To commemorate the one-year anniversary of the tragic passing of basketball legend Bill Walton, San Diego Sport Innovators (SDSI) announced this week that it will pay homage to its former chairman through the Walton Innovation Network (WIN). WIN is phase one of the Bill Walton Legacy Project.
A San Diego icon in many facets of life that extended well beyond basketball, Walton passed away on March 27, 2024, at the age of 71 after a prolonged battle with colon cancer.
SDSI is a San Diego-based nonprofit that serves as a business community, for companies of all sizes, dedicated to the San Diego lifestyle industry. The SDSI community provides access to knowledge sharing, collaboration and business mentoring with other disruptors, innovators and leaders in the space.
Under Bill’s 14-year leadership as executive chairman, SDSI has built a business community dedicated to the growth of the San Diego lifestyle industry. Embodying Bill’s core attributes of humility, curiosity, giving and reinvention, SDSI exists to develop the people and grow the companies that help all individuals, not just San Diegans, get outside, get active and lead healthier lives.
“The Walton Innovation Network (WIN) will be an expansion of SDSI’s current mentoring programs – dear to Bill’s heart – into a network of programs dedicated to his legacy of uplifting others, hard work and giveback,” explained SDSI Executive Director Bob Rief. “WIN will support the entrepreneurs, innovators, athletes, and dreamers – in all stages of business from ideation, scale, through funding – who are changing the future of our industry.”
SDSI’s business mentoring programs were built on Bill’s mantra: “The best way to get to where you are going, is to ask someone who is on their way back.”
Through unique mentoring structures, SDSI mentor programs have helped to scale more than 150 businesses, 78% of which are still active or have been acquired. All of this has been made possible through the generosity of more than 100 volunteer executive mentors.
“SDSI is community, and community is people,” added SDSI board member Mike Irwin. “What SDSI does best is equip people for success. Bill’s inherent curiosity about people is what made him such a natural helper. And with the announcement of WIN, we are just getting started and when it comes to preserving Bill’s legacy, the future is full of possibilities.”
The sports and active lifestyle industry has a significant impact on the local economy with $6.3B in total economic output, 57,000 local jobs and $3.6B contributed to the local GDP.
To learn more about SDSI, visit their website.
