G. V. Prasad is an Indian business executive, and CEO of Dr. Reddy's Laboratories. Prasad studied Chemical Engineering at the Alagappa College of Technology. After completing five semesters, he went on to the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago to complete the three remaining semesters. Prasad followed up the engineering degree with a one-year MBA at Purdue University. He won the 'Outstanding Senior Student' Award from the American Institute of Chemists, Chicago chapter in 1982. He earned his Masters in Industrial Administration from Purdue University a year later.
His first exposure to the world of pharmaceuticals was in 1985 with Benzex Labs, a pharmaceutical enterprise that he co-founded. Benzex was later acquired by Dr. Reddys and Prasad returned to the construction business, only to come back to pharmaceuticals in 1990 – this time as the CEO and MD of Cheminor Drugs Ltd. In 2001, Cheminor Drugs merged with Dr.Reddy's Laboratories and Prasad took over as the vice-chairman and CEO of the merged entity.
Early career:
After completing his Masters, Prasad returned to India and joined his father's construction business, immersing himself in various projects in Karnataka. In 1985, he co-founded Benzex Labs, an API manufacturing company, which was later acquired by Dr Reddy's. He briefly returned to the construction business before reappearing on the pharma landscape in 1990 as managing director of Cheminor Drugs Ltd. Fueled by a spirit of entrepreneurship, Prasad transformed Cheminor into a world class API and Generics manufacturer, largely through his focus on professionalism, good governance and transparency.
In 2001, Cheminor Drugs merged with Dr.Reddy's Laboratories and Prasad took over as the vice-chairman and CEO of the merged entity. Prasad is widely credited as the architect of Dr. Reddy's successful global generics strategy. He envisioned newer business platforms like the Custom Pharmaceutical business and Specialty pharmaceuticals and is dedicated to building the innovation side of the business.
Professional affiliations:
AP State Committee, WWF-India
Member of the Advisory Board, Acumen Fund
Member of the Board, Infotech Enterprises Ltd.
Member of the Board, Diana Hotels, India
Member of the Board, Ocimum Bio Solutions
Member, American Chemical Society
Member, American Institute of Chemical Engineers
Served as Chairman of the CII National Committee on Environment and the Intellectual Property Committee (2006–2007)
Dr. Garo H. Armen is a Turkish-born, of Armenian descent, USA businessman.
He was born on January 31, 1953, in Turkey. He moved to New York in 1970. According to the New York Times he became a messenger boy for a nonprofit Armenian organization. In the article Armen stated, "I worked five hours a day, five days a week. I got two bucks an hour…and that was a lot of money for me. His second job was in the kitchen of the Lawyers’ Club but it only lasted a day. "I thought I’d learn to cook. Instead, they asked me to wash dishes. I had to climb into the soup bucket, which was huge, and clean it out. Shortly after, I got a job in a bank as a clerk."
One night in 1978, in the middle of the energy crisis, Armen was driving home when he stopped at a gas station. "I noticed that gas pumps only had two digits [for the per gallon price]," in interview with The Scientist "Realizing that continued rising prices would force the pumps to be replaced in the near future, I borrowed $5,000 to invest in gas pumps." Soon enough, virtually every gas pump in America was replaced – and Armen had made $20,000. His interest in business was pricked, and had already paid off.
By 1979, he received his PhD in physical chemistry from the City University of New York. Armen served as Senior Vice President of Research for Dean Witter Reynolds (1986–1989), focusing on the chemical and pharmaceutical industries and with E.F. Hutton & Company as first Vice President (1981–1986). Before entering finance, Armen has been an associate professor at the Merchant Marine Academy and as a research associate at the Brookhaven National Laboratory.
Armen’s journey into drug development began when his mother died from breast cancer in 1973. The two shared a one-room Brooklyn apartment where Armen administered her morphine shots until she died. In 1994, Armen was approached by Pramod Srivastava, then a biochemist at Mount Sinai School of Medicine, about the possibility of developing Oncophage from a clinical and commercial perspective. The treatment involved removing a patient's tumor cells, isolating and fortifying the cellular proteins that normally alert the immune system to disease, and re-injecting the proteins into the patient. In 1994, Armen co-founded Antigenics with Srivastava.
Career and business ventures:
Agenus:
Armen is chairman and chief executive officer of Agenus Inc., formerly known as Antigenics Inc., a biotechnology company that discovered Oncophage, a personalized cancer vaccine recently approved in Russia for patients with earlier-stage kidney cancer and currently under review with the European Regulatory Agency. The clinical history of Oncophage was chartered extensively in a front-page story in the Wall Street Journal, August 2, 2007. In another interview with Business Week and CBS, Armen described how the idea of personalized medicine tailored to the patient grabbed him and launched Antigenics with $250,000 of his own money, plus the backing of a few friends. He was initially stirred by the results from animal testing; the vaccine cured 80% of mice in the early stages of cancer with virtually no side effects.
By February 2000, Antigenics went public at $18 a share, raising $72.5 million. A few months later the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) agreed to review the vaccine on an accelerated schedule when the company filed for approval, and Antigenics began recruiting 728 patients with kidney cancer for the phase 3 trial, the largest study conducted in the world.
Ultimately, 118 cancer centers participated in the trial, 63 of them outside the U.S.. The largest group of patients, 172, was treated in Russia. In April 2008, Oncophage was approved by the Russian Ministry of Health, making Russia the first country in the world to approve a personalized cancer vaccine in patients with earlier-stage kidney cancer. On the day Antigenics announced Oncophage's approval, CNBC ran a lead story on the personalized cancer vaccine as well as generating a debate on both television and their website on the regulatory landscape in Russia versus USA – the question posed to the audience was whether America had fallen behind the rest of the world in terms of approving innovative drugs? CNBC concluded with the following statement "The Antigenics story, of course, is making big news in Russia. It's the top story, for example, on this news web site. According to our Senior Economics Correspondent Steve Liesman--who used to live and work in Russia where he won a Pulitzer for his reporting--the headline says, Russia becomes the first country in the world to sell an American cancer vaccine." Armen is now focusing the company’s efforts in Europe, and hopes to receive marketing approval for Oncophage in early 2010.
Oncophage is currently[when?] in clinical development for brain cancer, a devastating disease with few treatment options and survival rates of between three and six months, according to the lead investigator, Dr. Andrew Parsa from UCSF. The study is showing encouraging results and the first patient who received the vaccine, Ms Hammerman, was interviewed by Good Morning America describing her experiences of taking the vaccine.
Elan:
While retaining his position at Antigenics, Armen became chairman of the board of directors for the biopharmaceutical company Élan Corporation plc from mid-2002 through 2004. The company was on the brink of collapse brought down by an accounting scandal that earned it the label of "Europe's Enron". During his tenure, Armen became the architect of the company’s $1 billion restructuring program by strengthening Élan’s finances, refocusing the group on its core clinical development business and returning shareholder value. On the day that Armen assumed chairmanship, the Wall Street Journal and BBC discussed the restructuring plan in some detail. He said "(our) first task is clean house…the world is concerned we’ll file for bankruptcy".
By 2004, the Sunday Times of London hailed Armen as the chairman that saved the company stating that “it is one of the great corporate recovery stories.” Armen commented “ For about three months… every day, every hour was critical. Any one of many things could have made the company collapse. We were on the hook every single day until we had an agreement to sell our first major asset.”
Armen Partners:
Prior to founding Antigenics in 1994, Armen established Armen Partners, a money management firm specializing in biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies, and was the originator of the widely publicized creation of the Immunex Lederle oncology business in 1993.
Gary C. Kelly is the chief executive officer and chairman of Southwest Airlines. He first joined the company in 1986 as Controller. In 1989, Kelly was promoted to Chief Financial Officer and Vice President of Finance. In 2001, he was promoted to Executive Vice President. Kelly spent 3 years in this role until he was promoted to his current position as CEO and vice chairman in 2004 replacing James Parker who succeeded Herb Kelleher in 2001. He received a Bachelor of Business Administration in Accounting from The University of Texas at Austin and is a Certified Public Accountant.
Kelly was named Chairman of the Board of Directors of Southwest Airlines on May 21, 2008, replacing co-founder Herb Kelleher. Gary Kelly also became president of Southwest Airlines the same year, replacing Colleen Barrett when her contract expired on July 15, 2008.
Kelly was named one of the best CEOs in America for 2008, 2009 and 2010 by Institutional Investor magazine and serves on the President's Council of Jobs and Competitiveness.
Gary Rodkin is the past CEO and President of ConAgra Foods, one of the largest food processing companies in North America. Rodkin was formerly the CEO and president of the North America division of PepsiCo from 1995 to 2005, and still is a special consultant through his exit agreement with the company. He helped PepsiCo grow in the purchasing of Quaker Oats. He also was vice president of marketing at General Mills for many years before he left for PepsiCo. Rodkin got his bachelor's in economics from Rutgers University and his M.B.A. from Harvard School of Business.
On August 12, 2014, Rodkin announced that he would be retiring as CEO in 2015.
Compensation:
While CEO of ConAgra Foods in 2009, Gary M. Rodkin earned a total compensation of $5,858,677, which included a base salary of $1,019,231, a cash bonus of $1,100,000, stocks granted of $2,126,000, options granted of $1,425,850, and other compensation totaling $187,596.
Gautam Adani (born 24 June 1962) is an Indian business tycoon who is the chairman and founder of Adani Group. According to Forbes, his personal wealth is estimated to be $7.1 billion as of September 2014. He founded The Adani Group in 1988 and today it is a globally integrated infrastructure player with businesses spanning coal trading, coal mining, oil & gas exploration, ports, multi-modal logistics, power generation, Agri Infrastructure, edible oil & transmission and gas distribution. With business experience of more than 33 years, Gautam Adani is an Indian entrepreneur who has led the Adani group from a modest background to create a $10.4 billion professionally managed empire in a relatively short period of time. He is a first generation entrepreneur. The Adani Group's business strategy has revolved heavily around excessive leverage and political patronage. As of 2015, they are one of India's most indebted business groups.
He has also been recognized for establishing the modern Mundra port which was selected as the best port in 2006 by Lloyds. Mundra Port is now India's largest commercial port to have achieved a new landmark of handling 100 million metric tonnes in FY 13-14.
Career:
Instead of joining his father’s textile unit in Ahmedabad, Gautam Adani moved to Mumbai at a young age of 18 with only a few hundred rupees. He started his career working as a diamond sorter at Mahindra Brothers for 2 years and then went on to set up his own diamond brokerage business in Mumbai, India. He has claimed that he made his first million within a year, at the age of 20, a big amount during the 1980s.
Mahasukh Adani, Gautam’s elder brother and an entrepreneur, called Gautam back to Ahmedabad to run his newly purchased plastic factory.
Soon, Gautam began commodity trading by importing Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC), a key raw material for manufacturing plastic.
Gautam Adani, referred to as 'Gautambhai', is known for his risk appetite. Former IIM-A director Bakul Dholakia, who is associated with the Adani group's educational and CSR initiatives said, "In terms of the risk taking appetite and risk absorption capacity there are very few who can match Gautam Adani. There are many who take large risks, but very few have the ability to face their adversity with courage and conviction".
Adani Group:
In 1988, he established Adani Exports Limited (now known as the Adani Enterprises Ltd), the flagship company of the Adani Group, that traded in a variety of power and agricultural commodities. The economic liberalization in 1991 fuelled the rapid growth of the business and the huge profitability of Adani Exports provided further capital for Gautam Adani to expand his business.
In 1993, the Government of Gujarat invited private companies to run the Mundra Port and in 1995 the contract was given to Adani Group. Today, Mundra Port is the largest Private Sector port in India, with capability of handling close to 80 million tonnes of cargo per annum.
Gautam Adani is also the founder and promoter of Adani Power Ltd (APL), a power business arm of Adani Group. Adani Power has thermal power plants with capacity of 4620 MW, the largest private thermal power producer of the country. It is also the largest solar power producer of India with capacity 40MW.
The group gives 3 per cent of its profits to the Adani Foundation. He is particularly proud of Adani Vidya Mandir, a school in Ahmedabad which admits only those children whose parents have an annual income less than Rs.1 lakh. The school is run by his wife Priti.
Gennady Bogolyubov is a Ukrainian who controls the largest manganese mine in Australia. He has a personal net worth amounting to $2.6 billion, yet, he makes it a point to donate a fourth of his money to several different causes. To facilitate this, he created the Bogolyubov Foundation, a privately run and funded charity that caters and donates to different Jewish projects around the world. He is proud of his roots, so though he also gives to other causes, the Foundation almost always funds those charities that are related to Judaism and Israel.
He is the President and CEO of Kaiser Francis Oil, an Anglo-American company based in Tulsa in Oklahoma. He is a graduate of the Harvard Business School.
George Soros is an American-Hungarian business magnate who chairs the Soros Fund Management. In the business world, he is known for the billion dollars in profits that he earned during the currency crisis in the United Kingdom in the early 90s. He is an active supporter of progressive and liberal causes, donating money to advance the causes of democratic governance through several anti-fascist publications. He also supports human rights organizations, as well as agencies fighting for economic, legal and social reforms. He also played an active role in the transition of his native Hungary from communism in 1989. He also provided a huge endowment fund to the Central European University based in the Hungarian capital of Budapest.
He is the Chairman of the Open Society Institute. He played a key role in the transition of Hungary from communism to capitalism in the 1980s. He is known as, “The Man Who Broke the Bank of England” after successfully anticipating the British government’s move to devalue the pound. He made a billion pounds in the process.
He is the richest man in Great Britain. He is the 6th Duke of Westminster and he owns substantial number of properties. He is also the Chancellor of the University of Chester. He has estates and properties in Lancashire, Cheshire, Scotland, London, Spain and Canada.
Gerald L. Hassell (born 1952) is an American bank executive and is the Chairman and CEO of The Bank of New York Mellon.
Background:
Gerald Hassell joined the Bank of New York in 1973 when he was only 21 years old as a management trainee, and has held various positions in the credit and corporate banking divisions. He was involved in the formation and operation of the bank's Communications, Entertainment & Publishing Division, and had responsibility for strategic planning and administrative services. Prior to his appointment as president and director in 1998, during which he replaced Tom Renyi who went on to become CEO of the bank, Hassell was a senior executive vice president and chief commercial banking officer. He was also a member of the bank's Senior Policy Committee.
Education and other activities:
Hassell received a BA degree in Economics from Duke University in 1973 and an MBA in Finance from the New York University's Stern School of Business.
He is the former chairman of the Board of Visitors of The Fuqua School of Business at Duke University; a member of The Financial Services Roundtable and Financial Services Forum; a member of the board of Private Export Funding Corporation; and Vice Chairman of Big Brothers/Big Sisters of New York.
Philanthropy:
In 2012, Hassell and his wife, Anita-Agnes, donated $4 million to Duke University.