Richard C. Shadyac Jr.
- President & Chief Executive Officer, ALSAC
Richard C. Shadyac Jr. was named the President and Chief Executive Officer of ALSAC, the fundraising and awareness organization for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, in July 2009. He serves as ALSAC’s sixth CEO since the organization’s founding in 1957.
As the top healthcare charity in the U.S., ALSAC employs 1,500 team members who operate from its headquarters in Memphis, Tennessee, and in territories and offices across the country. ALSAC relies on generous supporters and volunteers who make donations and support tens of thousands of fundraising activities annually to help support the mission of St. Jude: Finding cures. Saving children.
Richard Shadyac has led ALSAC to record-breaking achievements, guiding strategic efforts that have more than tripled fundraising revenue since the start of his tenure and have elevated St. Jude as an iconic brand. ALSAC also earned the recognition of the No. 1 Best Workplaces for Innovators from Fast Company magazine in 2020 and St. Jude has been recognized as the Top Health Nonprofit Brand of the Year for nine years in a row by Harris Poll Equitrend as a result of Shadyac’s vision and leadership.
Key strategic initiatives he launched include enhanced fundraising and awareness efforts in digital, gaming, social platforms, fitness and multicultural areas, expanded marketing and donor development strategies, progression in ALSAC’s digital transformation journey, innovation and a reimagination of the organization. Shadyac established culture pillars for the organization that focus on people first, high performance, innovation, collaboration, service and being strategic.
Shadyac strives to model the way by being a servant leader and strongly instilling corporate social responsibility within ALSAC, whose employees are actively encouraged to volunteer and have collectively logged 40,000 community service hours in the last three years.
Prior to becoming President and CEO, Shadyac served as the Chairman and President of the ALSAC Board of Directors. He joined the Board in 2000 and also served as the Vice Chair and was active on several Board committees.
His father, Richard C. Shadyac Sr., was one of the first members of the Board when St. Jude opened in the early 1960s and was a confidant to Danny Thomas, the founder of St. Jude. Shadyac Sr. also served as ALSAC’s CEO for 13 years before his retirement in 2005. Because of his father’s early commitment to St. Jude, Shadyac grew up knowing about the St. Jude mission and started collecting coins to help children with cancer as a young child.
Shadyac was a practicing attorney for 27 years and worked as a managing partner in the Washington D.C./Northern Virginia law firm Feldesman Tucker Leifer Fidell, LLP and led the firm’s Virginia offices located in Falls Church. Rick has been a member of the District of Columbia Bar, the Virginia State Bar, the Virginia Trial Lawyers Association, the American Bar Association and the Arlington and Fairfax County Bar Associations. He earned a B.A. in political science from Marquette University and a law degree (J.D.) from Loyola University in Chicago.
In addition to his responsibilities as President and CEO of ALSAC, Shadyac leads community enhancement efforts by serving on the board of Memphis Tomorrow, an organization for the CEOs of the largest employers in Memphis, and on the board for the Memphis Medical District Collaborative. He has helped to lead rebranding efforts for the city of Memphis to draw businesses, professionals and tourists to the city as well as enhance the perception of hometown residents.
Shadyac has received several awards and recognitions including the 2017 Ellis Island Medal of Honor, 2016 CEO of the Year Award from Inside Memphis Business and A Person for Others Award from Marquette University. He became the only non-profit executive to ever receive the Responsible CEO of the Year Award from Corporate Responsibility (CR) Magazine in 2016, and he was honored by the American Task Force for Lebanon and the René Moawad Foundation for public service. In 2019, he was recognized by Memphis Magazine for his contributions to the city.
Shadyac is a recognized thought leader and has contributed to several major publications including The Huffington Post, Fortune and The Daily Memphian, among others.
For updates on Richard Shadyac and his work with ALSAC, follow him on Twitter.
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