Need to Know, Part 2

Hal Donaldson, president and founder of Convoy of Hope, speaks to the crowd that gathered Feb. 26 for Springfield Business Journal’s second 12 People You Need to Know breakfast event at Clarion Hotel’s Newsroom Café. Donaldson founded the Springfield-based nonprofit relief organization in 1995, growing from humble roots to a $25 million organization with nearly a dozen tractor-trailers, a 300,000-square-foot distribution center and workers stationed in Belgium, El Salvador, Haiti and Kenya.

At left, Donaldson greets SBJ Editor Eric Olson, who moderated the event. Donaldson said the death of his father when he was a child forced his family onto the welfare rolls in California. That, combined with a fateful meeting with Mother Teresa in Calcutta, India, in the late 1980s, inspired him to create Convoy.

Bottom right, Donaldson speaks after the event with guests Jodie Greer, left, and the Rev. Greg Seckman, center, of First and Calvary Presbyterian Church. More than 60 people attended the breakfast. The next series installment, scheduled for March 11, features Scott Tarwater, senior vice president of development for John Q. Hammons Hotels & Resorts.