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Yash Roy, Contributing Photographer
When business school professor Jeffrey Sonnenfeld first proposed a place for corporate leaders to gather in 1988, John MacArthur, then dean of the Harvard Business School, asked the chief executive officer (CEO) to join the group. He said it was impossible to persuade people to listen to each other instead of asking for each other’s opinions. Put yourself in the spotlight.
Today, Sonnenfeld’s impossible idea is revealed in the CEO Leadership Initiative of SOM, the world’s first school for incumbent CEOs. CELI is a space for business CEOs, civil society and political leaders to come together and learn from each other. CELI He was born at Harvard Business School in 1988 and moved to Emory University in 1989 before finally settling at SOM in 2000.
One of CELI’s key areas of focus is working with business leaders, data, and historical analysis to conduct research that shows that “doing good is not the opposite of doing good.” to do so, says Stephen Tian, director of research at CELI.
“Today, CELI’s mission is focused on showing business leaders that they can benefit and make a difference in the world,” said Sonnenfeld. “CELI is a pioneer in research on the social impact of business and our program aligns closely with his SOM’s founding mission on business and society.”
CELI also presents the “Legend in Leadership” award to those who embody CELI’s vision of business and government leaders, running their companies effectively while doing good for others. In recent years, US Congressman Liz Cheney and American Airlines Group CEO Doug Parker have received this honor.
AMC CEO Adam Aron told News: from fellows. ”
CELI has been at Yale University for 22 years, but his origins are not in SOM.
Journey from Harvard Business to Emory, Yale and CELI’s SOM
Shortly after the success of his book Farewell to Heroes, First systematic study of top leadership succession, Sonnenfeld I pitched MacArthur the idea of a leadership institute for executives.
Based on the disciplines of political science, folklore, mythology, history, economics, developmental psychology, and corporate governance, The book examined the transfer of power among CEOs and how a leader’s personality and behavior influence corporate culture. And, according to Sonnenfeld, it got a big reaction.
“I started getting letters from CEOs who were interested in learning more and being more informed about how to lead better,” he said.
Sonnenfeld said most academics and members of the business world did not think CEOs would be interested in learning because CEOs had already reached the pinnacle of corporate leadership and were expected to become teachers instead. I explained that I didn’t.
MacArthur wasn’t convinced by the idea at the time, but Sonnenfeld opened up his home to host the first CEO caucus. However, the caucuses did not go as planned. The first session resembled what MacArthur had initially feared. So not a group of students seeking insight, but a group of CEOs trying to establish dominance. When the session fell apart, he realized that CEOs needed a critical mass to engage with each other to control and truly listen to each other.
After the meeting, Sonnenfeld was concerned that Harvard hadn’t seen the potential in his idea. Having already received offers from the University of Pennsylvania, Columbia University, the University of Michigan, the University of Virginia, and Emory University, Sonnenfeld decided to move the Institute to Emory.
At Emory, Sonnenfeld quickly fashioned institute summits and caucuses.
During CELI’s 10-year run at Emory, the institute will grow in scale and impact ahead of the World Economic Forum, which will later be held in Davos, as well as CEO forums such as Forbes, Fortune, Business Week, The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal. expanded power. helped with the design.
In 2000, then-SOM Dean Jeffrey Garten came to Atlanta and recruited Sonnenfeld to bring his lab to Yale. Yale University bought his CELI and made it part of SOM.
Kerwin Coffey Charles, professor of economics, policy and management, attributes part of the program’s success to its founders.
Having set the bar high, Charles said Sonnenfeld “may be the best person to convene leaders from different disciplines operating in the modern academy context.”
This is not an uncommon opinion. Sonnenfeld said,CEO-Whisperer” by Business Insider.
From Liz Cheney to Volodymyr Zelensky, what is CELI’s “Legend-in-Leadership” award?
Throughout the year, CELI hosts events such as CEO Summits, Caucuses, Mayors Summits, and Higher Education Summits in New York, New Haven, and Washington DC, and CEO Summits in Beijing and Delhi in calmer pre-corona days. Did. Mumbai; Shanghai; and Mexico City.
The CEO Summit will be attended by CEOs from Dow Jones Industrial Average, NASDAQ and S&P 500 companies. Previous guests include IBM, McKinsey, Dell, HP, Google, GE, American AirlinesGM, Pfizer, Deloitte, PepsiCo and Honeywell. Hundreds of these CEOs are mixed with Yale academics in college fields and schools..
Divided into multiple sessions, the summit focuses on specific issues, from maintaining faith in American democracy to the benefits to be gained by companies exiting Russia. The larger theme of all summits is to show CEOs that they care about embedding corporate responsibility into their work.
“CELI remains the only truly non-partisan, non-commercial, informal, peer-led learning focused on open and free participation, with no speeches, lectures or pitches,” Sonnenfeld said. told News. “No one is required to speak, but if they do, they stop reading their notes, let alone teleprompter cues and PowerPoint slides. It is built on exchange.”
At summits and caucuses, Sonnenfeld and CELI present the Legends in Leadership Award to business and government leaders. The award honors a leader who exemplifies her CELI mission of working across industries and being socially responsible.
In September, Sonnenfeld presented U.S. Congressman Liz Cheney with the Legends in Leadership Award to commemorate her response to the Jan. 6 riots.
“Liz Cheney represents America’s best public service,” Sonnenfeld said at the CEO Caucus. “She put her country ahead of her party and her own career. You will remember her well.”
Past winners include Anthony Fauci, Ambassador Andrew Young, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, Merck CEO Ken Fraser, Colin Powell, Target CEO Brian Cornell and American Airlines CEO Doug Parker.
In June, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky received an award for his leadership in the war with Russia. After speaking with corporate leaders over the summer, Zelensky zoomed into Yale University to speak with his students on Oct. 28.Zelensky wanted to talk to Yale’s ‘next generation of leaders’ so he spoke to students
Corporate Social Impact: “Show CEOs that they can do good while doing good”
CELI’s work tracking company, which maintains business relationships in Russia, is just one part of a larger body of research, writing, and analysis on corporate responsibility in which undergraduates and SOM students have the opportunity to participate.
“I want to emphasize that anyone can participate in our research on corporate social responsibility,” Tian told News. “Future Business He wants people from all walks of life, from leaders to grassroots advocates, journalists to math students, to come and see the importance of social responsibility.”
Past projects have ranged from examining how markets responded to Russian aggression and how companies exiting Russia actually saw stock prices rise, to analyzing the growth of Connecticut’s aviation sector in recent years. reached.
Yash Bhansali ’23 has worked at CELI for the past two years and credits CELI as one of the most important parts of his time at Yale University.
“Being involved in CELI is not only in terms of exposure given to leaders across the corporate and political sphere, but it is also a true form of learning to see them respond to the most pressing social issues on a macro scale. It was a unique privilege in that it is a matter of our times,” Bhansari told News.
Bhansari told News that he wants to help more Yale students attend CELI and is helping to set up a corporate social impact club for undergraduates to join. This club allows students to engage with his CELI and Sonnenfeld to support research, caucuses and summits.
The next CEO Caucus is scheduled for December 13-14 in New York City.
Yash Roy
Yash Roy covers City Hall and State Politics at News. He is also the Production & Design Editor. A native of Princeton, New Jersey, Timothy Dwight is his sophomore at his college, majoring in Economics and American Studies.
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