LEAD San Diego released the following announcement on Jan. 8, 2013.
La Jolla residents Irwin and Joan Jacobs are among the individuals who will be honored at the 11th Annual Visionary Awards, Southern California's premier leadership recognition event. The Jacobs will receive the 2013 Neil Morgan Award for Lifetime Achievement, named for another La Jolla resident, former newspaper editor Neil Morgan.
Focusing on a theme of collaboration, the honorees’ contributions will be celebrated on Thursday, May 23, 2013 at the Hilton San Diego Bayfront. "Part of our mission is to inspire leadership and civic engagement," said Vicky Carlson, president and CEO of LEAD San Diego. "What better way to inspire others than to showcase the leaders who live and breathe civic engagement every day."
The following individuals will be honored at the May event.
Irwin and Joan Jacobs
The Neil Morgan Award for Lifetime Achievement
Irwin Jacobs, co-founder and former chairman and CEO of Qualcomm, and his wife Joan are among the region’s top philanthropic leaders. Since moving to San Diego in the mid-1960s, the Jacobs have collaborated with numerous organizations in many ways, resulting in a profound impact on our community. They are active and enthusiastic supporters of a wide variety of institutions and organizations, including University of California, San Diego; the Salk Institute for Biological Studies; KPBS San Diego; San Diego Symphony; Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego; La Jolla Playhouse; San Diego Opera; Old Globe Theatre; San Diego Public Library Foundation; Balboa Park Online Collaborative and the Lawrence Family Jewish Community Center. Irwin Jacobs also formed the Plaza de Panama Committee to champion the city council-approved plan to remove traffic and parking from the heart of Balboa Park. As members of The Giving Pledge, the Jacobs have committed to giving the majority of their wealth to philanthropic causes and charitable organizations of their choice.
Dr. Elizabeth ‘Betty’ Jones, Class of 1993
LEAD Graduate of the Year
Dr. Elizabeth “Betty” Jones is founder of the Foundation for the Children of the Californias. The organization is a tri-national collaboration with Canada, the United States and Mexico that endeavors to improve the health and nutrition for the children of the California and Mexico border region through the operation of the only pediatric specialty medical and educational complex in northwestern Mexico. Jones, a nutritionist, collaborated with Tijuana pediatric surgeon Gabriel Chong King to establish Hospital Infantil de las Californias 18 years ago. Since that time, tens of thousands of children have been treated at the center for a broad range of conditions from asthma to club foot to speech defects. The facility is accessible to all children of the San Diego/Tijuana region, regardless of their ability to pay. Always focused on expansion, Jones led efforts resulting in the recent opening of the hospital’s Harland Sanders Ambulatory Surgery Center, a 26,000-square-foot facility housing three surgical suites, recovery rooms and support offices.
Malin Burnham, Bill Geppert, Bob Kelly and Peter MacCracken, Our Greater San Diego Vision
The Ronald Kendrick Memorial Award for Regional Collaboration
The collaboration of Malin Burnham, Bill Geppert, Bob Kelly and Peter MacCracken served as the force behind Our Greater San Diego Vision, a framework designed to capture the community’s vision for the future of our region. Burnham, a retired real estate executive and community leader, provided the endowment to underwrite The Malin Burnham Center for Civic Engagement (CCE), which will steward the vision and help move it forward. Geppert, a former executive with Cox Communications, serves as chair of the visioning effort and also a member of the CCE Leadership Committee. Kelly is president and CEO of The San Diego Foundation, the organization facilitating Our Greater San Diego Vision and providing additional major funding for the CCE. MacCracken, principal of Strategic Communications, a public relations consultancy that focuses on community-based issues, created and championed the idea for the regional vision initiative, and recognized the need to engage a large number of people in the process.
Bruce Boland, Thella Bowens and Robert Gleason, San Diego County Regional Airport Authority
Economic Opportunity Award
Bruce Boland, a retired Rear Admiral of the U.S. Navy, has been on the board of San Diego County Regional Airport Authority (SDCRAA) since 2006 and chairs the Terminal Development Program Committee. Thella Bowens has been president/CEO of SDCRAA, the owner and operator of San Diego International Airport (SDIA), since 2003. Robert Gleason is the current chair of SDCRAA, appointed in 2010. Boland, Bowens and Gleason have collaborated on The Green Build, a $1 billion improvement project, which will help meet the airport’s demand for travel while improving customer service and serving as an economic stimulus for the region. The project, which began in 2009 and is scheduled for completion in 2013, has created 1,000 construction‐related jobs. The Green Build has also meant economic opportunities for local businesses, with contracts totaling $350 million awarded to local firms. In addition to The Green Build, under the trio’s leadership SDIA has expanded international air service, an important contributor to our region’s economy.
Tijuana Mayor Carlos Bustamante and former San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders
The Charles Nathanson Memorial Award for Cross-Border Region Building
The relationship between Carlos Bustamante, mayor of Tijuana since 2010, and Jerry Sanders, mayor of San Diego from 2005 to 2012, developed as they collaborated to advocate for border-related projects. The pair hosted annual Binational Mayors’ Summits in both Tijuana and San Diego to discuss, collaborate and formulate strategies, programs and solutions that mutually benefit the San Diego/Baja California region. Bustamante and Sanders also joined the San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce’s Sixth Annual “One Region, One Voice” trip to Washington, D.C. last September to highlight the importance of funding for increased and improved border efficiency, stressing the billions of dollars, economic growth and jobs at stake. In addition, Bustamante and Sanders united to urge Americans to visit Tijuana and northern Baja California, spotlighting a dramatic drop in the crime rate and showcasing how San Diego and Tijuana’s police forces have worked together on public safety issues.
The recipient of the Community Spotlight Award, which recognizes leadership that improves lives through extraordinary dedication to people, organizations or causes, will be announced the evening of the awards.
For information about tickets to the 2013 Visionary Awards, go to leadsandiego.com or call 619-280-5323.
