David Craig, Group Head, Data & Analytics, London Stock Exchange Group, and CEO, Refinitiv

Published 19 July, 2021

Simon Freakley, CEO, AlixPartners

Published May 25, 2021

  Scott Kirby, CEO, United Airlines

Published April 26, 2021

  Mark Thompson, President & CEO, The New York Times

Published October 8, 2019

If you hadn’t ended up with a career in media, where would we find you?

The other big thing that has always fascinated me is writing, indeed I wrote a book a few years ago. Maybe that could have been an alternative path, but I only started to pursue that recently. I got a graduate traineeship at the BBC; I had applied because all my friends where applying. I didn’t really have a plan, I just got the job and have bumbled along in media ever since.

 

What advice would you give yourself if you were graduating from college right now?

The boring advice is: make sure your statistics and analytical faculties are up to snuff. Right now I’m doing a remedial graduate level statistics course to try and catch up, that’s the boring advice. But I think the big thing – and I say this to my own children – is you probably have as good an idea at the age of 21, 22, as your bosses do, and they are probably more scared than you. So be yourself, be confident and get on with it.

 

What do you miss most about living in the UK?

I miss a pint of Old Hooky preferably in the Rose and Crown in North Oxford. It’s a natural product of beer, which is fresh and can’t easily be exported – it has to be made and drunk quite quickly. Americans famously think it’s disgustingly warm, but it’s not – it’s not refrigerated, but it is cold. It tastes delicious and you can’t really get it anywhere in the States – I miss that. Most of the other things, in terms of food, are portable. The Myers of Keswick down in the village will sell you McVities biscuits and marmalade. Those things can be easily moved across the Atlantic, a great big barrel of beer can’t. Also, to state the obvious, the “pubs” here aren’t really pubs at all, but sports bars with TVs and the rest of it. Which is all very well if you like that sort of thing.

 

What is the technological advancement that has taken place in your lifetime that you believe has had the biggest effect on who you are as a person?

It’s a slight cheat, but I would say mass jet travel. The first scheduled flight – on a Comet, a British airliner – was in 1952 and even in 1957, when I was born, it was still quite rare. By the time I was in my late teens and early 20s, it was just part of life. By the time I came out to live in New York and work for the BBC in the Rockefeller Centre (I was 24), I was taking jet flights most weeks as we flew everywhere to cover America.  While I was there, I started dating one of my colleagues, Jane and, after I returned to the UK eight months later, Freddie Laker and Peoples Express played a big part in helping us to continue to see each other. We ended up getting married. Many people use jets for business travel or leisure. But it really changed my life. If I hadn’t got to know America, by flying all over it, there’s no way I would have become the CEO of the New York Times. Now, of course, we worry about the colossal carbon footprint that jet travel leaves on the planet, and I hope I can limit my own travel more in the future – but my life would have turned out very differently if that first Comet had never taken to the air.

 

Where are you itching to travel?

That’s a hard one. I have been to lots and lots of places. At one stage in my life, I spent about 10-12 years as a journalist making TV news and documentaries in the field. I still feel the pull to go to the big stories wherever they are happening and, in some ways, the stranger and scarier the place the better. I used to love the adventure, camping for a purpose when you are actually working and the only way of getting there is camping. I definitely don’t like camping as a leisure pursuit, but the business of going on an expedition with something deadly serious in mind in a war zone or whatever I always found completely compelling. My travel now is like most peoples’, it’s for business or for holidays, but I would love to do more exploring. When I think about travel, I think more about the world’s great walks and treks. I climbed Mount Kilimanjaro a few years ago with one of my kids. I’ve done the Coast-to-Coast walk in the UK one and a half times and I would do it as many times as I could before I drop dead, it’s a fantastic walk. I quite fancy doing the old primage walk from Canterbury to Rome, that appeals to me – though my favorite part of every journey is the setting out rather than the arriving.

 

What book have you read recently that you’d recommend and why?

I have a rather specific recommendation: a book called ‘The Book of Why’ by Judea Pearl. It is quite dense and chewy, but is really interesting. Pearl won the Turing prize and he is a great mind from the world of artificial intelligence. It’s a book about the advances which have been made – many by him –  in advancing traditional statistics into a science of causal inference. So, it’s about a more powerful and relevant way of using data than 99% of the way people use it currently, including most current machine learning. I hope we apply some of Pearl’s thinking to some of our digital challenges at The New York Times.

 Chris Perry, President of Global Sales, Marketing & Client Solutions, Broadridge Financial Solutions

Published May 21st, 2019

What do you do to turn things around when you’re having a bad day?

I find people who are able to give me energy by the things they’re doing and the excitement they have in what they do. Particularly, I feel I have the responsibility to make them feel confident and supported in what they do. That turns me around. I just thrive off that. People give me energy. People often come up to me and ask how I have so much energy? I get it from everybody around me. When I get down, the best antidote is to get people around me and try to help them be successful and I feel good from that.

 

What do you like to do when you’re not working?  Especially as summer is on the horizon?

I like to play golf, in part, because it’s approximately four hours. It’s four hours with, usually, three other people and, if you like those people and you’re outdoors, it’s pretty cool. I used to struggle with golf because after six or eight holes, I’d feel like I have to work and I’d be on my phone responding to emails. I still get that once in a while, but what I came to grips with was, look you need to use these four hours to just be with those people you’re with. I came to enjoy golf more and got better at golf in the process. It forces you to be in the moment.

 

When you have time, what do you like to read, and do you have any recommendations?

I read business books. I read business periodicals, quite a few. I read car magazines, a lot. Most of what I read is something that is good for business productivity, or business ideation or leadership or it’ll be about cars because I like and collect cars. If I get a chance, I like to read something around technology: how to better use your iPhone, Windows 10 tips or something. Howard Stern is coming out with a book soon and I’ve ordered that which I’ll read as I like to listen to him. I think he’s very real.

 

Favorite music artist/genre?

I like classic rock. I happen to be a big Journey fan. I suppose that really dates me. One thing that’s pretty cool about the generation now is that we would’ve never thought of listening to the music our parents liked, but our kids listen to the music from our generation and we’ve come to like their generation’s music. So, I’m pretty eclectic with music. I listen to top hits, pop, classic rock, occasionally some jazz to relax and very occasionally some classical. If you asked me to put on a radio station I’d put on 104.3 in New York: classic rock.

 

Favorite family tradition?

I love the Greek tradition of red eggs and the red egg contest. All eggs in a Greek Easter are painted red for the blood of Christ and you talk about it as Christ has risen. We do a contest where everyone gets an egg and you bang them together, front and back. If your egg cracks, you lose, you eat it and it’s over. If your egg doesn’t crack, then it’s last egg standing wins. I love that tradition, it’s a fun one.

Ironically, I’ve really come to like thanksgiving. When I was a kid, I hated thanksgiving as there’s no presents. Now I really enjoy it as there’s a lot of work to have a meal, but you don’t have to go and buy presents and you have some nice time together. It’s about holidays for me. They’re unique moments where I can disconnect from everything else a bit and just be a family man.

Paul Taylor, President & Chief Executive Officer, Fitch Group

Published April 29th, 2019

What do you think is the biggest misconception people have about your position?

Maybe it’s the idea that I make all the decisions in my business and I don’t. I rely upon a team. I think a company isn’t about a few decisions at the top but the thousands of little ones. This idea that, as CEO, you run a company completely top-down is not how it works. You listen. You absorb your colleagues’ ideas. You support what you can and say, “No,” if you feel strongly. You have to give them space. As CEO, you try to reinforce the good bits and cut back on the lesser bits and you keep things moving forward. I’m a strong believer that if you leave a business in a slightly better position than you found it, you’ve done a good job.

 

What fictional place would you most like to visit?

Brigadoon. Well, they’re all happy, aren’t they? They just sing and dance and don’t seem to have any problems or cares. Seems like a good time.

 

Do you have any leisure activities outdoors you are looking forward to with summer coming?

Admittedly, I like the boring stuff. I travel all year, so it’s nice to stay in one place. I like to read a good book in my garden at home. My idea of a good time is reading in the garden with the (adult) kids coming around for Sunday lunch and a nice bottle of wine. I love being at home.

 

What are some of your favorite museums?

I have pretty eclectic tastes, so I appreciate just about all of them. I’ve done pretty much all the ones in New York. It can be the American Museum of Natural History or the MOMA- I find them all interesting and quite relaxing. This afternoon, I will be going to Gettysburg, so I’ll check out the museum there. I am going for a leadership event where we’ll be talking strategy while we walk around the battlefield and learn about the history. I’m really looking forward to that.

 

How do you cultivate young talent and what advice do you have for the twenty-year-old analyst looking to grow?

I have three kids in their twenties and I tell them patience is everything. You always think things should happen too fast. I thought I was ready to be CEO five years before I was. And, as a leader, I’ve made the mistake of promoting people too fast and they failed. I could’ve been more patient and made sure they were prepared and ready. I think some advice here is, “Make sure you know what you’re asking for before you get into it.” Another piece of advice I would give myself as I was stepping into leadership roles would be to listen more. Just sit back a bit more. I used to work with a woman who was the most senior person in the group.  In meetings, everyone would give opinions upfront, but she would wait until the end. I asked why she did that and she told me that she knew how much weight her opinion held and that to give it too early would influence the discussion too much. As a leader, you need to understand the influence you have. Now, I tend to sit back and not lead too many conversations. So, listen. Use your ears. I was lucky enough to have been born with big ears. [laughs] So, I use them.

John Neal, Chief Executive Officer, Lloyds

Published April 12th, 2019

As we transition into spring, what outdoor sports do you enjoy playing/watching?

 

As a kid, I grew up playing rugby and cricket. In my twenties, I was out of favor with rugby, but I played league squash for 12 years at a reasonable standard. Nowadays, it’s cycling. It’s really growing in popularity everywhere. I think in Australia, they sell more cycling holidays than golf holidays. It’s just as easy to get a bike on plane as golf clubs and, you know, you can go somewhere.

 

Follow up: Predictions for Rugby World Cup in the fall?

 

Wales. I’ve had my ten pound bet on Wales since the beginning of the season. They’ve been quietly The Team. I think they’re undefeated in their last 14 or 15 tests. Of course, I’m now confessing to the world my mother is Welsh and my Welsh heritage is coming to the fore here, but there it is.

 

What book have you read recently that you’d recommend and why?

 

In business we’re all quite time-constrained and it always amuses me that we all have time to read a thousand pages of board papers but not enough to read a novel. So, I’ve started to read poetry again which was a big thing of mine when I was a grad student as an English major. I’d recommend you read some poems by Ted Hughes who was married to Sylvia Plath. If you’ve got two minutes, read a poem of his called, “The Thought Fox,” which is about a poet writing a poem.

 

What advice would you give yourself if you were graduating from college right now?

 

I would say to seek sponsorship and mentorship. One of the things I think about that was integral to my success was sponsorship I received as a younger man. I was given authority when I was 26. So, I think a lot about that now. In business, it’s important to remember, no one shows up on Monday and wants to stuff up. I try to remember to give younger people chances to grow. And if they make a mistake they will work three times as hard to make sure they don’t again. So, now I try to make sure I’m the guy who is willing to give the 25-year-old the chances I had.

 

Outside of London, where have you/would you most enjoy living?

 

New Zealand. It’s just breathtaking. If you ever watched the Lord of the Rings films, it really does look like that. New Zealand is the same size as the UK but only has 4 million people. The South Island is the size of England and only has 1 million people. So, you’ve got these wonderful expanses of untouched wilderness that are just incredible.

 

What’s the technological advancement that’s taken place in your lifetime that you believe has had the biggest effect on who you are as a person?

 

The iPad. The development of these tablets is just mind-boggling in terms of what you can do. The latest iPad Pro does everything I need it to do. I take my iPad everywhere I go – no need for a laptop.

Torry Berntsen, Chief Executive Officer, Americas and Head Corporate & Institutional Banking, Americas, Standard Chartered Bank

Published April 1st, 2018

What are you most looking forward to do when the weather warms up in the coming weeks?

Probably being outside, playing a bit more golf. I also like to walk home at night and clear my head. When it’s really cold out, it’s easy to skip it, but it’s very nice to walk through the city on a beautiful spring or summer night. Also, spending more time in the park during the week and working out there instead of the gym.

 

What book have you read recently that you’d recommend and why?

Leaders: Myth and Reality by General Stanley McChrystal. It profiles various leaders throughout time and studies their lives. Whether it’s Albert Einstein, Martin Luther King Jr, Margret Thatcher, it’s interesting to see their stories and to explore how their leadership worked in practice.

 

How would you describe yourself in high school?

I would describe myself as someone who was reasonably studious but also a good enough basketball player that I would hang with the sports crowd. I think I could assimilate with everyone in school and I think that may have helped me.

 

Follow up: Did you think you would end up in Finance or were you going to be a basketball player?

Well, I knew basketball wasn’t going to be a long-term endeavor, so I went to the business school at NYU. I’m not sure why. Probably because others around me did and, honestly, I needed to get a job. My parents were immigrants. My dad worked on a tugboat. Neither went to college. So, I needed something that would set me off on the right foot to a steady career. Initially, I went into accounting. I have a competitive nature and a lot of the smart kids were going into accounting, so I wanted to do well in that. A lot of my guidance was more self-generated in those days and there was a lot of bumping into walls.

 

What advice do you give your children?

Some of my principles, which I share with them are:

1. You want to observe the people you want to emulate. Look around and see who is doing what you want to do, professionally, but also in terms of how they comport themselves and behave. Take note of those people.

2. You want to listen. You want to listen to people who know more than you and have valuable insight. You want to listen to where your organization is going. You want to listen to people all around you and try to get a complete picture.

3. You need to be able to adapt. There’s a saying here that I think says it all, “Change is inevitable, but growth is optional.” When you observe and listen, you must be ready and willing to take that information and use it to do and be better.

4. Explore – try different things. Find out: what is your best skill set? Do that; that’s what’s going to make you most successful. One of my biggest regrets is not having an overseas assignment. I tell my kids – what a great opportunity if it is a possibility!

6. You’ve got to work hard. You know the Staples “Easy” button? I tell them there is no “Easy” button in life. And you have to work hard because as you move up the pyramid, things get more and more crowded and you have to set yourself apart.
7. Live with integrity. You want to be proud of what you do and as you get more successful, people will be watching. One of our children passed away and, along with everything else, it made me think of how I could set an example in how I react and how I could handle that process with integrity. When we’re hired on at a company in a new position, IQ is the driving force, but when we develop our careers, our EQ becomes the overriding and more important aspect. Even with Einstein, reading how he interacted with other brilliant people and learned from them was really eye-opening in terms of understanding how that listening and interacting process continues even at that level.

Dan Glaser, President and CEO, Marsh & McLennan Companies

Published October 31st, 2018

What is the greatest Halloween costume you’ve ever seen or worn?

I actually own a pirate costume with a feathered hat and a little fake sword. So I go as a pirate when pressed, but I will say, last year, I was walking through the lobby of our building and I had to do a double take because the perfect Khaleesi from Game of Thrones walked by me. She could’ve walked right out of the show.

 

What book have you read recently that you’d recommend and why?

I read a lot, but the book that had a big impact on me recently was “The Circle” by Dave Eggers. It’s a novel filled with so many issues with technology I see today and cause me concern. Think about a big company almost like Google and Facebook merged and that was the organization this book was centered around. They did good work but at a very large cost to humanity in terms of privacy, etc. I’d really recommend it.

 

What gives you the most hope about the future of this country and the world at large?

Human beings. In the end, the human condition is striving, creating, innovating, improving- That’s what humans do. There was a guy who passed away last year, Hans Rosling, who made the point that, “It’s bad but getting better.” The reality is so many aspects of the world and society are improving. Extreme poverty is far more reduced than even fifty years ago. People are living longer, healthier lives than any time in history. So, human beings have just proven to be tremendously resilient. In every culture, people want their children to do better than they did. It’s remarkable. So, I bet on humans.

 

If you had to teach a class of your own design to high schoolers that would help them the most in their lives, no matter what their profession ended up being, what would it be?

The same thing I said to my three daughters: you are the owner of your life. Nobody else is the owner of your life. I addressed a group of university students recently and I said, “How many of you want to be a doctor?” And some hands went up. “How many of you want to be a lawyer?” And some more went up. And then I said, to the horror of some of the administrators present, “No you don’t. You are dutiful sons and daughters. How could you know, at 19 years old, you want to be a lawyer? You want to be a lawyer because either your mom or dad are lawyers, or they thought you’d be good at it and so now you’re saying that’s what you want to do. All I would say is, it doesn’t really matter what you do, but it has to be yours. The secret to happiness is earning your own success: making your own choices and accepting the choices you make and earning your own success… however you define it.” The other thing I’d say is read the obits for a week. One thing you learn from the obits is: everybody dies. You’ve got one shot at this thing. Take it. Oliver Wendell Holmes once said, “Most of us go to our graves with the music still inside of us: unplayed.” So, I’d say, don’t let that be you. Make your calls, your choices. Good or bad, they’re your calls.

 

What trend have you seen or been a part of in your life that you wish would come back?

Letters. My dad passed away more than twenty years ago and I recently discovered a box of letters that I wrote him when I was in college. I had completely forgotten about those letters and the closeness that we had and what I was able to express. It can’t come across in an email or a text or even a phone call. There was a time when people would write a letter and then two weeks would go by and they would receive a response. There was great correspondence between individuals in literature, art, and families that I would love to come back.

 

Is there anything you’ve been trying to get better at (or get better about) for a while now? How’s that going?

For a long time, patience and listening skills have been my go-to New Year’s resolutions and I would say I’ve made some mild progress over many years but both are not natural to me. I’m an interrupter. I have all the answers. I want to tell people what to do and what I think and so I’m just not great in these areas.

So how do you work at that?

You work at it by literally just trying to pause. I recently was sick and lost my voice and I didn’t realize how terrible that would be. [laughs] It was probably good for other people and terrible for me.

 

What does the ultimate day off look like for you?

I would say going to a really cool museum then a long, leisurely lunch with a nice bottle of wine followed by a nap.

Bill Thomas

Chairman, KPMG

What’s the most interesting thing about you that we can’t Google? 

When I was in Vancouver I used to play in a band.

Interestingly enough, I played the keyboards when I was a kid growing up, but for the longest time I never had the opportunity to play. After my kids were born, I found out that a few of the friends we used to hang out together with who also had young kids were musicians. That sparked a desire amongst us to pick up our old instruments and form a small band.

We weren’t very good. We played in my garage and made the neighbors pretty upset! That experience morphed into me getting together with a few of my fellow partners to play at the KPMG Christmas party in 2007 and at a few other local events.

I also attempt to play the bass and drums but mostly now I just try to keep up with my son, who is a terrific guitar player.

 

How have your dreams and goals changed throughout your life? 

I grew up in a family where both my dad and my grandpa were doctors… so my goal as a kid was to be a doctor. I went into the accounting profession as a way into business from a science degree and in the early stages of my career I was focused on doing the best job I possibly could.

Over time, and especially after my kids were born, my aspirations have morphed into asking myself: How good of a dad am I? How good of a husband am I? Do I have a relationship with my family and kids? That’s way more important to me today than anything else.

From a professional perspective I believe that my responsibility or aspiration is to make a difference. Some days that difference is small; some days that difference is large, but when I stop being able to make a difference I’ll probably find something else to do.

 

If you could magically change three things in the world, what would you change? 

If I could change three things, the first thing I would change is the number of hours in a day. There certainly aren’t enough of them and I could use some more!

The second thing I would love to change is to be able to teleport from any place in the world. I spend my life on airplanes – traveling the world for work – and getting home to my family faster after a long trip would be a great invention.

If number 2 is not possible, then the third thing I would change would be the amount of time it takes to get in and out of an airport.

All this to say, the thing I find myself up against more than anything in the world is time.

 

Who’s been your biggest mentor/influence?

I owe my career to two influential people who are behind why I’m here having this conversation with you. First and foremost is my wife, who has been with me on this journey from day one.

The second person is my mentor, who was the managing partner of the KPMG Vancouver office. He was instrumental in bringing me back to the firm after I left for a brief stint in industry. He gave me the opportunities to excel and encouraged me to take on leadership roles I wasn’t ready for.

I was very fortunate to have an amazing mentor, and in turn, I believe very strongly in the value of mentorship and the importance we should all place on being a mentor.

Your legacy is not defined by your roles or your titles… Your legacy will be defined by the people in the organization who are there in some small way because of you. I have been really lucky to play a small part in helping a number of incredibly gifted and talented people succeed – both inside and outside our firm. I feel honored to have had the chance to do that.

 

What’s the most overrated product out on the market? 

I would say, melatonin. It’s supposed to make you go right back to sleep if you wake up in the middle of the night.

I travel all over the world and often for short durations. For example, if I am in Asia Pacific for a two-day trip with a 12-hour time difference, you’re trying to sleep in what is normally the middle of the day. It would be great to be able to take melatonin and just go back to sleep… People in my life, including my wife, swear by it. It just doesn’t work for me unfortunately.