Robert Ingram Receiving John G. Medlin Award
Robert Ingram has been selected as the fourth recipient of the North Carolina Bar Association’s John G. Medlin Jr. Award. The award recognizes contributions to the administration of justice and judicial independence by a North Carolina citizen who is not a lawyer.
Ingram serves as general partner with Hatteras Venture Partners of Durham. As the CEO of Glaxo, he was a driving force in the merger of Glaxo and Burroughs Wellcome, and subsequently as Chairman and CEO of Glaxo Wellcome, co-led the merger and integration of GlaxoSmithKline.
The John G. Medlin Jr. Award was established in 2012 by the NCBA Board of Governors in memory of John Medlin, longtime president and CEO of Wachovia who served as chair of the Commission for the Future of Justice and the Courts in North Carolina (1994-96), often referred to as the Medlin Commission.
Previous recipients of the award are its namesake, honored posthumously in 2013; former Greensboro News & Record columnist and editorial writer Doug Clark, honored in 2017; and Dr. Charles Cooper of Pittsboro, executive director of HRC Behavioral Health & Psychiatry, honored in 2018.
Ingram stated that he is incredibly surprised and humbled to receive the award.
“I could not say that with more sincerity,” Ingram said. “As you know, I am not an attorney, but I have been the beneficiary throughout my professional business career of both in-house counsel and outside counsel, and this is not just defined by the counsel I have been privileged to be a part of.
“My general counsel at Glaxo, Sandy Costa, helped me think through strategy. He was a great advisor in the sense that he would say, ‘Bob, what do you want to do,” and then he would let me know the best way possible to do it. I have immense gratitude and respect for the profession of law.”
Nominees for the Medlin Award are selected by the Past Presidents’ Council and recommended to the NCBA Board of Governors. In so doing, it was noted that “Ingram has been a tireless advocate for an independent judiciary, having always demonstrated a commitment to a fair and just society. He has hosted events to encourage more women lawyers to serve on community boards, and as a member of corporate America, demonstrated an early commitment to promote women.”
The recommendation further noted that Ingram was appointed in 2006 by President Bush to serve on the National Institutes of Health, National Cancer Advisory Board, and in 2019 accepted his third Presidential appointment to the Presidential Cancer Panel.
Ingram counts many members of the North Carolina Bar Association among his closest friends, including Past Presidents John Jernigan and Martin Brinkley, Wade Smith, Gerald Roach and Russell Robinson.
“I could go on,” Ingram said. “To receive this award from an institution like the North Carolina Bar Association that I admire so much, coupled with fact that the award is named after one of my most treasured friends and mentors, I could not put into words how much this means to me.
“The first outside board I served on was Wachovia, when John Medlin was Chairman and CEO. I have often said that if we still had John Medlin leading Wachovia, we would have had a very different outcome. He was a model of integrity and honesty. I knew him when he led the commission to review the court system, and witnessed how seriously John took that assignment.
“Albeit he was modest about it, he was proud of the work that commission did and the recommendations they made.”
The Medlin Award is traditionally presented at the NCBA Annual Meeting, which was held online this year due to the coronavirus restrictions. Presentation of the award will take place at a later date.
This article is part of the August 2020 issue of North Carolina Lawyer. Access a curated view of NC Lawyer or view the table of contents.