Sir John Browne Tops Poll Of Business Leaders

For the second year running, Sir John Browne is voted most impressive business leader in the MORI 2000 annual survey of Captains of Industry. He is nominated by one in five business leaders and has featured in the top three for the past four years. Following close behind him, new entrant, Chris Gent, chairman of Vodafone, comes straight into second place, chosen by seventeen per cent of Captains.

In third place is Richard Branson. In 1997 he was the clear leader, nominated by 25 per cent of Captains. His rating has declined steadily since then and this year he is mentioned by only nine per cent of Captains.

Sir Brian Pitman of Lloyds Bank has been knocked out of the front-running this year - only three per cent of Captains have nominated him this time compared with 13 per cent in 1999..Other faders include Lord Colin Marshall of British Airways, mentioned by just two per cent compared with 12 per cent back in 1997.

Lord George Simpson of GEC, Terry Leahy of Tesco, Gerry Robinson of Granada and Sir Richard Sykes of GlaxoWellcome continue to feature in the list with between three and four per cent of the vote.

Other newcomers include Peter Davies of Sainsbury, Marjorie Scardino of Pearson, Alan Leighton of Asda Walmart, Mike Lynch of Autonomy, James Dyson of Dyson Vacuum Cleaners, Gerald Corbett of Railtrack and Fred Goodwin of RBS. All are mentioned by two per cent or more of these Captains.

Technical details

MORI interviewed 196 board directors of Britain's leading companies covering the Top 500 by turnover, the FTSE 500 and the top 100 by capital employed. Interviews were conducted face-to-face between 24 September and 12 November 2000. 65% of those interviewed were Chairman, CEO, MD or President.