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Jonathan Leinster
& team
UBS
"Putting these companies in a global context is increasingly important, and no one does that better than Jonathan."
Climbing the final rung to finish on top for the first time is the UBS team of two helmed by Jonathan Leinster, 43. “The sector will continue to deliver low-double-digit total returns from a mixture of cash returns to shareholders and mid-to-high-single-digit growth in cash flow,” says Leinster, who is based in London. British American Tobacco is a favorite this year, as it was last year (when the shares climbed 6.4 percent), owing to the U.K.-based cigarette maker’s growing presence in emerging markets and focus on its core brands, which include Benson & Hedges, Dunhill and Lucky Strike. Leinster, who is “highly regarded for his strong industry knowledge and excellent globally coordinated sector work,” according to one client, earned a bachelor’s degree in history and economics from England’s University of Durham. He joined S.G. Warburg & Co., which later became UBS, in 1994 from Confederation Life Insurance Co., where he worked as a buy-side analyst. — Katie Gilbert