A force to Reckitt with

Shelter in a financial storm is the only way to describe the UK-headquartered maker of fabric softeners and dishwasher tablets, Reckitt Benckiser. Under the leadership of Bart Becht (see Consumer Champion feature in this issue), the company achieved like-for-like net revenue growth of 10% in 2008 and believes that, from a base of nearly £7bn, further growth of 4% is still achievable this year. The CNBC European Business Leaders Awards (EBLA) is in its sixth year and was created to honour those CEOs conspicuous by their excellent leadership. The nominations for the awards were selected by a panel of CEOs from European companies within the FT Global 500. The shortlists for each category were then chosen by a panel of judges comprising last year’s winners, among them 2008 Business Leader of the Year Sergio Marchionne (CEO, Fiat) and Sir Lindsay Owen-Jones, (Chairman, L’Oreal). Also on the panel was Professor Séan Meehan, professor of Marketing and Change at IMD; Lionel Barber, editor of the Financial Times, Barbara Stelzner, vice president of News and Programming EMEA at CNBC, and Sir William Castell, chairman of the Wellcome Trust. The winners were announced at a special ceremony held in London on 26 March.

Winners

EUROPEAN BUSINESS LEADER OF THE YEAR

Bart Becht — Reckitt Benckiser

Runners-up

Pablo Isla Álvarez — Inditex Group

Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo — Nokia Corporation

BUSINESS LEADER OF THE FUTURE 


Runners-up 


Tristan Lecomte — Alter Eco


Alastair Lukies 
— Monitise Group


BUSINESS LEADER OF THE YEAR (GLOBAL/LOCAL)


Denis Hennequin
 — McDonald’s Europe


Runners-up 


Jean-Philippe Courtois
 — Microsoft International


Philip Justus — eBay


INNOVATOR OF THE YEAR 


Runners-up 


James Dyson — Dyson


David Courtier-Dutton 
— Slicethepie


OUTSTANDING LEADERSHIP IN 
SUSTAINABLE PRACTICES


Patrick Cescau
 — Unilever Group


Runners-up 


Lars G. Josefsson — Vattenfall


Thomas Leysen — Umicore

ENTREPRENEUR OF THE YEAR


Christina Domecq
 — Spinvox


Runners-up 


Amancio Ortega — Inditex


Michael & Xochi Birch — Bebo

PHILANTHROPIST OF THE YEAR



Paul Barry-Walsh
 — Fredericks Foundation


Runners-up 


Sir Richard Branson — 
Virgin Group


Arpad Busson — EIM

LIFETIME 
ACHIEVEMENT AWARD


Peter Brabeck Letmathe
 — Nestlé