Bobby Dulle said he was born and raised playing soccer and loves the sport to this day.

Dulle is general manager and chief operating officer of the Phoenix Rising Football Club, a professional soccer team in Tempe that has been.

He first moved to Arizona to play college soccer for Grand Canyon University. After graduating, he traveled the world for nine years working for the Harlem Globetrotters.

“The one common thing anywhere I went in the 50-plus countries, when I’m sitting at a pub or at a coffee shop; the common language was soccer — football, for the rest of the world,” Dulle said. “There was an opportunity that was presented to me a little over three years ago to join what was formerly known as Arizona United, and it was an opportunity for me and my family that made a lot of sense.”

is a bit of a passion project for Dulle, who said he jumped at the opportunity.

The team rebranded in 2016 and played its first match under the new name in March 2017 at the newly-constructed in north Tempe.

“We’ve got a great ownership group and a great staff, and three years later, here we are, and we feel that we haven’t even scratched the surface yet,” he said.

Dulle said the smiles, celebration and passion of the team’s fan base is “why we do this.” He said fans are extremely active on social media, and many travel to watch games on the road.

“One of my favorite moments was last year, after we won the Western Conference Championship in Orange County, and thousands of our fans had traveled over,” Dulle said. “Standing on the field and getting to embrace and high-five and be there to lift our first trophy in our club’s history, and to do that with the fans — it was a really cool moment.”

The organization has had long days and many challenges, but the surrounding the team makes up for it, he said.

“It’s our community, [something] that everybody can gravitate to — the one team in the state of Arizona,” Dulle said. “No two days are the same, but at the end of the day we want to put a good product out there that the community, that the state can be proud of.”

Dulle said he feels like sports teach a lot of life lessons, especially for kids growing up. Playing soccer in his youth, he learned discipline, teamwork and commitment.

“When you’re playing team sports, you’re not only representing yourself, you’re representing the rest of your team,” he said.

Traveling with the Harlem Globetrotters, Dulle said he learned a lot about alternative forms of communication; the team traveled to a number of countries where they did not speak the language.

He said on-the-job learning was second to none, and when the opportunity to work with Phoenix Rising came up he was prepared because of his experiences there.

The entire Phoenix Rising crew, including the owners and the team itself, are extremely committed to winning, Dulle said.

“The challenge is you can’t control what happens,” he said. “We’re fortunate we have an ownership group that’s very committed to winning and investing in the product on the field, investing in the facilities, investing in the brand and the marketing and the activation. We have great partners, but winning — it sure does help.”

Phoenix Rising made it to the final championship last season and has been faring well so far this year, but the market for attracting fans is competitive.

“Arizona’s a great state; you can do things outside, you can ski, you can go hiking, you can do it all,” Dulle said. “And then there are great sports teams here, there are great activities, and so you’re always competing to get the attention of the fans of Arizona that do come out.”

Dulle said he is originally from southern Illinois, near St. Louis, Missouri, but spent quite a bit of time in his youth living in Montana before starting college in Southern California. In his sophomore year, he transferred to GCU and has stayed in Arizona ever since.

Outside of soccer, Dulle said his favorite pastime is spending time with his family, whatever they might be doing.

“I’m married to a wonderful woman and have three beautiful children,” he said. “Of course, they’re into sports, and my daughter now, who’s two years old, is getting into dance.

“There’s really nothing more for me than to unwind and watch them, whether it is youth soccer that they’re playing, or dance, or playing in the backyard with them. Just spending time with my family is what I really enjoy, and traveling with them to let them experience different things, and seeing the gratification that they have, really that’s one of my biggest [passions]… that’s why we work so hard to do what we do.”

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Todd Sanders said his passion for public policy first emerged when he was in 10th grade and living in Florida.

“There was a contest for kids who wanted to go to the Capitol and learn about policy, and I actually wrote an essay and did the interview, and me and 15 other kids from the whole state, we won, so we got to go to Tallahassee, got to meet Bob Graham, the governor then… and I just fell in love with that,” Sanders said.

Sanders has served as the president and CEO of the Greater Phoenix Â鶹´«Ă˝Ół»­ since 2009, and he said his favorite part about his work is that no two days are the same.

“Even if it looks like that on the calendar, it’s never going to end up that way by the end of the day,” he said. “Something happens, and you’re onto something different.”

Sanders was born in Colombia to American parents; his dad was an entrepreneur who worked for Ford Motor Company before starting businesses in Bogotá, where Sanders and his family lived. Since then, Sanders has worked in a variety of subjects.

“I actually spent some time working for British Petroleum in the fields of Colombia, doing community development with them, which was quite an adventure,” he said.

“In Arizona, I’ve done some time at the Arizona state Legislature; I was on staff there,” he continued. “We were the folks that would help to analyze bills, and we would help members understand what they were doing, create amendments, and then help push them through the process.”

After a number of years at the Legislature, Sanders for GPC before taking on his current role.

“We’re a chamber of commerce that essentially covers Maricopa County,” Sanders said of GPC. “We are in three verticals — the policy vertical, with our friends at the Arizona [Legislature] as well as the City of Phoenix, and then there are some times where we’ll engage at the federal level.”

Economic development is the second vertical, he said.

“We have a lot of groups in town that do a really good job of bringing companies to the Valley, which we need,” Sanders said. “But our role in this space is really helping companies stay here and grow here, and a big part of that is jobs and finding qualified talent. So, that’s the third piece, which is workforce.

“How do you create that workforce that’s not only going to be necessary for today but also for tomorrow?”

Sanders said chambers of commerce are often seen by the public as “one-dimensional creatures” that focus only on business in a narrow sense, but he said working at GPC has shown that the chamber’s purpose is more about with a side of business leadership.

“I think working at the Legislature, understanding tax policy, understanding education policy, — all of those things really helped sort of define and helped me understand the bigger challenges that are at play when you’re thinking about growing an economy with a focus on business,” he said.

Sanders said he believes Phoenix is a great place to be new, and what he hears from newcomers confirms that belief.

“People that come here feel accepted; they feel like this is a place where they can reinvent themselves if they want, and there is this real sense that you can make it here,” he said. “People are in your corner; they’re going to support you.”

People in Phoenix want new arrivals to get involved, and they will help any way they can, Sanders said.

“I think that really makes us unique,” he said. “No one’s going to ask you who your parents are, where you went to school. They just want to know that you’re going to roll up your sleeves.”

Sanders said he draws inspiration from, president of Arizona State University, who he believes has been a transformational leader for not only the university but the Arizona community as well.

“What I like about Dr. Crow is he took a university that was a good university and turned it into something that is world-class,” Sanders said. “We are now not just nationally recognized but.”

Sanders said in the near future he is planning to focus on the upcoming legislative session, but he also wants to continue building out GPC’s. Right now, the chamber focuses on four main industry sectors: health care, financial services, cyber and construction.

“Not enough people to fill these jobs, and so our goal is to create the right kind of atmosphere, the right kind of strategies to help businesses find qualified talent,” he said.

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“From very early on in my childhood, I realized that I wanted to do something that made a positive and meaningful difference in the lives of others,” Lee Lambert said.

Lambert has been chancellor of Pima Community College in Tucson since 2013. Before transitioning to work in the two-year college system, he worked on the president’s staff at Evergreen State College, a four-year college in Olympia, Washington.

He said when he interviewed for the job at PCC, one thing stood out to him right away.

“This is a community where each and every individual cares deeply about this college and what it means for the community, and really, for all the individuals in the community,” he said. “I think it’s that specialness about the community itself that really draws students here, to want a better life for themselves and their families.”

Lambert said his favorite part of the job is meeting people from all walks of life.

“I could be talking to a CEO of a company one moment; next moment, I’m talking to somebody who is from a local high school or from a local community organization,” he said.

PCC is a diverse institution — 45 percent of its students are Hispanic, or Latinx, and another 10 percent are black, Asian-Pacific Islander or Native American, Lambert said.

“We’re a very diverse population, and I haven’t even mixed in religion and veterans, LGBTQ, so you have a lot of other components that make up the diversity of the college,” he said.

One of the primary missions at PCC is to balance both access and student success, two equally necessary pieces of the educational puzzle, according to Lambert.

“You can’t get to success if you don’t have access; access is not enough to get you to success,” he said. “We balance those two pieces out, and that ensures that we have a diverse student body by being open to the entire community having access.

“I want to make sure that people who come here ultimately reach their hopes and dreams, goals and aspirations, which leads to the success portion.”

PCC has six campuses in Tucson and partners with other locations to provide more opportunities to students. Each campus has its own culture and atmosphere, Lambert said.

“You can go to one location and have a different kind of experience than when you go to a different location,” he said. “That creates a challenge for us, but also it creates a great opportunity, that each part of our community can have their own identity expressed through our campuses or through our other locations.”

At the West Campus, for example, PCC students will find themselves learning alongside Northern Arizona University students, because PCC has a “strong partnership” with the university, Lambert said.

Commitment to communities is top-of-mind for Lambert, who is originally from the Seattle area. He considers Paul Allen and Bill Gates, co-founders of Microsoft, as inspirational leaders in that realm.

“They first set up Microsoft in New Mexico, but they decided to move back to the Seattle area,” Lambert said. “Why that’s important is a commitment to your own community. If you grew up somewhere, and you like that particular area, you have a way to impact that area.”

People’s choices can have far-reaching implications, and Paul Allen and Bill Gates transformed the Seattle area significantly by moving what is now a trillion-dollar company back to Redmond, Washington, east of Seattle.

“I look for leaders like that, who I may not personally know, but I know by their choices that they understand the implication of those choices and what it can do for a community,” Lambert said.

Listening to the needs of the Tucson community has been one of Lambert’s greatest accomplishments at PCC, he said.

“When I first arrived here, I kept hearing repeatedly that it’s too difficult to navigate the college,” he said. It seemed students and did not know who to talk to about their needs.

In response, Lambert created a new position — vice president for.

“That became the single point of contact for the business community here to, and as a result of that, we’ve been doing some amazing things here at the college,” he said. “Just by simply listening to the voices of the people… you can now define important solutions. That can be transformative, and that’s exactly what’s happening, and that’s what I’m very proud of.”

Lambert credits the PCC governing board for supporting the college’s vision and direction, allowing PCC to focus on.

“They become key and critical to my ability to drive the direction because the direction you’re seeing us take is disruptive,” he said. “It’s change.”

Change upsets the status quo, and that can be concerning to some people, but a strong group of individuals — including the governing board members — can help administer change, he said.

“On a personal level, I’m fortunate to have grown up with parents who actually moved me nine different times in 18 years, spanning three continents, four U.S. states and four countries,” Lambert said. “So, my life has been disruptive, and I’ve gotten the chance to be around different cultures.”

When he was younger, Lambert was a football player. He is not a “big guy” by his own account, but he was fast and had “a lot of heart,” he said.

“And really, when you think about what I’ve had to lead through here, it’s required all of that, right?” he said. “Have a big heart, work hard, understand every detail, every option that’s out there. That all comes from just being someone who loved football.”

As a Seattle native, Lambert is a fan of the Seahawks football team. Interestingly, Paul Allen of Microsoft owned the National Football League team from 1996 until his death in 2018, guiding the team to three Super Bowl championship games and one Super Bowl win during that time.

Lambert said he still draws upon his prior experiences — things he has read, people he has met and places he has been — to decide what to do next.

“There’s not just one thing that I can point to, but to realize that you take the sum total of your experiences, channel them through your values and belief system, and then out of that comes the way you approach your life or your leadership, or my passion,” he said. “That leads to, I think, some of the positive things you’ve seen happening here at the college.”

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Every leader has his or her own approach to management, and Cheryl Lombard has found her own style.

“It’s not honestly something I aspired to, but it’s something that I felt natural in,” said Lombard, president and CEO of development advocacy group Valley Partnership, about leadership. “Working with a very large board and a very large, diverse membership… it’s really just listening and learning, and then just focusing on what’s best for the organization.”

Lombard said she has worked with some “really great individuals” during her career — she has worked for members of Congress, practiced law and worked for The Nature Conservancy — and each new position brought different forms of leadership.

“I had to find my own,” Lombard said. “I think, really, finding your own style is the most important thing, and that just doesn’t come automatically.”

Watching and learning from others is the best way to find what’s natural for each individual leader without forcing it, she said.

Lombard and Valley Partnership were closely involved with the creation of the Drought Contingency Plan (DCP), a water conservation agreement between seven western states that was recently .

“The Drought Contingency Plan is an of disparate interests and everyone giving,” Lombard said. “From the real estate development industry, we were the first cut; we knew that going in, and we accepted it. But we also had to work together in finding solutions [for] those who didn’t have solutions.”

The development industry was lucky to be able to recover and continue to grow, but other industries — agriculture in particular — needed help with the transition, she said.

Lombard said she considers the DCP to be an “important tool” and one of the biggest accomplishments of her career.

“That was a huge honor, first off, just to be part of that and to represent the development industry,” she said. “It was a significant deal for the state and the entire west.”

Lombard has also been involved with the green development project to revitalize the Salt River — Rio Salado — with new urban amenities and community activities. This is another example of different interests coming together to support a common goal, she said.

“The Rio Reimagined is an amazing opportunity for all the river cities and the tribes to come together, and that’s exactly what’s happened,” Lombard said. “All of the tribes, all of the cities along the river, Salt River Project, the county — they have all signed a memorandum of understanding on how we’re going to move forward. That was an amazing step. Similar to DCP, that’s not something that really happens all that often.”

The project allows different cities and tribes along the river’s 45 miles of potential development to decide what’s best for their .

“Some of the cities, it can be economic development — [that’s] what they’re thinking in Buckeye,” Lombard said. “Then the cities of Phoenix and Tempe obviously have different visions, because they have larger areas.”

The potential of Rio Reimagined is currently best exemplified by the development on Tempe Town Lake. But all of the river will not look like the lake, Lombard said. There will be “different pockets” of activity and growth, but the entire area will be connected , she said.

Lombard said she found inspiration in former President Ronald Reagan in the early days of her career, and over the years she has watched different types of leadership — “we’ve obviously transformed… what is in the political world in terms of leadership.”

“In terms of local — and here we are in the city of Phoenix — I’m excited about Kate Gallego joining as the city of Phoenix mayor,” Lombard said. “She’s very passionate about our city. I think she’s going to do a great job, and I look forward to working with her.”

Lombard said she has been practicing yoga in her free time, taking a break from her other favorite hobby, tennis.

Her favorite book to recommend, “,” by Stephen Covey, hearkens back to when she first thought about leadership.

“My first job, actually in high school and college, was working at a gym [as] a personal trainer, and the owner of that gym really focused in on how you become a better person,” Lombard said. “That was one of the books that first started me thinking about… discipline and focusing on what I wanted to do.”

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