The ranking of the best performing Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) in Italy sees him in first place Sergio Marchionne, CEO of Fiat, author of one of the most important success stories of recent years and of the comeback of a historic car brand that ten years ago many thought was doomed. This was revealed by the survey conducted by Harvard Business Review Italy and Insead of Fontainebleau, who calculated the ranking considering first of all two weighted variables according to an algorithm defined by Insead: the return adjusted by sector and the change in the capitalization of the company on the Stock Exchange.
In second place Alberto Vacchi, president of Ima and candidate for the presidency of Confindustria, followed by Fabio De'Longhi CEO of the homonymous company. In fourth place Maximus Doris, CEO of Banca Mediolanum, closely followed by Piermario Motta of Banca Generali. In sixth place, close to the top-5, is another banker: John Bossi, Chief Executive Officer of Banca Ifis. The ranking was calculated for companies listed on the Stock Exchange and does not consider any results obtained before 1995 because the historical series of returns adjusted by sector are not available. The investigation was closed as of April 30, 2015 and did not include the CEO in office for less than two years.
The ranking reveals that, since he was named CEO of Fiat SpA on 1 June 2004 until 30 April 2015 Marchionne guaranteed Fiat shareholders a total return of 251%. Not the highest ever, given that the runner-up, Alberto Vacchi of IMA, boasts a valuable result of 1700%, but decidedly solid if we take into account that in the same period the market capitalization of Fiat rose by 13,2 billion euros.
"This is the first survey of this type conducted in Italy and, despite some time limits and data availability - underlined the editor in chief of the magazine, Enrico Sassoon – presents a significant result. The performance of the CEOs was evaluated according to objective scientific criteria and purified of possible sectoral distortions”.
The ranking will also be elaborated in the next few years, in line with what the international edition of the Harvard Business Review regularly does, which only a few months ago included the same Marchionne in 27th place in the world rankings.
