Author Archives: Maria Saporta

By Maria Saporta
Published in the Atlanta Business Chronicle on Friday, November 23, 2012

The Atlanta Police Foundation is launching an $8.1 million, three-year campaign to continue improving public safety in the city.

The Robert W. Woodruff Foundation has made the lead $1 million gift to that campaign. “The Woodruff Foundation has been our biggest supporter,” said Dave Wilkinson, president and CEO of the Atlanta Police Foundation.

The foundation was started in 2003 as a way to bolster the city of Atlanta’s public safety efforts.

By Maria Saporta

A former employee at the Woodruff Arts Center is thought to defrauded the cultural institution out of $1.438 million over the past five years through false invoices.

The leadership of WAC disclosed Tuesday morning that it has been conducting a internal investigation with outside forensic accounting experts over the past three weeks to determine the extent of the fraud.

The case has been turned over to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

By Maria Saporta

Atlanta and Georgia dominate in the field of credit card and debit card payments.

Paul Garcia, CEO of Atlanta-based Global Payments, told members of the Rotary Club of Atlanta Monday that 70 percent of all credit and debit transactions that occur in the United States are handled by companies based in Georgia — primarily in metro Atlanta.

Garcia then went on to list some of the major players based in Georgia — First Data, Elavon, TSYS (Total Systems), NCR and of course, Global Payments.

By Maria Saporta

Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed vowed to take an active role in the recruitment of a new superintendent of the Atlanta Public Schools should he be re-elected in 2013.

Meanwhile, the mayor endorsed the idea of extending the contract of current Superintendent Erroll Davis for another two years. The Atlanta Board of Education currently considering whether to extend that contract.

“I happen to believe that Erroll Davis is the right guy to lead us for the next two years,” Reed said during a luncheon speech at the Commerce Club on Tuesday.

By Maria Saporta

Back in 2006, Habitat for Humanity International moved its administrative headquarters from Americus to downtown Atlanta.

So how has the relocation of its headquarters worked out for Habitat?

“It’s been a home run,” said Jonathan Reckford, CEO of Habitat International. “It has helped in our recruitment and retention of the people we can get here. We’ve got some terrific people.”

By Maria Saporta

Genuine Parts Co. today announced that Jerry Nix, the company’s chief financial officer, will retire on March 1, 2013.

And the company also announced that it is promoting Carol B. Yancey to the position of executive vice president of finance and as corporate secretary.

She will assume the role of CFO when Nix retires, making her the highest-ranking woman with the Fortune 500 company. Yancey has been with the company for nearly 22 years, and she previously served as senior vice president of finance and corporate secretary.

By Maria Saporta

Atlanta-based Mother Nature Network and Discovery Communications have agreed to merge their environmental websites — www.mnn.com and www.treehugger.com to form a new entity that will be jointly owned by both.

Joel Babbit, co-founder and CEO of Mother Nature Network, sent out an email late Wednesday night saying: “Several months ago, Discovery Communications and MNN began discussing a plan which would dramatically change the landscape of our industry and provide a tremendous increased in the scope and potential of our business. It gives me great pleasure to tell you that the agreement to move forward with that plan was finalized earlier this week.”

“The new entity will be based in Atlanta and will stay under the MNN banner with Joel in charge,” according to MNN spokesman Dan Beeson.

By Maria Saporta

It’s the beginning of flu season — and Georgia researchers are on the cutting edge of advances on how to protect people from influenza.

The researchers are the stars of a half-hour pilot episode of a new partnership between the Georgia Research Alliance and Georgia Public Broadcasting.

“The Future Files” — with a tagline: “Inventing Tomorrow in Georgia Today” — will debut at 8 p.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 13 on GPB. The hope is that this will be the first of a 13-part series that will highlight Georgia’s scientists and researchers and how they are changing our world.

By Maria Saporta

As CNN top political analysts shared their views of the 2012 presidential election and the decisive re-election of President Barack Obama, they also were looking ahead to 2016.

The consensus? That Hillary Clinton, currently the Secretary of State, will be running for the Democratic nomination.

CNN political team participated in the Rotary Club of Atlanta’s Monday luncheon — by being beamed in on a video screen to answer questions from Rotarians as well as CNN executive Rick Davis.

By Maria Saporta

The Atlanta business and government community have embraced the Better Buildings Challenge — an effort that was launched a year ago at the Downtown Development Day.

In that year, the city went from 2 million square feet being part of the effort to become more environmentally sustainable to now 42 million square feet. In a video presented at the 2012 Downtown Development Day on Nov. 7, Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed said: “Our competitors is paying attention.”

The goal is to reduce energy and water consumption by 20 percent by 2020.

By Maria Saporta

The prospect of the fiscal cliff could actually lead to action in Congress and Washington, D.C.

At least, that’s what U.S. Sen. Johnny Isakson (R-Georgia) believes.

Isakson was the breakfast speaker Thursday morning at the Commerce Club where he talked about the dangers and opportunities that face the nation.