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Steve Jobs, Apple

Let's review. In an industry full of one-trick -- and far more no-trick -- ponies, Apple's CEO has shown a unique ability to see the product potential in new technology to produce cool new products that consumers and businesses want to buy.

Source: Reuters

Sure, there were MP3 players before the iPod, but the slick interface, and ease of use with the iPod, combined with the iTunes online music store, proved so compelling that Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) soon dominated the market.

But after the arrival of Apple's iPhone last year, users finally had easy-to-use mobile access to the Web. With the iPhone's touch screen, users can now literally let their fingers do the browsing.

Likewise, plenty of mobile applications existed for mobile phones, but no other company has made them as easy to access and use right away than Apple with the iPhone's App Store. Jobs should also get credit for driving interest in Apple's once-sluggish Macintosh desktop line, which has enjoyed faster sales growth in the U.S. this past year than leading competitors.

Apple, and Jobs in particular, are not infallible. The iPhone 3G and 2.0 software launch hasn't gone smoothly, with numerous reports of dropped calls and connectivity issues. Likewise, problems occurred with Apple's recently introduced MobileMe online service for syncing data between devices.

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But these are hiccups for a company that's the envy of the computer and consumer electronics industry. The iPhone came out of nowhere to establish itself as the benchmark for ease of use, mobile Web and coolness. But maybe it's no surprise. After all, Apple didn't invent the personal computers either; it just made them more accessible. And whether you find the cult of personality surrounding Jobs a good or not-so-good thing, few can deny his vision of technology use and its impact on the industry.

Zach Nelson, NetSuite

Zach Nelson wasn't CEO of NetSuite (NYSE: N) when in 1998 the company (called NetLedger back then) helped usher in the era of Web-based applications and software-as-a-service. However, it wasn't until 2002 when the affable, baseball-loving Nelson took the helm that the company started to expand its product offerings, global reach and market presence.

Source: NetSuite

Nelson brought the company public less than a year ago (December 2007), and its market cap is currently around $1 billion.

Salesforce grabs more headlines, but NetSuite has taken on the more complex task of offering a full on-demand business suite that encompasses ERP, CRM, inventory control, e-commerce and accounting to mid and large companies. While some still associate NetSuite with its legendary lead investor Larry Ellison, make no mistake: This is Nelson's company.

While still not profitable, the company is growing. Its annual revenue has grown from $17.7 million in 2004 to $108.5 million in 2007. Its revenues for the first six months of 2008 were $71 million, up from $48.7 million for the same period in 2007. NetSuite also continues to grow globally with 20 percent of its revenue coming from outside of North America.

Numbers aside, you have to love a CEO who not only sold NetSuite to the Oakland A's, but also recruited the team's General Manager Billy Beane to its board of directors.

Sam Palmisano, IBM

Before you assail us for selecting a leader of a huge tech bellwether, hold up. Sam Palmisano has earned the respect of colleagues and rivals for his ability to see where tech is going and maneuver a tanker-size ship called IBM (NYSE: IBM) through the shoal-strewn waters of tech to get there.

Source: IBM

He's also got a strong senior management team making sure the strategy that backs up that vision is on course. Consulting and software divisions are two main examples.

He also saw the need to divide its huge consulting division into the business process engineering division to help companies navigate their far-flung networks that suffer from the limitations of legacy investments that work well, but don't go far enough any more.

He stayed the course on IBM's plan to exit money-losing businesses such as its HDD and has taken risks with the Cell chip. He helped oversee the software acquisitions in the past year that help hold IBM's edge in business intelligence software, such as Cognos, the Business Intelligence software provider. That move alone is a huge complement to its consulting ranks, which are pulling in an even bigger lion's share of IBM's annual revenues and profit.

Joe Tucci, EMC

EMC's ambition is nothing less than to manage all information, wherever it resides, a reach that its competitors could find tough to duplicate. If you think Tucci's approach is ruthless, you wouldn't be alone.

Source: EMC

EMC (NYSE: EMC) expects to be the storage box provider for big corporate guns as well as the mom-and-pop shop in Brooklyn.

It wants to be "the" datacenter end-all vendor for both ends of the spectrum and everyone in between, and its consistent savvy technology acquisition strategy illustrates that Joe Tucci not only knows what's needed, but knows where to spend the money and, most important, knows how to fit the pieces together for a tightly woven product portfolio puzzle.

In January, EMC was the first to pull the new storage technology darling, solid state drives, into its high-end product offering -- putting SSD (define)on the storage map. It's played a similar leading-the-charge role with the VMware (NYSE: VMW) virtualization acquisition.

Some call EMC's moves nothing short of brutal; others say shrewd. He may not make the nice guys of tech list, but the company he leads is leading the market fight for SMB and consumer storage revenue. It's hit these marks, in part, by snapping up Mozy and Iomega in acquisitions, and then tying those tools in with its Retrospect Express tool for a all-in-one local and remote storage approach. EMC also stayed focused on refreshing its popular Clariion line with flash, spin-down and virtual provisioning features.

Teams at EMC are working on a high-end cloud storage effort, code-named Hulk, which is expected to usher new innovations in clustered storage into the market.

Sure, the buy approach is considered easier than build by some. But as competitors such as Sun Microsystems can attest, actually figuring out how and where that newly bought technology works best and provides good value, in both customer solutions and return-on-investment isn't easy.

Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook

Here come the slings and arrows. The wunderkind of Facebook inspired the most controversy on this list. But a deeply divided editorial staff ultimately gave the nod to the Facebook CEO because he, more than any other current CEO in this sector, is the poster child for the collaborative, participatory way we use the Internet, known broadly as Web 2.0.

Source: Facebook

Since the launch of the Facebook Platform last May, the social networking/collaboration experience has been one increasingly defined by the applications created by third-party developers.

Zuckerberg saw this and acted faster than most, and in the time since, Facebook has been raising the bar in the social networking space and adding members at a phenomenal rate. Facebook is now the largest social network in the world.

Earlier this year Forbes magazine named Zuckerberg, then 23, the world's youngest billionaire. This for a company that's still groping for a business model!

Yes, a tough pick for some of the editors, given that we're naming a visionary CEO who has admitted that he doesn't know how his company will make money.

Facebook is perhaps the most-hyped startup to grace the Valley since Google, and, as one of the editors pointed out, Sergey and Larry didn't have a business model at first, either.

We're certainly not calling Facebook the next Google, but Zuckerberg has clearly built something that people truly love -- some to the point of addiction. While the company has made notable missteps (news feeds, Beacon) that have led some to question the management's savvy, we believe that Facebook is here to stay, and that Zuckerberg's vision is largely to credit with reshaping the way we understand the social Web.

In closing, what's a list without:

Honorable Mentions

Mark Shuttleworth, CEO of open source company Canonical, has become one of the most recognizable CEOs in the Linux marketplace. Shuttleworth has led his Ubuntu Linux distribution from nothing less than four years ago to its current position among the leaders in the space.

Fred Chang, former CEO of NewEgg.com, has carved out new markets and profits by taking the fundamentals of retailing -- good customer service -- and applying it to a world where slim to none exists: online retailing. Visionary enough? Some think so for a company that has some of the strongest word of mouth among retailers anywhere.

Sergey Brin/Larry Page, co-founders, Google. They are not CEOs, so technically, they are not eligible. But Google's Chrome browser alone is visionary territory, but online applications, improvements in Google finance also kept these Googlies on the transom.

Jim Balsille of Research In Motion (RIM) got a bunch of votes for overseeing three new Blackberry smartphones into the market in the past year. RIM's (NASDAQ: RIMM) also seeing some problems in market share erosion, but on the sheer vision of new products into the marketplace, it has a lot to be proud of.

LinkedIn's founder and former CEO Reid Hoffman got votes but missed on technicalities since Dan Nye is officially the CEO of the social networking company. But Hoffman's vision, including taking the leap into subscriptions and building out a "social network for grown-ups," has made a difference in the industry. Keeping our eyes on this one, and plenty more executives making big moves in the year unfolding.

Written by Richard Adhikari, Kenneth Corbin, Erin Joyce, Sean Michael Kerner, Judy Mottl, Dan Muse, David Needle, Andy Patrizio and Chris Saunders. Edited by Brian T. Horowitz