Allen E. Gant Jr., chief executive officer of Burlington, N.C.-based Glen Raven, Inc., a global provider of innovative fabric-based solutions, was honored at a March 30 campus luncheon with the Frank S. Holt, Jr. Business Leadership Award, Elon University’s highest honor for business leadership.
More than 100 community, university and business leaders, plus relatives and friends, attended the midday celebration, where Gant gave credit for his professional success to the sacrifices made by his family and to the energy of Glen Raven employees.
“All of these people deserve the credit, not me,” Gant said, “but I’m humbled, and I’m thankful.”
After attending the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Gant joined the family business founded by his grandfather, John Q. Gant. He served the company in numerous capacities before being named CEO and president in 1999. Under Gant’s leadership, Glen Raven has expanded worldwide, selling its products in more than 125 nations.
His reputation as a leader in the global textile industry earned him a post in the Bush administration’s Advisory Committee for Trade Policy and Negotiations. He also served as chair of the National Council of Textile Organizations and the Institute of Textile Technology, and he sat on the board of directors for the North Carolina Textile Foundation, Inc.
Gant’s leadership extends beyond the textile industry to local community and charitable organizations. In 2007, he founded the New Leaf Society, an organization that seeks to make the Alamance County community an attractive place to live, work and invest through landscaping. He has served on boards of advisors for the Alamance County United Way, Alamance Regional Medical Center, the Educational Foundation of UNC-Chapel Hill and the Duke Heart Center, as well as the board of visitors for the Kenan-Flagler School of Business at UNC.
In 1997, Gant joined the board of trustees of Elon University and in 2007 was elected chair. His visionary leadership has been instrumental in the development of the most recent strategic plan for the university, The Elon Commitment. Gant lives in Burlington with his wife, Denise, and the couple has two children, Grayson and Allen III.
In his own remarks to the audience, Elon University President Leo M. Lambert lauded Gant’s contributions to the community, the university and to the textile industry, using several adjectives – inspiring, innovative, imaginative and international – while noting that it is “impossible to paint a picture of Allen Gant with small words.”
“He’s bold. He’s a man of big ideas. He is a man impatient with small ideas. He’s generous,” Lambert said. “We are deeply indebted to you, and all of us in this room are proud to call you our friend.”
Elon’s Martha and Spencer Love School of Business established the award to recognize a local citizen whose contributions to business and the community reflect the same progressive, visionary leadership exemplified by the award’s namesake. The late Frank S. Holt, Jr. was president of Holt Manufacturing Co., and an active civic leader.
A committee of university, civic and business leaders annually selects the recipient of the Frank S. Holt, Jr. Business Leadership Award.
Past recipients of the award have included the following:
Ralph M. Holt, Jr.
D. Earl Pardue, Sr.
Dr. James B. Powell
Ernest A. Koury, Sr.
Maurice J. Koury
J. Harold Smith
James W. Maynard
C. Avery Thomas
The Gant Family
Jack R. Lindley, Sr.
Virgil L. Stadler
Thomas E. Chandler
James A. Barnwell, Jr.
Richard H. Shirley, Jr.
Sam and Vicky Hunt
James C. McGill
James R. Copland, III
Jo Watts Williams
W. Eric Hinshaw