Articles from the Atlanta Business Chronicle
By Maria Saporta
Friday, November 13, 2009
Georgia Power Co. is donating more than 5,000 acres of significant property to the Georgia Department of Natural Resources, ensuring that they will be preserved for generations to come.
The largest land gift is the Sprewell Bluff property, a
By Maria Saporta and Urvaksh Karkira
Staff Writers
Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta has received its largest individual gift, to bolster its efforts to become a national leader in pediatric research.
The Joseph B. Whitehead Foundation is making a $30 million gift to Children’s Healthcare, including $25 million toward a pediatric research building and $5 million toward the Marcus Autism Center.
By Maria Saporta
Friday, November 6, 2009
Atlanta has a new woman executive on the scene — Kathy Betty — the new owner of the Atlanta Dream, Atlanta’s WNBA franchise.
Oddly enough, Betty becoming a professional sports team owner may have been predestined.
She remembers when both she and her late husband,
By Maria Saporta
Friday, November 6, 2009
Tucked away at the end of a dead-end street in Buford, there’s a high fence and a gate that’s manned with a guard. There’s no signage for the business that lies hidden from view.
That low-key identity fits the profile of Theragenics Corp., a maker of radioactive seeds that treat prostate cancer, and its CEO Christine Jacobs.
By Maria Saporta
Monday, November 9, 2009
The city of Atlanta has tentatively been selected to host the 2017 Rotary International convention.
Competing against four other North American cities, Atlanta leaders have been actively bidding to host the convention, which will attract between 20,000 to 30,000 Rotarians from around the world.
Robert Hall, a past district governor of Rotary, made
By Maria Saporta and Dave Williams
Friday, November 6, 2009
With the favorite of many Atlanta business leaders now out of the mayoral race, the two survivors set to meet in next month’s runoff will face tough questions from corporate executives they are looking to for financial support.
City Council President Lisa Borders finished a distant third to Councilwoman Mary Norwood and former state Sen. Kasim Reed on Nov. 3, despite the backing of some of Atlanta’s biggest corporate names.
With front-runner Norwood failing to capture a majority of the vote, she and Reed will be scrambling for enough campaign cash to see them through the Dec. 1 runoff.
By Maria Saporta
Friday, October 30, 2009
A new venture has been born out of a business friendship between two key people involved in the 1996 Summer Olympic Games in Atlanta.
A.D. Frazier, who served as chief operating officer for the Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games, has teamed up with Erik Vonk, who was president and CEO of Randstad North America, a major sponsor of the
By Maria Saporta
Thursday, October 29, 2009
The Atlanta Dream will soon be under new ownership.
Kathy Betty — a prominent Atlanta businesswoman, sports advocate and widow of former EarthLink CEO Garry Betty — will become managing partner of the Dream, pending league approval. She is first woman in Atlanta history to own a professional sports team.
The team will be owned by Dream Too LLC, an
By Maria Saporta
Friday, October 23, 2009
It was back in November 2002 when recently retired King & Spalding LLP attorney Horace Sibley got a call from Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin. Would Sibley be willing to chair a 90-day study commission on homelessness, the mayor asked.
That led to a 16-member commission of university presidents, business and civic leaders coming up in July 2003 with a “Blueprint to End Homelessness in Atlanta
By Maria Saporta
Friday, October 23, 2009
Imagine going back in time to the 1930s when Martin Luther King Jr. was growing up on Auburn Avenue.
Thanks to a partnership between the Trust for Public Land (TPL) and the National Park Service, people from across the world will no longer need to use their imagination. Nearly the entire block that contains the birth home of the civil rights leader now is in public hands.
The Trust for Public Land will transfer ownership
By Maria Saporta
Friday, October 23, 2009
Women have made little to no progress on the boards or in the executive suites of Georgia’s public companies.
The Board of Directors Network (BDN) has been tracking the status of women in corporate boardrooms and executives suites for 17 years. Although there have been significant changes among Georgia’s publicly held companies over the years, as some companies have gone private and others have been acquired, the
By Maria Saporta
Friday, October 16, 2009
The Atlanta-based organization Men Stopping Violence has just received a major vote of confidence.
U.S. Sen. Johnny Isakson is announcing that Men Stopping Violence has been awarded $500,000 from the U.S. Department of Justice to organize and manage the first national initiative to engage men and youth in the work of addressing violence against women.
“It’s very exciting,” said Shelley Serdahely, executive
By Maria Saporta
Friday, October 9, 2009
Atlanta will soon have a new shining light.
Bill Bolling, founder and executive director of the Atlanta Community Food Bank, will be honored with the 2009 Shining Light Award, a most prestigious honor given to outstanding community leaders by Atlanta Gas Light and News/Talk 750 WSB.
The Shining Light Award, established in 1963, has honored former President Jimmy Carter; former Atlanta Mayor Andrew Young; Home Depot co-founder and Georgia Aquarium benefactor Bernie Marcus; baseball legend Hank Aaron; Shepherd Center co-founder Alana
By Maria Saporta
Friday, October 9, 2009
As Atlanta celebrates the career of its hometown architect John Portman, one of his earliest and most influential works is about to be demolished.
The Antoine Graves Senior Housing High Rise today is a boarded-up eight-story building across from MARTA’s King Memorial Station at Decatur and Hilliard streets.
It is the only public housing project that Portman has
(This is a sidebar to main Portman story on jump page)
By Maria Saporta
Friday, October 9, 2009
John Portman may be Atlanta’s ultimate Renaissance man.
During his lifetime, Portman has painted 380 works of art and created 257 sculptures. Add that to the numerous pieces of furniture and lighting that he’s designed.
At the same time, Portman the architect has designed 152 projects around the world that have been built or are under construction, and he’s produced countless conceptual designs and master plans.
By Maria Saporta
Friday, October 2, 2009
Haverty Furniture Companies Inc. kicked off a celebration of its 125th year in business, one of a handful of Atlanta businesses to have survived so many years.
Haverty’s celebration took place Sept. 29 at the Crowne Plaza-Ravinia at the same times as Haverty’s 2009 Leadership Conference.
What makes Haverty’s so unique is that it has been run,
By J. Scott Trubey and Maria Saporta
Monday, October 5, 2009, 5:02pm EDT
Atlanta city officials confirmed Monday they have reached an agreement in principle on a new master lease that would keep the world’s largest airline from moving capacity out of the world’s busiest airport.
The deal, if approved by the air carrier and Atlanta City Council, would ensure Delta Air Lines Inc. keeps its fortress hub intact at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport through at least September 2017.
By Maria Saporta and Dave Williams
Contributing Writer and Staff Writer
If you’re an Atlanta resident who contributed to a candidate in this year’s mayoral race, odds are you support Councilwoman Mary Norwood.
If you live in the metro suburbs but take an interest in Atlanta politics, your donation likely went to City Council President Lisa Borders.
Two of the leading candidates to succeed Shirley Franklin as Atlanta’s mayor are fueling their campaigns
By Maria Saporta
Friday, September 25, 2009
When you get off the elevator on the 24th floor of downtown’s One Ninety One Peachtree Tower, you might think you’re in a nightclub. The lighting is dim, and the walls are black. You’re welcomed at a reception area with a black reclining circular wall with modern-looking round shelves spaced every few feet — each with dramatically placed red daisies featured with their own spotlight.
It takes several seconds for your eyes to adjust, and
By Maria Saporta
Friday, September 25, 2009
A national movement was birthed over dinner at the former Camille’s Italian restaurant in Virginia-Highland.
It was late in 1988. Elise Eplan had just returned from graduate school in the Northeast where a friend of hers had started a volunteer organization called New York Cares. She contacted a longtime family friend, Kent Alexander, who she thought might be interested in helping launch such an organization in Atlanta.
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