The guy who sat in front of you in Standard 9 English class
by Fred Roed on 03/12/07 at 10:18 pm
6 comments
Heard of Marius Kloppers?
Well, neither had I until I read Fortune’s ‘25 most powerful people in business‘ list. Marius is number 18 on the list. He also happens to be South African. He’s the CEO of BHP Billiton, and is hot on the heels of Mark Hurd, CEO of HP at number 16, and is kicking the ass of Indra Nooyi, Chairman of Pepsico, and Bob Iger, CEO of Disney. He’s got a way to go before he catches up to Steve Jobs (no. 1), Rupert Murdoch (no. 2) and the Google guys (no. 4), but what an awesome achievement.
According to the article Marius is aggressive and ambitious, even though he looks like the kind of guy that would win the school prize for ‘Most Likely To Be Approved Of When You Take Him Home To Meet Your Mama’.
This reminds me a mild-mannered guy who sat in front of me in Standard 9 English class. Smart guy, but a little short on people skills. I told a few people who cared to listen that he’d never cut it in the outside world since he’s too clever for his own good. People just won’t get him.
A couple of years later this same guy sold his company for 3 billion rand and made ‘the outside world’ his personal playground. Mark Shuttleworth became South Africa’s youngest billionaire.
Boy, did I get that one wrong.
How many more superstars do we have coming through the ranks, plodding quietly through the system, poring over their school books…
Perhaps even reading Ideate?
Fred Roed is the marketing guy in the Ideate crew. Fred is the CEO of web marketing company World Wide Creative and the co-founder of online learning portal Heavy Chef. Fred loves writing about people out there doing marketing right. Follow Fred on Twitter here. View more articles by Fred Roed.
thescott
Dec 4th, 2007
Glad to see I’m not the only Bishops boy floating around ye old “blogosphere”!
Fred
Dec 4th, 2007
Ha! – you’re onto me…
An SA businessman 18th most powerful in world | SA Rocks
Dec 6th, 2007
[...] I have but I think that they have said most of the stuff I can say, here’s a snippet from their post: He’s the CEO of BHP Billiton, and is hot on the heels of Mark Hurd, CEO of HP at number 16, and [...]
Mark Forrester
Dec 10th, 2007
Looks like there are a few of us Bishops bloggers around. I was in Gray House a few years later. With thescott’s and shuttleworth’s brothers
Fred
Dec 10th, 2007
Throw in the guy from 2oceansvibe.com and we’ve got a virtual OD community here…!
neil.mansfield
Sep 17th, 2010
He is a good man Marius kloppers. The left wing ,sexual and rugged business man will rule the world. He will soon be king of Australia.We don’t need Justin Timberlake , we need King K loppers. The sexual and rugged business man that can stiffen a man’s cock. Marius Klopper fan