DSM CEO Feike Sijbesma has been named among the World’s 50 Greatest Leaders in Fortune Magazine’s annual list. He is number 44 on the list, and the only Dutch person included. The full list is here. It includes Bill and Melinda Gates; Tim Cook, Apple CEO; Larry Fink, Blackrock CEO; President Macron of France; Liu He, Vice Premier of the People's Republic of China; Serena Williams; Oprah Winfrey; students fighting gun violence in the US; and the #MeToo movement.

DSM CEO Feike Sijbesma named among the world’s 50 greatest leaders by Fortune Magazine

Fortune says it assessed leaders on wealth creation rather than size as conventionally measured. It credits Sijbesma’s focus on sustainability and notably his work on carbon pricing as key reasons for his inclusion.

Of Sijbesma, Fortune says: “Over the past decade, he has overhauled DSM to focus on businesses that better the lives of people or the planet. As co-chair of groups such as the Carbon Pricing Leadership Coalition (CPLC), Sijbesma has proved particularly effective at rallying fellow executives.”

The Fortune news comes the day that Sijbesma is appointed chair of a high-level leadership forum on carbon pricing and competitiveness. The CPLC announced that the new forum will convene private sector leaders around competitiveness concerns that could inhibit the worldwide uptake of carbon pricing.

Feike Sijbesma has been actively involved in the CPLC since April 2016. He co-chaired the High-Level Assembly of the CPLC in Washington during the Spring Meetings of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund. More than 100 leaders from government, businesses, and civil society convened to assess global progress on carbon pricing and highlight recent developments. Featured remarks included World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim, IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde and the UN (Deputy) Secretary General.

Sijbesma is a “Climate Leader” of the World Bank Group together with Ban Ki Moon and Kofi Annan (both former Secretary-General of the United Nations) and Christiana Figueres (former Executive Secretary of UNFCCC, the UN’s climate organization, in charge of the Paris Climate Treaty). Sijbesma also made remarks at the 2018 Summit of the Global Commission on the Economy and Climate.

Furthermore, Sijbesma is active in fighting malnutrition through a number of partnerships and initiatives, including Africa Improved Foods (AIF) in Rwanda. This is a joint venture between the Government of Rwanda and a consortium of four key international partners: Royal DSM, Dutch development bank-FMO, CDC Group plc (the UK government’s Development Finance Institution) and IFC.

This nomination follows DSM’s recent No 2 position on the Fortune list of companies that change the world, in which DSM was among other recognized for its work on fighting hunger and AIF.

Feike Sijbesma added: “I see this as a recognition and encouragement for the great work of all 25,000 employees of DSM.”