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SMS Lifetime Achievement Award

This award is intended to honor the highest level of achievement in strategic management by a business leader. The honoree is invited to give a lecture at the SMS Annual Conference, discussing their achievements in strategy. This award is only presented when an appropriate honoree is nominated. 

Award Criteria

  • The honoree must have demonstrated sustained strategic leadership and innovation that significantly altered strategy practice.  In this regard, “sustained” means across business cycles.  It is hard to envision this period being shorter than a decade.
  • Furthermore, this leadership and innovation must be such that it significantly impacts strategy practice in industries beyond the home industry of the honoree, and is the subject of academic attention in major business schools.

The selection committee for the Lifetime Achievement Award is made up of the Annual Conference Program Chairs and the SMS Awards & Honors Committee. 

2022 Lifetime Achievement Award Recipient: Dame Vivian Hunt

Dame Vivian Hunt concluded 27 years at McKinsey & Company in 2022, where she was a Senior Partner, served as Managing Partner for the UK and Ireland for seven years and led the Life Sciences Practices in EMEA. During her time at McKinsey, she advised corporate, public, and third sector clients on performance improvement, productivity growth and leadership. She was named “the most influential black woman in Britain”, “one of the top 25 consultants in the world”, and “one of the 30 most influential people in the City of London”.

Vivian is on the board of several influential business groups, charitable and education bodies including, as Chair of the Black Equity Organisation, the UK’s first national Black civil rights organisation; Chair of Teach First, the UK’s leading education charity; a member of the Prime Minister’s Build Back Better Council; the Confederation of British Industry; and the Harvard Board of Overseers. Vivian is a Trustee of The British Museum and sits on the governing board of the Southbank Centre and the US-UK Fulbright Commission.

Vivian is an inspirational speaker and a powerful advocate for non-traditional voices in the corporate world. In October 2020, she delivered a TED Talk on How businesses can serve everyone, not just shareholders.

In 2018, Vivian was appointed Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire for services to the economy and women in business.

The SMS will present the Lifetime Achievement Award to Dame Vivian Hunt at the SMS 42nd Annual Conference in London on Monday, September 19th.