Bio
Cynthia Carroll - Cynthia Carroll joined Anglo American as chief executive in 2007. She chairs the Executive Committee and the Chief Executive’s Committee and sits on the Safety and Sustainable Development Committee. Prior to this, she was president and chief executive officer of Alcan’s Primary Metal Group and an officer of Alcan Inc. in Montreal, Canada. She joined Alcan in 1989 after eight years as a petroleum geologist in oil exploration for Amoco. She is a former director of AngloGold Ashanti Limited and the Sara Lee Corporation. She is a non-executive director of BP plc, Anglo Platinum Limited and De Beers.
Kris Gopalakrishnan - S. Gopalakrishnan (Kris to his colleagues) is one of the founders of Infosys Technologies Limited. As Chief Executive Officer, he plays a key role in defining the company strategy and in using technology and innovation continuously to maintain its leadership of the industry.
On June 22, 2007, Kris took over from Nandan M. Nilekani as the CEO and Managing Director of Infosys Technologies Limited. Kris previously served as Chief Operating Officer (since April 2002), and as the President and Joint Managing Director (since August 2006). His responsibilities included Customer Services, Technology, Investments and Acquisitions.
Kris’ initial responsibilities at Infosys included management of design, development, implementation and support of information systems for clients in the consumer products industry in the US. Between 1987 and 1994 he headed the technical operations of KSA/Infosys (a joint venture between Infosys and KSA at Atlanta, USA) as Vice President (Technical). In 1994, Kris returned to India and was appointed Deputy Managing Director of the company.
Kris is currently the Chairman of Indian Institute of Information Technology and Management (IIITM), Kerala, and Vice Chairman of the Information Technology Education Standards Board (BITES) set up by the Government of Karnataka. He is on the board of directors of the National Internet Exchange of India. Kris currently chairs the Confederation of Indian Industries (CII) Apex Council on Services. He is also a member of ACM, IEEE and IEEE Computer Society.
Kris holds M. Sc. (Physics) and M. Tech. (Computer Science) degrees from the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras. He began his career with Patni Computer Systems (PCS), Mumbai as a software engineer in 1979 and quickly rose to become an assistant project manager by 1981. His seminal contribution during his stint at PCS was the development of a distributed process control system for controlling LD converters at Rourkela Steel Plant.
Muhtar Kent - Muhtar Kent is president and chief executive officer of The Coca-Cola Company, and serves on the Company's Board of Directors.
Mr. Kent joined The Coca-Cola Company in Atlanta in 1978 and has held a variety of marketing and operations roles throughout his career. In 1985, he was appointed general manager of Coca-Cola Turkey and Central Asia. From 1989 to 1995, he served as president of the Company's East Central Europe Division and senior vice president of Coca-Cola International, with responsibility for 23 countries. Between 1995 and 1998, Mr. Kent served as managing director of Coca-Cola Amatil-Europe, covering bottling operations in 12 countries.
From 1999 until his return to The Coca-Cola Company in May 2005, he served as president and CEO of the Efes Beverage Group, the majority shareholder of Turkish bottler Coca-Cola Icecek. Headquartered in Istanbul and listed on the London and Istanbul Stock Exchanges, Efes is a publicly traded beverage enterprise whose Coca-Cola and beer operations extend from the Adriatic to the Pacific Ocean. Under Mr. Kent's leadership, Efes experienced extraordinary growth, with triple-digit revenue growth and a 250 percent increase in market capitalization. During that time, in addition to taking Efes Breweries International public on the London Stock Exchange, Mr. Kent also served as a board member of Coca-Cola Icecek.
Mr. Kent was named president and chief operating officer of The Coca-Cola Company's North Asia, Eurasia and Middle East Group from 2005 until early 2006, where he was responsible for the operations across a broad and diverse geographic region that included China, Japan and Russia. Mr. Kent served as president of Coca-Cola International through most of 2006, responsible for operations outside of North America, until his appointment as president and chief operating officer of The Coca-Cola Company, overseeing all operations of the business, including Bottling Investments. On July 1, 2008, he succeeded Neville Isdell as chief executive officer of the Company.
Mr. Kent holds a bachelor of science degree in economics from Hull University, England, and a master of science degree in administrative sciences from London City University.
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon - Ban Ki-moon is a South Korean diplomat and the current Secretary-General of the United Nations. He succeeded Kofi Annan in this capacity on January 1, 2007.
Ban was the Foreign Minister of the Republic of Korea from January 2004 to November 1, 2006. On October 13, 2006, he was elected to be the eighth Secretary-General by the United Nations General Assembly and was sworn in on December 14, 2006. He had previously addressed the General Assembly in his capacity as foreign minister during its annual general debate each year since 2004.
Guy Ryder - Guy Ryder was born on 3 January 1956, in Liverpool, United Kingdom.
After graduating with an MA in Social and Political Sciences from Cambridge University, he was employed as an assistant in the International Department of the Trades Union Congress (TUC, Great Britain), from 1982-1985.
In 1985, he was appointed secretary of the Industry Trade Section of the International Federation of Commercial, Clerical, Professional and Technical Employees (now Union Network International) in Geneva.
From 1988-1998 he worked at the Geneva Office of the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU, a predecessor organisation to the ITUC), initially as assistant director, then as director and secretary of the Workers’ Group of the International Labour Organisation (ILO).
In 1998, he was appointed director of the Bureau for Workers’ Activities, International Labour Office (ILO), and from 1999-2001 he served as director of the Office of the ILO Director-General.
On 1 February 2002, he was appointed general secretary of the ICFTU, a position which he held until the founding Congress of the ITUC in November 2006, where he was elected ITUC General Secretary.
