Ronald Grzywinski, the chairman and chief executive of ShoreBank Corp. of Chicago, is the 2005 winner of the John W. Gardner Leadership Award.
The $10,000 award was established in 1985 by Independent Sector, a Washington nonprofit. It is sponsored by the William Randolph Hearst Foundations.
Mr. Grzywinski, the first banker to win the award, helped to found the $1.7 billion-asset ShoreBank in 1973. In a press release issued last week Independent Sector praised his role and ShoreBank's in helping to revitalize Chicago's South Side and West Side by providing credit and banking services to inner-city businesses and low-income residents.
The group also noted Mr. Grzywinski's involvement in the founding of Grameen Bank, a microlender in Bangladesh.
Independent Sector is a coalition of about 500 charities, foundations, and corporate philanthropy programs. John W. Gardner, its founding chairman, was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1964 and was President Johnson's secretary of health, education, and welfare.
