The Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change will hold its 2012 ‘Salute to Greatness Awards Dinner’ on Saturday, Jan. 14 at 6:30 p.m. at Atlanta’s Hyatt Regency Hotel Centennial Ballroom.
The dinner, which is the Center’s major fund-raising event, will honor Reid Hoffman, co-founder and executive chairman of LinkedIn and Partner of Greylock Partners, and Sheila C. Johnson, founder and CEO of Salamander Hotels and Resorts, vice chairman of Monumental Sports & Entertainment and president of the WNBA’s Washington Mystics.
“This is the King Center’s 29th year of hosting the Salute to Greatness Awards Dinner and we are so proud to have the honor of recognizing Ms. Shelia Johnson and Mr. Reid Hoffman for their global contributions to improve the lives of citizen around the world,” said Martin Luther King Jr. III, president and CEO of the King Center. King continued, “We are also very excited to take this opportunity to unveil the Center’s new plans for a dramatic modernization of the Center’s Freedom Hall Complex site facilities, as well as innovative program initiatives.”
In addition to the awards presentations King will also discuss plans for creating state-of-the-art, interactive exhibits and a new curriculum development program to set the standard for nonviolence education and training, youth leadership development, advocacy and awareness.
King said that the Center “is poised for a new era of unprecedented growth and development, both physically and programmatically, to make The King Center an even more motivating place for inspiration, learning and engagement.”
King, who has launched an ambitious five-year plan to reinvigorate and transform The King Center into a world-class institution, will also be reporting on The King Center’s recent accomplishments, including the launching of the Library Documentation Project, a partnership with JPMorgan Chase to digitize Dr. King’s papers, and a partnership with Syracuse University to digitize audio recordings and film and video of Dr. King’s speeches, sermons, interviews and leadership. The digital development of these unique audio-visual resources will be made available as a global educational resource for the first time via the internet.
One of The King Center’s highest honors, the Salute to Greatness Award, is presented at the annual fundraising dinner to recognize individuals and corporations or organizations that exemplify excellence in leadership and a commitment to social responsibility in the spirit of
Martin Luther King Jr.
Johnson is being honored for her pioneering business leadership as a founding partner of Black Entertainment Television, as CEO of Salamander Hotels and Resorts, a leading luxury hospitality chain, and as the only African-American woman to have ownership of three professional sports teams (the NBA’s Washington Wizards, the NHL’s Washington Capitols and the WNBA’s Washington Mystics) among many other business interests. She has produced four inspiring documentary films and served as an active board member of several major artistic and athletic foundations.
Johnson is also being cited for her energetic humanitarian work as a Global Ambassador for CARE, her tireless efforts to promote awareness and treatment of infectious diseases in Africa and AIDS in the nation’s Capitol, to name a just a few of her active concerns.
The King Center is honoring Hoffman for his innovative leadership as one of Silicon Valley’s most creative thinkers, entrepreneurs and “angel” investors in influential internet companies. His leadership has been instrumental in expanding LinkedIn’s membership to over 100 million subscribers in 200 countries, and his involvement in Greylock Partners has been cited as a major factor the firm’s leading role in funding a number of Silicon Valley’s cutting-edge industries. Hoffman has been instrumental in empowering low-income youth with educational opportunities in top colleges through his leadership in Questbridge and in fostering environmental citizenship and the next generation of ‘green entrepreneurs’ as a member of the Provost Council of College Eight UCSC. He has received numerous awards and recognition for his active support of causes ranging from civil and human rights, political prisoners, disaster relief and alleviation of poverty and hunger.
As The King Center’s primary fundraising event, the Annual Salute to Greatness Dinner has become one of the largest dinners held in Atlanta during the calendar year, with many nationally known public figures and some of Atlanta’s top community leaders participating. Some of the recipients of the Salute to Greatness Award in recent years have included: (then) Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton; Ben & Jerry’s; Oprah Winfrey; The Portman Companies; Bono; Turner Broadcasting System Inc.; Quincy Jones; Sara Lee Corporation; Tony Bennett; AOL Time Warner; Stevie Wonder; the Coca-Cola Company; and Coretta Scott King (posthumously), to name just a few.
There will be a reception prior to the dinner in the foyer outside the ballroom beginning at 5:30 p.m. and an “Afterglow” reception in the Regency Ballroom following the dinner. Sponsors of the Salute to Greatness Awards Dinner include: JPMorgan Chase; the Coca-Cola Company; Mercedes-Benz USA; Wells Fargo; Target; Delta Air Lines; Georgia-Pacific LLC, The Home Depot; Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; Norfolk Southern; Hyundai; Matlock Advertising & Public Relations and many others.
For more information about sponsorships and tickets, call Judy Hanenkrat at 404-526-8974 or email jhanenkrat@thekingcenter.org.
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