Jacques Albert Nasser AC (Arabic: جاك نصر; born 12 December 1947) is a Lebanese Australian American business executive and philanthropist.
Nasser was also awarded the Ellis Island Medal of Honor,[11] which pays homage to contributions made to America by immigrants.
[1] He is the son of a former bus driver[17] and independent businessman, Abdo Nasser,[1] who served with the Australian armed forces in Lebanon during World War II.
He started a number of businesses as a teenager, including a bicycle-making operation[1] and several discotheques[1] with his brother Jamie,[17] which they promoted in Melbourne.
Afterwards, he returned to Australia to work as a manager of product programming and financial analysis, before joining Ford's International Automotive Operations.
[1] While working in Argentina, Nasser was notably kidnapped by political extremists, being returned to the Ford plant two days later.
[23] He remained president and CEO of Ford Australia until 1993,[1] where he picked up the corporate nicknames "Jac the Knife" for cost-cutting[23] efficiencies.
[22] The projected high-profile appointment met with a great deal of attention in the press, and largely positive reactions.
[22][1] On 1 January 1999,[25] Nasser became president and CEO, as well as a member of the board of directors, of Ford Motor Company in Dearborn, Michigan.
[28] Nasser promptly instituted a number of changes as CEO, closing plants that were losing money and selling unprofitable operations.
He also instituted a new human resources policy mandating that 10 percent of low-performing managers could be subject to termination, arguing that new people and turnover were good for the company.
[24][29] PAG was formed to oversee the business operations of Ford's high-end automotive marques,[30] and it grew to include responsibility for the Lincoln, Mercury, Aston Martin, Jaguar, Land Rover and Volvo brands.
[24][29] By August 1999, The Economist clarified that Nasser had already acquired the Kwik Fit exhausts-and-brakes chain in Europe, American scrapyard businesses, the consumer-finance arm of Japan's Mazda, and had "even signed a deal to provide drivers with satellite-fed audio and other services for a monthly fee."
[23] By late 2001, Nasser's efforts to diversify Ford's core business had met with mixed reactions in the press, with analysts at The Economist and CNN arguing that diversification and recent recalls had hampered productivity.
[2] He was elected chairman of BHP Billiton in March 2010,[43] ending an 18-month search[44] to find a replacement for the retiring Don Argus.
[45][17] The Wall Street Journal claimed that "analysts welcomed the appointment," and that Nasser had possibly been selected because BHP was "looking for the stability of another long-term chairman.
[2] Over the following years Nasser would help implement a number of policy changes at BHP, including a large de-merger.
[6] Nasser also focused on maintaining the company's long-term financial goals, working to keep the balance sheet stable during a global downturn in the metals and oil markets, and revising the company's progressive annual dividend policy,[47] which the Australian Financial Review dubbed strategic for the "new era.
Within six years BHP considered exiting its US shale gas assets,[49] with Nasser stating publicly that although "we bought exactly what we thought we were buying [in the US]," the timing had been off.
[50] After the deadly Bento Rodrigues dam disaster in Brazil on 5 November 2015,[51] Nasser announced that BHP would be permitting an external investigation into the incident, with findings to be released publicly.
The National Ethnic Coalition of Organizations (NECO) awarded Nasser the Ellis Island Medal of Honor,[11] which pays homage to contributions made to America by immigrants.
[14] He also founded the Jacques Nasser Rural and Regional Scholarship at RMIT University[58] and has supported organizations such as Focus: HOPE, a training centre in Detroit.
[11][23][61][62] By 2009[46] Nasser was based primarily out of his home in Michigan,[5] though after becoming chairman of BHP Billiton[46] in 2010 he began spending equal time in Australia,[17] also having properties in New York City, London, and Melbourne.