Lifetime Achievement Awardee

Peter Drucker’s (1909 – 2005) passion for good management practices came naturally. Growing up in a suburb of Vienna, Austria, he was exposed to leading intellectuals who frequented weekly soirées at the Drucker family home, and he learned about the dark side of leadership when two of his early essays were banned by the Nazi’s – prompting his relocation to the UK and then to the U.S. He understood deeply that “management affects people and their lives” and dedicated himself to writing, teaching, and influencing leaders for the good of organizations and society.

As Rosabeth Moss Kanter pointed out in 2009 in the Harvard Business Review, three recurrent themes run through Drucker’s 39 books and numerous articles: Management is a profession whose professionals’ primary purpose should be the long-term health of organizations, which includes the consideration of social well-being, not just profit; employees in an information society require a purpose – other than earning money – for their work; and nonprofits are critical in creating a healthy society in which business can thrive. Known or his uncanny ability to predict significant societal shifts, a vast network of people continues to apply his principles to organizations today.