William W. George

William W. George is an author, professor of Management Practice at Harvard Business School, and former Chairman and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Medtronic.

George received his Master's in Business Administration from Harvard University in 1966, where he was a Baker Scholar (highest honors). He holds his B.S. in industrial engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology, where he graduated in 1964, where he became a member of the Beta Psi Chapter of the Sigma Chi fraternity. More recently, he received an honorary doctorate of business administration from Bryant University.

He joined Medtronic, a medical technology company, in 1989 as President and Chief Operating Officer; he was elected Chief Executive Officer in 1991 and Chairman of the Board in 1996. Under his leadership, Medtronic's market capitalization grew from $1.1 billion to $60 billion. Prior to leading Medtronic, he held several executive positions with Honeywell and Litton Industries, including president of Honeywell's Space & Aviation business. George serves on the boards of Exxon Mobil Corporation (since 2005), Goldman Sachs, and Novartis AG. Formerly, he was a director of the National Association of Corporate Directors. He is a trustee of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and World Economic Forum USA.

George was named one of the "Twenty-five Best Business Leaders of the last 25 Years" by PBS in 2004. He has received the Alumni Achievement Award in 1997 from Harvard Business School and the Legends in Leadership Award from Yale University in 2002. In 2001 he was named "Executive of the Year" by the Academy of Management and "Director of the Year" for 2001-02 by the National Association of Corporate Directors. He is the recent recipient of East Grand Rapids Schools Foundation's Distinguished Alumni Award.