It’s hard to imagine a more daunting task than taking the reins from Ivan Glasenberg, Glencore Plc’s chief executive officer, a man who put his stamp on his company like few other corporate leaders have.
Thankfully, his 45-year-old successor, fellow South African Gary Nagle, has a way to make his own mark: by finding a way for the mining giant to exit coal, the business he currently oversees.
Having spent two decades transforming Glencore from a secretive trading outfit into its present globe-spanning incarnation — most notably via the 2013 takeover of Xstrata — the swashbuckling, outspoken, Glasenberg chose a low key way to reveal his imminent retirement at an investor event on Friday.
The company’s 2011 stock-market listing made billionaires of several Glencore executives (Nagle wasn’t part of that gilded generation), although they were made to work for their money. Glasenberg, a keen athlete, isn’t exactly a fan of work-life balance.
Glasenberg’s empire building hasn’t been immune to crisis. In 2015, when the commodities boom abruptly ended, Glencore was left holding too much debt.
For the rest of this article: https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/mining-billionaire-leaves-a-dirty-task-to-his-successor-1.1531943