Revealed: The Top Performing CEOs In The World 2014

6. Lars Rebien Sorensen

Mr. Sorensen at the age of 59 has been a director of the Company since 2011. He has been President and Chief Executive Officer of Novo Nordisk A/S, a global healthcare company with a leading position in diabetes care, since November 2000. He has held various senior management roles at Novo Nordisk since joining the company in 1982.

Mr. Sorensen also currently serves as a member of the supervisory board of Bertelsmann AG, a worldwide media company based in Germany. Within the last five years, he was a director of ZymoGenetics Inc., Dong Energy A/S and Danmarks Nationalbank.

7. Hugh Grant

He worked in Scotland from 1981 to 1991, for the then U.S.-based Monsanto Company, and then was appointed global strategy director in the agriculture division, based in St. Louis, Missouri. The 20th-century Monsanto Company (in the midst of a five-year series of mergers and spin-offs that had the effect of reducing its focus on chemicals in favor of biotechnology) legally ceased to exist in 2000, a new Monsanto Company was created, and Grant became executive vice president and chief operating officer of this new Monsanto.

In 2003, he became president and chief executive officer, and joined the board of directors. In March 2009, Grant was named one of the world's 30 most respected CEOs on Barron's annual list. He was named 2010 CEO of the Year by Chief Executive Magazine.