Johns Hopkins Swimming Coach George Kennedy Named To Fortune Magazine’s List of Top 50 Leaders

BALTIMORE, Maryland, March 24. FORBES Magazine included Johns Hopkins head swimming coach George Kennedy on its list of the 50 best leaders in the world, giving international exposure to a program that just had a strong performance at the NCAA Division III championships.

Kennedy joins top-ranked Pope Francis, as well as Warren Buffet and Bill Clinton on the impressive list. Derek Jeter joins Kennedy as another sports-related name on the list. Duke basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski, San Antonio Spurs basketball coach Gregg Popovich and South Carolina women’s basketball coach Dawn Staley are tied for 20th on the list.

“Kennedy is in his 29th coaching season at Johns Hopkins, but veterans of his swim teams say you’d never know it,” according to the Forbes profile of Kennedy. “Kennedy sees not just each season, but each meet as a new chance to change things up. Maybe that’s how his teams have won 23 conference titles and had 17 top-five NCAA finishes. ‘My four favorite words,’ he says, are ‘We can do better.’ ‘”

The Forbes top 50 leaders:

1. Pope Francis (Pontiff, Catholic Church)
2. Angela Merkel (German Chancellor)
3. Alan Mullaly (CEO, Ford Motor Co.)
4. Warren Buffet (CEO, Berkshire Hathaway)
5. Bill Clinton (Former president, CEO of Clinton Foundation)
6. Aung San Suu Kyi (Chair, National League for Democracy)
7. Gen. Joe Dunford (Commander, U.S. Forces, Afghanistan)
8. Bono (Lead singer, U2)
9. Dalai Lama (Tibetan spiritual leader)
10. Jeff Bezos (CEO, Amazon)
11. Derek Jeter (Shortstop, New York Yankees)
12. Geoffrey Canada (CEO, Harlem Children’s Zone)
13. Christine Lagarde (Managing director, International Monetary Fund)
14. Paul Polman (CEO, Unilever)
15. Michael Bloomberg (Majority owner, Bloomberg LP)
16. Jack Ma (Executive chairman, Alibaba Group)
17. Maria Klawe (President, Harvey Mudd College)
18. Ken Chenault (CEO, American Express)
19. Kathy Giusti (CEO, Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation)
20. Mike Krzyzewski, Gregg Popovich, Dawn Staley (basketball coaches)
21. Angelina Jolie (actress and humanitarian)
22. Zhang Ruimin (CEO, Haier Group)
23. Carlos Ghosn (CEO, Nissan; CEO, Renault)
24. Gabrielle Giffords (Former congresswoman, Co-founder, Americans for Responsible Solutions)
25. Wendy Kopp (CEO and co-founder, Teach for All)
26. Fred Smith (CEO, FedEx)
27. Juliet V. Garcia (President, University of Texas at Brownsville)
28. Mary Robinson (President, Mary Robinson Foundation — Climate Justice)
29. Howard Schultz (CEO, Starbucks)
30. Jose Antonio Abreu (Founder, El Sistema)
31. Ellen Kullman (CEO, DuPont)
32. Sir Fazle Hasan Abed (Chairman, BRAC)
33. Tim Cook (CEO, Apple)
34. Malala Yousafzai (Education rights activist)
35. Strive Masiyiwa (Founder & chairman, Econet Wireless)
36. George Kennedy (Head swimming coach, Johns Hopkins University)
37. Joko Widoko (Governor, Jakarta, Indonesia)
38. Eric Greitens (Founder & CEO, The Mission Continues)
39. Wynton Marsalis (Musician; managing and artistic director, Jazz at Lincoln Center)
40. Anand Mahindra (Chairman, Mahindra & Mahindra)
41. Nancy Lublin (CEO, Do Something)
42. Susan Wojcicki (CEO, YouTube)
43. Peter Diamandis (CEO, X Prize Foundation)
44. Tetiana Chornovol (Reporter & Representative, anticorruption policy, Ukraine)
45. Arati Prabhakar (Director, DARPA)
46. Xavier Trias (Mayor, Barcelona)
47. Juliana Rotich (Co-founder and executive director, Ushahidi)
48. Lakshmi Mittal (CEO, ArcelorMittal)
49. Gail Kelly (CEO, Westpac)
50. Jed Rakoff (U.S. District Court Judge)

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