WAAS Trustee Walt Stinson was awarded the GlobalMindED 2025 Exceptional Leader Award in the technology category at an awards dinner in Denver, Colorado on June 16,2025.
The awards recognize exceptional leaders in key industries for their innovations and bold actions in alignment with our values of empowerment, opportunity,innovation, lifelong learning, compassion, integrity, and sustainability. “Inclusive leadership means recognizing the potential in people who don’t necessarily fit your preconceived notions,” says Stinson.
Stinson has spent over 50 years building a legacy of innovation in the consumer electronics and home entertainment industry, shaping the way people experience music, film, and technology in their homes. He was inducted into the Consumer Technology Hall of Fame, class of 2009.
His lifelong fascination with technology began at age 10, sparked by the enigma of shortwave radio signals. This early passion, combined with a strong entrepreneurial drive, led him to establish ListenUp in Denver at 24, after carefully selecting the market from a dozen contenders. By the mid-1980s, his work extended beyond retail; he managed the sound, live broadcasts, and recordings for over a thousand rock ‘n’ roll concerts, featuring numerous Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees.
He also committed to personal and professional growth, practicing Zazen and learning from seasoned mentors. His leadership in the industry included co-founding PARA, a trade association, and spearheading the adoption of digital audio in North America. These contributions were recognized with his induction into the Consumer Technology Hall of Fame in 2009, alongside luminaries like Steve Jobs and Irwin Jacobs. More recently, he concluded his tenure as Chairman of ProSource, a 500-company trade association focused on vocational education.
Accepting the award in Denver, Stinson had this to say:
“I’m honored to receive this recognition—and to stand among so many who share my belief that leadership is not a title, but a grand responsibility.
At the core of my work today is a simple but powerful idea: to measure security at the individual level. That’s the promise of Human Security for All—a United Nations initiative to frame security in human terms: food, health, education, the environment, and opportunity. The call for Human security challenges us to think not only in terms of technological innovation, but in terms of impact.
The World Academy of Art and Science—where I serve as trustee— is the implementing partner. It was founded by visionaries who understood that humanity’s greatest challenges cannot be solved in silos. They called for integrated thinking across disciplines, cultures, and generations. Today, that mission is more urgent than ever. Artificial intelligence now offers the possibility to scale that vision—facilitating collaboration and knowledge-sharing across domains. The Academy and its partners are working to accelerate that promise.
If you’re a young person here tonight, I invite you to see yourself not just as a student or future leader, but as a builder—of systems that uplift people.
And to those already leading: I challenge you to think not only in terms of innovation, but in terms of impact. Let us choose to lead not from unconscious habit, but from a conscious vision of the world we have the power to build—together.
A world defined by freedom from fear, freedom from want, and freedom from indignity.”
