The Phoenix Business Journal has awarded Ambassador Barbara Barrett, Interim President Designate of Thunderbird School of Global Management, with its Lifetime Achievement Award. The award will be presented at the Business Journal’s fourth annual Most Admired CEOs Awards Dinner on April 10, in recognition of Ambassador Barrett’s leadership and commitment to the state of Arizona.

Ambassador Barrett was appointed Interim President of Thunderbird on January 23, 2012, and she will assume the role on April 27. Previously, she served on the Thunderbird Board of Trustees for eighteen years, including a term as Chairman of the Board (2001-2003). She is a frequent campus speaker, mentor, collaborator and host to international luminaries at the school.

“Ambassador Barrett is certainly one of the most admired CEOs in Arizona.  Her ongoing and important work as a CEO is a testament to her devotion, commitment, leadership, and service to the economic vitality of this great region,” said Joan Neice, Thunderbird’s Vice President of Institutional Advancement.  “As incoming Interim President of Thunderbird, she continues to make a positive difference that will have a lasting impact on students, education and the global landscape.”

Barrett owns Triple Creek Guest Ranch, a Montana hideaway that is perennially ranked among the top hotels in the world.  She is a member of the boards of RAND, the Aerospace Corporation, the Smithsonian, the Space Foundation and the Center for International Private Enterprise, and is a Senior Fellow at the Pentagon’s Defense Business Board.  Her career has focused on aviation, trade and technology.

The Interim President Designate has also served as U.S. Ambassador to Finland, Senior Advisor to the U.S. Mission to the United Nations, a Fellow teaching leadership at Harvard, CEO of the American Management Association, Deputy Administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration and Vice Chairman of the U.S. Civil Aeronautics Board.  She also served on the boards of Hershey, Mayo Clinic, Exponent, Raytheon and Piper Aircraft.  Barrett was founding Chairman of Valley Bank of Arizona and Chaired the State Department’s Women’s Economic Empowerment Working Group, the U.S Advisory Commission on Public Diplomacy and the U.S. Secretary of Commerce’s Export Conference.  She was a partner in a large Phoenix law firm and, before she was thirty, she was an executive at two global Fortune 500 companies.  She has advised four American presidents on trade and defense policy.

In other roles, Interim President Designate Barrett was President of the International Women’s Forum and, as a member of the U.S.-Afghan Women’s Council, she founded Project Artemis, a program to train and mentor Afghan women entrepreneurs at Thunderbird.  She is active with Arizona State University, Arizona Academic Decathlon, O’Connor House and other organizations.

For general media inquiries and information about Thunderbird School of Global Management, please contact Samantha Novick, Thunderbird’s Public Relations and New Media Specialist, at samantha.novick@thunderbird.edu or +1 (602) 978-7922.