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5 Key Takeaways from Our Enduring Excellence Conversation with Don and Liz Thompson

Don and Liz Thompson share lessons on partnership, purpose, and investing in the genius that lives in every community.

We were honored to close out this year’s Enduring Excellence series with Don and Liz Thompson, the husband-and-wife team behind Cleveland Avenue and the CAFE Group. Don served as CEO of McDonald’s after rising through the company over more than two decades, and Liz built a career across the corporate, philanthropic, and education sectors, including founding roles at City Year Chicago and a Montessori school in Denver. Together they shared reflections on the values that have carried them through every chapter of their careers and their lives.

Drawing from their remarkable journey, here are five takeaways from our conversation.

1. Genius Lives in Every Zip Code

Don and Liz both grew up on Cleveland Avenue in Chicago, four blocks apart, before meeting years later at Purdue University. That shared origin shapes how they see the world and how they invest in it today. Liz spoke about the teachers, neighbors, and family members who showed her that brilliance was all around her, even when the broader world refused to see it. “Genius is all around us,” she said. “We just have to see it. And I first learned that on Cleveland.”

That belief is the foundation of the 1954 Project, which provides unrestricted grants to leaders working in education across the country. Don added that the resourcefulness, networks, and care he experienced growing up taught him more about leading people than any classroom ever could. For both of them, recognizing genius wherever it exists is not just a slogan, but also the operating principle behind every fund and initiative they support.

2. Partnership Means Making Room for Each Other

When asked how two electrical engineers from the same neighborhood ended up on such different career paths, Don and Liz described a partnership built on creating space for each other to grow. Early in their careers, Liz left a stable corporate job at Ameritech for a fifty percent pay cut to join the nonprofit sector, where she felt her purpose was strongest. Later, when Don’s career at McDonald’s began to require constant travel, Liz stepped back from her career to anchor the family. “It was never, well, I’ll step back while you step forward,” she said. “It was what’s going to be best for our family.”

Don was clear that Liz made the biggest sacrifice and that her choice gave him the freedom to take on greater responsibility. Their story is a reminder that partnership in leadership is not about equal time or equal titles. It is about trusting each other enough to know when to lead, when to support, and when to make decisions that serve something larger than either career.

3. The Best Leaders Stay Close to the Work

Don rose to become CEO of one of the largest restaurant companies in the world, and he credits his time on the ground in the operations side of McDonald’s for much of what he learned. He started as a co-manager in a Chicago franchise and spent years close to the crew, the breakfast regulars, and the daily routines of the restaurants. “If you are a leader and you don’t understand that ecosystem at ground level, how do you address it with sensitivity, empathy, and even a business angle of growth?” he said.

Liz echoed the same idea from her own work in philanthropy. The people closest to a challenge, she explained, are the ones best equipped to solve it. That belief drives how the 1954 Project resources leaders who come from the communities they serve. For both Don and Liz, getting close to the work is how real solutions get built, and it is the reason their investments often find talent that other institutions overlook.

4. Unrestricted Belief Is Different From a Transaction

One of the most striking ideas in the conversation came when Liz described how the 1954 Project gives leaders one million dollars in unrestricted capital, no strings attached. The decision to give without conditions, she explained, is a statement of trust. “When you do it in an unrestricted way, what you’re saying is, I trust what you know, not what I know,” she said. 

For Liz, restricting how a grantee can use a gift turns philanthropy into a transaction and limits what the recipient can accomplish. Real investment means believing in someone’s judgment as much as their potential. Don added that the same idea shapes how Cleveland Avenue partners with entrepreneurs, especially those who have been overlooked by traditional capital. Belief, given freely, is what allows people to do their best work.

5. Bring Love Into the Workplace

Throughout the conversation, Don and Liz returned to a theme that is rarely heard in corporate settings. They lead with love, and they believe other leaders should too. “Just don’t abandon love and leave it at home,” Liz said. “Bring it to the workplace.” In their view, love shapes everything from company policy to how feedback gets delivered to how people are treated when they are not in the room.

Don added that love is not always soft. It includes truth, and accountability to push people toward what they are capable of becoming. Both pointed to the people in their own lives who saw something in them before they saw it in themselves, and they want to be that kind of presence for others.Their leadership at Cleveland Avenue and the Cleveland Avenue Foundation for Education is built on the belief that love and excellence go hand in hand, each making the other possible.

Continuing the Conversation

Don and Liz Thompson’s insights show that enduring excellence is built through partnership, faith, and deep investment in the people around you. Their work at Cleveland Avenue and the CAFE Group proves that a career can be both highly successful and entirely grounded in service to others. Watch the full conversation to hear more of Don and Liz’s insights on building an impactful life and career.

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Enduring Excellence

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