Two Hamilton Alumni Among 'America's Best Leaders'

Two Hamilton alumni are included on a short list of individuals recognized as the nation's foremost leaders. Now in its second year, U.S. News & World Report's "America's Best Leaders" edition (Oct. 30, 2006) recognizes the achievements of A.G. Lafley '69, CEO, Procter & Gamble, and Robert Moses '56, founder of The Algebra Project.

Conducted in collaboration with the Center for Public Leadership at the John F. Kennedy School of Government of Harvard University, honorees were selected by a committee of government, community and private sector leaders. Chosen were men and women who, among other things, inspired a shared vision, challenged established processes and achieved measurable results in their respective fields.

Robert Moses '56

After graduating from Hamilton, Moses became a central figure in the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s, serving as field secretary for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and co-director of the Council of Federated Organizations (COFO), and led the voter registration drives of Freedom Summer in 1964. Later he completed his doctorate in philosophy at Harvard University and taught high school math in Cambridge, Mass. In 1982, Moses founded The Algebra Project, which promotes math literacy in inner-city and rural schools in order to give students the skills to succeed in the economic mainstream.

"After spending the 1960s risking his life to organize voter registration drives in Mississippi, former civil rights leader Robert Moses has moved on to a less sexy project: math literacy," reads the introduction to his feature in U.S. News. "But he thinks that today's tech dependency makes this crusade just as important as his last."

A.G. Lafley '69

Lafley, who earned an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School, joined P&G in 1977 as a brand assistant.  He held a number of positions before being named a group vice president in 1992, an executive vice president in 1995 and, in 1999, president of global beauty care and North America. He was elected president and chief executive officer in 2000 and chairman of the board in 2002. Lafley, who serves as a Hamilton trustee, was honored by Chief Executive magazine as its 2006 CEO of the Year.

"A.G. Lafley made his name by simplifying life in the laundry room," noted U.S. News. "Now he has applied the same logic to Procter & Gamble, turning a ship that was sinking in 2000 into a company that has seen its stock price double. His secret: like Liquid Tide, it's simple."

Along with the best leaders list was a U.S. News-sponsored national survey that asked the question "Where Have All the Leaders Gone?" Results showed that two-thirds of the public "believes the nation is in a leadership crisis," while nearly three-quarters worries that "unless we find better leaders soon, the nation will begin to decline."
 

The survey also indicated that nine of every 10 people believe political leaders "today spend too much time attacking rivals," and eight in 10 say corporate leaders "are more concerned with making money than with running their companies well."

"There has never been a more critical time to examine leadership in our country," said David Gergen, U.S. News' editor-at-large and director of the Center for Public Leadership. "At a time when the public's confidence in leadership is low, 'America's Best Leaders' celebrates individuals who exemplify true leadership and serve as models for others."

The 2006 America's Best Leaders honorees include:

Thad W. Allen - Commandant, U.S. Coast Guard (Washington, D.C.)
Nancy M. Barry - Former President and CEO, Women's World Banking (New York)
Donald Berwick - Founder, Institute for Healthcare Improvement (Cambridge, Mass.)
Michael R. Bloomberg - Mayor, City of New York (New York)
Joel I. Klein - Chancellor, New York City Department of Education (New York)
Warren Buffett  - CEO, Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (Omaha, Neb.)
Charles Elachi  - Director, Jet Propulsion Laboratory (Pasadena, Calif.)
Frank O. Gehry  - Architect (Los Angeles)
Alan Khazei - CEO and Co-Founder, CityYear Inc. (Boston)
Michael Brown - President and Co-Founder, CityYear Inc. (Boston)
Wendy Kopp - President and Founder, Teach for America (New York)
A.G. Lafley - CEO, Procter & Gamble (Cincinnati)
Eric Lander - Director, The Eli and Edythe Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT (Cambridge, Mass.)
Patrick W. Lawler - CEO, Youth Villages (Memphis)
Wynton Marsalis - Artistic Director, Jazz at Lincoln Center, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts  (New York)
Robert Moses - Founder and President, The Algebra Project Inc. (Cambridge, Mass.)
Marilyn Carlson Nelson - Chairman & CEO, Carlson Companies Inc. (Minneapolis)
Staff of the Times-Picayune of New Orleans (New Orleans)
Sandra Day O'Connor - Former Associate Justice, U.S. Supreme Court (Washington, D.C.)
Paul Vallas - CEO, School District of Philadelphia (Philadelphia)