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Wednesday, April 30, 2008
2008 LINK trip to Denver takes off
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
And they’re off.
A group of about 110 regional Atlanta leaders left Wednesday morning to study growth and development issues in Denver to see what lessons they can bring home.
It was the 12th annual LINK (Leadership, Involvement, Networking, Knowledge) trip with the delegation returning to the first city it visited in 1997.
Both Atlanta and Denver have been facing many of the same challenges that come with growth, but they have approached the issues differently - particularly when it comes to investing in transit.
Denver is slightly smaller than Atlanta, and it has not grown quite as rapidly as us. It currently has 2.7 million residents in its metro area while Atlanta has 4 million. Between 1997 and 2007, Denver grew by 21 percent while Atlanta grew by 28 percent.
Tom Weyandt, director of comprehensive planning for the Atlanta Regional Commission (which organizes the trip), called to give me a briefing of the first day.
The LINK group went to Fitzsimons Campus, which used to be the Fitzsimons Army Medical Center that was closed in 1995. Now it is being redeveloped into a medical complex and biomedical center.
Fitzsimons is one of three major redevelopment projects in the Denver metro area, mostly because of base closures. The topic is relevant to Atlanta because two military bases are scheduled to close here: Fort McPherson and Fort Gillem.
Denver also is facing the economic downturn that’s impacting most urban areas, but Weyandt said folks from Denver respond differently.
“When they’ve gotten into economic problems, they’ve taken the approach to build something - sports complexes or arts facilities,” Weyandt said. “They want to give the community a sense of progress.”
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Will Commerce Club Merge With 191 Club? Should Commerce Club Leave Five Points?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The Commerce Club board is considering a merger with the 191 Club.
At its board meeting today, Chairman David Ratcliffe will recommend that the historic club conduct a thorough review to move to the 191 building, about five blocks north of Five Points.
The Commerce Club has been a fixture at Five Points since 1960, serving as a gathering place for the business and civic power structure of Atlanta.
Now leaders are exploring merging the two clubs’ memberships and relocating the Commerce Club. Ratcliffe said the 191 Club would either be expanded or a new location on the top two floors of the building would be the new home of the prestigious Commerce Club.
But he stressed that no decision has been made. Ratcliffe said the board will take a hard look at the options over the summer and likely make a decision sometime in the fall.
To read more about this story, go to my business column.
So what are your thoughts about a possible merger of the Commerce Club and the 191 Club?
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Former Georgia Tech President Pat Crecine Passes Away
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
J. Patrick Crecine, a controversial yet ground-breaking president of Georgia Tech from August, 1987 to January, 1994, passed away from colon cancer on Monday.
Bill Todd, president of the Georgia Cancer Coalition and incoming chairman of Georgia Tech’s Alumni Association, emailed me about Crecine’s death saying it would be of interest to many of you.
Todd, who was the founding president of the Georgia Research Alliance, said Crecine was instrumental in setting up the consortium that helped tear down walls between the state’s major educational institutions.
During his tenure at Tech, Crecine also recognized the potential of Atlanta winning the 1996 Olympic Games, and he was able to place Georgia Tech in the center of the competition.
Crecine, 68, also implemented several academic reforms at Georgia Tech, but his style rubbed many people the wrong way.
Soon after he took the job as Georgia Tech’s President in 1994, Wayne Clough said he couldn’t pass judgment on Crecine’s administration, “but I was impressed by the great progress the institution had made in recent years.”
This past March, Clough sent an email to his associates, saying he had distressing news about Crecine:
“Pat was diagnosed last year with colon cancer and learned the cancer had spread to his liver. He has been undergoing chemotherapy in hopes of shrinking the tumors. Recently, however, he learned that the cancer has continued to metastasize to other parts of his body and his condition is inoperable.”
Todd, who borrowed a sentiment expressed by the late Larry Gellerstedt Jr., one of GRA’s first chairmen, said of Crecine: “He was clearly a visionary, and he was good for Georgia Tech for the long run.”
By the way, Clough now is stepping down as Georgia Tech’s president to head up the Smithsonian Institution in Washington. Todd, who is involved with the search for Georgia Tech’s next president, said he is daunted by the task.
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Humann retires from SunTrust board; Isdell is not at annual meet
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Coca-Cola CEO Neville Isdell didn’t show up to his last annual meeting Tuesday as a director of SunTrust because he was traveling out of the country. With Isdell’s departure, SunTrust will be without Coca-Cola’s sitting CEO on its board.
Three other directors also stepped down from the board. J. Hyatt Brown, chairman of Brown & Brown in Florida; and Thomas Farnsworth, chairman of Farnsworth Investment Co. in Tennessee; both reached the mandatory retirement age of 70.
And Phil Humann, the past CEO who most recently was executive board chairman, resigned from the board altogether.
Humann, however, did share a passing thought about the timing of the bank’s annual meeting this year. As a break from the past, SunTrust’;s annual meeting wasn’t held the same week as Coca-Cola’s annual meeting.
The timing of annual meetings among Atlanta companies was much broader than just Coca-Cola and SunTrust, Humann said.
“As I recall, maybe 30 years ago, when boards were even much more overlapping than they are today, several companies said: ‘Why don’t we do all these annual meetings the same week,’” Humann said. “It was a matter of convenience.”
By holding the annual meetings the same week, executives and directors would be free to travel and work on other business for the rest of the month. Humann said some of those companies included Genuine Parts, Rollins, among others.
