Marius Kloppers


Marius Jacques Kloppers is a South African-born Australian businessman and former CEO of BHP Billiton, the world's largest mining company. He was also Executive Director and Chairman of the Group Management Committee from 2007 to 2013. He was asked to retire as CEO on 1 October 2013, and was succeeded by Andrew Mackenzie.

Education

Kloppers graduated from Helpmekaar Kollege, then a public school in Johannesburg. Kloppers graduated with a Bachelor of Chemical Engineering from the University of Pretoria and subsequently went on to receive a PhD at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He also graduated with an MBA from INSEAD.

Career

Kloppers worked in petrochemicals at Sasol and materials research with Mintek in South Africa. Following completion of his MBA at INSEAD, he then worked with management consultants McKinsey & Co in Netherlands before joining Billiton in 1993. In 2007, at the age of 44, he was appointed CEO of the largest resource company in the world, BHP Billiton. He officially assumed the position of CEO on 1 October 2007. In 2009 his annual compensation was $US 10,399,589, of which $2M was salary and the balance was bonus.