BHP Takes On Jack The Knife- US-FOREX.US
HONG KONG -
“Jack the Knife” is back. Jacques Nasser, the former Ford supremo, who acquired the nickname for his controversial cost-cutting efforts at the car maker, is going to chair BHP Billiton as it completes the merger of its Australian iron-ore business with Rio Tinto and continues with its price dispute with Chinese steel mills.Nasser was named by BHP Billiton
board on Tuesday as the successor of present chairman Don Argus and will take over in early 2010.Nasser joined the BHP Billiton board as a non-executive director in 2006 and is a member of the board’s risk and audit committee. BHP said the decision to appoint Nasser was made after a rigorous 18 month selection process. International recruitment firm Heidrick & Struggles was appointed as an independent adviser to assist BHP in evaluating both internal and external candidates. Nasser will make an excellent successor to Argus as Chairman, said John Buchanan, a senior independent director of BHP Billiton, who oversaw the entire chairman succession process. “He combines deep international business knowledge along with outstanding financial, senior management and board experiences,” the BHP statement said.According to widespread reports in the Australian media, Nasser beat another BHP director, John Schubert, also the chairman of Commonwealth Bank, in the final round of assessment.Schubert, who has a doctorate degree in chemical engineering and is the former chairman and managing director of Esso Australia, may seem to be more suited to chairing the world’s biggest miner on paper. Yet, present chairman Argus backed Nasser, Australia’s The Age reported late last month.
BHP paid special tribute to the immense contribution Argus had made to BHP Billiton over his thirteen years on the board of BHP, ten of which were as chairman. The 70-year old Argus is mostly regarded as a hero inside BHP as he led the miner climbed out from financial trauma and over-expansion after a spate of merger and acquisitions in the 90’s.With the blessing of Argus, 61-year-old Nasser is now once in the international spotlight after his dramatic reign as chairman and CEO of Ford between 1999 and 2001.Nasser, who was born in Lebanon but brought up in Australia, received a business degree from the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology and at the age of 20 joined Ford’s Australian unit as a cost accountant. Over three decades at Ford he became the most well-known Australian on the international business stage and climbed up to the top role in Detroit in January 1999.His huge multi-million remuneration annual package made him a controversial figure within Ford, and particularly with its labor union. As soon as he took over, Nasser kicked off sharp cost-cutting measures, both with component suppliers and through job cuts, in an attempt to maximize profits and shareholder’s dividends.He also made the decision to buy Swedish-based Volvo for 6.5 billion in early 1999. The transaction price was almost as much as Ford’s net profit of 6.6 billion in 1998.His bold expansion policy came at a price. Ford sank from the world’s most profitable carmaker before Nasser’s reign to an ailing auto company now. Ford still had to write-down 2.4 billion in 2008 for its Volvo investment.Nasser left Ford in 2001 and later joined One Equity Partners, the private equity arm of JP Morgan, as a senior partner. Nasser is also a director of British Sky Broadcasting
and sits on the international advisory board of German insurer Allianz
for the time being.