By Maria Saporta
Friday, October 1, 2010
A decade ago, Joe Leonard approached Herb Kelleher to see if he might be interested in a merger of both their airlines.
At the time, Leonard was CEO of AirTran Airways Inc., and Kelleher, the founder of Southwest Airlines, was CEO of the Dallas-based airline.
In all, Leonard talked to Kelleher four times about doing
By Maria Saporta
The City of Atlanta is moving forward with plans to sell City Hall East to Jamestown Properties.
Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed broke the news at a community “town hall” meeting Thursday evening at the Inman Middle School.
“We signed a letter of intent with Jamestown this afternoon for City Hall East,” Reed told those attending the Alliance for Intown Neighbors at the tail end of the session.
The letter of intent calls for Jamestown Properties to pay the city $15.5 million for the property. The agreement will go before the Atlanta City Council for
By Maria Saporta
Friday, September 24, 2010
It was the 20th year reunion of believers. Every member of the “Atlanta Nine” was present. These were the nine Atlantans who believed that a Southern city could win the top prize in international sports — the 1996 Summer Olympic Games.
The believers met Sunday evening, Sept. 19, at STATS sports bar — itself part of Atlanta’s Olympic legacy.
By Maria Saporta
Talk about a great first day on the job.
Louis Miller started his new job as general manager of Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport Monday morning.
And almost at the exact same time, the news came out that Southwest Airlines had entered into “a definitive merger agreement” to buy AirTran Airways.
For years and years and years, those who favored increased competition at Hartsfield-Jackson have been hoping to figure out how to lure Southwest to Atlanta.
But hometown Delta Air Lines
By Maria Saporta
The Civic League for Regional Atlanta managed to get 600 citizens from all over the metro area to spend most of Saturday working on building communities.
It was the Second Annual Neighborhood Summit, which attracted a hundred more folks than last year’s Neighborhood Summit.
After just two summits, it has become one of the signature regional events of the year by capturing the involvement of mostly ordinary citizens dedicated to improving their individual communities.
Atlanta has never quite figured out how
By Maria Saporta
In her 11 months working on the restructuring of AIG, Paula Rosput Reynolds said she learned a great deal about what makes a company not a great place to work.
Reynolds was the keynote speaker Friday morning at the Atlanta Business Chronicle’s “Best Places to Work” breakfast at the Loews hotel in Midtown.
“People were highly siloed,” Reynolds said of her time at AIG, which began in October, 2008. “There was no transparency between the silos let alone transparency to the world. There was an
By Maria Saporta
Friday, September 17, 2010
The 2010 campaign goal for Metro Atlanta’s United Way has been set — $80.2 million.
The campaign goal will be announced officially at United Way’s campaign kickoff on Sept. 22. But 2010 Campaign Chairman John Somerhalder, CEO of AGL Resources Inc., gave a recent interview with Atlanta Business Chronicle explaining his rationale behind
By Maria Saporta
One of Atlanta’s newest Fortune 500 CEOs spent more than hour with Georgia Tech students Wednesday afternoon in a wide-ranging talk about his views towards business and life.
Bill Nuti, CEO of NCR Corp., attributed much of his success to hard work, mixed in with a bit of luck.
“I grew up in the Bronx, in the projects. I lived in a one bedroom tenement with a very hard-working mom and dad,” Nuti said. “I was the minority.”
Nuti also said he was an over-achiever who
By Maria Saporta and Ben Smith
Friday, September 17, 2010
As the new general manager of the world’s busiest airport, Louis Miller will earn less than many of his counterparts in the industry, including his predecessor — much less.
Miller’s $221,000 salary for managing day-to-day operations at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport will be $32,000 less than his former salary at Tampa International Airport. Tampa, the nation’s 27th-largest airport and the 80th-largest in the world, handles as much passenger traffic as just one of Hartsfield-Jackson’s concourses. Miller’s
By Maria Saporta and Dave Williams
Friday, September 17, 2010
The next president of the Georgia Chamber of Commerce will be Chris Clark, a “public servant” who has been commissioner of the state Department of Natural Resources since November 2008.
As of Nov. 1, Clark will succeed George Israel, a former mayor of Macon who has been the business organization’s chief for the past seven years. Israel will stay on as president through the end of October.
By Maria Saporta
The nationally-known TEDx has sprouted roots in Atlanta.
On Tuesday, the latest TEDxAtlanta took place at Unboundary in the Northyards business park near Georgia Tech and had a theme of “Re-Solve.” About 1,000 people from 41 countries attended through the Livestream webcast.
Speakers were asked to give the “speech of their life” in about 20 minutes.
One of the speakers was Metro Atlanta Chamber Sam Williams, who spoke about “CEOs as Urban Statesmen.”
After giving a two-minute sweep of
By Maria Saporta
Friday, September 10, 2010
Maybe the local economy is looking up.
When the Woodruff Arts Center kicks off its 2010-2011 fundraising campaign Sept. 14, its goal will be more than what it raised during the last two years.
The goal will be $8.8 million, compared with last year’s goal of $8.6 million, which it missed by about 2 percent. The year before, it raised $8.6 million, about $400,000 short of its $9 million goal.
By Maria Saporta
The effort to pass a regional transportation sales tax has just become more challenging.
At 10 a.m. press conference this morning (Wednesday), all the mayors in Fulton County with the exception of Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed will stand on the steps of the Georgia Capitol and announce their opposition to the proposed sales tax.
In a media advisory that I just received, it states that the “Fulton County Mayors from the north to the southern end of the county, have banded together to express
By Maria Saporta
Friday, September 10, 2010
Corporate governance is a key term in today’s business vocabulary as the public has gotten to know the failings of Hewlett-Packard Co.’s Mark Hurd, Enron Corp.’s Kenneth Lay and WorldCom’s Bernie Ebbers.
That wasn’t the case 15 years ago when Kennesaw State University formed its Center for Corporate Governance.
Today, the Center has become a national resource on corporate governance issues by conducting research, by serving as an
By Maria Saporta
Well I really got this one wrong.
Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed named Louis Miller as his pick for general manager of Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport — a move that surprised me as well as people involved in the airline and airport industry.
Louis Miller is the former CEO of Tampa International Airport. He was one of three finalists that included John Clark, the current general manager of the Indianapolis airport, and Lester Robinson, the former general manager of the Detroit airport authority.
At different times, Clark and Robinson
By Maria Saporta
Friday, September 3, 2010
The Atlanta office of the International Rescue Committee will hit quite a milestone on Friday, Sept. 3.
On that day, the Atlanta office will welcome its 20,000th refugee — Raeda, a single, Catholic woman from Baghdad who escaped persecution against ethnic and religious minorities by fleeing first to Jordan.
Now she will begin her new life in Atlanta with the help of the local office of the IRC.
By Maria Saporta
Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed intends to hold a City Hall press conference on Monday at 2 p.m. to announce his pick for a new general manager for Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport.
It’s down to two finalists — Lester Robinson, former general manager of Detroit’s Airport Authority, and Louis Miller, former general manager of Tampa’s airport. The third finalist, John Clark, withdrew his name on Friday. Clark is the director and CEO of the Indianapolis Airport Authority.
Well, for what it’s worth, I’m putting my money down on Robinson.
By Maria Saporta
Congratulations to Georgia Trend for making it 25 years.
Many monthly magazines don’t even survive their first decade. But Georgia Trend has defied gravity, surviving through several ownership changes and countless economic downturns.
As a way to mark the moment, Georgia Trend through itself a birthday party at the Commerce Club last week.
Publisher Neely Young invited some of Georgia Trend’s closest friends to the lunch, including former political columnist Bill Shipp, former owner Millard Grimes
By Maria Saporta
Friday, September 3, 2010
The good news for Atlanta is the headquarters for the new Coca-Cola Enterprises Inc. is staying put.
The not-so-good news is that once it completes its $13 billion transaction with The Coca-Cola Co., CCE will go from 70,000 employees to 13,000 employees. And CCE’s workforce in Atlanta will go from 3,500 employees to about 100.
The other 3,400 employees will join Coca-Cola. About
By Maria Saporta
Friday, August 27, 2010
The Buckhead Theatre’s Aug. 24 premiere of the latest documentary by Andrew Young Productions, “Change in the Wind,” certainly had an Atlanta flavor.
It truly is an Atlanta documentary that reveals the improbable partnership between Morehouse College President Benjamin E. Mays and “Gone With The Wind” author Margaret Mitchell.
