The 10 best CEOs of 2023, according to their own employees

December 20, 2023 5:30 AM

An Uber sign at the San Francisco headquarters, white letters on an all-black wall.

Whether it's news about layoffs, leadership changes or expansions, CEOs often are on the receiving end of public and employee scrutiny. Still, there are some who manage to gain the respect and appreciation of their workforce.

Comparably ranked CEOs from large companies with 500 or more employees, using employee sentiment surveys from 70,000 companies to determine the top 100. On average, the CEOs on this list have a 90% approval rating, while Comparably's site-wide average sits at around 69%.

"When employees give high sentiment ratings for their CEO, it's typically representative of how they lead their businesses — internally and externally," says Chad Herring, CHRO of ZoomInfo, Comparably's parent company. "Having a great workplace culture emanates from the top down."

Notably, Maria Black, CEO of ADP, made her debut on this list at number three, while Adobe's Shantanu Narayan made an appearance in the top five for the fifth year in a row. For the first time in Comparably's history, five women made it to the top 10. The famous CEOs of Amazon and Meta have failed to make the list at all for the third year in a row.

Here are Comparably's top 10 CEOs of 2023, along with excerpts from anonymous employee surveys.

Dara Khosrowshahi, Uber

"Our CEO Dara is inspiring! He is a great leader, and setting the right tone and culture for Uber."

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Shantanu Narayen, Adobe

"I've never had a more genuine and transparent CEO. He makes everyone feel welcome and makes the company feel small even though it is getting quite large."

Maria Black, ADP

"Love the fact that we have a female CEO and that she worked her way up the ranks and was not an outside hire into the role."

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Artie Starrs, Topgolf

"Our CEO actually listens with his heart. You can tell he takes his work home and never stops investing in better processes and helping others."

Sarah Friar, Nextdoor

"We have a dream team running this company, with one of the best CEOs in tech."

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Kumsal Bayazit, Elsevier

"Our CEO seems to care genuinely about Elsevier's mission, but also staff welfare and the culture of the organization."

Yamini Rangan, HubSpot

"Our CEO is pleasant, approachable and smart. Her actions demonstrate both a commitment to the success of the business and well-being of staff as we work to support this mission."

Eric Harmon, Trustwave

"Effective team leadership goes beyond achieving the team's goals; it also involves having empathy for its members. I feel that Eric as our CEO really embodies this."

Aneel Bhusri and Carl Eschenbach, Workday

"Our CEOs truly care about the health and welfare of the employees and genuinely care about you as a person."

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Fidji Simo, Instacart

"What I like best about the CEO and leadership team is the compassion and empathy they display when it comes to discussing employee experiences, from their approach to macro workplace industry issues to the Instacart-specific ones."