The eight new members of the roster are already making good money in Asia and appear well-positioned for the years ahead. Look at Steve Wynn, the casino titan. When China sought casino developers in 2002 for Macau, the former Portuguese colony that then was a crime-ridden backwater, Wynn snagged one of three coveted licenses based simply on his Las Vegas reputation (he built the super-plush Bellagio). Macau has gone on to become the world's most lucrative casino venue thanks to the Chinese affinity for gambling, and Wynn's two Macau properties generated $893 million in pretax cash flow last year, three times what the company's two Vegas hotels produced.
Other newcomers to the list are making a mark on China with everything from cold beer and grilled chicken to luxury automobiles and high-end corporate computing gear. They aren't ignoring the rest of the world, either. In fact, all 30 CEOs on the list take truly global perspectives, and they hail from all over the world. While 18 run U.S.-based outfits, Australia, Ireland, Germany, Japan and several other countries are also represented. Profiles of all 30 leaders begin on page 34, in alphabetical order.
Notable returnees include Berkshire Hathaway's Warren Buffett, Apple's Steve Jobs, JP Morgan Chase's Jamie Dimon, IBM's Sam Palmisano and Costco Wholesale's Jim Sinegal.
We dropped eight CEOs from our 2010 list to make room for new members, reflecting weakening financial performance, rising business risk and retirement. Those dropped include John Chambers of Cisco Systems, Jim Balsillie and Mike Lazardis -- the duo that leads Research In Motion -- and the head of Asian battery maker BYD, Chuan-fu Wan.
New or old on the list, each of the CEOs has a bold vision and a strikingly effective management style. Carlos Brito, for instance, has turned a South American brewer into the world's largest beer concern, Anheuser-Busch InBev. He runs it with a lean, flat management structure, with few perks and meritocratic promotion practices that pay little attention to seniority. He also encourages employees to use their imaginations. "Dreaming big or small takes the same amount of energy," he says.
IT'S TOUGH FOR RESTAURANT COMPANIES to do well outside their home turf because tastes and eating habits differ around the world. McDonald's, ably led by James Skinner, has done it on a large scale, and so has Yum! Brands, whose single most profitable market now is in China, where it earned $755 million in 2010, up from $20 million in 1998.
CEO David Novak has led Yum! for a decade and hasn't let up on Chinese expansion, projecting that the KFC restaurant base there, now 3,300, could ultimately get to 15,000. Yum's Chinese KFC restaurants are so profitable that Yum! can earn back its investment in three years. Novak spends a lot of time developing internal leaders, who "continually identify the unfinished business," he says.
Under Dieter Zetsche -- the famed Dr. Z of Chrysler commercials -- Daimler has polished the Mercedes brand and reestablished its preeminent position in the luxury-car market while also tending to the company's market-leading truck business. Daimler admittedly was a little late into China, where VW's Audi brand leads the luxury market, but Mercedes is close behind and aims to double its annual sales to 300,000. Asian consumers are particularly brand-conscious. and few brands speak luxury better than Mercedes.
Not all the products that our CEOs make are so well known. ARM Holdings, the British semiconductor-design company, is hardly a household name, but its chips are found in most cellphones and in Apple's red-hot iPad 2. Under CEO Warren East, ARM, founded in a turkey barn, has developed powerful chips that sip, rather than guzzle, electricity -- ideal for battery-powered devices. ARM has outmaneuvered mighty Intel, whose initiatives outside server computers and PCs have gained little traction. Who says there are no innovative tech firms in Europe?
OUR SELECTION OF THE 30 top CEOs isn't based on a statistical formula. It's based on the collective knowledge of the Barron's staff, plus recent interviews with investors, analysts and executives. The idea, as in past years, was to identify corporate leaders who have made a difference to their companies and delivered for investors. We require that a CEO has been on the job for at least three years, and we prefer companies with market values of at least $5 billion.
Not surprisingly, the stocks of most of our winners have beaten the market during the CEOs' tenures, many by a wide margin. The shares of this year's 30 are up an average of 24% in the past 12 months, against a gain of 9.6% for the Standard & Poor's 500.
There's little doubt that the world's most valuable CEO is Steve Jobs of Apple, who has turned an also-ran PC maker into the second-most-valuable company in the U.S. stock market. Apple's market value stands at $315 billion, behind only ExxonMobil. Jobs has done it through a series of hit products that have become must-have items with millions of consumers around the world. A visionary who disdains market research, Jobs has a knack for anticipating what consumers want well before they know it themselves. Apple shareholders are hoping that Jobs, who took a health-related leave of absence earlier this year, remains a guiding force at Apple for years to come.
We've got a weakness for founder CEOs like Jobs. The best of them continue to bring entrepreneurial zeal to their jobs long after many of their contemporaries have opted for retirement. The towering example: Warren Buffett, 80, who seems to get better and better with age. Passionate about his Berkshire Hathaway, Buffett also is aiming to put it in the best possible shape for his successor.
One reason Buffett is an investing genius is that he works at it. He spent a few hours on a recent Saturday poring over the 10-K of Wells Fargo, a large Berkshire investment. Buffett probably didn't need to digest the report to stay up to speed with Wells, but he did it anyway. That kind of commitment helps account for the extraordinary run of Berkshire shares, from $20 to $127,000, during his 46 years at the helm.
Another founder/CEO, Costco's Jim Sinegal, 75, keeps a grueling travel schedule that takes him to most of his company's 582 warehouse clubs every year. After a recent trip to Asia to scout out locations for new stores, he landed near Costco's Issaquah, Wash., headquarters at 8 a.m. and after a quick shower was in the office an hour later.
Costco remains hugely popular with its 31 million members, who pay at least $50 a year for membership and spend an average of about $140 on each store visit. Many stop by Costco's no-frills food court to pick up a hot-dog-and-soda combination that still costs only $1.50. Costco sold 94 million of those last year.
WE'VE BEEN COMPILING this list since 2005 and several CEOs have made the cut each year, including Buffett, Sinegal and BlackRock's Larry Fink, who six years ago was little known beyond Wall Street. BlackRock has since become one of the world's largest, most profitable asset managers, and Fink is one of the most influential executives in financial services. His views often carry real sway in Washington.
Not all our past picks have fared as well. There was Fred Goodwin, the former head of Royal Bank of Scotland, which was rescued by the British government in 2009. We also liked Richard Fuld of Lehman Brothers, which imploded during the 2008 financial crisis. We've been keen on Mark Hurd, who had a messy departure last year from Hewlett-Packard.
Who's In, Who's Out
Our annual roster of the world's 30 best CEOs includes eight new names. They're all finding growth in industries ranging from fast food to sophisticated software. Some others stubbed their toes.
| NEW TO LIST | ||
| Name | Company | Comment |
| Carlos Brito | Anheuser-Busch InBev | No.1 brewer after buying Budweiser maker |
| Warren East | ARM Holdings | Innovative chips power cellphones, iPads |
| Marius Kloppers | BHP Billiton | Diversified mining giant dominates industry |
| Peter Löscher | Siemens | Revived industrial conglomerate taking on GE |
| David Novak | Yum! Brands | KFC restaurants score in China, besting McDonald's |
| Joe Tucci | EMC | Database leader strong in software with VMware |
| Dieter Zetsche | Daimler | Mercedes better than ever, popular in China |
| Steve Wynn | Wynn Resorts | Stock has risen 10-fold since 2002 IPO |
| OFF THE LIST | ||
| Name | Company | Comment |
| Balsillie/Lazaridis | Research In Motion | BlackBerry losing cachet as Apple iPhone surges |
| Bart Becht | Reckitt Benckiser | Profit growth slows at European rival to P&G |
| John Chambers | Cisco Systems | Profit disappointments take toll on tech leader |
| Jose Gabrielli | Petrobras | Stock lags as oil giant faces drilling challenges |
| Mark Hurd | Hewlett-Packard | Forced out by board amid doubts about leadership |
| Terry Leahy | Tesco | Retired after building top U.K. supermarket chain |
| Mark Papa | EOG Resources | Weak natural-gas prices depress profits |
| Wang Chuan-fu | BYD | Stock plunges on fears about battery technology |
RETURNEES LIST | ||
| Name | Company | |
| Jeff Bezos | Amazon.com | |
| Warren Buffett | Berkshire Hathaway | |
| Jamie Dimon | JP Morgan Chase | |
| Larry Ellison | Oracle | |
| Larry Fink | BlackRock | |
| Reed Hastings | Netflix | |
| Steve Jobs | Apple | |
| Patrick Kron | Alstom | |
| Ma Huateng | Tencent | |
| Fujio Mitarai | Canon | |
| Alan Mullaly | Ford Motor | |
| Gordon Nixon | Royal Bank of Canada | |
| Michael O'Leary | Ryanair Holdings | |
| Sam Palmisano | IBM | |
| Bruce Rockowitz | Li & Fung | |
| Peter Sands | Standard Chartered | |
| Jim Sinegal | Costco Wholesale | |
| Jim Skinner | McDonald's | |
| Fred Smith | FedEx | |
| Tim Solso | Cummins | |
| Rex Tillerson | ExxonMobil | |
| Miles White | Abbott Laboratories | |
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