The Stephen R. Covey Principle-Centered Leadership Award

Established in 2019, The Stephen R. Covey Principle-Centered Leadership Award is an award presented annually to an individual that exemplifies principle-centered leadership.

Past Award Recipients

2022 - Doug Conant, Former CEO of Campbell Soup Company and Best-selling Author

Douglas R. Conant is a New York Times bestselling author and keynote speaker with over 25 years of leadership experience in world-class global companies. In 2011, he founded ConantLeadership, a growing community of people dedicated to improving the quality of leadership in the 21st century. Deeply committed to leadership, he also serves as Chairman of the Kellogg Executive Leadership Institute (KELI) at Northwestern University as well as Chairman of Avon Products.

From 2001 to 2011, Conant served as CEO and President of the Campbell Soup Company. He was the 11th leader of this iconic company's 141-year history - faced with reversing a precipitous decline in market value. Conant dramatically transformed the global leadership team, reconfigured the portfolio, cut costs, and made integral strategic investments. These visionary changes resulted in cumulative shareholder returns in the top tier of the global food industry. Conant's mission to achieve superior employee engagement levels was a crucial contributor to the company's exemplary performance. Under his leadership, employee engagement at Campbell Soup went from being among the worst in the Fortune 500 to being consistently among the best. The company was also celebrated as a leader in social responsibility and ethical leadership during his tenure. A lifelong advocate for ethical practices and corporate responsibility, Conant remains actively involved with many non-profits and advocacy programs.

Conant earned his BA degree from Northwestern University and his MBA from the J.L. Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern. Before serving as CEO of Campbell Soup, Conant worked for three of the world's best food companies. He began in marketing at General Mills, held leadership positions in marketing and strategy at Kraft, and served as President of the Nabisco Foods Company where he led his team to five consecutive years of double-digit earnings growth.

Conant speaks widely to people and organizations on effective and enduring leadership practices for the modern age. He is the co-author with Mette Norgaard of the New York Times bestseller "Touchpoints: Creating Powerful Leadership Connections in the Smallest of Moments." He is a featured blogger on leadership issues at Harvard Business Review online and also writes extensively about leadership on the ConantLeadership Slog and Linkedln.

Watch Doug Conant's presentation on YouTube.

2021 - Indra Nooyi, Former Chairman and CEO of PepsiCo

Indra Nooyi, an Indian-born American businesswoman, was instrumental in the lucrative restructuring and diversification of soft-drink manufacturer PepsiCo, Inc.’s brands. Nooyi served as the company’s CEO (2006–18) and chairman of the board (2007–2019).

Nooyi earned a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from Madras Christian College in 1976 and a master’s degree in business administration from the Indian Institute of Management in Calcutta two years later. After moving to the United States, she received an additional master’s degree in public and private management from the Yale School of Management in 1980. For the next six years, Nooyi worked as a consultant for the Boston Consulting Group. She later held executive positions at Motorola, Inc., and the engineering firm Asea Brown Boveri (now ABB).

In 1994 Nooyi joined PepsiCo as senior vice president of corporate strategy and development. In 2001 she was named president and chief financial officer of the company. Nooyi was responsible for guiding a major restructuring, which included the company’s spin-off of its restaurants—which included KFC, Pizza Hut, and Taco Bell—into TRICON Global Restaurants (which later became YUM! Brands, Inc.), as well as the spin-off of PepsiCo’s bottling operations. In addition, she oversaw the acquisition (1998) of Tropicana Products and a merger in 2001 with the Quaker Oats Co. as part of the company’s strategy of diversifying into more healthful drinks and foods.

Nooyi assumed the title of CEO in October 2006 and the next year became chairman of the board as well. The fifth chairman and CEO in PepsiCo’s 42-year history, Nooyi was the first woman to lead the soft-drink and snack-food giant and one of only 11 female chief executives of Fortune 500 companies. Although analysts expressed surprise at the timing of Nooyi’s appointment as chairman (her predecessor, Steven Reinemund, had served just five years before abruptly deciding to retire), many praised the skills that she would bring to the job. Nooyi continued the strategy of making PepsiCo a well-balanced consumer-products company that was less reliant on sales of its flagship soft drinks. She also aggressively pursued international expansion. Under her leadership, PepsiCo’s revenues increased from $35 billion in 2006 to $63.5 billion in 2017. The following year it was announced that Nooyi would be stepping down as CEO in October and as chairman of the board in early 2019.

Biography sourced from britannica.com

Watch Indra Nooyi's presentation on YouTube.

2019 - Lord Dr. Michael Hastings, Baron Hastings of Scarisbrick CBE

Lord Dr (Michael) Hastings of Scarisbrick CBE is a member of the House of Lords and the former Global Head of Citizenship for KPMG International.

Michael began his career as a teacher moving into government service in 1986 supporting policy initiatives to bring employment and development to Britain’s inner cities. In 1990 he started working for TVAM on education programming and then GMTV as its Chief Political Correspondent. In 1994 Michael moved to the BBC as a presenter on the weekly Around Westminster programme before joining its Corporate Affairs division. In 1996 he became the BBC’s head of Public Affairs and then its first head of Corporate Social Responsibility in 2003 before becoming KPMG International's Global Head of Citizenship in 2006. Michael is also a Trustee of the Vodafone Group Foundation and a Vice President of UNICEF and Tearfund. He is also a Patron of Free the Children and a Director of Junior Achievement Worldwide.

In 2003, Michael was awarded a CBE (Commander of the British Empire) for services to crime reduction which includes 15 years as Chair of Crime Concern and nine years serving on the Commission for Racial Equality (1993-2001). In 2005, Michael was awarded an independent peerage to the House of Lords. In the same year, he received the UNICEF Award from the then UK Chancellor for his outstanding contribution to understanding and effecting solutions for Africa’s children.

In 2014, Michael was conferred with a Doctorate in Civil Law from the University of Kent, Canterbury in recognition for his leadership at KPMG, the BBC and for his work in international development and corporate responsibility. In 2017 Michael was installed as the second Chancellor of Regent's University London.

Watch Lord Dr. Michael Hastings presentation on YouTube.