David Williams
Who leads the leaders? When it comes to preparing and mobilizing executives as well as emerging leaders, Williams, as president and CEO of Leadership Memphis since 2004, is constantly pushing the envelope. The organization has graduated 150 program participants annually and more than 1,700 in his tenure as CEO. Leadership Memphis is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year and has 3,500 alumni working to make Memphis better every day. Williams is a former VP of marketing and community development for St. Joseph Hospital, former board chair for the Memphis Public Library, and former board chair for Playhouse on the Square. He’s a 1998 Healthier Communities Fellow of the American Hospital Association and was awarded the 2014 University of Memphis Charles E. Thornton Outstanding Journalism Alumni Award, as well as the 2014 Health Care Impact Leader Award from the Common Table Health Alliance. In 2018, Leadership Memphis earned the Commitment Award from the Tennessee Center for Performance Excellence.
