PERSONALITY | OF THE YEAR
There was a strong case for each of the business titans on the shortlist for City A.M.’s prestigious personality of the year award.
Ivan Glasenberg, chief executive of Glencore, pulled off the largest-ever float in London earlier this year, while Burberry chief Angela Ahrendts has done an “outstanding” job since taking the helm of the luxury brand in 2006, overseeing record sales and expanding into China, Brazil and India.
The judges commended Peter Clarke’s achievement in turning around Man Group, returning the world’s largest hedge fund to positive inflows and launching a savings product in Japan that raised £2bn. And financier Nat Rothschild won praise for raising more than £2bn in a year when no-one else has raised “anything close” on the London Stock Exchange. “To have a Rothschild name but to be valued in his own right is quite an achievement,” said Centrica’s chairman Sir Roger Carr.
But while Rothschild has 50 years of hard work ahead of him, the award went to the business leader with 50 years’ hard graft behind him: Gerald Ronson, CEO of Heron International, in a year that saw the completion of the landmark Heron Tower. “Ronson has spent a lifetime building his credibility,” said one admirer on the property developer whose fortunes dipped in the 1980s Guinness scandal. “But, like Kipling’s “If”, he has built it all again and never breathed a word about his loss.”
SHORTLISTED:
ANGELA AHRENDTS,
CHIEF EXECUTIVE OF BURBERRY
SHORTLISTED:
IVAN GLASENBERG,
CHIEF EXECUTIVE OF GLENCORE
SHORTLISTED:
NAT ROTHSCHILD, FOUNDER OF
VALLAR AND
VALLARES
SHORTLISTED:
PETER CLARKE,
CHIEF EXECUTIVE OF MAN GROUP