RHR International Salutes Ford's Alan Mulally as 2011 Chief Executive of the Year

Alan Mulally (file photo)

CHICAGO - August 4, 2011: Ford CEO Alan Mulally has been named "2011 Chief Executive of the Year," an honor bestowed upon an outstanding corporate leader, nominated and selected by a group of his or her peers. The award was presented at an invitation-only event hosted by NYSE Euronext and the Chief Executive Group at the New York Stock Exchange on July 25th. Prior winners include Bill Gates, Jack Welch, Michael Dell, A.G. Lafley, John Chambers, Anne Mulcahy, Larry Bossidy, Andy Grove and Herb Kelleher.

Nominations for CEO of the Year were garnered from among the 147,000 readers of Chief Executive magazine. The 10 most frequently cited nominations were evaluated and a winner voted upon at a meeting of a peer Selection Committee, which took place earlier this year in New York City.

Dr. Thomas J. Saporito, Chairman and CEO of RHR International, advised the committee. Under his guidance, the group was able to come to a comprehensive conclusion with a process that was methodical, thorough, and based on science.

In his remarks at the presentation, Dr. Saporito summarized the Selection Committee's duties. "The first order of business was to outline the criteria that each candidate would be judged against. In other words, 'What does an extraordinary leader look like?' We started with a list of 11 elements that Chief Executives need to be successful. These elements, such as Courage, Leadership, Vision, etc., have been fine tuned by Selection Committees over the years to form a solid platform for evaluating candidates for the award. Incorporating new research from RHR, this year we took each element in the list and assessed what behaviors an executive would need to exhibit to rank high for that attribute."

On the final choice for the award, Dr. Saporito commented, "Alan Mulally scored very high against every point in the criteria standing out against a background of some of the finest Chief Executives in the world. I was very pleased with the process as it played out and I'm convinced the Selection Committee made the right choice."

ABOUT RHR INTERNATIONAL
We are a firm of management psychologists and consultants who work closely with top management to accelerate individual, team and business performance. We focus on five key areas of client need — Executive Selection and Integration, Accelerated Executive Effectiveness, Senior Team Effectiveness, Management Due Diligence and CEO Succession. We have been proven difference-makers for more than 65 years, unique in our combination of top management focus, psychologists' perspective and high-level business acumen.

RHR International has offices in Belgium, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, Italy, Switzerland, United Kingdom and United States. The company is headquartered in Chicago, Ill. For more information, please visit www.rhrinternational.com, http://tinyurl.com/rhrblogsite and https://twitter.com/RHRIntlLLP.