The chief executive of Danish Novo Nordisk, Lars Rebien Sorensen, was top CEO in a new performance ranking.
The Novo CEO topped Harvard Business Review’s list of the 100 best performing CEOs this year. He beat for example the CEO of Starbucks, Nike and the former CEO of Cisco Systems, John Chambers.
The list evaluates executives not only on financial performance but also environmental and social records. According to the Harvard Business Review, Sorensen tops the charts, not just for his company’s financial prowess, but also under environmental, social and governance measures.
Sorensen joined the Danish pharmaceutical company in 1982 and became CEO in 2000. Since he took the reins at Novo, the diabetes-focused company has delivered more than tenfold returns on shareholders’ money. Adjusted for the drug industry, that’s fifteen-fold, the HBR calculates. Novo Nordisk shares listed on the Copenhagen Stock Exchange have climbed about 40 percent this year.
