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September 15, 2008
Business leader of the year : the nominees
Top 100 business leader of the year - And the nominees are ... Short list for prestigious award is made up mainly of engineers and accountants, writes Marcia Klein. Great business leaders are engineers or accountants by training and, despite the new trend to job-hop, have spent most of their careers at one company. This much can be gleaned from the short list for this year’s Sunday Times Business Times Top 100 Business Leader of the Year award, to be presented at the prestigious Top 100 banquet in November. Four of the seven nominees are engineers, and most of the nominees have worked their way to the top by staying at the same companies. The Business Leader of the year is chosen by the chief executives of SA’s top 100 companies. They are provided with a short list drawn up by a panel, together with the Sunday Times and Business Times editors. But votes are not restricted to names on the list, which is intended to provide guidance. Previous Business Leaders of the Year include Bidvest CEO Brian Joffe, SABMiller CEO Graham Mackay, Transnet CEO Maria Ramos, Standard Bank CEO Jacko Maree, Pick n Pay’s former CEO Sean Summers and ARM chairman Patrice Motsepe. This year’s panel — which included Michael Spicer, the CEO of Business Leadership SA and a director of Anglo American SA; Thina Siwendu, director of law firm Siwendu & Partners and a corporate governance specialist; Reg Rumney, director at the Centre for Economics Journalism in Africa at Rhodes University; Sunday Times editor Mondli Makhanya, and Business Times editor Paul Stober — short- listed the following big business achievers: Johann Rupert, Head of the Richemont and Remgro groups In what is possibly the deal of the year, Rupert’s Remgro and Richemont will hive off their shareholdings in British American Tobacco, a move which will result in the listing of BAT. At its value of R560-billion at the time of the announcement, it would be the biggest company on the JSE. The deal will also see the launch of a new company Reinet, offering investors offshore exposure. Rupert, a refreshingly blunt CEO, chairs Remgro, the diversified investment company his father Anton built in SA, and Richemont, the offshore luxury goods group. Rupert, who studied economics and company law, worked at Chase Manhattan Bank and Lazard Freres before joining his family empire. He founded RMB in 1979 and has headed Richemont since it was formed in 1988. Rupert’s salaries at Remgro and Richemont are donated to charity. Knott-Craig pioneered industry’s growth in SAAlan Knott-Craig, Retiring CEO of Vodacom Knott-Craig, who leaves his post as CEO of Vodacom at the end of this month, pioneered the growth of the cellphone industry in SA. Despite the fact that Vodacom has been constrained via a shareholders’ agreement, in terms of its geographic reach, it is still a formidable force. The company has also led innovation: prepaid and please-call-me are both SA inventions. Knott-Craig leaves Vodacom (although he remains an adviser for some months) at a time of change, which should see it freed from the constraints imposed by having two equal controlling shareholders, Telkom and Vodafone, as the latter intends taking a bigger stake. Knott-Craig became CEO in 1996. M&R is involved in almost every major project under wayBrian Bruce, CEO, Murray & Roberts Bruce took over as CEO of construction group Murray & Roberts (M&R) when it was in desperate need of a turnaround. The group is now SA’s largest construction company and at last count had an order book of about R55-billion, up 144% on 2007. Bruce has steered M&R into an international group, with international operations now accounting for 40% of its activity. There is hardly a major project under way in which M&R is not involved. Its major projects include Dubai International Airport, Gautrain, Green Point Stadium and Eskom’s power-generation programme. Bruce, a civil engineer, became the CEO in 2000. He joined the group in 1967. Jacko Maree, CEO of Standard Bank The R36.7-billion investment by Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) for 20% of Standard Bank was a record for foreign direct investment into SA. Maree led the deal for Standard following his successful defence of a cheeky hostile bid by Nedcor a few years back. His ability to prove to shareholders that his bank was not the lumbering giant Nedcor said it was was reconfirmed after he pulled off the ICBC deal. This is not the best time for banks, considering the international credit crunch and slowed economic growth. These and the dilution of earnings following the ICBC sale subdued Standard’s results. But the bank managed to continue to grow and Maree’s leadership abilities remain unquestioned. Maree, who has a BCom and a master’s degree, started his career in the former Standard Merchant Bank in 1981. Pat Davies, CEO of SASOL In the pre-Davies era, the chemicals and liquid fuels company Sasol came under scrutiny for being a secretive, old-South Africa company that was unwilling to transform. Under Davies’ leadership, Sasol has not only performed well financially, but its management team and its board have become among the most representative in SA. The recently concluded multi- billion-rand Inzalo empowerment deal, one of the main reasons behind his nomination, has also transformed it at ownership level, and introduced hundreds of thousands of new shareholders. Sasol has projects and plans around the world. But it has also been proactive in terms of getting projects, and will spend R70-billion on expansion projects over the next three years. Davies, a mechanical engineer, became CEO in July 2005, but joined the group in 1975. MTN’s problem is keeping up with demandPhuthuma Nhleko, MTN CEO Nhleko spent most of this year engaged in merger and acquisition talks. Potential deals with Indian companies Bharti Airtel and Reliance Communications, however, came to nought. Nevertheless, the talks reflect MTN’s ongoing focus on geographical expansion. In fact, MTN’s biggest problem is keeping up with demand, and earlier this year Nhleko said the company would pump R30-billion into expanding infrastructure. Since he joined MTN, it has grown rapidly, and in the year to December reported net profit of R11.9-billion. Nhleko, who is a civil engineer and has an MBA, has been CEO since July 2002. He is a founder of Worldwide African Investment Holdings. Stephen Saad, CEO of Aspen Pharmaceuticals SAAD clinched two major deals that entrench his company’s position as a leading player in pharmaceuticals. He announced that subsidiary Aspen Global would pay R2.7- billion for four GlaxoSmithKline products for most major markets worldwide, a deal that also gives it access to sell its own products worldwide. This deal alone will add nearly 40% to its earnings a share. Additionally, Aspen won a significant part of the R3.6- billion government tender for antiretrovirals. Saad founded Aspen in 1997 with Gus Attridge and a third partner, who has since left. Since then he has bought SA Druggists and become Africa’s largest pharmaceutical manufacturer and the largest generics manufacturer in the southern hemisphere. Aspen is also the leading supplier of generic medicines to both the private and the public sectors in South Africa. |
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