Business leader of the year finalist 2013: Mark Adamson

Mark Adamson.

Mark Adamson, the boss of Fletcher Building, has seen the share price double at New Zealand's biggest listed company, conducted a huge management overhaul, installed a new chief financial officer and general counsel, added executives for distribution in Australia and New Zealand, hired a chief information officer, shifted his steel boss to laminates, installed one of his former managers as chief executive of business strategy and already saved millions with his FBUnite.

It's been a busy year for Adamson at Fletcher Building and the cracking pace he is setting doesn't look to be letting up any time soon.

He has a good pedigree, based in Ohio at Fletcher's world Formica HQ before his appointment as chief executive was announced last June 18. In the US, he achieved the seemingly impossible by turning the Formica division around into one of Fletcher's top earners.