Leadership Banquet honors alumni, explores the Boeing way

At the 2007 University of Washington Business Leadership Banquet, the Michael G. Foster School of Business paid tribute to William S. Ayer (MBA 1978), Leslie Koo (BA 1977) and Ray Williams (BA 1957), three of its most accomplished alumni. Each received the School’s 2007 Distinguished Leadership Award.

Keynote speaker Jim McNerney, president and CEO of The Boeing Company, kicked off the evening by sharing the six attributes the aerospace giant expects of its leaders: Chart the course for their team or unit. Set high expectations. Inspire people to reach those expectations. Find a way to conquer unexpected obstacles. Live their values with integrity. Deliver results.

"The challenge for the leader is to embody not only one or two of these attributes, but all of them, all of the time," McNerney said.

Lessons learned at an early age from his first leadership mentor. McNerney’s father was founder of the Hospital Administration Program at the University of Michigan, first president of Blue Cross and prime mover in the creation of the federal Medicare and Medicaid programs. McNerney recalled his father advising him, and his students at UM, “It’s a whole lot tougher being a leader than a follower, because the leader aims for the impossible, or what others regard as the impossible.”

Each of the evening’s award recipients has done just that.

Bill Ayer, chairman, president and CEO of Alaska Airlines and Alaska Air Group, safely navigated the 75-year-old institution through the industry’s devastation after the terrorist attacks of 9/11 to emerge stronger than ever. The company, today employing 14,000 serving 58 destinations, is one of only two legacy carriers to have avoided filing Chapter 11 bankruptcy in recent years. "The airline industry is one of the toughest tests of leadership," he said. "The barriers to exit are actually greater than the barriers to entry."

Ayer credited his success over a 25-year career in aviation to luck, great mentors and a good start at the Foster School of Business, claiming to frequently revisit his box of relevant “Really Old Stuff” from his MBA years when a difficult decision is called for. He preached the importance of leaders taking responsibility, doing the right thing even when it’s unpopular, and taking the long-term view. And he criticized the proliferation of articles and books that claim to have found the secret to creating high-performance companies. “They often badly confuse correlation with causation,” Ayer said. “In my thinking, there is no silver bullet, no quick fix, no substitute for hard work. It’s about a solid plan and good execution by smart, engaged people who have adopted the company’s values.”

In little more than four years, Leslie Koo, chairman and president of Taiwan Cement, has transformed a historically successful but aging and inefficient cement manufacturing and sales company into a modern, efficient international player – currently third largest in China. Koo echoed Ayer’s words on the importance of a solid educational background, explaining that he has even developed a list of four courses that he expects his two daughters to complete prior to graduation, regardless of their intended career: accounting, economics, statistics and engineering. Throw in project management as a strongly recommended elective. “Life is a project,” he said.

“The Chinese believe that everyone is born with a purpose,” Koo continued. “I believe that the best way to seek that purpose out is to become a valued contributor to the people around you: to your family, to your company, to society, to your country… It is important to start with the right, can-do attitude. Stay competitive. Anticipate and embrace change. And stay true to your values.”

In 1970, Ray Williams, legendary Silicon Valley entrepreneur and angel investor, co-founded Amdahl Corporation, a pioneering mainframe computing company. It was his entrepreneurial debut after a decade at IBM, and became the first of three of his start-ups, including Advanced Cardiovascular Systems and Ventritex, that would reach sales in excess of a billion dollars.

Williams took the audience on a quick tour of his “50-year love affair with computing,” demonstrating the industry’s unfathomable growth from the IBM 650 he first encountered at the UW in 1957. He compared a punch card from the era that could hold 80 characters of data to today’s thumb drive that can hold 8 billion. He traced processing power from the 500 instructions-per-second output of the 650 to modern computers that can perform upwards of one trillion instructions-per-second. And the evolution continues to race forward. “It’s the future,” he said. “There are awesome obligations for all of us, as leaders, to adapt to these dramatic increases in computing power. Because they are coming.”

The evening closed with the honoring of an academic leader who spans many generations, in a surprise announcement by Neal Dempsey (BA 1964), managing general partner of Bay Partners and a former recipient of the School’s Distinguished Leadership Award. Dempsey announced the creation of a new scholarship in the name of Borje "Bud" Saxberg, marking the 50th year on faculty of the Foster School of Business by the eminent and beloved professor of management and organization. Dempsey’s lead gift of $100,000 – to be matched at 50 percent by the UW through its Students First initiative – will endow the fund that will support undergraduate students in the field of entrepreneurship and innovation.

Proceeds from the 2007 UW Business Leadership Banquet support diversity scholarships at the Foster School of Business. The event’s Premier Sponsors included Alaska Airlines, American Piledriving Equipment, Inc., The Boeing Company, Neal and Jan Dempsey, GM Nameplate, iPass Inc., Premera Blue Cross, Saltchuk Resources, Inc., and Wells Fargo Bank.