The big news
Big announcement for WFU today: the new dean of the Babcock and Calloway schools is Steve Reinemund, former CEO of PepsiCo. He has an incredible resume as a leader - and you will be able to go to http://www.wfu.edu/ and read an announcement about him. But I got to meet the man at the WFU Summer Leadership Conference in 2006 and was so impressed.He was the keynote speaker for our conference and talked a lot about ethics and leadership. I remember he told a story that someone had illegally come by the recipe for Coke and had offered it to some employee at PepsiCo, as it would have been a big coup to find out a secret recipe for their top rival. It was also of course illegal and immoral. Steve Reinemund said that the Pepsi employee who had been offered the information called the authorities. It was the right choice - and what I recall was that Steve Reinemund was proud that across the company, people were moved to do the right thing because that was the corporate culture they built.
My own interaction with him was limited to this: after the conference session was over, I was gathering all my things and waited until all the guests were finished thanking him for his speech. I went up at the end and told him how much I appreciated his remarks and how moved I was by his examples of ethical leadership. He stayed there and spoke to me for a few minutes and was as kind and attentive to me as he was to the president or the trustees or the others who are much higher than me on the totem pole. It was very Skip Prosser-like.
And for that reason alone, I am thrilled.
Welcome to the Wake Forest family, dean-elect Reinemund. I wish you well as you begin.