Articles from the Atlanta Business Chronicle
By Maria Saporta
Published in the Atlanta Business Chronicle on July 3, 2015
Several top members of Atlanta’s consular corps will be moving or have already moved on to new posts, bringing a new wave of foreign leaders to the city’s global scene.
The dean of the consular corps, Paul Gleeson, is returning to Ireland in July. He has served as Ireland’s Consul General in Atlanta since the consulate opened in August 2010. It was Ireland’s first new consulate in the United States since the 1930s.
By Maria Saporta
Published in the Atlanta Business Chronicle on July 3, 2015
The developer of the re-envisioned Underground Atlanta says the total investment in the project likely will be between $350 million and $400 million.
That’s about double previous estimates that have been announced for the Underground Atlanta redevelopment project.
Scott Smith, president and CEO of WRS Inc., a real estate company based in Mount Pleasant, S.C., provided an update of the project in a telephone interview on June 29.
By Maria Saporta
Published in the Atlanta Business Chronicle on June 26, 2015
Atlanta’s Project Grad is celebrating its 15th anniversary by ceasing to exist.
The nonprofit that has been instrumental in providing college scholarships to students attending Atlanta Public Schools will be joining forces with the new initiative — Achieve Atlanta.
By Maria Saporta
Published in the Atlanta Business Chronicle on June 26, 2015
Chick-fil-A is taking another step in its transition from a small but fast-growing family business into a major company.
The restaurant chain is expanding its board of directors to include external leaders who can advise Chick-fil-A Inc.’s executives on the growing number of issues facing the company.
By Maria Saporta
Published in the Atlanta Business Chronicle on June 19, 2015
At its board meeting June 17, the United Way of Greater Atlanta approved a total investment of $87.3 million in the community to help children, individuals and families in need throughout the 13-county region.
The organization also is wrestling with how leadership and philanthropy is changing in Atlanta’s business community.
For example, while $87.3 million is an impressive number, only $21.6 million of that was available for the United Way Community Impact Fund.
By Douglas Sams and Maria Saporta
Published in the Atlanta Business Chronicle on June 19, 2015
A giant Houston-based real estate investment trust and a group led by TV host Steve Harvey have emerged as finalists to buy and redevelop the 20-acre Atlanta Civic Center.
People familiar with the process say there is a strong possibility the two finalists could end up joining forces and present one winning bid for the project.
By Maria Saporta
Published in the Atlanta Business Chronicle on June 12, 2015
It probably was a good thing that Jim Hannan, president and CEO of Georgia-Pacific, was out of town on June 9 when the Woodruff Arts Center held its victory celebration of the 2014-2015 annual corporate campaign.
By Maria Saporta
Published in the Atlanta Business Chronicle on June 12, 2015
Georgia’s business and political leaders are ready to roll out the welcome mat to General Electric Co. if it is truly serious about relocating its corporate headquarters out of Connecticut.
In a highly unusual move, GE’s CEO Jeff Immelt wrote in an email to employees that he had assembled an exploratory team “to look into the company’s options to relocate corporate HQ to another state with a more pro-business environment.”
By Maria Saporta
Published in the Atlanta Business Chronicle on June 5, 2015
The recipient of the Council for Quality Growth’s 2015 Four Pillar Award will be Dan Cathy, president and CEO of Chick-fil-A Inc.
The Four Pillar Award event, which will be held on Oct. 1 at the Georgia World Congress Center, will have a special twist. The night will shine a spotlight on the Westside community just across Northside Drive from the GWCC and the new Atlanta Falcons football stadium.
By Maria Saporta
Published in the Atlanta Business Chronicle on June 5, 2015
A major new initiative to dramatically increase the number of Atlanta high school students who enter and graduate from college and technical schools is being launched — thanks to a $20 million investment from the Joseph B. Whitehead Foundation.
By Maria Saporta
Published in the Atlanta Business Chronicle on May 29, 2015
Mercy Care is launching its most ground-breaking expansion project near Buford Highway with the help of a $4 million grant from the Joseph B. Whitehead Foundation, part of the Robert W. Woodruff family of foundations.
By Maria Saporta
Published in the Atlanta Business Chronicle on May 29, 2015
When former BellSouth Corp. CEO Duane Ackerman retired as a director of The Home Depot Inc. on May 21, it was the first time in more than 20 years that there was not an Atlantan serving as one of the outside directors on the board.
Over the years, Atlanta has been well represented on Home Depot’s board. In 1993, Don Keough, the former president of The Coca-Cola Co., was elected to the board. A year later, Johnnetta Cole, then the president of Spelman College, joined Home Depot’s board. And in 1995, BellSouth CEO John Clendenin became a director, later to be succeeded by Ackerman. At the same time, at least three of the inside directors also lived in Atlanta — the co-founders Bernie Marcus and Arthur Blank and the longtime chief financial officer Ron Brill. With a total of 12 directors in 1998, at least half called Atlanta home.
By Maria Saporta
Published in the Atlanta Business Chronicle on May 22, 2015
The Boys & Girls Clubs of Metro Atlanta is raising its own stakes.
It no longer wants to just provide a safe place for its youth to learn and grow. Thanks to its Vision 2020 strategic plan, it now would like 90 percent of the youth coming to its clubs regularly to graduate on time, live healthy lives and give back to their community.
“We turned up the notch to improve the outcomes of our youth,” said Missy Dugan, president and CEO of the Boys & Girls Clubs of Metro Atlanta. “But we may have underestimated where our children were in those areas.”
By Douglas Sams and Maria Saporta
Published in the Atlanta Business Chronicle on May 22, 2015
The company that plans to redevelop downtown’s Underground Atlanta has entered talks with several grocers, including at least one giant — Kroger.
WRS Inc., the Mount Pleasant, S.C.,-based real estate company, has been in preliminary discussions with The Kroger Co., which has been looking at expanding within intown Atlanta, according to commercial real estate sources familiar with the talks.
WRS declined to name the grocery chains it’s been in discussions with.
By Maria Saporta
Published in the Atlanta Business Chronicle on May 22, 2015
(Editor’s note: A group of more than 100 Atlanta business and civic leaders visited Toronto, Canada, in early May on the LINK trip coordinated by the Atlanta Regional Commission. The trip’s aim is to learn how other cities are dealing with issues and challenges like those facing Atlanta. Atlanta Business Chronicle reporter Maria Saporta traveled with the group.)
Toronto is a city on steroids.
Although metro Atlanta is almost as large as Toronto (which has a population of 4.25 million compared to Atlanta’s 6 million), everything feels magnified in Canada’s largest city.
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.
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.
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.
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.
