Former Bowdoin goaltender Bob White has been named the recipient of the 2015 American Hockey Coaches Association’s Lou Lamoriello Award.
The award, named in honor of the former Providence player, coach and athletic director and current New Jersey Devils president and general manager, will be presented during this year’s Frozen Four in Boston. The award, established in 2004 by a group of retired college hockey coaches, recognizes a former college hockey player or coach for their unique and distinguished professional career.
“Bob White’s story serves as such a great example of the leaders college hockey players become,” said AHCA executive director Joe Bertagna in a news release. “He took the lessons learned from one of the great coaches of our time, Sid Watson, and applied them to his hugely successful post-college life. And then he gave back to his alma mater in gratitude for his experience at Bowdoin.”
White is the first Lamoriello Award recipient who played his college hockey at the NCAA Division III level. While at Bowdoin, the Polar Bears won two ECAC Division II titles.
“I am deeply honored to receive the Lou Lamoriello Award,” said White. “Sid Watson, my Bowdoin coach and mentor, had great respect and admiration for Coach Lamoriello and I know that he would be proud of this. I would like to thank my teammates, coaches, friends, colleagues and family for all the help and support along the way. I would also like to thank the American Hockey Coaches Association and its executive director, Joe Bertagna, for this special award.”
White is a senior lecturer in the Entrepreneurial Management Unit at the Harvard Business School where he currently teaches entrepreneurial finance, an elective course in the second year MBA curriculum. White was one of the founding partners of Bain Capital in 1984. He served for 20 years as a partner and Managing Director of the firm and is currently a special limited partner. From an initial fund of $38 million, Bain Capital and its affiliated advisors currently manage over $75 billion in five asset classes in eight countries.
Prior to joining the faculty, White was a Resident Fellow at the Harvard Institute of Politics, following his role in national politics. He served as Chairman of the 2012 and 2008 Romney Presidential Committees, and had served previously as the Chairman of Governor Romney’s Gubernatorial Transition Committee. White has served on numerous non-profit, private and public company boards of directors. He is a trustee of Bowdoin College and served on the Board of Deans Advisors at the Harvard Business School and the Board of Governors of the London Business School.
“Bob White is one of our program’s iconic personalities,” added current Bowdoin coach Terry Meagher in a statement. “His name stands proudly beside those of his generation which include Watson, Kullen, Martin, Donovan and so many others. Bob’s contributions to Bowdoin and our men’s hockey program commenced as a student with a high level of academic achievement and with athletic success in a most visible program. He continues to show unwavering loyalty to his college.
“Bob is an accomplished leader and business man. It is a career surpassed only by his role as parent with his wife Tona, along with admirable contributions to youth and high school sport. Bob’s recognition is even more special with Coach Watson and Coach Lamoriello not only being ‘game changers’ as college hockey builders, but close friends during what many have said were the glory days of college and high school hockey in New England.”
The award will be formally presented at a luncheon on Friday, April 10, at the Royal Sonesta Hotel in Cambridge, Mass.
Penn State’s Joe Battsita won the Lamoriello Award in 2014.
