Articles from the Atlanta Business Chronicle
By Maria Saporta
Published in the Atlanta Business Chronicle on September 6, 2013,
After 40 years of nurturing leaders in Atlanta, Leadership Atlanta believed it needed to harness the opportunities in the region by engaging a broader coalition to participate in a first-of-its-kind event.
By Maria Saporta
Published in the Atlanta Business Chronicle on Aug 30, 2013,
DPR’s acquisition of Atlanta-based Hardin Construction Co. in April appears to be working. Since the combination, DPR Hardin has won six projects out of its Georgia office totaling more than $230 million.
By Maria Saporta
Published in the Atlanta Business Chronicle on Friday, August 23, 2013
Dan Cathy, president of Chick-fil-A Inc., was beaming ear-to-ear as he witnessed the grand opening of Junior Achievement of Georgia’s state-of-the-art financial literacy and career readiness center at the Georgia World Congress Center on Aug. 20.
The Junior Achievement Chick-fil-A Foundation Discovery Center will welcome more than 30,000 middle school students from the Atlanta, Fulton, DeKalb and Marietta public school systems beginning Sept. 10 into a hands-on learning experience of how to manage money and how to explore career opportunities.
By Maria Saporta
Published in the Atlanta Business Chronicle on August 23, 2013
The owner of the Villages of East Lake has filed a lawsuit against the former manager of the mixed-income apartment community alleging fraud and embezzlement.
The lawsuit was filed in federal court in Atlanta on Aug. 12 by East Lake Redevelopment L.P. and East Lake Redevelopment II L.P. against Mercy Housing Management Group Inc., a division of Mercy Services Corp., a nonprofit based in Nebraska with its headquarters in Denver.
The redevelopment of the East Lake community has received national, if not international, acclaim for transforming a poverty-stricken and crime-ridden neighborhood into a thriving residential community with strong schools and a low crime rate.
By Maria Saporta
Published in the Atlanta Business Chronicle on Friday, August 16, 2013
Two veteran Atlanta search consultants have been selected to handle the effort to find the next superintendent for the Atlanta Public Schools.
Sam Pettway, founder of BoardWalk Consulting LLC, and Veronica Biggins, an Atlanta-based managing director of Philadelphia’s Diversified Search, were selected unanimously by the Atlanta Board of Education at its meeting late Aug. 12.
By Maria Saporta
Published in the Atlanta Business Chronicle on Friday, August 9, 2013
Park Pride, the nonprofit advocacy organization that seeks to expand and improve green space in Atlanta, has named a new executive director — Michael Halicki.
Halicki has served as chief operating officer of the Southface Energy Institute for nearly three years and has been involved in the Atlanta environmental community for more than 15 years.
By Maria Saporta
Published in the Atlanta Business Chronicle on Friday, August 2, 2013
Maybe the third time will be the charm.
The Georgia State Properties Commission is putting the historic Olympia building at Five Points up for bid — again.
The bids for the triangular two-story building in the heart of downtown must be submitted by 2 p.m. on Aug. 20, and the process is a request for qualifications — giving the state some leeway in deciding who might end up being the new owner of the building.
By Amy Wenk and Maria Saporta
Published in the Atlanta Business Chronicle on August 2, 2013
An Atlanta company intends to fuel the franchise growth of a Georgia pizza chain.
Private equity firm Georgia Oak Partners LLC has announced it will make a “significant” investment in Your Pie, a fast-casual concept out of Athens that lets pizza lovers customize everything that goes on their personal pies, from the dough to the cheese.
By Maria Saporta and Amy Wenk
Published in the Atlanta Business Chronicle on August 2, 2013
The Atlanta Braves have an annual economic impact of more than $100 million — paying $8.6 million in state and local taxes each year.
That’s according to a new study that measures the team’s contribution to the Georgia economy. The findings are being released just as the Braves begin efforts to renegotiate their lease of Turner Field. The current lease expires Dec. 31, 2016.
By Maria Saporta
Published in the Atlanta Business Chronicle on Friday, July 26, 2013
As Junior Achievement of Georgia prepares to unveil the Chick-fil-A Foundation Discovery Center — a novel financial literacy experience for middle school students — it has several reasons to celebrate.
It raised more than $15 million for the Discovery Center, which is being constructed on the mezzanine level of the Georgia World Congress Center’s Building C. It will include two interactive venues — JA BizTown and JA Finance Park — as well as the Delta Career Exploration Center, that will feature career opportunities and jobs of the future.
By Maria Saporta
Published in the Atlanta Business Chronicle on July 26, 2013
The Atlanta Braves are partnering with a private company to build a maglev train from MARTA’s Georgia State station to Turner Field as a way to improve fan accessibility to the stadium.
But before that project can begin, the Atlanta Braves must first negotiate a new agreement with the city of Atlanta. The baseball team’s lease of Turner Field runs out on Dec. 31, 2016. The Braves would love to reach a new agreement — with more favorable terms — as soon as possible.
By Maria Saporta
Published in the Atlanta Business Chronicle on Friday, July 19, 2013
Georgia State University has just completed its best fundraising year ever. The university raised $38.3 million during the 2012-2013 fiscal year — surpassing its previous record of $35.3 million set in 1999.
It’s an important year for Georgia State, which is celebrating its centennial in 2013.
By Maria Saporta
Published in the Atlanta Business Chronicle on Friday, July 19, 2013
As a trained landscape architect who has been a developer and transit professional, Paul Morris now is adding a new title to his résumé — president and CEO of Atlanta BeltLine Inc.
Morris said his friends and associates observed that “if a person could craft a position that fit a unique set of skills for one person — this is Paul” — about the Beltline position.
By Maria Saporta
Published in the Atlanta Business Chronicle on Friday, July 12, 2013
It will be a year of firsts for the Business Hall of Fame at Georgia State University’s J. Mack Robinson College of Business.
It is the first year that the second generation is being inducted and the first year for siblings to be inducted into the respected Business Hall of Fame. Three of the four 2013 inductees are the children of Herman Russell, founder of H.J. Russell & Co. Russell was in the first class of inductees in 1985.
By Maria Saporta
Published in the Atlanta Business Chronicle on Friday, July 12, 2013
Despite its presence of respected colleges and universities, metro Atlanta rarely is recognized in national business circles as a leading center for innovation, research and entrepreneurship.
But the Metro Atlanta Chamber — through its recently formed Business Higher Ed (BHE) Council — aims to change that reputation as well as foster a closer collaboration between the region’s companies and its colleges and universities.
By Maria Saporta
Published in the Atlanta Business Chronicle on Friday, July 5, 2013
Big Brothers Big Sisters of Metro Atlanta is reassuring stakeholders that it employs sound accounting practices when receiving federal grants.
Janice McKenzie-Crayton, president and CEO of BBBS of Metro Atlanta, sent out an email making that clear in light of news that an audit of the Philadelphia-based Big Brothers Big Sisters of America uncovered a lack of financial controls and inadequate accounting procedures on three federal grants.
By Maria Saporta
Published in the Atlanta Business Chronicle on Friday, June 28, 2013
Mayor Kasim Reed is galvanizing business community support in his efforts to get the Fulton County judicial system to keep repeat offenders off the streets.
At the June 26 quarterly meeting of the Atlanta Committee for Progress (ACP) — the blue-ribbon group of business leaders who act as a sounding board for the mayor, Reed outlined how the city of Atlanta has been successful in reducing crime and adding police officers.
By Maria Saporta
Published in the Atlanta Business Chronicle on Friday, June 28, 2013
Morehouse School of Medicine will undergo a near-seamless transition of leadership in the coming year.
Its president, Dr. John E. Maupin, is announcing his retirement from MSM effective July 1, 2014, and his successor will be Dr. Valerie Montgomery Rice, currently MSM’s executive vice president and dean of the medical school.
Montgomery Rice will become the nation’s first African-American woman to become president of an independent medical school and only one of three women to hold such a position. Only 16 percent of the nation’s medical school deans are women.
By Maria Saporta
Published in the Atlanta Business Chronicle on Friday, June 21, 2013
As Jonathan Reckford and Michael Polk hammered a window into a Habitat home under construction in the Glenrose Heights neighborhood in south Atlanta on June 19, they also were sealing the beginning of a new global partnership.
Polk, CEO of Atlanta-based Newell Rubbermaid Inc., launched its first-ever Global Day of Service on June 19 with the help of 1,200 employee volunteers working at 73 different sites in 21 countries.
Just as significantly, Polk also announced a two-year, $1 million partnership with Atlanta-based Habitat for Humanity International to help build homes for people in need of shelter around the world.
By Maria Saporta
Published in the Atlanta Business Chronicle on Friday, June 21, 2013
As the economy continues to improve, charitable giving in the United States has increased. But at the current rate of growth, it will take another five years to reach the level of giving that the nation enjoyed at its height.
Americans donated $316.23 billion to charitable causes in 2012, according to the Giving USA Foundation and its research partner, the Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy.
“That is the largest number since 2008,” said David King, president of Atlanta-based fundraising firm Alexander Haas, who also is chair of the Giving Institute, which founded the Giving USA Foundation in 1985.
