By Maria Saporta
Published in the Atlanta Business Chronicle on October 18, 2013
Responding to speculation that he will retire by early next year, Atlanta airport chief Louis Miller says he has made no plans on when he will step down.
Miller, who will turn 66 next April, was named aviation general manager of Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport in September 2010 after a nationwide search to find a successor to Benjamin DeCosta, who ran the Atlanta airport for 12 years.
Maybe it’s time to launch an Atlanta Global Initiative.
For the past several years, Atlanta has emerged as a leading center for global health with the presence of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Carter Center, the Task Force for Global Health, the Rollins School for Public Health at Emory University, the Morehouse School of Medicine, MedShare, MAP International, the CDC Foundation, CARE to name a few.
But Atlanta’s global impact does not stop there. Atlanta is home to numerous philanthropic organizations and corporations that contribute to the well-being of citizens around the world — Habitat for Humanity International, the American Cancer Society, the Coca-Cola Co., Delta Air Lines, United Parcel Service, Home Depot among others.
By Maria Saporta
Published in the Atlanta Business Chronicle on October 11, 2013
It’s Atlanta, again.
Atlanta has won the 2015 gathering of the Nobel Peace Laureates — only the second time that the summit of international superstars will have been held in the United States.
By Maria Saporta
Published in the Atlanta Business Chronicle on October 4, 2013,
The Woodruff Arts Center has tapped Steve Cahillane, president of Coca-Cola Americas, to head its 2014-2015 annual campaign. He will succeed William H. Rogers Jr., president and CEO of SunTrust Banks, who is the current chair of the campaign.
By Maria Saporta
Published in the Atlanta Business Chronicle on October 4, 2013
Atlanta can be one of the premier leaders in mobile technology, according to leaders in the industry meeting at the first Mobility Live! summit at the Woodruff Arts Center on Oct. 1.
The Atlanta region has had an unusual relationship with Chris Leinberger, a real estate developer who is an astute observer of cities and metropolitan areas.
It was Leinberger who back in the 1990s that Atlanta was the fastest growing human settlement in the history of the world in terms of the amount of acres being consumed by its growing population.
“You have been the poster child of sprawl,” Leinberger was fond of telling Atlantans over the past few years. “You used to be Hot’lanta. Hot’lanta is no longer hot.”
By Maria Saporta and Doug Sams
Published in the Atlanta Business Chronicle on October 4, 2013
A year after first showing interest, developer Egbert Perry is the frontrunner to acquire the former General Motors Co. plant in Doraville, Ga.
By Maria Saporta
Published in the Atlanta Business Chronicle on September 27, 2013,
Holy Innocents’ Episcopal School on Sept. 24 had the public phase kickoff of the largest building campaign in its 54-year history.
What a difference an incentive makes.
That was the bottom line of Monday’s Rotary Club of Atlanta’s program on the “Business of Entertainment in Georgia “ — with a special focus on the state’s burgeoning film, video and television industry.
Consider this. During the 2007 fiscal year, the economic impact of the film, television and interactive entertainment industries was $242 million. In fiscal year 2013, that economic impact has grown more than ten-fold to $3.5 billion.
By Maria Saporta
Published in the Atlanta Business Chronicle on September 27, 2013
As business leaders develop a growing appreciation for the value of early education, one metro Atlanta company is becoming a national force in the field.
By Maria Saporta
Published in the Atlanta Business Chronicle on September 20, 2013,
The United Way of Greater Atlanta decided to go virtual this year when kicking off its annual fundraising campaign on Sept. 18.
It also is making another major change — it is revising its annual campaign goal to include only workplace giving and not government and philanthropic grants.
By Maria Saporta
Published in the Atlanta Business Chronicle on September 20, 2013
The National Center for Civil and Human Rights is building its leadership team with the hiring of Terrie Rouse, a seasoned museum and nonprofit executive, as its new chief operating officer.
By Maria Saporta
Published in the Atlanta Business Chronicle on September 20, 2013
A strikingly bold glass sculpture with flowing water will adorn Atlanta’s newest attraction, the National Center for Civil and Human Rights.
Such conflicting emotions.
I love Music Midtown. I have attended every Music Midtown since the festival was launched in 1994, and I have followed the event as it has hop-scotched across town to four different locations and as it has changed from a springtime festival to a fall event.
When Music Midtown went on a six-year hiatus, I lamented Atlanta’s loss.
By Maria Saporta
Published in the Atlanta Business Chronicle on September 13, 2013,
AID Atlanta, a 31-year-old organization with national stature, is in the midst of a major leadership transition.
The board is conducting a nationwide search for a permanent CEO to steer the organization through the potentially bumpy period of the implementation of the Affordable Care Act — and the future medical funding of treating people living with HIV and AIDS.
A new normal — combining green space in Atlanta with the blue-lighting of streams and storm water — is taking hold in our city.
The magical combo holds the potential of adding dozens if not hundreds of acres of parks and green space to our “under-parked” city while helping us address our flooding and storm water overflow problems.
And the development community is taking notice.
By Maria Saporta
Published in the Atlanta Business Chronicle on September 13, 2013
As CARE and Atlanta celebrate their 20th anniversary together, both the international relief organization and the community are publicly recommitting to each other.
My mother — Nora Saporta — moved to the United States a couple of years after World War II barely knowing English. As many Europeans, she was multilingual — fluent in French, Greek, Spanish and Italian — and then having to learn German the hard way.
But French was the language of her heart and soul.
It’s probably not surprising that 50 years ago — in the fall of 1963 —she co-founded the Ecole de l’Alliance Française d’Atlanta with her friend Jean Lardon.
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.
