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Academy of Achievement: Golden Plate Recipients
View Summit Highlights:

The Golden Plate Award is presented annually since 1961 by the Academy of Achievement to approximately twenty-five guests of honor at the International Achievement Summit.

Chosen by the Academy's Awards Council and other distinguished authorities, these men and women of exceptional accomplishment in the sciences, professions, business, industry, arts, literature, sports, entertainment, and public service are acclaimed ... not as winners, but as "representatives of the many who excel."



2007


Andre Agassi
Sportsman and Philanthropist

Sir Timothy Berners-Lee
Father of the World Wide Web

Kix Brooks & Ronnie Dunn
Kings of Country Music

Laura Bush
First Lady of the United States

Brian J. Druker, M.D.
Developer
Gleevec Anticancer Drug


Nora Ephron
Author and Filmmaker

Laurence D. Fink
CEO, BlackRock, Inc.

Dr. Ian Frazer
Developer
Cervical Cancer Vaccine


The Honorable Chuck Hagel
United States Senate

General Michael V. Hayden
Director
Central Intelligence Agency


Dr. Shirley Ann Jackson
President
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute


Richard Leakey
Paleoanthropologist
and Environmentalist


Peyton Manning
Super Bowl Champion Quarterback

Dr. John C. Mather
2006 Nobel Prize in Physics

Dr. Craig C. Mello
2006 Nobel Prize in Medicine

John Morgridge
Pioneer of Silicon Valley

The Honorable Barack Obama
United States Senate

General Peter Pace
Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff

Suzan-Lori Parks
Pulitzer Prize for Drama

The Honorable
Henry M. Paulson, Jr.
U.S. Secretary of the Treasury

Dana Priest
Pulitzer Prize for Journalism

Harold Prince
Broadway Producer
and Director


The Honorable Harry Reid
Majority Leader
United States Senate


Hilary Swank
Two Oscars for Best Actress

Rex W. Tillerson
Chairman and CEO
Exxon Mobil Corporation


Calvin Trillin
Humorist and Novelist

Lawrence Wright
2007 Pulitzer Prize
for Nonfiction


Elias A. Zerhouni, M.D.
Director
National Institutes of Health



2006


His Highness Shaikh Salman bin Hamad Al-Khalifa
Crown Prince of Bahrain

James L. Balsillie
Developer of the BlackBerry

The Honorable William T. Coleman, Jr.
Presidential Medal of Freedom

Chris Columbus
Director, Producer and Screenwriter

Sheryl Crow
Award-winning Singer and Songwriter

Dr. Richard Dawkins
Evolutionary Biologist

Dr. Daniel C. Dennett
Philosopher of Human Consciousness

Joan Didion
National Book Award

Jamie Dimon
CEO, JPMorgan Chase & Company

Dr. Mohamed ElBaradei
2005 Nobel Prize for Peace

Carlos Fuentes
Author, Scholar and Diplomat

Dr. Robert H. Grubbs
2005 Nobel Prize in Chemistry

Dr. John L. Hall
2005 Nobel Prize in Physics

The Honorable Alphonso L. Jackson
U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development

Peter Jackson
Oscar for Best Director

Samuel L. Jackson
Actor and Activist

Wendy Kopp
Founder and President, Teach for America

Bernard L. Marcus
Co-Founder, Home Depot

The Honorable John D. Negroponte
Director of National Intelligence

The Honorable Nancy Pelosi
Minority Leader, U.S. House of Representatives

Sonny Rollins
Greatest Living Jazz Soloist

David M. Rubenstein
Founder and Managing Director, The Carlyle Group

Dr. Henry Samueli
Inventor, Entrepreneur and Philanthropist

The Honorable Margaret Spellings
U.S. Secretary of Education

Dr. A. Michael Spence
Nobel Prize in Economics

Julie Taymor
Theater, Opera and Film Director

Dame Kiri Te Kanawa
Legendary Opera Singer

Gore Vidal
National Book Award

The Honorable Antonio R. Villaraigosa
Mayor of Los Angeles

William Wrigley, Jr.
Industrialist and Philanthropist


2005


Her Majesty Queen Rania Al-Abdullah
The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan

Edward Albee
Three Pulitzer Prizes for Drama

Richard Axel, M.D.
2004 Nobel Prize in Medicine

Lawrence Peter "Yogi" Berra
Baseball Hall of Fame

Sir John R.H. Bond
Chairman, HSBC Holdings

Linda Buck, M.D.
2004 Nobel Prize in Medicine

Aaron Ciechanover, M.D.
2004 Nobel Prize in Chemistry

Katie Couric
Co-Anchor,"The Today Show"

The Honorable Shirin Ebadi
Nobel Prize for Peace

Sally Field
Two Oscars for Best Actress

John Fogerty
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

Michael J. Fox
Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research

The Honorable Alberto R. Gonzales
Attorney General of the United States

David J. Gross, Ph.D.
2004 Nobel Prize in Physics

Carolina Herrera
First Lady of Fashion

Susan Hockfield, Ph.D.
President of Massachusetts Institute of Technology

John Irving
National Book Award

The Honorable Anthony M. Kennedy
Supreme Court of the United States

Bernard Kouchner, M.D.
Founder, Doctors Without Borders

The Honorable Norman Y. Mineta
U.S. Secretary of Transportation

His Excellency Festus G. Mogae
President of the Republic of Botswana

Professor Toni Morrison
Nobel Prize for Literature

Itzhak Perlman
Virtuoso of the Violin

Paul Rusesabagina
Hero of "Hotel Rwanda"

Tim Russert
Moderator, "Meet the Press"

John Sexton, Ph.D.
President, New York University

Stephen Sondheim
Award-winning Composer and Lyricist

The Honorable Lawrence H. Summers
President, Harvard University

His Excellency Abdoulaye Wade
President of the Republic of Senegal

Denzel Washington
Oscar for Best Actor

Frank Wilczek, Ph.D.
2004 Nobel Prize in Physics

Tom Wolfe
America's Master Novelist