Nooyi leads Indian contingent in 8216;US8217; best CEO8217; list

A magazine has named three India-origin CEOs-- Indra Nooyi,Francisco D'Souza and Ramani Ayer among the best in US.

Praising them for 8220;being forthright and transparent with shareholders8221;,a magazine has named three India-origin chief executives8211; Indra Nooyi,Francisco D8217;Souza and Ramani Ayer among the best CEOs in the US.

Soft drinks maker Pepsico8217;s Nooyi,IT services major Cognizant Technology Solutions8217; D8217;Souza and insurance entity Hartford Financial Services8217; Ramani Ayer have made the cut in the list of 8216;2009 America8217;s Best CEOs8217; compiled by US-based Institutional Investor magazine.

More than 900 buy-side investment professionals at over 460 institutions with combined assets of USD 6.6 trillion in US equities,were surveyed to prepare the list. The list has identified the best CEOs in 57 industry sectors.

According to the publication,these top-ranked CEOs score high marks for 8220;being forthright and transparent with shareholders and smart with their companies8217; balance sheets.

8220;They also earn high praise for keeping their companies on course8230;8221;

In the 8220;beverages8221; segment,Nooyi has cornered the first rank and is followed by arch rival Coca-Cola8217;s Muhtar Kent at the second position.

D8217;Souza is placed at the third spot in the 8220;Computer Services amp; IT Consulting8221; segment. In that area,Accenture8217;s William Green is on the top position while Automatic Data Processing8217;s ADP Gary Butler is ranked second.

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Meanwhile,Ayer,who features at the third position in the ranking of CEOs in the 8220;Insurance/Life8221; sector,is ahead of Lincoln National Corp8217;s Dennis Glass 4 and John Strangfeld Jr 5 of Prudential Financial.

In that league,Aflac8217;s Daniel Amos is at the top followed by C Robert Henrikson of MetLife. Other prominent names in the list include Google8217;s Eric Schmidt,Microsoft chief Steven Ballmer,Lawrence Ellison of Oracle Corp,News Corp8217;s Keith Rupert Murdoch and General Electric8217;s Jeffrey Immelt.

8220;We asked these individuals to name the best US CEOs in the sectors in which they invest. Votes were weighted,with first place votes counting more than second place votes,and so on,to produce a score for each executive that we used to compile the rankings,8221; the publication said.