Edison Awards is an American company that runs an annual competition honoring excellence in innovation in a broad range of categories.

Company

The Edison Awards were established by the

American Marketing Association The American Marketing Association (AMA) is a professional association for marketing professionals with 30,000 members as of 2012. It has 76 professional chapters and 250 collegiate chapters across the United States. The AMA was formed in from th ...

in 1987 and has been an independent enterprise since 2008.

Awards

The Edison Awards are named after the inventor

Thomas Edison Thomas Alva Edison (February 11, 1847October 18, 1931) was an American inventor and businessman. He developed many devices in fields such as electric power generation, mass communication, sound recording, and motion pictures. These inventio ...

. They honor innovations in product and service development, marketing and human-centered design. Categories range from green technology to medical breakthroughs. Entrants must meet strict innovation criteria and competencies as defined in the book ''Innovate Like Edison: The Success System of America's Greatest Inventor'' (Gelb & Caldicott 2007). The Edison Awards Steering Committee reviews nominations; the finalists are then voted on by a large panel drawn from business professionals, scientists and academia. Entries are judged based on societal impact, creativity and marketplace success. In 2013, there were 14 categories and 38 sub-categories, with 131 award recipients.

Recipients

Past recipients of the Edison Achievement Award include: * 1991 – Herb Baum – Campbell Soup Co. * 1991 –

Frank Perdue Franklin Parsons Perdue (May 9, 1920 – March 31, 2005), born in Salisbury, Maryland, was for many years the president and CEO of Perdue Farms, now one of the largest chicken-producing companies in the United States. Background Frank was t ...

– Perdue Farms * 1992 – William McGowan – MCI Corporation * 1993 – J. Willard Marriott, Jr. – Marriott International * 1993 –

Jay Van Andel Jay Van Andel (June 3, 1924 – December 7, 2004) was an American billionaire businessman, best known as co-founder of the Amway Corporation, along with Richard DeVos. He also served as chairman of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce from 1979 to 1980 ...

– Amway Corporation * 1993 –

Raymond W. Smith Raymond is a male given name. It was borrowed into English from French (older French spellings were Reimund and Raimund, whereas the modern English and French spellings are identical). It originated as the Germanic ᚱᚨᚷᛁᚾᛗᚢᚾᛞ ( ...

– Bell Atlantic * 1993 –

Rich DeVos Richard Marvin DeVos Sr. (March 4, 1926 – September 6, 2018) was an American billionaire businessman, co-founder of Amway with Jay Van Andel (company restructured as Alticor in 2000), and owner of the Orlando Magic basketball team. In 2012, ...

– Amway Corporation * 1994 – Bert C. Roberts – MCI Corporation * 1994 – H. John Greeniaus – Nabisco, Inc. * 1995 – Arthur Martinez – Sears, Roebuck & Co. * 1995 – Robert Palmer – Digital Corporation * 1996 –

Douglas Ivester Douglas Ivester (born 1947) is an American businessman. He served as the chairman and chief executive officer of The Coca-Cola Company from 1997 to 2000. Early life Melvin Douglas Ivester was born in 1947 in New Holland, Georgia. He attended New ...

– Coca-Cola Company * 1996 – Nolan D. Archibald – Black & Decker * 1997 – Reuben Mark – Colgate-Palmolive * 1997 –

Martha Stewart Martha Helen Stewart (, ; born August 3, 1941) is an American retail businesswoman, writer, and television personality. As founder of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, she gained success through a variety of business ventures, encompassing pub ...

– MSL Omnimedia * 1999 – Dale Morrison – Campbell Soup Co. * 1999 –

Ted Turner Robert Edward "Ted" Turner III (born November 19, 1938) is an American entrepreneur, television producer, media proprietor, and philanthropist. He founded the Cable News Network (CNN), the first 24-hour United States cable news, cable news ch ...

– Time Warner * 2009 –

David M. Kelley David M. Kelley (born February 10, 1951) is an American engineer, designer, entrepreneur, businessman, and educator. He is co-founder of the design firm IDEO and a professor at Stanford University. He has received several honors for his contrib ...

– IDEO * 2009 –

Susan Desmond-Hellmann Sue Desmond-Hellmann is an American oncologist and biotechnology leader who served as the Chief Executive Officer of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation from 2014–2020. She was previously Chancellor of the University of California, San Francisc ...

– Genentech * 2010 –

A.G. Lafley Alan George "A. G." Lafley (born June 13, 1947) is an American businessman who led consumer goods maker Procter & Gamble (P&G) for two separate stints, from 2000 to 2010 and again from 2013 to 2015, during which he served as chairman, president ...

– Procter & Gamble * 2010 –

Susan Hockfield Susan Hockfield (born March 24, 1951) is an American neuroscientist who served as the sixteenth president of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology from December 2004 through June 2012. Hockfield succeeded Charles M. Vest and was succeeded by ...

– MIT * 2011 –

Alan Mulally Alan Roger Mulally (born August 4, 1945) is an American aerospace engineer and manufacturing executive. He is the former President and Chief Executive Officer of the Ford Motor Company. He retired from Ford Motor Company on July 1, 2014. Ford ...

– Ford Motor Company * 2011 –

John S. Hendricks John Samuel Hendricks (born March 29, 1952)"John Hendricks: An Oral History," The Cable Center, September 2, 2003. is an American businessman and is the founder and former chairman of Discovery, Inc. (now a part of Warner Bros. Discovery) a broa ...

– Discovery Communications * 2012 –

Chris Anderson Chris Anderson may refer to: Sports * Chris Anderson (baseball) (born 1992), American baseball player * Chris Anderson (cheese roller), 22-time winner of annual cheese rolling * Chris Anderson (footballer, born 1925) (1925–1986), Scottish footb ...

– TED * 2012 –

Steve Jobs Steven Paul Jobs (February 24, 1955 – October 5, 2011) was an American entrepreneur, industrial designer, media proprietor, and investor. He was the co-founder, chairman, and CEO of Apple; the chairman and majority shareholder of Pixar; a ...

– Apple, Inc. * 2013 –

Paul E. Jacobs Paul E. Jacobs (born October 30, 1962) is an American businessman and the former executive chairman of Qualcomm. Family and education Jacobs was born to a Jewish family, the son of Joan (née Klein) and Irwin M. Jacobs. His father was co-f ...

– Qualcomm * 2014 –

Elon Musk Elon Reeve Musk ( ; born June 28, 1971) is a business magnate and investor. He is the founder, CEO and chief engineer of SpaceX; angel investor, CEO and product architect of Tesla, Inc.; owner and CEO of Twitter, Inc.; founder of The Bori ...

– Tesla, SpaceX * 2014 –

Yang Yuanqing Yang Yuanqing (, born 12 November 1964) is a Chinese business executive and philanthropist who is the current chairman and CEO of Lenovo. Early life and education Yang was born on 12 November 1964 to parents both educated as surgeons. He spent ...

– LenovoMiguel Helft
"In pursuit of Innovation, a milestone for Lenovo"
''Fortune.com'', May 2, 2014 * 2015 –

Clayton M. Christensen Clayton Magleby Christensen (April 6, 1952January 23, 2020) was an American academic and business consultant who developed the theory of " disruptive innovation", which has been called the most influential business idea of the early 21st century ...

– Harvard Business School * 2015 –

Robert A. Lutz Robert Anthony Lutz (born February 12, 1932) is a Swiss American automotive executive. He served as a top leader of all of the United States Big Three automobile manufacturers, having been in succession executive vice president (and board member ...

– General Motors Company * 2016 – John Chambers – Cisco Systems, Inc. * 2017 –

Astro Teller Eric "Astro" Teller (born 29 May 1970) is a British-American entrepreneur, computer scientist, and author, with expertise in the field of intelligent technology. Early life and education Teller was born in Cambridge, England, and raised in Ev ...

– X * 2017 –

Jeff Immelt Jeffrey Robert Immelt (born February 19, 1956) is an American business executive currently working as a venture partner at New Enterprise Associates. He previously served as the CEO of General Electric from 2001 to 2017, and the CEO of GE's Medi ...

– General Electric * 2018 –

Marillyn Hewson Marillyn Adams Hewson (born December 27, 1953) is an American businesswoman who served as the chairman, president and chief executive officer (CEO) of Lockheed Martin from January 2013 to June 2020. She is currently the strategic advisor to the ...

– Lockheed Martin * 2019 –

Ginni Rometty Virginia Marie "Ginni" Rometty (born July 29, 1957) is an American business executive who served as executive chairman of IBM after stepping down as CEO on April 1, 2020. She previously served as chairman, president and CEO of IBM, becoming the ...

– IBM * 2021 – Jennifer Holmgren,

Reinhold Schmieding Reinhold D. Schmieding (born 1955/56) is an American billionaire businessman and the founder, CEO and 95% owner of Arthrex. Early life Schmieding was born in Michigan, the son of a dentist. His parents emigrated from Germany six months prior t ...

References

{{Reflist American awards Engineering awards Design awards Business and industry awards