In fact, when a chief executive officer of a company takes the helm, that CEO’s reputation influences one-third of decisions to invest or not invest in that company, according to a recent FTI Consulting study. A CEO’s leadership style and charisma are the least important factors to investors. What investors look for are a CEO’s grasp of the company’s challenges, vision, knowledge of the industry and focus on its operations, the study found.

With this in mind, we reviewed the performance of our Global Income Edge holdings, and in this issue we profile five CEOs of companies in the Conservative and Aggressive portfolios that delivered the best performance over the last year.

Master and Commander

Vittorio Colao, the CEO of U.K.-based Vodafone (NYSE: VOD), has the type of experience and education pedigree you would expect of an executive that manages one of the world’s largest telecom companies. But what probably has made him a great CEO was the unlikely pairing of a top business education with a military-style upbringing that gave him the vision and the discipline to succeed. And succeed he has. Vodafone has delivered more than a 15% total return since it was added to the portfolio last August.

Born in Brescia, Italy, Colao is the son of an officer in the Carabinieri, Italy’s military police, and he himself is a reserve officer. These early experiences gave him the grit and determination to shine in highly difficult and competitive environments.

He got his early start at investment bank Morgan Stanley in London and has worked at renowned consultancy McKinsey & Co. in the media and telecom group, where he became a partner. He holds an MBA from Harvard.

Since becoming CEO of Vodafone, Colao has led a series of impressive mergers and acquisitions, such as the $1.7 billion purchase of British multinational telecom Cable & Wireless and the $130 billion sale of its stake in Verizon Wireless. He was also behind the firm’s push into emerging markets, and he made Vodafone a fierce competitor in established markets in Europe.

Certainly, the parallels between his military upbringing and his military-style or disciplined strategic approach to business haven’t been lost on his closest admirers.

In his office sits a general’s helmet given to him by his Italian former driver when he became CEO of Vodafone in 2008. He reportedly said, “Mr. Colao, now you really are a general, and you need this helmet because it’s going to be war.”

Buy VOD up to $39.

Technology Visionary

Some still think of AT&T as the old, stodgy monopoly with the black, fixed-line phones that was broken up in the 1980s. But listen to Randall Stephenson, CEO of AT&T (NYSE: T), and you instantly recognize that the firm has become a vibrant, 21st-century player. AT&T has delivered more than an 11% total return since last year, using our total return criteria of adding stock appreciation to the annualized dividend.

In an interview at the Milken Institute, Stephenson recalled how 10 years ago two-thirds of AT&T’s business was fixed-line phones. “Today it’s wireless and advanced data—things that didn’t exist when I started in the 1980s at Southwestern Bell.”

Stephenson, and his predecessor who handpicked him, Ed Whitacre, are credited with having the vision that wireless and broadband were the next big things. Twenty-six days into Stephenson’s new appointment as CEO in 2007, Apple’s iPhone went on sale in the United States through the company as its exclusive wireless provider at the time.

Stephenson is credited with using the iPhone as a touchstone to transform the culture from fixed-line to a “global leader in providing fast, highly secure and mobile connectivity to -everything on the -Internet.”

Stephenson’s vision manifested itself in recent deals, such as AT&T’s acquisition of DirecTV, which would make the firm one of the largest pay-TV providers and give the company a stake in 11 Latin American countries. And with the acquisition of Iusacell, and plans to acquire Nextel Mexico, the company stands to expand its mobile services to millions more.

Buy T up to $38.

Building a Better World

When consumer-products companies say they are building a better world, cynical consumers would be forgiven for believing that it’s just another marketing slogan. And few companies really can show they have become more sustainable and environmentally friendly.

But sustainability isn’t just a buzzword for Paul Polman, CEO of Unilever (NYSE: UL). He is making it happen and proving you can do well by doing good. And for shareholders, doing well means an almost 12% total return (8% of which was price appreciation) since we added Unilever in January.

In Unilever’s Sustainable Living Plan, Polman’s aim has been to double the size of the business while halving its environmental impact by 2020. Since he took over in 2008, new approaches have been effective in reviving the performance of the firm with household products such as Dove soap, Lipton iced tea and Ben & Jerry’s ice cream, all of which are part of our daily lives.

In the last year the firm has achieved a 10.7% profit margin, or $6.8 billion in profits on $63 billion in revenues. In the meantime, the company reduced waste by 66% per ton of production compared with 2008, and by the end of 2013 it sourced 48% of raw agricultural materials from renewable sources, up from 10% four years ago, according to the company.

Polman has argued that running a business sustainably is vital for long-term growth in emerging markets, and it also reduces risk and costs. He wants to increase the company’s sales in emerging markets from the current 57% (47% in 2008) to 80% of turnover.

It’s not surprising that this once aspiring doctor (he lost the med-school lottery in his hometown in the Netherlands) should champion sustainability for a better world and better shareholder value.

Buy UL up to $45.

Rebuilding America Quietly

It would seem that infrastructure development is a low-key business and James Hooke, the CEO of Macquarie Infrastructure (NYSE: MIC), is a low-key leader. With the exception of earnings calls, he is an executive that stays out of the public eye.

Before joining Macquarie, Hooke served in various senior-management positions with Fairfax Media Limited, the largest newspaper publisher in Australia and New Zealand. Given his extensive experience in the media industry, he probably knows that income investors don’t want a flashy CEO running an infrastructure company that is expected to pay solid, steady dividends.

His sober and steady leadership has turned into stellar performance. New York–based Macquarie Infrastructure, our #1 Best Buy pick in the Aggressive Portfolio, delivered a whopping 30% total return (25% has been price appreciation alone) since it was added to the portfolio six months ago.

Hooke, who joined Macquarie in 2007, has a track record of managing two unlisted infrastructure funds responsible for investing and managing about $5.5 billion across a range of North American infrastructure businesses. He was also responsible for managing several portfolio company investments for other Macquarie -affiliates and clients before taking the helm.

Macquarie Infrastructure’s businesses consist of one of the largest bulk liquid terminals businesses in the United States, an airport services business, a gas processing and distribution business, and a portfolio of contracted power and energy investments. The latter consists of controlling interests in five solar and two wind power generation facilities.

Because Macquarie provides vital services and has long-term contracts, its revenues are stable and insulated from the volatility that comes with an economic downturn. That’s why there’s little the CEO has to say.

Buy MIC up to $90.

Mr. Turnaround

You cannot overstate the key role played by Peter Kraus in turning around AllianceBernstein (NYSE: AB). Kraus, chairman and CEO, took over in 2008 and immediately began improving performance at this asset management firm, which stands to benefit from the extraordinary sums that investors put into mutual funds for retirement every year. According to Morningstar, investors poured more than $160 billion into mutual funds last year and have $14 trillion invested.

AllianceBernstein has had a nearly 26% total return (with 20% price appreciation alone) since last August.

As my colleague Benjamin Shepherd reported in a story about AllianceBernstein earlier this year, Kraus is a former Goldman Sachs banker who later co-headed the firm’s asset management group. Kraus smoothed over the rough cultural edges between what were still essentially two organizations from the merger of Alliance Capital and Bernstein.

About 80% of the company’s bond funds outperformed their peers on a three-year basis, and about 70% of its stock offerings show superior performance. As a result, while asset flows are still lumpy from quarter to quarter, the company has had more quarterly inflows than outflows since the final quarter of 2012.

Kraus also set out to widen the firm’s investment menu, picking up smaller investment companies with complementary businesses. That’s a major reason why AllianceBernstein was able to roll out more than 140 new services over the past few years, many of which are truly new rather than simply small twists on existing products.

The company also stands out from its peers thanks to its global diversification: Although based in New York City, the company has operations in 22 countries. On top of that, more than half of its assets are invested outside of the United States, and about a third of the money it manages comes from clients overseas.

Buy AllianceBernstein under $30.