Following eight straight weeks of profiling CEOs who've done a poor job, the time has officially come for you and other members of The Motley Fool community to decide who is the worst 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 title of The Motley Fool community's worst 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 dubious award.
The self-servers: Chesapeake Energy (CHKA.Q) vs. Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMY 0.49%)
Our last match-up pits two highly controversial and self-serving leaders against each other: Chesapeake Energy CEO Aubrey McClendon and Bristol-Myers Squibb CEO Lamberto Andreotti. McClendon's "banner year" has to do with his company's stock tanking due to his failure to anticipate a shift in natural gas trends, as well as multiple questionable spending practices as outlined by Reuters. Andreotti's failure lies with his "string of pearls" acquisition strategy that resulted in a $1.8 billion writedown. That didn't, however, stop Andreotti from getting a hefty raise shortly after unfreezing his workers' pay. Which CEO is more self-serving? That's up to you to decide! Cast your vote below.
Check back for results
Be sure to check out the other Worst 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.
