Royal Bank of Canada's Gordon Nixon and the co-chief executive officers of Research In Motion Ltd. are winning high marks from Barron's.
Barron's singles out Mr. Nixon for the strength of RBC on its list of the world's 30 most respected CEOs, which also includes RIM's Jim Balsillie and Mike Lazaridis.
Canada's banks have in general been winning praise for how they withstood the financial crisis, while their peers faltered.
Bloomberg News says the list is put together by looking at share performance and asking other executives, analysts and investors to weigh in on CEOs who have made a difference. New to the list this year are Alan Mulally of Ford Motor Co., which stands out among the Detroit Three auto makers for its performance, particularly given how its two American rivals slipped into bankruptcy protection, and Reed Hastings of Netflix.