Education: Bachelor's degree in construction management, Washington State University; master's degree in business administration, University of Denver.

What drives or inspires you? Making a difference in the urban landscape by building neighborhoods, retail buildings, and housing, and playing real-life Monopoly.

Who has been a significant influence in your life and career? My dad, James S. Black, who passed away 40 years ago, has been my biggest influence. He taught me how life was a great inspiration and how to accomplish great things while having a balanced existence.

What advice would you have for others looking to follow a career path similar to yours? Get up and work all day, play on weekends, and study other successes and how they do it. Have a bread-and-butter source of income and a frugal lifestyle, then you'll have income to invest.

If you had to choose an alternative career path and money wasn't relevant, what would you do? I'd be a ski instructor at a major resort in Aspen, Colorado. Then in the summer, I'd be a bartender and competitively waterski.

As a longtime commercial real estate broker and developer, Dave Black, has established his presence as a successful CEO whose market expertise has helped influence major community projects, including ONE Spokane Stadium.

Black's commercial real estate began in 1981. Three years later, he would become president of James S. Black & Co. after his father was diagnosed with cancer.

A former Eagle Scout, Black continues serving the community as a member of the endowment board and past president of the Boy Scouts of America Inland Northwest Council. He also is on the board of the Northeast Youth Center, as well as past board chair of the Downtown Spokane Partnership and the Spokane Association of Realtors.