Oct. 6, 2009 (Business Wire) -- Today Corporate Responsibility Officer Magazine announced the winners of its third annual Responsible CEO of the Year Awards and will present the Awards at dinner following day one of the annual CRO Summit at the Union League Club in Chicago.

“Every year the competition gets tougher, the bar gets raised, and organizations find more ways to protect stakeholder interests and the environment while growing and delivering profits,” said Jay Whitehead, publisher of CRO Magazine, the Awards’ sponsor. “CRO’s editorial team was really torn with the choices, as all the nominees represent the best in class,” Whitehead continued.

The names and backgrounds of the 24 nominees in eight categories were published in the Summer, 2009 issue of CRO Magazine. CRO’s third annual Responsible CEO of the Year Awards are given by the same editorial group as publish the highly-popular 100 Best Corporate Citizens List, now in its tenth year.

The Awards will be handed out at dinner on October 6 following the first day of the CRO Summit at the Chicago Union League Club, and will be followed by a keynote speech by Interface Inc. Chairman and author of “Confessions of a Radical Industrialist” Ray Anderson. Nearly all the award winners will be present to accept the Awards.

The 2009 award winners in all eight categories are:

- Large-Cap Companies: John Hess, CEO Hess Oil
- Mid-Cap Companies: Lawrence Blanford, CEO Green Mountain Coffee Roasters
- Small-Cap-Companies: Neil Eckert, CEO, Climate Change PLC, parent of Chicago Climate Exchange
- Private Companies: Scott Lang, CEO, Silver Spring Networks
- NGO/Non-Profits: Paul Dickinson, CEO, Carbon Disclosure Project
- Social Entrepreneur: Michael Eckhart, CEO, American Council on Renewable Energy (ACORE)
- Corporate Foundation: Stanley Litow, President, IBM Foundation
- Government: Luke Ravenstahl, Mayor, City of Pittsburgh