ATLANTA (Feb. 16, 2010) – The Harvard Business School Club of Atlanta (HBSCA) has announced that James Shepherd will be honored at the HBSCA 2010 Community Leadership Dinner on April 21 at the Bobby Dodd Institute. Each year the event recognizes a prominent Georgia executive for his or her business achievements, as well as contributions to the community.
Shepherd is being recognized for his founding and leadership of Shepherd Center, which has grown to become a world-renowned rehabilitation and research facility for people with spinal cord injury, brain injury and other neuromuscular problems. In addition, he is also being recognized for his role as serving as an advocate for people with disabilities. Past recipients include CNN founder Ted Turner, Home Depot co-founders Bernie Marcus and Arthur Blank, and Chick-fil-A founder Truett Cathy.
Shepherd founded the facility two years after sustaining a paralyzing spinal cord injury himself. Since Shepherd Center opened its doors in 1975, thousands of people with spinal cord or brain injuries have been treated.
“It has been a privilege to meet so many people who have come through these doors,” Shepherd said. “If I could go back in time and prevent my accident from happening, I wouldn’t because it was worth it to touch so many lives over the years.”
HBSCA is currently the sixth largest of the 93 HBS Clubs worldwide. The Club serves more than 1,500 alumni living in the Atlanta metropolitan area and enjoys a participation level which is among the highest in the country. Proceeds raised from the community leadership dinner will be used to send Georgia non-profit leaders to Harvard Business School for a week of Executive Education focused on Social Enterprise, specifically its flagship Strategic Planning Prospectives in Non-Profit Management (“SPNM”) and Performance Measurement for Non-profit (PMNO) programs.
To purchase a ticket to the HBSCA leadership dinner, visit http://www.hbs-atlanta.org/store.html?event_id=304.
