Girl Scouts of Connecticut Honor Prof. Jeffrey Sonnenfeld
The theme of the event was “Man Enough to be a Girl Scout,” honoring “male business leaders, volunteers, and community leaders who have been a champion for female voices and ambition.”
Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, senior associate dean for leadership studies and Lester Crown Professor in the Practice of Management, was honored on June 2 at the Girl Scouts of Connecticut’s annual Legacy of Leadership event.
The theme of the annual event was “Man Enough to be a Girl Scout,” honoring “male business leaders, volunteers, and community leaders who have been a champion for female voices and ambition.”
Sonnenfeld is founder and president of the Chief Executive Leadership Institute, which convenes off-the-record conversations among business leaders, policymakers, and academics. He is a frequent commentator for Fortune and CNBC and the author of eight books on leadership. In 2018, he was awarded the Ellis Island Award from the U.S. Ellis Island Foundation.
In a pre-recorded video, a number of women leaders paid tribute to Sonnenfeld, including Nicole Sandford, board chair of the Girl Scouts of Connecticut; Marty Evans, a retired rear admiral in the U.S. Navy; Kay Koplowitz, co-founder and CEO of Springboard Enterprises; Ginni Rometty, former chair and CEO of IBM; Pat Russo, chairman of Hewlett Packard Enterprise; and Lynn Tilton, CEO of Patriarch Partners.
“You’ve not only gone out of your way to highlight the achievements of women leaders, you’ve been their real sponsor,” Rometty said. “You’ve been able and willing to speak up for leaders, and particularly women leaders, when others have remained silent. And third, and perhaps most important, everything you do is in my mind underpinned by the same ethos as the Girl Scouts’ Gold Award, their highest award. You don’t just work to change the world for the good; what you do does change it for the good.”
In his own video message, Sonnenfeld thanked the Girl Scouts of Connectict and said, “The Girl Scouts represent self-awareness, self-reliance, and self-sacrifice in such important ways. I’m happy to receive this award because it gives me an opportunity to applaud all of you and the time and sacrifice that you’re making… This is an organization that represents people of all walks of society coming together for national good.”
The other honorees were Ron Angelo, president and CEO of the Connecticut Center for Advanced Technology; Anthony Barrett, co-founder of Girls for Technology; Charles Mayaka, a mechanical design engineer at Pratt & Whitney; Dr. Mark Maybury, chief technology officer at Stanley Black & Decker; and Greg Toczydlowski, executive vice president and president of business insurance at Travelers.