The Harvard Business Review released its 2015 list of the 100 Best-Performing CEOs in the World, an annual ranking intended to be a measure of enduring success. This year, 13 healthcare CEOs were included in the list, including the No. 1 CEO, Lars Rebien Sørensen of Danish pharmaceutical giant Novo Nordisk.
Novo Nordisk is headquartered in Denmark and focuses almost exclusively on diabetes treatment. In addition to leading the company through financial growth and expansion, Mr. Sørensen, who has been with the company for 33 years, is also deeply engaged with social and environmental issues.
"Corporate social responsibility is nothing but maximizing the value of your company over a long period," Mr. Sørensen told HBR. "In the long term, social and environmental issues become financial issues."
The 12 other healthcare CEOs included on HBR's list are named below.
- George Scangos, CEO, Biogen (Cambridge, Mass.)— No. 8
- Lars Rasmussen, CEO, Coloplast (Denmark) — No. 17
- Douglas Berthiaume, CEO, Waters (Milford, Mass.) — No. 37
- John Martin, CEO, Gilead Sciences (Foster City, Calif.) — No. 42
- Lamberto Andreotti, CEO, Bristol-Myers Squibb (New York City) — No. 57
- John Hammergren, CEO, McKesson (San Francisco) — No. 63
- George Paz, CEO, Express Scripts (St. Louis, Mo.) — No. 64
- Flemming Ornskov, CEO, Shire (United Kingdom) — No. 74
- Neal Patterson, CEO, Cerner (Kansas City, Mo.) — No. 79
- Leonard Schleifer, CEO, Regeneron Pharmaceuticals (Tarrytown, N.Y.)— No. 85
- Mark Bertolini, CEO, Aetna (Hartford, Conn.) — No. 90
- Ulf Schneider, CEO, Fresenius (Germany) — No. 94
HBR tracks and analyzes each CEO's performance from the first day of his or her tenure. Its goal is to determine a ranking that goes deeper than the most recent quarterly or annual results, and instead evaluates long-term performance.
Previously, HBR's ranking criteria was based solely on stock market number, total shareholder return and the change in each company's market capitalization. This year, a measurement of each company's environmental, social and governance performance is included in the ranking. Long-term financial results are weighted at 80 percent and ESG performance at 20 percent.