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.
By Maria Saporta
As published in the Atlanta Business Chronicle on August 14, 2015
Ever since the formation of the “new” Coca-Cola Enterprises Inc. in 2010, a lingering question has been whether the company would keep its headquarters in Atlanta. Despite all of CCE’s bottling business now being based Europe, CEO John Brock has insisted that keeping the headquarters in Atlanta made sense.
Until now.
By Maria Saporta
As published in the Atlanta Business Chronicle on August 7, 2015
Back in January 1991, when then-Delta Air Lines CEO Ron Allen was named to the board of The Coca-Cola Co., it provided a closer link between two signature Atlanta companies.
Now Delta has made a similar move. The airline announced July 24 that Kathy N. Waller, executive vice president and chief financial officer of Coca-Cola, is joining its board.
By Maria Saporta and Douglas Sams
As published in the Atlanta Business Chronicle on August 7, 2015
State economic development officials have made their pitch to General Electric Co. (NYSE: GE) to relocate its Connecticut headquarters to Atlanta.
The meeting with General Electric took place the week of July 27 in Fairfield, Conn. and involved the company’s committee investigating its options to relocate, Atlanta Business Chronicle has learned from sources familiar with the discussions.
The Coca-Cola Co. Thursday named James Quincey, president of its Europe Group who has spent 19 years with the soft-drink company, as its new president and chief operating officer.
“We haven’t had a president since 2007,” Coca-Cola’s Chairman and CEO Muhtar Kent said in a media conference call Thursday morning. “It’s great to have someone of James’ caliber to take over.”
But Kent stopped short of naming Quincey the heir apparent of the company.
By Maria Saporta A sale of the Civic Center will not happen unless Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed gets an offer he can live with. The city has acknowledged that there are two finalists still in the running to buy and redevelop the 20-acre site that includes the Atlanta Civic Center. But after a luncheon speech […]
Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed called for the closing of the Peachtree and Pine homeless facility on Tuesday during a luncheon talk to members of the Commerce Club.
“We are really going to have to take on this issue around Peachtree and Pine,” Mayor Reed said. “Peachtree & Pine and the behavior that goes on around it has been going on for too long.”
Interest rates may start going up – gradually – sooner rather than later.
That was the impression that Dennis Lockhart, president and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, shared with members of the Atlanta Press Club during a luncheon talk on Monday.
By Maria Saporta
As published in the Atlanta Business Chronicle on August 7, 2015
When Hank Huckaby was asked in 2011 to cut short his four-month-long tenure as a state representative to join Gov. Nathan Deal’s administration as the chancellor of the University System of Georgia, he asked the governor one question.
“Are you willing to make significant changes?” Huckaby asked Deal. The governor said yes.
Stand down. Don’t talk.
A dangerous trend is afoot within our local governments.
The public is being shut out of the decision-making process on major deals involving millions and millions of tax dollars. Usually the argument is that a key project must move forward at a super-fast speed. That means there’s no time for the public to have a role in the process.
By Maria Saporta
As published in the Atlanta Business Chronicle on July 31, 2015
In the ongoing push by Rotary International to eradicate polio around the It only took Camp Twin Lakes 11 months to meet (and exceed) its $2.9 million campaign goal, and now the nonprofit is busy investing those funds to make improvements at its various facilities.
One project that is about to come online is a home for adults with developmental disabilities. It will be located at Camp Rutledge near Madison, Ga.
The Atlanta Press Club on Friday is announcing four inductees into the 2015 Hall of Fame – all outstanding journalists who have played an important role in Georgia.
The four journalists – Charlayne Hunter-Gault, Hank Klibanoff, Denis O’Hayer and Dick Pettys – will be recognized for their work at a dinner on Nov. 5 at the InterContinental Buckhead.
By Douglas Sams and Maria Saporta
As published in the Atlanta Business Chronicle on July 31, 2015
Amtrak has entered discussions with state transit officials and a major railroad to put a new station on the former site of the Doraville General Motors Co. plant.
MARTA and Norfolk Southern Corp. have held conversations with Amtrak this year about that possibility, people familiar with the talks said.
The discussions come two years after efforts fell through to relocate Atlanta’s historic Amtrak station at Brookwood on Peachtree Street.
Maybe it was destiny.
On June 22, 1979, the first Home Depot opened – Store 101 – on Memorial Drive right inside I-285 in DeKalb County.
On Tuesday, the Atlanta United Football Club announced it would locate its soccer training facility on property owned by DeKalb County – along Memorial Drive inside I-285.
In a vote that split along racial and geographic lines, DeKalb County Commissioner voted Tuesday morning 4-to-3 in favor of a deal to lure the Atlanta United soccer team’s $30 million training facility to a site along Memorial Drive inside I-285.
Despite protests from three commissioners and people in the audience, no time was made available for public comment about the $30 million soccer complex and the county’s commitment to invest up to $12 million in the project.
The DeKalb County Commission will vote Tuesday morning whether to enter into a development partnership with the Atlanta United Football Club soccer franchise.
Specifically the vote will be for DeKalb County to enter into a long-term lease with Atlanta United for the development of a $30 million training facility.
It’s hard to believe, but the expansion of the Center for Puppetry Arts is even worse than I had feared 18 months ago.
That’s when I attended the unveiling of the expansion plans at the Center’s home – the former Spring Street Elementary School. When I saw the plans, I literally cried.
How could so many people who were involved with this affront to our urban environment allow it to become a reality?
By Maria Saporta
As published in the Atlanta Business Chronicle on July 31, 2015
Newell Rubbermaid Inc.’s decision to move its corporate headquarters a quarter mile — from one side of Georgia 400 to the other — is in keeping with the new focus of the company.
“The transformation we are trying to achieve here is to go from a holding company to more of an operating company,” said Michael Polk, who became Newell Rubbermaid’s president and CEO in July 2011 — exactly four years ago. “We’re becoming a brand-centric, innovation-led company.”
William “Bill” Taggart, the former president and CEO of Atlanta Life Financial Group, is joining the executive leadership team at Morehouse College.
In his new role, Taggart will serve as executive-in-residence and chief operating officer with primary responsibility for the Office of Institutional Advancement.
The High Museum of Art is naming Randall Suffolk, currently director and president of the Philbrook Museum of Art in Tulsa, Okla., as its new director.
The announcement came just two days before the departure of Michael E. Shapiro, who has been the Nancy and Holcombe T. Greene Jr. director of the High since March of 2000 after joining the High in 1995.
Suffolk will assume his role at the High on Nov. 2.
By Maria Saporta
As published in the Atlanta Business Chronicle on July 24, 2015
In the ongoing push by Rotary International to eradicate polio around the world, Atlanta Rotarian Wilton Looney is challenging the local club to intensify its support.
Looney, whose wife Martha suffers from polio, has donated $918,000 to the cause–previously challenging the Rotary Club of Atlanta to match his gifts. Now he’s getting some help.
