Juan Luciano

Timing is everything. And this Argentine exec, formerly ADM’s COO, replaced Patricia Woertz just as big bets on ethanol were turning sour and oil and grain prices were poised to plunge. Since he took over (in January 2015) through January 2016, ADM’s stock fell 32.5 percent. (The S&P fell just 5.8 percent.) Luciano is now busy slashing costs, expanding abroad, and looking for other ways to “maximize shareholder value”; the test of his power will be whether those moves bear fruit.