Capt. ‘Sully’ Sullenberger to Headline Hargrove Foundation Gala in Mobile

MOBILE, Ala. — The pilot behind aviation’s most famous emergency landing is coming to Mobile. Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger will deliver the keynote address at the Hargrove Foundation’s eighth annual gala on Thursday, Nov. 30, at the Renaissance Riverview Plaza Hotel, giving the city’s business and civic community an evening with one of the most recognizable figures in modern aviation.

The annual gala has grown into one of Mobile’s signature fundraising events, an occasion where the foundation gathers supporters from across the Gulf Coast to celebrate its charitable work and set the stage for the causes it will champion in the year ahead. Organizers say this year’s keynote continues a deliberate tradition of bringing prominent national voices to downtown Mobile.

Sullenberger is best known for gliding US Airways Flight 1549 onto the Hudson River in January 2009 after a bird strike disabled both engines, saving all 155 people aboard in what became known as the “Miracle on the Hudson.” The airliner had just departed New York’s LaGuardia Airport when a flock of geese struck it moments after takeoff, knocking out power to both engines at a low altitude over one of the nation’s busiest urban corridors. Sullenberger, a former Air Force fighter pilot with decades of airline experience, judged in seconds that he could not safely return to any runway and instead glided the jet onto the frigid river, where every passenger and crew member was rescued from the wings and evacuation slides.

The landing was later dramatized in the 2016 film “Sully,” starring Tom Hanks and directed by Clint Eastwood, which retold both the emergency itself and the federal review that followed it. The event remains one of the most closely studied cases in commercial aviation, cited in pilot training and safety research worldwide, and it transformed Sullenberger from a veteran captain into one of the country’s most prominent advocates for air safety.

From the Hudson to Diplomacy

In recent years Sullenberger served as U.S. Ambassador and Representative to the International Civil Aviation Organization, a post he was nominated to by President Joe Biden and confirmed to by the U.S. Senate in 2021. The Montreal-based organization, a specialized agency of the United Nations, sets the international standards that govern commercial flight around the world, and the American representative to it helps shape global policy on safety, navigation and air traffic. Sullenberger’s appointment placed the pilot of Flight 1549 at the table where those rules are written.

His confirmation followed a career that spanned military and commercial flying. Before the Hudson River landing, Sullenberger had built a reputation as an instructor, accident investigator and safety advocate, work that he has often said shaped the judgment that carried him through the January 2009 emergency. That blend of hands-on experience and policy work is central to his appeal on the speaking circuit, where he addresses leadership, preparedness and decision-making under pressure.

He is also a No. 1 New York Times bestselling author of “Highest Duty: My Search for What Really Matters” and “Making a Difference: Stories of Vision and Courage from America’s Leaders,” and works as a speaker and aviation safety expert. “Highest Duty,” his memoir of the Hudson River flight and the life that prepared him for it, became the basis for the 2016 film adaptation, while his second book draws lessons from leaders across public life.

“We are excited to welcome Ambassador Sully and add him to our legacy of incredible speakers in Mobile,” said Micki Kohn, president of the foundation’s board of directors. “We look forward to joining together once again with our community and championing the causes we support through the Hargrove Foundation.”

Kohn’s reference to a legacy of speakers reflects the gala’s standing on Mobile’s event calendar. For the foundation’s board, landing a keynote speaker whose name is known far beyond aviation circles is a statement about the reach the annual event has built over eight years, and about the audience of community and business leaders it has drawn to the cause.

What the Foundation Supports

The Hargrove Foundation identifies charitable causes across the Mobile area to support. The foundation operates as the philanthropic arm of Hargrove Engineers + Constructors, the Mobile-based engineering and services firm, and it concentrates its giving on the communities where the company’s employees live and work. Its efforts have generally emphasized education, workforce development, health and human services — areas where targeted support can measurably change outcomes for local families.

The gala serves as the centerpiece of that fundraising effort. Revenue from individual tickets and corporate sponsorships flows into the foundation’s grantmaking, which backs nonprofit programs across the Mobile area. Board members have described the event as both a fundraiser and a gathering point for the region’s civic leadership, a single evening that sets the tone for the foundation’s work through the following year.

Sullenberger’s appearance carries particular resonance in a city with deepening ties to commercial aviation. Mobile is home to the Airbus Final Assembly Line at the Mobile Aeroplex at Brookley, where A320-family jets — the same aircraft family as the US Airways plane Sullenberger landed on the Hudson — are built for carriers around the world. The assembly line and its network of suppliers have made aviation a growing pillar of the local economy, and an aviation safety expert of Sullenberger’s stature speaking in Mobile underscores how far the city’s connection to the industry has come.

The venue itself is a familiar one for large-scale Mobile events. The Renaissance Riverview Plaza Hotel sits on Water Street along the Mobile River in the heart of downtown, within walking distance of the convention district, and it routinely hosts the city’s largest banquets, conferences and galas. The riverfront setting has made it a preferred location for events of the foundation’s scale, with ballroom capacity well suited to a dinner-and-keynote program.

Individual tickets to the gala were priced at $300, with sponsorships also available. Sponsorship packages allow area businesses to support the foundation’s work at a higher level while securing tables for their guests, a structure common to Gulf Coast charity galas that helps organizers raise the bulk of the evening’s proceeds before the doors open.

Organizers pointed to the keynote as the anchor of the evening, but the gathering’s larger purpose is the work that follows it: the grants the foundation awards to Mobile-area causes during the year ahead. For attendees, the night offers a chance to hear from a man whose composure over the Hudson River became a global case study in calm leadership — and to direct the proceeds of that evening toward needs closer to home.

Additional details about the program and the foundation’s grant recipients are expected to be shared with attendees as the Nov. 30 date approaches. Those seeking tickets or sponsorship information can contact the Hargrove Foundation directly through its Mobile offices.

The choice of a keynote speaker also reflects the foundation’s habit of pairing its annual theme with a storyteller. Sullenberger’s account of Flight 1549 is less a war story than a lesson in preparation, teamwork and discipline — themes that align with the foundation’s emphasis on building capability in the community, from classroom programs to workforce pipelines that train young people for skilled careers along the Gulf Coast.

An Evening With Global Stakes Behind It

When Sullenberger addresses the ballroom at the Riverview Plaza, his message will arrive at a moment when the aviation industry is working through one of its most demanding periods in a generation. Airlines and regulators worldwide have been contending with surging travel demand, staffing pressures and an evolving safety landscape, giving added weight to the perspective of a captain whose landing is still taught as a model of airmanship. His tenure at the International Civil Aviation Organization gave him a vantage point over international standards that few retired pilots share, and audiences frequently cite his blend of technical authority and personal narrative as the draw.

For the Hargrove Foundation, the eighth gala also marks a milestone of endurance. Nonprofit galas often rise and fade with the economy, but the foundation’s event has run continuously since its launch, an indication of the depth of corporate and civic support behind it in the Mobile area. The $300 individual ticket price positions it among the city’s premier benefit events, alongside the fundraising nights hosted by hospitals, universities and chambers of commerce across the region.

The foundation’s model — identifying needs across the Mobile area and backing them with targeted support — means the money raised on Nov. 30 will be distributed in the months that follow, not parked in a distant endowment. That proximity between the evening’s speakers and the programs it funds has been a consistent selling point for sponsors, who can see the results of their giving in local classrooms, shelters and training centers.

Sullenberger, for his part, has spent the years since the Hudson River landing using his platform to press for improvements in aviation safety and to champion the ordinary professionals — pilots, flight attendants, controllers, mechanics — whose training makes rare emergencies survivable. That emphasis on the everyday discipline behind extraordinary outcomes is expected to be the thread of his Mobile address, delivered to a room of community leaders whose own work, the foundation hopes, will carry the message well beyond the ballroom.

Tickets and sponsorship details are available through the foundation, and organizers expect demand to be strong given the speaker’s name recognition. Doors open in the evening ahead of the dinner program, with the keynote and the foundation’s remarks closing out the night.