A former chief executive of a multi-billion dollar company and current Chairman of the Board at Cleveland’s Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum is being honored by the College of Arts and Sciences with a Distinguished Achievement Award.

Christopher Connor (BA, sociology, 1978) served as Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer of The Sherwin-Williams Company for the 17 years leading up to his retirement in 2016. Connor currently serves on the Board of Directors of Yum Brands, International Paper and the Eaton Corporation. His many civic and community board engagements include University Hospitals Health System, The Playhouse Square Foundation, Fisher College of Business at The Ohio State University and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum.

Connor says that he places inestimable value on his education at Ohio State, where he learned as much outside of the classroom as in it. “Ohio State is a big stage, unlike smaller, boutique colleges that hold your hand, along the way. Ohio State is one of those places that you have to learn how to find your own path and support your own plans to get ahead. And that’s the way the real world works.”

While Connor always had an interest in pursuing a career in business, he felt that pursuing a degree from the Department of Sociology would better serve his overall growth. He says he can remember specific classes that helped to change his worldview. “I remember a sociology professor, Dr. Joseph Scott, he was a criminologist. I sat in his classes with my eyes wide-open, every single day was incredible. I can remember a history of American business class that gave me a profound interest in pursuing a career in business. So many touchpoints that have impacted me today.”

Connor says that, among the many lessons he learned at Ohio State, perhaps the most valuable was not to be afraid of hard work. “In life, when you have chances to do hard things, you should do them. When you have opportunities to do tough assignments, where things haven’t gone well, I encourage kids to put their hands straight up in the air. ‘Put me in coach.’ And those lessons learned – those aren’t always the smoothest path, there’s some bumpy roads along the way – but surviving those and moving on have been the best education for me, in my business career.”

Connor’s 33-year career at The Sherwin-Williams Company were marked by consistent financial growth for shareholders and an environment of integrity for employees and other executives. In addition to regular recognition of the company by publications, such as Business Week and Fortune Magazine, Harvard Business Review identified Connor, himself, as one of the top 100 best-performing CEOs in the world for three consecutive years. Connor says accolades such as these often feel like a vindication, of sorts, for the concerns he had for his future, upon his graduation.

“I was somewhat fearful, upon graduation, that this was ever a degree that I was going to be able to parlay into a business career. But I quickly recognized that the study of the humanities, being able to connect with others and communicate and understand what leads people to behave they way they do, those are broader skills that are equally important to skills in accounting or engineering or the other technical skills that go into running a company.”

Even though Connor is now retired from Sherwin-Williams, he continues to give back to his home community of Cleveland through his involvement on the boards of organizations looking to improve the city. Connor says that his focus, now, is building that sense of community to help those living in northeast Ohio – and to make the area more welcoming to individuals and businesses.

“America is a large country but, in many ways, we’re at our best when we behave like small towns. Whether that’s the community that we live in or the groups of people we choose to associate with. And I’ve always felt that, when things seem like they’re at their darkest, the real strength of our world are these smaller communities.”

To this day, Connor says he would always recommend an education at Ohio State to anyone who asks, even making a point to say he thinks such an education is more valuable than one received at an Ivy League school. “It’s easy to endorse it, for sure. I’ve always been proud to tell people that I’m a graduate of The Ohio State University. I never have to follow up that statement by describing where it is, what it is, what kind of school it is. This is an internationally known and recognized brand and a school that has incredible credentials in so many areas: academics, to be sure; athletics, of course.”

Connor said that, when he learned that he would be recognized by the College of Arts and Sciences with a Distinguished Achievement Award, he wondered if there might be better alums out there to receive such an honor. “Quite surprising, quite humbling. A degree in liberal arts, in my case sociology, can have an incredible value and impact. The recognition by the school that I’m one of many who have taken that path and made a difference, humbling is the word I keep coming back to.”

But, he says, he hopes his experience can serve as an example to other students – and their parents – of just what an Ohio State education can do. “Maybe this can be an example for those parents, who, when their children tell them that this is their field of study, they’re concerned about work. To be able to show them where a degree like that can take them will be a great experience.”

The College of Arts and Sciences congratulates Christopher Connor and all of the recipients of the 2022-2023 Arts and Sciences Alumni Awards. The five recipients will be presented with their awards on Friday, April 14.