Nine CEOs of UK firms at top of Harvard’s list
NINE chief executives of UK firms have ranked among the best bosses in the world, according to Harvard Business Review’s (HBR) annual list.
The UK is home to the second largest number of top-performing bosses along with France, and second only to the US, according to the list, released yesterday.
WPP boss Sir Martin Sorrell emerged as the fifth best chief in the world in HBR’s list, which takes into account factors such as total shareholder return and change in market capitalisation.
Aberdeen Asset Management’s Martin Gilbert, Next’s Simon Wolfson and Randgold Resources’ Mark Bristow are also ranked in the top 50 of 100 worldwide chiefs.
In addition to financial performance, HBR for the first time included other indicators of strong leadership in the areas of environmental, social and governance (ESG) performance. Bosses who took the helm prior to 1995 were also included for the first time, meaning top performers Sorrell, Gilbert and Bristow make their first appearance in the list.
With the addition of ESG performance, weighted 20 per cent in the overall score, Amazon’s Jeff Bezos tumbled from first place in 2014 to 87th this year. Bezos was usurped by Lars Rebien Sorensen of pharma firm Novo Nordisk.
On the addition of the new metric, HBR said: “In an era of big data and greater transparency, consumers and investors increasingly want to understand a company’s culture and values. They want to analyse its social behaviour, not just its share price.”
At WPP, Sorrell has overseen total shareholder returns of 1,426 per cent and a rise in market capitalisation of $39bn (£25.6bn) over his 29-year tenure. He was also given an ESG score of the 71 out of 100, based on research by Sustainalytics.