FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

New York, January 27, 2021 — The Vanguard Network, which supports C-suite executives in developing their leadership skills, today announced its members’ picks for the 2020 Courageous Leader of the Year Award.

Vanguard surveyed its network of 10,000+ C-suite leaders for nominations of courageous leadership. Appropriate to the unique circumstances in 2020, most of the nominations were related to the challenge of COVID. While Dr. Anthony Fauci received 45% of the votes, results ranged from CEOs of pharmaceutical companies to frontline healthcare workers, and the elected leader of a country (not the United States).

Runners up to Dr. Fauci for the 2020 Courageous Leader award included:

• Albert Bourla, DVM, Chairman and CEO of Pfizer
• Jacinda Ardern, Prime Minister of New Zealand
• Sandra Lindsay, critical care nurse and first to be vaccinated in the US
• Moncef Slaoui, Operation Warp Speed Chief Scientific Advisor
• Drs. Ugu Sahin and Ozlem Tureci, of BioNTech
• Pascal Soriot, CEO of AstraZeneca

There was also a special shout out to the small business owners who have weathered the pandemic.

“We believe that it’s important to recognize courage, which is always needed in leadership, but especially so in 2020,” said Ken Banta, Founder and Principal of Vanguard.

The Vanguard Network helps senior leaders transform themselves and their organizations  The founder and principal of Vanguard, Ken Banta is a top management advisor who works with CEOs and senior executives on leadership, organizational transformation and corporate positioning. Ken has helped to lead eleven successful global transformations and turnarounds, and has advised on many more. Ken writes regularly for HBR and is a Contributing Author of “HBR’s 10 Must Reads for CEOs.”

Vanguard’s roster of more than 100 faculty and session leaders includes David Pyott (Royal Dutch Philips), Ashley McEvoy (J&J), Cameron Durrant, Humanigen, and Tom Sabatino, past General Counsel of Aetna, United Airlines, Walgreens and Schering-Plough.

Humanigen, Inc. (HGEN) (Humanigen), is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on preventing and treating an immune hyper-response called cytokine storms.

For more information about the Vanguard Group for Leadership or The Courageous Leadership Series, visit https://www.thevanguardgroupforleadership.com.

Media Contact 

Irene Silber
Associate Principal
The Vanguard Group for Leadership
[email protected]
(612) 516-6068