Carlos Criado-Perez

Former CEO of U.K.-based Safeway PLC. Carlos Criado-Perez was born in 1952 in Buenos Aires, and began his career with Dutch company SHV Makro, a cash-and-carry wholesaler, in 1976. He went to the United States in 1997 to work for Wal-Mart as COO of its international division before landing at Safeway in 1999, where he was CEO until 2004.

Safeway hired Criado-Perez to turn the company around, which he accomplished by drawing in customers with deeply discounted items and catching competing supermarkets off guard. He also changed stores' merchandising tactics to make the shopping experience more pleasant for customers. However, the company was taken over in 2004 by smaller competitor William Morrison, a transaction in which the government prohibited Safeway's three larger rivals from bidding because of competition concerns.