaceuticals Europe of GlaxoSmithKline plc in January 2003. Following the retirement of Dr. Jean-Pierre Garnier in May 2008 he succeeded as CEO.

In late 2012, it was revealed that Andrew had been appointed the 7^th Chancellor of the University of Nottingham effective January 1, 2013. 

Mr. Fix It

Paolo Scaroni has been the CEO of Italian energy giant Eni since June 2005. Prior to that he worked for a number of companies and has a solid reputation of fixing ailing companies and making them competitive.

Scaroni was born on November 28, 1946 in Vicenza, Italy.   In 1969 he obtained a degree in economics from Bocconi University in Milan.  Scaroni then worked for Chevron for three years then headed off to New York and studied at Columbia Business School earning and MBA degree. After graduating he worked at McKinsey & Company then at French company Saint Gobain where he held a number of positions eventually becoming president of the flat-glass division in 1984.

Scaroni then worked for Technit ad was deputy chairman and CEO from 1985 to 1996. His next career move was going to the UK and joining Pilkington the company that invented the float-glass process used in the automotive industry. The company was close to shutting down due to complacency over the years. As CEO he cut costs and improved production bringing the company back to life.

In 2002, no less than the Italian government hand-picked Scaroni to become the CEO of Enel. This energy company was 68 percent owned by the Italian government and was losing more than $1 billion annually due to its decision to move from energy to telecommunications.  He once again streamlined operations and improved efficiency so that the company would be ready for full privatization.

Having done his task he moved on to become the CEO of Eni in June 2005. Eni operates in 85 countries and has 79,000 employees.