Harvard Business School Alumni

Alumni Luminaries Discuss Careers, Values with HBS Students

Leaders, achievers, and ethical standard bearers: Cox, Rossotti, McCance, Lambert, Elfers, Gregory, Waite, and Vasella. Photo by Tom Fitzsimmons

The headlines scream of scandal and crisis in corporate governance. It’s no wonder, then, that HBS students are concerned about responding properly to ethical and leadership issues during their business careers. In an October forum in Burden Auditorium, that concern was evident in the questions put to a panel composed of this year's winners of the School’s highest honor, the Alumni Achievement Award. These distinguished graduates were selected for their contributions to their companies and communities as well as their high standards and values. The event gave students an opportunity to learn from the experiences of this remarkable group. (Award recipient James E. Burke [MBA ’49] was unable to attend.)

During the one-hour session, audience members asked panelists for their views on a range of subjects. Topics included learning from personal failure, dealing with conflicts of interest, and setting an ethical tone within an organization.

2003 Alumni Achievement Awards

James E. Burke (MBA ’49), chairman and CEO emeritus of Johnson & Johnson, where he spent almost forty years helping establish the firm as the nation’s dominant health-care brand. His leadership during the Tylenol crises of the 1980s set the standard for corporate responsibility. Burke has been hailed as one of the ten greatest CEOs of all time by Fortune magazine.

Lillian Lincoln Lambert (MBA ’69), founder, former president and CEO of building-services provider Centennial One, Inc., an enterprise she began in her garage and grew into a $20 million operation with twelve hundred employees. She is the first African-American woman to earn an MBA at HBS.

Charles O. Rossotti (MBA ’64), cofounder, former chairman and CEO, American Management Systems, Inc. Former commissioner, Internal Revenue Service. Senior advisor, The Carlyle Group. He upgraded technology and information systems and stressed customer service in a dramatic turnaround of the IRS.

Daniel L. Vasella, M.D. (PMD 57, 1989), chairman and CEO of Novartis AG, the world’s sixth-largest pharmaceutical firm. Along with leading-edge R&D, Novartis considers community outreach an essential part of its mission. It offers some drugs at a discount or free to needy patients; a new malaria therapy will be available at cost.

Greylock, one of the country’s most respected venture capital firms, emphasizes building businesses, assisting entrepreneurs, and helping companies bring new products and jobs to the U.S. economy. Its principals include Howard E. Cox, Jr. (MBA ’69), general partner; William Elfers (MBA 3/’43), founding partner; Daniel S. Gregory (MBA ’57), founding partner; Henry F. McCance (MBA ’66), general partner; and Charles P. Waite (MBA ’59), founding partner.

For in-depth profiles of this year’s Alumni Achievement Award recipients,visit www.alumni.hbs.edu/alumni_achievement/
alumni_achievement.html.