Following eight straight weeks of profiling top-notch CEOs, the time has officially come for you and other members of The Motley Fool community to decide who is the best CEO in 2012.
The methodology behind the voting is simple. Similar to an NCAA-style basketball bracket, the eight CEOs will be pitted into four match-ups that the community will have one week to vote on. Next week we'll release the results of the previous week's voting, and the remaining four CEOs will again be bracketed for voting. Voting will continue over the next couple of weeks until we have a winner, which will be unveiled at the beginning of December.
As you can see, the ball really is in your court and you do have a say in who merits the coveted title of The Motley Fool's chosen CEO of the year. Below the voting bracket I've included a quick synopsis of the match-up; however, I encourage you to revisit the nomination article for a more complete explanation of why that particular CEO was nominated for this award.
The register ringers: Silver Wheaton (WPM -0.08%) vs. Regions Financial (RF -0.53%)
This interesting match-up is between our kings of financial prowess, Silver Wheaton's Randy Smallwood against Regions Financial's Grayson Hall. Smallwood's company recorded another record year of earnings in 2012 as his penchant for orchestrating valuable royalty interest deals with silver miners for a fraction of the spot rate allowed it to rapidly boost its dividend. Conversely, Hall led his bank in paying off its TARP obligations and dramatically improving its results, all while taking home a paycheck far below the industry average. Which CEO puts dollar signs in your eyes? Feel free to click and tell!
Check back for results
Be sure to check out the other CEO match-ups at the links below, and check back next week when we unveil the results and highlight a new round of voting to whittle the field down even further.
