January 3, 2006
NSU Trustee Alan B. Levan Named 2005 Business Leader of the Year
FORT LAUDERDALE-DAVIE, Fla. —Nova Southeastern University Trustee Alan B. Levan was named SouthFloridaCEO magazine’s 2005 Business Leader of the Year.
Levan is Chairman of three publicly traded companies, BankAtlantic Bancorp. Inc. (NYSE:BBX), Levitt Corp. (NYSE:LEV), and Bluegreen Corp. (NYSE: BXG). The December 2005 issue of SouthFloridaCEO describes him as “erudite and iconoclastic” and a “born leader who isn’t content to lean on his natural abilities.”
SouthFloridaCEO magazine is the premier business publication of South Florida. It is a monthly, full-color magazine serving the area’s executive decision-makers with stories on economic trends, industries and business personalities in Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach Counties.
“Levan stood out as a traditional candidate whose business acumen and leadership is reflected in the successful business he runs,” wrote William Plasencia, editor of SouthFloridaCEO. “What clinched it for me was how our area’s banks have responded over the years to the competitive pressure from Levan’s BankAtlantic. That institution mimics Levan himself, and others follow its lead. His commitment to community initiatives is icing on the cake.”
Except from the cover story:
“I’m not really an opera aficionado,” Levan admits. But Levan was on the board of the Florida Grand Opera for 25 years — a tenure he attributes to his admiration for how the opera was run. “I was really taken with how skillfully they ran their arts organization,” he says. Ask him about his affiliation with Nova Southeastern University and you will get a similar answer: “Nova is a private university and is as entrepreneurial and success-driven as any business I’ve been associated with.”
For Levan, everything is business. Even his commitment to community service and development is rooted in a desire to draw talent and industry to South Florida.
Both Levan and his wife Susie, publisher of Fort Lauderdale-based Balance magazine, are members of the Broward Workshop, a high-level forum of business leaders who work together on Broward County’s most critical issues. The Levans were the first husband and wife team to work within the organization’s committees. Workshop Chairman Alan Levy describes Levan as the “poster child for what the Broward County business environment is all about.”
“The growth of his company is an example of why companies come to South Florida and Broward County. They see the opportunity is there for entrepreneurship,” Levy says.
To read the complete article, visit http://www.southfloridaceo.com/
