Draft Copy: Mike Rawlings Launch Remarks
Thank you for being here. Many of you are good friends that I have workedwith for many years in our community, like Arcilia Acosta, Curtis Ransomeand Roger Staubach … and new friends we are now working closely with …it’s great to see you and we sincerely appreciate your support as we begin acampaign to make our city truly great ... A city we can all be proud of … acity in which we can all prosper.I wanted to begin today by taking just a moment to give thanks …(Thanksgiving Square)And I would like to start by thanking my wife, Micki. Without her love andsupport, I would not be here today.I also would like to thank all the great leaders of Dallas’ past and present,especially Mayor Tom Leppert and our current City Council … those whohave helped create this great city on the Trinity, a city that has thrived on business and commerce, and a city that provides a good quality of life for the
families who call Dallas home. We all should be very grateful for their sacrifice and leadership.And, a thank you to the leaders here in this room … the leaders for Dallas’future. Those of you who realize that being a great city today isn’t enough – we have to work constantly to find ways to make Dallas even better for our families, and for our children, and their children.I came to Dallas more than three decades ago, I had college degree in philosophy (which didn’t exactly guarantee me a job on Wall Street), and$200 in my pocket. Times were tough in much of America, but like today, Iknew that there was opportunity in Dallas, and I was right! Within a week Ihad my first job – I was a reporter, and it did not take too long for my bossesat WFAA to recommend a different career path for me – in short, I got fired.Thankfully, when they relieved me of my duties I decide to go intoadvertising, which was the right choice. Twenty years later, I was the CEOof the largest ad agency in the Southwest, and when I left Tracy-Locke, Iwas asked by one of our clients to come serve a their chief executive … at acompany called Pizza Hut.
I’m proud to have led Pizza Hut – just one example of a Dallas-basedcompany that is an industry leader. During my time at Pizza Hut, we wereable to reach record sales, with record profit margins during tough andcompetitive economic times. We had economic successes because we started by putting people first and changing the company culture, and within thefirst two years of my tenure, Pizza Hut was named “The Best Company ToWork For In Dallas” by D Magazine.And, mostly importantly, Dallas is where is met my wife, Micki – andtogether it is where we have raised two wonderful children. You know, Icame to Dallas for the opportunity, but the fact is that we stayed here because it was, and still is, a great city to raise a family. And that last time Icheck, it was still family that is most important to us all.We are blessed to have great neighborhoods (many I have lived in),churches, the sense of community and the people.Simply put, coming to Dallas was one of the best decisions that I ever made… There is no place with more promise – we have opportunities that other cities can only dream of … But
I believe we can do even better
.
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