Category: Sections

By Maria Saporta

The Atlanta BeltLine Inc. board Wednesday morning selected Korn/Ferry International in its search for a new president and CEO of the organization.

Korn/Ferry submitted a proposal to do the search at no cost, and board chairman John Somerhalder said the firm met the BeltLine’s criteria to do the search.

The Atlanta BeltLine’s former president and CEO, Brian Leary, parted ways with the development organization in August after controversy over certain expenses made with taxpayer funds.

By Maria Saporta

When it comes to understanding the problem with the nation’s deficit, few Americans are better qualified than Erskine Bowles and Sam Nunn.

Bowles co-chaired the Simpson-Bowles Commission, which had been established to make recommendations on how the nation should address the problem of its growing deficit. That effort, while hailed by public policy leaders around the country, has not yet been fully adopted by Congress or the current administration.

Former U.S. Sen. Nunn (D-Georgia) currently co-chairs the Concord Coalition, a non-partisan, grassroots organization dedicated to educating the public about the causes and consequences of federal budget deficits, the long-term challenges facing America’s unsustainable entitlement programs, and how to build a sound foundation for economic growth.

By Maria Saporta

It’s a movement that’s finally beginning to take hold in Atlanta — turning city streets over to people rather than cars.

On Sunday, Atlanta Streets Alive created a car-free five-mile route that created a loop along the Northeast BeltLine stretch to North Highland to Virginia Avenue to where it crossed with the BeltLine.

Although it is too early to get an official headcount, it is thought that at least 20,000 Atlantans participated in Sunday’s Atlanta Streets Alive event.

By Maria Saporta and David Pendered

The next CEO of MARTA will be a seasoned public administrator who now serves as chief of San Antonio’s transit system.

Keith Parker comes with high praise from members of the board that oversees the Texas system named Via Metropolitan Transit. Parker was chosen by a unanimous vote over Stephen Bland, who leads the transit system in Pittsburgh.

In choosing Parker, MARTA’s board of directors rejected an internal candidate who had been favored by state Rep. Mike Jacobs (R-Brookhaven). Jacobs chairs the legislative committee that oversees MARTA and said last month that MARTA’s relationship with lawmakers would benefit if an internal candidate were selected to succeed CEO Beverly Scott, who will step down in December.

By Maria Saporta

Three wise men were in Atlanta Thursday at three separate events singing from the same fiscally-responsible hymnal.

Erskine Bowles, co-chair of the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility, was the keynote speaker at breakfast of the 3rd annual national conference of Purpose Built Communities, started by developer Tom Cousins and run by former Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin.

Recently, Bowles is best known for his role with the Simpson-Bowles Commission, which is seeking a bipartisan solution to reduce the national debt. The commission was repeatedly mentioned during Wednesday night’s presidential debate, with both Gov. Mitt Romney and President Barack Obama heralding the initiative but neither fully embracing it.

By Maria Saporta

U.S. Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood likes his job, and he likes Atlanta.

Both facts were obvious on Tuesday during the 26th International Air Cargo Forum & Exposition, which is being held in Atlanta through Thursday. Interestingly enough, Atlanta was the site of the very first International Air Cargo Forum in 1962, and the convention returned to the city 50 years later.

After being introduced by Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed, LaHood told the crowd that Reed was one of his favorite mayors.

By Maria Saporta

Although he was not physically present, Ted Turner was a guest of honor at Monday’s 20th birthday celebration for the Cartoon Network.

Turner, however, did appear on video, saying he was sorry he couldn’t be with the hundreds of employees who gathered in a large studio on the Turner campus off 10th Street. When he said he couldn’t be there, there was a disappointed “ahhh” from the crowd.

Turner reminded the Cartoon Network employees and executives that they were standing in “the very spot where we launched the network 20 years ago.” And then he asked everyone to have a piece of cake for him.

By Maria Saporta

Although Georgia is becoming a national center for the diagnosis and treatment of autism, the state lags behind most of the other states in the nation when it comes to providing insurance for autism.

And there’s little hope that will change anytime soon.

In a story about Atlanta being designated as an Autism Center of Excellence by the National Institutes of Health, philanthropist Bernie Marcus, founder of the Marcus Autism Center, put it this way — although 33 states offer insurance coverage for children with autism, “Georgia is not one of them.”

By Maria Saporta

MARTA’s Beverly Scott has been chosen as the new general manager of Boston’s MBTA, according to the State House News Service on the website of WBUR, Boston’s NPR news station.

The Massachusetts Department of Transportation board voted unanimously to hire Scott following public interviews with Scott and her fellow finalist, Dwight Ferrell, MARTA’s COO. Ferrell had been a finalist to succeed Scott as MARTA’s general manager, but he did not make the cut to the final two candidates.

Scott will begin her job running one of the top five transit systems in the country on Dec. 15, almost the exact date of when her five-year contract with MARTA runs out. According to WBUR, Scott will earn $220,000 a year under a three-year contract.

By Maria Saporta

An Atlanta-based coalition of institutions will receive a grant of $8.3 million from the National Institutes of Health — creating a new Autism Research Center of Excellence, only one of three in the country.

Gov. Nathan Deal will announce the “transformational grant” on Thursday, Sept. 27 at 10:30 a.m. in the north wing of the Georgia State Capitol.

The grant only reinforces the work that is underway on autism research and treatment through an Atlanta coalition that includes the Marcus Autism Center at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, the Department of Pediatrics at Emory University’s School of Medicine and the Yerkes National Primate Research Center at Emory.

By Maria Saporta

Long-time Georgia economic development leader Annie Hunt Burriss is leaving the state to become CEO for George Mason University’s Prince William campus — an institution with about 4,000 students on a 134-acre campus about 30 miles southwest of Washington, D.C.

Most recently, Burriss has been director of economic development for the Georgia Health Sciences University, where she has worked since 2007.

“I never dreamed I would be leaving Georgia,” Burriss said. “I’m an 8th generation Georgian.”

By Maria Saporta

Community empowerment was the theme at the fourth annual Neighborhood Summit held Saturday at the Loudermilk Center.

More than 400 people from 23 metro counties came to learn about how they could effect change within their communities by accessing new web-based tools that now are bringing sophisticated information to help them better understand their neighborhoods.

“This is my favorite day of the year,” proclaimed Alicia Philipp, president of the Community Foundation for Greater Atlanta, which put together the event. “This is what community is all about.”

By David Pendered

MARTA’s CEO and another MARTA executive are the two finalists for the top transit job in Boston, according to media reports in Boston.

MARTA’s CEO Beverly Scott and COO Dwight Ferrell are the two finalists to head the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, according to the Massachusetts State House News Service – which quoted the secretary/CEO of the Massachusetts Department of Transportation.

MBTA is the nation’s fifth largest transit system. MARTA is the ninth largest, according to published reports. Both systems are struggling to maintain their facilities and services at a time of dwindling financial resources.

By Maria Saporta

At its 9th annual luncheon, for the first time ever, the Turknett Leadership Character Awards gave a “Lifetime Achievement Award” — an honor awarded to the deserving Frank Skinner, a long-time leader and a retired CEO of BellSouth Telecommunications.

The awards were held today at the Georgia Aquarium at an event put on by the Turknett Leadership Group, a talent management firm based in Atlanta. The company has been presenting leadership awards since 2003.

By Maria Saporta

Atlanta Gas Light has new president — Bryan Batson — who has been serving as AGL Resource’s senior vice president of commercial operations.

Batson is succeeding Steve Lindsey, who is leaving the company to join the St. Louis-based Laclede Group. Interestingly enough, Lindsey became president of Atlanta Gas Light last December after his predecessor, Suzanne Sitherwood, left to become Laclede’s president. She was named Laclede’s CEO earlier this year.

In addition to serving as president of Atlanta Gas Light, Batson also will serve as president of Chattanooga Gas and Florida City Gas as well as vice president of Southern Operations for AGL Resources.