Financial History Issue 126 (Summer 2018) | Page 7
MUSEUM NEWS
THE TICKER
The National Association of Corpo-
rate Directors (NACD) announced that it
will bestow its highest honor, the B. Ken-
neth West Lifetime Achievement Award,
on George Washington University Pro-
fessor Lawrence Cunningham, found-
ing faculty director of GW in New York
(GWNY). Cunningham has been an active
member of the Financial History editorial
board since 2016 and recently spoke at a
Museum event on his new book, The War-
ren Buffett Shareholder.
NACD, the authority on boardroom
practices representing 18,000 directors,
has for many decades recognized dis-
tinguished individuals who serve as role
models in promoting exemplary board
leadership, oversight and courage. Since
2007, NACD has designated 100 directors
annually to its select roster, the NACD
Directorship 100™, some being named as
NACD Director of the Year and one
receiving the Lifetime Achievement
Award. The Lifetime Achievement Award
recognizes the full scope of the honoree’s
lifetime board and governance career.
“Lawrence Cunningham has always
been someone essential to turn to for keen
guidance on corporate governance at its
best,” says James Kristie, the retired long-
time editor and associate publisher of
Directors & Boards magazine. Kristie ranks
Cunningham among the “most influential
leaders in the boardroom today” and “one
of the leading thinkers in the field of board
governance and leadership.”
According to Charles Elson, corporate
governance professor at the University of
Delaware, “Cunningham is the nation’s
foremost scholar on the work of War-
ren Buffett and has served as an effective
director under trying circumstances.” His
“superb scholarly work and courage as a
Financial History Editorial Board Member
Lawrence Cunningham Will Be Honored
with NACD’s Lifetime Achievement Award
Lawrence Cunningham spoke a t a Museum event on April 23, 2018.
corporate director” warrant recognition,
Elson said. Ann Yerger, former director
of the Council on Institutional Inves-
tors, summed up Cunningham’s work
as “objective, thoughtful and insightful”
and “recognized throughout the corporate
governance community.”
Cunningham, a member of the GW fac-
ulty since 2007, writes and lectures exten-
sively on corporate governance, and pub-
lishes the classic text, The Essays of Warren
Buffett: Lessons for Corporate America,
while advising and serving on the boards
of numerous public and private companies
and non-profits. These include Toronto-
based Constellation Software, a leading
global operator of hundreds of vertical
software market companies, as well as the
Dean’s Council of Lerner College of Busi-
ness at the University of Delaware.
In 2015, Cunningham founded GWNY,
a boutique training program for aspiring
boardroom lawyers. He appreciates the
quip of Mark Leonard, a fellow Constel-
lation director and its founder and CEO,
that “Cunningham is too young for life-
time achievement awards and should set-
tle for a ‘bloody good decade’ award.”
www.MoAF.org | Summer 2018 | FINANCIAL HISTORY 5