Executive of the Year

Robert Mittelstaedt, Michael Ahearn, Edward Rodriguez

Each year the W. P. Carey School Dean’s Council of 100 honors a business leader whose contribution is recognized as significant, whose inspired management has created and sustained superior organizational performance, and whose presence exemplifies a model for future business leaders.

The Dean’s Council of 100 has selected Michael J. Ahearn as our 2008 Executive of the Year. Mr. Ahearn is the chairman and chief executive officer of First Solar. He also served as president of First Solar from August 2000 to March 2007. From 1996 until November 2006, he was a partner and president of the equity investment firm JWMA Partners, LLC, or JWMA (formerly True North Partners, L.L.C.). Prior to joining JWMA, Mr. Ahearn practiced law as a partner in the firm of Gallagher & Kennedy. He is alumnus of ASU’s W. P. Carey School of Business, where he earned an undergraduate degree in Finance. He received his Juris Doctorate from the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law at Arizona State University.