Lifetime Achievement Awardee

Warren Bennis was a university professor and Distinguished Professor of Business Administration at the Marshall School and Founding Chairman of The Leadership Institute at the University of Southern California. He was also Visiting Professor of Leadership at the University of Exeter and a Fellow of the Royal Society of the Arts (UK).

He wrote 27 books, including the best-selling Leaders and On Becoming a Leader, both translated into 21 languages. The Financial Times named Leaders one of the top 50 business books of all time. In 1993 Addison-Wesley published a book of Bennis’ essays, An Invented Life: Reflections on Leadership and Change, which was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize, and Jossey-Bass republished an updated version of his 1968 path-breaking book, The Temporary Society, co-authored with Phil Slater.

Bennis not only studied and reflected on leadership, he has exemplified it, first as the youngest infantry commander fighting in Germany at age 20, decorated with the Bronze Star and Purple Heart. He was president of the University of Cincinnati from 1971-97 and served on the faculty of MIT’s Sloan School of Management, where he was Chairman of the Organizational Studies Department. He is a former faculty member of Harvard and Boston University, former provost and Executive Vice President of State University of New York at Buffalo. He has served on the boards of The American Chamber of Commerce, Claremont University Center and the board of the Salk Institute. Bennis consulted for many Fortune 500 companies and advised four U.S. presidents. The Wall Street Journal named him as one of the top ten speakers on management in 1993 and in 1996, FORBES magazine referred to him as the “Dean of Leadership Gurus.”