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What is The Race to Win Patrons Circle?
The Race to Win Patron’s Circle is a select group of celebrities, business and community leaders from diverse backgrounds who have demonstrated a philanthropic commitment to improving our education system and in turn, our way of life and our competitiveness as a nation.
Why The Race to Win?
Education has an immense impact on the human society. It plays a key role in helping United States remain a land of opportunity and in helping realize ones American Dream. It is particularly important in times like today where we are faced with stagnating incomes for the middle class and rising income inequality. Education is a must if our nation aspires to achieve growth and development and enable less advantaged children to move up the economic ladder. As President Obama said recently “nations that out-educate us today, will out-compete us tomorrow”.
Children cannot learn at their potential when they are in crisis or face significant non-academic needs. Poverty, unattended health needs, hunger, an unemployed parent, domestic violence are all reasons most students drop out of school. Earlier this year, I was introduced to a terrific non-profit group called Communities In Schools. Communities In Schools is the nation’s largest dropout prevention organization which provides school-based social services. And it works. Last year, 99% of the students referred to Communities In Schools stayed in school.
The Race to Win (www.theracetowin.org) is a cross country motor sport event launched by the Saxena Foundation (www.saxenafoundation.org) to raise money and awareness in support of the Community In Schools (www.communitiesinschools.org) dropout prevention program. Our goal is to raise at least $100,000 for Communities In Schools affiliates $50,000 of which has already been committed by the Saxena Foundation.
The Patron’s Circle : Leading through Influence
We are asking a very select number of renowned and respected leaders from the business, public sector and community to lend their name and support by endorsing The Race To Win and raise awareness of this critical issue.
Patrons Circle members help The Race to Win by:
- Improving the awareness of The Race to Win in the community
- Endorsing the mission around the dropout problem facing our nation
- Leveraging their circle of influence to identify sponsorship opportunities
- Acting as a spokesperson with select high impact media and press activity
- Keynoting, inaugurating and lobbying for support and awareness at the race related events
- Being available to be filmed for the TRTW movie, DROP
Recognition of your leadership
As key partners in The Race to Win program, the philanthropic leadership of our Patron's invaluable support is recognized in many ways including:
- Recognition on the website (www.theracetowin.org)
- Recognition on various social media channels e.g. Facebook and Twitter
- Invitation to a new, members-only events with the drivers and celebrities
- Recognition in printed program collateral
- Experience the race. Co drive and take to track at the end of the event with Manoj Saxena or Richard Zimmerman
Who are the current Patrons Circle Members?
The Race To Win Patrons Circle is fortunate to have the voluntary advice, guidance and energy of the following Patrons who believe in the ongoing educational needs of our nation and work willingly to support to improve awareness and acquire donations to support this event:
 Bill Milliken
Founder and vice chairman, Communities In Schools
Bill Milliken, founder and vice chairman of Communities In Schools, is one of the nation’s pioneers in the movement to give young people the help they need to achieve in school, graduate and go on to rewarding lives. Milliken and the other founders of Communities In Schools came up with the idea of delivering needed community resources and services directly into public schools where children spend their days. This grassroots, personalized approach embodies Milliken’s long-held philosophy that “Programs don’t change children – relationships do.”
The year 2010 marks the 50th anniversary of Milliken’s commitment to children. He has been honored with numerous awards through the years including a 2009 National Jefferson Award for Public Service from the American Institute for Public Service. In 1994, Milliken received the National Caring Award as one of the “10 Most Caring People in America.” Milliken has also received the Edward A. Smith Award for Excellence in Education for Nonprofit Leadership, which honors one executive each year who exemplifies “extraordinary leadership” over a lifetime of service, and the Champion for Children Award from the American Association of School Administrators, which honors a nationally known non-educator whose contributions have significantly and positively influenced the lives of children.
Milliken’s activism began in 1960 when he joined Young Life, an ecumenical youth organization. He helped initiate “street academies” for young people who had dropped out of school and wanted a chance to resume their education, as well as live-in programs for substance abusers and youth in need of shelter and support. Milliken’s experiences led him to search for a comprehensive approach to helping young people. This search culminated in the 1970s with the development of a model program that repositioned existing community resources into schools — the Communities In Schools network, which Mr. Milliken led as President until May 2004.
Communities In Schools is the nation’s leading community-based organization helping students achieve in school and prepare for life. Currently, the organization directly serves more than 1.3 million students and their families each year in nearly 3,300 schools in 26 states and the District of Columbia. Its grassroots, personalized approach embodies Mr. Milliken's long-held philosophy, “Programs don’t change children – relationships do.”
Mr. Milliken has served three U.S. presidents. During the Carter Administration, he was the White House Advisor on Youth Issues. In 1989, he advised President Bush for the Education Summit with the nation's governors. Mr. Milliken was also involved in the planning of The Presidents' Summit for America's Future. In 1992, he received the Temple Award for Creative Altruism, given by the Institute of Noetic Sciences, which honors individuals “whose lives and work demonstrate the transformative power of caring coupled with imagination and enterprise.”
The year 2000 marked the 40th anniversary of Mr. Milliken’s commitment to children, and saw him receive two major national awards. The Edward A. Smith Award for Excellence in Nonprofit Leadership honors one executive each year who exemplifies “extraordinary leadership” over a lifetime of service. The “Champion for Children” award from the American Association of School Administrators honors a nationally known non-educator whose contributions have significantly and positively influenced the lives of children. In 2009, Mr. Milliken received the National Jefferson Award for Public Service in the category of Greatest Public Service Benefiting the Disadvantaged.
This prestigious award is widely regarded as the “Nobel Prize” for outstanding community and public service.
Mr. Milliken serves on the board of Leadership Foundations of America. He is the author of three books, So Long, Sweet Jesus, Tough Love and The Last Dropout: Stop the Epidemic! He received an honorary degree of Doctor of Humane Letters in 2007 from Bard College.
 R obert LeBlanc
Senior Vice President, IBM
Robert LeBlanc is Senior Vice President, Middleware Software, for IBM Software Group. In this role, he has global responsibility for driving the strategy and management of the industry-leading apabilities that build, manage and run our middleware. This includes Application & Integration Middleware, and the Information Management, Rational, and Tivoli portfolios.
Previously, Mr. LeBlanc was general manager, Worldwide Software Sales, IBM Software Group. In this capacity, he had global responsibility for overall sales strategy and management of IBM Software Group. Mr. LeBlanc led a worldwide software sales team of approximately 17,000 employees around the globe.
Prior to this role, Mr. LeBlanc was general manager, Global Consulting Services and SOA, IBM Global Business Services. He led IBM’s core consulting practice, including developing and maintaining alliances with ISVs and the performance of the six global service lines. He also oversaw the company's SOA efforts, directing the strategy around industry IP, skills and enablement.
Mr. LeBlanc joined IBM in 1981 in Canada as a systems programmer trainee in the Toronto Laboratory. During his IBM career, he has held a number of technical and management positions at both IBM's Toronto Laboratory and within Software Group. He has also served in a number of leadership positions at IBM, including general manager of the Application & Integration Middleware Division (WebSphere) for IBM Software Group, responsible for driving the strategic direction for IBM's middleware technologies. Mr. LeBlanc has also been general manager of the storage networking division of IBM's Storage Systems Group, general manager of solutions and strategy for IBM Software Group, and general manager of Tivoli software.
Mr. LeBlanc holds a BSC in Computer Science and an MBA degree in Management Information Systems and Corporate Strategy from the University of Toronto.
 Emmet B. Keeffe III
Chief Executive Officer, iRise
In the early 1990's Emmet set two goals - to start a software company that would achieve $1 billion in revenue and to start a Formula One team. In the late 1990's, Emmet and Maurice Martin co-founded iRise with a vision to transform how business and IT stakeholders would communicate about requirements for custom and packaged business software. In 2000, Emmet and Maurice invented the market for "Enterprise Visualization" and have built iRise into the world's leading provider of enterprise visualization for business software. Over the last 20 years Emmet has applied his philosophy of "the network is the business" to become one of the most well-connected CEOs in the software industry. As CEO & Co-Founder of iRise, Emmet has leveraged his network to close over $60 million in investment funding and drives leadership of sales, marketing and business development at iRise. Prior to co-founding iRise, he built a top-selling region at NetDynamics, a pioneer of the Web application server market that was later acquired by Sun Microsystems. Earlier in his sales career, Emmet earned over 15 national sales awards, including being named "National Top Performer" by NetDynamics, Auspex Systems, Diasonics and Minolta. Outside of his role at iRise, Emmet is passionate about his family, automobile racing, travel and education. Since 2005, Emmet has delivered partnerships to iRise with TRG Motorsports in the Grand Am Series, PKV Racing in the Champ Car Series, KV Racing Technology in the Indy Car Series and iRise has built a successful IT Leadership Executive Roundtable Series with racing as a platform. Emmet is also a Director and Executive Committee Member at the World BPO Forum and a member of the Board of Trustees at The Partnership Scholars, a foundation focused on improving education for disadvantaged students. Emmet earned a B.A. in Political Economy of Industrial Societies from the University of California at Berkeley.
Merritt Lutz
Advisory Director, Morgan Stanley
Merritt M. Lutz is an Advisory Director of Morgan Stanley. In this role, he is responsible for the development and oversight of Morgan Stanley Information Technology’s (MSIT) strategic investments, the Firm's technology vendor risk management practice, and MSIT joint ventures. He joined Morgan Stanley & Co. in 1994 as a Managing Director in charge of the global Application Programming Group with responsibility for the development and maintenance of all the Firm’s strategic worldwide software-based technology initiatives. In addition, while at the Firm, he has been in charge of developing and launching its early Internet strategy, Morgan Stanley’s offsite software development joint ventures, and the Firm’s client technology initiatives. Prior to joining Morgan Stanley, Mr. Lutz was President of Candle Corporation, then one of the world’s largest privately held software companies, and now a unit of IBM. Previously, he was Managing Partner of PDi, a software industry partnering and consulting company. Prior, Mr. Lutz was Group Vice President running the software products business for Informatics General Corporation (NYSE), which is now a part of CA. Mr. Lutz is a Director for three private companies – Accretive Technologies, ThruPoint Inc. and SendMail Inc. (Chairman). He has been a Director of three additional private companies and three public companies including SPSS, which was acquired by IBM in 2009.
Mr. Lutz is the Chairman of the Board of the NYC Devereux Foundation whose goal is to help autistic and other mentally disabled individuals. He serves as Chairman of the Board of Michigan State University’s College of Music and is also the Chairman of American Friends of the St. Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra. Mr. Lutz is a former Director of the Information Technology Association of America and the NASD Industry Advisory Committee.
Mr. Lutz attended Michigan State University where he earned both a Bachelors and a Masters degree. He resides in New York City with his wife and their two sons.
 Paul Sparta
Chairman and CEO of Plateau Systems
Paul Sparta is a pioneer in learning and talent management software. His has been the Chairman and CEO of Plateau Systems since co-founding the company in 1996. Plateau has since won numerous awards, including being named by Inc. magazine as one of the fastest growing private companies in corporate America. Sparta has led the continued expansion of Plateau, and was named as an award recipient for the Ernst & Young Software and Technology Entrepreneur of the Year award in 2004. Sparta is also a veteran of the US Navy and the technology consulting industry. He has authored several articles in leading publications on workforce productivity and the role of technology in managing and developing people.
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We expect to add another 5-6 Patrons over the next few months.
How do you join?
Membership to the Patron’s Circle is by invitation only. Please contact info@theracetowin.org for more details.
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Bill Dollahite, President, Driveway Austin
Founder and visionary behind Driveway Austin with over 30 years
experience in the motorsports and high tech industries. Bill retired
from full-time competition after reaching the pinnacle of his career
piloting the World Championship 333SP prototype for Ferrari. He
trained Hollywood personalities and corporate superstars as well as
countless new career race drivers. He was the architect for some of
the most successful corporate motorsports campaigns today and has
pioneered successful, outreach motorsports training programs to mentor
at-risk high school students. |
 Derek Daly, Formula 1 and Indy Driver, Entrepreneur, Best-Selling
Author, Professional Speaker
Driving Legend Derek Daly is the epitome of the complete champion.
From Victory Circle to the Announcer’s Desk, Hall of Fame Race Car
Driver and Network Television Color Analyst Daly has spent nearly
three decades as the face of the motorsport world. Derek Daly’s
professional racing career spanned 17 years, and his experiences are
nothing short of breathtaking.
Born in Dublin, Ireland to a middle class working family, Derek’s
career path was set at the age of twelve when he attended his first
auto race. From that moment, his commitment to the dream of being a
professional driver was unshakeable. On the way to his dream he worked
as a laborer in the iron ore mines of Australia and, while traveling
the race tracks of England, even took up residence in a school bus.
His dreams became reality when he won Irish, British and European
championship events. In 1978, he competed in the highest class of
auto racing at the Formula One World Championship, and two short years
later Derek was ranked 10th in the world. In 1983 he made his first
of six starts in the Indianapolis 500.
Derek's son Conor Daly is now racing in the Star Mazda Series and has
moved successfully through the racing ranks in America and Europe
earning the "Rookie of the Year" title and winning the Skip Barber
Championship, as well as traveling to Silverstone, England and winning
the Walter Hayes Trophy. He is the youngest competitor and only
American to ever do this. |
J.B. Hager, Founder/Investor, Driveway Austin
J.B. Hager, is a radio vetern/writer and host of the J.B. and Sandy
Morning Show on Mix 94.7, Austin, Texas. JB is an avid car collector
and racing participant. He is deeply involved in the Austin community
and national charitable organizations. He brings a flair for promotion
and public awareness to the Patrons Circle. |
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