Marius Kloppers was born in Cape Town where he met and married his high school sweetheart, Carin. They have three children including Noni, whom they adopted from KwaZulu-Natal. They knew Noni’s mother who asked them to take care of her child. The Kloppers made sure their children learned Mandarin. The family lives in Melbourne, Australia.
Source: Next.ft.com, Theaustralian.com
Kloppers is a vegetarian, earning the title “control freak” when he allegedly made a rule that prohibited smelly lunches in the offices at BHP. Klopper grew up eating fish and meat in his school lunches and has criticized school lunch programs for putting too much sugar and palm oil in their recipes.
Sources: Reuters.com, Independent.co.uk
When Kloppers was 18, he served as a conscript in the South African army. He reportedly carried his tracking dog–a German shepherd–on his back through the desert after it suffered heat stroke.
Source: Reuters.com
Even though Kloppers left BHP, he isn’t retired. He recently became a board member of FLSmidt, an engineering company based in Copenhagen, Denmark. FLSmidt continues to serve the mining and cement industries globally.
Source: Flsmidthminerals.com
Kloppers instituted a few other unconventional rules during his time at BHP. He prohibited personal items on company desks as a part of his clean desk initiative. He was accused of not being personable.
Source: Next.ft.com
Kloppers has said that his worst decision was not foreseeing problems in the aluminum sector. Kloppers invested $3 billion expanding an aluminum refinery before the sector collapsed. He said his best decision was pulling out of a major mining deal in 2008 right before the major financial crisis hit.
Source: Mining.com
Kloppers’ commitment to BHP didn’t go unrecognized. The former CEO left the company with $75.2 million in cash, shares and performance shares — one of the most expensive exit packages in African history. By comparison, Sisifo Dabengwa received a $2.8 million package for leaving mega mobile telecommunications group MTN.
Source: Smh.com.au, Thisdaylive.com
After a 2011 tsunami hit the Pacific Coast of Tohoku, Japan, Kloppers donated $1 million to the Red Cross relief efforts. BHP had a longstanding relationship with companies in Japan when the event occurred, and worked closely with clients and affiliates to help reduce the impact of the tsunami on their business. Kloppers also agreed to match any donation his employees made.
Source: Offshoreenergytoday.com
