- 2019 P&G Alumni Network Awards Announced -

The recipients, who will collect their awards at the global conference in Madrid in October, 2019, were selected by a panel comprising Board members and chapter representatives.
The Alumni Community Service Award

For an individual who has made a significant contribution of their time, effort and expertise to the community in which they live. The award can reflect a single event or a lifetime of work.

Gladys Diaz and Hector Sanchez
On September 19, 2017, life in many parts of Mexico changed forever. The largest earthquake ever recorded in the country tore down buildings, destroyed infrastructure and left many dead, injured or homeless.

Close to one third of the city of Juchitan was in ruins. Less than 24 hours after the devastation struck, P&G alumni Hector Sanchez and Gladys Diaz, initiated a massive effort to bring relief to the families impacted by the disaster. They began delivering food and water to the communities worst hit by the quake. With no shelter at hand, they sent eight trucks loaded with gravel to provide safe, dry havens as the seasonal storms dumped floodwater onto the already crippled communities.  

If this Herculean effort was not enough, the couple then launched Xhindxa – a fund raising and support program designed to provide long term help to families. In partnership with Comite Melendre, Xhindxa rebuilt 33 artisanal ovens and 10 community kitchens allowing communities to begin selling tortillas in the local markets. They sponsored local families to restart the creation of local handcrafts and thus help rebuild the regional encomoy.

The work continues and the Alumni Network is proud to recognize Hector and Gladys for their outstanding community work.
The Alumni Humanitarian Award

For an individual who has made a significant contribution to the human condition through their time, effort or expertise, whether this was a single event or a lifetime of work. This award is intended to recognize actions that go well beyond efforts in a single community or location and serve mankind as a whole.

Susan Mboya-Kidero
The Impact Susan Mboya-Kidero has made on the lives of young African women will still be being calculated for generations to come. It will be a legacy that has the potential to change the face of African leadership forever. In a distinguished career, this P&G alum is now the Principal and International Advisor for Navigators Global – A Washington, DC, consulting firm. Married to the first Governor of Nairobi, Dr. Evans Kidero, and the daughter of the late Tom Mboya, a Kenyan nationalist leader, Susan recognized many years ago that she had the opportunity to make profound differences in the communities that surrounded her.  

She founded the Zawadi Africa Educational Fund to provide scholarship and leadership programs for gifted, marginalized African girls to enable them to attend top colleges and university throughout the world with the goal of creating a pipeline of African female leaders. The concept was based on the Africa Student Airlifts program launched by her father and J F Kennedy in 1959 and enabled luminaries including the father of President Barack Obama and environmental activities and Nobel laureate, Professor Wangari Mathaai to study in the U.S.

The Alumni Network is truly proud to honor Susan Mboya-Kidero for her dedication to humanitarian work.
The Alumni Business Innovation Award

For an individual who has contributed a significant innovation to the world of business during their career. This is an award to recognize creativity that has been translated into business success.

Kevin Ashton
Dubbed by Newsweek as the “father of the Internet of Things”, Kevin Ashton is not only a visionary technologist but also an expert in digital transformation, accomplished author and successful entrepreneur.

Respected bodies including the European Commission, US National Intelligence Council and the Chinese Government have declared the internet of things to be one of the major technologies of the 21 st Century.

He co-founded the Auto-ID Center at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and took it from little more than a converted broom cupboard to a global organization with six laboratories around the world, more than 100 corporate sponsors and over a hundred researchers.

His books such as How to Fly A horse and 800-CEO-Read have been declared “must reads” and he is a frequent contributor to the New York Times, Atlantic, Politico and Quartz.

Kevin has launched three highly successful tech start-ups including Zensi which he recently sold to Belkin.

The Alumni Network is proud to recognize Kevin Ashton for his contributions to the world of innovation.
The John Smale General Management Award 

For an individual who has made a significant contribution to the world of business whether the result of a single event or concept or the compilation of a lifetime of achievements.

Sara Matthew
Sara Matthew’s quiet but decisive style has often been compared to the leadership qualities of John Smale and John Pepper but she started life at P&G as an A&T. She immigrated to the U.S. as the trailing spouse of P&G finance manager, Jacob Matthew, and joined the company as an A&T. Her leadership talents were soon recognized and she quickly rose through the ranks to finally become VP of Finance for both the ASEAN region and the paper business.  

She joined Dun & Bradstreet as CFO and began the transformation of the company to focus on big data, insights and analytics. Her dedication and drive led to her promotion to CEO and Chairman where she continued to build D&B into one of the most respected global businesses. 

Sara has served on the Boards of Campbell’s. Shire, State Street, Freddie Mac, Zurich Insurance and Avon. She has dedicated considerable time and energy to supporting Xavier University In Cincinnati where she continues to demonstrate her dedication to building the next generation of business leaders.

The Alumni Network is proud to recognize Sara Matthew for her lifetime of achievements in the field of general management. 
The McElroy Award

Procter & Gamble has long been recognized as the preeminent consumer company in the world and it desires to maintain this position. This is specifically not a “Marketer of the Year” award to be focused solely on the marketing function nor on a single time period. Rather, this award is intended to recognize significant contributions to the art and science of satisfying the consumer whether that is the result of a single event or concept or the compilation of a lifetime of achievements.

E. Dean Butler
If the term visionary leader could be applied metaphorically and literally, it would be to Dean Butler. Dean was a true pioneer in the U.S. retail market for prescription eyewear and sunglasses. He took an industry mired in dusty backrooms to glossy, upmarket locations front and center in malls and high streets across America. 

Dean had worked on the Ivory, Folgers and Cheer brands before leaving P&G in 1983 to found LensCrafters. LensCrafters offered customers prescription eyewear in ‘about an hour’ and from a single store in Florence, Kentucky, the business quickly expanded to around 850 stores worldwide today. Lenscrafters was sold to US Shoe in 1984 but Dean remained with the business until 1987 growing it from $13.6 million in annual sales in 1984 to $305-million by the time he left.

In 1987, he founded what was to become another optical powerhouse – Vision Express – which rapidly expanded across Europe, Asia and Australia. He has continued to play a leading role in the optical industry and now acts as an expert consultant to the optical business world. 

The Alumni Network is proud to present the McElroy Award to E. Dean Butler.
2019 Global Conference
The spectacular and historic city of Madrid will be the venue for the 2019 P&G Alumni Network Global Conference.
 
Block off your calendars for October 25 – 27, 2019, make your travel arrangements and get ready to meet old friends again as the network gathers for its biennial celebration.

We will be bringing you specific details on booking information, pricing and agenda over the coming months. 
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Procter & Gamble and P&G are trade names of The Procter & Gamble Company and are used pursuant to an agreement with The Procter & Gamble Company. P&G Alumni Network is an independent organization apart from The Procter & Gamble Company.