EA CEO Tops Businessperson of the Year Poll, Ahead of Apple's Tim Cook

Fortune magazine has published its annual "Businessperson of the Year" results, revealing EA boss Andrew Wilson to be among them. In fact, he's listed very near the top, coming in at third place, only behind overall 2015 Businessperson of the Year winner Mark Parker (chief executive of Nike) and Mark Zuckerberg (head of Facebook). No other game-specific CEOs are on the list, but Microsoft's Satya Nadella came in at 47th.

The list was decided by Fortune editors based upon the executives' ability to deliver "concrete results" for their companies, although elements like "intangibles and inspiration" also factored in.

"What counts most for companies is the ability to generation cold, hard cash. [The list] is an assemblage of superstars who navigated the inevitable turmoil this year and led their companies to stellar and, yes, concrete results," Fortune said.

Wilson took over for John Riccitiello as EA CEO in September 2013. In July 2015, EA shares hit an all-time high, doubling over the past year. Wilson has spoken a great deal about making EA into a "player-first" company. Executives have also discussed the company's responsibility to be progressive.

You'll notice that Wilson is ranked above Apple CEO Tim Cook. This is somewhat curious considering Apple recently had its best year ever, bringing in nearly a quarter-trillion in annual revenue.

Fortune's 2015 Top 10 People in Business:

1. Mark Parker - CEO, Nike
2. Mark Zuckerberg - CEO, Facebook
3. Andrew Wilson - CEO, Electronic Arts
4. Tim Cook - CEO, Apple
5. Ajay Banga - CEO, Mastercard
6. Mary Dillon - CEO, Ulta Beauty
7. Lei Jun - CEO, Xiaomi
8. Travis Kalanick - CEO, Uber
9. Steve Ells and Montgomery Moran - Co-CEOs, Chipotle
10. George Scangos - CEO, Biogen

The full, ranked list is available here.

EA's next major game release is this month's Star Wars Battlefront, the first new game to launch as part of the company's 10-year publishing deal with Disney. Note that this deal was announced in May 2013, a few months before Wilson was named CEO.