Nation’s CEOs Gather to Address The Return of Invention in Leadership and to Honor Young & Rubicam’s Chairman & CEO, Ann Fudge

New Haven, Conn., December 14, 2004—Many CEOs today announce a strong interest in internal invention and fostering new ideas from within rather than looking to buy businesses. Are the days of dealmakers over and replaced by business builders? To resolve this paradox, 100 world-renowned chief executives, policy makers, and academics gather at the 50th CEO Summit of The Chief Executive Leadership Institute of the Yale School of Management. The conference, entitled “The Return of Invention, Imagination & Integrity,” takes place at the Waldorf-Astoria in New York City, December 16-17, 2004. Conference sponsors include: UPS, ArcaEx, Bloomberg News, Gevity, Hewitt Associates, RHR International, Russell Reynolds Associates, Toyota, and The Council of Better Business Bureaus.

This invitation-only leaders’ conference features lively, off-the-record, candid discussions by world-renowned chief executives, policy makers, and academics, including: Connecticut Congressman Christopher Shays; SEC Commissioners Cynthia Glassman and Harvey Goldschmid; Donald Trump; Brad Anderson, CEO of Best Buy; Doug Conant, CEO of Campbell Soup, Eugene O’Kelly, Chairman of KPMG; Hideaki Otaka, CEO of Toyota Motor North America; John Eyler, Chairman and CEO of Toys “R” Us; Craig Muhlhauser, CEO of Exide Technologies; Sandy Warner, former Chairman and CEO of JP Morgan Chase; James Hagedorn, CEO of The Scotts Company; Rick Goings, Chairman and CEO of Tupperware; Richard Cavanagh CEO of The Conference Board; Robert Hormats, Vice Chairman of Goldman Sachs; Dan Lynch, CEO of ImClone; Bob May, Chairman of HealthSouth, as well as the CEOs who have led such firms as Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia and Enron through recent crises along with management professors from Yale, Harvard, Wharton, and Columbia, and dozens of other distinguished leaders.

Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, Associate Dean of the Yale School of Management and conference organizer, said, “We are told that the era of the swashbuckling serial acquirers is now past and replaced by CEOs interested in invention, discovery, and innovation. The big idea is the new “new thing.” The question is: Is this articulated trend real or hype? How do we explain the apparent simultaneous merger mania? Has integrity really returned and can the public trust the fanfare over new products and new deals? The Chief Executive Leadership Institute is fortunate to attract over 100 world renowned leaders who can answer these questions and learn from each other to its 50th CEO Summit.”

On the evening of Thursday, December 16, Ann Fudge, the widely respected Chairman and CEO of Young & Rubicam, will be presented with the Legend in Leadership Award by Douglas Conant, President & CEO of Campbell Soup. The dinner panel on Thursday, December 16 at 7:30 p.m., entitled “The Great American Food Fight” with major food industry executives and nutritionists is open to the press, as is the closing lunch on Friday, December 17 at 12:30 p.m., with Donald Trump entitled “You’re Fired: How I learned To Stay in the Game.” Interested members of the press must register in advance at the number listed below.

Past winners of this award include: John E. Pepper, Jr., former chairman & CEO of Procter & Gamble; Hershey’s retired Chairman and CEO Kenneth Wolfe; Motion Picture Association Chairman and CEO Jack Valenti; Vanguard founder Jack Bogle; Home Depot founder Bernard Marcus; former Coca-Cola President Donald Keough; former PepsiCo CEO Roger Enrico; MCI founder, the late Bill McGowan; musician entrepreneur Quincy Jones; Viacom CEO Sumner Redstone; catalogue entrepreneur Lillian Vernon; Dunkin’ Donuts founder, the late Bill Rosenberg; former J. Walter Thompson CEO Charlotte Beers; Bell South Chairman Emeritus John Clendenin; Rich Teerlink, former CEO of Harley-Davidson; Gordon Binder, former CEO of Amgen; Bill George, former CEO of Medtronic; and Kemmons Wilson, creator of Holiday Inns.

Ann Fudge is the chairman and chief executive officer Young & Rubicam Brands and Y&R, one of the world's largest advertising and media services firms with about 540 offices in 80 countries.

Prior to joining Young & Rubicam, Fudge worked at General Foods where she served in a number of positions including president of Kraft’s Maxwell House Coffee Company and president of Kraft’s Beverages, Desserts, and Post Divisions. Earlier, she spent nine years at General Mills, starting as a marketing assistant and ultimately rising to marketing director.

Fudge serves as a director of General Electric Company and Catalyst. She is also a trustee of the Brookings Institution, a governor of Boys & Girls Clubs of America, and is a member of The Committee of 200 and The Council on Foreign Relations.

After graduating from Simmons College, she worked in human resources for GE until entering Harvard University, where she obtained her MBA.

About The Chief Executive Leadership Institute
The Chief Executive Leadership Institute, the world’s oldest CEO college, is part of the Yale School of Management. It was founded in 1989 to provide original research on leadership and lively current educational forums through peer-driven learning for accomplished leaders across sectors.

About the Yale School of Management:
The mission of the Yale School of Management is to educate leaders for business and society. The school prides itself on preparing men and women to combine rigorous business skills with a broader appreciation for the economic, social, and political factors that shape the global environment.

For an interview with Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, or to register for the Legend in Leadership Award dinner or the closing lunch, contact Tabitha Wilde, Associate Director of Media Relations at the Yale School of Management, 203-432-6010; (tabitha.wilde@yale.edu) or Bonnie Blake, 203-432-0867;(bonnie.blake@yale.edu).