Mike Alden

I made this photograph of Mike Alden, Director of Athletics at the University of Missouri in Columbia, in 2011. His tenure produced the most comprehensive run of athletic and academic successes in school history.

A couple of years before this image, Mike was on a trip to Vietnam with Nike. Very early one morning he was restless and left his upscale hotel in Ho Chi Minh City for a walk. For the equivalent of about 12 cents he took a ferry across the Saigon River to a rougher area. There was an immediate connection to the people. 

Mike retired in 2015, and has returned to Vietnam many times for humanitarian efforts. He worked with Nike to expand their micro-financing program for businesses, helped with an orphanage for blind children and an AIDS/HIV center, helped secure community-clinics funding for people affected by Agent Orange, and much more.

Thank you, Mike. Keep up your good work.

Photograph © 2020 Larry F. Levenson. All rights reserved.