Author Archives: Maria Saporta

By Maria Saporta

It had been 20 years since Primerica last held an annual shareholders meeting, and then the life insurance company was known as the A.L. Williams Corp.

But on Wednesday, May 18, the new, independent Primerica held its first annual shareholders meeting at its headquarters in Duluth — an uneventful meeting that lasted just 22 minutes.

Chairman and Co-CEO Richard Williams stood in front of a large sign with bold letters: “Let Freedom Ring.”

By Maria Saporta

The Georgia Chamber of Commerce has hired its first-ever vice president for federal affairs.

The new vice president is Jeff Hamling, deputy chief of staff for U.S. Rep. Tom Price (R-Georgia’s 6th district). Hamling also was Price’s 2006 Congressional re-election campaign manager. He also worked with U.S. Sen. Johnny Isakson on his first campaign for the U.S. Senate in 2004.

The Georgia Chamber decided it needed to establish the new position to serve as an advocate for the state’s business community and be a liaison between the chamber and Georgia’s Congressional delegation and federal agencies.

By Maria Saporta

Atlanta’s African-American legacy will live on in the National Center for Civil and Human Rights, thanks to a new gift announced Tuesday morning.

The family and business associates of the late Atlanta Mayor Maynard Jackson are leading a fundraising effort among minority business owners to raise $2.5 million for the center.

Jackmont Hospitality, a company founded by the former mayor, has pledged $250,000 towards that effort. Also Jackson’s daughter, Brooke Jackson Edmond; business partner Daniel Halpern; and Jackson’s widow, Valerie Jackson, will champion that special fundraising initiatives for the center.

By Maria Saporta

The country’s central problem today is its debt, according to U.S. Sen. Johnny Isakson (R-Georgia).

Isakson, who spoke Monday at the annual luncheon of the Georgia Council on Economic Education at the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, said the issue was finally coming to a head over having to raise the nation’s $14.2 trillion debt limit.

“Eventually, you have got to pay the piper,” Isakson said. “We’ve probably got 60 days to deal with the problem of raising the debt limit.”

Isakson, however said that the limit should not be raised without “consequential commitments on behalf of the administration and Congress” to limit the debt through spending cuts and changes in entitlements.

By Maria Saporta

The City of Atlanta has big plans to make Atlanta more sustainable.

But those plans have been on a slow burner because of a transition in leadership in two key organizations — the City of Atlanta and a related non-profit entity.

That is about to change.

Sustainable Atlanta, a non-profit organization dedicated to developing policies and programs to improve the sustainability of our city, has just hired a new executive director.

Suzanne Burnes, a veteran in environmental circles, will become Sustainable Atlanta’s new executive director on June 1.

By Maria Saporta

They were sitting side-by-side at Thursday morning’s official announcement that Porsche would locate its new U.S. headquarters at Aerotropolis Atlanta near Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport.

In a media advisory, Gov. Nathan Deal and Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed had called a joint press conference in the North Wing Rotunda of the Georgia State Capitol to make “a major announcement on economic development and job creation.”

For people in economic development circles, they couldn’t remember the last time that the governor of Georgia and the mayor of Atlanta had stood side-by-side to make such an announcement.

By Maria Saporta

The Piedmont Park Conservancy just announced that it is canceling the 2011 season of “Screen on the Green.”

The film series had to be canceled because the conservancy was unable to find a partner to produce the event after the management of Peachtree TV — its former sponsor — had changed. Turner Broadcasting System had provided the funding for the Peachtree TV sponsorship.

Peachtree TV had informed the conservancy in January that it would no longer produce the popular free open air film series, and the conservancy had been trying to find other

By Maria Saporta

Atlanta-based Newell Rubbermaid is establishing an endowed foundation, which should, over time, increase the company’s giving in the communities throughout the world where it has operations.

The company plans to endow the foundation with $25 million over the next five years, and the foundation eventually will become the company’s primary vehicle for charitable donations.

“It’s a way to make sure we can sustain and continue to contribute to the community,” said Mark Ketchum, Newell Rubbermaid’s president and CEO, after the company’s annual meeting Tuesday morning at its headquarters in Sandy Springs. “It certainly creates the potential in the long run for increased giving.”

By Maria Saporta

The Greater Seattle area could write the textbook on how to pass (and how not to pass) a regional transportation sales tax.

The story actually goes back to the late 1960s when Seattle voters turned down a referendum to build a rail transit system with a 20 percent local match for 80 percent federal funds.

Their loss was Atlanta’s gain. In 1971, Atlanta voters in Fulton and DeKalb counties passed the MARTA Act, and the federal dollars flowed to the Atlanta region.

By Maria Saporta

There are sustainable cities, and then there are sustainable cities.

Atlanta has been delighted to have increased its rank from being the 38th most sustainable city in the United States to No. 18 under the administration of our previous mayor, Shirley Franklin.

Now Mayor Kasim Reed would like to catapult Atlanta into the top 10.

But Atlanta will be competing against cities like Seattle, and that will be tough.

By Maria Saporta

Think of a region that’s working to build a new economy based on the life sciences, logistics, global health and information technology.

It easily could be the Atlanta region.

But it also is Greater Seattle with its relatively new “Prosperity Partnership” — a coalition of hundreds of business, nonprofits and governments trying to bolster its future economic base.

“The bringing together (of everyone) is a pretty significant political achievement,” said Lee Huntsman, executive director of the Life Sciences Discovery Fund. “The fact that we

By Maria Saporta

In the past decade, there has been growing acceptance in Seattle for greater density and urban growth boundaries, according to Dow Constantine, the executive of King County

Today, Seattle represents 31 percent of King County’s 1.9 million population. But King County also has 38 other municipalities. And about one-third of its land is unincorporated — thereby retaining its rural or agricultural quality.

Constantine said that in the 1990s there had been widespread disagreement over the establishment of urban growth boundaries — keeping urban development within city borders.

By Maria Saporta

The Atlanta LINK delegation was predisposed to believe Seattle’s mayor was out of step with the community.

But when Mike McGinn shared his view of the world and his city at a dinner Wednesday night — and all of a sudden, it was a lot harder to make judgments on who was right or wrong.

In some ways, McGinn is an accidental mayor. He entered the civic arena as an environmentalist, a cyclist, an urban advocate.