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RECENT WINNERS ❚ ❚ 2014:William Brock Johnson (1949- 2012), President & CEO, Garver LLC Under Johnson’s nine-year leadership, Garver began an era of growth unlike any other period in the consultant engineering company’s 93-year history, and Johnson spent his entire career at Garver, celebrating his 40-year work anniversary only two months before his death. ❚ ❚ 2013: Grant Gibson, Founder & President, GATE Inc. Gibson overcame several obstacles in life and career to advance GATE to success. Under his leadership, GATE grew from a fledgling company in 2000 to approximately $40 million in revenue in 2013. ❚ ❚ 2012: Sam Schwartz, CEO, Sam Schwartz Engineering Though he faced scorn from merchants, commuters, and the mayor when as chief engineer for NewYork City in 1988, Schwartz closed the bridge between Manhattan and Brooklyn, his actions saved thousands of lives. Schwartz acted heroically again on September 11, 2001, when he helped get his 30 employees and his family to safety as the Twin Towers fell. ❚ ❚ 2011: Kit Miyamoto, President & CEO, Miyamoto International and Global Risk Miyamoto At age 18, Miyamoto came to the U.S. from Japan to pursue his dream of playing for the Dallas Cowboys football team. He played running back for California State University – Chico until injuring his knee. In 1990, he joined Marr Shaffer Structural Engineers. In 1997 John Shaffer, sold the company to Miyamoto and Miyamoto International was born. Miyamoto’s firm is a company with a simple mission: Make the world a better place.

LEADERSHIP AWARD , from page 11

can serve any role in their firm, and nominating firms can be of any type or size.

The Jerry Allen Courage in Leadership Award winner receives up to five Zweig Group surveys, a one-year subscription to THE ZWEIG LETTER, and a bronze tro- phy in the shape of a lion. “We recognize there are other Jerry Allens out there, and we want them to get the recognition they deserve,” Zweig says. Allen was born on Oct. 8, 1940, in Texarkana, Texas, and grew up in West Mem- phis, Arkansas. He was the first in his family to attend college and graduated from Mississippi State University in 1962 with a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering. He was a registered professional engineer in Texas and Louisiana and worked as a city engineer with the Fort Worth Department of Public Works before joining Cart- er & Burgess, then a 40-person civil engineering and landscape architecture firm, in 1969. Allen worked at Carter & Burgess for more than 30 years; he was made a principal in 1973, firm president in 1988, and chairman of its board in 1998. During his ten- ure, he led the company to unprecedented growth, with “2,000 by the year 2000” as his vision and rallying cry. The firm exceeded that goal, transitioning from an organization with less than 200 employees and $17 million in revenue in 1989 to one with 2,400 employees and $381 million in revenue in 2002. “Burgess & Carter not only achieved its goal of 2,000, but blew way past it,” Zweig says. Though he was physically active all of his life, Allen was diagnosed with colon can- cer at age 62. He faced the terminal disease with the same courage with which he approached life, and his spirit lives on in his wife, Paula; son, John; and everyone with whom he had contact. “We came up with this award to celebrate Jerry’s life and to keep his name alive; to remind everyone of his achievements and how he touched so many lives and creat- ed a fantastic company that provided a living for literally thousands of people and their families,” Zweig says. “He was very inspirational to me and so many others.”

THE ZWEIG LETTER AUGUST 17, 2015, ISSUE 1116

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