Gayle Rose
When she was studying clarinet in Iowa, Rose surely never imagined she would play so many key roles in Memphis. Among them: founder and CEO of EVS Corporation, a cloud backup and disaster recovery company headquartered in Memphis; chair of the Rose Family Foundations private charity; and past chair of the board of the Memphis Symphony. In 2012, she received the CEO of the Year Award from Inside Memphis Business and has been named Humanitarian of the Year by Diversity Memphis. Rose was internationally recognized in 2007 with the Changing Face of Philanthropy Award from the Women’s Funding Network and previously named one of Tennessee’s 100 Most Powerful People by Business Tennessee magazine. She is also well-known for helping to land the NBA Memphis Grizzlies basketball team and co-founding the Women’s Foundation for a Greater Memphis. In 2010, she founded Team Max, a grass-roots, virtual volunteer organization that honors the memory of her late son. In 2016, she was presented an honorary doctorate from the University of Northern Iowa, in 2018 named Woman of the Year by Girls, Inc., and in 2019 named one of the 40 Change Makers in Memphis by Leadership Memphis.
