Yale Chief Executive Leadership Institute Presents Doug McMillon of Walmart with the Legend in Leadership Award

December 15, 2020—Doug McMillon, president and chief executive officer of Walmart Inc., will accept the Legend in Leadership Award of the Yale School of Management’s Chief Executive Leadership Institute today during the Yale CEO Summit, held virtually over Zoom. 

The award will be presented to Mr. McMillon by Marillyn Hewson, executive chair, Lockheed Martin Corporation; Kenneth Frazier; chairman, president, and CEO, Merck & Co.; and Indra Nooyi, chair and CEO (2006-2018), PepsiCo. Summit organizer Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, senior associate dean for leadership studies at the Yale School of Management, commented:

“A 30-year Walmart veteran who started out as an hourly truck loader, Doug McMillon was named president and CEO in 2014. Previously he was president and CEO of Walmart International and president and CEO of Sam’s Club. Doug is in rarified air as a hugely inspiring global business titan who is on the frontiers of technology and is revolutionizing retail—all the while improving the quality of work life of Walmart associates, delivering high-quality customer service and producing very strong shareholder returns. Equally impressive is that throughout his career and especially as CEO of Walmart, not to mention chairman of the Business Roundtable, Doug has championed responsible business conduct through finding alignment between the interests of all the constituents to which he believes business is accountable. With absolutely no fanfare or personal showmanship, Doug has quietly but triumphantly advanced win-win-win solutions for business, our nation, and societies around the world.

“Doug has been a longtime champion of Walmart’s values and culture by supporting the company’s more than 2.2 million associates worldwide as they work to make life easier for busy families and built trust with customers. Under his leadership, Walmart has invested heavily in associate wages, benefits, and education—including a debt-free, dollar-a-day college program and an expanded parental leave policy. As part of its efforts to become a regenerative company, Walmart has launched a number of environmental initiatives, including  Project Gigaton, which seeks to help combat climate change by working with suppliers to avoid one billion metric tons of emissions worldwide. More recently, the company has undertaken ambitious work to help bring about change to the systems in our society that cause and reinforce racial inequity and injustice.”

Mr. McMillon is the chairman of the Business Roundtable, an association of chief executive officers of America’s leading companies. He serves on the boards of directors of the Consumer Goods Forum, the U.S.-China Business Council, and Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art. He also sits on the American Workforce Policy Advisory Board and the advisory board of the Tsinghua University School of Economics and Management in Beijing, China.

The Legend in Leadership Award was created 25 years ago to honor current and former CEOs who serve as living legends to inspire chief executives across industries, sectors, and nations. Past recipients include Arne Sorenson, CEO, Marriott International; Brian C. Cornell, chairman and CEO, Target Corporation; Randall L. Stephenson, chairman and CEO, AT&T; Colin Powell, retired four-star U.S. Army general, chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff (1989–93), and 65th U.S. Secretary of State (2001–05); Virginia M. (Ginni) Rometty, chairman, president, and CEO, IBM Corporation; Janet Yellen, former chairman of the Board of Federal Reserves; Paul Polman, CEO, Unilever PLC; Mary T. Barra, chairman and chief executive of General Motors Company; Brian Moynihan, chairman and CEO, Bank of America; David M. Rubenstein, co-founder and co-executive chairman, The Carlyle Group; Leonard S. Schleifer, president and CEO, and George D. Yancopoulos, president and chief scientific officer, Regeneron Pharmaceuticals; Brian Roberts, CEO of Comcast; Marillyn Hewson CEO of Lockheed Martin; Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan Chase; and Ken Frazier, CEO of Merck. A full list of recipients can be found online.

The summit theme is Finding Common Ground across a Divided Land: Getting Your Workforce, Shareholders, Customers, and Communities Back to Business. This lively, candid discussion with distinguished global corporate leaders from across industries will be the third CEO Summit held remotely over Zoom. 

 Summit participants include David P. Abney, executive chairman, UPS; Darius Adamczyk, chairman and CEO, Honeywell International; Richard C. Adkerson; vice chairman, president, and CEO, Freeport-McMoRan; Arne M. Sorenson, president and CEO, Marriott International; Stanley McChrystal; founder, McChrystal Group and former commander , Joint Special Operations Command; Doug Parker, chairman and CEO, American Airlines Group; Kevin Sneader, global managing partner, McKinsey & Company; Nicholas T. Pinchuk, chairman and CEO, Snap-on Incorporated; Ashton B. Carter, 25th U.S. Secretary of Defense and author; John D. Negroponte, deputy secretary (2007-2009), U.S. Department of State; James R. Clapper, director (2010-2017), U.S. National Intelligence; Josette Sheeran, president and CEO, Asia Society Global; Robert D. Hormats, under secretary (2009-2013), U.S. Department of State; J. Stapleton Roy, 5th U.S. Ambassador to China; Richard Blumenthal, U.S. senator for Connecticut; Bob Woodward, associate editor, the Washington Post, author, Rage; David J. Shulkin, 9th U.S. Secretary of Veterans Affairs; Gavin Newsom, governor, State of California; Dick Gebhardt, House Majority/Minority Leader (1989-2003); Richard V. Spencer, 76th U.S. Secretary of the Navy; Maria Pope, president and CEO, Portland General Electric; Anthony Scaramucci, managing partner, SkyBridge Capital; Kenneth C. Frazier, chairman, president, and CEO, Merck & Co.; Rodney McMullen, chairman and CEO, The Kroger Co.; Bruce D. Broussard, president and CEO, Humana; Michel A. Khalaf, president and CEO, MetLife; Jamie Iannone, chief executive officer, eBay; Joseph Lhota, senior vice president and vice dean, NYU Langone Medical Center and former chair and CEO, MTA; Nancy J. Brown, dean, Yale School of Medicine; Sten Vermund, dean, Yale School of Public Health; Doug McMillon, president and CEO, Walmart; Lynn J. Good, chair, president, and CEO, Duke Energy Corporation; John Visentin, vice chairman and CEO, Xerox Holdings Corporation; Maggie Wilderotter, chairman and CEO, Grand Reserve Inn; Richard J. Kramer, chairman, president, and CEO, The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company; Jeffrey L. Bewkes, former chairman and CEO, Time Warner Inc.; Farooq Kathwari, chairman, president, and CEO; Ethan Allen. A full list of participants can be found online.

Conference partners include AccuWeather, CNBC, Deloitte, Gladstone Place Partners, IBM, IEX, Korn Ferry, and UPS. 

The 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. For more information, visit http://celi.som.yale.edu/.

 For an interview with Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, please contact Nathan Williams, 203-432-7817 or nathan.williams@yale.edu, or Joe DeLillo, 202-742-4452 or joseph.delillo@yale.edu.