The pace of global change and complexity is hitting an all-time high, but that is where the opportunities lie, according to some of America’s top executives.

In the payments space, this has meant that technology and commerce evolved faster than ever over the past year, according to Ryan McInerney, CEO of Visa, the American multinational payment card services corporation headquartered in San Francisco.

The industry saw profound shifts, from AI and agentic commerce to stablecoins and new ways to pay, alongside growing expectations from governments to play a more active role in payments, McInerney told Extel. While that makes the ecosystem more complex, it also creates enormous opportunity for companies like Visa.

“Our strategy has always been to embrace disruption, build on it, and create value for our clients and the payments industry,” he said. “The challenge is not simply responding to change but anticipating where commerce is going and building the capabilities to enable it. For Visa, that means continuing to evolve our network, infrastructure and products while bringing the trust, security and scale our clients and partners expect from us.”

This included moving swiftly to deploy generative AI across its enterprise and harnessing AI to execute work and tasks with supervision, an approach now adopted by more than 60% of its global product development and engineering teams. “This is helping us design, build and ship products at increased velocity,” McInerney said. In 2026, the company delivered 350 product releases, up 25% year over year, including many enhanced cyber solutions for clients.

This leadership has also earned McInerney membership to Extel’s 2026 All-America Executive Team. He was voted “Best CEO” in the technology category and payments, processors & IT services sector based on the votes of buy-side analysts, money managers and sell-side researchers at securities firms and financial institutions that cover the region.

Nearly 3,000 money managers and buy-side analysts and 269 sell-side researchers provided their candid feedback in this year’s ranking. Voters were asked to name the best chief executive officers, chief financial officers and investor relations professionals at the companies in their coverage universes. Participants in Extel’s survey evaluated more than 1,169 CEOs across credibility, leadership and communication.

Drew Marsh, CEO of Entergy, also joins this year’s class. As chief executive of the American Fortune 500 energy company, which provides electricity to more than 3 million utility customers in Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas, Marsh was voted “Best CEO” in the Energy category and Utilities sector.

“The pace and scale of change in our industry continue to accelerate,” Marsh said. “Customer affordability remains at the forefront of our minds. Balancing the need for significant infrastructure investment with our responsibility to keep bills affordable for all customers has been one of the year’s biggest challenges.”

Increases in severe weather, supply chain disruptions and inflationary pressures have added complexity, but Entergy has remained focused on thoughtful planning and disciplined execution to stay on track for the future, according to Marsh. This meant introducing new customer protections, including a “Fair Share Plus” pledge, which ensures the largest customers are paying their fair share for power usage while creating additional savings for existing customers in the Gulf South region’s power grid.

“I’m incredibly proud of how our team delivered an essential service for our customers and communities this year,” he said. Marsh pointed to meaningful progress on grid resilience, clean power generation and service reliability, all while keeping the focus on customer affordability.

At Live Nation, the American multinational entertainment company founded in 2010 following the merger of Live Nation and Ticketmaster, the focus is on global live events: the company promotes more than 50,000 shows a year across more than 55 countries.

“We have to deliver in every city, every night,” Michael Rapino, the company’s CEO, told Extel. “The challenge is scaling that while making sure artists and fans have a great experience. Fans have choices about where to spend their money, and we have to earn that decision every time.”

Rapino, who has been recognized in this year’s ranking as the “Best CEO” in the Technology category and Media sector, said he was proudest of his company’s people and the role they play in helping artists build their careers “from their first club show to selling out stadiums.”

“There’s nothing better than watching an artist build an audience and take that next step,” he said. Live Nation is on track to invest more than $15 billion in artists and shows, connecting them with 175 million fans around the world. “Behind those numbers are local teams earning the trust of artists and fans, show by show. That’s what I’m proudest of, and, as we grow, keeping live music within reach for fans remains a priority.”

And, for the first time, Live Nation is on track to reach more fans globally than domestically, he said. “A new generation of artists is building audiences around the world, and we’re still just scratching the surface,” he added. “In 2027, we’ll keep investing in artists, bringing more tours to more markets and building the venues and local teams to support them.”

Rapino, who grew up in Thunder Bay, Ontario, where he started out promoting local bands as a teenager, said much of the same discipline and fundamentals of the business then remain true today.

“The idea is still the same: get the artist and the fan in the same room,” he said. “We just get to do it on a much bigger stage now.”

Read on to learn more from these CEOs about the challenges of 2026, their proudest moments, how each company is using AI and what is top of mind for 2027 in the full interviews below.