Mentorship with the Manekins: Developing from the Heart

Donald Manekin, along with his son Thibault, is the co-founder of Seawall. He has worked on community-focused real estate development, civic leadership, and philanthropic missions in the Baltimore-Washington region for more than four decades, serving as Senior Vice President of Manekin Corporation, the interim chief operating officer for the Baltimore City Public Schools and graduate professor at Johns Hopkins University, M.I.T and Loyola University Maryland.

From the time he was little growing in Baltimore City, Thibault wrestled to understand why we as human beings seemed so divided. He continued to ask himself what truly causes those divides that separate races, cultures and communities, and can anything be done to bridge them?

Armed with that burning question, in 2002, Thibault traveled to South Africa, where he combined his passion for bringing people together with a love of sports to help create PeacePlayers, a nonprofit with the mission of bringing together children from war-torn countries around the world through basketball and dialogue. PeacePlayers has since worked with over 75,000 youth from over 20 countries around the world and has trained over 2,000 coaches/changes agents. The program has won numerous global awards, including the 2007 ESPYs Arthur Ashe Courage Award.

Bothered by how real estate and the control of land seemed to have done more to divide us as people then actually bring us together, in 2006, Thibault moved back to Baltimore where he helped start Seawall, an impact driven company made up of passionate social entrepreneurs who believe in re-imagining the real estate industry as we know it. Seawall believes that all facets of the built environment should be used to empower communities, unite our cities, and help launch powerful ideas that create important movements. Since its inception, the company has focused its energy and resources on providing discounted apartments for teachers, collaborative office space for non-profit organizations, workforce housing, community-driven retail, public markets, launchpads for chefs, and creative space for charter schools.

In 2011, Thibault was honored by President Obama’s White House as a Champion for Change and Seawall’s projects have received numerous national awards, including: The Rudy Bruner Award for Urban Excellence, United States Environmental Protection Agency – National Award for Smart Growth Achievement, Urban Land Institute – Jack Kemp Models of Excellence in Workforce Housing Award, and several Urban Land Institute – Wavemaker Awards.

In 2020, fascinated by the lessons he learned over the years, Thibault launched the Larger Than Yourself podcast, a collaborative space for brave people to share how they are helping small ideas become powerful movements. The mission is to amplify the impact of their stories and inspire the courage in others to reimagine industries, lead with purpose, and challenge the status quo.

Most importantly, Thibault is the proud husband of Lola Manekin and the father of Durban and Finley Manekin.