Grand Canyon University’s Colangelo College of Business honored four dedicated leaders on Tuesday who exemplify the ideal for which Jerry Colangelo is best known: servant leadership.
The Colangelo Servant Leadership Awards, presented by Freeport McMoRan, are named after one of Arizona’s biggest business and sports icons. The awards were held at the GCU Hotel’s Canyon 49 Restaurant and honored the following recipients:
- David Adame, President and CEO of Chicanos Por La Causa (CPLC). Before becoming President and CEO, Adame served as Director of Economic Development, COO and CFO of CPLC. Under his leadership, CPLC is helping individuals and families achieve self-sufficiency through accessible healthcare, affordable housing, quality education, access to meaningful work and political representation.
- Bridget Binsbacher, Executive Director of the Cactus League and Peoria City Council. Binsbacher has worked at the Cactus League for more than a decade and became the first female executive board member in 2012. She is also a Peoria City Council member and has served two terms as the city’s vice mayor.
- Dave Donaldson, Co-Founder and Chairman of CityServe. As the former director of Operation Blessing and co-founder of Convoy of Hope, Donaldson spearheaded global partnerships with churches, organizations and governments to mobilize tens of thousands of volunteers. In 2016, Donaldson launched CityServe to train and equip local churches and nonprofits to help people move from dependency to sustainability.
- Barry Meguiar, President of Meguiar’s Car Wax. Meguiar has had a successful career that also includes being President of Ignite America. He hosts “Ignite with Barry Meguiar” on over 870 Christian radio stations every day, a weekly podcast, and “Ignite Your Life Television” on Christian television networks.
Servant leadership is one of the three pillars of the Colangelo College of Business, along with ethics and entrepreneurism, and is taught both in and out of the classroom. “Servant leadership should be a core principal of every successful business or organization and these four individuals exemplify that,” Colangelo said. “They are truly making a difference in our communities and setting an example for future leaders in Arizona.”
Colangelo is an Arizona icon whose Hall of Fame career in sports, business and real estate has spanned 50 years — from the day he arrived in 1968 with $300 in his pocket to a career that included ownership of the Phoenix Suns and Arizona Diamondbacks; the Valley’s only major sports championship with the 2001 World Series; the creation/relocation on the Phoenix Mercury, Arizona Rattlers and Arizona Coyotes; reshaping the Valley skyline with two state-of-the-art sports facilities that transformed downtown Phoenix; re-establishing global dominance of USA Basketball and serving as principal partner with JDM Partners, which has a 60-year history of real estate acquisitions, development and management.
Grand Canyon University was founded in 1949 and is Arizona’s premier private Christian university. GCU is regionally accredited by the Higher Learning Commission and offers 270 academic programs, emphases and certificates for both traditional undergraduate students and working professionals. The University’s curriculum emphasizes interaction with classmates, both in-person and online, and individual attention from instructors while fusing academic rigor with Christian values to help students find their purpose and become skilled, caring professionals.
