Each year, when we publish our Lifetime Achievement Awards we try to find a common theme that ties together our winners.
This year it was a bit more difficult — not because our winners are less deserving, but because they’ve each had much different experiences and career paths that led them to success.
Take Curtis Robinson, for example, who came to Connecticut as a homeless, hungry and broke teenager to escape racial tensions in the South. His first job here was as a dishwasher until a fortuitous purchase of a Hartford bodega sparked a career of serial entrepreneurship, particularly in real estate and development. Since then, he’s made millions and served the community as a prolific philanthropist.
Connecticut Business & Industry Association CEO John Rathgeber is a company loyalist. In 1977, he joined CBIA, the state’s largest business lobby, as a staff attorney and earned his way to the top, helping significantly grow the group’s membership, services and reach along the way. He’s been a leading voice in efforts to make Connecticut more business friendly, and will be retiring at the end of 2014.
Jerry Franklin has been the face of the Connecticut Public Broadcasting Network for almost three decades, a tenure that has seen the network grow to include three digital TV channels and five radio stations. Under his watch, CPBN’s annual operating budget has grown from $4 million to $20 million.
Eugene Sheehan spent the early part of his career with a big ad agency until he decided to hang his own shingle as co-founder of Hartford’s Sullivan & LeShane Public Relations. He’s the man that organizations as diverse as the Catholic Church, MetLife, and Mirage Resorts have tapped during times of crisis to tell their side of the story to the public.
As you read the individual profiles of our 2014 Lifetime Achievement Award winners join us in congratulating them for their many accomplishments. We’ll celebrate their success Wednesday, Oct. 29 at a breakfast at the Bond Hotel in Hartford.
We’d like to thank our judges — Nancy Bernstein, Joseph R. Marfuggi, and Gloria J. McAdam — who helped us identify our four winners this year. And as we congratulate this year’s Life Achievement class, please remember that we’ll be back next year looking for the next group of winners. We encourage you to nominate worthy candidates.
Greg Bordonaro, Editor
Jerry Franklin, The Connecticut Public Broadcasting Network
John Rathgeber, Connecticut Business & Industry Association
Curtis Robinson, C&R Development Co. LLC
Eugene A. Sheehan III, Sullivan & LeShane Public Relations
