Hampden-Sydney College and the Wilson Center for Leadership in the Public Interest are thrilled to announce the Honorable Dr. John Hillen as the new James C. Wheat Chair in Leadership.
Established
in 1993, the Wheat Professorship enables students to learn about both the
theory and the practice of leadership under the guidance of visiting leaders
from various arenas. As the Wheat Professor, Hillen will teach Leadership and
Ethics—a required course for students earning a minor in Leadership in the
Public Interest—and will develop a special topics class on leadership in
American institutions.
“A primary
goal of the Wilson Center of Leadership in the Public Interest is to connect
theory and practice,” said Wilson Center Director Ryan Pemberton ’00. “Dr.
Hillen’s experience in the classroom, boardroom, halls of power, and in combat
will help our young men connect their time at Hampden-Sydney and in the Wilson
Center to the world beyond our gates. I am confident that each of his classes
will have a waiting list.”
Hillen is
an award-winning CEO and leadership expert, former Assistant Secretary of
State, public intellectual, decorated combat veteran, and popular business
school professor. He is the
author of several books, most recently What Happens Now? Reinvent Yourself as a Leader Before Your Business
Outruns You, which was
recognized as one of the top business books of 2018. He is currently the CEO of
Everwatch Solutions.
“I’ve been teaching and writing about leadership in various settings
now for 20 years,” Hillen said. “It is very exciting to bring that teaching
experience and the leadership lessons I’ve learned in military, diplomatic,
governmental, non-profit, and commercial roles to our students at the Wilson
Center. We aim for these young men to be the CEOs, mayors, pastors,
coaches, teachers, generals, and other leaders of tomorrow. To help
them on that journey is a privilege.”
From 2013
to 2019, Hillen served as the Executive-in-Residence and Professor of Practice
in the School of Business at George Mason University, where he taught strategy,
leadership, and management courses, twice winning the outstanding professor award
in the MBA program.
“The interdisciplinary approach to teaching leadership at the Wilson
Center is exactly what is needed today, in my opinion,” Hillen
continued. “Too many institutions suffer from overly specialized expertise
in their leaders, which does not necessarily translate into the strategic
sagacity, broad-minded vision, and ethical foundation that should buttress all
leaders. In the finest traditions of liberal arts education, we will
teach those skills to our young men to prepare them to be in the front ranks of
their communities and organizations.”
Hillen
served for eight years as a trustee of Hampden-Sydney College and is the
benefactor of the Hillen Seminar Room in the Wilson Center, named for his
father. He received the Algernon Sydney Sullivan Medallion from Hampden-Sydney
College in 2016 and was awarded an honorary Doctor of Laws degree from the College
in 2019.
“The ancient mission of Hampden-Sydney
College, ‘to form good men and good citizens,’ inspired me from my first
encounter with the College,” Hillen added. “We can sometimes over-inflate
the challenges of our age, but it is no exaggeration to say that this mission
is needed now more than ever. The decline in civic education, the overt
specialization of so much curriculum, and the rancor in our politics are all
connected. We need to produce well-rounded and thoughtful leaders to be
the virtuous citizens that America’s founders told us would be needed to
preserve a free and fair democracy. To be able to contribute to that education
for young men aiming to be citizen leaders of their communities and their
country is a high honor.”
Dr. Hillen
will assume his new role on July 1, and a celebration in his honor will be held
in Washington, DC, on Friday, October 9.
###
Extended Biography:
The
Honorable Dr. John Hillen is an award-winning CEO and leadership expert, former
Assistant Secretary of State, public intellectual, decorated combat veteran,
and popular business school professor. He served for eight years as a trustee
of Hampden-Sydney College, received the Algernon Sydney Sullivan Medallion from
Hampden-Sydney College in 2016, and was awarded an honorary Doctor of Laws
degree from the college in 2019.
Dr. Hillen
has been teaching and writing on leadership issues for 20 years. He is the
author of several books, most recently What Happens Now? Reinvent Yourself
as a Leader Before Your Business Outruns You, which was recognized as one
of the top business books of 2018 by several organizations. He also writes a
column on leadership and business strategy for Forbes magazine and Washington
Technology magazine and moderates leadership seminars for the Aspen
Institute.
Hillen is
currently the CEO of Everwatch Solutions, a mid-sized defense technology firm
in northern Virginia. From 2013 to 2019, Hillen served as the Executive-in-Residence
and Professor of Practice in the School of Business at George Mason University,
where he taught strategy, leadership, and management courses. He twice won the outstanding
professor award in the MBA program.
Prior to
teaching in the School of Business at George Mason, he was the President and CEO
of Sotera Defense Solutions, Inc.—a company that Hillen took public in 2009 in
one of the few successful IPOs in the American economy that year. The recipient
of numerous leadership awards in the military, government, academia, and
business, Hillen has been named one of the 100 most influential business
leaders in the DC area. He continues to serve on the boards of several
companies and a number of nonprofits and charities.
Unanimously
confirmed by the Senate in 2005, Hillen served as the Assistant Secretary of
State for Political-Military Affairs in the second half of the Bush
administration and in that capacity spent much of his time with U.S. and allied
troops in war zones from Iraq to Afghanistan to the southern Philippines. He
has written or edited several books on international security affairs and has
published articles in dozens of journals and newspapers, including Foreign
Affairs, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and The
Washington Post. He has appeared on every major television network and was
an on-air commentator for ABC News for a number of years.
Hillen,
who served for 12 years as an Army reconnaissance officer and paratrooper, was awarded
the Bronze Star for his role in the Battle of the 73 Easting during Operation
Desert Storm. He recently spent nine years on the Chief of Naval Operations
Executive Panel, the federal advisory committee supporting the head of the U.S.
Navy, and received the Navy’s Meritorious Public Service Award in 2017. He
was the military advisor on the original Call of Duty video game series
set in World War II.
Dr. Hillen
graduated from Duke University with degrees in public policy studies and history
and was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship after graduation. He holds a master’s
degree in war studies from King’s College London, a doctorate in international
relations from Oxford University, and an MBA from the Johnson School of
Management at Cornell University.
