Larry Ellison

Oracle, CEO since 77

Larry Fink
BlackRock, CEO since 88

Jose Gabrielli
Petrobras, CEO since 05

Why: Sailing away with the corporate software market. is friend Steve Jobs may get all the ink and adulation these days, but Oracle Chief Executive Larry Ellison is arguably the smartest guy in Silicon Valley. Ellison founded Oracle as a database Annualized Total Return One Year 46.4% company and transformed it into While CEO 27.2% the worlds largest business softS&P 500 9.3% ware concern through a savvy 2010 P/ E 14.6 5-Yr. Profit Growth 20.0% roll-up strategy. German rival SAP recently ousted CEO Leo $30 Apotheker and replaced him with ORCL / Nasdaq two co-CEOS in an attempt to 25 keep pace with Ellison. 20 If selling software and services $26 doesnt turn heads like the latest 15 Apple gizmo, Ellison could 10 scarcely care less. The multi-billion- 08 09 10 aire keeps forging ahead. Having acquired nearly every major business-software company that fit, Ellison is following through on his surprising entry into hardware, with the acquisition of Sun Microsystems. Ellison looks entirely serious about selling hardware, a move that will pit him squarely against partner Hewlett-Packard. Some think Ellison has finally met his match. But Ellison, whose yacht earlier this year won the Americas Cup race off the coast of Spain, isnt accustomed to losing. M.V.

Why: Asset-management titan is one of Wall Streets most powerful. n the process of building a manager of $3.5 trillion in assets from zero over a span of two decades, Larry Fink has turned BlackRock into the preferred partner and purchaser for other com- Annualized Total Return One Year 100.5% panies in the industry. While CEO 31.6% When Merrill Lynch concluded S&P 500 0.8% it needed to separate its mutual2010 P/ E 20.2 5-Yr. Profit Growth 15.0% fund arm from its retail brokerage a few years ago, it sought out $300 BLK / NYSE BlackRock to buy a 50% stake. 225 And last year, when Barclays elected to sell its fabulously suc150 cessful exchange-traded-fund divi$223 75 sion, there was BlackRock again as the buyer, and Fink again proving 0 that anothers necessity could be 08 09 10 his opportunity. Fink, who helped found BlackRock and is the only CEO the company has ever had, has gone from the studied anonymity of a trusted institutional player to the overseer of a huge slate of retail financial products. His success has prompted increasing chatter that he might one day be the U.S. Treasury secretary, or CEO of one of the giant Wall Street banks. Yet Fink has made a prominent and enviable place for himself right where he is. M.S.

Why: Built a South American oil giant that rivals Exxon. ose Sergio Gabrielli has one of the biggest balancing acts in the business worldsatisfying the Brazilian government, which holds 40% of his energy giants Annualized Total Return stock, while delivering nice reOne Year 14.7% turns for all shareholders. He While CEO 26.6% pulls it off with aplomb. S&P 500 0.8% Right now, Petrobras is sitting 2010 P/ E 11.8 5-Yr. Profit Growth 10.2% atop a huge discovery of oil off Brazils shores, and if Gabriellli $50 PZE / NYSE has anything to do with it, every40 one will share in the riches. Not that the government wont be 30 pushing for a big chunk. Authori$16 20 ties are overhauling state regulations in hopes of steering a 10 08 09 10 greater share of oil revenue to fund social programs. Gabrielli rarely lets up. While other oil and gas exploration and refining giants cut spending last year, Petrobras poured capital into operations and upped oil production 5%. The result: Its shares have outshone those of many large, integrated energy peers over the past year. A former economics professor, Gabrielli has clearly done his homework. Now, with oil near $80 a barrel, he may go to the head of the class. Dimitra DeFotis

Reed Hastings
Netflix, CEO since 97

Mark Hurd
Hewlett Packard, CEO since 05

Steve Jobs
Apple, CEO since 97

Why: Repeatedly beats the odds while building a DVD empire.

Why: Consummate manager has HP humming.

Why: From iPods to iPads, he mints money for shareholders. f youre going to compile a list of the most respected chief executives on the planet, the obvious person to start with is Steve Jobs. His career has been cineAnnualized Total Return matic: Co-founder of Apple, he One Year 118.7% was forced into exile, then reWhile CEO 34.4% turned to triumphantly rescue the S&P 500 3.8% pioneering computer company 2010 P/ E 18.3 5-Yr. Profit Growth 61.0% from near-collapse, building it back into one of the most influen$250 AAPL / Nasdaq tial forces in American culture. 200 The Mac was and remains brilliant, but it was just the begin150 $229 ning. With the iPod, iPhone, 100 iTunes and the App Store, Apple 50 has forced dramatic changes in 08 09 10 the music, movie and wireless businesses. With the iPad and the iBookstore, hes taking on the rest of the content industry, including textbooks, best sellers, newspapers and magazines. (And , dont forget, as a founder of Pixar, he helped transform film animation.) Jobs has done all this despite battling pancreatic cancer and undergoing a liver transplant. While not universally lovedApple employees revere but fear himhes a one-of-a-kind black-turtleneck-wearing management genius. America could use 1,000 more like him. E.J.S.

etflixs death has been predicted countless times. The companys DVD-by-mail business was supposedly doomed by Blockbusters and Wal-Marts entrance Annualized Total Return into the market. Wrong: WalOne Year 69.7% Mart abandoned the business, While CEO 33.2% and Blockbuster appears to be S&P 500 3.1% teetering on the edge of bank2010 P/ E 28.3 5-Yr. Profit Growth 37.0% ruptcy. More recently, Netflix was supposedly threatened by the $80 NFLX / Nasdaq emergence of Web-based video. 60 But Netflix has become a key proponent of the technology, effec40 tively offering the Webs only sub$74 20 scription-based streaming video service. 0 09 10 The latest threat: Redbox and 08 the $1-a-day kiosk-based rental business. But through it all, Netflix just keeps growing. In an interview, Hastings notes that half of its subscribers have begun using its streaming video. Yet, he says his company will be shipping DVDs by mail for at least another 20 years. And theres still huge growth potential. Later this year, Netflix will add one more country (yet to be disclosed) to its service area, boosting the total number of nations it does business in totwo. E.J.S.

ark Hurd is ready to pounce. Rather than just cut headcount at Hewlett-Packard during the recession, Hurd cut employee pay across the Annualized Total Return board, including his own, to One Year 81.6% make sure the company had While CEO 21.7% enough people to deploy when S&P 500 2.1% the time came. 2010 P/ E 11.6 5-Yr. Profit Growth 23.0% The time may be now. Hurd recently upgraded the companys $60 HPQ / NYSE outlook for this year, and hes 50 clearly itching to put into full action the HP he has refashioned in 40 $53 his five-year tenure. 30 Taking advantage of HPs posi20 tion as the worlds largest seller of 08 09 10 personal computers and printers, Hurd has used vast economies of scale to cut production costs below those of rivals like Dell. Practicing what he preaches, Hurd has consolidated HPs own computer systems across the globe to serve as an example of efficiency to customers. An accomplished tennis player in college, he relishes the competition with other makers of enterprise computing gear. Opponents are on their toes waiting for his next move. Might he snap up one of several flailing smartphone makers? Perhaps, but but only at a smart price. M.V.

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