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Fortune Magazine's 3 'Top People In Business' Work Right Here In Bay Area

SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) - If you want to work for the best minds in business, you're in the right place here in the Bay Area.

According to Fortune Magazine's "2014's Top People In Business" list, the three top executives on earth head up Bay Area companies. The magazine named Google CEO and Co-Founder Larry Page the overall "Biz Person of the Year."

"Nearly four years into his tenure (as CEO), Page has shown himself to be the world's most daring CEO. His fabled "moonshots" now launch with regularity. Any one of them could change the lives of billions and help Google to remain at the top of the technology heap for generations," writes Fortune's Miguel Helft, who notes that Page's bold ambition has revolutionized transportation and altered modern medicine.

Just behind Page is the successor to Steve Jobs at Apple, Tim Cook.

"Booming sales of larger iPhones and renewed enthusiasm for Mac computers are making up for slowing growth in iPads. The coming Apple Watch and the already released Apple Pay service show that Apple remains an innovator—even under a CEO known more for operational prowess than product savvy," writes Adam Lashinsky, who credits Cook for exercising discretion in mergers and acquisitions and revamping the Apple executive ranks. 

The bronze medalist in the executive ranking lacks the broad name recognition of the men who beat him out, but perhaps not for long. John C. Martin has turned Foster City-based Gilead Sciences into a monster in the pharma industry.

"The company's stock is up 40% in 2014, and hep-C drug sales, projected to top $11 billion, will double the company's revenues this year," writes Erika Fry who touts the chemists deal-making for helping get Gilead to the top of the crowded pharmaceutical market.

Also in the top 20 are Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook at number 13, 30-year-old Elizabeth Holmes who founded Palo Alto's Theranos (#14), Brad Smith of Mountain View's Intuit (#16), Elon Musk of Tesla and SpaceX (#18) and San Francisco executives Walt Bettinger of Charles Schwab (#19) and Laura Alber of Williams-Sonoma (#20).

The magazine said this year's list was highlighted by leaders who kept a steady hand despite a tumultuous year on the Geo-political scene.


 

 

 

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