STANFORD GRADUATE SCHOOL OF BUSINESS-Stanford University's Graduate School of Business honored Pfizer Chairman and CEO Henry A. McKinnell, Jr. with the School's Excellence in Leadership Award at a gala dinner of nearly 200 guests in New York City May 20. McKinnell holds three degrees from the School.

The award, presented at a dinner at the Union League Club, is the first of its kind from the Business School. It marks the School's commitment to underscoring the importance of leadership in business by highlighting the achievements of a senior executive who has made contributions to the corporate world and the community. "When we see in one of our alumni a person of integrity, an effective manager at the highest levels, and a business leader who understands that business is a social institution which must keep the public trust, we-as a school of management-want to recognize those achievements by one of our graduates," said Robert L. Joss, Dean of the Stanford Graduate School of Business.

"Hank McKinnell has demonstrated in every way that he is a leader-as the head of the largest pharmaceutical company in the world, as the overseer of the firm's tremendous research efforts aimed at improving the human condition, and as a corporate citizen," said Joss.

In April, McKinnell concluded a significant merger between Pfizer and drug maker Pharmacia, making Pfizer the largest research-based pharmaceutical company in the world by an even greater margin, with nearly 130,000 employees and $48 billion in revenues. Pfizer had acquired Warner-Lambert in 2000 and the Pharmacia merger completed the company's mission of the 1990s to emerge as the industry leader in the new millennium.

Pfizer, which has developed everything from Listerine to Viagra and Lipitor, has 14 medicines that are the most prescribed in their categories. The company's sales forces are regularly cited by physicians as being the most informed and Pfizer leads U.S. corporations in its support for training and development, according to a recent survey. Overall, the company will invest more than $7 billion per year in research and development. "Our depth, scope and diversity give us great flexibility to provide more people more access to ever-more important medicines," McKinnell wrote in a message following the merger.

McKinnell, who has been a strong supporter of management education, believes every employee is a leader. "We as leaders must create environments where employees can speak openly and candidly," he said, "where people believe their ideas will get a fair hearing and prompt action, and where leaders at all levels are helped-and held responsible-in the task of building the next generation of leadership. We need to fully tap the collective knowledge, wisdom, talent, and experience of all our colleagues.. That's the kind of company that will be most appropriately equipped to capitalize on the marvelous revolution in biomedical science we see unfolding before us."

At Pfizer, McKinnell has supported ideas he believes will help spur both goodwill and health policy reform. For example, the company introduced the Pfizer Share Card 18 months ago. It allows eligible low-income elderly Americans to sign up for the card with which they can buy a 30-day supply of any Pfizer pharmaceutical for $15. In a similar vein, McKinnell has championed efforts to make Pfizer's antifungal drug Diflucan for AIDS patients free in seven nations of sub-Saharan Africa, and has helped build a distribution system and trained 6,000 healthcare workers to use the drug.

Indeed, in terms of corporate citizenship, McKinnell has made Pfizer into the world's most charitable company, contributing more than $2 million in money and medicine every working day to help patients in need. McKinnell was recently appointed by President Bush as a member of the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS (PACHA). He is also a fellow of the New York Academy of Medicine.

McKinnell sits on a wide variety of corporate and community boards including Moody's Corporation, ExxonMobil Corporation, John Wiley & Sons Inc., and the Business Round Table. McKinnell, who completed the Stanford Sloan Program in Management and earned an MBA and a Ph.D. from the Stanford Graduate School of Business, is chairman of the School's Advisory Council.

During his 32-year tenure at Pfizer, McKinnell has held posts covering nearly every aspect of the company. He joined the company in 1971 in Tokyo. His positions of increasing responsibility for Pfizer took him into the company's operations around the world, including a stint as president of Pfizer Asia in Hong Kong. He also served as Pfizer's president and chief operating officer, executive vice president, chief financial officer, and president of Pfizer's Global Pharmaceuticals group.

The dinner, held at the Union League Club, was supported by Dean's Circle Sponsors: Citigroup and Sir Deryck and Lady Maughan, General Atlantic Partners, and Pfizer Inc. Corporate Sponsors included Banc of America Securities, Beginning with Children Foundation, The Boston Consulting Group, CB Richard Ellis, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co., Lehman Brothers, Merkley Newman Harty, and Morgan Stanley.