Category: Latest News

By Maria Saporta

Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed on Tuesday used the platform of the Kiwanis Club of Atlanta to urge support for the penny sales tax for regional transportation that supposed to go before voters in July.

Reed, who was going from the Kiwanis Club lunch to the Atlanta City Council meeting where the issue of airport concessions was to be debated, welcomed the opportunity to talk about something else other than the city’s process of selecting new food, beverage and retail business for Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport.

“I’m going to have a pretty tough time at City Council today,” Reed said.

By Maria Saporta

The Civic League for Regional Atlanta will have a new chairman as of Jan. 1 — Robert Inman “Trey” Ragsdale III.

Ragsdale manages government and community relations for Kaiser Permanente. He also has been involved in a variety of government, business and civic groups in metro Atlanta including the Bank of North Georgia, the Children’s Museum of Atlanta, People to People International as well as several chambers of commerce.

By Maria Saporta

One of Atlanta’s longest serving cultural leaders will be retiring at the end of the year.

Jane Leavey, executive director of the Breman Jewish Heritage and Holocaust Museum, will retire Dec. 31 after 28 years in the role.

Leavey, who had been an employee of the Atlanta Jewish Federation (now renamed the Jewish Federation of Greater Atlanta), saw the need for an archives and history museum that focused on the settlement and presence of Jews in Atlanta.

By Maria Saporta

Longtime Atlanta business leader, Joe Bankoff, will retire on May 31, 2012 as president and CEO of the Woodruff Arts Center — the largest cultural organization in the state.

Bankoff has been leading the center — which includes the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, the High Museum of Art, the Alliance Theatre and Young Audiences — since September, 2006.

“I have found the opportunity to serve in this role to be the most exciting, the most exhausting, the most rewarding and the most challenging job I’ve ever done,” Bankoff said in an interview.

By Maria Saporta

Few folks in town the name of the Atlanta woman executive who oversees a business that generates $110 billion in revenues and more than 500,000 employees.

The woman? Rosalind Brewer, president of Wal-Mart East (a territory that stretches from Maine to Puerto Rico and includes about 1,600 stores) and executive vice president of Wal-Mart Stores Inc.

Brewer was the keynote speaker at the

By Maria Saporta

One of Atlanta’s most important leaders, who is an unsung hero in his hometown, is finally getting the recognition he deserves.

William H. Foege will receive Georgia Tech’s 2012 Ivan Allen Jr. Prize for Social Courage award for his leadership in global health.

Among Foege’s numerous contributions include his leadership in the possible eradication of smallpox and other diseases worldwide.

By Maria Saporta

One of Atlanta’s premier African-American-owned companies — Atlanta Life Financial Group — has named former Georgia Gov. Roy Barnes to its board.

Barnes, who is joining his first corporate board since he left office in 2003, will be the only non-black board member of the diversified financial services company. At the time this article was posted, I could not determine whether Barnes was the first white person to serve on Atlanta Life’s board.

By Maria Saporta

An agreement to cancel plans for a new coal plant in Blakely, Ga. could mark the end of traditional coal plants in Georgia and even the United States.

LS Power, a New Jersey-based power company, announced Monday that it was halting a 10-year effort to build the Longleaf Energy Station in Blakely.

The decision came after a decade-long opposition campaign by the Sierra Club, Friends of the Chattahoochee and GreenLaw against building the plant.

By Maria Saporta

EarthShare of Georgia, which has been building employee-based giving campaigns for environmental organizations, recently announced that it has added three new groups to benefit from their fundraising in 2012.

The three groups are:

· the Flint Riverkeeper, which aims to restore and preserve habitat, water quality and flow of the Flint River for future generations and dependent wildlife;

By Maria Saporta

Elected leaders in the Atlanta region are becoming increasingly concerned in the direction of a Regional Transit Governance Task Force established by Gov. Nathan Deal.

“There’s no question that the state is still struggling with wanting to control everything,” said Mike Bodker, mayor of Johns Creek, adding that “you have every right to control what you pay for.”

By Maria Saporta

It’s time for Atlanta to lead again.

That was the message that Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed delivered Monday at a Commerce Club speech. The mayor thanked the audience of mostly Commerce Club members for their support of the city, but he clearly was trying to re-energize Atlantans to believe in the city once again.

By Maria Saporta

Transit is in the spotlight as metro Atlanta marches toward the July 31, 2012 referendum on a one-cent regional transportation sales tax.

The Urban Land Institute is bring a national forum to Atlanta Dec. 6 to Dec. 7 — to be held at the Renaissance Atlanta Waverly Hotel in Cobb County — a place that has been debating the merit of transit investment over roads.

By Maria Saporta

The founding headmaster of the Atlanta International School lived just long enough to see his beloved school break ground on a building that will be named in his honor.

Miles “Alex” Horsley died Dec. 1 at his home after a “spirited” battle with cancer, according to an email that the school sent out on Friday. A memorial service in Horsley’s honor is planned for Jan. 14, 2012.

By Maria Saporta

The Atlanta History Center has selected the architectural team for its “Re-Shape History” redesign — Pfeiffer Partners of New York City.

The history center’s Properties & Capital Projects Committee made the selection, according to Jackson McQuigg, vice president of properties for the center.

“We’re all very excited by the decision,” McQuigg said about the Dec. 1 announcement of the architectural team.

By Maria Saporta

The City of Atlanta has a new sustainability director — Denise Quarles — formerly vice president of environmental affairs and director of business development in the energy division of Southwire, a Carrollton-based manufacturer of electric wiring.

In a release, Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed said:

“Denise comes to the city from the private sector with an outstanding track record of leading successful sustainability initiatives. I am pleased that

By Maria Saporta

A new organization — Better Georgia — is launching a statewide campaign beginning today, Dec. 1, to organize voters across the state who are disappointed with the current direction at the capitol.

Better Georgia specifically is focusing on Gov. Nathan Deal and leaders of the General Assembly and urging them to work on schools and jobs instead of political wedge issues, like immigration, which divide the state and make it unattractive to business investment and

By Maria Saporta

Efforts to get rid of Atlanta Housing Authority executive director Renee Glover are at a complete standstill.

That appears to be a total change of direction for the Atlanta Housing Authority board, which last month seemed intent on moving as quickly as possible to negotiate a separation agreement with Glover.

Thanks to a $3.1 million grant from Bloomberg Philanthropies, Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed has established an “Innovation Delivery Team” to work on improving customer service for city residents as well as to help reduce chronic homelessness.

Kristin Canavan Wilson has been tapped to serve as the new director of Atlanta’s Innovation Delivery Team. When Reed has spoken about establishing this initiative, he said he wanted to hire a “super star.”

By Maria Saporta

The current stalemate in Washington, D.C. between Democrats and Republicans is perhaps the worst situation for the economy, according to John Rice, vice chairman of General Electric and president and CEO of GE Global Growth and Operations.

Rice, who is currently based in Hong Kong, had been living in Atlanta as president and CEO of GE Technology Infrastructure. While in Atlanta, Rice became deeply involved in the

By Maria Saporta

Living Room Inc., the leading provider of supportive housing services for people living with HIV/AIDS in Georgia, is expanding its service area to include the cities of Rome and Dalton.

Living Room, which has been serving metro Atlanta for 16 years, wanted to fill a need for a part of the state that was underserved. That 20-county area in northwest Georgia will now have access to services and programs that include