Coyotes' Lydia Love Named to Phoenix Business Journal's 40 Under 40

The Phoenix Business Journal's 40 Under 40 Awards has some Pack Love this year.

Literally.

Lydia Love, the Arizona Coyotes' Manager of Executive Operations, was named to the publication's 40 Under 40 list, and was honored in a ceremony at the Scottsdale Center for the Performing Arts on Thursday. The annual award is presented to 40 honorees who are selected by a panel that's comprised of former winners who evaluate nominees over various groups, categories, companies, and/or organizations.

Love, 32, has been a mainstay at the Coyotes since she joined the club in June 2021. She left her job at a law firm in Kansas and moved with her family to Arizona, where she started her current position at an organization with the first majority Latino owner in the NHL, Alex Meruelo, and the first Latino President and CEO in the NHL, Xavier A. Gutierrez.

She's not out for recognition, but instead cited a famous quote from Nelson Mandela as her guiding light - "Sport has the power to change the world. It has the power to inspire. It has the power to unite people in a way that little else does. It speaks to youth in a language they understand. Sport can create hope where once there was only despair. It is more powerful than governments in breaking down racial barriers. It laughs in the face of all types of discrimination."

Those words, along with the support she's received throughout her career, led her to the stage on Thursday.

"It's really exciting to be among a group of so many talented people in the community, and at the club. You take it for granted when you are surrounded by great people, and to be recognized is a huge accomplishment for me," Love said. "The inspiration and support I receive, not just from my family, but from my colleagues and my friends and my mentors, is incredibly powerful. Their unwavering support and guidance really fuel and motivate me to perform better."

The award marks yet another milestone in a series of recognition the club has received, as Meruelo was recognized as Man of the Year by the Arizona Hispanic Chamber of Commerce in May, while Gutierrez received the Jason Jenkins Victory for Humanity Award in June.

Love specifically mentioned both Meruelo and Gutierrez as mentors, and said she's proud to serve both the team and the community on a daily basis.

"I was excited to join the Coyotes because of the incredible opportunity it was," she said. "To be so close with Xavier and Alex Meruelo, and really to be behind the scenes of the great things that the club is doing and know that my efforts are a part of the positive outcome, it's an incredible honor."

Gutierrez said Love's contributions to both the team and the community are true to the core of who the Coyotes are and was excited to see she was named among The Valley's elite young leaders.

"It's an incredible recognition of who Lydia is as a person, and who she is as a professional, and what she has meant to both the community and to us as an organization," Gutierrez said. "She's the perfect example of an individual who has embraced the vision, and embraced this opportunity, and really found a lot of avenues to make an impact.

"It's just a testament to who she is, and it's a testament to her values and how they reflect everything that we stand for. I'm just so honored that she is a part of our Pack and a part of our team."

Greg Barr, Editor-in-Chief of the Phoenix Business Journal, said the 2023 honorees were selected from a pool of over 330 nominees - never an easy task when there are so many qualified individuals in the greater Phoenix area.

Panelists who select the winners ultimately look at a number of variables, including their involvement with the community, their path forward within their respective job, and the gravity of the work they complete within their organization.

"Every year I look forward to doing this because I get a glimpse of who the future leaders are going to be in Arizona, and we follow their careers ourselves very carefully," Barr said. "We cover the news, that's our most important job, but the other thing we do is we bring people together to network as a business-to-business publication -- that's sort of our secondary function -- and that's certainly what happens here today."

The ceremony kicked off with a networking luncheon before honorees were called onto the stage and presented with a plaque. Alex Rounds, Event Director for the Phoenix Business Journal, said recipients were nominated by either themselves or colleagues, and the publication strives to ensure the end result is a diverse set of individuals honored from multiple groups, categories, companies, and organizations.

"It means a lot to us," Rounds said. "We like to be on the forefront of all of this, introducing these honorees to everybody. We want everyone to get to know them because these are the people that are going to make changes and be our leaders in the future.

"It's important for us to shine a light on them."

Though Love deflected the honor away from herself individually, her contributions within both the Coyotes and the community are just the tip of the iceberg in terms of the impact she has on a daily basis.

As she continues her career she hopes she can reflect upon not how far she's come individually, but rather on how the community around her has grown as a result of her efforts.

"Honestly, I'm just blown away at the idea that I was selected among so many other well-deserving people," she said. "I always have this continuous learning mindset, and I try to find opportunities to better myself, acquire more knowledge, and grow my skillset.

"In 5-10 years I want to sit back and look to see all of the positive things that we've accomplished, not just me, but collectively, the club as a whole."