Former President Donald Trump joins past Presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton by winning the Young Presidents Organization's Gold NYC Lifetime Achievement Award.
''I want to thank Randy Waterfield for this great honor,'' Trump said in a statement Wednesday. ''Looking forward to accepting this illustrious award today in Bedminster!''
Trump was presented the award at the Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, New Jersey, by the organization's Gold NYC Chapter representative Randy Waterfield, chairman and CEO of Waterfield Holdings.
YPO Gold NYC's Lifetime Achievement Award is the organization's highest honor.
Trump's ''leadership of this country has not gone unnoticed,'' Waterfield said in the statement. The award ''serves as recognition for President Trump's extraordinary leadership, significant impact and commitment to the betterment of our Country.''
Waterfield, who served as the organization's chairman in 2017 and 2018, called Trump ''a true icon'' for his contributions to the New York City business community and celebrated his ''incredible achievements'' as president, which he said include the lowest taxes, lowest regulation, the strongest border and the best economy in the history of the country.
Waterfield's family company goes back to 1928 in Fort Wayne, Indiana, where Richard H. Waterfield started his own mortgage and insurance companies, according to the biography on the Waterfield Holdings website.
Since then, the firm has diversified into technology, real estate, asset management and merchant banking, and now manages some $2 billion in assets, according to the company.
YPO, founded in 1950, is made up of 30,000 members in 142 countries around the world and is composed of business leaders who run companies valued at a total of $9 trillion, and have a combined 22 million employees.
Its purpose is to be a global leadership community of chief executives who believe the world needs better leaders and come together through the organization to become better leaders and people and to make a difference in the lives, businesses and the world they impact, according to the organization.
In April, the organization announced a partnership with the Center for Creative Leadership, a top-ranked, global provider of leadership development training to help develop and support today's business leaders, according to a press release from the organization.
The regional chapter has the largest international membership roster, with 38% of its 188 members from outside the Greater New York area.
Members of other YPO chapters can join the NYC organization as ''secondary members,'' sharing experiences with members from Eastern and Western Europe, South America and Asia along with local members from New York City, Westchester County, Long Island and New Jersey, according to the organization.
via newsmax