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.
By Maria Saporta
After a 10-year absence, Bill Nigut is returning to television.
Nigut, who had been WSB-TV’s chief political reporter and a presence on Atlanta television for more than two decades, will be joining Georgia Public Broadcasting on Nov. 20 as senior executive producer for a new television program that will launch in January.
The new half-hour program — “On the Story” — will air Monday through Thursday at 7 pm. on GPB’s nine-station statewide television network.
Nigut said he will not be an on-air talent but a behind-the-camera producer.
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
The south site is now the official site for the new $1 billion Atlanta Falcons football stadium.
In a letter dated Sept. 30, Richard McKay, president of the Atlanta Falcons, notified Frank Poe, executive director of the Georgia World Congress Center Authority, that the team has reversed its decision and that the south site is now “feasible” for construction of the new Atlanta stadium.
The decision follows the favorable votes of the congregations of two black churches in the past 10 days to seel their land so that the new stadium could be built on the site south of the existing Georgia Dome.
By Maria Saporta
The Atlanta Ronald McDonald House Charities announced Friday that it has named Beth Howell as its new president and CEO.
Howell currently is vice president of academic administration at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta. She succeeds former CEO Linda Morris who passed away in April 2013 after leading the organization for two decades.
According to a release from the Ronald McDonald House Charities, Howell will be responsible for growing the organization as it seeks to increase temporary housing and support services to families of ill and injured children being treated at local hospitals.
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
U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan urged business leaders to advocate for investments in early learning during a national conference in Atlanta Monday.
Duncan was the morning keynote speaker at the 2013 National Business Leader Summit on Early Childhood Investment at the Loews Atlanta Hotel — a two-day conference that attracted about 200 business and education leaders from around the country.
“We have to get out of the catch up business,” Duncan said. When children enter elementary schools already falling behind their peers, it is harder and harder for them to ever catch up.
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.
By Maria Saporta and Amy Wenk
The congregation of Friendship Baptist Church voted “overwhelmingly” Sunday afternoon to sell its building to make way for the new $1 billion Atlanta Falcons stadium.
Its vote was the last major roadblock in getting the stadium to be built on the preferred site south of the Georgia Dome. The congregation of Mount Vernon Baptist Church voted Thursday evening to sell its church for $14.5 million in a 116 to 16 vote.
Lloyd Hawk, chairman of the Friendship’s board of trustees, made the announcement saying the decision was made after careful and deliberate discussions.
By Maria Saporta
As the National Center for Civil and Human Rights reached its highest point in topping off point Friday, the Atlanta region was launching its One Region Atlanta initiative on Saturday at the fifth annual Neighborhood Summit.
The two events were interconnected with the keynote talk Saturday given by Doug Shipman, CEO of the National Center, which is scheduled to open on Memorial Day on 2014.
As Shipman sees it, Atlanta’s strength has been built through dialogue — with an exchange of ideas and respect for each other.
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.
By Maria Saporta and Amy Wenk
One down. One more to go.
After meeting privately for more 90 minutes Thursday night, the congregation of Mount Vernon Baptist Church voted 116 to 16 to accept the $14.5 million offer from the City of Atlanta, the Georgia World Congress Center Authority and the Atlanta Falcons organization.
Mount Vernon’s positive vote is one of two church votes needed to make way for the new Atlanta Falcons stadium to be located on the site south of the Georgia Dome.
The congregation of the other church — Friendship Baptist Church — is scheduled to vote on its $19.5 million offer on Sunday.
By Maria Saporta
Sometimes its feels as though the Community Benefits Plan meetings set up by the City of Atlanta can veer from the ridiculous to the absurd.
The sixth, and supposedly the next to the last of these meetings, was held Wednesday night at the old Atlanta City Council Chambers of the historic City Hall. And the committee was still trying to figure out whether they were working on a Community Benefits Plan or a Community Benefits Agreement.
That debate has been going on since the very first meeting, and explanations by Mayor Kasim Reed (at a meeting I did not attend) and by City Councilman Michael Julian Bond, who has been chairing the last several meetings, have failed to totally satisfy the community. Their argument is that first they have to come up with a plan, and then it can become an agreement.
By Maria Saporta
Long-time Atlanta search consultant Dale E. Jones is joining Philadelphia-based Diversified Search, one of the top 10 executive search firms in the United States, as its president and as a member of its executive committee.
Jones also will be rejoining forces with his former business partner — Veronica Biggins, who became managing director of Diversified Search’s Board of Directors practice in 2012, had worked with Jones at the Heidrick & Struggles search firm’s Atlanta office.
Jones spent 14 years with Heidrick & Struggles and nearly 20 years in the industry. Diversified Search, a woman-owned executive search firm, is known for specializing in senior level searches and corporate board searches.
By Maria Saporta
Gov. Nathan Deal is considering taking a page from the successful Georgia Research Alliance’s eminent scholar program and applying it to the state K-12 public school system.
Deal, who attended his third annual Georgia Research Alliance board meeting Tuesday morning, told the high level group of executives and university presidents that he has asked his staff to explore the possibilities of developing a statewide program for elementary, middle and high schools.
“I’m going to give away a secret,” Deal told them at the end of his visit with them. “The eminent scholar program has been so successful at the college level, I have asked my staff to have an eminent scholar program for our K-12 system.”
By Maria Saporta
The new dean of Georgia Tech’s College of Architecture — Steven French — was originally drawn to Atlanta in 1992 because he viewed it as a “great laboratory” for city planning and development challenges.
After having lived all over the country, French came to Atlanta to become director of the city planning program within the College of Architecture. In 2009, he was promoted to the College’s associate dean for research. And when Alan Balfour announced in August 2012 that he intended to step down in June 2013 to rejoin the architecture faculty, Georgia Tech embarked on a national search. In April, the College named French as its new dean.
French has been in his new role since July 1, and he sat down for an interview to talk about his vision for the College of Architecture, Georgia Tech, metro Atlanta, technology, architecture and planning.
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.
By Maria Saporta
Carolyn Young received a special birthday present a day early this year.
The Andrew Young School of Public Policy at Georgia State University unveiled a life-sized portrait of Carolyn and Andrew Young on Friday as a way to fully recognize their contributions to the college.
The portrait was a gift of long-time friend and retired architect Paul Rosser, the Andrew Young Foundation and the artist himself — Ross Rossin.
By Maria Saporta
Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed announced that agreements have been reached with both black churches that would have to be bought to make way for a new Atlanta Falcons stadium on a site south of the existing Georgia Dome.
Flanked by leaders from Mount Vernon Baptist Church and Friendship Baptist Church, Reed said that the Arthur Blank and the Atlanta Falcons organization had agreed to invest another $8.3 million to make the deal on the south site more viable.
Friendship already had announced that the city and its leaders had agreed to a $19.5 million deal, which still has to be approved by its congregation.
