George H.W. Bush Lifetime of Leadership Award
John Akers ‘56, a four-year letterman on the Yale ice hockey team and its leading scorer in 1955-1956, carried this mantle of leadership to the pinnacle of one of the world’s largest corporations. The Bulldog center scored 33 career goals and had 65 points, including a 16-goal, 29-point performance for a 9-2-1 squad his senior year. He scored his most memorable goal against Harvard on March 3, 1956, in a 1-0 victory.
Following his career at Yale, Akers served as a carrier pilot in the U.S. Navy from 1956 to 1960 and then began a distinguished 34-year career with IBM. In 1974, at the age of 39, he was named president of the Data Processing Division, IBM’s largest domestic marketing unit. He became a corporate vice president in 1976, senior vice president in 1982, and president in 1983. His final promotion was to chairman and CEO, serving from 1985 to 1993.
Akers has been director of many corporations and institutions - among them the New York Times Company, Lehman Brothers Holdings, PepsiCo, and Toshiba Corporations. He was a member of the Business Roundtable and President George H.W. Bush’s Advisory Committee on the Points of Light Initiative Foundation. His wide-ranging interests and commitment to public service have included trusteeships at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the California Institute of Technology/ He has also been an advisor and lecturer at the Yale School of Management.
