Evan Glasenberg led the raw materials company for twenty years. His work was not spared criticism. Now he is stepping down.
At eight in the morning, Ivan Glasenberg has already completed the morning sports program: jogging, swimming, cycling and has been in the office for a long time. They say that anyone who comes to work after eight thirty receives a dry “good evening”. Glasenberg stresses: In the field of raw materials, you are either fully involved or you lose in the competition.
The native South African came across the raw material trade while studying in Accountancy. He said he was visiting a raw materials company on a project and then overheard the merchants talking on the phone. He crept into the office and then saw how they moved raw materials like copper or candle wax between Chile and Japan. He was intrigued by the fact that people were able to send physical raw materials around the world from their South African offices, he says.
I joined Mark Rich
Glasenberg entered the world of raw materials through the coal trade, in the early 1980s at the Marc Rich Group, a controversial raw materials dealer in Zug. Like Rich, he made his way, with all the consequences.
In 2002 he was at the helm of Glencore Corporation, which succeeded Mark Rich, and is now one of the largest raw materials companies in the world. By the way, he does not have any emotional connection to the coal business itself, which paved the way for him to reach the top.
In 2011 the stock exchange
Ivan Glasenberg should have become known to the wider public in 2011. At that time he brought the collection to the stock exchange. Overnight, it became clear just how big and powerful Zug glencore was – and made himself and his followers billionaires.
Zug Heinz Tännler’s chief financial officer thinks a lot about the CEO. “For me, Glasenberg is a great entrepreneur. He is very serious. His attitude is the fact that he often appears aloof. “I also got to know another Glasenberg in formal meetings.”
No interest in NGOs
Evan Glasenberg also met Chantal Baer several times. As a representative of Bread for All, she presented him with various research a few years ago on wrongdoing related to Glencore’s activities in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. “Mr. Glasenberg is a man of influence. He is not used to dealing with other points of view. He said very clearly: We are not at the United Nations. He is not necessarily looking for equal dialogue. “He saw NGOs as a danger that had to be kept under control.” Glasenberg stresses that he does not think much about NGOs, especially when they want to assess a situation in a country from abroad.
Now the 64-year-old is stepping down. In the future, he wants to sleep a little more, do more sports and make various investments, for example on a farm in Lithuania, his father’s house.
Glasenberg is proud to have made Glencore so great in two decades. You will not regret anything. As CEO, his job was to find a suitable successor. He did it with Gary Nagel. This now brings new ideas. If things didn’t go well, he’d want to talk to his successor. Because: Glasenberg remains the single largest shareholder in the billion-dollar company.
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