ENGLEWOOD CLIFFS, N.J. – Tuesday, April 1, 2008 – On Monday, March 31st, CNBC held its 4th Annual Executive Leadership Awards, which honors the best in business. The event highlights the executives who out-perform the rest-as chosen by their peers. The executives honored demonstrate the qualities of leadership, which drive business, growth, innovation and social responsibility. The Executive Leadership Awards were held at The New York Public Library in New York City and presented by Axon, BT and RBS.
"As we all witnessed, 2007 began a tumultuous time for the economy, a time when superior leadership is at a premium," said CNBC President Mark Hoffman in his opening remarks. "This event, the executive leadership awards, exists to celebrate that kind of leadership and to honor the men and women who have shown excellence not only in leadership, but in innovation and drive."
Featured guest speakers included Carly Fiorina, former Chairman and CEO of Hewlett Packard, current Chairman and CEO of Carly Fiorina Enterprises, and Chairman of Victory '08 for the Republican National Committee; and Wilbur Ross, Chairman & CEO WL Ross & Co. LLC.
Following is a complete list of award recipients from last night's Gala Awards:
Entrepreneurial Excellence -- Bradbury H. Anderson, Vice Chairman & CEO Best Buy Co., Inc. -- recognizes executive who best exemplified skills and initiatives to successfully create new business ventures.
Green Leadership -- Fujio Cho, Chairman Toyota Motor Corporation --recognizes executive that best exemplified outstanding leadership in driving his company to be Green.
Leader In Innovation -- Steve Jobs, CEO Apple Inc. – rewards inventive thinking in business
Overall Executive Leadership -- John T. Chambers, Chairman & CEO CISCO Systems Inc. -- recognizes executive that best exemplified outstanding leadership in business.
Lifetime Achievement Award -- Robert L. Johnson, Founder & Chairman, The RLJ Companies -- honors the extraordinary leader who has accomplished great success over his tenure and whose pioneering work has substantially influenced the business world.
At the beginning of each year, CNBC invites Fortune 1000 CEOs to submit nominations for the CNBC Executive Leadership Awards. The nominating panel of CEOs and their designees are asked to name two executives from companies other than their own, in all of the award categories, with the exception of the Lifetime Achievement Award.
CNBC tabulates the ballets and prepares dossiers on the most-nominated candidates. An external judging panel reviews the dossiers and chooses a winner in each category.
For more information regarding the 4th annual CNBC Executive Leadership Awards including slideshow, log on to http://ela.cnbc.com/.
About CNBC:
CNBC is the recognized world leader in business news, providing real-time financial market coverage and business information to more than 340 million homes worldwide, including more than 95 million households in the United States and Canada. The network's Business Day programming (weekdays from 5:00 a.m.-7:00 p.m. ET) is produced at CNBC's headquarters in Englewood Cliffs, N.J., and also includes reports from CNBC news bureaus worldwide. Additionally, CNBC viewers can manage their individual investment portfolios and gain additional in-depth information from on-air reports by accessing http://www.cnbc.com.
Members of the media can receive more information about CNBC and its programming on the NBC Universal Media Village Web site at http://nbcumv.com/cnbc/.