The Aussie who runs Dow Chemical
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There’s been plenty of feedback about yesterday’s item on successful Australian CEO expats but we missed the biggest one of all – Dow Chemical CEO Andrew Liveris, a Brisbane High boy who was guest speaker at last year’s graduation ceremony. Liveris is also a non-executive director of Citigroup, the world’s biggest bank, so he’s clearly our leading executive export at the moment given that Dow is capitalised at $US40.4 billion and fellow Australian David Mackay only has $US19.84 billion of market value to preside over at Kellogg Corporation. The list of Australian’s on the boards of multinationals is also interesting and we’ve gathered the following names so far: Andrew Liveris: Dow Chemical CEO who sits on the Citigroup board Jac Nasser: chairman of Polaroid and director of BSkyB Jill Kerr-Conway: former diplomat and Lend Lease chair is on Colgate-Palmolive and Merrill Lynch boards Paul Johnson: former Campbell Soup CEO is on Colgate-Palmolive board Leigh Clifford: retiring Rio Tinto CEO is on Barclays Bank board ANZ was keen to point out yesterday that its Scottish CEO, John McFarlane, has become an Australian citizen. He’s showing no signs of wanting to return home, unlike the vast majority of CEOs we import such as Frank Blount, Paul Anderson, George Trumbull, Bob Joss and Brian Gilbertson. Former Axa Asia Pacific CEO Les Owen is the other one who became an Australian citizen and elected to stay. We pointed out yesterday that our five biggest companies are all run by foreigners, so here are the other 11 names that comprise the 16 top 100 companies which looked offshore for leadership: Don Voelte (US) – Woodside Petroleum One other correction from yesterday is the entry of former Placer Dome CEO Peter Tomsett. The company was taken over by rival Barrick Gold last year and the Aussie did not emerge as CEO of the combined operation which is now capitalised at $US24.35 billion. Keep the feedback coming to smayne@crikey.com.au |
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