Agnieszka Winkler
Professional Background
In addition to her leadership in the advertising industry, Agnieszka Winkler has served as a corporate director for the following NASDAQ companies: Supercuts, Intertel, Reno Air, The Cheesecake Factory, and currently Virco. She has also generously offered her expertise and counsel for the sake of the civic community at this moment: as President of the Board of Catholic Charities of Santa Clara County, as Trustee of Santa Clara University, as a board member of the African Diaspora Network and the Jesuit School of Theology and as an Advisory Board member of the Miller Center for Social Entrepreneurship at Santa Clara University. She has numerous articles and a book to her name and the book she edited this year, Emigrant: 1939-2000 Fight for Freedom will be published November 2020.
Points of Interest
In today's society, advertising has a profound impact on how people understand life, the world and themselves, especially in regard to their values and their ways of choosing and behaving. Very few have demonstrated an ability to navigate the significance of advertising and technology as she has. As founder of Winkler Advertising and then of the Winkler Group, Agnieszka has both directed marketing and advertising for such companies as Sony and Hewlett-Packard and taught companies to maximize their marketing potential.
Education
B.A in History from Holy Names University
M.A in History from San Jose State University
M.B.A in Business Administration, Management and Operations from Santa Clara University - Leavey School of Business
Citation
Written by Fr. Michael Sweeney, OP, on May 2012 at the Induction in the College of Fellows
Agnieszka Winkler, wife and mother, business executive, entrepreneur and founder, civic leader, loyal daughter of the Church, the Dominican School of Philosophy and Theology salutes you.
In today's society, advertising has a profound impact on how people understand life, the world and themselves, especially in regard to their values and their ways of choosing and behaving. Very few have demonstrated an ability to navigate the significance of advertising and technology as you have. As founder of Winkler Advertising and then of the Winkler Group, you have both directed marketing and advertising for such companies as Sony and Hewlett-Packard and taught companies to maximize their marketing potential. You are frequently called upon as an industry key-note speaker internationally, and your book, Warp Speed Branding: The Impact of Technology on Marketing, first published in 1999, has enjoyed world-wide circulation, having been translated and published in China since 2000 and Turkey, since 2003.
Your accomplishments have been widely recognized: in 1986 you were awarded the Beta Gamma Sigma Medallion for Entrepreneurship; that same year Ad Age listed you among the 100 Best and Brightest Women in Advertising; in 1994 McCall's Magazine and Adweek named you the Best Woman in Advertising and you are listed in Who's Who in Advertising, the International Who's Who of Professional and Business Women, the International directory of Distinguished Leadership, the World Who's Who of Women and Personalities in America, among others. You have been designated the Outstanding Graduate of the University of Santa Clara Leavey School of Business, and are the recipient of the President's Medal of Holy Names University, and just last week you received the Durocher Award for exemplifying the values and spirit of Blessed Marie Rose Durocher and her Sisters of the Holy Names.
In addition to your leadership in the advertising industry, you have generously offered your expertise and counsel for the sake of the civic community: as a member of the Board of Directors of the Committee of 200, an international organization of women executives for the sake of promoting the leadership of women in the marketplace; as a member of the Advisory Board of the Western Art Director's Club; as a Member of the Board of Directors of Ascension Healthcare Network and of the Board of Trustees of Ascension Health; and as a Trustee of Santa Clara University and Regent of Holy Names University. You have been called upon for the sake of the international community as Director of the Polish Free Enterprise Project and for the Government of France on the Advisory Board of Normandy.
In his Encyclical Letter Laborem Excercens, Blessed John Paul II wrote that “human work is a key, probably the essential key, to the whole social question, particularly if we try to see that question really from the point of view of the good of mankind” (3.2). The mission of our School is to engage contemporary culture through the lens of the philosophical and theological tradition that we have received, precisely from the point of view of the good of mankind. It is profoundly and urgently important that we be able to read the signs of the times and to understand both the possibilities and the challenges that are to be found through the influences of the market upon our society if we are to fulfill our mission.
We are deeply grateful that you have consented to join with us in this work.
Therefore, as an expression of our esteem and gratitude, and in virtue of the authority invested in me by the Board of Trustees of the Dominican School of Philosophy and Theology, I am privileged to bestow upon you, Agnieszka Winkler, the degree Doctor of Humane Letters honoris causa, and to name you a Fellow of the School.