Three outstanding business executives and two boards of directors were recently honored for excellence in leadership at the New Jersey Chapter of the National Association of Corporate Directors’ 3rd Annual Director of the Year Awards.
The event, which was held May 9 in West Orange, celebrated directors of public, private, and nonprofit boards who have made valuable contributions to the boards on which they serve while also demonstrating exemplary board leadership.
“Each year corporate governance leadership becomes more challenging and also more rewarding,” said Trish Oelrich, NACD New Jersey 2022 DOYA chair. “Our annual awards ceremony recognizes the leadership of outstanding individuals and boards in our business, civic, and philanthropic communities. The honorees have provided guidance to their boards, a steady hand on the tiller, and they have worked tirelessly to protect and enhance stakeholder value.”
The 2022 honorees in each category are:
- Lifetime Achievement in Governance: Edward Ludwig. The retired chairman and CEO of Beckton Dickinson (BD), Ludwig is credited with taking the company global in scope. He has a deep interest in identifying and expanding the connections between societal and economic progress. Ludwig is chairman of GRIP Molecular and POCARED Diagnostics, LTD; audit committee chair of CVS Health; lead independent director of Boston Scientific; and founding board member of the Center for Higher Ambition Leadership. He is also a former chair of AdvaMed; former lead director of Aetna Insurance Company; and former chair of the finance, innovation, and technology committee of Xylem, Inc.
- Leadership in Public Corporate Governance: Christopher Coughlin. A high impact leader as the former CFO of Pharmacia and Tyco, Coughlin has a significant history of participation in public company boards. He is currently lead director of Karuna Therapeutics; member of Prestige Consumer Healthcare, Inc., and Centene; former COO of Interpublic Group; former chairman of Dun & Bradstreet; former lead director of Allergan plc; and former member of Alexion Pharmaceuticals, Hologic, Inc., Covidien plc, Dipexium Pharmaceuticals, Forest Laboratories, Monsanto Company, Perrigo Company, Amersham and Aldevron.
- Leadership in Nonprofit Governance: Risa Lavizzo-Mourey, MD, MBA. Lavizzo-Mourey is president emerita and former CEO of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF), a position she held for nearly 15 years (2003–2017). She is currently vice chair of the board of regents of the Smithsonian Institute; member of Better Therapeutics, General Electric Company, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Intel Corporation, Merck & Co., TIAA; former member of Hess Corporation, Beckman Coulter, Genworth Financial Risk Management, Ascension Health Inc., board of regents American College of Physicians; and a former trustee of Bipartisan Policy Center, a Washington D.C. think tank.
- Public Company Board of the Year: Automatic Data Processing, Inc. (ADP). ADP, is an NJBIA member company based in Roseland that serves over 810,000 worldwide clients in 140 countries, ranging from small, startup businesses with a handful of employees to large, multinational enterprises with thousands of employees spanning the globe. From its inception as a local New Jersey business in 1949, ADP has grown to become one of the world’s largest business-to-business outsourcers with 58,000 associates worldwide. The ADP board members are John P. Jones, chairman, Carlos A. Rodriguez, CEO, Peter Bisson, Richard T. Clark, Linnie M. Haynesworth, Francine S. Katsoudas, Nazzic S. Keene, Thomas J. Lynch, Scott F. Powers, William J. Ready, and Sandra S. Wijnberg.
- Private Company Board of the Year: Solix, Inc. A private company with approximately 200 shareholders and $59 million in revenues, Solix, Inc. administers state and federally funded programs requiring complex regulatory program expertise and the protection of confidential information. Each year, Solix administers programs and issues eligibility decisions that result in the award of more than $7 billion in public benefit funding. The Solix board members are Gualberto (Gil) Medina, chairman, Jack Miller, CEO, Thomas Bracken, Kevin A. Doyle, Robert A. Gaida, Carol J. Grant, John C. Parry.
For more details about the Director of the Year Awards, visit the NACD New Jersey Chapter website.
