The BRW Rich List came out a couple of weeks ago, announcing mining magnate, Gina Reinhart as Australia’s richest person, with an estimated personal wealth of over $10 billion.
But the biggest surprise was a man who made his debut appearance in the rich list – and what a debut it was for Ivan Glasenberg. He was named Australia’s richest man, one position behind Reinhart with an estimated wealth of $8.8 billion.
The reason he is only appearing on the rich list for the first time now (his wealth would have seen him previously top the list multiple times) is because the world only just learnt of his Australian citizenship.
Ivan Glasenberg is the CEO of Glencore, a company which is one the world’s largest commodity traders. Just a few months ago, Glencore began the process of listing on London and Hong Kong stock exchanges and buried somewhere in the thousands of pages of corporate jargon filled fine print was the announcement of Glasenberg’s citizenship – Australian.
Glasenburg joined Glencore as an MBA graduate in 1984 and 18 years later was announced CEO of the company. He was born in South Africa, then completed university and five years of professional work as an accountant in his native country, before beginning his global travels which included stints in Los Angles, Hong Kong, Sydney, Beijing and now, Switzerland.
Some might find Glasenberg’s inclusion in our Australian rich list bizarre, and defeating the publication’s journalistic objectivity. But think about this; at various stages of his time amassing his multibillion dollar personal wealth, Glasenburg has been paying tax to the Australian Tax Office. Even the most patriotic Aussies can’t complain with that.
The highly credible BRW Rich List only has two main criteria – those listed are known to be Australian, and known to be wealthy. So despite being born and raised in South Africa, representing Israel in race-walking championships and now residing in Switzerland, Glasenberg is, for all legal purposes, an Australian citizen.
It was his time in Sydney, spending two years as head of Glencore’s Australian operations that prove to be most interesting in this tale. Many businessmen spend time working in a variety of countries over the span of their careers, but very few change their citizenship, especially when only they’re only there for two years. But for some reason, still unknown to the public, during his stay in Sydney Glasenberg decided to become an Australian citizen.
And more than 20 years after he left our shores, Ivan Glasenberg is finally revealed as our richest man.