Warren Buffett Watch

Published: Thursday, 23 Apr 2009 | 10:20 AM ET

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Warren Buffett is ranked number 16 on a new list of the 20 Best American CEOs of all time.

The ranking has been compiled by Condé Nast's Portfolio in consultation with a panel of business-school professors.  They were asked to "consider each CEO's record of creating or destroying value, innovation, and management skills or lack thereof."

Kevin Maney and Liz Gunnison write in their overview that "Warren Buffett may not be much of an innovator, but he is a great philosopher - the business Buddha.  We think that counts."

Buffett is ranked just after Reuben Mark, who was "boring" but "made Colgate the king of oral care."

Washington Post Company Executive Committee Chairman Katharine Graham in a 1997 file photo.

He comes just before number 17, The Washington Post's Katharine Graham, a long-time close friend of Buffett's before her death in 2001.

Buffett's friend, bridge partner, and philanthropic collaborator, Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates, is number 10 on the list.

Number one: the "father of the modern moving assembly line" and "famously anti-Semitic" Henry Ford.

Portfolio also compiled a list of the 20 Worst CEOs of All Time.

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