Lifetime Achievement in Entrepreneurship and Innovation Award
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2003 Recipient: Dr. Ralph Landau |
Ralph Landau is a quintessential entrepreneur, having brought together the ideas, talent and capital that shaped the 20th century global chemical industry. Landau was instrumental in developing innovation chemical processes and products that were used not only by his own companies, but also by large chemical companies such as Amaco and Arco, to create products still in common use today.
In the early 1980s he began a new career as a scholar and teacher on technology and economic growth where he made significant contributions to management and policy literature. Landau has also funded efforts to bring practical knowledge to education at many prominent educational and research institutions. Wherever he has been, Landau has brought together academia, industry and government to foster a greater community of people sharing ideas.
He has received many prestigious awards throughout his life, including the Society of Chemical Industry's Fritz Medal, the American Association of Engineering Societies' Perkins Medal, and the National Medal of Technology.
The lifetime achievement award was inaugurated in 1998.
Honorees include:
2007 Recipient: L. John Doerr
2006 Recipient: F. Warren Hellman
2005 Recipient: C. Richard Kramlich
2004 Recipient: Sanford R. Robertson
2003 Recipient: Dr. Ralph Landau
2002 Recipient: Dr. Edward Penhoet
2001 Recipient: Mr. William Hambrecht
2000 Recipient: Dr. Gordon Moore
1999 Recipient: Mr. Arthur Rock
1998 Recipient: Dr. Alejandro Zaffaroni
Through the Lifetime Achievement Award, we seek to identify exemplars of entrepreneurship whose success can teach future generations by the example they set. Further, it allows us to bring outstanding practitioners to the Berkeley campus, creating opportunities for exchanges of ideas with faculty and students. We believe that by enhancing the interaction among academics, entrepreneurs, scientists and faculty, pragmatists and idealists, we help foster entrepreneurial success for individuals and the community as a whole.
The Lester Center has identified three distinct components shared by successful entrepreneurs. The Lifetime Achievement Award recognizes the presence of these elements in the people who are thus honored. First, the award recognizes entrepreneurial excellence. This is reflected in the individual’s success in multiple business arenas and the significant impact of that success on a given industry.
Second, the award acknowledges the individual’s leadership in both business and community. As a leader, the award recipient models behavior that young entrepreneurs can emulate.
The third component of the award recognizes the efforts by which the entrepreneur returns value to his/her community. The award recipient’s contributions may be to the preservation of the environment, improvement of educational opportunity, or some other substantial contribution to the well-being of the community.
