Lakshmi Mittal 2

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Lakshmi Mittal

Born

15 June 1950 (1950-06-15) (age 58) Sadulpur, Rajasthan, India

Residence

London, England

Nationality

Indian [1]

Occupation

Chairman and CEO, ArcelorMittal

Net worth

▼ US $51.3 Billion [2]

Lakshmi Mittal[3], or Lakshmi Niwas Mittal (Hindi: लिकम िमतल; b. 15 June 1950[4]), is an Indian industrialist based in the United Kingdom. He was born in Sadulpur village, in the Churu district of Rajasthan, India, and he resides in Kensington, London. He is the chairman and CEO of ArcelorMittal (founder of Mittal before merger with Arcelor) and also serves as a nonexecutive director of Goldman Sachs, EADS and ICICI Bank.[5]. As of 2009, Mittal is the world's 8th richest person with personal wealth of US$19.3 billion.[6]

Contents

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1 Biography ○

1.1 Career

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1.2 The Mittal Affair: "Cash for Influence"

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1.3 Queens Park Rangers

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2 Personal wealth

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3 Charity

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4 Criticism and allegations ○

4.1 Slave-labour allegations

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4.2 Controversial self-bonus

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4.3 Environmental damage

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5 Awards

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6 See also

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7 References

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8 External links

[edit] Biography Mittal was born in a Rajasthan Agrawal family and spent his initial years in India, living with his extended family on bare floors and rope beds in a house built by his grandfather. [citation needed] His grandfather worked for the Tarachand Ghanshyamdas Poddar, one of the leading industrial firms of India. His father started an Oil Mill in Hardoi, Uttar Pradesh as a working partner for Lala Gulab Chand, a local business tycoon. The family eventually moved to Calcutta where his father, Mohan, became a partner in a steel company and made a fortune. Mittal graduated from St. Xavier's College in Calcutta with a Bachelor of Commerce degree[3] in Business and Accounting in 1969 [7].

[edit] Career Mr. Mittal began his career working in the family's steelmaking business in India, and in 1976, when the family founded its own steel business, he set out to establish its international division, beginning with the buying of a run-down plant in Indonesia. Shortly afterwards he married Usha, the daughter of a well-to-do moneylender. In 1994, due to differences with his father, mother and brothers, he branched out on his own, taking over the international operations of the Mittal steel business, which was already owned by the family. Mittal's family never spoke publicly about the reasons for the split.

[edit] The Mittal Affair: "Cash for Influence" Main article: Mittal Affair

Controversy erupted in 2002 as Plaid MP Adam Price exposed the link between UK prime minister Tony Blair and Mittal in the Mittal Affair, also known as 'Garbagegate' or Cash for Influence.[8][9] [10] Mittal's LNM steel company, registered in the Dutch Antilles and maintaining less than 1% of its 100,000 plus workforce in the UK, sought Blair's aid in its bid to purchase Romania's state steel industry. [11] The letter from Blair to the Romanian government, a copy of which Price was able to obtain, hinted that the privatisation of the firm and sale to Mittal might help smooth the way for Romania's entry into the European Union.[8] The letter had a passage in it removed just prior to Blair's signing of it, describing Mittal as "a friend."[12] In exchange for Blair's support Mittal, already a Labour contributor, donated £125,000 more to Labour party funds a week after the 2001 UK General Elections, while as many as six thousand Welsh steelworkers were laid off that same year, Price and others pointed out. As well as this, Mittal is a non-resident Indian residing in the United Kingdom for over 14 years. Because of this, he has been included on many unofficial Wealth-indicative lists as the richest man in the United Kingdom, when in actuality, the List held by the UK and Channel Island Treasury Authority lists no mention of name "Lakshmi (or derivatives) Mittal." Corus Group and Valkia Limited were two of the primary employers in south Wales, particularly in Ebbw Vale, Llanwern, and Port Talbot.[13]

[edit] Queens Park Rangers Recently, Mittal had emerged as a leading contender to buy and sell Barclays Premiership clubs Wigan and Everton. However on 20 December 2007 it was announced that the Mittal family had purchased a 20 per cent shareholding in Queens Park Rangers football club joining Flavio Briatore and Mittal's friend Bernie Ecclestone.[14] [15] As part of the investment Mittal's son-in-law, Amit Bhatia, took a place on the board of directors. The combined investment in the struggling club sparked suggestions that Mittal might be looking to join the growing ranks of wealthy individuals investing heavily in English football and emulating other similar benefactors such as Roman Abramovich.[16]

[edit] Personal wealth As of March 2009, Mittal is the world's 8th richest person with personal wealth of US$19.3 billion.[17] In previous year of 2008, Mittal was reported to be the 4th wealthiest person in the world, and the wealthiest in Asia, by Forbes Magazine (up from 61st. richest in 2004) up one place since a year ago. The Mittal family owns a controlling majority stake in ArcelorMittal, the world's largest steel company.[18] His residence at Kensington Palace Gardens was purchased from Formula One boss Bernie Ecclestone in 2004 for £57 million (US$128 million), making it the world's most expensive house, at that date.[19] Kensington Gardens, currently owned by financier Noam Gottesman. The Guardian newspaper reported that the purchase price would be £127 million, which would set a record for the most expensive house ever sold in Britain. The paper noted that the house on "Billionaire's Boulevard" was expected to be the home of Mittal's son. Wikinews has related news: Lakshmi Mittal tops Sunday Times Rich List

Mittal's house in Kensington, London is decorated with marble taken from the same quarry that supplied the Taj Mahal. The extravagant show of wealth has been deemed the "Taj Mittal".[20] The Financial Times named Lakshmi Mittal its 2006 Person of the Year. In May 2007, he was named one of the "100 Most Influential People" by Time magazine.

[edit] Charity After witnessing India win only one medal, bronze, in the 2000 Summer Olympics, and one medal, silver, at the 2004 Summer Olympics, Mittal decided to set up Mittal Champions Trust with US$9 million to support 10 Indian athletes with world-beating potential.[21].In 2008 Mittal awarded Abhinav Bindra with Rs. 1.5 Crore, for getting India its first individual Olympic gold medal in shooting. For Comic Relief 2007, he matched the money raised (~£1 million) on the celebrity special BBC programme, The Apprentice.

[edit] Criticism and allegations [edit] Slave-labour allegations Employees of Mittal have accused him of "slave labour" conditions after multiple fatalities in his mines.[22] During December 2004, twenty-three miners died in explosions in his mines in Kazakhstan caused by faulty gas detectors.

[edit] Controversial self-bonus Lakshmi Mittal paid himself a bonus totalling GB£1.1bn [23] out of company funds in 2004 after a takeover of a US-based steelmaker, ISG.

[edit] Environmental damage Lakshmi Mittal purchased an Irish Steel plant based in Cork for £1 from the Government. Three years later in 2001, it was closed, leaving 400 people redundant. Subsequent environmental issues at the site have been a cause for criticism. The Government tried to sue in the High Court to have him pay for the clean-up of Cork Harbour but failed. The clean up was expected to cost €70m. [24]

[edit] Awards •

2008: Padma Vibhushan

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2007: Bessemer Gold Medal

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2006: Person of the Year - Financial Times

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2004: European Businessman of the Year - Fortune magazine

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1998: Willy Korf Steel Vision Award - American Metal Market and PaineWeber’s World Steel Dynamics

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1996: Steelmaker of the Year - New Steel

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New York: Indian-born steel tycoon Lakshmi Mittal and Reliance Industries’ chairman Mukesh Ambani are among the 20 most powerful billionaires in the world, as they possess not only the riches but also economic dominance as well as political clout, says Forbes.

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The Indian steel baron and the head of India’s largest private sector company were included in the list of “The World’s Most Powerful Billionaires” and according to Forbes “(they) have tremendous sway over the world’s markets, workers -- and, in some cases, armies.”

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Lakshmi Mittal, who controls the world’s largest steel firm, ArcelorMittal, has been ranked third on the list “despite his fortune falling $24.5 billion between March and November 2008”.

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Elaborating his power quotient, Forbes says, Mittal’s political clout often incites controversy. “In 2002, then British prime minister Tony Blair reportedly wrote a letter to the Romanian prime minister hinting a sale of the country’s steel company to Mittal would facilitate its entrance into the European Union,” the US business magazine said.

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Ambani, head of Reliance Industries, India’s largest company by market cap, was ranked seventh on the coveted list.

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“Last March, there were 1,125 billionaires in the world, Forbes said adding that “few plutocrats possess the money, economic dominance and political clout to touch -- or the potential to touch -all of us.”

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Forbes compiled the list based on the size and scope of the industries billionaires control, the political influence they exert and the fortunes they hold.

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The list was topped by Michael Bloomberg, New York City’s chief executive. Bloomberg spent $74 million becoming New York City mayor in 2001 and $85 million in 2005. “Law passed in October letting Bloomberg run for third term,” Forbes said.

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Behind Bloomberg is Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, who heads a nation of 58 million people, a diversified industrial economy with a gross domestic product of $2.4 trillion and a military budget of roughly $43 billion.

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Warren Buffett, who controls more than 50 companies that had a combined $118 billion in sales in 2008, ranks fourth.

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Forbes, however, highlighted that “perhaps no billionaire has more control over how America spends its disposable cash than Oprah Winfrey”, who was ranked 20th on the list.

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“With Oprah’s approval, an unknown book instantly turns into a bestseller, and getting a product endorsed on Oprah’s Favourite Things show can be the crowning achievement of a marketer’s career,” Forbes said.

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Forbes cited a research, compiled by two economics professors of University of Maryland, as per which Oprah’s endorsement of Barack Obama lent the candidate an estimated additional one million votes in the 2008 Democratic presidential primary.

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Other powerful billionaires in the list include Russia’s largest independent energy company Lukoil’s president Vagit Alekperov, Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim Helu, Microsoft’s Bill Gates and Rupert Murdoch.

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Among others were Edward and Abigail Johnson, Li Ka-Shing, Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Alsaud, Abdul Aziz Al Ghurair, Serge Dassault, Saad Hariri Roman Abramovich, Sergey Brin and Larry Page, David Rubenstein, William Conway Jr and Daniel D’Aniello.

L N Mittal threatens to stop work on Bhatinda refinery 29 Mar 2009, 1046 hrs IST, PTI Print

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NEW DELHI: Steel czar Lakshmi N Mittal has threatened to stop work on the Rs 18,919-crore

oil refinery project at Bhatinda in Punjab unless the state government restored fiscal incentives it

had taken away a few years ago.

Mittal is believed to have written to the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh seeking his "personal" intervention in the issue that has threatened the viability of the 9 million tons a year refinery project. Sources in the know of the development said Mittal earlier this month wrote to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh demanding fiscal concessions at par with what the Madhya Pradesh government has given to the Bharat Petroleum-promoted Bina refinery project. Losing a fortune in the global economic meltdown, Mittal had contemplated quitting the project altogether but had been persuaded to stay on with the promise that the Centre would convince the Punjab government to restore fiscal concession. Without the fiscal concessions like sales tax waiver on fuel it produces, the landlocked refinery was not viable and Mittal is not wanting to put more funds beyond the initial Rs 500 crore he had paid for equity, they said. Mittal wrote to Prime Minister that in absence of the fiscal concessions, he and project partner Hindustan Petroleum would be "reluctantly constrained to stop work," they added. The India-born billionaire has already pulled out of HPCL's proposed USD 6-billion refinerycum-petrochemical project proposed at Vizag in Andhra Pradesh. Sources said the previous Congress government in Punjab, headed by Amrinder Singh, had withdrawn waiver of sales tax on products from the refinery saying the fiscal concession meant the state would have to forgo Rs 600-700 crore in revenues. The Madhya Pradesh government on the other hand has given local sales tax concessions of Rs 250 crore per annum along with waiver of central sales tax for a period of 15 years to the Bina refinery project. The HPCL-Mittal Energy has already provisioned Rs 10,000 crore of spending for the project slated for completion in March 2011. HPCL and Mittal Energy Investment Pte Ltd, Singapore - a Lakshmi N Mittal Group Company, hold 49 per cent stake each in HPCL-Mittal Energy Ltd, the firm implementing the Bhatinda refinery project. The refinery will produce petroleum products complying with Euro-IV emission norms with captive power plant for 165MW and crude oil pipeline from Mundra in Gujarat to Bhatinda with Single Point Mooring (SPM) and crude oil terminal at Mundra. The refinery is the single largest investment at any location in Punjab. It would create large number of jobs directly and indirectly in the region.

The partners had recently arranged Rs 7,793 crore from a consortium of 26 lenders to fund the debt portion of the project. The project is being financed in 1.5:1 debt-equity ratio.

Mittal calls on Manmohan Singh

July 07, 2006

Steel tycoon L N Mittal on Friday called on Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in New Delhi. This was his first meeting with the Prime Minister since he acquired rival Arcelor. Mittal, who was accompanied by his son Aditya, however, did not take questions from waiting mediapersons. Later, he called on Finance Minister P Chidambaram and presumably discussed his plans for making a presence in the country of his birth. After visiting Orissa this morning, Mittal announced his business plans and shared his perception about prospects in India before calling on the Indian leaders. -- PTI Steel magnate Laksmi N Mittal and his son Aditya called on Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in New Delhi on Friday July 7, 2006. Photograph: Ranjan Basu/Saab

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Who's who: Arcelor-Mittal sag June 27, 2006

The Arcelor headquarters

The Luxembourg-based Arcelor was formed in 2002 b France's Usinor and Luxembourg's Arbed, and Spain's

When European steel maker Arcelor bowed to an impr billion euro ($32.2 billion) takeover offer from Mittal Ste Sunday, it went on to create a world giant three times its nearest rival. Arcelor-Mittal, the new entity will be ba Arcelor industrial model. It has been decided that the management board will have 7 members including fou Arcelor including CEO, Guy Dolle and three nominated from Mittal Steel.

The board of directors of 18 non-executive members nominated by Mittal, of whom 3 will be independent, 6 existing Arcelor board, 3 from existing Arcelor shareho 3 employee representatives.

If shareholders and regulators accept it, biggest steel manufacturing firm in the world will have its headquart Luxembourg.

Who's who: Arcelor-Mittal saga June 27, 2006

The Arcelor headquarters The Luxembourg-based Arcelor was formed in 2002 by merging France's Usinor and Luxembourg's Arbed, and Spain's Aceralia. When European steel maker Arcelor bowed to an improved 25.6 billion euro ($32.2 billion) takeover offer from Mittal Steel on Sunday, it went on to create a world giant three times larger than its nearest rival. Arcelor-Mittal, the new entity will be based on Arcelor industrial model. It has been decided that the management board will have 7 members including four from Arcelor including CEO, Guy Dolle and three nominated members from Mittal Steel. The board of directors of 18 non-executive members -- 6 nominated by Mittal, of whom 3 will be independent, 6 from existing Arcelor board, 3 from existing Arcelor shareholders and 3 employee representatives.

If shareholders and regulators accept it, biggest steel manufacturing firm in the world will have its headquarters in Luxembourg.

Also read: The world's most expensive house

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Welcome to the $78 million wedding June 3, 2004 Page Tools

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A British tycoon is hiring a French chateau and Bollywood's stars for his daughter's nuptials. Amit Roy reports For the billionaire steel tycoon Lakshmi Mittal, recently ranked the fifth richest man in Britain, money is no object when it comes to the marriage of his daughter. Which is why the Indian-born businessman has hired the 17th-century Vaux le Vicomte in France for the nuptials of 23-year-old Vanisha and her banker fiance. The cost of the wedding is expected to exceed £30 million ($78 million), including extravagant gifts for family and friends. This would eclipse the £10 million spent by the Indian diamond dealer Vijay Shah transforming Antwerp, Belgium, into a Bollywood fantasy for the double wedding of his daughter and son in 2002. Mittal came to public attention in the so-called "cash-for-favours scandal" three years ago, when the British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, wrote a letter of support to the Romanian Government after Mittal made a £125,000 donation to the Labour Party. Blair denied his support was connected to the donation. In May, Mittal reportedly paid £70 million for a 12-bedroom mansion in Kensington, London, but he appears to have chosen France for the Hindu wedding of Vanisha and Amit Bhatia. Advertisement Advertisement

The venue has not been officially disclosed. But this week the management of the Vaux le Vicomte estate, 55 kilometres east of Paris, in Maincy, said: "Exceptionally, on June 22, 2004, the chateau and gardens will be closed to the public after 1pm." And a spokesman at Vaux le Vicomte confirmed: "There will be an Indian marriage party here on June 22. We are smaller than Versailles but from the point of view of beauty we are No.1, we think." There will be an engagement ceremony on June 20 at the Palace of Versailles, once the home of Louis XIV, followed by a banquet.

Mittal and his wife, Usha, had promised their daughter her wedding would be "truly spectacular" and they are keeping their promise. An estimated 1200 guests, including family members, close friends and business figures from across the world, have been told to clear certain dates. For India's mega rich, 10,000 guests is the norm for a wedding but Mittal is determined that Vanisha's marriage will be tasteful, exclusive and different. A bill of more than £30 million seems inevitable once the diamond and gold jewellery, designer clothes for the families of the bride and groom, transport and hotels, hire of venues in France, deployment of the best chefs (the Mittals are vegetarian) and "goody bags" are taken into account. And the Indian glitterati across the world are dividing into those who have been invited and the distraught thousands who haven't. The family sangeet (song and dance) will begin on June 19, with a one-hour play written by Javed Akhtar, Bollywood's best-known scriptwriter. Dinner will be held at the Jardin de Tuileries on the right bank in Paris. The Mehndi ceremony (when the hands of women guests are painted with henna according to traditional Indian designs) is set for June 21, at a still undisclosed venue, to be followed by a Bollywood night. The marriage of Mittal's son, Aditya, in Kolkata four years ago was a similarly ostentatious affair. The Bollywood star Shah Rukh Khan was paid £300,000 to dance at the reception. Khan is expected to attend Vanisha's wedding but there is as yet no confirmation from Aishwarya Rai, the "Queen of Bollywood", that she will be present. The chateau of Vaux le Vicomte, transformed by Louis XIV's finance minister, Nicolas Fouquet, after he bought the estate in 1641, is said by historians to be as "resplendent today as it was in former times". The chateau was also a haven for leading French artists. Writers, poets, painters and sculptors are said to have given the best of their talents to the glory of Vaux.

Arcelor Mittal From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to: navigation, search It has been suggested that Mittal Steel Company be merged into this article or section. (Discuss)

ArcelorMittal

Type

Public (Euronext: MT, NYSE: MT, BMAD: MTS, LuxSE: MT)

Founded

Headquarters

Area served

Key people

Industry

2006 Avenue de la Liberté, Luxembourg, Luxembourg Worldwide Lakshmi Mittal (Chairman of the board and CEO), Aditya Mittal (CFO) Steel Steel, flat steel products, long steel

Products

products, stainless steel, wire solutions, plates

Revenue Operating income Profit

US $124.9 billion (2008)[1]

▲ US $12.24 billion (2008)[1]

▲ US $9.399 billion (2008)[1]

Total assets

US $133.1 billion (2008)[1]

Total equity

US $59.23 billion (2008)[1]

Employees

315,900 (2008)[1]

Website

www.arcelormittal.com

ArcelorMittal (Euronext: MT, NYSE: MT, BMAD: MTS, LuxSE: MT) is the largest steel company in the world, with 326,000 employees in more than 60 countries.[2][3] The company was formed in 2006 by the merger of Arcelor and Mittal Steel. It ranks 39th on the 2008 Fortune Global 500 list.[4] The company is headquartered in Luxembourg City, the former seat of Arcelor. [5]

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1 Business

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2 Organizational structure

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3 Images

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4 References

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5 External links

[edit] Business ArcelorMittal is a market leader in automotive, construction, household appliances and packaging. It holds sizeable captive supplies of raw materials and operates extensive distribution networks. Its industrial presence in Europe, Asia, Africa and America gives the Group exposure to all the key steel markets, from emerging to mature. ArcelorMittal will be looking to develop positions in the high-growth Chinese and Indian markets. ArcelorMittal key financials for 2007 show revenues of US$105.2 billion, with a crude steel production of 116 million tonnes, representing around 10% of world steel output. ArcelorMittal is listed on the stock exchanges of New York, Amsterdam, Paris, Brussels, Luxembourg and on the Spanish stock exchanges of Barcelona, Bilbao, Madrid and Valencia.[6] As of 4 November 2008, the market capitalisation of ArcelorMittal was $35.37B.[7] In December, 2008, ArcelorMittal announced several plant closings, including the former Bethlehem Steel plant in Lackawanna, NY and LTV Steel in Hennepin, IL.

[edit] Organizational structure Lakshmi Mittal (owner of Mittal Steel), a non-resident Indian, is the Chairman and CEO. The composition of ArcelorMittal's Group Management Board is as follows: Lakshmi N. Mittal (Chairman and CEO), Aditya Mittal (CFO), Michel Wurth, Gonzalo Urquijo, Sudhir Maheshwari, Christophe Cornier, Davinder Chugh. ArcelorMittal's 11-member Board of Directors is responsible for the overall supervision of the company. The composition of the Board of Directors reflects the principles agreed upon in the memorandum of understanding dated 25 June 2006.

[edit] Images

Headquarters in Luxembourg City

Headquarters in Luxembourg City

Headquarters in Luxembourg City

The world's most expensive house April 27, 2004

THE £70-MILLION MANSION: Lakshmi N Mittal, Chairman and CEO, of the LNM Group, has bought a central London house for a stunning price of £70 million ($128.25 million or about Rs 560 crore). The Non-Resident Indian steel magnate's new house has thus walked into the Guinness Book of Records as the world's most expensive house. The previous record for the most expensive house was £62.7 million ($114.89 million) for a 1997 sale in Hong Kong. The 12-bedroom mansion located at the prestigious Kensington Palace Gardens has garage space for 20 cars. Bernie Ecclestone, the Formula One racing boss, who sold the house to Mittal, had bought it for his wife three years ago. The Kensington Palace Gardens houses are dubbed Billionaires' Row. Nearby are Kensington Palace and the London home of the Sultan of Brunei. It is also close to Kensington Palace where Princess Diana lived. Mittal, whose personal wealth is put at £3.5 billion, is the richest Asian in the United Kingdom. He also owns a £9-million mansion on London's Bishop Avenue, and a house on Delhi's Prithviraj Road which is said to have cost him Rs 40 crore. LNM also has a penthouse at Hyde Park and houses in Surabaya, Indonesia, and in Trinidad. Photo: Odd Andersen / AFP / Getty Images

'King of Steel' shows it off April 27, 2004

THE 'KING OF STEEL': Billionaire Non-Resident India Lakshmi N Mittal – who is now the proud owner of the world's most expensive house – has been dubbed the King of Steel. His steel empire – The LNM Group – is racing ahead at lightning speed compared to its lumbering rivals in the world of steel. The 51-year-old steel magnate is the founder and Chairman of The LNM

Group, the world's second largest steel producer with annual net sales of over $9 billion and a steelmaking capacity of 35 million tonnes. The LNM Group has over 110,000 employees at its steelmaking operations in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Trinidad, Germany, France, Kazakhstan, Algeria, Romania, Poland, and Indonesia. He started his career in the family's steelmaking business in India, and has 30 years of experience working in the steel and related industries. He began working in his father's steel mill in India as a teenager. In 1975, at age 25, he left for Indonesia, and in 1976, he set up Ispat Indo. He is an active philanthropist and a member of various trusts. He was born in Sadulpur, Rajasthan, in India and graduated from St. Xavier's College in Kolkata where he received a Bachelor of Commerce degree. He lives in London, with his wife Usha, son Aditya, and daughter Vanisha. Workers clean the floors next to the hot rolling mill at the Sendzimir steel plant in Nowa Huta, Poland, on April 15, 2004. Indian steel conglomerate LNM Holding recently purchased the Sendzimir plant and three other Polish steel mills. Poland is scheduled to join the European Union on May 1. Photo: Sean Gallup/ Getty Images