UNICEPTA CEO Ranking: Kasper Rorsted takes No.1 spot ahead of Bill McDermott and Ulf Schneider

-       Henkel CEO Kasper Rorsted enjoys the best media image among the CEOs of Dax-listed companies. Bill McDermott (SAP) ranks second, followed by Ulf Schneider (Fresenius)

-       Nikolaus von Bomhard (Munich Re) and Herbert Hainer (Adidas) now in the Top 10, former No.1 Marijn Dekkers (Bayer) slips to fourth

Kasper Rorsted dethroned Marijn Dekkers (Bayer) as the CEO with the best image in the first quarter of 2016. Henkel’s outgoing CEO has received a lot of praise for what he has achieved during his time at the firm. The tireless executive has made the company more international, boosted profitability and bolstered its top brands, comments Süddeutsche Zeitung, for instance. “You can’t really get a better vote of confidence”, writes Neue Zürcher Zeitung, referring to Rorsted’s switch to Adidas and how the sporting goods company’s share price rose 6.3 percent on the news, while Henkel’s share price fell 4.1 percent. 

Munich Re CEO Nikolaus von Bombard and Adidas CEO Herbert Hainer leapfrogged many of their peers, with the former jumping from 21^st to 8^th and the latter climbing from 29^th to 9^th. Handelsblatt says that von Bomhard has done “a very good job,” while Süddeutsche Zeitung writes that his comments “carry weight in the industry.” He is seen as an intellectual and is held in “high regard” by the government officials he comes into contact with.

Herbert Hainer completed his last full business year as Adidas CEO by delivering “surprisingly strong” growth in revenues and profits, writes Süddeutsche Zeitung, referring to the upcoming departure of the longest-serving CEO on the Dax.
Here’s the Top 10 ranking (number in brackets refers to their position in the 2015 ranking):

1. Kasper Rorsted, Henkel (2)

2. Bill McDermott, SAP (8)

3. Ulf Schneider, Fresenius (5)

4. Marijn Dekkers, Bayer (1)

5. Karl-Ludwig Kley, Merck (7)

6. Reinhard Ploss, Infineon (9)

7. Dieter Zetsche, Daimler (3)

8. Nikolaus von Bomhard, MunichRe (21)

9. Herbert Hainer, Adidas (29)

10. Carsten Kengeter, Deutsche Börse (6)

The ranking is based on 12,299 articles printed by major German media outlets between December 2015 and March 2016. It draws on the results of UNICEPTA Medienanalyse GmbH’s “Dax Benchmark” analysis. As part of said analysis, the international media firm continuously monitors the tonality of coverage on all Dax-listed companies and their CEOs for numerous clients.