10 Things You Didn’t Know about Ball Corporation CEO John Hayes

Pretty much everyone is familiar with the Ball logo on glass jars. It’s not too surprising they’re so widely known given the company history. They’ve been around making good products since 1880, though they didn’t incorporate until 6 years later. In addition to the oh-so-famous glass jars, Ball is the world’s largest manufacturer of recyclable metal beverage and food containers. What many will find even more surprising is that they have a hand in the Aerospace industry and work with NASA.

It’s only natural, when you do as much as a company like Ball, that the people at the top get their share of notice as well. The CEO of the Ball Corporation, a man named John Hayes appears to be a fairly low profile individual. Not secretive or reclusive, just not overly invested in being famous or well known, a quality you don’t often see in CEOs of major corporations. As such, most people just don’t know a whole lot about him. We’ve dug up ten interesting facts you didn’t know about John Hayes.

1. Like it’s 1999

Mr. Hayes started working for Ball in 1999. That makes this year the end of his second decade working at the Ball Corporation.

2. Wiki-Snippet

Mr. John Hayes does have a Wikipedia page. Like much of the information you’ll find about him, it’s not very extensive. Unlike most, however, it is in Swedish. The translated page doesn’t give a whole lot of detail beyond his education and very brief job history. It does mention hockey. The truly interesting thing about the page is that he’s clearly popular enough in Switzerland to garner a mention on sv.wikipedia.

3. Wages and Compensation

According to Bloomberg, Mr. Hayes makes a relatively modest $1,299,013 per year. “Modest,” in this case means that he only makes about half of what some charities pay their CEOs, which has caused a bit of a stir in the media. (For example, President/CEO of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center Craig B. Thompson, M.D. had reported earnings of $2,925,426 in 2014.)

4. Hockey Fan

For two years, from 2012 to 2014, he was the proud owner of the Denver Cutthroats Hockey team. Hayes is a self-admitted huge fan of hockey, and who can blame him, it’s a great sport and a ton of fun to watch.

5. Basic Stats- Work and Personal Life

He’s 53 years old and married to Susan Hayes. The couple live in Boulder Colorado. No listings for ex-wives or children. Previous jobs included a stint at Lehman Brothers in Chicago, but the majority of his professional life has been with Ball.

6. Traveling to Work

He was also the President of Ball Packaging in Europe. This means he has worked for the company on at least two continents in an executive capacity.

7. Loyalty

In the 20 years he has worked for Ball he has served in numerous capacities from President and CEO most recently all the way back to Senior Director, Corporate Planning and Development in 1999 when he was hired. It appears that Ball knows a resource when they hire one and they are not shy about using his talents.

8. An Educated Man

Hayes holds two degrees, an M.B.A. in Finance and Strategy from J.L. Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University and a B.S. from Colgate University. In addition, he was named the Ira J. Harris scholar in finance at Kellogg.

9. Values Good Employees

In the disposable-worker economy where everyone is made to feel replaceable, it’s refreshing to see anyone in a position of power show genuine care for retaining decent employees.
“Smart people can go anywhere, it’s your job to attract and retain those people.” -John Hayes

10. Non-profit organizations in Colorado

All of them have common ground in that they benefit the underprivileged, whether it is students or others in need, he seems to genuinely care about fellow human beings. This is more remarkable when you put it in context and consider that he has less take-home pay than the people running some so-called charities.

Final Thoughts

It’s hard to fault a man who works hard, shows loyalty and seems to genuinely value those who work under him. If anything John Hayes appears to be a brilliant, capable but otherwise mostly normal “guy,” who loves hockey and doesn’t need to see his face in the national news every week. He must enjoy working for Ball, as he’s been with them in various roles for two decades. Though he isn’t terribly public, it may simply be that there isn’t anything sensational to tell other than the fact that he is exceptionally good at what he does, and that’s a fact.