AC Caswell
Entrepreneur and president/CEO, Million Dollar Mingle
Both a track and football star in his native Los Angeles and in Phoenix, where he graduated from Deer Valley High School and attended Glendale Community College, AC Caswell turned the heads of fans of both sports with his speed from an early age.
“After college, I was recruited to be a professional sprinter,” says Caswell, who spent the early '90s competing worldwide. “Then the Raiders came calling.”
Over the next near-decade, while primarily under contract with the Raiders, Caswell played for the Canadian Football League, Arena Football League, NFL Europe, and for the NFL as a wide receiver and member of special teams. After more than a dozen surgeries, he retired in 2010, but he did so with a plan.
“While playing, I loved taking part in nonprofit events,” Caswell says. “As such, it was a natural transition for me to first start my own nonprofit, Youth on the Rise Foundation, and then Million Dollar Mingle in 2006.”
Through Million Dollar Mingle, Caswell hosts invitation-only events worldwide with a singular goal—to raise $1 million in one night. To date, his events have generated tens of millions of dollars for those in need, and in fall 2021, he is partnering Mingle with the Bentley Polo Scottsdale Championships to make an even bigger local impact.
Mycal Anders
Owner, Next Level Performance & Fitness Consulting
Mycal Anders believes in “progress always.”
“While the mantra for Next Level, these are also the words I live by, thanks to the foundation built by my parents,” says Anders.
Anders was born in Spain to an Air Force family. His father served in Vietnam and became an attorney, first as a judge advocate general and then later in private practice, and his mother, a chief nurse officer, raised four Eagle Scouts while earning three master’s degrees.
After high school, Anders played football at both the Air Force Academy and Texas A&M – Commerce. He would serve as a strength/conditioning coach, and began bodybuilding before commissioning as an officer in the Marine Corps, where he developed fitness programs for the marines in his charge.
“After a deployment in Afghanistan, I left active duty in 2012 and founded Next Level Performance & Fitness Consulting,” he says.
Always seeking to progress, while building his business he also earned his masters from Arizona State University and began work on a book—Inner Circle: Focus & Fulfillment Habits of the Enlightened—which published in 2019.
“Today, with my wife Nicole, our lives revolve around helping people through Next Level and raising our two children as my parents did me,” says Anders, whose podcast, Progress Always, is launching this month.
Leonardo Loo
Office managing partner, Quarles & Brady LLP
Discussions about diversity and inclusion have been front and center across the nation this past year.
“At our house, both diversity and inclusion have been a part of our lives since day one, and something we are proud of,” says Leonardo Loo. “I was born in Venezuela, and my family roots are in both China and Mexico.”
Loo serves as the office managing partner for Quarles & Brady LLP, and oftentimes uses his unique background to bridge cultural differences with his international clients.
Loo, a native-Spanish speaker who is also fluent in Chinese, has embraced his varied cultural heritages. And his wife’s African-American heritage has only broadened that spectrum, forming a rich tapestry of cultures and languages that their two sons have been immersed in from birth.
“We primarily speak Spanish at home, and we work to teach them about the importance and value of diversity through our own attitudes and proactive leadership roles in the community,” says Loo.
Just some of the roles to which Loo is referring include serving on the boards for the Arizona Community Foundation and Chicanos Por La Causa, Inc.—where he is a past chair—and his work as general counsel for the Arizona Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. He is also the former general counsel for the Greater Phoenix Black Chamber of Commerce.
Doug Doyle
Co-Owner, Fired Pie
Growing up, California native Doug Doyle sailed and sizzled.
“I became an adept sailor and worked at Sizzler after school to be more specific,” says Doyle. “Both provided seeds of knowledge that helped me to grow into who I am today.”
Doyle enrolled at University of Denver with an eye toward hospitality after high school. Upon graduating, he paired his training with his nautical skills, working at Club Med, as well as teaching sailing in both Mexico and Bermuda, where he picked up some French. He then re-located to France, where he hosted bicycle tours through wine country before moving to Arizona in 1990.
Once here, he took a job at Houston’s, whose training and standards inspired him to make the restaurant industry his permanent career. Doyle would move on to California Pizza Kitchen (CPK) in the early 1990s, where he spent 17 years in management around the country.
“Through CPK I met Fred Morgan, a fellow manager,” says Doyle. “By 2012, he was COO of Oregano’s and enticed me back to Arizona to provide some regional leadership.”
The reunited colleagues decided to go out on their own, opening the first Fired Pie in 2013.
“Today we have 20 locations and are 300 employees strong, many of whom we’ve inspired into long-term hospitality careers, which fills me with pride,” says Doyle.
