Entrepreneur Ruth M. Owades to Receive
2009 Fulbright Lifetime Achievement Medal

            WASHINGTON, D.C. (May 6, 2009) –  San Francisco entrepreneur and corporate director Ruth M. Owades 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 educator and civil rights activist John D. Maguire will also receive the honor, which recognizes distinguished Fulbright Program alumni for their career achievements and civic, educational, and cultural contributions. 

            Ms. Owades was founder and CEO of Calyx & Corolla (The Flower Lover’s Flower Company ™).  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 Ms. Owades.  “This singular award validates my conviction that a strong liberal arts education is a solid foundation for leadership—in the corporation, the boardroom, and the global community.”

 Ms. 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 has also served on the Harvard Business School Board of Dean’s Advisors and as a trustee of Scripps College, where she created a scholarship for low-income students.  She and her late husband also endowed a chair in research chemistry at the Weizmann Institute of Science to support research on HIV infection and cancer. 

             “My Fulbright year in France was a dream come true for a young girl who learned early to listen to my instincts—to pursue the seemingly impossible,” said Ms. 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 Eugene Ionesco, I focused on the power of a particular word and a specific point of view—on the printed page, on the stage, or, later, in the world of business.”

 The Fulbright Program is an international educational exchange initiative administered by the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs of the U.S. Department of State.  It was created in 1946 by legislation sponsored by the late Senator J. William Fulbright of Arkansas.  There are Fulbright exchanges between the United States and more than 150 other countries.  There are more than 275,000 Fulbright alumni throughout the world.

             The Fulbright Association is a private, nonprofit organization of Fulbright alumni and friends committed to advancing international education and people-to-people diplomacy.  It has 46 chapters throughout the United States and collaborates with more than 70 sister Fulbright alumni organizations abroad.  The Fulbright Association inaugurated the biennial Fulbright Lifetime Achievement Medal Dinner in 2000 to recognize the important role Fulbright grantees have had in creating a better future for communities throughout the world.

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