Soichiro Honda

AWARD LAUREATES | Soichiro Honda


Soichiro Honda

Founder and Former President of Honda Motors

Soichiro Honda was the founder of the Japanese manufacturer Honda, which has been the world’s largest motorcycle manufacturer since 1959. Born in Japan in 1906, his childhood was spent assisting his father in his bicycle repair business. After leaving school Mr Honda began work as an apprentice at an auto repair garage in Tokyo. In 1928, he returned to his hometown of Hamamatsu as a trained mechanic and started his own auto repair business. During this period, Mr Honda became particularly interested in cars and motorcycles. In 1937 he founded the Tōkai Seiki Company to manufacture piston rings which he sold to Toyota, a prominent Japanese car manufacturer. Following a bomb attack during World War Two which destroyed Tōkai Seiki’s plant, Mr Honda sold the remainder of his business and used the money to fund the Honda Technical Research Institute in 1946. The following year he began manufacturing motorcycles from the Honda Motor Company and within a decade Honda had become the leading motorcycle manufacturer in the world. Through effective marketing and advertising they entered the American market and opened the first US dealership in 1959. As President Mr Honda was an innovator for the Japanese business sector, promoting executives on performance basis rather than the period of time they had been working for the company. His methods attracted the press’ attention and he was admired for his business operations by American business practices.  He served as President until he retired 1973, but continued on as Director. He died in 1991 and was subsequently appointed a Grand Cordon of the Order of the Rising Sun.

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Le Monde

AWARD LAUREATES | Le Monde


Le Monde

Newspaper

Le Monde is a French daily evening newspaper. It was founded in 1944 by Hubert Beuve-Méry, and has since grown to become the world’s main source of printed French news, with 35,000 copies of the paper being distributed abroad on a weekly basis. It was founded at the request of General De Gaulle following the removal of the German army from Paris in World War Two. The German army had taken over the newspaper Le Temps, which had previously served as the most important French newspaper. Hubert Beuve-Méry’s provision upon being chosen to be Editor in Chief of the newspaper was to have complete editorial independence. The governance of the newspaper is structured collegially, with many journalists, who have tenure with the paper, also being allowed to be financial stakeholders and participate in the elections of senior executives. The paper’s editorial line has often been described as centre-left, with Le Monde backing several Socialist candidates in recent years.

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Dr. Gustav Heinemann

AWARD LAUREATES | Dr. Gustav Heinemann


Dr. Gustav Heinemann

Former President of the Federal Republic of Germany

Dr Gustav Heinemann was presented with the Gold Mercury International Peace Award in 1971 for his work as President of the Federal Republic of Germany. Following a short stint as a soldier during World War One, he studied Law, Economics, and History at university and graduated in 1922. He succeeded in passing the bar in 1926 and later earned a Doctorate of Law in 1929. After working as a legal adviser and a law lecturer he was appointed Mayor of Essen in 1946, a role he served in until 1949. He was a founding member of the Christian Democratic Union in North Rhine-Westphalia, which became an inter-denominational and democratic association of people who were opposed to Nazism. He later became a Minister of the Interior in the government of the newly formed Federal Republic of Germany, but resigned over the Chancellor’s decision to allow German participation in a Western European army. President Heinemann was a staunch opponent of armament and the acquisition of atomic weapons as he felt it would threaten Germany’s chance of unification and future peace. He went on to form his own political party, the All-German People’s Party, which advocated negotiations with the Soviet Union and sought to achieve a unified and neutral Germany. After dissolving his political party in 1957, he joined the Social Democratic Party and was elected President of the Federal Republic of Germany in 1969. During his presidency President Heinemann encouraged Germans to exercise their democratic rights and defend social justice. He also supported stability in the region by encouraging reconciliation with Eastern European states. He often looked towards the future, aiming to maintain peace by endorsing research into the nature and causes of conflict and was committed to achieving a stable democratic state.

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