War vets in boardroom offer lessons in leadership

A vanishing breed: CEOs seasoned by military combat

When manufacturer Mykrolis replaced retiring CEO and former Marine captain William Zadel two months ago, the board chose Gideon Argov.

The directors were impressed that Argov, 47, had graduated magna cum laude from Harvard, received an MBA from Stanford and had been CEO of two other publicly traded companies. But they were equally swayed by Argov’s combat experience in the Israeli army as a tank commander along the Syrian border.

Combat veterans don’t rattle easily. They have seen pressure, and they’ve seen it young. There is no substitute for war to force twentysomethings into life-or-death decisions that influence their leadership style decades later. A business crisis just doesn’t seem stressful in comparison, says Zadel, 61, a West Point graduate who was under enemy fire in more than a dozen operations in Vietnam.

By Bob Laird, USA TODAY

Full Story: http://www.usatoday.com/money/companies/management/2005-01-18-war-ceo_x.htm