5 Brilliant Military Generals of All Time

The world has already witnessed many great military leaders throughout history. Most of such leaders are known for their courage, never say die attitude and also in leading the masses. So keeping this in mind, let’s have a look at the names of the most famous military rulers in history, as compiled by The Richest.

Alexander The Great: King of Macedonia and conqueror of the Persian Empire, Alexander The Great is considered one of the greatest military geniuses of all times. He was inspiration for later conquerors such as Hannibal the Carthaginian, the Romans Pompey and Caesar, and Napoleon.

Alexander was born in 356 BC in Pella, the ancient capital of Macedonia. He was the son of Philip II, King of Macedonia, and Olympias, the princess of neighboring Epirus.
Against irresistible odds, he led his army to victories across the Persian territories of Asia Minor, Syria and Egypt without suffering a single defeat. His greatest victory was at the Battle of Gaugamela, in what is now northern Iraq, in 331 BC. The young king of Macedonia, leader of the Greeks, overlord of Asia Minor and pharaoh of Egypt became 'great king' of Persia at the age of just 25.

Napoleon Bonaparte: A French military leader and emperor, Napoleon Bonaparte is one of the greatest rulers the world has ever come across. He was also known as Napoleon I, and conquered much of Europe in the early 19th century. Born on the island of Corsica, Napoleon rapidly rose through the ranks of the military during the French Revolution.

Sharp, ambitious and a skilled military strategist, Napoleon successfully waged war against various coalitions of European nations and expanded his empire. However, after a disastrous French invasion of Russia in 1812, Napoleon abdicated the throne two years later and was exiled to the island of Elba. In 1815, he briefly returned to power in his Hundred Days campaign. After a crushing defeat at the Battle of Waterloo, he abdicated once again and was exiled to the remote island of Saint Helena, where he died at 51.

Genghis Khan: A great Mongolian warrior and ruler, Genghis Khan rose from humble beginnings to establish the largest land empire in history, the Mongol Empire, by destroying individual tribes in Northeast Asia. After uniting the nomadic tribes of the Mongolian plateau, he conquered huge chunks of central Asia and China.

Just at the age of 20, he began building a large army with the intent to destroy individual tribes and unite them under his rule. He was successful; the Mongol Empire was the largest empire in the world before the British Empire, and lasted well till his death.
The early success of the Mongol army owed much to the brilliant military tactics of Genghis Khan, as well as his understanding of his enemies' motivations. However, many people were slaughtered in the course of Khan’s invasions. But, he granted religious freedom to his subjects, abolished torture, encouraged trade and created the first international postal system.

Skanderbeg: Hailed as a national hero in Albania, Skanderbeg was one among the military rulers who successfully ousted the Ottoman Turks from his native land for over two decades, halting Turkey's efforts to spread Islam through an area mostly dominated by Roman Catholic Western Europe.
Kidnapped by the Ottoman Turks at a very young age,

this Albanian freedom fighter was raised under Islam and trained as a general within the ranks of the Turkish military. As commander of Albania's warlords, he sparked a national revolt in 1444 and held off numerous efforts by the Ottomans to take back Albania and bring that country once again under Muslim rule.

Attila The Hun: 5th century king of the Hunnic Empire, Attila The Hun is one of the most successful barbarian rulers of the Hunnic Empire. He united the tribes of the Hun kingdom and was said to be a just ruler to his own people. Attila was also known as an aggressive and ruthless leader. He expanded the rule of the Huns to include many Germanic tribes and attacked the Eastern Roman Empire in wars of extraction, devastating lands from the Black Sea to the Mediterranean, and inspiring fear throughout the late Roman Empire. He was never successful in invading Constantinople or Rome, and left a divided family following his death in 453.

Atletico ease past Chelsea to set up all-Spanish Champions League final

Atletico Madrid produced an inspired display of counter-attacking soccer to beat Chelsea 3-1 in the Champions League semi-final second leg on Wednesday and set up an all-Spanish final against city rivals Real.

Goals from Adrian Lopez, a penalty from Diego Costa and Arda Turan gave Atletico a 3-1 aggregate victory after last week’s goalless draw in Madrid and put them into the final of Europe’s elite competition for the first time since 1974.

Chelsea took the lead after 36 minutes when former Atletico favourite Fernando Torres scored with a deflected shot, but the goal inspired the La Liga leaders who will meet their neighbours in the first European final to feature two clubs from the same city in Lisbon on May 24.

“The truth is the team was brilliant,” Atletico forward Costa said in an interview with Spanish television broadcaster Canal Plus.

“We have done everything possible to get to the final. Both Real Madrid and us are deserved finalists.”

Chelsea midfielder Willian started the move that led to the opening goal and turned his marker wide on the right before Cesar Azpilicueta, playing in an unfamiliar midfield role, set up the chance for Torres who clipped the ball home via a deflection off Mario Suarez.

Atletico took advantage of poor defending for the equaliser a minute before halftime when the home team failed to clear a floated cross from Thiago to the unmarked Juanfran who stole in at the far post.

He crossed for Adrian Lopez whose shot bounced down on its way into the net.

Veteran Chelsea goalkeeper Mark Schwarzer rolled back the years at the start of the second half with a stunning two-handed reflex save from Turan who took advantage of more poor defending to rifle in a blistering angled shot.

Atletico, who held the away goal advantage with the score at 1-1, refused to sit back and were rewarded after an hour when Samuel Eto’o, who had replaced Ashley Cole, fouled Costa to concede a penalty.

Costa blasted the ball past Schwarzer to make it 2-1 before Turan sealed a glorious victory with the third goal as Chelsea collapsed at the back.

David Luiz hit the post for Chelsea but they were totally outplayed in the second half and Atletico ran out deserved winners.

“The game until a certain minute was very equal,” Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho told Sky Sports.

“The first half was more ours than them, but the second half one minute changes everything. One minute the Atletico keeper makes a very good save, the same minute it was a penalty, after that, 2-1 against Atletico is almost impossible.

“After that there was only one team. One team with morale high, knowing they had the result under control.”

Hockey fan’s guide to basketball: How to jump onto the Raptors bandwagon

It’s been a while since a sports team not named the Leafs has generated this much hype in the city of Toronto. Thanks to their Game 5 win over Brooklyn Wednesday night, Raptormania is in full force. Hey, everyone likes a winner. So for all of you bandwagon-jumpers with no real clue about the game of basketball, here are a few tips:

IMPORTANT SIMILARITIES

• Basketball and hockey were both invented by Canadians, or so Canadians say.
• Both games can involve goaltending. In basketball, preventing a ball in mid-air from entering the net is a foul. In hockey, Leafs goaltending is just foul.
• A lead is never safe in the dying minutes. In basketball, the equivalent is the six-point lead with 18.6 seconds left, because Reggie Miller once did this. In hockey – oh, hell, you remember.
• A beer costs $14.

IMPORTANT DIFFERENCES

• Basketball is played on a wooden floor, instead of ice, so the dancers won’t slip and fall.
• Dunking a basketball is similar to dunking a honey cruller, except you let go of the basketball. The rim does not roll up.
• Basketball assists are called dimes because of informants who assisted police by making a phone call (which used to cost a dime).
• Basketball players do not head-butt each other at the end of the game.

LITTLE-KNOWN FACTS

• Refereeing in basketball is more art than science. And in art terms, it’s chucking paint cans against a wall.
• Statistically, all two-point shots are a terrible idea. Until you make them.
• A foul occurs every time a bad player comes within five feet of a good player.
• The skill level of players, by height, from best to worst: average guy, tallish guy, very tall guy, freakishly tall guy, giant.

LINES TO IMPRESS MORE KNOWLEDGEABLE FRIENDS

• They’re running too much iso (pronounced eye-so).
• They’re getting killed by bad switches.
• Brooklyn’s bigs can’t cope with Toronto’s pick-and-roll game.
• Who goes to Wasaga Beach in April?

Non sequiturs to blurt when Raptors are winning

• Kyle Lowry!
• Coaching advantage!
• Fourth-quarter team!

Non sequiturs to blurt when Raptors are losing

• Hero ball
• Experience
• Fourth-quarter team!

THE NOVICE FAN

At a Leafs game, a novice fan will ask why a play was called offside. When the team blows a lead and gives up multiple third-period goals, fans boo.

At a Raptors game, the novice fan chants “Pizza, Pizza” in anticipation of a free, low-quality slice if the home team wins and scores 100 points or more. If the Raptors win but score fewer than 100 points, fan boos.

ABOUT THE REF

NBA basketball is, admittedly, a difficult game to ref: extremely large men moving at high speeds in very tight quarters. But it is also, arguably – maybe even inarguably – the worst refereed big-time sport around. This is because the NBA is a reputation league, a star-driven circuit where rules apply unequally based on the name of the player involved.

If you’re LeBron James, for instance, and you glide in for an easy dunk or layup, the ref automatically blows the whistle and then looks around for someone to call the foul on, even if there’s no one within 10 feet of the burly superstar. (On the flipside, LeBron has never committed a foul in his life.)

How does this apply to the Toronto Raptors? The Raps have traditionally not gotten the refs’ respect. This is not because they’re based in Canada, it’s because they’re bad – or have been, anyway, for most of their two decades of existence. Thus they get called for ticky-tack fouls while their opponents rarely seem to get whistled for roughing up the Raps, no matter how blatant the mugging,

To some degree – some, anyway – this has changed over the course of this surprising season, as the Raptors willed themselves from an apparent draft-lottery contender to first place in their division; as DeMar DeRozan earned All-Star status and the refs’ willingness to give him a call. 

Nonetheless, in this playoff series with Brooklyn, the late-game calls have generally gone the Nets’ way – the Nets, who, after all, have marquee players named KG and Pierce and Williams and Johnson.

Have the Raptors displayed enough game and grit so far to keep the refs from leaning Brooklyn’s way in the final crucial contests? That could be the series-deciding question.

With reports from Bob Levin, Mason Wright, Cathal Kelly, Joe Friesen, Greg Boyd and Michael Snider

Graphics by Murat Yukselir/The Globe and Mail

AT&T in talks with DirecTV about a possible acquisition: report

AT&T Inc. has approached DirecTV <DTV.O> about a possible acquisition of the satellite TV company, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the situation.

A deal would likely be worth at least $40-billion, DirecTV’s current market capitalization, the newspaper said.

A combination of AT&T and DirecTV would create a pay television giant close in size to where Comcast Corp <CMCSA.O> will be if it completes its pending acquisition of Time Warner Cable Inc <TWC.N>, the Journal said.

Representatives for AT&T were not immediately available for comment outside of regular U.S. business hours.

DirecTV spokesman Robert Mercer said the company does not comment on speculation.

Comcast Corp this week agreed to a three-way deal with Charter Communications Inc <CHTR.O> as part of Comcast’s efforts to win regulatory approvals for its proposed $45-billion purchase of Time Warner Cable.

Rivals poach Publicis, Omnicom clients, staff as merger faces snags

Publicis and Omnicom have lost more than $1.5-billion of client work in recent weeks and face a fight to retain billions more, including a huge Samsung contract, just as the two advertising firms struggle to keep their merger on track.

When the world’s second and third-largest ad groups announced a merger last July, it sparked talk from rivals, led by Martin Sorrell, the boss of current leader London-based WPP, that the U.S. and French firms could lose clients and talented staff as a result.

Now, with the deal’s closing delayed at least six months because of regulatory issues, and relations so tense between the two that they haven’t been able to solve a seven-month dispute over who becomes new finance chief, Sorrell has been boasting about being successful in winning business from them and poaching their staff.

Several large contracts, including Vodafone’s $1-billion global media and buying account, moved hands from Omnicom to WPP in April.

On Wednesday, Microsoft announced it was moving its multibillion-dollar ad and media business from Publicis and WPP to Japan’s Dentsu Aegis and U.S. Interpublic. Others to move away from Publicis or Omnicom in recent weeks include food maker Danone, pharma group GSK, electronics firm Sony, and retailer Marks & Spencer.

In the ad business, accounts do change hands quite regularly – in the case of some companies every few years – and there are often reviews and pitches for the business when contracts come to the end of their terms. Also, none of the clients who have jumped ship have publicly blamed the merger.

Omnicom CFO Randall Weisenburger noted on an earnings call last week that swings in the business, such as the Vodafone loss, are quite normal. “Each quarter you get one or two big wins or one or two big losses,” he said.

And the wins are not all in WPP’s favor. Publicis prevailed against WPP on a contract with food company ConAgra in February and its BBH agency expanded its role with British Airways at the expense of WPP’s Ogilvy in March.

Nevertheless Publicis and Omnicom face the unenviable task of defending contracts, including the multibillion dollar account of tech giant Samsung and the U.S. account of the leading brewer Anheuser-Busch InBev, maker of Budweiser beer, amid questions about whether the merger plan will fall apart.

Among any client’s biggest concerns will be whether they get the attention and quality of service they want from staff and management who will be wondering if the merger will happen and what lies ahead for them whether it goes ahead or not. Critical is whether there will be changes in the ad agency teams they work with, consultants, analysts, and rival ad executives said.

“There is more than $4-billion in review for the combined company counting major accounts like Samsung that could change hands,” Pivotal Research analyst Brian Wieser said.

“Publicis and Omnicom lost contracts worth $1.5-billion from four accounts in one week in April,” he said. “It’s somewhat bad luck on timing, but does raise some questions as to if it’s more than bad luck.”

CHAMPAGNE TOASTS

As they feted the deal signing with champagne in Paris last summer, Omnicom CEO ‘s John Wren and Publicis’ CEO Maurice Levy said their “merger of equals” would enable them to better compete with the likes of Google and Facebook who dominate the digital ad space, which accounts for nearly a quarter of global marketing spend.

Greater scale was supposed to give the new group better bargaining power in buying space for ads on TV, the web, and print at a time when many global brands are looking to cut costs on advertising.

But uncertainty over the deal grew last week after the two CEOs gave different reasons for the closing’s delay.

The deal still requires various regulatory approvals, including antitrust approval in China, and agreement from European authorities to a structure that would see the merged company have its domicile in the Netherlands and tax residency in the UK.

The two sides are also locked in a dispute over who should be chief financial officer. Whoever takes the CFO role will determine how the new company will operate, hewing either to Publicis’ centralized structure or Omnicom’s less controlling approach to subsidiaries.

Still, some experts said that the merger of the two holding companies wasn’t a big issue for many clients.

Judy Neer, president and CEO of Pile and Company, a consulting firm that helps companies with their marketing relationships, said many of her clients weren’t concerned about the merger provided it didn’t impact the specific ad agency subsidiaries they deal with.

One insider at Omnicom acknowledged that the deal had not been useful as a tool to recruit clients, but nor were clients citing it as a reason for reviewing contracts either.

A person familiar with the thinking of one big consumer brand which recently moved its global account from Publicis to WPP said it had not been put off by the merger, but that WPP had offered more attractive and efficient terms.

Another person at a multinational which recently moved its media buying account from Omnicom to WPP, said Omnicom had in recent months failed to maintain the relationship, that WPP was better in certain areas including digital, and that the company couldn’t see the benefits to the Omnicom-Publicis merger.

“No one explained what synergies were in it for us,” the person said.

POACHING TALENT

One of the biggest accounts to come up for grabs in recent years is the creative, digital and media business of Samsung Electronics. Starcom MediaVest Group and Leo Burnett, units of Publicis, currently have much of the work with other agencies doing parts.

According to Ad Age, Samsung spent $4.35-billion on advertising in 2012. Exane BNP analyst Charles Bedouelle said the account could be worth around 2 per cent of Publicis revenues and said the review indicates how big companies are consolidating their work across countries and sectors as they look to save on costs. “WPP excels at this game,” he said citing the firm’s size and structure.

Other battlegrounds expected include Spain’s Telefonica, which is reviewing some $300-million in advertising contracts, most of which are now with Publicis.

WPP had the highest rate of comparable revenue growth of the big four agencies in the first quarter, with the fourth-largest IPG in second place, Omnicom third and Publicis fourth.

Retaining talent is also a worry for Publicis and Omnicom.

WPP’s Sorrell has said that for every one member of staff he has lost to the merging group, his firm has attracted four in return. Both IPG boss Michael Roth and Yannick Bollore, head of the fifth-biggest ad group Havas, said they had seen opportunities to lure staff away from the two. Havas recently won an account from Gulf airline Emirates from Publicis.

“Six months ago or four months ago, I was receiving resumes from young executives,” Bollore told an analyst conference call on March 20. “Now for the last two or three weeks, I don’t know if something happened inside Publicis-Omnicom, but I’m starting to receive some resumes from very high senior managers.”

Still Omnicom’s Wren said on the firm’s earnings call last week that its talent base is “very stable” and pointed to a recent big hire: Peter Sherman, Omnicom’s new executive vice president, who left WPP’S JWT Worldwide.

Mark Fields gets top spot at Ford as Mulally to retire July 1 Add to ...

Alan Mulally, the man who transformed Ford Motor Co. from a dysfunctional money-loser to a thriving company, will retire July 1 and be replaced by Mark Fields, the current chief operating officer.

During his eight-year tenure at Ford, Mulally gambled all of the company’s assets on a credit line that kept Ford out of bankruptcy, then used a simple “One Ford” plan to change the company’s culture. He was hired away from aircraft maker Boeing Co. in 2006 by Bill Ford, who at the time was running the company.

Fields, 53, has been in charge of Ford’s daily operations since December of 2012 and was widely expected to one day ascend to the top job. The change in leadership is taking place about six months ahead of schedule, but Ford said that was based on Mulally’s recommendation that the new leaders were ready.

“Alan and I feel strongly that Mark and the entire leadership team are absolutely ready to lead Ford forward, and now is the time to begin the transition,” Bill Ford said in a statement Thursday morning. Bill Ford, the company’s executive chairman, is the great-grandson of company founder Henry Ford.

Mulally said he will also leave the company’s board but has not decided on his future plans.

Mulally, 68, was trained as an aeronautical engineer. He spent 36 years at Boeing – and was president of the company’s commercial airplane division – when Bill Ford lured him to the struggling automaker eight years ago. Mulally overcame skepticism about being an outsider in the insular ranks of Detroit car guys by quickly pinpointing the reasons why Ford was losing billions each year. Mulally put a stop to the infighting that had paralyzed the company and instituted weekly management meetings where executives faced new levels of accountability and were encouraged to work together to solve problems.

It took two years for Mulally to turn the company around, but since 2009, Ford has posted pretax profits of $34.5-billion and its shares have more than doubled.

Fields was one of the executives passed over when Mulally got the top job in 2006. When he was named COO in 2012, Bill Ford said Fields’ decision to stay at Ford and learn from Mulally showed a lot of fortitude and has made Fields a better leader.

“There was a lot of speculation about whether he was capable. To his great credit, he stuck to it, he learned from it and showed tremendous fortitude in grinding through an incredibly difficult process,” Bill Ford said.

This marks the second change in leadership at the top of one of the Detroit automakers this year. Mary Barra took over as CEO for Dan Akerson at General Motors in January.

Fields joined Ford as a market research analyst in 1989 and quickly rose through the company’s ranks. Less than a decade later, in 1997, he was running the company’s operations in Argentina. In 2000, he became the youngest CEO ever at a Japanese company when Ford installed him as head of Mazda Motor Co., which Ford controlled at the time.

There, he oversaw the catchy “Zoom Zoom” ad campaign. He was later head of Ford’s European division and its luxury brands, which struggled with losses despite his tough medicine, including the closure of a historic Jaguar plant in Britain.

Fields returned to Ford’s Dearborn headquarters in 2005 to become president of the Americas. As the company struggled to make a profit, Fields hashed out a plan to turn around Ford’s money-losing North American operations by closing factories, laying off thousands of workers and using Ford’s design expertise in Europe to build better cars.

Supporters say Fields is an excellent strategist with a deep knowledge of the business. His international experience is invaluable as Ford restructures its European operations and focuses on growth in volatile young markets like Asia and South America.

Fields is friendly and polished, with sharp suits and a bit of a swagger. He was born in Brooklyn, N.Y., the youngest of three sons. At the New York Auto Show in April, he showed a home movie of his family at the 1964 World’s Fair in New York. He remembered the excitement of the crowd when he was lifted on his father’s shoulders to see the new Ford Mustang.

Fields was raised in Paramus, N.J., and earned a bachelor’s degree from Rutgers University in 1983. He sold computers for IBM before earning an MBA from Harvard Business School in 1989.

Like Barra, who became the first female CEO of a big automaker at GM, Fields will be breaking a mould at Ford. He is the first Jewish chief executive at the 111-year-old company.

Ford shares were flat at $16.15 just before the opening bell Thursday.