Marius Kloppers is CEO of BHP Billiton, the world’s largest mining company. He is presently the group president of BHP’s non ferrous metals division.
Education
Kloppers graduated with a Bachelor of Chemical Engineering from the University of Pretoria and subsequently went on to study a PhD at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He also graduated with an MBA from INSEAD.
Career
Kloppers worked in petrochemicals at Sasol and materials research with Mintek in South Africa. Following completion of his MBA at INSEAD, he then worked with management consultants McKinsey & Co in Netherlands before joining Billiton in 1993. In 2007, at the age of 44, he was appointed CEO of the largest resource company in the world, BHP Billiton. He officially assumed the position of CEO on 1 October 2007.
Kloppers took over as CEO of BHP Billiton by market capitalization (some $200 billion). One month later he launched a $150 billion takeover bid for rival Anglo-Australian mining giant Rio Tinto; the combined entity would be a resources superpower with a larger market cap than Microsoft and higher revenues (some $70 billion combined in 2007) than Dell or Boeing. On December 1st 2008, during the the global economic downturn, Kloppers announced that the bid for Rio Tinto was off.
Born: August 26, 1962 (age 46) in Cape Town, South Africa
Education: BE (Chem), MBA, PhD (Materials Science)
Spouse: Carin
Children: Noni, Reuben and Gabrielle
He is in Fortune Magazine’s list of 25 most powerful people in business.