Inditex chief executive Pablo Isla has been named the world’s best-performing CEO for the second year in a row.
The Harvard Business Review’s annual global ranking of the 100 best-performing chief executives across all industries put Isla – whose global retail empire includes Zara, Stradivarius, Bershka and Massimo Dutti – at the top spot once again.
Measuring financial returns, environmental, social and governance performance, the report listed 70 of the 2017’s top-ranking chiefs in 2018’s list of 100.
It highlighted that “steadiness and stability” were significant virtues in turbulent times.
“They face an array of outside forces—savvy competitors, demanding customers, profit-hungry investors, political and economic headwinds. Nonetheless, their companies have shown a remarkable ability to sustain momentum,” Harvard Business Review said.
Of the retailers also featured in the top 100, LVMH chief executive Bernard Arnault made it to number three and Kering’s François-Henri Pinault of Kering.
Further up the list but nevertheless representing British retailers, Next chief executive Lord Simon Wolfson made it into number 97.
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