NEW DELHI – A leader that merges record returns with political activism deserves the honor. Be it social media IPOs, natural gas plays or cloud computing launches, this year somehow remained as a testing time for businessmen. Fortune has picked Howard D. Schultz, Founder and CEO, Starbucks as the businessman of the year. As the CEO turns 27, the revenues for Facebook also soared. Jim Skinner of McDonald’s, Reid Hoffman of LinkedIn and Andrew Mason of Groupon are few to name that managed to get their names in the list.
The only Indian in this list is Ajaypal S. Banga, President and CEO, MasterCard Worldwide, who occupies the 11th position. Banga has recently taken up the job at Master Card. The MasterCard Brand is now the second biggest card network after Visa. In recent past, the stock price of MasterCard has gone up by 49.5 percent making it the strongest brand in its sector. Banga anticipated that the company is likely to face some liabilities of around $500 million in regard to price-fixing suits currently pending against MasterCard and Visa. The company also announced that Banga would become a member of MasterCard’s Board of Directors, effective immediately. Banga was Vice Chairman of the board of trustees of the New York Hall of Science and a board member of the National Urban League. He was formerly a business sponsor of Citi’s African heritage network. Banga has a keen interest in social development issues, and over the period from 2005 to mid-2009, he spearheaded Citi’s strategy in the microfinance sector across the world. Read more to know about the top 5 businesspersons for 2011 who created a niche for them.
