Ivan Glasenberg
Ivan Glasenberg
Ivan Glasenbergis the chief executive officer of Glencore, one of the world's largest commodity trading and mining companies. Glasenberg has or had citizenship of South Africa and Australia. He became a Swiss citizen in 2011. He is also on the boards of mining companies Xstrata plc and Minara Resources Ltd...
NationalitySouth African
ProfessionEntrepreneur
Date of Birth8 January 1957
executives fully
A lot of deals are done or not done because chief executives are not fully aligned to shareholders.
coal dealing guys invested knew
When we first invested in Colombia, we were buying a lot of coal from Colombia. We were dealing with them daily. I knew their guys at the port, I knew their guys at the mine, I had a feel of the country.
focused good great return three
What are we focused on? Return on equity. We don't need these great big tier one assets. I'm very happy with getting tier two, tier three assets; that's what Glencore has been good at.
cost creating next supply
We're creating new supply for the world, which is key. If we didn't get more tonnes into the system, your next motorcar is going to cost more because the aluminum cost is going to be higher.
call chase people work
We want people who work for us to be entrepreneurs. We like them to look at ideas. We like them to chase ideas. We like them to not be what I call a caretaker of an asset.
america country interested man money observed phone selling south talking wax
I observed a man sourcing candle wax from South America and selling it to Japan. I thought: 'That's unbelievable. Talking on the phone in his office, that man made money moving candle wax from one country to another.' It really interested me.
develop helping itself miners time vital
Africa is where commodities are found, so it is vital that Glencore and other miners are there to develop those resources, helping Africa itself to grow at the same time.
hope major
You're doing a major merger, you got to hope you didn't get it wrong. That's the view of any CEO.
ahead early work
You'll sacrifice a lot of things in the early part of your career to be successful, but to be ahead of your competitors, you have to work hard.
days six travel
You want to be a trader, come be a trader. The door's open. You want to travel six days a week, you want to travel the world, the door's open.
cheaply
Why should I build an asset when I can buy it more cheaply than you can build it?
buy nickel
When the opportunities come, we may not want to buy another nickel asset, but if something comes cheap enough, we're all about return on equity.
below guys money taking
We're all shareholders. These guys below me, they see the CEO taking it easy, it's their money.
benefit life rich work
We work. You don't come here to take life easy. And we all got rich from it, so, you know, there's a benefit from it.