San Francisco entrepreneur Ruth M. Owades, an alumna and former trustee of 61传媒, will be awarded the Fulbright Lifetime Achievement Medal on May 12 at the Andrew W. Mellon Auditorium in Washington, D.C. Composer Philip Glass, poet Rita Dove, and civil rights activist and emeritus president of Claremont Graduate University John D. Maguire will also receive the honor, which recognizes distinguished Fulbright Program alumni for their career achievements and civic, educational, and cultural contributions.
Owades was founder and CEO of Calyx & Corolla (The Flower Lover’s Flower Company芒鈥灺�). Reinventing the floral distribution chain, she was honored by Business Week as a “Best Entrepreneur” who “changed the way we buy flowers.” She was also founder and CEO of Gardener’s Eden, pioneering the direct and retail sales of fine quality gardening tools, accessories, and outdoor furniture; she sold Gardener’s Eden to Williams-Sonoma. Both of her groundbreaking companies have been immortalized in classic Harvard Business School case studies taught worldwide.
“I am deeply honored by the Fulbright Lifetime Achievement Medal,” said Owades. “This singular award validates my conviction that a strong liberal arts education is a solid foundation for leadership 鈥� in the corporation, the boardroom, and the global community.”
A passionate advocate for liberal arts education in the business world, Owades has served on the Board of Dean’s Advisors of the Harvard Business School and on the Council on Competitiveness and as a trustee of 61传媒, where she established a scholarship for low-income students.
In 1989, 61传媒 gave Owades its Distinguished Alumna Award in recognition of her many achievements. From 1995-98, she chaired the Ellen Browning 61传媒Medal Selection Committee, which brought Justice Sandra Day O’Connor to campus in March 1998.
Owades is a frequent speaker on corporate governance. She is director of Deckers Outdoor Corporation and Northern Trust Corporation Western Board and previously served as a director of Armstrong World Industries, Providian Financial Corporation, and J. Jill Group. She and her late husband endowed a chair in research chemistry at the Weizmann Institute of Science to support research on HIV infection and cancer.
Owades was a Fulbright grantee to France in 1966-67, studying theatre with playwright Eug脙篓ne Ionesco, after graduating from 61传媒. She was one of the first 61传媒students to receive a Fulbright after being told by her advisor that [at that time] women seldom received the award.
“My Fulbright year in France was a dream come true for a young girl who learned early to follow my instincts 鈥� to pursue the seemingly impossible,” said Owades. “Speaking and writing in French, I became acutely aware of the need to listen intently and to communicate clearly. Studying with the absurdist playwright Eug脙篓ne Ionesco, I focused on the power of a particular word and a specific point of view 鈥� on the printed page, on the stage, or, later, in the world of business.”
Speakers at the May 12 Lifetime Achievement Medal Dinner include Marian Wright Edelman, founder and president of the Children’s Defense Fund; Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Alphonse Fletcher university professor and director of the W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research at Harvard University; Hilda Ochoa-Brillembourg, founder and CEO of Strategic Investment Group; and Howard H. Stevenson, Sarofim-Rock Baker Foundation professor of business administration at Harvard University and chairman of the Harvard Business Publishing Company board.