Yale Chief Executive Leadership Institute Honors T-Mobile CEO Mike Sievert with The Yale Legend in Leadership Award
Yale Chief Executive Leadership Institute Honors T-Mobile CEO Mike Sievert with The Yale Legend in Leadership Award
Mike Sievert, President & CEO of T-Mobile, will receive the Yale Legend in Leadership Award at the Yale CEO Caucus in Washington DC on March 6th. The award, conferred by the unanimous vote of representatives of Yale and past award winners, will be presented by Marc Benioff, Founder & CEO of Salesforce; Laxman Narasimhan, CEO of Starbucks; and Peter Orszag, CEO of Lazard.
Summit organizer Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, Senior Associate Dean for Leadership Studies at the Yale School of Management, commented: “As CEO of T-Mobile over the last four years, Mike Sievert has led one of the greatest and most unprecedented business transformation sagas of any current CEO.
“As I chronicled in Fortune Magazine last year, under Mike Sievert, T-Mobile has grown from an upstart third-place competitor by market capitalization into the US’s single largest telecommunications company. T-Mobile has outcompeted legacy telco giants after its merger with Sprint largely through superior customer service, and a focus on quality product, building the nation’s most extensive 5G network.
“T-Mobile has been disrupting the stodgy telecommunications industry ever since Sievert arrived at the company in 2012, working with his predecessor, John Legere. From the outset, they relentlessly prioritized customer experience, introducing unconventional strategies such as eliminating contracts, offering simplified pricing plans, and ending overage charges, and popular initiatives such as T-Mobile Tuesdays, offering freebies and discounts to customers.
“Under Mike Sievert, T-Mobile has been committed to making its 5G network accessible and affordable from coast to coast, on top of proven community impact. Just last year alone, T-Mobile connected over 6 million students for free through Project10Million, provided nearly 100,000 employee volunteer hours, and supported 10,000 nonprofits and community organizations.
“Few CEOs, in any industry, have the soaring track record of Mike Sievert over the last four years. He continues to deliver unparalleled results for his 120 million-plus subscribers and 70,000 employees day in and day out.”
Mike Sievert is President and Chief Executive Officer of T-Mobile and a member of T-Mobile’s Board of Directors. As CEO, Sievert leads the customer-obsessed Un-carrier team in pursuit of a shared mission to be the best in the world at connecting customers to their world. Since closing the historic merger with Sprint in 2020, T-Mobile under Sievert is delivering on an expansive, multiyear growth strategy that is built on its unique formula to simultaneously provide customers with the best network, best value, and best experiences. Under Sievert’s tenure, T-Mobile has experienced unprecedented growth and success by continuing to relentlessly tackle the biggest customer pain points while introducing the “Un-carrier” to new geographies, segments, and product categories. Since beginning his T-Mobile journey in 2012, Sievert has championed the simple but powerful Un-carrier formula: Love customers, put them first, and change the rules of the industry in their favor.
Sievert is a maritime and aviation enthusiast, a seaplane pilot, and loves enjoying the Pacific Northwest with his wife of more than 30 years, Suzanne, and their adult children.
The Legend in Leadership Award was created 35 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: Ajay Banga, President of The World Bank; Arvind Krishna, Chair & CEO of IBM; Steven Spielberg, Filmmaker and Chair of Amblin Partners; Darius Adamczyk, CEO of Honeywell; Volodymyr Zelenskyy, President of Ukraine; Doug Parker, Chairman of American Airlines; Albert Bourla, CEO of Pfizer; Alex Gorsky, CEO of Johnson & Johnson; Lynn Good, CEO, Duke Energy; Lisa Su, CEO, AMD; Anthony Fauci, M.D., Director of the NIAID; Doug McMillon, CEO, Walmart; Arne Sorenson, CEO, Marriott International; Andrew J. Young, Mayor (1982-1990), Atlanta, Georgia, and U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations (1977-1979); Brian C. Cornell, Chair and CEO, Target Corporation; Ivan G. Seidenberg, Chair and CEO, Verizon Communications; Ken Frazier, Chair and CEO, Merck & Co.; 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, United States Secretary of the Treasury; 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, Comcast; Marillyn Hewson, CEO, Lockheed Martin; Jamie Dimon, CEO, JPMorgan Chase; and Ken Chenault, Chair and CEO, American Express.
The Caucus theme is “The Secondary Business Effects of the Primary Election Season – Lessons on Guiding Investor, Workforce, Customer & Community Harmony.”
Read Jeffrey Sonnenfeld’s publication in Fortune chronicling the rise of T-Mobile under Mike Sievert’s leadership by clicking here.