So who says that the Mansion on Turtle Creek has lost its luster? Evidently not from the Mercedes, Teslas, Lexuses and Rolls in the auto courtyard on Wednesday, January 30. It was strictly a fender-to-fender gathering with three high-power events taking place.
While the Baker Botts legal eagles flew above the restaurant, the Methodist Health System Foundation‘s Eagle Society found a nest in the Pavilion sipping and sampling Mansion goodies before they headed into the ballroom for an address by Dale Petroskey.
In the crowd were Carolyn and David Miller back from a holiday/wedding visit to India. Both agreed that the country’s poverty was overwhelming… Debbie and Jim Francis were just an elbow away from former Highland Park High School classmate Julie Yarborough. According to Debbie, Jim’s back ailments have been muchly improved thanks to a change of medication… Fresh from a birthday celebration, Carol Seay was with Jimmy Westcott, who will be co-chairing the Komen Luncheon with her DIL (dotter-in-law) Kameron Westcott in March. For more details of the night including Dale’s talk, here’s a report from the field:
“Intimate, light, and fun” were the goals for Methodist Health System Foundation’s second Eagle Society event. The Foundation created the group in 2018 as a reunion of its family: board members, donors, doctors, and friends, for two events a year that are interesting and entertaining. Last summer, the group heard from the great-grandson of Sir Winston Churchill about “The Darkest Hour” and the difficult decisions the legendary prime minister made during World War II.
The Eagle Society’s second event, “Cocktails and Conversation: Dallas After Amazon” was held on January 30 at the Mansion on Turtle Creek. Attendees including Kathy and Larry Helm, Jack Lowe, Steve Folsom, Dr. Nimesh Patel, Suzanne Johnston, Calvert Collins Brattons, Allie Beth and Pierce Allman, Joy Duncan, Beth and Chuck Thoele and Nancy Bierman all heard “why Methodist is special” outlined by Methodist Health System Foundation President Jim Johnston and Methodist Health System CEO Dr. Stephen Mansfield.
The reception’s featured speaker was Dallas Regional Chamber President/CEO Dale Petroskey, who enlightened the audience about his own diverse career and the process of luring Amazon to Dallas. In the eighties, Petroskey worked in the Reagan White House as an assistant press secretary, and shared a funny story about sleeping at Camp David on a bed previously used by the President and Mrs. Reagan. After his time on Pennsylvania Avenue, he transitioned to working at National Geographic and running the Major League Baseball Hall of Fame, before coming to Dallas.
In September 2017, Amazon announced it was seeking bids for a second North American headquarters, and the Dallas Regional Chamber had a few weeks to put together a bid for the whole region. Petroskey said it was undeniably an arduous process, but it paid off a year later when the list of 238 potential sites got whittled down to three.
“When I saw the Wall Street Journal article a week before the announcement that Dallas was in the top three, I told our staff, ‘we’ve already won’,” he said. “Days after Amazon picked Crystal City, Virginia, and Long Island, New York, the country’s sixth largest company (McKesson) announced they’re moving the corporate headquarters to the Dallas region. Amazon is the eighth largest company, and we got the sixth.”
He added that in the past eight years, 156 companies have moved their corporate headquarters to this region, and 100,000 jobs have been added each year.
“There is so much prosperity in Dallas, you just can’t believe it, and the expectation is that it will continue. It is better to wake up and go to work every day in Dallas than it is anywhere else in the country.”