Still Coming Out On Top

Changes in corporate ownership can also change the job security status of workers. The new owners may have something else in mind and a corporate guy which looked to have a bright future with a company may be sent packing since someone else (perhaps coming from the group of the new owners) will be handling the job. There may also be some corporate restructuring taking place.

For William R. Klesse changes in ownership did not stop his rise in the companies he had worked for.  He graduated for the University of Dayton with a B.S. in Chemical Engineering degree. Klesse also obtained a Master’s degree in Finance from West Texas A&M University.

He began his career as an engineer trainee at Diamond Shamrock. He rose through the ranks eventually reaching the position of Executive Vice President in 1987. Then in 1996 Ultramar Corp. and Diamond Shamrock merged forming Ultramar Diamond Shamrock (UDS). Klesse wound up being the Executive Vice President of UDS’s refining operations.

In 2001, USD was acquired by Valero. This did not negatively impact Klesse’s career as he then served as Executive Vice President of Refining and Commercial Operations. In fact his star shone brighter. In 2003, Klesse became the Executive Vice President and COO.  He then was named CEO in 2006 and Chairman of the Board in 2007. He couldn’t be considered an insider of Valero having come from the acquired firm but his talent and skills helped him to get the top post at the largest independent oil refining company in the world.

Having What It Takes

Hendri de La Croix de Castries belongs to the French establishment. He is a member of the House of Castries. His father, Comte Francois de La Croix de Castries was in the military having served in Korea, Indochina and Algeria. Comte Pierre de Chevigne, his maternal grandfather was a colonel in the Free French forces.  A family member was also a naval minister under Louis XVI and another General Charles de Gaulle’s wartime ambassador to the U.S.

Henri was born on August 15, 1954 in Bayonne, France. He attended the best schools such as Ecole de Hautes Eludes Commerciales (HEC), the leading business school in France and Ecole Nationale d’Administration (ENA) which has produced many government leaders.  

Henri began his career auditing government agencies while working in the French Ministry Inspection Office from 1980 to 1984. Then in 1984 he moved to the French Treasury Department where in 1986 he played an active role in the privatization of some government companies and was later appointed to head exchange markets and balance of payments for the Treasury.

He made his moved to the private sector in 1989 joining the Corporate Finance Division of AXA.  Henri became the Corporate Secretary in 1991. He was in charge of the legal aspects of the reorganization and merger of Compagnie du Midi into the AXA Group.  After two years Henri became Senior Executive Vice President for AXA’s asset management, financial and real-estate businesses.

He was given the additional responsibility of overseeing UK and North American operations in 1994. Henri’s roles and responsibilities within AXA continued to increase in importance. He played an important role in the preparation of the merger with UAP and in managing the integration of the two entities.  The following year he became Chairman of the Equitable Companies. This later became AXA Financial.

Henri became Chairman of the AXA Management Board on May 2000 until April 2010. Due to some changes in the corporate government structure he became the Chairman and CEO of AXA since April 2010 and currently holds these positions.

It can be said Henri had more advantages than most people due to his family ties. Yet he has made the most of what he’s got and proved that he has what it takes to run one of the largest insurance companies in the world.

 

Leading The Biggest Company In Latin America

The biggest company in Mexico and Latin America is PEMEX (Petroleos Mexicanos).  It is actually a monopoly which began in 1938 when the Mexican government banned all foreign drillers and formed a national oil company.  Only a handful of oil companies can do what PEMEX does.  It is performs in all the productive chain in the industry. It does the exploration, distribution and commercialization of all the products.  In 2010 average production of crude petroleum was around 2.576 million barrels a day.

Heading this huge company is Dr. Juan Jose Suarez Coppel who is the CEO and Director General. He has held this position since September 2009.  With its huge size and available area for exploration and drilling you may think he has an easy job.  In fact his job is actually difficult as PEMEX cannot be run like an ordinary private oil firm since it is government owned.  

For one PEMEX sends most of its profits to the government. It currently accounts for one third of the government’s income which is a huge amount. This is something that the government cannot forego. There are also many government interests who want their own say in running the company.  Wages are also pegged to government scale which is lower than the oil industry’s. This means it can’t hire the best or retain the best workers.

Thus the company has large potentials which it can’t fully exploit.  Suarez is very much aware of this but understands the changes won’t happen overnight and it will take a lot hard work.   Prior to heading PEMEX he held a number of high positions in other companies such as CFO and Vice President of Administration and Finance at Grupo Modelo, S.A.B. de V.C.

Making Up For Lost Time

Michael Diekmann was born on December 23, 1953 in Bielefeld, German.  He earned his degree from Goettingen University studying law and philosophy.

Right out of university he established his own publishing business, Diekmann/Thieme in 1983. This company fit into the lifestyle he liked.  It produced travel guides and adventure books.  This meant that he was also out in the field travelling and doing outdoor adventures and writing about it.

By his own account he was making a living having published a number of books.  In 1988 he was frustrated with having to compete with the big publishing houses. It was also around that time that his wife told him to get a real job and handed him an ad for a job at Allianz in Hamburg.  He went for the interview and got the job in the insurance sales department at Allianz.

You could say he was a late starter in the corporate field since this was his first serious job and he was already 33 years old. Michael certainly made up for lost time.  Fifteen years into the job he wound up being the group chairman in 2003.  This was no easy achievement he was now leading the world’s biggest general insurer, the second-largest asset management company, and the third-biggest life insurer.

Many were surprised he got the top job.  He record though showed that he was the right man for the top post.  In several new positions he held he was faced with daunting work challenges which he overcame and made his business unit prosper.   When he headed Alliance’s Asia-Pacific Operations he supervised key acquisitions as well as led the operations through the Asian financial crisis in the late 1990s. He turned a failing division into a profitable one.

Michael was sent to America in 2000 and he had to manage around the “de-pegging” of Argentina and the 2001 World Trade Center terrorist attacks. He was able to save the underperforming US Fireman’s Fund. He did this by aggressively cutting cost involving laying off thousands of employees.

When he took over Allainz in 2003 it was in deep trouble due to its $22.5 billion acquisition of Dresdner Bank in 2001.  Again he resorted to cost cutting ad workforce shrinkage and raised capital. Within 12 months of being the new CEO he returned Allainz to financial health.

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. 

 

The Rise Of The Grandson

Akio Toyoda is the grandson of Toyota Motor’s founder. He was born on May 3, 1956 in Nagoya, Japan. Unlike older generations of Japanese executives he has more exposure to Western culture. He obtained his MBA degree at Babson College in the U.S. Akio also worked for some time at a U.S. firm.

Like his grandfather and father he too would head Toyota Motor one of the largest automobile companies in the world.  Akio joined the company in 1984. He then joined the company’s board of directors in 2000 and by 2005 was appointed executive vice president.  In June 2009 Akio became the new president of Toyota Motor; there were also four new executive vice presidents and eight new board members.

The tenure of Akio has not been easy.  In fact it has truly tested his leadership skill and his fortitude. There was the 2009 acceleration pedal recall. There was the earthquake and tsunami in Japan in 2011 followed months later by the floods in Thailand which all contributed to supply disruption.

He is now leading be being in front literally. He is the company pitchman and appears on advertisement and getting media mileage where he can to improve the company image. This has not only been for the sake of getting more customers to buy cars but for the morale of company employees as well.

Some have criticized Toyota’s bland and unexciting designs. Korean car companies have also become more popular in America.  Akio has been more personal in his approach to turn things.  In fact he is even more involved in the development of cars like the FR-S sports car which he drove every month during its development period and gave his feedbacks about it.

He is present in auto shows and racing events even participating in them briefly. His personal approach has been a big gamble, if the company doesn’t deliver on certain promises he would more likely take the hit.  It seems to pay paying off though as Toyota recently overtook Volkswagen to once again become the largest automaker in terms of revenue.

An Engineer At The Helm

Managing a large company requires a great amount of skill and talent. Surprisingly a good number of companies are not run by people who are direct experts in the field.  Take the case of a major airline company whose head is not a pilot but a lawyer.  It doesn’t mean that the company would be better run if a pilot was in charge. It just goes to show that managing a company is different from flying an airplane.

Daimler AG, the Germany multinational automotive company is actually led be someone who has been schooled and trained as an engineer; no lawyer is heading this company.  Dr. Dieter Zetsche is the chairman of the Board of Management of Daimler AG as well as head of Mercedes-Benz Cars.

He graduated as an engineer having studied electrical engineering from 1971 to 1976 at the University of Karlshruhe. Zetsche then joined the research department of Daimler-Benz AG in 1976. He did well and became assistant to the Development Manager in the Commercial Vehicles business until 1981.

Zetsche furthered his academic studies and finished a doctorate in engineering at the University of Paderborn in 1982.  Over the years he received promotions and did overseas assignments.  He was at one time the CEO and president of Chrysler Group.  Dr. Zetsche has been a member of the Board of Management of Daimler AG since December 16, 1998 and chairman of the Board of Management of Daimler AG since January 2006.

It is of advantage to Daimler that its current head truly understands the dynamics of the company and how a car is put together.