The 19 most successful CEOs in Europe right now, according to the Harvard Business Review

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Martin Sorrell

REUTERS/Mal Langsdon

Martin Sorrell, Chief Executive Officer of WPP, attends a Reuters Global Media and Technology Summit in Paris June 14, 2012.

The Harvard Business Review recently launched its yearly ranking of the world's best-performing CEOs.

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The ranking is created by looking at three key financial variables: the change in market capitalisation a CEO has overseen, the country-adjusted total shareholder return, and the industry-adjusted total shareholder return.

HBR also measured what it calls ESG, or the environmental, social, and governance score. Some examples factored into ESG would include how much hazardous waste a company produces (environmental) and company diversity (social).

These four variables are then combined to give a score that helps identify how well a company is performing, and as a result how the big boss is doing.

Although American companies and bosses dominate the list - 41 CEOs featured in the top 100 lead companies headquartered in the United States - there were a number of CEOs who represent companies based in Europe.

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Business Insider pulled out those names and ranked them, based on their spot in HBR's top 100. We've also included each executive's rank in the complete list, shown in brackets in the slides below.