DBS’ chief executive Piyush Gupta is in Havard Business Review’s 2019 edition of The CEO 100,  joining the likes of Microsoft’s Satya Nadella, JPMorgan Chase’s Jamie Dimon, Disney’s Robert Iger and Tencent’s Ma Huateng in the list this year. NVIDIA’s Jensen Huang takes pole position on the list.

Piyush Gupta’s leadership, together with a committed management team, has been critical in reshaping the bank. Over the years, he has shown us time and time again what an outstanding chief executive he is – his vision, courage and tenacity, and most importantly, his steadfastness in wanting to do the right thing by our people and our communities. Being the first Singapore CEO to be featured on this list, Gupta has done us all proud by flying the Singapore flag high on the global stage once more, said DBS Chairman Peter Seah, in a media statement on Tuesday.

The ranking is based not only on financial performance but also on environmental, social, and governance (ESG) ratings, according to HBR. This year, ESG scores have been weighted to account for 30 percent of each CEO’s final ranking – up from 20 percent in 2018, to reflect  «the fact that a rapidly growing number of funds and individuals now focus on far more than bottom-line metrics when they make investment decisions». In addition, HBR’s rankings rely on «objective measures over a chief executive’s entire tenure», it said.

Piyush joined DBS in 2009 as CEO and has since led the bank on a transformation journey that has established the organization as being among the world’s best. In September 2019, DBS was featured in HBR as among the world’s top 10 companies that have made the most successful strategic transformations in the last decade. This year, DBS has also been recognized by Euromoney as the World’s Best Bank.