MUMBAI: MarketWatch.com, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Dow Jones & Company and a provider of business news, financial information and analytical tools, has announced that Robert A. Iger, president and chief executive of The Walt Disney Company, has been selected as its "CEO of the Year" for 2006.

Iger, who was appointed to the post of chief executive on 1 October 2005, was selected by MarketWatch senior editors from a field of five candidates nominated by MarketWatch journalists. The other candidates were Ginger Graham of Amylin Pharmaceuticals Inc., Lawrence Kellner of Continental Airlines Inc., Steve Sanger of General Mills Inc., and Jeffrey Sprecher of IntercontinentalExchange.

An official release issued stated that Iger was selected based on four criteria: performance for customers over the last year, performance for shareholders, performance for employees and corporate governance initiatives.

"All of our finalists had outstanding years and the debate over who should win was brisk," said, MarketWatch.com editor-in-chief David Callaway. "But Bob Iger stood above the rest. Not just for how he helped boost Disney's share price after several tough years, but for how he mended fences with dissident partners, reformed the management culture, and presided over the $7 billion buyout of Pixar, which arguably returned Disney to its animation roots."

Iger's award will be presented at a ceremony hosted by MarketWatch and Dow Jones editors and executives early in 2007. Past winners include Meg Whitman of eBay, Raymond Mason of Legg Mason and Ed Zander of Motorola, adds the release.

Separately, MarketWatch announced that Ramesh Pandey of XeChem International Inc. has been named "CEO of the Year" for 2006 by MarketWatch users. Besides participating in a poll, MarketWatch users actively tapped social networking sites, message boards and other viral online tools to encourage voting for their favourite nominees.