Maria Saporta, executive editor, is a longtime Atlanta business, civic and urban affairs journalist with a deep knowledge of our city, our region and state. From 2008 to 2020, she wrote weekly columns and news stories for the Atlanta Business Chronicle. Prior to that, she spent 27 years with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, becoming its business columnist in 1991. Maria received her Master’s degree in urban studies from Georgia State and her Bachelor’s degree in journalism from Boston University. Maria was born in Atlanta to European parents and has two young adult children. She launched SaportaReport in February 2009.
A gift of nearly $600,000 from Delta Air Lines CEO Richard Anderson and his wife, Susan, helped close out the $12.5 million campaign to fund the Atlanta BeltLine’s Westside Trail.
The private fundraising campaign was crucial in securing an $18 million TIGER V grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation, which is accelerating construction on the Westside Trail by two to three years.
Leadership Atlanta has selected 55 community leaders to join its 2016 LEAD Atlanta Class – a program that empowers young leaders early in their careers.
The LEAD Atlanta program seeks to teach the young professionals the skills and knowledge they will need to create enduring positive change in the community.
It was June 6 (D-Day), 1990.
The Georgia Research Alliance was holding its first board meeting with Larry Gellerstedt Jr. chairing the meeting in the “war room” at the former offices of Central Atlanta Progress in the Hurt Building.
An “iconic” photo memorializing that historic first meeting adorned the cover of the workbooks of GRA members attending the board meeting May 21 at the Commerce Club to celebrate the organization’s 25-year anniversary.
Three Atlanta mayors – three different legacies.
Their stories now are being captured in documentaries that will provide three varying perspectives on a pivotal era that catapulted our city from a small Southern town to the biggest city in the Southeast.
The three mayors – Ivan Allen Jr., Maynard H. Jackson Jr. and Andrew Young – all left an important signature on our city – all mayors who passionately cared about being strong stewards of Atlanta during their tenure.
By Maria Saporta
Published in the Atlanta Business Chronicle on May 22, 2015
The Metro Atlanta Chamber’s new marketing campaign — officially unveiled at its board meeting on May 21 — can be defined as much by what it is not than by what it is.
For starters, you won’t see it on television commercials. And you won’t see a blitz with famous Atlantans selling the Atlanta region.
You won’t even see the Metro Atlanta Chamber brand anywhere on it. Although the initial funding for the campaign has come from the chamber’s Forward Atlanta fund, the business organization wanted to include chambers and economic developers from throughout its 29-county region to be part of the effort.
By Maria Saporta
Published in the Atlanta Business Chronicle on May 15, 2015
In an unexpected gesture of generosity, David and Cecilia Ratcliffe have made a $1 million gift to Zoo Atlanta capital campaign – one of the largest donations it has ever received from an individual donor.
Ratcliffe, retired CEO of Southern Co., is serving as one of the three co-chairs of the “A Grand New View for Zoo Atlanta: Elephants, Events and Expansion” campaign along with Paul Bowers, CEO of Georgia Power, and Jim Hannan, CEO of Georgia-Pacific.
“When my wife and I looked at the project, it is one of the largest transitions in the zoo’s history,” Ratcliffe said about his gift.
Atlanta’s quest to host the 2015 Summit of Nobel Peace Laureates has taken yet another twist falling just short of a final decision.
The last week could be described as one where the Summit moved two steps closer and one step back with receiving a final green light to move forward from all the necessary players.
Honorable Mayor Reed,
When you issued your press release last week saying you welcomed a conversation on Fort McPherson – that you encouraged debate and dialogue based on facts – not fiction, I was delighted and greatly relieved.
An open, honest and fact-based debate about Fort McPherson is long overdue.
As you know, I believe Fort McPherson represents a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for Atlanta. We have only one chance to get it right.
By Maria Saporta
Published in the Atlanta Business Chronicle on May 15, 2015
Meet Mary Laschinger. She likely will be the first woman CEO of a Fortune 500 company based in Georgia.
Now meet Veritiv Corp. (NYSE: VRTV) – the company she runs. When Fortune includes this newly-formed public company on its Fortune 500 list, it likely will be ranked near No. 300 due to its annual sales of more than $9 billion – a higher rank than Atlanta-based SunTrust Banks.
Veritiv was established on July 1, 2014 – following a merger of International Paper’s xpedx division and Unisource Worldwide. Because it hasn’t been in business as a stand-alone entity for a full year, Veritiv probably won’t make this year’s Fortune 500 list.
But it’s only a matter of time.
Winners of a design competition to retrofit and enhance two of Atlanta’s bridges over the Downtown Connector were announced Friday at the AIA national convention that is meeting in town this week.
The two winning designs – one for the 10th Street bridge in Midtown and the other for the Courtland-McGill bridge in downtown – were selected “blindly” by a panel of design professionals.
One of Atlanta’s highest-profile companies – Intercontinental Exchange Inc. – held its annual shareholders meeting Friday morning, but the press was not allowed in the meeting.
ICE, the owner of the New York Stock Exchange, has the legal right to close off the meeting to the press.
But for a company that wants to play in the big leagues, it needs to start acting like the public entity that it is and open up its doors to the outside world.
By Maria Saporta
Published in the Atlanta Business Chronicle on May 8, 2015
Purpose Built Communities, the Atlanta-based nonprofit that helps transform struggling urban neighborhoods, is undergoing a leadership transition and expanding its mission.
Former Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin, who has been serving as chair and CEO of Purpose Built, will now become the nonprofit’s executive chairman.
Taking her place as CEO of Purpose Built is David Edwards, who joined the organization in June 2014 as a senior vice president. Carol Naughton, who also has been serving as a senior vice president, is being promoted to president.
Fulton County Commission Chairman John Eaves is asking Georgia Attorney General Sam Olens to weigh in on the “potential ethical violation regarding the appointment of City of Atlanta Councilwoman Keisha Lance Bottoms to serve as executive director of the Atlanta-Fulton County Recreation Authority.”
Eaves delivered a letter to Olens on Thursday asking for an investigation by the AG’s Law Department to “determine whether any ethical or legal provisions have been or may be violated by such appointment.”
Response by Reed Administration to Saporta Report Columns Published on May 4 and May 11, 2015
ATLANTA – Fort McPherson is one of the most important properties in the City of Atlanta, and its future is worthy of engaged and spirited public dialogue.
Michael Robison, the founder and former CEO of of Lanier Parking, was acquitted of rape charges Tuesday afternoon in a Nantucket jury trial.
The jury deliberated two hours and 40 minutes before acquitting Robison, who retired from Lanier Parking in early 2014 after selling the company.
By Maria Saporta
Published in the Atlanta Business Chronicle on May 8, 2015
A historic Atlanta church displaced for the new Atlanta Falcons stadium has found a new home.
Friendship Baptist Church on May 3 unveiled plans for its new church on a site that’s now part of the Atlanta University Center.
The church, which dates back to 1862, sold its previoius, historic location at Mitchell Street and Northside Drive to the Falcons, who paid Friendship $19.5 million for the property.
A city stands and falls on the decisions and vision of her leaders.
All too rarely, a city has an opportunity to make a decision that will set its future course for generations to come.
Fort McPherson is such an opportunity for Atlanta.
Atlanta’s prospects of hosting the Nobel Peace Laureates Summit in November have become even more challenging as the deadline to present a solution to the international body has been extended until May 13.
Further complicating an already messy situation, three members resigned Friday from the board of Yunus Creative Labs – the entity that has been in charge of putting on the Summit. The three board members were Laura Turner Seydel, who had been chairing the host committee for the Nobel Peace Laureate Summit; Jason Carter, the grandson of 2002 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Jimmy Carter; and Willis Potts, former chairman of the Georgia Board of Regents.
More than 100 Atlanta leaders are in Toronto, Canada this week. It’s part of the annual LINK exchange – when municipal heads travel to other cities to meet the people who run them. Maria Saporta of the Saporta Report is in Toronto with the delegation. She told Amy Kiley what Atlanta leaders are learning up North. […]
The founding CEO of the National Center for Civil and Human Rights – Doug Shipman – is stepping down in early June – nearly one year after the attraction opened.
Shipman has been involved with the project for the past decade. It began as a 10-week pro-bono consulting assignment that turned into developing, opening and running the Center this past year.
