UCLA Anderson School of Management Honors UCLA Women’s Basketball Head Coach Cori Close

“We are honoring Cori because she manifests something Coach Wooden understood deeply: Leadership is ultimately about what you bring out in other people,” said Dean Gareth James, the John E. Anderson Chair in Management. “That combination — an uncompromising pursuit of excellence and a profound investment in others — makes Cori a particularly fitting recipient of an award that bears Coach Wooden’s name.”

Caroline Nahas (B.A. ’70), chair of UCLA Anderson’s Board of Advisors, welcomed guests alongside Dean James. “In so many ways, tonight is about family,” said Nahas. “We are all part of the Bruin family. But there are two families we want to recognize especially tonight. First, the Andersons. UCLA Anderson couldn’t be prouder to carry the Anderson name. And, of course, we are forever grateful to the Wooden family.”

First presented in 2008, the award is named for legendary UCLA basketball coach, author and leadership expert John Wooden (1910–2010). It is given to an exceptional leader whose leadership style and service to the community reflect the high standards of performance, integrity and ethical values for which Wooden was known. The award was last presented to Delta Air Lines CEO Ed Bastian.

Close, who earned her Master of Educational Leadership and Administration from UCLA in 1995, was chosen as the 2026 Wooden Award recipient in recognition of her leadership on and off the basketball court, her commitment to student-athletes’ development as people, and her dedication to a values-based coaching philosophy shaped in part by her personal relationship with Coach Wooden.

In 2026, Close led UCLA women’s basketball to a 37–1 record and the program’s first NCAA championship. She was named Big Ten Coach of the Year and received multiple national coach of the year honors. More than 30 years after beginning her coaching career as a UCLA assistant, she also became the first coach in the history of the women’s basketball program to surpass 300 victories.

Close’s connection to Wooden began in 1993, when she joined the UCLA women’s basketball staff as an assistant coach. Among the most important lessons Close took from Wooden was that coaches could demand excellence without tearing athletes down or relying on fear to produce results.

Close recalled that Wooden rarely gave her direct solutions to the coaching problems she brought to him. Instead, he asked questions that helped her understand her own values and how she was wired to lead.

In her acceptance remarks, Close said, “I remember many times going to Coach and saying, ‘Coach, how would you do this? What would your advice be?’ And he would first say, ‘I don’t give advice. I only share my opinion.’ But even more often than not, he would ask more questions … to empower me to become a better thinker, and to empower me to lead in a way — and learn in a way — that fits my personality.”

At the Wooden Award banquet, 2022 John Wooden Global Leadership Award recipient Brian Cornell (B.A. ’81, CERT ’91), executive chair of the board of Target Inc., engaged Close in a lively and heartfelt conversation about leadership, the championship season and the continuing influence of Coach Wooden.

Cornell asked Close how she turns great individual talent into a great team. “You can’t have a committed team unless you have a connected team,” Close replied. “I want to learn. I want to give wisdom when appropriate. But I want to create a landscape where they feel empowered to become the best version of themselves. It’s our job as leaders to create a landscape where everybody can feel safe, seen and heard. And then we try to just celebrate what we want to see more of.”

Asked by Cornell what Coach Wooden would say if he were present to witness her award, Close said, “First, he would say, ‘Don’t let it go to your head.’ I hope he would smile,” she said, “and I hope he would feel that the time he put into me was time well spent.”

In the formal presentation of the award, UCLA Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost Darnell Hunt said to Close, “Great coaches win games and championships. The truly exceptional ones leave a mark on the people they lead, and through them, on communities far beyond their own teams. That is what you have done here at UCLA. You have made us proud, not only because of what you’ve accomplished, but because of how you lead and what you stand for.”

A tribute to John Wooden began the program and featured remarks by Basketball Hall of Famer Marques Johnson (B.A. ’77), who starred on Coach Wooden’s final championship team in 1975.

“The most important thing that a coach could do is love his players,” said Johnson, who joked that Coach Wooden might not have liked all his players, but he did love them all. “Coach Wooden fostered this atmosphere of camaraderie, all of us feeling like we were part of something big, something special. Just being able to say that I played for John Wooden, that I knew John Wooden … and heard him talk about the most important thing that a coach could do is love his players.”

Former UCLA Basketball star John Vallely remembered Coach Wooden’s advice: “Never try to be better than someone else, but never cease trying to be the best that you can be. Why would any of us ever compare ourselves to another human being? There’s not another one on Earth that is like us.”

Previous John Wooden Global Leadership honorees include: Ed Bastian, chief executive officer of Delta Air Lines; Brian Cornell (B.A. ’81, CERT ’91), board chairman and former chief executive officer of Target Inc.; Kenneth C. Frazier, former chairman and chief executive officer of Merck; Mellody Hobson, co-CEO and president of Ariel Investments; Reed Hastings, co-founder of Netflix; W. James McNerney Jr., former chairman, president and CEO of Boeing; Ursula Burns, former chairman and CEO of Xerox; Paul E. Jacobs, former executive chairman of Qualcomm; Robert Iger, former chief executive officer of The Walt Disney Company; Indra Nooyi, former CEO of PepsiCo; Peter Ueberroth, former president of the Los Angeles Olympic Organizing Committee; Frederick Smith, founder of FedEx; Kenneth Chenault, former chairman and CEO of American Express; and Howard Schultz, former chairman and CEO of Starbucks.

Net proceeds from the event support fellowships for UCLA Anderson students who embody Coach Wooden’s leadership ideals and commitment to improving the lives of others.

Three students were honored as 2026 John Wooden Leadership Fellows:

• Coco (Hsiu-Wen) Cheng (MSBA ’26)
• Caleigh Hernandez (FEMBA ’28)
• Nisha Viswanathan, M.D., FACP (FEMBA ’28)

Each student will receive a $35,000 fellowship.

Professor Emeritus Al Osborne, faculty director emeritus of Anderson’s Price Center for Entrepreneurship & Innovation, presented the 2026 John Wooden Leadership Fellows. “Coach taught us that character matters, that how you achieve something matters as much as the achievement itself,” said Osborne. “The true measure of a leader can be found in the lives they touch along the way. Our newest fellows carry those values forward. You understand that leadership is not simply about what you accomplish,” he said to the fellows. “It is about who you lift up. What you stand for. And what you leave behind.”

The 2024 and 2025 John Wooden Leadership fellows were also recognized at the event:

• Ishan Asokan, MD, M.Sc. (FEB ’26)
• Laura Shunk (EMBA ’25)
• Ike Zhan (FTMBA ’25)
• Emma Harvey (MSBA ’25)
• Lorenzo Lewis (UCLA-NUS ’26)
• Smruthi Swaminathan (FTMBA ’26)

They were introduced by Juhie Rathor (’24), a 2023 John Wooden Leadership Fellow. “For Coach Wooden, leadership was about far more than achievement. It was about character,” said Rathor. “It was grounded in empathy, care and a deep respect for the people you have the privilege to lead. That idea has stayed with me because empathy is at the heart of the kind of leader I want to be — and the kind of leader I know so many Wooden Fellows aspire to be.”

About the John Wooden Global Leadership Award

As the most successful coach in U.S. men’s college basketball history, John Wooden left a legacy of leadership that transcends athletics and spans generations. As a coach, prolific author and inspiring speaker, he dedicated his life to motivating people to achieve their highest potential. Wooden instilled in others a sense of pride, a commitment to ethics and a respect for teamwork. UCLA Anderson extends these fundamental principles and Wooden’s famous Pyramid of Success into the classroom through the Wooden Global Leadership Program. Learn more about the John Wooden Global Leadership Award, fellowships and UCLA Anderson School of Management.

About UCLA Anderson School of Management

UCLA Anderson School of Management is a world-renowned learning and research institution. As part of the nation’s No. 1 public university, its mission is to advance management thinking and prepare transformative leaders to make positive business and societal impact. Located in Los Angeles, one of the nation’s most diverse and dynamic cities and the creative capital of the world, UCLA Anderson places more MBAs on the West Coast than any other business school, and its graduates also bring an innovative and inclusive West Coast sensibility to leading organizations across the U.S. and the world. Each year, UCLA Anderson’s MBA, Fully Employed MBA, Executive MBA, UCLA-NUS Executive MBA, Master of Financial Engineering, Master of Science in Business Analytics and doctoral programs educate more than 2,000 students, while the Executive Education program trains an additional 1,800 professionals. This next generation of transformative leaders will help shape the future of both business and society.

anderson.ucla.edu

SOURCE UCLA Anderson School of Management