Here’s a list of big company executives that I admire the most (in no particular order):
- Allan Mulally: CEO at Ford and former executive vicepresident at Boeing. In my mind, he’s saved two American industrial icons and inspired a lot of other American business in an era of uncertainty and chaos.
- Tim Cook: COO at Apple and the actual show runner over there. Jobs inspires, sets the path and markets. Cooks is in charge of running one of the most impressive business operations in the world.
- Jeff Bezos: Chairman and CEO at Amazon.com. He is one of the most gifted visionaries of our time. He will be reverently studied a century from now like we study Henry Ford now. And, in my opinion, more deservedly so. Ford got most of “his” revolutionary concepts from the warehouses of Sears Roebuck and Chicago industrial slaughterhouses.
- David Sokol: CEO at Netjets and Chairman at MidAmerican Energy. One probable successor to Warren Buffet at Berkshire Hathaway (at least for the CEO job, CIO is another matter -most probably going to either Ajit Jain or Li Lu) Sokol is one of the most versatile business managers in corporate America. He runs all kinds of different businesses with proficiency, has proven his ability to grow a company from a small local affair to a national behemoth and has a very good eye for time-sensitive bargain opportunities.
