THE TIMES (UK): THE POWER 100: SIR MARK MOODY-STUART, No. 2 IN “THE TIMES” LIST OF BRITAIN'S 100 MOST POWERFUL BUSINESS LEADERS (ShellNews.net)
November 02, 2004
2: Sir Mark Moody-Stuart
Biggest FTSE directorship: non-executive director, Anglo-American (natural resources, £300,000).
Other FTSE directorships: non-executive director HSBC (banking and finance, £50,000); Shell (natural resources, £69,000).
Power 100 score: 400.8.
Age: 64.
Career: Moody-Stuart took over as chairman of Anglo American, the mining group, last year. He is a former chairman and managing director of Shell, and currently a non-exec director there. He was appointed a non-exec director of HSBC in 2001.
Network:
Chris Fay is on the board of Anglo American with Moody-Stuart. Fay was chairman and chief executive of Shell UK from 1993 to 1998 while Moody-Stuart was MD of the parent company.
Sir William Purves, the former chairman of HSBC, served as a non-executive director of Shell from 1993 to 2002 while Moody-Stuart was managing director and then chairman and managing director. Moody Stuart is an HSBC non-executive director.
9: Maarten Van Den Bergh
Biggest FTSE directorship: non-executive chairman, Lloyds TSB (banking and finance, £435,000).
Other FTSE directorships: non-executive director BT Group (telecoms, £44,000); British Airways (transport, £30,000).
Power 100 score: 325.2.
Age: 62.
Career: Van den Bergh, a Dutchman, worked for Shell for nearly 25 years. He stepped down in 2000. In the same year as his departure from the oil group, he became chairman of Lloyds TSB and a director of BT. He was appointed to the board of British Airways as a non-exec director in 2002.
Network:
Philip Hampton, the current chairman of J Sainsbury, the retailer, was at BT with van den Bergh from 2000 to 2002. Van den Bergh sat on the board of Lloyds TSB with Hampton in 2001 and 2002.
DeAnne Julius (see 37=) is a non-executive director at Lloyds TSB with Van den Bergh. Both used to work for Shell. Julius was employed by the British Airways pension fund from 1993 to 1997. Van den Bergh took up a non-executive directorship at British Airways in 2002.
Lord Marshall of Knightsbridge left the British Airways board this year, after 20 years as chief executive and then chairman. Van den Bergh joined BA in 2002. In 2000 and 2001 both men sat as non-execs at British Telecom.
28: Jeroen Van Der Veer
Biggest FTSE directorship: chief executive, Shell (natural resources, c£1,200,000).
Other FTSE directorships: non-exec director, Unilever (consumer goods, c£45,000).
Power 100 score: 279.6.
Age: 57.
Career: Van der Veer joined the Shell group of companies in 1971. He was appointed president of Royal Dutch in 2000, having been a managing director since 1997. Last week he was made the first chief executive of the whole Anglo-Dutch enterprise ahead of the wholesale amalgamation of the sister companies. Van der Veer is a member of the supervisory board of De Nederlandsche Bank and has served as a non-executive at Unilever since 2002.
Network:
There are no obvious ties.
Related Article: The Times: Loyal servants are the corporate giants
November 02, 2004
TO GET ON in business, what you know is of marginal importance. Your “who you know” qualities are far more critical.
Or so it is said. A glance at the second annual The Times Power 100 appears to confirm the ascendance of the “who” over the “what.” The connections outlined in the following pages are deep. But since a tie between a The Power 100 constituent and a prominent colleague is only cited when two points of contact can be highlighted, it is fair to assume that the network of director relationships goes wider than even this analysis suggests.
The bulk of the connections are derived from examining the records of plc companies with shares listed on the London stock market. If the net is thrown wider to include private companies, City advisers, public and private equity fund managers, regulators and politicians, the matrix of personal contacts would be seen to be many times larger. A single point of contact, moreover, may be sufficient to drive a significant chapter of career advancement.
Close examination of The Power 100, however, may lead one to challenge the notion that who you know is more important than what you know. It is certainly the case that you have to do more than buzz around, gadfly-like, to secure a successful business career.
Some may take issue with the way the league has been calculated. Oddities exist — such as the fact that Lord Browne of Madingley, chief executive of BP, occupies a lower The Power 100 position than John Manzoni, his subordinate. But unlike most work of this nature, which leans on subjective opinions of individuals’ influence, The Power 100 is derived using objective methodolgy. Business figures earn places according to the number of FTSE directorships they hold, the type of directorship and the value of companies at which directorships are held.
Since many in The Power 100 sustain a portfolio of boardroom roles, it may lead one to conclude, once again, that the “who” is more important than the “what.” But look beneath the surface and you will that see that success comes to those who have built careers on long service at single companies.
Loyalty to one corporation does stop an executive developing a network of external contacts, of course, but one of the most intriguing conclusions is that demonstrable allegiance to a single employer commands respect from those making the highest of high level corporate appointments. Sir Tom McKillop, the winner, serves on three big boards — AstraZenenca, Lloyds TSB and BP. But it is his long experience helping AstraZeneca to gain and sustain a leading world commercial position that appears to underscore his attractions. Ditto Ken Hydon, Oliver Stocken, John Buchanan, Leigh Clifford, Paul Walsh, David Jones and Rob Rowley, to name but a few.
Plenty of exceptions prove the rule, of course. Readers of this survey, however, will enhance both what they know and who they know.