Ivan Glasenberg

Background and early career

Glasenberg was born in January 1957 in South Africa to a Jewish family. His father, Samuel Glasenberg, was "a luggage manufacturer and importer born in Lithuania", and his mother, Blanche, was South African. The family lived in Illovo, Gauteng, a suburb of Johannesburg. Glasenberg was an athlete, and by his early 20s was national junior champion in race walking. In his youth Glasenberg was also a friend of Mick Davis, who would become the CEO of mining company Xstrata.

Glasenberg graduated with a Bachelor of Commerce and a Bachelor of Accountancy from the University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa. Glasenberg was with Nexia Levitt Kirson, a firm of chartered accountants, for five years and is a Chartered Accountant, South Africa [CA (SA)]. He received his MBA from the IBEAR program at University of Southern California in 1983.

Glencore International

Glasenberg joined Glencore in 1984, working in the coal department in South Africa and Australia. He managed Glencore's Hong Kong and Beijing offices from 1989 to 1990, and became head of the company's coal department in 1991. He was named CEO in 2002.

In 2005, BusinessWeek referred to Glasenberg as a key figure in the secretive commodities trading of Marc Rich's company Mark Rich & Co. AG. Rich was a billionaire commodities trader. He was charged with tax evasion and illegal deals with Iran but was later pardoned by US President Bill Clinton. Glencore is the corporate successor to Marc Rich & Co AG.

As of August 2011, it has been reported that, due to the economic climate, Glasenberg lost GB£788 million as his share price plummeted 13.2 per cent leaving his 15.8 per cent of the company worth GB£4.7 billion. In September 2011, using his own dividends, Glasenberg started buying a larger share of Glencore, buying up to an additional US$54 million of Glencore stock. In April 2012 it was reported that Glasenberg held more than 15 per cent of Glencore's stock, placing him as the 20th richest mining billionaire, with Forbes estimating his net worth at US$7.3 billion.

Glencore Xstrata

Glasenberg became CEO of the mergered entity created when Glencore and Xstrata finalised one of the largest mining company mergers in history creating a US$88 billion company. Originally Xstrata CEO Mick Davis was to be CEO while Glasenberg would be President in a merger of equals transaction, however due to holding out of major Xstrata shareholder Qatar, it became a takeover target, with a 3.05 Glencore to 1 Xstrata Share exchange to create the new entity Glencore Xstrata with Glasenberg becoming CEO. Davis left the company in July 2013.

Glasenberg has served an executive director of Xstrata Plc (since 2002); and as a non-executive director of Minara Resources Ltd (since 2000); of Rusal Plc (since 2007); and Century Aluminum Co. (between 2010–2011).

Personal life

Glasenberg has been a champion race-walker for both South Africa and Israel, and runs and swims daily to maintain his fitness. He is married with two children, and a resident of the village of Rüschlikon in Switzerland. Glasenberg paid 360 million SFr (£240m) in taxes to Rüschlikon following Glencore's flotation on the London Stock Exchange. The money enabled the residents to cut their taxation rate by 7%, which was approved by large majority after a public vote, and attracted criticism from some villagers with regards to Glencore's alleged controversial business practices.

Wealth rankings

When Glencore floated via an initial public offering in May 2011, it was reported that Glasenberg personally earned billions. In 2013 he replaced Mick Davis as CEO of the merged Glencore Xstrata, with a salary of an undisclosed amount. By 2016 according to Forbes Asia, Glasenberg had failed to make the cutoff of the 50 wealthiest Australians by net worth, with a threshold of US$500 million. In 2017 the Financial Review Rich List assessed Glassenberg's net worth at A$6.85 billion.