This year, European Bureau Chief Eric Reguly got reacquainted with a couple of CEOs from his past.
In March, he had tea in London with X2 Resources chief executive officer Mick Davis, whom he first met in 2006 when the mining magnate was nearing the end of one of the biggest, nastiest takeover battles that Canada had ever seen. Mr. Davis’s Xstrata bought Toronto-based Falconbridge, paying almost $19-billion in a deal that doubled Xstrata’s size and vaulted it into the upper ranks of the London market’s FTSE 100 index.
Slimmer, trimmer predator
There’s a lot less to Mick Davis than there used to be. Let’s start with the man himself. When he was running Xstrata PLC, the mining company he sold to Glencore PLC, the world’s biggest commodities trader, in 2013, he was a big man – “Big Mick,” they called him. He topped out at 317 pounds and had developed Type 2 diabetes. In the interests of survival, he launched a hostile raid on his own girth. Today, Big Mick is on the verge of skinny, at 196 pounds, a downsizing so successful that he no longer has to take diabetes medications.
I ask him how he did it. “You eat less, exercise more and stick to it,” he says. “I took up cycling and I love it.”
His day job has shrunk, too, even more so. At its peak just before the 2008 financial crisis, Xstrata, which bought Canada’s Falconbridge Ltd. in 2006, had a market value of about $85-billion (U.S.), making it the fourth- or fifth-largest mining company in the world, with almost 70,000 employees and contractors.
Today, he runs X2 Resources, which has 10 employees and zero assets other than $4-billion of investor capital, some of it from Canadian pension funds, sitting idly in the bank.
X2 was launched a year ago and has been shopping for mining assets or operating companies, but has come up short. Mr. Davis admits he is finding it harder to buy now than in the previous decade, when he spent $35-billion on 40 rapid-fire acquisitions in one of the greatest bull runs in history. “We’ve given some people an expression of interest,” he said. “I expect to do a deal this year.”
I meet the slim edition of Mr. Davis at X2’s offices in Almack House, in the heart of imperial London, just off Pall Mall and St. James’s Square. His offices are instantly familiar. In fact, they are the same offices used by Xstrata. Bowls of fruit are placed here and there, just like in the old Xstrata days, although I could not imagine any visitor gobbling a banana before meeting the boss. I certainly don’t, though I sneak a grape or two.
The $5-billion dollar man
In March, he also revisited Burnaby, B.C.-born Lance Uggla and found he had mellowed a little since they last met:
Seven years ago, when I last interviewed Lance Uggla, I found him cocky, almost overbearing, even if I loved his energy and enthusiasm. The Canadian founder and chief executive officer of Markit Ltd., the financial information and services company that is often (though not quite accurately) described as the next Bloomberg or Thomson Reuters, was pumped up by Markit’s success and was predicting glories to come.
At the time, an old-fashioned easel, like the ones used by kindergarten teachers a generation ago, was the dominant feature in his slick London office. The easel held a big piece of paper on which “10” was scrawled. I asked him what the number represented. “Ten billion dollars,” he said without hesitation. “It’s our target valuation, where we think we can be. I’d be disappointed if we were less than that in five years time.”
He was off by a few billion, in the wrong direction. Markit’s initial public offering last June on the Nasdaq exchange valued the company at $4.3-billion (U.S.).
Today, after a galloping bull run, it’s worth about $5-billion. Not a bad return in less than a year, but still nowhere near his $10-billion call.
Over breakfast in late March at George, a private club in Mayfair, west London, where he is a member, Mr. Uggla brought up the prediction he had made. “I reread your old article and felt like I really underperformed,” he said, laughing.
Still, $5-billion is no laughing matter for a company that began life in 2003 in a barn in little St. Albans, England, with $17-million in startup capital from Canada’s TD Securities and 10 employees.
Words of wisdom
“It’s something I learned from my mother, who never graduated from high school but ran this restaurant for 40 years. She said to me, ‘Don’t be a jerk.’ That is probably the one thing I think about every day – and when I hire. We don’t hire jerks. She said, ‘People can help you. They can happily help you, or they can silently hurt you’ … ‘As long as you’re good to people, they’ll be good to you.’ I’ve always held on to that.” Judy John, CEO and CCO of Leo Burnett Toronto
“When I give speeches, I tell women, ‘Pick the right husband. Don’t marry someone who doesn’t promote and respect your career. Get out of that relationship. If you marry a guy who’s not proud of your success, how are you going to succeed?’” Louise St-Pierre, CEO of Cogeco Cable Canada
“I’m never overconfident. I know you have to work every minute to succeed … I never, ever take anything for granted in politics because I’ve lost before and it hurts. Losing sure teaches you a lot about humility and never taking anything for granted.” Christy Clark, Premier of British Columbia
“My dad’s big thing was to be nice. You would think, being a principal, that he would emphasize doing well in school, but beyond a certain point, he didn’t really care about that. He always stressed that it’s how you treat people that really matters.” David Chilton, author of The Wealthy Barber
“Unfortunately, a good part of the population sees business people as disconnected. But a company is just a sum of individuals like you and I. We’re sisters, brothers, fathers, mothers, cousins. Sometimes we are sad, mad, sick. We should not be shy to put up that real face. People want to connect to human beings, not to just a bunch of alpha women and males.” Sophie Brochu, CEO of Gaz Métro
“Anybody who gets things done, you are going to have to break some china. I saw that constantly in the State Department. ‘She has sharp elbows’ and that would block her promotion. Whereas the guy, if he did that, he is a doer, he is a bold doer. … That is one reason you have to be careful with advice like ‘negotiate hard’ because you can’t be just like a man. You have to play the man’s game, but recognize that the standards are still different for women.” Anne-Marie Slaughter, author of Unfinished Business
“Remember what people said about Twitter – how stupid is it that you post your status update? We as investors always have to remind ourselves not to judge too much about what may have worked in the past, and keep an open mind. Sometimes the weirder the idea is, the more potential of success it has.” Boris Wertz, founder and general partner of Version One Ventures
“I had no dreams that I would be in management. I had no dreams that I was going to be president of a company. It was step by step. Any time I would be working for somebody, I would figure ... if I can do their job, it’s going to make me look good and I’m going to be qualified to do their job.” Ray Tanguay, former chairman of Toyota Motor Manufacturing Canada
“Be transparent and declare what your career aspirations are. Sometimes people are afraid to say what they want to do. … I’ve always thought ahead, what is my next position? ... I’m always interested in hearing what is next. If you have the courage to declare those aspirations, then you get much richer feedback about what you need to do, and how the company can be your partner in helping you get there.” Charyl Galpin, head of BMO Nesbitt Burns
“Most good things happen to people because they put their hand in the air.” Colleen Moorehead, chief client officer for Osler Hoskin & Harcourt LLP
“This insanity where you are restricting the access of your diverse populations to higher levels is doing Canada and business a disservice. Because those are the people who understand the different cultures. Who you can send out with this product, be it education, be it a widget that you make, and market it and build on it. If we don’t take advantage of that, it’s to our detriment. I can’t see how any person in a position of power cannot recognize that now.” Frank Walwyn, partner at WeirFoulds LLP and past president of the Canadian Association of Black Lawyers
Noshing, noonish
Shortest lunch
In the midst of a hectic day promoting his new memoir, former U.S. Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke decided he needed a respite from his heavy schedule of public appearances and media interviews. So he cancelled one of his morning TV commitments and turned his planned lunch with Brian Milner into a 25-minute chat in the lobby of a trendy boutique hotel in downtown Toronto in November. He drank a Diet Coke.
Longest lunch
EBay Canada CEO Andrea Stairs and Marina Strauss spent almost 3-1/2 hours at Le Sélect Bistro in late summer. Ms. Stairs recalled her darkest days as head of eBay Canada in early 2009, after the company’s U.S. parent dramatically scaled back its operations and left her with just five staff members – a painful 80-per-cent cut. She briefly considered quitting. But using her pragmatic approach to troubleshooting, she sought advice from confidants – her “personal board of directors” – and contemplated what she could learn from the difficult eBay reorganization, ultimately deciding to stay at the e-commerce company.
Oldest lunch subject
Martin Sorrell, 70, CEO of WPP, the world’s largest advertising group. During lunch with Eric Reguly in London in March, Mr. Sorrell said he has no plans to retire. “I’ll carry on as long as they’ll have me,” he said. “My son told a Financial Times reporter that I will never retire, that I’ll be found [dead] on seat 1A on the BA flight from London to Beijing. That may not be far from the truth.”
Youngest lunch subject
Tavi Gevinson, 19, editor of Rookie Magazine, had brunch with Susan Krashinsky in New York in September. Ms. Gevinson launched her fashion blog Style Rookie in 2008, just before she turned 12, and gained a following with pictures of herself in inventive outfits concocted mostly from thrift stores. At 15, she became editor-in-chief of Rookie Magazine while still in school. At 19, she employs five editors and herself, full time, at the headquarters in Brooklyn.
Lunch that made us jealous
Quebec-born architect Richard Landry took Barrie McKenna for a springtime drive through Beverly Hills in his Fisker Karma hybrid-electric sports car, to tour some of the lavish homes he’s designed. “There is no difference designing a home for someone who is well known,” he said of working for famous people. “They are just normal people. I approach every project the same way.”
With files from, Christine Dobby, Sean Fine, Brent Jang, Greg Keenan, Tim Kiladze, Susan Krashinsky, Barrie McKenna, Brian Milner, Ian McGugan, Jacqueline Nelson, Eric Reguly, Sean Silcoff, Marina Strauss, Nicolas Van Praet and Rachelle Younglai.