We often tend to forget that some of our most respected leaders in business, government, and the not-for-profit world owe much of their success to their formative years as students in Catholic elementary and high schools. BusinessWeek.com, in a story from the Associated Press, recently highlighted John Lechleiter , who was installed April 1 as CEO of phamaceutical giant Eli Lilly and Co., which earned nearly $3 billion last year. The article includes information on Lechleiter's memories of high school:
"His journey to the top is deeply rooted in his Catholic faith and lessons he learned growing up as the oldest of nine children in Louisville, Ky.
Lechleiter remembers the excitement he stirred at home when he won a $300 scholarship to cover a year's tuition to Saint Xavier High School in Louisville.
"My mother told me later that was the greatest day of my dad's life because he really hadn't quite figured out how he was going to swing that, knowing that there were eight others coming behind," he said.
His parents wound up sending all their children to Catholic high schools and private universities. But the brood grew up modestly. Lechleiter shared the attic of their family home, which his dad refurbished, with four brothers. Food never stuck around long. 'Dinner was served, breakfast was served and lunch was served,'he said. 'But the cookies were gone.'
A large family taught Lechleiter how to negotiate, cooperate and get along with others. It also taught him the importance of education. He tore through high school, taking advanced chemistry, physics and calculus classes.
"He would have had the most rigorous course in every discipline St. X offered at the time," said Perry Sangalli, the school's current president. Sangalli graduated with Lechleiter's younger brother, Richard, who is chief financial officer for Louisville-based Kindred Healthcare."
To read the entire story, go to this link.
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