No. 1: Jeff Weiner
Company: LinkedIn
CEO Approval Rating: 100%
Employee Testimonial: “The CEO is [who] helps spread the culture. He emphasizes culture.” —LinkedIn Associate Web Developer (Mountain View, Calif.)
No. 2: Alan Mulally
Company: Ford
CEO Approval Rating: 97%
Employee Testimonial: “Alan is a great CEO breaking down many barriers between groups so we can all work more as one team.” —Ford Motor Employee (Dearborn, Mich.)
No. 3: Richard Edelman
Company: Edelman
CEO Approval Rating: 97%
Employee Testimonial: “Richard Edelman has a special gift for motivating his PR professionals to make Edelman the best PR company in the industry.” —Edelman Finance Manager (Chicago, Ill.)
No. 4: Paul Jacobs*
Company: Qualcomm
CEO Approval Rating: 95%
Employee Testimonial: “Visionary leader, great technology portfolio and offers opportunities to work on many different projects.” —Qualcomm Senior Learning & Development Specialist (San Diego, Calif.)
*Note: Paul Jacobs was CEO of Qualcomm at the time this report was compiled. The company's current CEO was not eligible for this ranking.
No. 5: Craig Jelinek
Company: Costco
CEO Approval Rating: 95%
Employee Testimonial: “At Costco it actually benefits the company for staff to have higher education. Also, working for a company where the CEO actually wants to take care of his employees, i.e., living wage increases and benefits.” —Costco Assistant (Jacksonville, Fla.)
No. 7: Brad Smith
Company: Intuit
CEO Approval Rating: 94%
Employee Testimonial: “At the very top, Brad Smith and team are well respected and keep things moving in the right direction.” —Intuit Employee (location, n/a)
No. 7: Lloyd Blankfein
Company: Goldman Sachs
CEO Approval Rating: 94%
Employee Testimonial: “Opportunities for leadership. Strong management team. Great co-workers.” —Goldman Sachs Financial Associate (Salt Lake City, Utah)
No. 8: Howard D. Schultz
Company: Starbucks
CEO Approval Rating: 93%
Employee Testimonial: “Good senior management, competitive pay for managers, work life balance.” —Starbucks Store Manager (San Diego, Calif.)
No. 9: Mark Zuckerberg
Company: Facebook
CEO Approval Rating: 93%
Employee Testimonial: “Of course the perks are great, but the most important perk is working for a company I truly believe in. Mark is an incredible leader who wants to make the world a better place, and I love doing work for a mission I care about.” —Facebook Analyst (New York, N.Y.)
No. 10: Larry Page
Company: Google
CEO Approval Rating: 93%
Employee Testimonial: “Larry wants us to keep the soul of a startup, even though we no longer are one. In some teams, like the ones I've been on, this has been possible — going from an idea to millions of users on a new product in < 2 years.” —Google Software Engineer (location, n/a)
No. 11: Richard Davis
Company: U.S. Bancorp
CEO Approval Rating: 93%
Employee Testimonial: “Great place to work. Life and work balance is great. The fun part is that you get to learn a lot of new technologies. You feel that the CEO is very close to the employees.” —U.S. Bank Lead Software Developer (Richfield, Minn.)
No. 12: Marc Benioff
Company: Salesforce.com
CEO Approval Rating: 93%
Employee Testimonial: “Marc is the best CEO in the business — different for sure — but the best.” —Salesforce.com Sales (San Francisco, Calif.)
No. 13: Jerry Kennelly
Company: Riverbed Technology
CEO Approval Rating: 93%
Employee Testimonial: “Jerry is a fantastic CEO with tons of enthusiasm and energy. Very personable and cares greatly about his company and people. Couldn't possibly be any nicer of a human being running a $1B company on this earth.” —Riverbed Technology Sales (San Francisco, Calif.)
No. 14: Edward "Ned" Johnson, III
Company: Fidelity Investments
CEO Approval Rating: 93%
Employee Testimonial: “Tons of support, great leadership, plenty of room for career growth.” —Fidelity Investments Financial Representative (Westlake, Texas)
No. 15: Joe Echevarria
Company: Deloitte
CEO Approval Rating: 92%
Employee Testimonial: “Senior leadership is approachable and realizes that although life-balance is a challenge they encourage to disconnect when possible.” —Deloitte Manager (Atlanta, Ga.)
No. 16: Mickey Drexler
Company: J. Crew
CEO Approval Rating: 92%
Employee Testimonial: “Pros include benefits, holiday incentives, workplace events, and all-around great leadership from supervisors and management.” —J. Crew Employee (location, n/a)
No. 17: Tim Cook
Company: Apple
CEO Approval Rating: 92%
Employee Testimonial: “You feel like everything you do has a direct impact and you're a stakeholder. The VPs and CEO are not removed either. It's common to see them eating lunch on campus amongst everyone else.” —Apple Front End Engineer (Cupertino, Calif.)
No. 18: Fred Smith
Company: FedEx
CEO Approval Rating: 92%
Employee Testimonial: “One of the most admired companies with global reputation and strong C-level leadership.” —FedEx EB2 (Dallas, Texas)
No. 19: John Donahoe
Company: eBay
CEO Approval Rating: 91%
Employee Testimonial: “The CEO of the company is smart, passionate and sincere. John Donahoe is the real deal and a great leader. He may be the most approachable CEO I've ever met.” —eBay Inc. Director (San Jose, Calif.)
