Lane Baldwin met Larry Spears during Lane's time with Men's Wearhouse. At the time, Larry was serving as Executive Director of the Greenleaf Center for Servant-Leadership, which was his role for seventeen years. It was through Lane's association with Men's Wearhouse founder/chairman George Zimmer and MW VP Kirk Warren that Lane learned of Larry's advocacy of servant-leadership in the global business community.

Like George and Kirk, Lane employed the principles of servant-leadership long before learning of the Greenleaf Center. However, it is due to Lane's association with the center, and some one-on-one mentoring from Larry, that Lane codified and polished these principles and more effectively incorporated them into his consulting practice. In 2008, Larry stepped aside as captain of the Greenleaf ship to pilot his own foundation. Lane has supported Larry's foundation since Day One.

One highly unusual aspect of Lane's relationship with Larry is that the two never met in person until April of this year. Lane and Larry have maintained contact over the years through email and phone calls alone. That hasn't deterred them from becoming friends, however. "Men's Wearhouse gave me my first opportunity to telecommute," says Lane. "Kirk [Warren] and I both quickly learned how to build a long-distance relationship, and that has stayed with me ever since. In fact, Larry was my second long-distance mentor."

Recently, Lane submitted an essay, Learning Servant Leadership from Native America - Again, for consideration for inclusion in an upcoming anthology of essays to be published by the center as the newest installment in their extensive library. "Larry is still working with purblishers; no decisions have been made. I consider it an honor to be invited to submit. Other than that, I'm doing what everyone else is: biting their nails."

In March, 2009, Lane was featured in the Spears Center newsletter. For more information, click here.