Gregory Sandfort

Sure, you can buy a carburetor for your John Deere at Tractor Supply, but the cognoscenti know that the chain’s stores are geared less to professional farmers and more toward regular folks looking for home and garden items. Sandfort joined the company in 2007—which has now reaped nearly two decades of relentless increases in annual revenues and profits—as chief merchandising officer. He became CEO in 2013. Sandfort has cultivated a one-stop shopping experience; whether customers need fencing for containing cattle or riding mowers and pet supplies, they can get it all in his store. One analyst says she can’t think of another publicly traded company that focuses so much on the consumer. Sandfort’s success has won him “kind of a cult following on the Street,” according to an analyst at Wells Fargo Securities. Indeed, when Gregg Steinhafel resigned as Target’s top executive last year, Sandfort’s name came up as a potential candidate.