MasterCard's India-born CEO Ajay Banga and the co-CEO of Workday Aneel Bhusri are among the 50 top business leaders in the list which is "filled with executives who defied expectations - buying a newspaper, leaving luxury for Apple - executed big turnarounds and delivered stellar results for their shareholders."
A returnee to the list, 53-year-old Banga is ranked 15th.
Fortune said the move to cashless and mobile transactions is benefiting Banga's credit card company and some think the stock, now at USD 735 a share, could reach USD 1,000.
Workday sales were way up in 2013, and the stock outperformed rival Oracle.
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Topping Fortune's list to be crowned the Business Person of the Year 2013 is Musk, who is a "triple threat" having disrupted aeronautics with Space Exploration Technologies known as SpaceX, shaken up the auto business with Tesla Motors and retooled the energy sector with SolarCity, in which Musk is chairman and largest shareholder.
Under Musk, 42, Tesla has emerged to become the world's most prominent maker of all-electric cars with revenues up more than 12-fold for the first three quarters of the year. The company is on track to top USD 2 billion in sales in 2013.
Online retail giant Amazon's founder and CEO Jeff Bezos is ranked 6th as he defied expectations again this year, sacrificing company profits nearly two decades after founding Amazon to chase new markets.
The Seattle-based company ploughed ahead with its same-day grocery-delivery efforts and partnered with the ailing US Postal Service to allow Sunday delivery in some US cities.
Fortune said Bezos's boldest move was buying the Washington Post for USD 250 million with his personal venture fund. Still, his eclectic strategy has paid off in the past, and Wall Street remains as bullish as ever on the stock.
Google's shares passed the USD 1,000 mark this year, pushing the internet search giant's value ahead of Microsoft and behind only Apple and Exxon among US companies.
"As if making sure Google stays No 1 in search, ads, mobile, online video, maps, browsers, and more was not enough, Page has launched Google's latest zany venture: an anti-ageing startup named Calico," Fortune said.