This article is more than 3 years old

This article is more than 3 years old

Theo Epstein, the Chicago Cubs’ president of baseball operations, has been named the world’s greatest leader by Fortune magazine.

The front-office architect whose five-year plan resulted in the Cubs’ first world championship team in 108 years was chosen ahead of Alibaba founder Jack Ma, Pope Francis, Melinda Gates and Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos. Cleveland Cavaliers superstar LeBron James was No11 on the magazine’s annual list, which was revealed on Thursday morning.

Theo Epstein has been named the world’s greatest leader by Fortune magazine. Photograph: Courtesy of Fortune

“This time there was no proprietary formula, no algorithm, for self-motivated, high-character players and creating an environment to allow them to flourish,” Sports Illustrated’s Tom Verducci wrote of Epstein for Fortune. “[Epstein and his assistants] never stopped searching to find edges, but they made a fundamental decision early after coming to Chicago that the one edge they could exploit was found in a very old-school resource: people.”

Epstein became the youngest general manager in the history of Major League Baseball when he was hired by the Boston Red Sox at 28 in November 2002. Under his direction, the long-suffering American League club ended their 86-year title drought by winning the 2004 World Series, adding a second championship three years later.

He resigned from the Red Sox in 2011 to join the Cubs, where he managed to bring an end to an even longer title drought.

The 42-year-old signed a contract extension in September worth a reported $50m that will keep him with the Chicago club through 2021.

Others to make Fortune’s list included Shakira (No27), Canadian PM Justin Trudeau (No31), Chance the Rapper (No46) and London mayor Sadiq Khan (No48).