Lura McBride to receive Howard Hall award

CEDAR RAPIDS — Lura McBride, president & CEO of Van Meter Inc., is the 2023 recipient of the Howard Hall Excellence in Business Award.

McBride will receive the award and speak at the Cedar Rapids Metro Economic Alliance’s annual meeting Jan. 18 at the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel Cedar Rapids Convention Complex in downtown Cedar Rapids.

The award is named for industrialist and philanthropist, Howard Hall (1894-1971), who used his influence to boost the Cedar Rapids area economy and community. It is the most prestigious honor bestowed by the Economic Alliance.

McBride has been with Van Meter Inc., an employee-owned, Cedar Rapids-based electrical, data and automation supply company, for 15 years and its president and CEO the past eight years. The company operates in 22 cities in five Midwestern states.

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“Lura McBride exemplifies the values we associate with Howard Hall, certainly in the way she leads her company, but also in the way she has elevated community discussions beyond the business world,” said Doug Neumann, executive director of the Economic Alliance.

“Among many other accomplishments, she has been a tremendous asset to Iowa’s first magnet high school, City View, and continues to be a champion by integrating the public and private sector to better the Cedar Rapids metro.”

McBride serves on numerous community boards and committees, including United Fire Group Insurance, University of Iowa Tippie College of Business, the Hall-Perrine Foundation, and is a founding member of the Grand Impact.

She also has served on the boards of UnityPoint Health-St. Luke’s and Tanager and co-chaired the Waypoint capital campaign and the first Leadership for Five Seasons Corridor Day.

McBride and her husband, Ryan, are University of Iowa graduates and have four children. Their oldest is a graduate of the UI Tippie College of Business, where the other three are currently students.

The annual meeting, from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m., is a member-only event. Registration deadline is Jan. 10 at cedarrapids.org/events/annual-meeting