Christopher Pell Liddell (born 24 April 1958) is a New Zealand-American businessperson who served as Chief Financial Officer of Microsoft, the Vice Chairman of General Motors, Senior Vice President and CFO of International Paper, Director and Chairman of Xero and the White House Deputy Chief of Staff in the Trump Administration.
Liddell has been active in a number of philanthropic projects, mostly in his native New Zealand and in the 2016 New Year Honours, he was appointed a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to business and philanthropy.
Biography
Liddell was born in Matamata, New Zealand, the youngest of five siblings. His father was a school teacher and died while Liddell was young. His mother supported Liddell and his siblings by working a variety of jobs, including at Smith & Caughey's in Auckland. Liddell received his secondary education at Mount Albert Grammar School. He holds a Bachelor of Engineering degree with honors from the University of Auckland and a Master of Philosophy degree from Worcester College, Oxford University. He was named one of Auckland University's Distinguished Alumni in 2003.
Family
He has been married to Renee Harbers Liddell, since 2011.
Career
Corporate
In 1983, Liddell took up a position at investment bank Jarden & Co which would morph into Credit Suisse First Boston's operation in New Zealand and finally Jarden today. He rose to the role of joint-CEO and managing director of CS First Boston NZ.
In 1995, he joined Carter Holt Harvey as chief financial officer. Four years later he was chief executive officer - the first New Zealander to be appointed by majority shareholder International Paper, which had previously sent Americans David Oskin and John Faraci down to head the company. When Liddell left Carter Holt Harvey, the company was New Zealand's largest forest owner managing around 330,000 hectares and the country's second largest listed company by market capitalization, with sales of NZ$3.75 billion.
From 2003, Liddell served as CFO of Carter Holt Harvey's parent company International Paper until 2005. During his tenure, Liddell was credited with building a world-class finance function that redesigned and substantially improved the company’s business resource allocation and internal control processes; was actively involved in the company’s cost-reduction initiatives; and drove and managed business strategy, including several important M&A transactions. "Chris has played a pivotal role as the chief executive officer of Carter Holt Harvey, and more recently, as the chief financial officer of International Paper. We will very much miss having Chris on our leadership team", stated then CEO John V. Faraci in an announcement.
Liddell was a senior vice president and CFO of Microsoft, where, from 2005 to December 2009, he was responsible for leading their worldwide finance organization. "Chris brings great talent and skills both in finance and in business leadership," said Steve Ballmer, then chief executive officer at Microsoft. "Having been both CEO and CFO of international companies gives him the ability to contribute broadly to our finance, operations and business strategy." He oversaw Microsoft's acquisition strategy and helped to transform the company by tripling the rate of acquisitions. Under his leadership, Microsoft completed nearly 50 deals in just three years, ranging from small technology firms to the $6 billion acquisition of digital advertising firm aQuantive.
In 2007, he was ranked among the best CFO’s within the software sector globally by Institutional Investor and then in 2010, he was named the New Zealand Business Leader of the Year by the New Zealand Herald.
Liddell served as Vice Chairman and Chief Financial Officer at General Motors, where he managed the company’s $23 billion IPO in November 2010, which, at that time, which was the largest public offering in history. Chris was a major contributor during a pivotal time in the company’s history," said Daniel Akerson, former GM chairman and CEO. In 2010, GM posted a full-year profit that was its first since 2004 and its largest since 1999.
In 2014, Xero, the cloud-based accounting software developer appointed Liddell as its new chairman. Xero's chief executive and founder Rod Drury said Liddell’s contribution had seen the New Zealand-founded company’s annualized committed monthly revenue (ACMR) triple during his tenure, stating “Chris leaves us in a good position with strong global revenue growth.” Liddell resigned from the New Zealand-based company to take on a new role in United States president-elect Donald Trump's administration.