David Weekley
To my knowledge, no one has labeled David Weekley as a servant leader ... so I will.
Robert K. Greenleaf coined the term servant leader in his 1970 essay "The Servant as Leader". The central idea of his thinking was that true leadership emerges from those whose primary motivation is a deep desire to help others. Servant-leadership emphasizes increased service to others, a holistic approach to work, promoting a sense of community, and the sharing of power in decision making. Those characteristics are personified by David Weekley. My first clue to this was his commitment to his community, lending his leadership to his church, St. Lukes Episcopal Hospital, the Boy Scouts of America and many others. My next clue was when I heard that he had cancelled a planned all-employee reward trip to Hawaii as a result of the severe housing market downturn in 2007-2008 ... and instead tripled the severance of employees who were laid-off. This gesture was confirmed in the Fortune magazine account of David Weekley Homes at #17 in the 2008 listing of Best Places to Work.
On their web site on the About Us page their serving philosophy is stated this way "For us it isn't the smell of sawdust that gets us out of bed every morning. It's knowing that each day brings another opportunity to Enhance People's Lives. It's a philosophy that permeates everything we do". From our perspective, David Weekley's attention to serving not only his fellow man through his philanthropic endeavors, but also through his employees and customers gives him the deserved stature of servant leader.