From the Nashville Predators:

KIWANIS CLUB OF NASHVILLE TO HONOR DAVID FREEMAN AS 2008 MAN OF THE YEAR

Nashville, Tenn. (May 19, 2009) - The Kiwanis Club of Nashville has named Predators Owner, Chairman and Governor David Freeman as its 2008 Outstanding Nashvillian of the Year. He will be recognized at an awards luncheon held on June 5.

 The award is handed out annually to the Nashvillian who has been the greatest benefit to the Nashville metropolitan community during the past year. The nominee must be one who has gone beyond the call of duty and given unstintingly of his or her abilities and/or resources for the betterment of the Nashville area.

"During a time when Nashville needed something very good to happen, David stepped up and led a group of people to purchase the Predators and keep them in Nashville," Past Kiwanis President and Chair of the Outstanding Nashvillian Award Committee Key Holleman said. "He has often said that this was done not because he was a huge hockey fan, but because of a sense of civic duty and interest in what good it would do for Nashville.

 "David has helped increase local commitment to the Nashville Predators by his visibility in the community as well as his efforts to increase support and ticket sales and by highlighting various high school championship teams with on-ice recognition.  He has been in and around the community and Nashville is better off for keeping the Predators here as Nashville's hockey team. The impact that this accomplishment has had on Nashville has been, in a word, huge."

 In 2007, Freeman became owner, Chairman and Governor of the Predators when he gathered a group of investors to form Predators Holding, L.L.C. Prior to his purchase of the Predators, David was the founder and CEO of Commodore Medical Services (formed in 1991) which grew to be the second-largest company in the medical waste industry at the time of its sale in 2007. Freeman practiced law for over ten years as a mergers and acquisitions attorney at major law firms in Dallas and Nashville. Freeman received a Bachelor of Science degree in Economics from the University of Tennessee and a Juris Doctor degree from the Vanderbilt University School of Law, where he served as Executive Editor of the Vanderbilt Law Review. Outside of the Predators, Freeman founded 36 Venture Capital in 2007 and serves as the company's CEO. He was also the 2008 recipient of the Nashville Sport's Council's Community Spirit Award. Davis, born and raised in Knoxville, resides in Nashville with his family.