Strong leadership. A dedication to the company mission. Belief in building company culture. Transparent and approachable.
These are the common themes of exceptional leaders and a few of the attributes that inspire employees to rate their CEOs highly. As a result, Glassdoor recognizes those superb executive leaders through our annual Employees' Choice Awards, honoring the Top CEOs in 2021. The leaders featured on these lists aren't just helping their businesses drive revenue or acquire new customers - they're engaging, motivating and uplifting their teams, as demonstrated by the reviews employees have left on Glassdoor.
This year, the Glassdoor Employees' Choice Awards for the Top CEOs feature six distinct company categories across the U.S., Canada, UK, France and Germany. In the U.S., Glassdoor has revealed the 100 Top CEOs (honoring CEOs at employers with 1,000 or more employees) and the 50 Top CEOs at small & medium companies (honoring CEOs at employers with fewer than 1,000 employees).
"Over the past year, company leaders around the world faced unprecedented challenges to support employees during the COVID-19 crisis. Now, the employees have spoken and it's clear that these CEOs excelled and found new ways to support their people when the world of work flipped upside down," said Christian Sutherland-Wong, Glassdoor chief executive officer. "Through a challenging year, it's inspiring to see Top CEOs who, according to their employees, adapted to change, redefined visions and led with transparency while putting the health and safety of employees first. I extend my sincerest congratulations to this year's Employees' Choice Award winners."
Glassdoor's Top 100 CEOs in 2021 Award features winning chief executives across diverse industries spanning technology, health care, finance, manufacturing, retail and more. This year, Boston Consulting Group's CEO Rich Lesser claims the top spot with a 99 percent approval rating. More than half (56 CEOs) of this year's Top 100 CEOs, including Rich Lesser, are on the list for the first time. Other newcomers include lululemon's Calvin McDonald (No. 19, 96 percent approval), SurveyMonkey's Zander Lurie (No. 40, 94 percent approval) and Slack's Stewart Butterfield (No. 82, 92 percent approval). Five women are honored among the top 100 this year, including In-N-Out Burger's Lynsi Snyder (No. 20, 96 percent approval), Fidelity Investments' Abby Johnson (No. 44, 94 percent approval) and Progressive Insurance's Tricia Griffith (No. 65, 93 percent approval). Apple's Tim Cook (No. 32, 95 percent approval) is the only CEO to be honored all eight years.
On the 2021 list of the Top 50 CEOs at Small & Medium Companies, seven of the top 10 CEOs are newcomers to this list.
This year, there are 18 CEOs who are recognized by employees in multiple countries, including one CEO who made four lists - Microsoft's Satya Nadella (U.S. Large, UK, Canada and Germany).
The ten Top CEOs in 2021 in the U.S. are:
- Boston Consulting Group's Rich Lesser (99 percent approval)
- Adobe's Shantanu Narayen (99 percent approval)
- MD Anderson Cancer Center's Peter Pisters (99 percent approval)
- Southwest Airlines' Gary C. Kelly (98 percent approval)
- Visa Inc.'s Alfred F. Kelly, Jr. (97 percent approval)
- Microsoft's Satya Nadella (97 percent approval)
- H E B's Charles C. Butt (97 percent approval)
- Delta Air Lines' Ed Bastian (97 percent approval)
- Red Hat's Paul Cormier (97 percent approval)
- Booz Allen Hamilton's Horacio D. Rozanski (97 percent approval)
The five Top CEOs at Small & Medium Companies in 2021 in the U.S. are:
- 6sense's Jason Zintak (99 percent approval)
- Logical Position's Michael Weinhouse and John Ganey (99 percent approval)
- Apeel Sciences' James Rogers (99 percent approval)
- Lower's Dan Snyder (99 percent approval)
- South Carolina Federal Credit Union's Scott Woods (99 percent approval)
Congratulations to all of the CEOs honored!
Think your CEO deserves to make next year's list? Share a review, and it will be considered for Glassdoor's 2020 Employees' Choice Awards.
Employers - wondering why your CEO didn't make the list, and how you can become eligible for next year's awards? Read here.
*Each list was compiled using Glassdoor's proprietary algorithm, and each CEO approval rating determined based on the quantity, quality and consistency of reviews during the period of eligibility. For the full methodology, visit here.
