Yale Chief Executive Leadership Institute Presents Amy Gutmann, 8th President of the University of Pennsylvania, with the Yale Legend in Leadership Award

Amy Gutmann, eighth president of the University of Pennsylvania, will accept the Legend in Leadership Award on January 28 at the Yale Higher Education Leadership Summit at the Yale School of Management in New Haven, Connecticut. The award will be presented by Maurie McInnis, Yale’s 24th president; Peter Salovey, Yale’s 23rd president; Joanne Berger-Sweeney, Trinity College’s 22nd president, Trinity College; and Linda Mills, New York University’s 17th president.

Summit organizer Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, the Lester Crown Professor in Management Practice at Yale SOM, commented: “We are thrilled to honor President Amy Gutmann, the legendary longtime president of the University of Pennsylvania, who is freshly back from a tour of public service as our nation’s ambassador to Germany under President Biden.” 

“President Gutmann is one of the most revered leaders in higher education today. A trailblazer who was the first in her family to graduate college, Gutmann made accessibility and affordability key priorities during her tenure at UPenn, more than doubling the number of students from low-income and first-generation college families, while launching bold, successful initiatives. Those projects include the Penn Compact, Penn First Plus, Penn Connects, and the Pennovation Center, among many other widely-celebrated achievements on campus and around the community. Many years ago, I worked in economic development with the Greater Philadelphia Partnership, and I can appreciate some of the distinctive contributions President Gutmann has made to the wider city community as well as the university.

“President Gutmann’s accomplishments and reputation as a leader and scholar transcends the halls of academia. The impact of her scholarship on democracy and democratic pluralism extends into her public service during the administrations of President Barack Obama, who nominated her to serve on a presidential commission, and President Joe Biden, who nominated her to serve as U.S. Ambassador to Germany. During her tenure, President Gutmann fortified the longstanding U.S. friendship with Germany and served as an ethical and moral beacon of leadership on issues ranging from support for Ukraine’s defense against Putin to resistance against rising extremism.”

Serving from 2004 to 2022, Gutmann was the University of Pennsylvania’s longest-serving leader. Named by Fortune as one of the “World’s 50 Greatest Leaders” in 2018, Gutmann is renowned for championing access to education and health care, innovative discoveries that save lives and propel economies forward, global engagement, and public-private partnerships.

During her tenure, Gutmann raised over $10 billion the university, quintupling the endowment from $4 to $20 billion. These resources underwrote massive expansions of student financial aid, innovative collaborative research, and patient-centered clinical care—in addition to the single largest private contribution to the city’s public schools.

In 2009, President Barack Obama appointed Gutmann to chair the Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues for seven years; during that time, the commission published ten reports on major issues, including preventing and responding to public health crises. Gutmann also is an award-winning author and editor of 17 books, including Democratic Education and The Spirit of Compromise (Princeton University Press, 2012), and Everybody Wants to Go to Heaven but Nobody Wants to Die: Bioethics and the Transformation of Health Care in America (Liveright, 2019) with an afterword on pandemic ethics in the paperback edition.

Aside from her public service, Gutmann has served on the boards of Vanguard (2006-2022) and the Berggruen Institute (2014-2021). She has also served as chair of the Association of American Universities (2014-2015); executive committee member of the National Constitution Center and chair of its Liberty Medal Committee (2007-2019); and member of the Knight Commission on Trust, Media, and Democracy (2017-2019).

The Legend in Leadership Award was created 25 years ago to honor current and former CEOs and university presidents who serve as living legends to inspire leaders across industries, sectors, and nations. Past recipients include: Hanna Gray, tenth president, University of Chicago; Andrew Hamilton, president, New York University; Lawrence S. Bacow, 29th president, Harvard University; Freeman A. Hrabowski III, president, University of Maryland, Baltimore County; Donna E. Shalala, former president, University of Miami, and 18th secretary of health and human services; Johnnetta B. Cole, president emerita of the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art, and seventh president of Spelman College; Ruth Simmons, president of Prairie View A&M University, and 18th president of Brown University; Steven Spielberg, filmmaker and CEO, Amblin Partners; Mary Barra, CEO, General Motors; Indra Nooyi, chair and CEO, PepsiCo; Arne M. Sorenson, CEO, Marriot International; Brian C. Cornell, CEO, Target; Mary T. Barra, chairman and CEO, 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 Frazier, chairman and CEO, Merck. A full list of recipients can be found online.

The summit theme is “The Campus as an Oasis of Trust: Advancing Knowledge, Truth, Opinion & Solvency.” A group of 100 top university presidents and board chairs from globally renowned colleges and universities will engage in lively, candid discussions at this invitation-only leaders’ conference hosted at Yale SOM.

Conference leadership partners are TIAA, Russell Reynolds Associates, and the Chronicle of Higher Education. The conference knowledge partner is McKinsey & Company. 
 

Download the full press release here.