Nadella is Fortune’s top-20 Businessman

Hyderabad: Three India-born C-level executives have been listed among the top-20 Businessperson of the Year-2019 by Fortune.

Standing atop the list is Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, an alumnus of Hyderabad Public School (HPS). Mastercard CEO Ajay Banga, at eighth position and Arista Networks chief Jayashree Ullal, at 18th place, has also made the envious cut. The wealth distribution among shareholders was the criterion among ten factors for choosing the best businessman, said Fortune, while adding that it considered returns to shareholders and returns on capital were considered for the eventual selection. The selected business leaders handled developed creative solutions that enabled their organisation came over toughest odds to reach audacious goals, said Fortune panel.

“Considering the achievements after facing difficult challenges and adverse market conditions, we have selected the 20 top performing best businessmen for this year’s roll of honour,” said the magazine.

Satya Nadella cannot be equated with previous chiefs Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer. Bill Gates is the founder of Microsoft, while Ballmer is a businessman.

"I believed in myself. I also encourage others to grow in their career. Without an excellent team, CEOs can't do anything. Fortunately, I am blessed with a talented bunch," Nadella was quoted as saying.

Banga contributed a lot to the development of Mastercard, particularly its financial services. The 40 per cent rise of Mastercard stock gave attractive returns to the shareholders, who began patronizing the global leader to extraordinary levels.

Satya Nadella named Fortune's Businessperson of the Year 2019
Microsoft's India-born CEO Satya Nadella has grabbed the top spot in Fortune's "Businessperson of the Year 2019" list. Other Indian-origin CEOs in the Top 20 list are Mastercard CEO Ajay Banga (8th spot).#FORTUNE pic.twitter.com/UdDPEFyKX1

— Abhishek Singh (@Abhishe32998952) November 20, 2019

American billionaire businesswoman Ullal is president and CEO of Arista Networks, a cloud networking company. She is credited with deploying 10/25/40/50/100 Gigabit Ethernet networking in the data centre. In its appreciation, Fortune mentioned that Ullal-spearheaded Arista emerges as an icon in the open source cloud software space.

Perth-based Fortescue Metals Group CEO Elizabeth Gaines was ranked second, Puma CEO Bjorn Gulden fifth position, JP Morgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon (10), Accenture CEO Julie Sweet (15) and Alibaba CEO Daniel Zhang at the 16th position.