Sir Andrew Witty to Receive 2018 Warren Bennis Award

I am personally excited to announce that Sir Andrew Witty will receive the 2018 Warren Bennis Award for Excellence in Leadership at Linkage’s Global Institute for Leadership Development^® (GILD) this October. Established by the Linkage team in 1999 to honor Professor Warren Bennis’s legacy, this award recognizes leaders who demonstrate courage, endurance, capability and success in their fields and are an inspiration for current and aspiring leaders.

Bennis, known fondly as the “Dean of Leadership Gurus,” cofounded Linkage’s GILD 22 years ago. He was an exemplary leader who practiced, studied, wrote about and taught leadership for decades. Each year, a committee reviews nominations and selects an award winner to address the 500 senior leaders who attend GILD from around the globe. This year’s recipient is most deserving of this recognition.

Sir Andrew Witty is a leader in the pharmaceutical industry credited with the repositioning of GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) as a highly-respected, consumer-friendly brand focused on social impact—and making healthcare more accessible. He was knighted in 2012 for his service to the economy and the UK pharmaceutical industry.

He spent over three decades at GSK, where he most recently served as CEO from 2008 to 2017. He is credited with reshaping the pharmaceutical industry’s reputation by shifting GSK’s strategy to include a focus on affordable medicines and vaccines in the poorest countries. On July 1, he started his new role as CEO of Optum, an organization that leverages technology, data and expertise to improve health care delivery, quality and efficiency. He also continues to be a partner at the US-based Hatteras Venture Partners.

“We are thrilled to recognize Sir Andrew Witty with this prestigious award,” said Sam Lam, CEO of Linkage Asia and Chair of the Warren Bennis Award Committee. “He is a remarkable leader characterized by his broad reaching impact in healthcare globally and by his success uniting populations around a common purpose for the greater good of mankind.”

I hope that you can join us this year at GILD from October 1–4 in Palm Desert, CA to hear words of wisdom from Sir Andrew Witty when he takes the stage to accept this award. Sir Andrew and the other remarkable leaders who we’ve honored over the years—including Ken Blanchard, Bill George, Mikhail Gorbachev, Doris Kearns Goodwin, AG Lafley, Rosabeth Moss Kanter, Tom Peters, and Howard Schultz—among others—personify what it means to live and lead purposefully.