This article was written by Alex Orfinger Market President and Publisher of the Washington Business Journal. The original article can be found on the WBJ website, here.
When I think about the scope of the Washington Business Journal’s coverage, my thoughts are usually about the women and men in positions of power. After all, part of our mission is to focus on decisions with the biggest impact on the business community. We want readers to know who makes the big calls, leads the transactions, creates new business from nothing, takes the germ of an innovative idea and build it into a success. You and I want to know them — and want to be known by them: a proximity that offers both inspiration and collaboration.
Read any of our awards coverage, including our Diversity in Business Awards or next month’s Business of Pride honorees, and try not wonder, at least once, how you could get in touch with these movers and shakers, to be close to the source and to ignite your own big ideas.
But it’s not just the award-winners. When I need a creative jolt or a reminder that one good idea can blossom into a thousand more, I only need to read the profiles of Honest Tea founder and serial entrepreneur Seth Goldman or the latest news about MahoganyBooks and the power couple behind it, Ramunda and Derrick Young, who put the Anacostia shop onto the cover of our Book of Lists.
Newsmakers get headlines, but it’s often the people behind the scenes who fuel so much of that creativity, growth and connections. Those who lead from behind, who don’t seek the spotlight but who spend most of their waking hours in service of others and to our community.
It hit me recently when Leadership Greater Washington gathered to plan a fall celebration for Lyles Carr as their Leader of the Year for 2021. In full disclosure, Lyles is a good friend of mine, and as a member of the Class of 1998, I serve on the board of LGW as well as on their fundraising committee and the selection committee that chose Lyles. But his is not a household name. He doesn’t run a large company. He isn’t a high-powered consultant, a lawyer or a lobbyist. He hasn’t been on “Shark Tank.” And he isn’t someone who struts around town looking for something from anyone.
By profession, he is a recruiter, but that understates his role. He’s been at The McCormick Group for 45 years, quietly recruiting the right people to lead this community forward. In a town of talkers, Lyles is an adept listener.
Lyles shows up just in time to raise money for a nonprofit at a crucial stage, to help someone land a job, to fill a board position, write a recommendation. Listening to dozens of stories of how Lyles stepped in to help, without fanfare, one thing became abundantly clear: his selfless devotion to his community and to service. Just ask the dozens, if not hundreds, of people who owe their jobs or their board positions to Lyles Carr.
Mary Claire Burick recalls how Lyles was instrumental in landing her the job to run the Rosslyn Business Improvement District.
Stroock’s Jeff Keitelman talks about how Lyles encouraged him to always search for the next big thing and write a personal business plan.
Julie Coons shares how Lyles set her up for her current gig as head of the Northern Virginia Chamber of Commerce.
The Girl Scouts Nation’s Capital has Lyles to thank for helping land its CEO, Lidia Soto-Harmon, and more board members than I can name.
Or ask dozens of members of The Economic Club of Washington, D.C. how they found their way to that organization, and I’m sure Lyles’s name will come up.
I could find hundreds of others with similar stories. Or I could just look in the mirror.
In his latest subtle push, Lyles — along with his co-conspirator, Myra Peabody Gossens — led me to my current volunteer work as chair of Jubilee Housing’s board of directors. It’s an experience that is singularly the most meaningful volunteer work I’ve done, all thanks to him.
Even though it is long past the holiday season, when I think about Lyles, I can’t help but think about George Bailey in “It’s a Wonderful Life,” and his exchange with his guardian angel, Clarence: “Each man’s life touches so many other lives, and when he isn’t around, he leaves an awful hole, doesn’t he?”
Like so many others, I can’t imagine Greater Washington without Lyles Carr.
