This issue took 30 years to create

A lot of history was made in 1984.

• Ronald Reagan defeated Walter F. Mondale with 59 percent of the popular vote, the highest since Richard Nixon’s 61 percent in 1972.

• Apple Inc. placed the first Macintosh personal computer on sale in the United States.

• The 56th Academy Awards were hosted by “Tonight Show” host Johnny Carson. “Terms of Endearment” earned the Oscar for Best Picture.

• Vanessa L. Williams became the first Miss America to resign after nude photos of her appeared in Penthouse magazine.

• Prince had the biggest song of the year with “When Doves Cry.”

• “Dynasty” was the No. 1 show on TV.

There is one other historic event to come out of 1984: That was the year that Mike Atkinson founded AZ Big Media, which publishes this magazine and seven other publications, including Ranking Arizona, Experience AZ and AZRE: Arizona Commercial Real Estate. We are proud to be the voice of Arizona’s business community. For three decades, we have told your stories, identified trends, profiled your leaders and championed your companies. It’s a task we embrace with great determination and execute with great passion.

We continue that mission in this issue with profiles of this year’s Most Admired Companies. We hope you enjoy this issue as much as we enjoy showcasing Arizona business. Here’s to our next 30 years.