Best CEOs of America

1/9/2021 1
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BEST CEOs of AMERICA
A PERSPECTIVE

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BEST AMERICAN CEOs OF ALL TIMES
FOREWORD
Throughout the history of business, the failure or
success of a company relies on many factors, not the
least of which is the corporate savvy of the executive
running the show. In recent times, many CEOs have
come under fire for mismanagement of their
corporations, while some have been applauded for
successfully navigating a tough economy. With much
controversy surrounding CEOs of today, the question
stands: Who are the best American CEOs of all
time? Assembling a panel of professors from the top
business schools around the country, a survey was
done on the records of CEOs who best created (or
destroyed) value, innovation, while possessing the
best (or worst) management skills. From this, they’ve
formulated a list of the 20 Best American CEOs of all
time. Here they are.
CEO

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STEVE JOBS- APPLE
Jobs co-founded Apple in 1976, but the original
team turned to outsiders to run the company in its
early stages of growth. He introduced the
Macintosh at the now-legendary annual
shareholders meeting in 1984, changing the
landscape of the personal computer industry and
vaulting Apple into the forefront, but would leave
the company a year later due to internal strife. Jobs
then founded his own company called NeXT
Computer, and bought part of LucasFilm’s graphics
division -- which became Pixar -- before going back
to run Apple in 1996. In the next decade-and-a-half,
Jobs would introduce huge hits like the iMac, iPod,
iTunes, iPhone and iPad. Apple grew into a $326
billion market cap under Jobs!
Tenure:
1976 - 1985; 1996 - 2011

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JACK WELCH- GE
Welch's management style is legendary. He earned
the nickname "Neutron Jack" for streamlining GE in
the 1980s. His philosophy has always been that a
company should either be #1 or #2 in an industry,
or get out. He worked his way up the ranks, first
joining GE in 1960 as a junior chemical engineer.
During his 20 years with the company, he turned
GE from a $14 billion manufacturer to a more than
$410 billion conglomerate, making it the most
valuable and largest company in the world. One of
his biggest acquisitions was RCA, primarily for
NBC. In 1999, Fortune named him "Manager of the
Century." He created a shift change in American
business practices, putting shareholders first, and
laying off thousands of GE employees.
Tenure:
1981 - 2001

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BILL GATES- MICROSOFT
Gates co-founded Microsoft in the mid-1970s and
was the key influence in its growth into becoming
the biggest tech firm in the world. Oft-criticized for
his vigorously defensive -- even combative --
management style, he kept tight control of the
company’s product strategy throughout his tenure
and aggressively expanded its portfolio. Several
product lines developed under Gates proved
incredibly important for Microsoft, including
Microsoft Windows and Office. Gates stepped
down from his CEO role in 2000 and the rest of his
day-to-day roles in 2006 to devote more time to his
charity, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
Tenure:
1975 - 2000

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JEFF BEZOS- AMAZON
Bezos founded Amazon.com as an online bookstore
in 1994, and has since become one of the most
successful dot-com entrepreneur billionaires ever.
His greatest accomplishment is developing
Amazon’s incredibly efficient business model,
adapting the initial non-brick-and-mortar bookstore
concept to all goods. He started by diversifying to
CDs, DVDs, software and computer games, but
soon expanded to sell pretty much everything. He
has made some big acquisitions throughout the
years too including Zappos, IMDb, Alexa Internet
and Audible.com. Amazon.com now has a $96
billion market cap and is the biggest online retailer
in the world.
Tenure:
1994 - Present

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JAMIE DIMON- JP MORGAN
Dimon has been called America's least-hated
banker. During the recession, JP Morgan fared
much better than the rest of its peers on Wall Street.
While the bank was forced to accept TARP funds, it
was the first to repay them. This was after Dimon
orchestrated the firesale of Bear Stearns to JP
Morgan in March 2008. Dimon's deft maneuvering
during the economic crisis earned him the respect
of President Barack Obama and ear of Treasury
Secretary Timothy Geithner. In 2010, the company
racked up $102 billion in revenue.
Tenure:
2004 - Present

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JOHN CHAMBERS- CISCO
Chambers joined Cisco as an executive in 1991 and
was promoted to CEO in 1995, growing the
company exponentially during his tenure. He
began a growth strategy immediately, buying up
nearly a dozen companies within the first
year. Over the next decade, Chambers would
spearhead numerous multi-billion dollar
acquisitions, including the purchases of Cerent and
Linksys. Now Cisco is the one of the largest
technology corporations in the world, with a
market cap of $87 billion and annual revenues
hitting $40 billion, but the company is planning
4,000-5,000 in layoffs in the coming year due to
lower than expected profits.
Tenure:
1995 - Present

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STEVE SCHWARZMAN- BLACKSTONE GROUP
Schwarzman was one of the early players in private
equity. With only an initial $400,000, he and his co-
founder sought to compete against major industry
players Salomon Brothers, Goldman Sachs and
Morgan Stanley. With a number of global
acquisitions, Blackstone established itself during
the era of the leveraged buyout. But the company
gained fame in the mid-2000s, when it acquired
popular brands like Hilton Hotels. In 2007,
Schwarzman was named the "New King of Wall
Street" when Blackstone IPO’d. As of December
2010, the company is managing $128 billion.
Tenure:
1985 - Present

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MARK ZUCKERBERG- FACEBOOK
It only took four years from when Zuckerberg
devised the social network in his Harvard dorm
room in 2004 to become the world's youngest
billionaire. He has since changed the way that we
interact with one another, and was named Time's
"Person of the Year" last December. The next
month, Goldman Sachs valued Facebook at $50
billion -- which makes any previous takeover
attempts look almost laughable. There was MTV,
Yahoo and Microsoft. So far, Zuckerberg has also
won the major legal battles leveraged against
Facebook. And Larry Page and Sergey Brin recently
acknowledged Facebook's power with the launch of
Google+.
Tenure:
2004- Present

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LARRY ELLISON- ORACLE
Ellison co-founded enterprise software company
Oracle in 1977 and built the company in the face of
heavy competitive pressure. IBM was the database
industry leader, but it stuttered in entering the mid-
range market, opening the door for Oracle,
Informix and Sybase. After a lengthy battle
between the three companies, Oracle came out on
top after Sybase tailed off and IBM absorbed
Informix in 2000. Since then, Oracle has been at the
top of the industry, and Ellison has flexed his
financial might with dozens of major – of which
many were successful – acquisitions, headlined by
Sun Microsystems, BEA Systems, Hyperion, Siebel
Systems and PeopleSoft.
Tenure:
1977- Present

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HOWARD SCHULTZ- STARBUCKS
Inspired by the European way of life, Schultz
brought America into coffeehouses. Since founding
Il Giornale, which acquired Starbucks a few years
later, he grew the company by focusing on the
"experiential" aspect of visiting a coffeehouse. He
stepped down from his CEO post in the 2000;
though he oversaw global strategy as chairman, he
was dissatisfied with the way the company was
being run, and sent an urgent message in 2007 to
then-CEO Jim Donald, telling him the company
was in dire straits because it had expanded too
quickly. In January 2008, he again took the reigns of
the company, and led one of the most successful
turnarounds in corporate history during a
recession.
Tenure:
1987- 2000 ; 2008 - Present

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ERIC SCHMIDT- GOOGLE
Was Schmidt good or just lucky? Larry Page and
Sergey Brin were always leading the company with
him, but they also knew Schmidt brought in an
expertise they didn't have. Under Schmidt, Google
grew from its $27 billion IPO, and launched
hundreds of products. He played a key role in
developing and maintaining the culture at Google,
encouraging deep collaboration between teams and
giving plenty of space for creativity. He
surrounded himself with talent that successfully
navigated antitrust lawsuits, international threats to
censorship, and managed to keep its dominant
position in Internet search. The company made
nearly 100 acquisitions under Schmidt.
Tenure:
2001- 2011

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RUPERT MURDOCH- NEWS CORPORATION
Murdoch, 80, is a newsman at heart. So much so
that getting the story has put him in the midst of
controversy -- and often into the headlines himself.
He launched his empire beginning with a small
newspaper in Adelaide, Australia, and eventually
created a larger media business buying and starting
other papers before moving into the UK, US and
Asian markets. His love for tabloid journalism led
him to buy The New York Post and London's now-
closing News of the World, among a host of other
tabloids. In 1985, he purchased 20th Century Fox,
and the next year, he created Fox Broadcasting
Company.
Tenure:
1979- 2011

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LOU GERSTNER- IBM
Gerstner joined IBM as CEO after leaving the helm
of RJR Nabisco in 1993, and is widely credited with
the company’s monumental turnaround. His
greatest feat was to overcome barriers to change to
realign the company’s core business around IT
services. Gerstner completely changed the
company’s corporate culture, replacing much of the
workforce and centralizing decision-making
authority. However, IBM only grew 3.2% during
his tenure because he was fixing the company.
Gerstner received many awards for his
accomplishments at IBM and his contributions to
the industry, including a Legend in Leadership
Award from Yale and was named a Knight
Commander of the British Empire.
Tenure:
1993- 2002

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FRED SMITH- FedEx
A former US Marine Captain, Smith took his
experience as a forward air controller to the express
delivery in 1971 when he founded FedEx.
Smith developed the first integrated air-ground
shipping system, which took off two years in with
14 jets servicing 25 cities. The model revolutionized
the shipping industry and the capability for easy
use, overnight delivery eventually became the
norm. Now FedEx is the largest overnight delivery
service in the US and has a market cap of $31
billion.
Tenure:
1971- Present

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MEG WHITMAN- eBAY
Whitman joined eBay as CEO in 1998 and grew the
company from 30 employees to 15,000 employees --
and from $4 million to $8 billion in revenue -- in
under 10 years. She completely reorganized the
management structure of the company upon entry,
and made some large acquisitions -- most notably
PayPal and Skype -- with mixed results. She has
received numerous accolades due to her success at
eBay. Whitman was inducted to the US Business
Hall of Fame, named a top 10 performing CEO by
Harvard Business Review and proclaimed one of
the top five most powerful women by Fortune.
Tenure:
1998- 2008

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TED TURNER- TBS & CNN
Turner founded TBS in 1970 and became a pioneer
of the cable news industry a decade later when he
founded CNN, the first 24-hour cable news
network. CNN was revolutionary, helping Turner
earn the Time Person of the Year award in 1991.
Turner expanded CNN’s reach to several cable and
satellite TV companies, websites and closed-circuit
radio. The network now has 36 bureaus around the
world and upwards of 900 local affiliates. He
merged TBS with Time Warner in 1996, which was
later bought by AOL. Turner was the largest
shareholder in the company when the stock price
plunged, but he never had an operational role
during the era.
Tenure:
1970- 1996

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MICKEY DREXLER- GAP & J.CREW
As Gap's stock price rose exponentially during the
1990s, Drexler earned a nickname: corporate
turnaround king. When he did the same thing with
J. Crew, retailers called him a "Merchant Prince."
Both titles are appropriate, as he turned the
companies into robust, iconic American brands. He
took his first CEO gig at age 36, and after proving
himself at Ann Taylor, he joined Gap in 1983. He
boldly restructured management and created a new
"casual Friday" culture in America. At J. Crew, he
sophisticated the clothing, and asks his employees
to only market items that they're crazy about. He
took Gap from $480 million in sales to $13.6 billion
within 2 decades, and brought J.Crew up from $700
million to $1.7 billion in revenue within a decade.
Tenure:
1983- 2001 (GAP);
2001- Present (J.Crew)

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JAMES SINEGAL- COSTCO
A protégé of FedMart and Price Club founder Sol
Price, Sinegal co-founded Costco Wholesale Corp.
in 1983 and proceeded to take the members-only
warehouse store model into brand new territory.
Under Sinegal, Costco became the first warehouse
store to offer fresh food, gas stations, pharmacies,
eye-care clinics and more. Costco’s market cap is
now $36 billion and leads the warehouse club
industry in sales volume.
Tenure:
1983- Present

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BOB IGER- DISNEY
Iger joined Disney as CEO in 2005, succeeding
ousted head Michael Eisner after an internal
struggle. Despite the turbulent transition, Iger
managed to regain a large amount strategic control,
centralizing much of the decision-making power
that was lost to the company’s departments. He
also reconciled the strife between former board
member and Walt Disney scion Roy Disney and the
company’s management. His biggest move was the
acquisition of Pixar in $7.4 billion, which has
helped Disney get back to its roots in animation.
Tenure:
2005- Present

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ALAN MULALLY- FORD
t was equally a stroke of good fortune and bad luck
when Mulally took charge of Ford in 2006. The
company, and the auto industry, was healthy and
robust. Two years later, everything changed. Auto
industry executives were pleading with
lawmakers on Capitol Hill just to keep their
companies afloat. Ford managed to decline
government bailout money, while competitors GM
and Chrysler struggled. Mulally simplified the
company's product development and ultimately
laid off over 10% of the salaried workforce.
After Ford lost $29.3 billion between 2006 and 2008,
it finally managed to post a $2.7 billion profit in
2009 and is continuing to recover.
Tenure:
2006- 2014

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