Yale Chief Executive Leadership Institute to Honor Former Goldman Sachs Co-Chairman John C. Whitehead with Lifetime of Leadership Award

New Haven, Conn., June 7, 2010 — Former Goldman Sachs co-chairman John C. Whitehead will accept the "Lifetime of Leadership Award" of the Yale Chief Executive Leadership Institute at a ceremony to be held June 9 at the New York Stock Exchange in New York City.

The award will be presented to Mr. Whitehead by William H. Donaldson, 27th Chairman of the U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission; former CEO of Aetna; co-founder of Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette; Undersecretary of State; former CEO of the NYSE; and founding dean of the Yale School of Management, at the 62nd gathering of the Yale CEO Summit of The Chief Executive Leadership Institute, the nation’s first CEO college.

John Whitehead’s heroic national service included serving in the Navy in historic battles such as in Normandy France on D-Day, Iwo Jima, and Okinawa. He began his career in 1947 at Goldman Sachs & Co. where he worked for 38 years rising to become co-chairman and senior partner in 1976. A legendary financier, a trusted advisor to many CEOs, a celebrated institution builder, and revered mentor to countless financial executives, Whitehead’s national service is easily as admired as his business leadership. His service as Deputy Secretary of State to George Shultz led to his receipt of the Presidential Citizens Medal by President Reagan. He is also the former chairman of such enterprises as: The Brookings Institution; The Asia Society; The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation; the Harvard Board of Overseers; Haverford College; the United Nations Association; the International Rescue Committee, the National Gallery of Art; the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation; and the National September 11th Memorial & Museum at the World Trade Center. In addition, he served the boards of Rockefeller University, Lincoln Center Theater, Outward Bound, and the EastWest Institute. This spring, Hungarian President László Sólyom presented Whitehead the Order of the Merit Middle Cross with Star in recognition of his support for the 1956 Hungarian Revolution.

Conference organizer, Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, senior associate dean of the Yale School of Management, commented: "John Whitehead is a living reminder of Baruch Spinoza’s assertion that ‘Citizenship is earned and not born.’ He has not only demonstrated his generous, wise leadership across all sectors but has consistently done so with quiet selfless commitment, absent any traces of greed or grandiosity. He is an inspiring reminder of American global business leadership at its finest."
 
The Yale CEO Summit will be held Wednesday, June 9 at the New York Stock Exchange. While the discussions of the CEO Summit are off-the-record, the press is invited to attend the "Lifetime of Leadership Award" presentation to Mr. Whitehead at 12:30 p.m. The award presentation will take place in the Members Dining Room of the New York Stock Exchange at Broad and Wall Streets in NYC. Space is limited.

The conference theme is "The Truths and Myths of the Evolving Post-American World: Getting Our Own House in Order." Distinguished global corporate leaders from across industries will engage in lively, candid discussions at this invitation-only leaders’ conference hosted by the Yale School of Management.

Among the expected conference participants include: Ford Motor Company CEO Alan Mulally; Bharti Airtel CEO Rajan Mittal; Alcoa CEO Klaus Kleinfeld; Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes; Deloitte CEO Jim Quigley; NCR CEO Bill Nuti; J. Crew CEO Mickey Drexler; Snap-on Inc. CEO Norman Pinchuk; RR Donnelly CEO Tom Quinlan; New York Times CEO Arthur Sulzberger; Global Crossing CEO John Legere; Lennar CEO Stuart Miller; Nobel Peace Prize winner RK Pachauri; Austan Goolsebee of the President’s Council of Economic Advisors; U.S. Treasury pay czar Ken Feinberg; Tony Alvarez of Alvarez & Marsal; Yale economist Robert Shiller; Erin Burnett of CNBC; Alan Murray of the Wall Street Journal; Geoff Colvin of Fortune; Pattie Sellers of Fortune; and Andrew Ross Sorkin of the New York Times – among other such opinion leaders across sectors.

Conference sponsors include: Alvarez & Marsal; CNBC; Deloitte LLP; IBM; NYSE Euronext; North Highland; Russell Reynolds Associates; and UPS.

The Yale Chief Executive Leadership Institute was founded in 1989 to provide original research on top leadership and lively, current educational forums through peer-driven learning for accomplished leaders across a range of sectors. Visit the Yale CELI website for more information.

For an interview with Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, or to register for the “Lifetime of Leadership Award” presentation ceremony, please contact Tabitha Wilde, 203-432-6010; tabitha.wilde@yale.edu, or Bonnie Blake: 203-915-4783; bonnie.blake@yale.edu.