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CEO Update Names National Restaurant Association’s Dawn Sweeney among Top Association Leaders in 2010

July 29, 2010
Contact: Sue Hensley (202) 331-5964, Annika Stensson (202) 973-3677

(Washington, D.C.) CEO Update has named Dawn Sweeney, President and CEO of the National Restaurant Association, to its annual list of the top association leaders in the magazine’s current issue (July 23/Aug. 6). The list includes 20 association executives selected from across the country by the magazine’s editors. Sweeney also made the magazine’s inaugural list in 2009.

The magazine recognized Sweeney’s efforts, particularly in two legislative wins: interchange fee reform and the national nutrition disclosure part of the new health care law. Other criteria that helped land Sweeney on the list included how she “defined ‘imperative’ focus areas, collaborated with state partners and launched a discounted health insurance program in two states.”

Sweeney is quoted in the magazine about her perseverence and tenacity: “You need to keep going over mountains and through walls. ‘No’ means ‘Not yet.’”

The list of top association CEOs was compiled by CEO Update editors using their collective experience and expertise in association leadership, and by surveying association CEOs, executive recruiters and other leadership experts. Factors determining who was included on the list includes legislative and advocacy issues, leadership proficiency or style, skill in raising a group’s public profile, coalition and consensus building, and member service.