Jimmy Walker, the founder of Celebrity Fight Night, will receive the Lifetime Achievement Award at Az Business magazine’s Healthcare Leadership Awards on May 10, 2018 at Pointe Hilton Tapatio Cliffs Resort in Phoenix.
“Jimmy Walker is a walking angel,” says comedian Billy Crystal, a Celebrity Fight Night regular who recruited Robin Williams, Jim Carrey and Tom Hanks to join the cause. “Jimmy Walker is one of the rare people I’ve met who doesn’t know how to do anything else but help people.”
Walker founded Celebrity Fight Night in 1994 and has since raised nearly $100 million for charities, primarily focused on healthcare. Early in the history of Celebrity Fight Night, Walker joined forces with boxing legend Muhammad Ali and raised the money needed to build the Muhammad Ali Parkinson’s Center, which now sees about 10,000 patient each year.
“Every once in a while, an angel falls to Earth and takes up a cause,” says Lionel Richie, a five-time Grammy Award winner who has performed at Celebrity Fight Night. “Jimmy is one of those wonderful, special angels.”
Some of the other celebrities Walker has attracted to Celebrity Fight Night include Halle Berry, Harrison Ford, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Steve Martin, Michael J. Fox, Donald Trump, Chevy Chase, Sharon Stone, Magic Johnson, Wayne Gretzky, Jack Nicklaus, Larry Fitzgerald, Michael Phelps, Andrea Bocelli, Jennifer Lopez, Garth Brooks, Celine Dion, Carrie Underwood, Rod Stewart, Reba McEntire, Michael Bublé, Jon Bon Jovi, Faith Hill, Rascal Flatts, Kelly Clarkson, Miley Cyrus, Diana Ross, Josh Groban, Glenn Frey, Kenny Rogers, Sinbad, Gloria Estefan, Trisha Yearwood, John Mellencamp, Barry Manilow, Kenny G, Donna Summer, Dennis Quaid, Kevin Bacon, The Go-Gos, Jordin Sparks, Michael Bolton, the Pointer Sisters and The Village People.
Past recipients of the Healthcare Leadership Awards’ Lifetime Achievement Award include Dr. Robert Spetzler, a groundbreaking brain surgeon and former CEO of Barrow Neurological Institute; the late Dr. Ted Diethrich, a high-profile cardiac surgeon who started the Arizona Heart Institute and once performed open-heart surgery on live television; Peter Fine, the CEO of Banner Health, whom Modern Healthcare named as one of the 100 Most Influential People in Healthcare; Linda Hunt, CEO of Dignity Health, who was named among the Top 25 Women in Healthcare by Modern Healthcare magazine; and the late David Lincoln, who helped build the John C. Lincoln Health Network into a force in Valley healthcare.
The Healthcare Leadership Awards take place from 6 p.m.-8 p.m. on May 10, 2018 at Pointe Hilton Tapatio Cliffs Resort in Phoenix. Tickets are available here on April 23.
