As the U.S. presidential election draws near, business leaders are starting to come out for Vice President Kamala Harris or former President Donald Trump. But for one former CEO turned leadership expert, the candidate he wants to talk about most is on the bottom half of the ticket: Democratic VP candidate Tim Walz.
Bill George is an executive fellow at Harvard Business School and former CEO of medical device company Medtronic, a Fortune 500 Europe company. His most recent book is True North: Emerging Leader Edition. It examines how emerging leaders can discover their “True North”―who they are―and then find their “North Star” or leadership philosophy. George, who has lived since 1970 in Minnesota where Walz is the governor, has applied his leadership lens to the VP candidate.
The 60-year-old Walz was thrust into the national spotlight on August 6 when Harris named him as her running mate. She chose Walz—a military veteran, a social studies teacher, football coach, and a union supporter—from a field of final contenders including Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro. The two have since hit the campaign trail, with the party set to open its convention in Chicago next week.
“Tim is very moderate, and a person that's always trying to find solutions that help the people of Minnesota,” George told Fortune. “He's a very down-to-earth guy that you can talk to, and you may have differing points of view, but he can find a resolution that's good for everyone.”
George became acquainted with the governor when Walz reached out to him on several occasions to talk about building a stronger business community in Minnesota, he said. And in June, George had a private breakfast with him.
Regarding Walz’s leadership ability, he offered the example of the recent controversy of the Minneapolis City Council approving an ordinance in March, overriding a veto by Mayor Frey, requiring Uber and Lyft to pay $1.40 per mile and 51 cents per minute to drivers. Both companies threatened to leave Minnesota due to the ordinance.
“The governor eventually stepped in and worked with Uber and Lyft and the drivers, and got agreement,” George said. Lawmakers eventually reached a new deal in May of $1.28 per mile but only 31 cents per minute. Uber and Lyft agreed and said they would stay.
George also shared a more personal anecdote about Walz. Many years ago, one of George’s friends was driving a van with her friends in southern Minnesota and had a flat tire, he explained. They were trying to figure out how to change it, and “some guy pulls up in a pickup truck behind them, hops out, and he says, ‘I'll be glad to help you,’” George said. They didn’t know him at the time and asked his name, and he said, “I’m Tim Walz,” he said. He replaced the tire with a spare, took the damaged tire into town, and then brought it back fully repaired.
Regarding a future for the Minnesota governor as vice president, a Harris-Walz administration would “ultimately” be good for business, and for working people, too, George said.
“For the last 20, 40 years, we’ve neglected frontline workers of all kinds,” he said. That’s everyone from service and factory workers to teachers, doctors and nurses, he added. “As I say in all my CEO programs at Harvard, ‘Get out with your frontline people; they’re the other ones doing the work,’” George said.
“In some ways, as a society, we've lost the middle class,” he said. And fair wages and benefits could restore the middle class, George said. Walz has delivered a variety of rebate checks up to $1,300 to seniors, students, workers, and middle-class families, according to his website. He also lowered taxes for small businesses and fully exempted state taxes on social security for more than three-quarters of seniors.
But as the Harris campaign lauds Walz’s leadership, some critics, including Republican Vice Presidential nominee J.D. Vance, have blasted what they say was an undue delay by Walz in calling in the National Guard during the social unrest in Minneapolis in 2020 following the murder of George Floyd.
“I think that there was a lot of confusion between the mayor's office and the governor's office,” George said. Walz was waiting for a formal request on May 27, and he got it on May 28, and he sent in the National Guard, said George, a resident of Minneapolis. “Could he have moved a day sooner? Possibly. But, I think he and the mayor did the best they could under very awkward circumstances,” he said.
Before joining corporate America, George started his career in the U.S. Department of Defense as assistant to the assistant secretary of defense (comptroller) and then special civilian assistant to the secretary of the Navy. He said that running a country is “totally different” than running a corporation.
But the common thread in the case of both business and government—and what George is teaching CEOs through the Harvard program—is that you have to be prepared for any potential crisis. “I think you have to be very adaptable,” he said.
If Walz ascends to the role of Vice President, it will be a matter of time until his ability to adapt is put to the test.
