By Carolyn Gray Anderson and Paul Feinberg
On Monday, November 13, 2017, UCLA Anderson recognized Kevin Plank, founder, CEO and chairman of Fortune 500 athletic apparel company Under Armour, with the John Wooden Global Leadership Award. Fittingly, on its 10th anniversary, the ceremony took place in historic Pauley Pavilion, where Coach Wooden brought the UCLA men’s basketball team to many of his 10 championships between 1964 and 1975.
UCLA Anderson Dean Judy Olian introduced Plank by saying, “Kevin Plank was daring enough to challenge an industry, with a vision to build a sportswear company that enables athletes to perform better. He’s not just an enormously successful entrepreneur. Taking a page out of Coach Wooden’s playbook, he’s a leader who seeks to empower men and women around the world to follow their dreams and excel as confident, passionate competitors.” Plank received the award in recognition of his ethical business leadership, philanthropic activities and commitment to community.
Peter Guber, chairman and CEO of Mandalay Entertainment, co-owner of the Golden State Warriors and the Los Angeles Dodgers, and a lecturer at UCLA Anderson, interviewed Plank on stage. He focused their conversation on Plank’s leadership values and entrepreneurial approach to starting Baltimore-based Under Armour, which employs more than 10,000 people, outfits 7,000 student athletes in the Baltimore area and ranks No. 42 on Fortune’s list of the 100 fastest growing companies.
Well before Plank had built the company that recently signed a $280 million sponsorship deal with UCLA, he said, his mother neglected to deliver a phone message regarding a job opportunity. She told him she knew he’d never take the job, because he was a born entrepreneur. He launched Under Armour in the spirit of giving people something they never knew they wanted and runs the company now according to the tenets of product, story, service and team. He said, “It wasn’t a big, audacious goal. I never set out to build a company, I wanted to make the best T-shirt a player could wear.” And, he discovered, “You can start in the trunk of your car.”
On the subject of partnering with UCLA, Plank said the East Coast brand needed a presence in California. He said that through the UCLA affiliation, his company “built heat” in a state with seven Major League Baseball teams and an active economy for athletics. He accepted the Wooden Award on behalf of Under Armour, drawing parallels between a large company and a major university, saying, “You need a team, but you also need a culture.”
The audience of nearly 700 included UCLA Chancellor Gene Block, UCLA Anderson Board of Advisors members and other generous supporters, along with members of Coach Wooden’s family. UCLA’s women’s gymnastics coach Valorie Kondos Field and Basketball Hall of Famers Jamaal Wilkes (B.A. ’74) and Ann Meyers Drysdale (B.A. ’78) joined past Wooden Fellows, current UCLA Anderson students, alumni and faculty for a ceremony that included a special appearance by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (B.A. ’69), who spoke about his lifelong relationship with Coach.
Abdul-Jabbar is the NBA’s all-time leading scorer, a six-time NBA champion and the league’s only six-time MVP, as well as a best-selling author. His 2017 book Coach Wooden & Me: Our 50-Year Friendship On and Off the Court was this year’s gift to attendees.
Chancellor Block — who is celebrating his own decade of leadership at the No. 1 public university in the country — introduced Abdul-Jabbar as a humanitarian who combats injustice where he sees it. “He has been a true global citizen and representative of this university,” said Block as he “handed Pauley Pavilion back” to the 19-time NBA All-Star.
“Coach Wooden helped me to become a better person each day that I knew him,” said Abdul-Jabbar, who compared the social climate of his first days at UCLA with today’s emphasis on the athletic spotlight. He said that when he met Wooden, “The first thing Coach wanted to talk to me about was academics — there was no mention of basketball for 20 or 25 minutes. I’m glad I got the chance to play for this man, he was all about excellence. There was a lot more there than was obvious.”
Dan Guerrero, head of UCLA Athletics, shared his thoughts about how UCLA teams and the athletic department carry on the traditions Coach Wooden is remembered for — through his record on the court, his many maxims and his well-known Pyramid of Success. He painted a picture of the university’s culture beyond athletics to embrace equity and diversity and fiscal responsibility. Guerrero said of UCLA, “The substance here is overwhelming. It’s how we win — we don't compromise athletic success.” He continued: “We make mistakes, we fall short, and that’s life. But, as Coach Wooden said, failure is not fatal — we move on.”
Four UCLA Anderson students were awarded the John Wooden Global Leadership Fellowship, which is among the most prestigious honors Anderson students can receive. Evan Barnes (EMBA ’18), Anna Goldberg (MBA ’18), Sana Rahim (FEMBA ’19) and Brandon Scott (MBA/M.D. ’18) were featured in video interviews with Senior Associate Dean Al Osborne and took the stage to express their thoughts on what Coach Wooden’s values-based leadership means to them. Wooden Fellows are honored because they possess his focus on ethics, team spirit, skill, hard work and loyalty, along with a commitment to constant learning, continual improvement and innovation. Each fellowship is worth $25,000 and is funded by the annual John Wooden Global Leadership Awards Dinner.
Goldberg, who will return to Deloitte as a consultant when she graduates, aspires to work in the world of business as she would in an NGO, as a place that prides itself on its people over profits. “Anderson culture demonstrates how powerful sharing success can truly be,” she said.
Scott, who is pursuing an MBA in tandem with an M.D. in order to “be part of the solution to how care is delivered,” remarked that “The reason this award is so humbling is that Coach prioritized teaching his students to be the best that they can be.”
Olian congratulated Plank and the 2017 Wooden Fellows, saying that “Coach’s personal values are as real today as they were during his life.”
UCLA Anderson, in partnership with Coach John Wooden’s family, honors one exceptional leader each year with this prestigious award for his or her exemplary leadership and service to the community. Past recipients of the John Wooden Global Leadership Award include: W. James McNerney Jr., retired president, CEO and chairman of Boeing (2016); Ursula Burns, chairman and CEO of Xerox (2015); Paul E. Jacobs, executive chairman of Qualcomm Inc. (2014); Bob Iger, chairman and CEO of The Walt Disney Company (2013); Indra Nooyi, chairman and CEO of PepsiCo (2012); Peter Ueberroth, managing director of Contrarian Group (2011); Frederick W. Smith, chairman, president and CEO of FedEx (2010); Kenneth Chenault, chairman and CEO of American Express (2009); and Howard Schultz, chairman, president and CEO of Starbucks (2008).
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