In 2025, NYTimes Bestselling Author and Positive Psychology Researcher, Shawn Achor.
| 2024 | Craig J. Mundie |
| 2023 | JJ Abrams |
| 2022 | Yo-Yo Ma |
| 2021 | Boyd Varty |
| 2020 | Mike Krzyzewski |
| 2019 | Jim Yong Kim, MD, PhD |
| 2018 | General Stan McChrystal |
| 2017 | Meg Whitman |
| 2016 | President George W. Bush |
| 2015 | Charles Krauthammer |
| 2014 | Clayton Christensen |
| 2013 | Chesley B. (Sully) Sullenberger III |
| 2012 | J. Craig Venter, PhD |
| 2011 | Nathaniel Philbrick |
| 2010 | Newt Gingrich, PhD |
| 2009 | Uwe E. Reinhardt, PhD |
| 2008 | Douglas Brinkley, MD |
| 2007 | Thomas Friedman |
| 2006 | George F. Will |
| 2005 | Edmund Morris |
| 2004 | Ken Burns |
| 2003 | Henry A. Kissinger, PhD |
| 2002 | Benazir Bhutto |
| 2001 | Tom Brokaw |
| 2000 | Doris Kearns Goodwin |
| 1999 | President George Herbert Walker Bush |
| 1998 | Eric Wieschaus, PhD |
| 1997 | William J. Bennett, PhD |
| 1996 | William F. Buckley Jr. |
| 1995 | General Colin L. Powell |
| 1994 | Beverly Sills |
| 1993 | The Hon. Morris B. Abram, Esq. |
| 1992 | Susan Eisenhower |
| 1992 | Ronald Z. Sagdeev, PhD |
| 1991 | Yevgeny Yevtushenk |
| 1990 | President James Earl Carter Jr. |
| 1989 | Theodore Cooper, MD, PhD |
| 1988 | The Hon. Brian Dickson |
| 1987 | H. Ross Perot |
| 1986 | The Hon. Richard D. Lamm |
| 1985 | Raymond E. Arvidson, PhD |
| 1984 | Robert M. Rosenzweig, PhD |
| 1983 | Edmund D. Pellegrino, MD |
| 1982 | Mortimer J. Adler, PhD |
| 1981 | Julius Axelrod, PhD |
| 1980 | The Hon. Kingman Brewster |
| 1979 | The Hon. Paul Rogers |
| 1978 | C. Rollins Hanlon, MD |
| 1977 | Eli Ginzberg, PhD |
| 1976 | Robert O. Egeberg, MD |
| 1975 | Paul W. McCracken, MD |
| 1974 | Malcolm Moos, PhD |
| 1973 | Wernher von Braun, PhD |
| 1972 | Robert Q. Marston, MD |
| 1971 | Wilder Penfield, MD |
| 1970 | Edwin L. Crosby, MD |
| 1969 | John S. Millis, PhD |
| 1968 | Buckminster Fuller, PhD |
| 1967 | William H. Stewart, MD |
| 1966 | Philip Handler, MD |
| 1965 | Louise Eisenhardt, MD |
