February 13, 2018

Honorees recognized for impact on key regional issues

February 13, 2018 (San Diego, CA) – Tourism, baseball, homelessness, community investment, and genome sequencing. These are some of the industries and issues important in San Diego, and it’s where six leaders are making a meaningful difference that will be seen for years.

LEAD San Diego will honor those six individuals at its 2018 Visionary Awards, Southern California’s premier leadership recognition event, on Thursday, June 14 at the Marriott Marquis San Diego Marina.

“Leadership is the catalyst for positive change, providing a better future for our region,” said Jerry Sanders, President and CEO of LEAD San Diego. “We are excited to recognize these engaged, civic-minded leaders who give selflessly of their time and talent to make a difference in our community.”

The 16^th annual Visionary Awards will draw about 800 representatives from all sectors of the San Diego Baja California Megaregion. The event will celebrate the awardees’ contributions to the region’s growth and potential through their time, talent, and innovation.

The following individuals will be honored at the June 14 event:

Patti Roscoe
The Neil Morgan Memorial Award for Lifetime Achievement
The Neil Morgan Memorial Award, named for the late San Diego journalistic icon, is awarded annually to an individual who has provided long-term quality leadership in our region. This year, the award will be presented to Patti Roscoe, a tireless community and civic volunteer. After founding, expanding and franchising a destination management company, she sold it and retired. A true believer in giving back to the community, Roscoe is a past chair or president of San Diego Convention and Visitor’s Bureau; San Diego Rotary Club 33; San Diego International Sports Council; and Fleet Week San Diego. She currently serves as chair of Experience San Diego Destination 2040, and is a trustee or board member of San Diego State University’s Campanile Foundation, the USS Midway Aircraft Carrier Museum Foundation, and the San Diego Library Foundation. Roscoe is a co-founder of SDSU’s L. Robert Payne School of Hotel and Tourism Management, and chairs its board of advisors. In 2014, she was recognized with an honorary doctorate in Humane Letters for her commitment to SDSU and the San Diego region.

Lidia S. Martinez, Class of 2011
LEAD Graduate of the Year
The LEAD Graduate of the Year Award is presented to a graduate of one of LEAD San Diego’s programs who epitomizes excellence in community leadership. This year, the award will be presented to Lidia Martinez, Manager of Community Affairs and Grassroots for Southwest Airlines. Martinez has established and maintained a portfolio of highly respected strategic partnerships with civic, business, and philanthropic organizations, as well as major universities, to achieve mutual objectives. She works with external stakeholders to ensure that Southwest maintains a visible leadership position within the community, and sets the standard for outreach and corporate social responsibility throughout Southern California. Martinez is immediate past board chair of MANA National, an organization that empowers Latinas through leadership development, community service, and advocacy. She currently is a champion for Hispanas Organized for Political Equality and serves on both the San Diego State University President’s Latino Advisory Council and the UC San Diego Chancellor’s Community Advisory Board. She is a past board member of LEAD San Diego. Martinez has been honored by many local and national organizations for her l work in the nonprofit community.

Peter Seidler and Dan Shea
The Ronald Kendrick Memorial Award for Regional Collaboration
Named for the late banking executive and community leader, the award is presented in recognition of visionary leadership as demonstrated through coalescing diverse communities, focusing on collaborative approaches to shared resources, synergies and problem-solving skills for positive regional outcomes. This year, the award will be presented to Peter Seidler and Dan Shea for their work to improve San Diego’s homelessness problem. Seidler and Shea studied issues, convened business and political leaders, raised funding, and executed their ideas for a short-term solution to get homeless people off the streets. Seidler is the general partner of the holding company that owns the San Diego Padres and a founder and managing partner of Seidler Equity Partners, a family-owned private equity fund. He is active with the San Diego Chapter of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, the American Cancer Society and the Turning Point Home. Shea is a partner in Paradigm Investment Group, which runs 140 fast-food restaurants across the U.S. He is also co-owner of Donovan’s Steak and Chop House restaurants in San Diego, La Jolla and Phoenix. Shea’s community involvement includes the San Diego Hall of Champions and The Lucky Duck Foundation.      

Jay Flatley
Economic Opportunity Award
Each year, LEAD San Diego presents the Economic Opportunity Award in recognition of a visionary leader who has created economic opportunities in our region that, absent their efforts, might not otherwise exist. In 2018, the Economic Opportunity Award will be presented to Jay Flatley, who led Illumina as CEO from 1999 until 2016, and now serves as executive chairman of its board of directors. Flatley will be honored for his extensive contributions to the genomics industry, building Illumina from a startup to an international leader. During his tenure as CEO, Flatley took the company from $1.3 million in sales in 2000 to $2.2 billion in 2015, representing a compound annual growth rate of 64 percent. Under Flatley’s leadership, Illumina was named multiple times to the Deloitte & Touche Fast 50 and Fast 500 lists, as well as to the Forbes 25 Fastest-Growing Tech Companies and the Fortune 100 Fastest-Growing Companies lists, and was recognized by MIT Technology Review as the World’s Smartest Company. Flatley is an advisory board member for UC San Diego’s Moores Cancer Center, and is a member of the Salk Institute board of trustees.

Blanca Livier Uribe Díaz, Class of 2017
The Charles Nathanson Memorial Award for Cross-Border Region Building
The Charles Nathanson Memorial Award is named for the late champion of cross-border communication and development and recognizes visionary leadership demonstrated in addressing joint solutions to cross-border issues, further uniting San Diego and Baja California for a common future. This year, the award will be presented to Blanca Livier Uribe Díaz, Vice President of Club de Béisbol Toros de Tijuana. She serves as a link between the team and various charities and companies in our binational region. Uribe has also been the ambassador of the team at public and social events, encouraging social awareness between the club and the community. She is an alumna of the Harvard Business School of Executive Education Program, a 2017 graduate of LEAD’s flagship IMPACT program, and is currently a member of LEAD’s San Diego Young Leaders. Her community involvement has included a term on the executive council of Coparmex Tijuana. Uribe also has served on the San Diego Museum of Art development committee and chaired SDMA’s Art Alive Bloom Bash; co-chaired Ronald McDonald House’s Día de la Alegría Brunch; and has volunteered with Miracle Babies.

The recipient of the 2018 Community Spotlight Award, which recognizes grassroots community heroes who improve lives in our region through extraordinary dedication to people, organizations or causes and comes out of the monthly 10News LEADership Awards, will be announced at the Visionary Awards on the evening of June 14.

Title Sponsor of the 2018 Visionary Awards is Bank of America. Other confirmed major supporters to date include Southwest Airlines, Anchor Sponsor; Toft Group Executive Search, Show Sponsor; Union Bank, General Reception Sponsor; CBRE, Qualcomm, San Diego Business Journal and ABC 10News, Presenting Sponsors; and Moss Adams, Dessert Sponsor.

February 5, 2018

December 18, 2017 (San Diego, CA) — LEAD San Diego will partner with six local nonprofits through the service learning component of its flagship program, IMPACT San Diego. Six Leadership Action Teams (LATs) will work directly with the organizations to develop recommended solutions to challenges and opportunities the nonprofits are currently facing.

“IMPACT participants have the opportunity to help local nonprofits address some of our region’s most pressing issues, including housing affordability, children’s literacy, environmental issues and domestic abuse,” said Jerry Sanders, President and CEO of LEAD San Diego. “These projects allow the class to start making a difference for their community and causes they are passionate about, setting them on their way to being the future leaders that make a positive lasting impact on our region.”

IMPACT provides participants with a greater understanding of the critical issues and key players in our region, and through the LATs, inspires participants to use their skills to become engaged with community organizations and causes.

The 57 members of LEAD’s IMPACT San Diego Class of 2018 will be divided into LATs, each with eight to 10 participants. Each LAT will be matched with a local nonprofit agency that can benefit from the team members’ expertise and leadership to work on an individualized project. Final projects will be presented to the nonprofit associations, their Boards, and the community at the class graduation in June.

The nonprofit partner agencies and their projects are:

Amigas Punto Com (APC) was born in 2005 as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. The mission of APC is to educate, equip, and empower Latino women and their families with tools and resources to overcome adversity, and develop healthy relationships and lifestyles free from abuse and lack of boundaries. In order to meet the growing demand for the programs Amigas Punto Com provides, LEAD’s LAT will create and develop a five-year business plan that will allow APC to become a well-structured and financially sustainable organization. To learn more about Amigas Punto Com, go to conamigas.org

I Love A Clean San Diego (ILACSD) has worked to improve the health and beauty of San Diego for over 60 years. It continues to be the leading environmental organization in San Diego County, connecting more than 60,000 youth and adults with the local environment each year. The mission of ILACSD is to lead and inspire our community to actively conserve and enhance the environment through example, outreach, and local improvement. The LEAD LAT will create a targeted marketing plan for ILACSD to acquire, engage, and retain volunteers and donors. To learn more about I Love A Clean San Diego, visit cleansd.org

Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC) San Diego and its affiliates have invested more than $212 million towards the construction of over 6,000 affordable housing units and more than a million square feet of commercial space throughout San Diego County. LISC is dedicated to helping community residents transform distressed neighborhoods into healthy and sustainable communities of choice and opportunity — good places to work, do business, and raise children. LEAD’s LAT will help LISC design an outreach and communications strategy for its new $50 million fund intended to counter the rising cost of housing and the growing homelessness in San Diego. For more about LISC San Diego, visit lisc.org/san_diego

RISE San Diego’s mission is to elevate and advance urban leadership through dialogue-based civic engagement, dynamic nonprofit partnerships, and direct training and support to increase the capacity of urban residents to effect meaningful community change. RISE San Diego has launched a new social enterprise to address the growing needs of companies and organizations around diversity, equity and inclusion training: RISE @ Work. RISE is excited to collaborate with LEAD’s LAT to build a robust outreach strategy, informed by the perspectives of those who work in corporate fields and/or with large organizations, particularly at the decision-making level. To learn more about RISE San Diego, go to risesandiego.org

Thrive Public Schools is a free, public K-12 charter organization serving students from all over San Diego. Thrive’s mission is to set the standard for preparing a diverse student population to become community-minded, college-prepared, and career-inspired. By harnessing the power of cutting-edge technology and cutting-edge instructional strategies, Thrive ensures all students Learn to Learn, Learn to Do, and Learn to Be. LEAD’s LAT will help create a year-long plan for the schools to host a career fair; provide opportunities for job shadows and internships; and maintain a group of business partners that continue to engage with Thrive’s mission. For more about Thrive Public Schools, visit thriveps.org

Traveling Stories emphasizes the joy of reading to young children. The organization lets readers select books that interest them, offers financial rewards for reading books, meets readers in their communities, and engages entire families. Traveling Stories’ weekly StoryTent programs help over 3,000 kids a year fall in love with reading and adopt smart money management skills. LEAD’s LAT will work with the CEO and Volunteer Coordinator to develop a volunteer recruitment strategy and marketing plan that will provide a dependable stream of volunteers for existing and future StoryTent programs. To learn more about Traveling Stories, go to travelingstories.org