Ex-Glencore CEO contender sets out to build a Chinese trading giant

When Kenny Ives took over as boss of the trading arm of one of China's top miners, his model was clear: "23 years at Glencore, and I loved it. So why would I do it differently?"

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After just missing out on succeeding Ivan Glasenberg as head of commodities giant Glencore Plc, 46-year-old Ives is now running IXM-which as the trading arm of CMOC Group is a key link between China's battery industry and the world. There, he's spent the past year seeking to instill the hard-charging, hypercompetitive Glencore culture that his mentor was famous for.

Nine-to-five would no longer cut it-Ives started turning up at the once sleepy IXM offices in Geneva at 5.30 am and the tall, intense Brit was often still at his desk at midnight. Lunch was out, replaced by brisk runs. Vacations no longer meant unplugging from work calls and messages. "When people take holidays at IXM (there are exceptions), people tend to switch off more or less entirely," he wrote in an email to IXM managers, seen by Bloomberg. "Unfortunately, this business is one where you can't switch off entirely if we want to win."

Winning, in IXM's world, means challenging the two giants of metals trading: Trafigura Group and Glencore itself.

"IXM were proud to be number three," Ives said in an interview this week, speaking publicly for the first time since he was hired as CEO. "But CMOC and myself and the senior management team, we have aspirations to be more."