As 2024 comes to a close, it is time once again for our annual ‘CEOs of the Year’ column in FORTUNE and CNBC.
This is one year where it is hard to recognize just five outstanding CEOs, with hundreds of companies enjoying record stock prices amidst record profitability. There are some candidates who are almost too obvious – such as Nvidia’s Jensen Huang, whose stock has soared 200% this year amidst the continued AI feeding frenzy; or Tesla’s Elon Musk, whose stock has doubled since the election with Musk’s ascension into ‘first buddy’ stardom.
Nevertheless, these five CEOs stand out to us because not only have they enjoyed remarkable 2024s; but their success comes as the culmination of successful turnarounds, transformations, and reinventions of some of America’s most iconic brands. To us, these five CEOs deserve just as much recognition as the most revered business leaders of our time as household names such as Elon Musk, Jensen Huang, Tim Cook, Arvind Krishna, and Larry Fink.
1. Greg Brown, Motorola Solutions - pivoting Motorola from near-obsolescence in cell phone, cable business lines into becoming the industry-leading public safety and enterprise security company
When Greg Brown took over as CEO of Motorola in 2008 after years of control by the Galvin family, he arrived at a particularly tenuous moment. The company was struggling in its legacy cell phone and cable businesses, having seen its erstwhile dominance in those franchises evaporate as new competitors such as Apple, Nokia, and BlackBerry entered the scene. It was unfamiliar territory for the company: after all, Motorola literally invented the world’s first handheld mobile phone in 1973.
Over the last 17 years and counting, Brown has pulled off a remarkable repositioning of Motorola, jettisoning its cell phone and cable businesses while building out an industry-leading public safety and enterprise security business from virtually scratch. He led more than 40 acquisitions since the company split in 2011, and the company's total addressable market more than quadrupled.
Motorola Solutions is now the leading supplier of public safety equipment and software to police departments and emergency response systems around the nation, including the software underlying most 911 infrastructure in the country; and is making rapid progress in the video security market and advancing AI for public safety as well. This pivot from the consumer sector to public safety and enterprise security has paid off enormously: not only is Motorola stock up 50% this year alone, Brown has achieved over 1,500%+ (and counting) total shareholder returns during his tenure.
2. Glenn Fogel, Booking Holdings - growth through M&A into becoming the leading online travel agency
Merely months after Glenn Fogel originally joined Booking Holdings (then Priceline) in the corporate development department in February, 2000, Priceline's stock imploded, plummeting over 97% within a year as the dot-com bubble burst.
But unlike the hundreds of other startups that went bust; Priceline avoided that fate largely because the company embarked on a journey of growth through external M&A, acquiring competitors methodically and building out an multi-platform online travel agency with the scale to compete globally and offering travelers a one-stop shop for booking flights, restaurants, hotels, rides, tour tickets, and everything in between.
Under the leadership of Glenn Fogel, the architect of that ‘growth through M&A’ strategy, Booking Holdings now contains such iconic brands as Booking.com, Priceline, Opentable, Kayak, Agoda, Cheapflights, Rocketmiles, Rentalcar.com, and much more. These brands were originally allowed to grow and flourish on their own, allowing for more creative autonomy by each subsidiary’s leadership team while retaining formidable customer brand loyalty and name recognition; but over Fogel’s eight years as CEO, Booking has been gradually bringing the brands together towards a more coordinated, integrated operation, with centralized processes that did not exist previously and achieving synergistic benefits among the brands.
With such a diversified portfolio of brands, Booking Holdings is truly globally diversified, drawing substantially more than half its revenue from outside the US. Booking Holdings stock has tripled since Fogel became CEO in 2017, reflecting an >30% CAGR over a quarter of a century, and is up 50% this year alone as travel growth continues to outpace global GDP growth.
3. Doug McMillon, Walmart - building out Walmart into a digital platform company in addition to continuing to reign supreme in brick-and-mortar superstores
Doug McMillon has overseen a remarkable transformation of one of America's most iconic and recognizable companies. Known mostly for its brick-and-mortar 'superstores' when McMillon took the reins as CEO in 2014, McMillon has pulled off a remarkable digital pivot, with its revenues from digital advertising now growing faster than that of Amazon.
While it may be hard to believe that Walmart is now a trendy magnet for digital advertising dollars, that success has been years in the making. Unlike competitors who have struggled to migrate to an omnichannel shopping experience and who have struggled to build out their e-commerce platforms, Walmart's e-commerce channels are now flourishing after years of sustained investment and international partnerships, including as a pioneer in the use of AI for inventory management. Digital advertising and e-commerce now drive the highest share of revenue growth and profitability growth for Walmart, as profits from digital advertising are much higher-margin than its traditional operations.
At the same time, McMillon has sacrificed none of Walmart's supremacy in brick-and-mortar, with same-stores up 4% this year when same-store sales are notably down at many of Walmart’s competitors. Walmart superstores have evolved into becoming a true one-stop-shop, offering not only shopping, retail, and grocery; but also financial services, banking and other crucial services facilitated at Walmart’s ever-evolving superstores.
Not surprisingly, Walmart stock has taken off this year, up 75%, as investors have started to appreciate Walmart’s successful digital transition, expecting even higher profitability moving forward from continued acceleration in high-margin digital advertising revenue growth; and the stock has now quadrupled since McMillon became CEO.
4. David Solomon, Goldman Sachs - turning Goldman Sachs back into a 'growth' company
In recent years, few CEOs have driven more remarkable operating and financial results than David Solomon of Goldman Sachs.
Unfortunately, this transformation story seems to have been missed by many in the business media, who have bewilderingly preferred to focus on unsubstantiated personal innuendo which is unjustified and unwarranted. The real story about Solomon’s leadership of Goldman Sachs they ought to have covered, but missed, is that Solomon has turned Goldman Sachs back into a ‘growth’ company, driving the stock to record heights in the process.
It hasn’t always been this way, despite Goldman’s historical successes and widely admired prior leadership. When Goldman was a private partnership for 100 years, the primary goal of the firm was to make money for its partners. Growth initiatives had to be funded through partners' capital, which resulted in a long period of low growth into new business lines.
Under Solomon; growth, and investing back into the firm, have become capital allocation priorities once again. Over the last six years, Solomon has grown the firm into new business lines, positioning Goldman to reap more resilient, non-cyclical revenues, including lucrative recurring fees from Goldman’s burgeoning asset management franchise. That, alongside Goldman’s continued dominance in its investment banking and capital markets business lines, has allowed Goldman to deliver return on assets and return on equity which are some of the strongest amongst its peer banks.
Solomon has faced much criticism from business media for abruptly pivoting away from the consumer banking business (Marcus), when in reality he was smart to cut bait when he did because of three major but underappreciated changes in the macro environment. First, Goldman’s expansion into consumer banking was always going to be dependent on external M&A, but changes in the antitrust enforcement environment made that continued growth impossible; second, the stock market pivoted dramatically from rewarding growth to rewarding profitability right around when the Fed began hiking rates; and third, the regulatory burden became increasingly onerous on scaled consumer banking services.
While a rising tide lifts all boats, with all bank stocks among this year’s top performers thanks to the continued strength of the economy and anticipated deregulation and looser bank capital rules expected in a second Trump Administration, Goldman stands tall among its peers, up 50% this year and having nearly tripled since Solomon became CEO in 2018.
5. Jane Fraser, Citi - delivering on the long-promised turnaround with real results at long last
For years, Citi - the third largest US bank - has been widely seen as the weakest link of any of the largest US banks. Investors avoided its stock, with the bank trading at merely half of book value last year (in stark contrast to peer banks trading at over book value); and with regulators imposing hefty fines in years past for poor/non-existent internal safeguards, such as when junior bankers accidentally wired $900 million Citi couldn't get back.
Citi has been promising a turnaround for about just as long, but what has changed now is that Jane Fraser is delivering real results and real returns at long last. Fraser has streamlined Citi's businesses to focus on growth areas and core areas where Citi is a clear market leader, focusing on the lucrative wealth management franchise which brings in recurring fees which are prized by investors and where Citi, with its universally recognized and admired brand, enjoys a tangible moat over upstart competitors. Conversely, Fraser has successfully ditched tertiary business lines where Citi was a laggard, such as municipal bonds and distressed debt; and sold out of complicated international operations, including retail franchises in China, India, South Korea where there was excessive risk and complexity for little return. Fraser is also delivering on the long-promised and much-needed simplification and consolidation of back-office processes, which will make it impossible for gaffes such as Citi's accidental transfer of $900 million to ever repeat.
Citi stock is up 35% year to date, which still trails some banking peers - so the job is far from complete and it is too early to declare victory. But at the same time, there can be no question that more and more investors are recognizing that Fraser is finally delivering real results to the long-promised turnaround, and the Citi turnaround story is finally here, and finally real, at long last.
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Of course, these five CEOs faced stiff competition from many other CEOs who enjoyed terrific years amidst remarkable transformation and turnaround stories of their own. If it wasn’t for the fact we named Marc Benioff of Salesforce our top CEO on last year’s list; we would’ve been tempted to recognize him this year amidst his Agentforce 2.0 triumphs; and Brian Moynihan of Bank of America and Arvind Krishna of IBM deserve recognition for remarkable transformations of each of their businesses. Our own Yale Legend in Leadership award winners, were soaring success stories as well with Tim Cook’s Apple up 40% and Larry Fink’s BlackRock up 31% on top of track records of value creation over the long-term.
But ultimately, these five CEOs – Greg Brown of Motorola, Glenn Fogel of Booking Holdings, Doug McMillon of Walmart, David Solomon of Goldman Sachs, and Jane Fraser of Citi, stand tall for piloting their enterprises through years-long transformations which are now paying off handsomely. While past performance is no guarantee of future success, we like their chances for continued success for years to come. As Albert Einstein quipped, “learn from yesterday, live for today, and hope for tomorrow.”
