Bill George is a progressive thought leader and leadership expert, currently serving as an executive fellow at Harvard Business School, where he taught leadership as a Professor of Management Practice and Senior Fellow from 2004 to 2022. He is the former chairman and CEO of Medtronic, where he held various leadership roles, including president and COO starting in 1989, CEO from 1991 to 2001, and board chair from 1996 to 2002. Earlier in his career, Bill was a senior executive at Honeywell and Litton Industries and also served in the U.S. Department of Defense.
He has served on the boards of Goldman Sachs, ExxonMobil, Novartis, Target, and the Mayo Clinic. He is a life director of the Guthrie Theater, and is an executive committee and board member of YMCA of the North. He has served on the board of World Economic Forum USA, and board chair for Allina Health System, Abbott-Northwestern Hospital, United Way of the Greater Twin Cities, and Advamed.
He frequently shares his impassioned thoughts on trending topics with various media outlets, including Fortune, Forbes, and the Harvard Business School Working Knowledge publication, among others. His goal is to share information and create a community where others can also share their thoughts and opinions.
In 2014, the Franklin Institute awarded him the Bower Award for Business Leadership and he was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 2012. He was named one of the “Top 25 Business Leaders of the Past 25 Years” by PBS; “Executive of the Year-2001” by the Academy of Management; and “Director of the Year-2001-02” by the National Association of Corporate Directors. Bill is a frequent contributor to CNBC, Fortune Magazine, and The Wall Street Journal and makes frequent appearances on television and radio.
He received his BSIE with high honors from Georgia Tech, his MBA with high distinction from Harvard University, where he was a Baker Scholar, and honorary PhDs from Georgia Tech, Mayo Medical School, University of St. Thomas, Augsburg College and Bryant University. During 2002-03 he was professor at IMD International and Ecole Polytechnique in Lausanne, Switzerland, and executive-in-residence at Yale School of Management.
Bill and his wife Penny reside in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and love to spend their free time with family.
