Author Archives: Maria Saporta

By Maria Saporta

It’s called the “Seattle Process.”

It’s a process that painstakingly seeks to find areas of consensus on issues before tackling areas of disagreements and a process that tries to be inclusive before a decision is reached – even if it seems to take forever.

According to former Seattle Mayor Norm Rice, the Seattle Process had a three-pronged framework that worked when he was in office from 1990 to 1998. Rice outlined the process during a panel discussion Wednesday in front of about 110 metro Atlanta leaders visiting Seattle on the organization’s 15th annual LINK trip.

By Maria Saporta

One of the biggest challenges facing the Greater Seattle region is “Seattle Nice.”

That’s what Phil Bussey, president of the Greater Seattle Chamber of Commerce told a delegation of about 110 metro Atlanta leaders visiting the region on the annual LINK trip.

“We can not make a decision until everybody is happy,” Bussey said. “It took us 13 years to build a third runway.”

By Maria Saporta

The campaign team charged with getting the one-cent regional transportation sales tax passed in the summer of 2012 has been selected.

Imagine the transportation tax referendum as a candidate. About 70 Atlanta and Georgia organizations — known as the First Friday Transportation Forum — have hired professional consultants to make sure their candidate gets elected.

By Maria Saporta

The “Gang of Six” is the nation’s best hope to address its gargantuan budget deficit.

That is the opinion of Erskine Bowles, a Democrat who was one of the co-chair’s of the White House’s National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform. The other co-chair was Alan Simpson, a Republican and a former U.S. senator.

Bowles spoke at Monday’s Atlanta Rotary Club when he talked about the urgency for the United States to reduce its mounting debt. Bowles was in town to attend the Cousins Properties annual meeting that will

By Maria Saporta

Atlanta business and civic leader Earl Patton passed away in Wednesday night’s storm.

The sad news was distributed by the Rotary Club of Atlanta’s Linda Thomason Glass who sent the following email on Thursday:

Subject: EARL PATTON HAS GONE HOME TO WAIT ON US

“Earl was at his Lake house last night when the tornado came through, demolished his house, and took his life.”

By Maria Saporta

The Coca-Cola Co.’s annual meeting has turned into a mirage of dual realities.

The 2011 annual meeting at the Cobb Galleria Centre opened with a splash. Coca-Cola 125th Anniversary Young People’s Chorus — all 125 teenagers dressed in red shirts — sang an enthusiastic rendition of “I’d Like to Buy the World A Coke” (also known as the “The Real Thing”).

They went on to sing another five songs from

By Maria Saporta

In my 29 years as a business journalist, I’ve never been turned away from a company’s annual meeting.

Until today.

On Wednesday morning, NCR Corp. — one of Atlanta’s newest Fortune 500 companies — held its annual meeting in the auditorium of its Duluth headquarters at 9 a.m. The company moved its headquarters to Duluth from Dayton, Ohio in 2009, and I hoped to see one of our new Fortune 500 companies in action. I was a few minutes late because I had mistakenly gone to NCR’s other corporate campus up the road.

But it wouldn’t have made a difference.

By Maria Saporta

It’s annual meeting season in Atlanta.

On Tuesday, April 26, Atlanta-based SunTrust Banks will hold its annual meeting at 9:30 a.m. at the bank’s headquarters.

The bank announced last week that James M. Wells III will be stepping down as chairman and CEO of the bank and will be succeeded by William H. Rogers, who has been serving as president and chief

By Maria Saporta

Georgia Power, one of the biggest water users in the state, announced today that it is creating a Water Research Center at its Plant Bowen near Cartersville.

The center will be an innovative research facility to develop and test different water conservation technologies in an effort to improve water efficiency by studying withdrawal, consumption and recycling throughout the power generation process.

Paul Bowers, Georgia Power’s president and CEO, said the center will seek ways to reduce the demand for water through new

By Maria Saporta

The Georgia Chamber of Commerce is taking a higher profile role in the state’s transportation needs.

The Georgia Chamber today announced the creation of a new transportation-focused affiliate — the Georgia Transportation Alliance — to focus on the state’s various mobility needs as it relates to economic development.

“My charge at the chamber is to be more aggressive and more pro-active and for the chamber to show leadership,” said Chris Clark, the relatively new president of the Georgia Chamber. “We want to be much more than an advocacy organization. We want to help drive the dialogue.”

One of the Alliance’s first major priorities will

By Maria Saporta

It’s the governor’s prerogative to change his mind.

Between 8 a.m. Friday morning and early afternoon, Gov. Nathan Deal went from saying that he was undecided about signing the controversial immigration reform bill to saying he would sign it.

After speaking to the Atlanta Business Chronicle’s Pacesetter breakfast at the Cobb Galleria, Deal said he wanted to take a close look at the bill before deciding whether he was going to sign the bill that passed at the very end of the 2011 session.

“It was so jumbled at the end as to what was added and what was taken out,” Deal said. “We are going to look at it very