Percy Barnevik
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Percy Barnevik (born 1941) is a Swedish business executive, probably best known as the former CEO of ASEA (1980-1987) and Asea Brown Boveri (1988-1996) in Zurich.
He was born in Simrishamn in Skåne in Southern Sweden, as the youngest of three children. His parents operated a small printing company. Barnevik says his childhood experiences still influence his decision making process. Barnevik was educated at the Gothenburg School of Economics and Commercial Law (part of Göteborg University) and at the Stanford Graduate School of Business.
He started his professional career in the Swedish company Datema, but soon moved to Sandvik, because of the better career opportunities. In Sandvik, where between the years 1969 and 1970, he hired over 150 people, his employees say "he has some kind of magic in him - you just can't refuse his offer." He developed unique relationships with many of his colleagues which helped him to improve the communication. In 1975, he was promoted to the position of CEO of American office of Sandvik, Sandvik Steel. Within the next four years he tripled the revenues, grossing $250 million, and turned the company profitable. During his work in the United States, Sandvik started competing against the industry leaders, such as General Electric or U.S. Steel.
In 1979 he joined ASEA, a leading Swedish heavy industrial company based in Västerås. In 1987 he decided to merge with its Swiss competitor - Brown Boveri Ltd. It was the largest merger at that time. In Zurich he held the position of CEO of ASEA 1980-87, was CEO of Asea Brown Boveri (ABB) 1988-1996.
Barnevik's reign as CEO of ABB was marked by a steady erosion of the ABB stock market price and staggering losses. When Barnevik stepped down as chairman of ABB, he left with a pension and benfit package of 148 Million Swiss Francs. ABB was close to bankruptcy, and angry investors demanded a review of this "golden handshake". Barnevik eventually paid back half of the money [1].
As the scandal unfolded, Barnevik was sacked from the board of Investor AB[2].
Since 1996, Barnevik serves as director on the General Motors Board of Directors [3].
From 1999 to 2005, Barnevik served as Chairman and Director of AstraZeneca [4].
