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Business Book Award

Private Empire: ExxonMobil and American Power  by Steve Coll Wins the 2012 Financial Times and Goldman Sachs Business Book of the Year Award.

Private Empire: ExxonMobil and American Power by Steve Coll has been named the 2012 Financial Times and Goldman Sachs Business Book of the Year. Coll was named this year’s winner at an award dinner held in New York on November 1, 2012. The award was presented by award co-chairs Lloyd Blankfein, Chairman and CEO of Goldman Sachs, and Lionel Barber, editor of the Financial Times. The dinner was attended by leaders from the business and publishing communities. 

The following books comprised the 2012 shortlist:

  • The Hour Between Dog And Wolf: Risk-taking, Gut Feelings and the Biology of Boom and Bust by John Coates (The Penguin Press, Fourth Estate)

  • Private Empire: ExxonMobil and American Power by Steve Coll (The Penguin Press, Allen Lane)

  • Steve Jobs: The Exclusive Biography by Walter Isaacson (Simon & Schuster; Little, Brown)

  • Volcker: The Triumph of Persistence by William L. Silber (Bloomsbury Press)

  • What Money Can't Buy: The Moral Limits Of Markets by Michael J. Sandel (Farrar, Straus and Giroux; Allen Lane)

  • Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity and Poverty by Daron Acemoglu and James A. Robinson (Crown Business, Profile Books)
     

The judging panel, chaired by FT editor Lionel Barber, included:

  • Vindi Banga, Partner, Clayton, Dubilier & Rice
  • Lynda Gratton, Professor of Management Practice, London Business School
  • Douglas Holtz-Eakin, President of the American Action Forum
  • Arthur Levitt, former Chairman of the United States Securities and Exchange Commission
  • Jorma Ollila, Chairman of Royal Dutch Shell
  • Shriti Vadera, Director of Shriti Vadera Ltd, Non-Executive Director of BHP Billiton  and AstraZeneca

Click here to read the press release and more about the shortlisted books and authors.

For further information on the Book Award and this year's judging panel, visit: www.FT.com/bookaward

 

Business Book of the Year Award 2012

Private Empire: ExxonMobil and American Power by Steve Coll Wins the 2012 Financial Times and Goldman Sachs Business Book of the Year Award. Why Nations Fail answers the question that has stumped experts for centuries: Why are some nations rich and others poor, divided by wealth and poverty, health and sickness, food and famine?

Business Book of the Year Award 2011

Abhijit V. Banerjee and Esther Duflo won the 2011 Financial Times and Goldman Sachs Business Book of the Year Award for "Poor Economics: A Radical Rethinking of the Way to Fight Global Poverty." The book is a journey into the multi-faceted and complex lives of the poor, based on over fifteen years of work the authors have done with the poor, trying to understand the specific problems that come with poverty — and to find proven solutions. Read more.

Business Book of the Year Award 2010

Raghuram G. Rajan won the 2010 Financial Times and Goldman Sachs Business Book of the Year Award for "Fault Lines: How Hidden Fractures Still Threaten the World Economy". The book analyzes the flaws in the economy that led to the current financial crisis, and warns of changes essential for economic recovery. View more about the 2010 Book Award.

Business Book of the Year Award 2009

Liaquat Ahamed won the 2009 Business Book of the Year Award for "Lords of Finance: 1929, The Great Depression, and the Bankers Who Broke the World" and went on to win a Pulitzer Prize for the book. The book provides an engaging economic history of the Great Depression and offers a new understanding of the origins and global nature of financial crises. View more about the 2009 Book Award.

Business Book of the Year Award 2008

The 2008 Business Book of the Year Award was won by Mohamed El-Erian for "When Markets Collide: Investment Strategies for the Age of Global Economic Change". The book explores the new economic landscape and provides a detailed blueprint for both capitalizing on the investment opportunities available in this landscape, and minimizing the challenging new set of risks. View more about the 2008 event.

Previous Awards

William D. Cohan won the 2007 Award for "The Last Tycoons," James Kynge won the 2006 Award for "China Shakes the World" and The winner of the inaugural Book Award in 2005 was Thomas Friedman for his book "The World Is Flat."