Best: Howard Schultz
Nearly two years after reclaiming the reins of his coffeehouse empire, Schultz is still working to turn it around.
Starbucks' stock has been marching steadily upwards towards its 2006 high, and the company reported improved profits for the most recent fiscal quarter.
Despite major layoffs early this year, an 81% positive rating for Schultz shows public approval for his efforts, which include value-priced breakfast combos and its new VIA brand of instant coffee.
NEXT: Best: Eric Schmidt
Last updated December 30 2009: 2:06 PM ET
How it was done: Zeta's technology mines the online media landscape -- including millions of blogs, message boards, and social media posts -- and then uses algorithms to measure both the volume and tone of conversations about a given subject -- in this case, the CEOs of Fortune 500 companies. Rankings are based on the percentage of total chatter about a given CEO that is qualified as positive.
