BCG head Rich Lesser named top US CEO in Glassdoor ranking
Rich Lesser, chief executive officer of consulting firm Boston Consulting Group (BCG), was the top-rated US CEO in Glassdoor’s 8th annual Employees’ Choice Awards.
The online company review site based the rankings on voluntary employee input collected between May 2, 2020 and May 1, 2021. Employees rated their CEO’s leadership, including approval or disapproval, as well as senior management and other factors tied to employee experience.
Glassdoor’s proprietary algorithm considered quantity, quality, and consistency of company reviews for companies to make the list. Companies in the “large” category had to have at least 1,000 employees and at least 100 company reviews across CEO approval and senior management ratings.
Across the 1.5 million reviews in the US, Canada, and Europe, the average CEO approval rating was 73%.
Rich Lesser topped the US rankings with an approval rating of 99%. Lesser, along with more than half of the Top 100 CEOs, appeared on the ranking for the first time.
Lesser will become global chair of BCG in October after spending three terms and nine years as CEO. During his tenure, the strategy consultancy tripled its revenues and more than doubled its workforce to over 22,000 employees globally.
Booz Allen Hamilton's Horacio Rozanski also breached the top ten, appearing at tenth place with a 97% approval rating.
Apple CEO Tim Cook (No. 32) was the only CEO to appear on the Top 100 list eight years running. Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg, notably, did not make the list for the first time since 2013.
According to Glassdoor’s reviews, employees felt the top-ranked CEOs adapted to change, led transparently, and were dedicated to their workers’ health and safety.
“Over the past year, company leaders around the world faced unprecedented challenges to support employees during the Covid-19 crisis. Now, the employees have spoken and it's clear that these CEOs excelled and found new ways to support their people when the world of work flipped upside down," said Christian Sutherland-Wong, Glassdoor chief executive officer.
Other consulting firm CEOs appearing in the ranking were Bain & Company’s Manny Maceda (No. 26, 96%), Protiviti’s Joseph Tarantino (No. 34, 95%), Grant Thornton’s Brad Preber (No. 47, 94%), PwC’s Tim Ryan (No. 67, 93%), McKinsey’s Kevin Sneader (No. 89, 90%), KPMG’s Paul Knopp (No. 99, 90%), and Mercer’s Martine Ferland (No. 100, 90%).
