FEATURED PRAISE FROM
A NOTE BEFORE THE BOOK
Foreword
By Amina J. Mohammed
DEPUTY SECRETARY-GENERAL, UNITED NATIONS
CHAIR, UNITED NATIONS SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GROUP
Ihave a confession to make. When Owen Sakawa first sent me the manuscript for this book, I put it in the pile.
Another book about leadership. Another framework. Another set of principles. I thought I had seen it all before.
Weeks later, I picked it up. By the end of the first chapter, I did not put it down again until I had finished the last page.
We are living in a time of extraordinary innovation and extraordinary distrust. Our institutions are under strain. Our technologies are outpacing our ethics. Our leaders are expected to deliver more than ever—while trusted less than ever.
In this environment, trust is no longer a soft, intangible quality. It is the infrastructure that holds everything together.
Owen Sakawa has written the book for this moment.
Code of Trust is not a collection of theories. It is the distillation of a lifetime of building, leading, failing, learning, and choosing integrity when it would have been easier not to. It connects the ancient wisdom of human relationships with the urgent realities of AI, technology, and global leadership.
It is honest about how trust is broken.
Clear about how it is built.
And practical about how it is sustained.
Trust is not a feeling.
It is infrastructure.
Code of Trust is the book
for this moment.
Read it with a pen.
Read it twice.
If you are a leader in any sector—government, business, civil society, or the next generation rising into responsibility—this book will challenge you, equip you, and steady you. More importantly, it will remind you that the future belongs to those who earn trust, not those who demand it.
AMINA J. MOHAMMED
DEPUTY SECRETARY-GENERAL, UNITED NATIONS
CHAIR, UNITED NATIONS SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GROUP
New York, United States • 2025