The 2002 Awardees
James F. Higgins
(1948-2016)
BSBA 1970Ho-Ho-Kus, NJ
James F. ("Jim") Higgins, former president of the Morgan Stanley investment firm, received the John Carroll Award in ceremonies held at the Hotel Inter-Continental, Paris, France on April 27, 2002.
Higgins came to Georgetown in 1966 on a basketball scholarship from Don Bosco Prep, and was a co-captain of the team during its 1970 NIT appearance.
In his early 20's, Higgins went into the financial services industry with Dean Witter & Co. Three decades and one merger later, he was President and COO of Morgan Stanley Dean Witter, retiring at the age of 57. Even then, Jim never retired from Georgetown.
Jim Higgins was a relentless advocate for Georgetown. A former member of the University's Board of Directors and chairman of its Board of Regents from 2003-06, Higgins was a co-founder of the Wall Street Alliance in 1995, a group which has raised over $10 million in scholarship support to the University. A member of the Athletics Committee of the Board of Regents, Higgins received the Outstanding Contribution to Athletics Award by Hoyas Unlimited in 2006.
Jim Higgins died in 2016 at the age of 68.
Leslie Jacobsen
BSFS 1969New York, NY
Leslie Jacobsen, a former executive vice president and general counsel for Home Box Office, received the John Carroll Award in ceremonies held at the Hotel Inter-Continental, Paris, France on April 27, 2002.
Following her degree at Georgetown and law school at Cornell, Jacobsen joined HBO as an assistant counsel in 1979, later becoming chief counsel and associate general counsel. After a tenure at Tri-Star Pictures as its executive vice president and general counsel, Jacobsen returned to HBO to serve as executive vice president of film programming, a position she held through her retirement in 2001.
A former member of the Board of Governors, Board of Regents and Board of Directors, Jacobsen is an emeritus member of the SFS Board of Visitors, where the school initiated the Leslie H. Jacobsen Medal, awarded to an outstanding graduating senior in the International Political Economy major.
John R. Kennedy
(1930-2010)
AB 1952New Canaan, CT
John R. Kennedy, former CEO of the Federal Paper Board Company, received the John Carroll Award in ceremonies held at the Hotel Inter-Continental, Paris, France on April 27, 2002.
Kennedy, a 1952 graduate of the College, worked for Federal from 1992 to its retirement in 1996. He became president and CEO of the firm in 1966, which produced paperboard for consumer products packaging. Over the course of his 30 years at the helm, revenues increased ten-fold, according to local reports. In 1995, International Paper Company acquired the Montvale N.J. based company for $2.7 billion.
Kennedy served as chairman of Georgetown University's Board of Directors during its Third Century Campaign and served as the chairman of the campaign, which passed its $500 million goal in 2000 and was extended to raise $1 billion through 2003.
John Kennedy died in 2010 at the age of 80.
Conan N. Louis III
BSLA 1973, MA 1978, JD 1986Washington DC
Conan Louis, a former vice president at Georgetown University, received the John Carroll Award in ceremonies held at the Hotel Inter-Continental, Paris, France on April 27, 2002.
Through over 40 years as a student, alumnus, and university executive, Louis has been a voice of leadership within the Georgetown community dating back to the early 1970s when, as one of just 30 black students at Georgetown, he helped lead an effort to persuade the University to provide a house for minority students at Georgetown. Later known as the Black Students Alliance (BSA) House, it provided the young linguistics major an opportunity to grow.
"I believe it was that leadership experience that really helped to form who I was and who I became as a result of my Georgetown experience," Louis told The HOYA in 2013.
Following graduation in 1973, Louis attended graduate school and worked as a program director for the Smithsonian Institution and the American Correctional Association. Following work as a senior research associate at the University City Science Center, Louis earned a law degree from Georgetown in 1986 and was in private practice until 1997, when he was named the associate vice president of advancement at Georgetown and executive secretary of the Alumni Association. He later served a similar role at Howard University before becoming a senior associate at the firm of Bentz Whaley Flessner. His biography also notes that he served as Chief Development Officer for the National Society of Black Engineers, Director of Development for the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, and as the Chief Development Officer for The Seed Foundation. He now owns his own consultancy, specializing in fundraising and institutional advancement.
First elected to the Board of Governors of the Alumni Association in 1978, Louis serves as an emeritus member through the Alumni Senate, in additional to past leadership positions with the National Law Alumni Board, Hoyas Unlimited, and African-American Advisory Board.
Dr. Thomas F. Magovern M.D.
MD 1958Chevy Chase, MD
Dr. Thomas Magovern, a former professor of medicine at Georgetown University, received the John Carroll Award in ceremonies held at the Hotel Inter-Continental, Paris, France on April 27, 2002.
Magovern earned his medical degree from Georgetown in 1958 and completed his residency at the hospital. Following military service from 1962 to 1964, he served on the faculty from 1964 to 1970 before moving into private practice and serving as an associate clinical professor in obstetrics. he rejoined the full time faculty in 1987.
A former chairman of the Medical Alumni Board, Magovern is a 1996 recipient of the Alumni Association's Founders Award for outstanding service to the School of Medicine.