Linda Powell, Chair of the Colin Powell School Board of Visitors, presents the inaugural Colin L. Powell Award for Distinguished Leadership to Cesar Conde, Chair of the NBCUniversal News Group.
Cesar Conde, chairman of NBCUniversal News Group, is the inaugural recipient of the Colin L. Powell Distinguished Leadership Award, bestowed by the Colin Powell School for Civic and Global Leadership at The City College of New York.
The award recognizes individuals who have reached the highest level in their fields, and who embody the leadership values that General Powell, a 1958 graduate of The City College, demonstrated throughout his career: integrity, humility, humor, pragmatism, and common sense. These values were articulated most famously in Powell’s Thirteen Rules of Leadership, which culminate with “Perpetual optimism is a force multiplier.” These words are memorialized on the award medallion.
In presenting the Award to Conde at a ceremony this week in New York, Linda Powell, chair of the Colin Powell School’s Board of Visitors and the daughter of the late general, national security advisor and secretary of state, cited Conde's professional accomplishments, his commitment to excellence, and his dedication to raising up others.
“Cesar Conde is a visionary and innovative leader who has dedicated his career to shaping the future of media and empowering diverse voices in the industry,” said Powell. “He has made it his mission to create a more inclusive and representative media landscape.”
Before becoming the first Hispanic to lead a major English-language television news organization, Conde held numerous responsible positions within NBCU, including chairman of NBCUniversal International Group and NBCUniversal Telemundo Enterprises, and president of Univision Network.
Conde served as a White House Fellow for then-Secretary of State Powell in 2002-03. An honors graduate of Harvard University, he also holds a master’s degree in business administration from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.
The evening included a conversation between Conde and NBC News Chief Foreign Affairs and Chief Washington Correspondent Andrea Mitchell, who recalled meeting General Powell when he served at the White House during the Reagan Administration in the 1980s. The conversation highlighted Conde’s upbringing, the mentors who inspired him, including General Powell, and his business career.
“General Powell played such an important role in the lives of so many people,” Conde said. “The School’s legacy of providing educational opportunities and training, particularly to immigrants and first-generation Americans was so important to General Powell. I am honored and humbled to accept this award in his name.”
The event was conceived by Colin Powell School of Board member Marco Antonio Achón,Co-head of Santander Corporate & Investment Banking US and General Manager of Banco Santander New York Branch and made possible through the generous support Santander.
“General Powell’s vision and passion is fully reflected through the Colin Powell School activity, said Achón. “We want the school to grow with perpetual optimism as a force multiplier as Colin Powell said. We are very happy at Santander to support the Colin Powell School and have the Santander fellows program.”
“Cesar embodies the values of service and leadership that were so important to General Powell and that are important to the Colin Powell School,” said Andrew O. Rich, Richard J. Henley and Susan L. Davis Dean of the Colin Powell School. “Like General Powell, he is the son of immigrants — his father from Peru and his mother from Cuba. He is someone who has risen to the highest level in his field. His journey is the same as that of so many of our students, 50% of whom are the children of immigrants. His is a model to admire and to inspire.”
About the Colin Powell School for Civic and Global Leadership
Established in April 2013, the Colin Powell School is home to the social science departments at CCNY as well as the core leadership development and public service programs of the College. With almost 4,000 students, and graduating the most CCNY students annually, the Colin Powell School mission is to transform the nation’s most diverse student body into tomorrow’s global leaders. Half of our students are immigrants; most come from lower income backgrounds. More than seventy percent are first-generation college students, and eighty percent are people of color. The Colin Powell School and City College remain among the most effective engines of economic and social mobility in the United States. The School is led by a faculty dedicated to the highest standards of research and to the university’s democratic and public obligations. Read more about the Colin Powell School.
About the City College of New York
Since 1847, The City College of New York has provided a high-quality and affordable education to generations of New Yorkers in a wide variety of disciplines. CCNY embraces its position at the forefront of social change. It is ranked #1 by the Harvard-based Opportunity Insights out of 369 selective public colleges in the United States on the overall mobility index. This measure reflects both access and outcomes, representing the likelihood that a student at CCNY can move up two or more income quintiles. Education research organization Degree Choices ranks CCNY #1 nationally among universities for economic return on investment. In addition, the Center for World University Rankings places CCNY in the top 1.8% of universities worldwide in terms of academic excellence. Labor analytics firm Emsi puts at $1.9 billion CCNY’s annual economic impact on the regional economy (5 boroughs and 5 adjacent counties) and quantifies the “for dollar” return on investment to students, taxpayers and society. At City College, more than 15,000 students pursue undergraduate and graduate degrees in eight schools and divisions, driven by significant funded research, creativity and scholarship. This year, CCNY launched its most expansive fundraising campaign, ever. The campaign, titled “Doing Remarkable Things Together” seeks to bring the College’s Foundation to more than $1 billion in total assets in support of the College mission. CCNY is as diverse, dynamic and visionary as New York City itself. View CCNY Media Kit.