The Global Center for Leadership & Business Ethics has named two business executives and a scientist as the 2005 inaugural winners of its Laureate Award & Medal Series for their achievements in leadership, corporate governance and social responsibility.
John C. Whitehead of the United States will receive the Laureate Award, while Adrian Cadbury of the United Kingdom and Dr. Karl-Henrik Robèrt of Sweden will receive the Laureate Medals for Corporate Governance and for Social Responsibility, respectively. The awards will be presented at a gala dinner event on June 1, 2005, at the United Nations.
"These outstanding leaders embody the very best in business ethics, principled personal behavior and responsible business practices," said William W. George, chairman of the Global Center. "They serve as role models for all who wish to build their companies to meet the needs of their stakeholders. We applaud each of them for their life-long achievements."
KPMG International established the center last year as an independent body to recognize individuals who exhibit extraordinary business ethics and leadership qualities. The policies and processes for the Laureate Award & Medal Series are modeled on those of Nobel Prizes.
The center received 9,000 nominations for the Laureate Medal & Award Series from more than 15 countries. A call for nominations for the 2006 series will be issued in July.
Whitehead, chairman of the Goldman Sachs Foundation, was named inaugural winner of the Laureate Award, honoring him as the corporate leader who "best embodies the qualities of insight, ethics and courage that are key attributes of visionary leadership."
A former chairman of Goldman, Sachs & Co, Whitehead has chaired the Lower Manhattan Development Corp. since 2001. He has also served as a director of the New York Stock Exchange, chairman of the Securities Industry Association, chairman of the board of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, and as U.S. deputy secretary of state under George P. Shultz. In 1993, he created the John C. Whitehead Fund for Not-for-Profit Management at Harvard Business School. In 2002, the Haas School of Business at University of California-Berkeley created the Whitehead Distinguished Fellowship in Corporate Responsibility Fund in his honor.
Adrian Cadbury, 75, former chairman of Cadbury Ltd. and Cadbury Schweppes, is the recipient of the Laureate Medal for Corporate Governance, for his "career-long support for innovative approaches to effective financial management oversight and responsible fiscal stewardship." Cadbury chaired the U.K. Committee on the Financial Aspects of Corporate Governance, and was a member of the OECD Business Sector Advisory Group on Corporate Governance.
Cadbury received the International Corporate Governance Network Award in 2001 and published a book on corporate governance and chairmanship in 2002. He currently serves as a lecturer on the subjects of business ethics and tomorrow's company, and is a member of the OECD Business Sector Group to provide boards with guidance on corporate governance.
Dr. Karl-Henrik Robèrt, M.D., Ph.D., 57, one of Sweden's foremost cancer scientists and founder of The Natural Step, a Swedish-based environmental organization, is the winner of Laureate Medal for Social Responsibility, honoring him for "his work on sustainability, which encourages an understanding of the relation between ecology, economy and technology." Dr. Robèrt has focused on pollution's role in cancer and helped developed a framework for sustainability that has been used by organizations including Home Depot, Nike, IKEA and McDonald's.
From 1985 to 1993, Robèrt headed the division of clinical hematology and oncology at the Department of Medicine at Huddinge Hospital. In 1999, he was awarded the Green Cross Award for International Leadership, and in 2002 he won the Blue Planet Prize, an international environmental award sponsored by the Asahi Glass Foundation.
