Ten at the Top.

How do chief executives determine who ought to be the Chief Executive of the Year? In the initial stage of our selection process we solicited nominations from our readers based on general criteria of financial performance, managerial excellence, technological innovation, and sustained performance. The 10 most frequently cited names become the list of finalists for our selection committee to consider. This year readers' picks were:

Sir John Browne, BP Amoco

Steve Case, AOL 

John Chambers, Cisco Systems 

Michael Dell, Dell Computer

Louis Gerstner, IBM 

William George, Medtronic

Steve Jobs, Apple Computer

Scott McNealy, Sun Microsystems

Jacques Nasser, Ford

Sanford Weill, Citigroup

Six of the above 10 are computer/technology companies that were barely on radar screens 15 years ago when CE created the award fashioned around a peer-driven selection process. Case, Chambers, Dell, Gerstner, and McNealy have been finalists for the last three years, which is testimony to their staying power as visionaries during a period of market volatility. New to the list is Medtronic's William George, a Minneapolis-based medical electronics supplier some describe as the GE of the medical equipment world. Nasser is viewed as a risk-taker and an innovator in a traditional industry who can "redirect a corporate icon." Neither the Lebanon-born, Australia-raised Nasser nor Britain's Sir John Browne are the first non-U.S. citizens to be nominated. That distinction belongs to H.J. Heinz's Anthony J.F. O'Reilly, an Irish-born dual national, who was nominated twice before becoming Chief Executive of the Year in 1990. Although the award has been open to for-profits worldwide since its inception, London-based BP Am oco is the first non-U.S. company to make the top 10. Citigroup's Sandy Weill, seen as an innovator who has created substantial value for shareholders, is the only financial CEO to make the list.

How do the 10 stack up? Financial considerations by themselves never determine the outcome. Judges consider leadership, vision, sustained performance, and the degree of difficulty. We also asked the folks at Stern Stewart & Co. to measure the Market Value Added (see table) of each candidate, and, most important, the change or "delta" in the MVA created since becoming CEO. (MVA is a measure of the amount of wealth a company has created for its shareholders. The table's delta MVA is the change in MVA during the tenure of the CEO through February 29 of this year. The figures were calculated as of this date because some firms, most notably AOL, changed dramatically after January 1. Owing to the December merger, figures for BP Amoco were not available. All figures are in dollar billions.)

In our July issue we will present the results of the selection committee's decision. If you think you would have a tough time deciding, consider what the judges have to endure.