A Board Perspective

By Joshua Cranmer, President, Mile6

Behind me is where I first said the idea out loud. The 33rd floor of the Loews Philadelphia Hotel is where we brought it to life.

In early 2025, during a Sponsorship Committee meeting at the Pyramid Club, I pitched an idea to Christopher Larcade. Together, we brought it to Board President Taz Larcade:

The Center City Business Association deserved a premier annual event, a signature evening that would elevate our experiences, recognize extraordinary leadership, and leave an impact of its own.

The concept went to the board, a committee was formed, and the idea evolved into the Celebration of Impact.

Last week, that vision became a sold-out reality. 

I’m proud to call this event my brainchild. But an idea only becomes an institution when others believe in it enough to carry it forward.

Chris became an indispensable partner in advancing the vision, and Taz championed it through the board. After I was invited to see the Loews’ renovated 33rd floor, I knew we had found our venue. With tremendous support from my Mile6 team, we created the pitch resources that helped bring Fulton Bank and our supporting sponsors into the vision.

From the beginning, I insisted that the Celebration of Impact should do more than recognize impact...it should create it. Preserving a community-giving component wasn’t always easy, but it mattered. I’m deeply proud that the evening supported the PHILADELPHIA250 #Phambassador program.

Board/Committee member Christine Rudloff of Athena Global Advisors went far above and beyond to make the vision executable, from the run of show and hotel coordination to countless details before and during the event, with essential support from Ben Frank and Kate Stockton, CMP.

Joe Tredinnick and DJ Adams at Fulton Bank believed in us early and significantly, giving this first-year event the support it needed to become exceptional.

Kathryn Ott Lovell brought exactly the stature our inaugural honoree deserved. Her extraordinary record of leadership and service helped fill the room and reminded everyone why impact is worth celebrating.

For more than a year, Taz, Chris, and I kept one important detail secret: the award would bear the name of Ben Frank, CCBA’s Executive Director for more than 30 years. Naming the Ben Frank Award was a way of ensuring his remarkable legacy of service to CCBA and Philadelphia would remain part of this tradition.

Thank you to committee members Tiffany Spraggins-Payne, MBA and Keith McMenamin; the entire Center City Business Association board; Ben and Megan Tokarchek; the Mile6 and Athena Global Advisors teams; and Fulton Bank, Independence Blue Cross, Loews Hotels & Co Philadelphia, Encore, and Center City Film & Video.

Standing there that Thursday night, looking toward the building where I first pitched the idea, I was reminded that big ideas rarely arrive fully formed.

They begin when someone asks, “What if we created something more?”

And extraordinary people answer, “Let’s do it.”