Glencore CEO Says He Wants His Replacement To ‘Look Like Me’

(Bloomberg) -- Ivan Glasenberg won't say much about who will replace him as the next chief executive of Glencore Plc. But one thing is clear, it's not likely to be a woman.

"I've got my eye on a few guys. There's three to four guys who could potentially be there," Glasenberg told journalists on Monday. "Do I see any woman in that pack today? No."

Asked what skills and background the next CEO of Glencore might have, Glasenberg replied: "Regarding what the new guy should look like? I hope he looks like me."

The comments, the most Glasenberg has said publicly about his own succession, underscore how male dominated the commodity trading sector is. Among Glencore's 30 top executives, there are only two women: Gerda Schwindt, head of human resources, and Anna Krutikov, head of sustainable development.

That's not an unusual ratio for the industry. Research by Bloomberg News earlier this year showed that women account for just 4 percent of senior management roles in top commodity trading houses. That's a smaller percentage than most American financial institutions and U.K. blue-chip companies.

At the board level, Glencore has two women out of a total of eight directors. For a time before 2014, it was the only FTSE 100 company with an all-male board. The company then appointed Canadian mining executive Patrice Merrin as an independent non-executive director.

Glasenberg didn't rule out that a woman could succeed him. In three to four years, there might be a woman among the front-runners, he said. But, on calls with analysts and journalists, he consistently referred to his unknown successor as "he."

Read: Glasenberg Plans Succession as Glencore Ushers in New Generation

To contact the reporter on this story: Jack Farchy in London at jfarchy@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Will Kennedy at wkennedy3@bloomberg.net, Lynn Thomasson, Dylan Griffiths

©2018 Bloomberg L.P.