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Ivan Glasenberg. Photo by Financial Times.

Top 10 Intriguing Facts about Ivan Glasenberg

Ivan Glasenberg was born on 7th January 1957. He is a South African business executive and the former CEO of Glencore, one of the world’s largest commodity trading and mining firms. Glasenberg announced in December 2020 that he will step down as CEO in June 2021. Glasenberg has or has had South African and Australian citizenship. In 2011, he became a Swiss citizen.  He also serves on the board of Minara Resources Ltd, a mining company.

1. Glasenberg grew up in a suburb in Johannesburg

Illovo South. Photo by landagent.

Glasenberg was born to a Jewish family in South Africa on January 7, 1957. His father, Samuel Glasenberg, was a “Lithuanian luggage manufacturer and importer,” and his mother, Blanche Vilensky, was South African. The family lived in Illovo, a suburb in Johannesburg.

Glasenberg was an athlete who, by his early twenties, had won the national junior championship in race walking. In 1984, Ivan married Elana Beverley Orelowitz. Glasenberg was also a childhood friend of Mick Davis, the CEO of mining company Xstrata.

2. Ivan Glasenberg, joined Glencore in April 1984

Ivan Glasenberg. Photo by Financial Times.

Ivan Glasenberg joined Glencore in April 1984 and has served as CEO since January 2002. Mr Glasenberg began his career as a marketer in South Africa’s coal commodity department before moving to Australia to lead the Asian coal commodity division for two years.

3. Between 1988 and 1989 he was based in Hong Kong 

He was based in Hong Kong between 1988 and 1989 as the head of Glencore’s Hong Kong and Beijing offices, as well as the head of coal marketing in Asia, where his responsibilities included overseeing Glencore’s Asian coal marketing business and managing the administrative functions of the Hong Kong and Beijing offices.

3. Ivan Glasenberg became Glencore CEO in 2002

In January 1990, he was appointed to oversee Glencore’s global coal business for both marketing and industrial assets, a position he held until becoming CEO in January 2002. Mr Glasenberg is a South African Chartered Accountant with a Bachelor of Accountancy from the University of Witwatersrand. Mr. Glasenberg has an MBA from the University of Southern California as well.

He currently serves on the board of directors of United Company Rusal plc as a non-executive director. Mr Glasenberg worked for Levitt Kirson Chartered Accountants in South Africa for five years before joining Glencore.

4. Ivan Glasenberg is a product of the University of the Witwatersrand

University of the Witwatersrand. Photo by Samuella99.

Ivan Glasenberg earned his bachelor’s degree in accounting from the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg and is a chartered accountant. He traveled to the United States and enrolled in a management course at the University of Southern California.

Glasenberg returned to South Africa after finishing his MBA and worked for five years in an accounting firm.

5. Glasenberg transformed the Anglo-Swiss miner into the world’s fourth-largest mining group

Ivan Glasenberg. Photo by International Students’ Committee.

Glasenberg publicized the world’s largest commodity trader in 2011, raising around $10 billion in a massive dual IPO in London and Hong Kong, making it one of the year’s largest initial public offerings.

In the largest transaction of his career, the South African native, who made his name as a trader and deal-maker, led Glencore’s $29 billion acquisition of miner Xstrata in 2012. Glencore transformed itself from a trading firm to a mining and trading behemoth by acquiring Xstrata. Glasenberg transformed the Anglo-Swiss miner into the world’s fourth-largest mining group at the time, with operations in copper, nickel, and coal.

6. He’s a fitness enthusiast and former South African race walking champion

Glasenberg was an avid athlete as a child, eventually becoming a champion race walker who would have competed in the 1984 Olympics if South Africa had not been barred from competing due to apartheid.

Glasenberg was courteous, friendly, and approachable, according to Chris Rael, who trained with him in California in the 1980s and now works for the US athletics team. “He never mentioned money or business, so I’d never guessed that’s what he’d become.” 

7. Ivan Glasenberg handed over Glencore to Gary Nagle

Ivan Glasenberg handed over the reins of the global mining and marketing company to top Glencore executive Gary Nagle in mid-2021. Nagle has served the company for more than two decades and is well-known in South Africa, where he ran Glencore’s ferroalloys business.

The succession announcement came at a time when the London- and Johannesburg-listed company’s performance was at an all-time high, and the company was in peak financial fitness, according to CFO Steve Kalmin.
Glencore chairman Tony Hayward stated that the board had been collaborating with Glasenberg for the past two years to ensure a smooth transition.

Glasenberg believed that 65 is the appropriate age to hand over to a new generation and younger leader, and he was set to work with Nagle in the first half of 2021.

8. Ivan Glasenberg had an estimated net worth of $9.1 billion

US dollar banknotes. Photo by Pepi Stojanovski.

Glasenberg’s fortune is largely derived from a 9% stake in Glencore, the world’s largest commodities’ trader. According to the company’s 2021 annual report, he owns the shares directly. Glencore went public on the London Stock Exchange in May 2011, and then merged with Xstrata in May 2013.

9. Glasenberg paid Rüschlikon 360 million Swiss francs (£240 million) in taxes

The Swiss town of Rueschlikon, which is home to Glencore GLEN. L CEO, Ivan Glasenberg, cut taxes following a windfall from the commodity company’s IPO.  As a result, Rüschlikon, already known as the “richest village in Switzerland,” found itself with so much extra money that the village council proposed cutting its already low tax rate by 7%.

In a public vote, the idea was overwhelmingly approved, but some citizens argued against the windfall, claiming it was tainted money, and are still concerned today. The money that Rüschlikon receives comes from Glencore’s mining and trading operations in over 40 countries around the world.

10. He once boasted about being one of the lowest-paid CEOs

Ivan Glasenberg boasted that he was one of the lowest paid chief executives in the FTSE 100, despite paying himself a $172 million (£113 million) dividend for the year. Glasenberg earned $1.5 million in pay and benefits in 2011, but $109 million in dividends, propelling him into the ranks of the world’s highest paid executives.