George received his Master's in Business Administration from Harvard University in 1966, where he was a Baker Scholar (highest honors). He holds his B.S. in industrial engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology, where he graduated in 1964, where he became a member of the Beta Psi Chapter of the Sigma Chi fraternity. More recently, he received an honorary doctorates of philosophy from Georgia Institute of Technology and of business administration from Bryant University Global Intranet Access for the Harvard Business School Community During 2002-03 he was professor at IMD International and Ecole Polytechnique in Lausanne, Switzerland, and executive-in-residence at Yale School of Management.

Mr. George joined Medtronic, a medical technology company, in 1989 as President and Chief Operating Officer; he was elected Chief Executive Officer in 1991 and Chairman of the Board in 1996. Prior to leading Medtronic, he held several executive positions with Honeywell and Litton Industries, including president of Honeywell's Space & Aviation business. He also served in the U.S Department of Defense. Mr. George currently serves on the boards of Exxon Mobil Corporation (since 2005), and Goldman Sachs. Formerly, he was a director of Novartis AG, Target, and the National Association of Corporate Directors. He is a trustee of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, World Economic Forum USA, and the Guthrie Theater.

He has served as chair of the board chair of Allina Health System, Abbott-Northwestern Hospital, United Way of the Greater Twin Cities, and Advamed.

George was named one of the "Twenty-five Best Business Leaders of the last 25 Years" by PBS in 2004. He has received the Alumni Achievement Award in 1997 from Harvard Business School and the Legends in Leadership Award from Yale University in 2002. In 2001 he was named "Executive of the Year" by the Academy of Management and "Director of the Year" for 2001-02 by the National Association of Corporate Directors. He is the recent recipient of East Grand Rapids Schools Foundation's Distinguished Alumni Award.

He and his wife Penny reside in Minnesota.

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