Gates, Jobs top leadership list

Bill Gates and Steve Jobs are atop a new list of the most admired company leaders, as ranked by business decision makers around the world.

Technology executives in general did well in the "2005 CEO Capital" survey (which included chairmen, as well as chief executives) done by global public affairs firm Burson-Marsteller and the Economist Intelligence Unit.

Among the 15 executives listed--along with No. 1 Gates, chairman of Microsoft, and No. 2 Jobs, CEO of both Apple Computer and Pixar Animation Studios--were Dell Chairman Michael Dell (No. 4), N.R. Narayana Murthy, chairman of Infosys Technologies (No. 8), John Chambers, CEO of Cisco Systems (No. 12) and Jorma Ollila, chairman and CEO of Nokia (No. 13).

Burson-Marsteller pointed to Gates' philanthropic work as a key factor, alongside his continuing stewardship of the company he helped found, behind his landing in the top spot.

"Leaders and their companies can no longer safely ignore the value placed on corporate responsibility and commitment by 21st century citizens," Leslie Gaines-Ross, Burson-Marsteller's chief knowledge and research officer, said in a statement released Wednesday.

Longevity played a role in determining the top 15 as well. Eight of the men on the list are company founders; all had been with their companies at least three years; and the average tenure with the company was 21 years.

Also on the list: Warren Buffett, Berkshire Hathaway (3); Richard Branson, Virgin Group (5); John Browne, BP (6); Carlos Ghosn, Nissan Motor (7); Jeffrey Immelt, General Electric (9); Rupert Murdoch, News Corp. (10); John Bond, HSBC Holdings (11); Terry Leahy, Tesco (14); and Lakshmi Mittal, Mittal Steel (15).

The 2005 CEO Capital involved 685 respondents--including CEOs, other senior executives, financial analysts and government officials--in 65 countries.

Gates will go down in history...

if not for his business leadership of Microsoft,
at least for his charitable & philanthropic work,
no single person in human history has donated more
money to charity work (universal health, vaccines
in poor countries, etc) than Bill Gates.

[scandrea]

Probably true

He's done a lot for public health in the Third World- I'm not sure if
the "no single person" applies here, but he should be commended
for what he has done.

[ddesy]

Most couldn't

With how much Bill Gates is worth, it seems as though there are very few others that could come close to affording to donate as much. Here's to hoping he's not just doing it for tax writeoffs.

Considering he's the biggest thief of all time...

That's not too bad. However, he wouldn't have those millions, or rather billions, if he were actually a decent human being.

Maybe Mr. Gates needs to consider the people in HIS country that need help. People he likely put out of work... ?

[Mister C]

Yep!

Right along with John D. Rockefeller, who after a making a fortune, used it in an attempt to buy respectability. Guilt can be one heck of a motivator.

[Joe Blow]

YAWN! Another Self-Licking Ice Cream Cone ...

is all that this group is. Check out the closed-loop process where executive recruiting and compensation committees are made up of the very same people who are the recipients of such largesse, sitting on each others boards of directors. I'm sure the "government officials" who participated are the very same members of the Revolving Door Club who rotate between government and industry, and therefore also have had (and will again in the future) seats on such boards.

If I had the immorals of Microsloth (and most other big corporate) executives, I could have cheated my way to such fame and fortune, too. Gates didn't even start giving these tax write-offs until well after he was married and had his first kid(suggesting his wife talked him into it, or, more likely, his tax accountant). I would have given a lot more, a lot earlier, than he and his cronies have, if I had that kind of disposable income to play with. I wonder how much of his 50,000+ square foot house he's walked through more than once (most of which I'm sure is a tax write-off every time he entertains any business types there)? This kind of person only wants one thing - more, more, more money. Millions aren't enough, billions aren't enough, and even tens of billions aren't enough (I'm surprised Gates hasn't trademarked the word "Bill"ions in his own honor!). Oh, and it should be noted that Gates has pledged all that money - it ain't in the bank, by any stretch of the imagination, and I'm sure there are all sorts of caveats in the paperwork specifying particular conditions that have to exist for each payment to be released (e.g., stock prices, the value of other holdings, etc.). It should bother a lot of people when convicted thieves are allowed to create nice-guy PR from ill-gotten gains - I still want the money back that I was forced to pay for Windoze on all the computers I paid for (including those in businesses and schools I helped fund) that Microsloth forced the manufacturers to pay licensing fees for, even though they never had Windoze loaded on them (the crux of the federal abuse of monopoly power conviction). Oh, and I want all of the interest, etc., that Billy Boy and his buddies made off of that money, too, along with the customary treble damages awarded in such cases.

Well, back to working on my top-secret, Earth-shattering, paradigm-shifting, Next-Big-Idea hoojamathingy that's going to take the world by storm and make Microsloth look like the gaggle of pikers they really are! ;)

All the Best,
Joe Blow

[pjianwei]

Hope you be successful.

in yr attempt to take the world by storm. And make sure u be way better than what gates does. It is put on the record afterall.