AIAC AT YALE CEO CAUCUS IN WASHINGTON AS MIKE PENCE AND NANCY PELOSI RECEIVE LEADERSHIP AWARDS
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 15, 2026 – Washington, D.C. – L. M. Levie, Chairman of American Industrial Acquisition Corporation (AIAC), joined CEOs, senior business leaders, former cabinet members from both parties, diplomats, judges, and journalists at the Fall 2026 Yale CEO Caucus, held at 101 Constitution Avenue in Washington, D.C. Convened by the Yale Chief Executive Leadership Institute and led by Professor Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, Senior Associate Dean and Lester Crown Professor in Management Practice at the Yale School of Management, the Caucus marked the 161st gathering of the Yale CEO Forum.
The program was themed “Ensuring Corporate Visions Match Strategic Realities at 250: Tech Policy, AI Promise, and US Governance Past the Midterms.” It took place just days after the 25th anniversary of the September 11 attacks and less than two months before the 2026 midterm elections.
The emotional centerpiece of the day was the presentation of the inaugural Yale Patriot Public Service Awards, created to mark the 250th anniversary of American independence and to honor public servants of both parties who have placed country above party. Former Vice President Mike Pence received the Award for Executive Leadership, and Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi received the Award for Legislative Leadership. The two longtime political rivals, seated side by side, shared a lengthy embrace before the presentations, a moment that drew standing ovations from the room.
Pence was honored by a bipartisan group of presenters including former Secretary of Transportation and Labor Elaine Chao, former House Majority Leader Dick Gephardt, former HHS Secretary Sylvia Mathews Burwell, Ralph Reed, Steve Miller, and Chief Executive Group CEO Marshall Cooper. They recognized his record in Congress, as Governor of Indiana, and as Vice President. In accepting, Pence called for restoring civility and principled compromise to American public life.
Pelosi was honored by former HHS Secretary Donna Shalala, Salesforce Chair and CEO Marc Benioff, Alan Patricof, USA Networks founder Kay Koplovitz, former U.S. Trade Representative Carla Hills, and former Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen. Presenters highlighted her nearly four decades in the House, her historic role as the first woman Speaker, and her legislative accomplishments including the Affordable Care Act, the CARES Act, and the CHIPS Act. In accepting, Pelosi recalled the national unity that followed 9/11 and urged a return to that spirit.
Earlier in the day, Wendell Weeks, Chairman, President and CEO of Corning Incorporated, received the Yale Legend in Leadership Award, with tributes from Apple Executive Chairman Tim Cook, Snap-on CEO Nicholas Pinchuk, National Association of Manufacturers CEO Jay Timmons, and Motorola Solutions CEO Greg Brown. Weeks was saluted for leading the reinvention of the 175-year-old American manufacturer.
In the session “Old Companies on New Frontiers, Proving Schumpeter Wrong,” which examined how legacy industrial and service companies, including Corning, Snap-on, USAA, Motorola, and Kelly Services, have defied creative destruction through strategic focus, agility, and investment in their people.
Subsequent sessions addressed the business and geopolitical implications of artificial intelligence, including the cost of AI, energy constraints on data centers, and whether the United States should seek common AI safety guardrails with China. The program closed with reflections on the lessons and legacy of 9/11 from ABC News anchor Martha Raddatz and Piper Sandler Vice Chairman Jimmy Dunne.
AIAC Chairman Levie warmly greeted the following participants:
Mike Pence, 48th Vice President of the United States, 50th Governor of Indiana
Nancy Pelosi, 52nd Speaker, U.S. House of Representatives
Carla Hills, 5th U.S. Secretary of HUD, 10th U.S. Trade Representative
Donna E. Shalala, 18th Secretary, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
Richard Gephardt, Former Majority Leader, U.S. House of Representatives
John D. Negroponte, Former U.S. Deputy Secretary of State, First Director of National Intelligence
Greg Brown, Chair and CEO, Motorola Solutions
Eileen Higgins, Mayor, Miami, FL
Tom Rogers, Founder, CNBC and MSNBC
Kay Koplovitz, Founder, USA Networks
Ralph E. Reed Jr., Founder and Chairman, Faith and Freedom Coalition
Robert D. Hormats, Former Under Secretary of State, Vice Chair, Goldman Sachs International
Alan Patricof, Founder, Patricof & Co. and APAX Partners
Joel N. Myers, Founder and Executive Chair, AccuWeather
Nicholas T. Pinchuk, Chairman and CEO, Snap-on Incorporated
Robert S. Miller, Former CEO, Delphi and Bethlehem Steel, Former Chairman, AIG
Mark D. Ein, Chairman and CEO, Capitol Investment Corp.
Eddie Tam, CEO, Central Asset Investments
Thomas R. Phillips, Former Chief Justice, Supreme Court of Texas, Partner, Baker Botts LLP
Patricia Duff, Founder and CEO, The Common Good
Diane Brady, Executive Editorial Director, Fortune
Dan Bigman, Editor and Chief Content Officer, Chief Executive Group
Wayne Cooper, Executive Chair, Chief Executive Group
Marshall Cooper, CEO, Chief Executive Group
Nick Lichtenberg, Business Editor, Fortune
Ryan Heil, President, Washington Speakers Bureau
Eva Roytburg, Editorial Fellow, Fortune
Christopher Shays, Former U.S. Congressman, Connecticut
Mark Short, Former Assistant to Vice President Mike Pence, Chairman, Advancing American Freedom
Barbara Van Allen, President and CEO, Economic Club of New York
Mr. Levie issued the following statement:
“Professor Sonnenfeld has once again brought together an extraordinary assembly of business and government leaders for a candid, respectful, and deeply consequential conversation. Witnessing Vice President Pence and Speaker Pelosi embrace one another before a room of America’s leaders was a moment none of us will forget, and a powerful reminder that patriotism transcend party. I heartily congratulate Wendell Weeks, Chair of Corning on his well-deserved recognition. As Tim Cook poignantly noted, Wendell led among the most extraordinary corporate transformations in American business history. He is a profound inspiration to us all.”
PAST RECIPIENTS OF THE YALE LEGEND IN LEADERSHIP AWARD
The Yale Legend in Leadership Award, presented by the Yale Chief Executive Leadership Institute, honors established chief executives whose leadership has left an inspiring legacy. Nominations are made by peers and confirmed by Yale faculty. With this year's award, Wendell Weeks joins a distinguished roster of recent honorees, including:
Reed Hastings, Co-Founder and Executive Chairman, Netflix (June 2026)
José Andrés, Founder, World Central Kitchen (March 2026)
Alan M. Garber, 31st President, Harvard University (January 2026)
James E. Ryan, 9th President, University of Virginia (January 2026)
Bernard Arnault, Chairman and CEO, LVMH (December 2025)
Ed Bastian, CEO, Delta Air Lines (December 2025)
Greg Brown, Chairman and CEO, Motorola Solutions (September 2025)
Jensen Huang, Founder and CEO, NVIDIA (June 2025)
Glenn Fogel, CEO, Booking Holdings (March 2025)
Amy Gutmann, 8th President, University of Pennsylvania (January 2025)
Tim Cook, CEO, Apple (December 2024)
Larry Fink, Chair and CEO, BlackRock (December 2024)
James Quincey, Chairman and CEO, The Coca-Cola Company (September 2024)
Marc Benioff, Chair and CEO, Salesforce (June 2024)
Mike Sievert, President and CEO, T-Mobile (March 2024)
Shirley Tilghman, 19th President, Princeton University (January 2024)
Ajay Banga, President, World Bank Group (December 2023)
Arvind Krishna, Chairman and CEO, IBM (September 2023)
Steven Spielberg, Filmmaker and Chairman, Amblin Partners (June 2023)
Kathy Warden, Chair, President and CEO, Northrop Grumman (March 2023)
Hanna Holborn Gray, 10th President, University of Chicago (January 2023)
Satya Nadella, Chairman and CEO, Microsoft (December 2022)
Darius Adamczyk, Chairman and CEO, Honeywell (September 2022)
Volodymyr Zelenskyy, President of Ukraine (June 2022)
W. Douglas Parker, CEO, American Airlines Group (March 2022)
Albert Bourla, Chairman and CEO, Pfizer (December 2021)
Alex Gorsky, Chairman and CEO, Johnson & Johnson (December 2021)
Lynn J. Good, CEO, Duke Energy (September 2021)
Lisa Su, CEO, Advanced Micro Devices (June 2021)
Anthony Fauci, Director, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (March 2021)
Doug McMillon, CEO, Walmart (December 2020)
Arne M. Sorenson, CEO, Marriott International (September 2020)
Brian C. Cornell, CEO, Target (June 2020)
Earlier recipients include Janet Yellen, Colin Powell, Ginni Rometty, Mary Barra, Jamie Dimon, Robert Iger, Indra Nooyi, Kenneth Chenault, Alan Mulally, Stephen Schwarzman, David Rubenstein, Kenneth Frazier, Louis V. Gerstner Jr., John C. Bogle, and Ratan Tata.
ABOUT THE YALE CHIEF EXECUTIVE LEADERSHIP INSTITUTE
The Yale Chief Executive Leadership Institute (CELI), founded and led by Professor Jeffrey A. Sonnenfeld, is the pioneer of CEO learning and the world's first school for sitting chief executives. Its programs bring together top business leaders, policymakers, media figures, and leading scholars for candid, peer-driven, off-the-record exchanges on the challenges facing global business and society.
Professor Sonnenfeld convened the prototype gathering of CEOs in 1988 while teaching at Harvard Business School, launched the CEO Summit at Emory University in 1990, and brought the Institute to the Yale School of Management in 2001. The CEO Summit marked its 100th gathering in December 2019.
Today CELI hosts the Yale CEO Summit and the semiannual Yale CEO Caucus, a roundtable on the business implications of major national and global events, along with CEO College, the Yale Mayors College, and the Yale Higher Education Leadership Summit. Sessions are unscripted and confidential, and participants respond to real-time polls whose aggregated results may be shared publicly. The Institute is based at Edward P. Evans Hall in New Haven, Connecticut.
ABOUT AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL ACQUISITION CORPORATION
American Industrial Acquisition Corporation (AIAC) is a diversified industrial group with manufacturing, distribution, and administrative sites in 24 countries across North America, Europe, Africa, Asia, and Australia-New Zealand. AIAC has acquired and grown non-core subsidiaries and divisions of Boeing, Siemens, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Raytheon, Johnson Controls, Merck, Pfizer, Astellas, Visteon, Carlyle, KKR, Ahlstrom, Novelis, Tolko, Groupe Suez, Groupe Rexel, and many other leading multinational corporations.
AIAC companies serve companies and governmental entities worldwide in all major sectors, including aviation, space, defense, automotive, truck, rail, marine, petrochemical, solar, nuclear, civil engineering, logistics, agriculture, infrastructure, commercial construction, mining, dredging, disaster relief, medical devices, and pharmaceuticals. AIAC companies are also exclusive, authorized distributors of leading branded industrial products, and serve as critical suppliers for the construction of major airports, schools, hospitals, performing arts and sports centers, offices, and hotels throughout Southeast Asia, Australia, and New Zealand. AIAC is a major manufacturer of greenhouse materials globally and of building, street, and highway signage in Europe, and a distributor of electrical products throughout France.
AIAC companies actively support exploration into outer space, manufacturing critical components for launching and propelling spacecraft and satellites. AIAC customers in this sector include NASA, SpaceX, the European Space Agency, Blue Origin, and Boeing. AIAC companies also lead in the design and manufacture of undersea umbilical cables for worldwide oceanographic research.
Of note, AIAC purchased Boeing Canada in 2005 and has produced over 10,000 unique components for every Boeing jet plane ever since, reliably serving Boeing from manufacturing facilities in North America. A leader in ultra-high precision jet engine component manufacturing, AIAC companies produce 2,200 fan blades for each jet engine produced by GE, Pratt & Whitney, Rolls Royce, and Honeywell.
AIAC companies produce the critical automotive wire and cable for GM, Ford, Chrysler-Fiat, Tesla, Toyota, and Nissan, and for the New York and Atlanta subways. In connection with its kraft paper manufacturing interests in Canada and the United States, AIAC sustainably manages 22 million acres of Manitoba, Canada forestland, an area equivalent in size to the nation of Hungary. AIAC affiliate Metallwarenfabrik Gemmingen GmbH, located in Germany, designs, manufactures, and distributes high performance, emergency portable power generators used in global conflict zones and during major natural disasters.
For further information, see: www.aiac.com
ABOUT AIAC PHILANTHROPY
AIAC and the AIAC Foundation support a wide range of nonprofit, nonsectarian, bipartisan organizations which promote international conflict resolution, disaster relief, economic development, environmental sustainability, exploration, and the performing arts. The exploration-focused nonprofit organizations which they actively support include the Explorers Club, the National Geographic Society, the Royal Geographical Society, the American Museum of Natural History and the Hayden Planetarium, the Victoria & Albert Museum, the National Air and Space Museum, the National Space Society, and the United States Space Foundation.
AIAC’s other beneficiaries include the Appeal of the Nobel Peace Laureates Foundation Inc., the Asia Society, the Atlantic Council, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation – Gates Philanthropy Partners, the Bretton Woods Committee, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, the Carter Center, the Council on Foreign Relations, the Economic Club of New York, the Foreign Policy Association, the Institut Français des Relations Internationales, the International Committee of the Red Cross, the International Crisis Group, the International Rescue Committee, the Japan Society, the JFK School of Government of Harvard University, the Peterson Institute for International Economics, the Richardson Center for Global Engagement, the Royal Institute of International Affairs (Chatham House), the Sierra Club, the Trilateral Commission, and the Yale Chief Executive Leadership Institute.
AIAC Chairman L. M. Levie is a Member of the Board of Trustees of The Explorers Club, its Poet Laureate, and a Member of its Annual Dinner Committee. L. M. Levie also serves as Trustee of the Theodore Roosevelt Association, and a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, Royal Society of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce, Zoological Society of London, and the Asia Society, and is a member of the Yale CEO Summit.
For further information, see: www.aiac.com | aiac.com/our-values
Media Contact
Isabel Carro-Toro, Vice President
American Industrial Acquisition Corporation
+34 689 295 827 (Spain)
+1 787 244 3175 (USA)
# # #