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DEL.ICIO.USDeveloper Tom Cousins misses his company’s annual meeting
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
It’s a first.
Tom Cousins, founder of Cousins Properties, missed his first-ever annual meeting of the company - which is celebrating its 50th year in business.
Cousins has been in Florida helping his wife, Ann, recuperate from an emergency appendectomy. His wife told him he should come to Atlanta, but he wanted to stay.
“Tom felt like it was better for him to stay in Florida,” Cousins CEO Tom Bell told shareholders
After the meeting, Bell admitted that it just didn’t feel right without his predecessor in the room, particularly for the 50th year anniversary.
Cousins Properties’ annual report took full advantage of the 50th. It was printed in the visual style of Life magazine, full of photos with the history of the company. All the printed materials at the annual meeting carried the same theme — showing a decades-old photo of Tom Cousins with a model of the Citgo building in Buckhead. That building is now called Two Live Oak Center.
By the way, Cousins Properties does have a woman on its board - Lillian Giornelli, who is Tom Cousins’ daughter. But it doesn’t have an African-American.
And Bell didn’t seem to be in a hurry to add to the board.
“I think we’ve got a great board, and they do a great job for shareholders,” Bell said, adding if any directors retire, new directors could come on board. But for now, he said: “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. This one works.”
Among the directors on the Cousins board: Erskine Bowles, president of the University of North Carolina; James Edwards, a former managing partner of Arthur Andersen until 2002; Taylor Glover, president and CEO of Turner Enterprises; James Hance, former vice chairman of the Bank of America Corp.; William Harrison, chairman of JPMorgan Chase; Boone Knox, managing partner of Knox Ltd.; and Billy Payne, chairman of Augusta National who has been with Gleacher Partners since 2000. Payne also headed up Atlanta’s Olympic efforts.
Are there any African-Americans you feel would be good directors for the Cousins’ board?
Comments
By Urban Guru
May 6, 2008 7:39 PM | Link to this
William Clement,Chair and CEO,Atlanta Life.
By just curious
May 6, 2008 9:26 PM | Link to this
Why are we asking if they have an African American on the board (and why are we even using that term - black people born here are simply Americans!). Are we asking if there are any hispanic people on the board? Asian? Indian?
By Confused
May 6, 2008 9:31 PM | Link to this
I’m confused! Why does a black person need to be on the board? Is that a rule? Having a board shouldn’t be a multiple choice of race board. When will Americans just be American? I’m curious, confused, and for the record I happen to be black. But then who cares!
By just curious
May 6, 2008 9:48 PM | Link to this
Amen to confused. Divisions are perpetuated when we divide ourselves by our names, hence African Americans. 99% of black people here today did not come here from Africa. They were born here. If we continue calling them that, then we should start calling every caucasian by whatever country their ancestors came from too. Irish-American, Scot-American, etc. Drop it and just go by American!
By Mr. WhatDoIKnow
May 6, 2008 11:11 PM | Link to this
just curious & Confused:
Silly folks … The very liberal Ms. Maria works for the Cox family and the AJC. They can demand answers like this from folks but also are anointed with the ability to ask “soft” questions of folks they approve of. Silly AJC readers
By Ron
May 6, 2008 11:11 PM | Link to this
Fifth!
By earl
May 7, 2008 7:37 AM | Link to this
I choose to vote with my money and WILL NOT PAY ONE CENT FOR THIS RAG
By earl
May 7, 2008 7:39 AM | Link to this
I choose to vote with my money and WILL NOT PAY ONE CENT FOR THIS RAG
By mark
May 7, 2008 8:31 AM | Link to this
Hey Maria, what is YOUR backround when it comes to running a successful real estate firm? Just another example of a liberal biased media. STOP ruining our country that was built on hard work. This is the USA and the A stands for America NOT Entitlement!
By Denise
May 7, 2008 8:42 AM | Link to this
I’m hungry. Does anyone have a bagel?
By sethook
May 7, 2008 9:01 AM | Link to this
Thank god they don’t have any dippy reporters on the board.
By Patrick
May 7, 2008 10:45 AM | Link to this
Am I right in reading here that every board should have a token black?
I am sure the lack of a black person on the board does not a conspiracy theory make.
When everyone stops seeing color/race and starts looking at ability, we all will be better off. The same goes with labels.
I do not call myself a Gay American, or European American, or Right Handed American. I am an American first-and-foremost.
By Alex
May 7, 2008 11:00 AM | Link to this
Horrid journalism.
Never mind the absurdity of the black/white racial injection… If the purpose of this article was to discuss racial representation on boards, why is it titled “Developer Tom Cousins misses his company’s annual meeting”???
Why is an entirely separate discussion that takes up over half the article started with “by the way…”???
What the heck do the two have to do with one another???
Most important: How did this woman pass high school journalism class???
By Joeventures
May 7, 2008 11:06 AM | Link to this
There’s an implication, by the makeup of the Cousins board, that the board is not looking entirely at ability when considering who should join the board.
Is, by chance, Lillian Giornelli, related to Greg Giornelli, a direct report to the Mayor?
Cousins Properties carries a lot of influence in the city — with even one of their execs serving as President of the City Council. They also have another exec serving on the board of the Atlanta Regional Commission — a guy who purports to know a thing or two about transportation, but doesn’t have much of a clue.
Cousins’ influence in government has a disproportionate reach, even compared to other developers.
There really should be much more scrutiny of the makeup of their board, considering how decisions made in the executive offices affect our region’s development and, therefore, our daily lives.
By Mark Fields
May 7, 2008 11:25 AM | Link to this
I am continually amazed that AJC tries to pass this OP-ED crap off as news.
By buster
May 7, 2008 11:39 AM | Link to this
Maria - What kind of race-baiting piece of garbage are you trying to write? All that should matter when considering a potential director are his or her qualifications. I would think we were beyond quotas by now and that skin color would not be a major consideration.
By Bobmc
May 7, 2008 12:22 PM | Link to this
Very odd article that starts off discussing the founder of the firm missing his first, and significant (50th) annual meeting to be with wife, and instead of discussing the acheivements and addtions to the cioty Tom an dthe firm have added to Atlanta, the article gets hijacked on a totally unrelated and made up issue of race on the board. If there is one person in Atlanta that deserves a pass on race, it would be Tom Cousins with what he has done to totally revitalize East Lake. How could someone that has done what has been accomplished at East Lake be smeared by an article on his racial sensitivities? Only in the AJC.
By Eian
May 7, 2008 12:35 PM | Link to this
All of you cannot be serious? You set up here and think color of one skin does no matter then you are leaving in a house with no windows..I am new to Atlanta and just from reading previous blogs posted on the AJC, this city is full of hate…If a black person does soemthing wrong; he is condemned as a ‘thug’in the blogs(and we all know that the word thug is just a softer way of trying not to say the n-word)? People discriminate everyday(black or white)and they might not even know it. If you are a christian and still have racism in your heart then you need to take a serious look at yourself and your faith because God loves all people……African, Chinese, Mexican, Caucasian…etc.
Stop living a lie and just be really and begin taking the steps to becoming a complete person(mind, body and soul).
By A Realist
May 7, 2008 1:08 PM | Link to this
Maria, what did you actually try to accomplish by writing this article? It almost seems that you have a personal hate for the accomplished Mr. Tom Cousins. First, you make it sound like he should have attended his meeting despite his wife’s illness, then stating the woman on the board doesn’t count b/c it is his daughter, and then you fuel the hate fire already existing in Atlanta by bringing up race. The only thing that I took from this article, other than your poor writing style, is that you are a feminist instigator. Do us all a favor and stop writing.
By John Doe
May 7, 2008 2:19 PM | Link to this
I always find it amusing when one questions why we have to reference ethnicity instead of being one big happy family. We all would like to eliminate the focus on this however the playing field is not level! The question of not having a black or African American (whatever you want to call us) on the Cousins Board is very relevant. Unfortunately in this country, unless the attention and pressure is brought to bare, minorities and females don’t seem to be treated equally or even equitably particularly when it comes to this topic.. The fact of the matter is there is a severe under-representation of minorities and females on Boards of for-profit companies. Board seats for the most part remain a benefit of the white old boy club. Secondly, I’m sure there are a number of minority shareholders and employees of Cousins who would like to see a minority or two on the Board.
By Natalie
May 7, 2008 3:23 PM | Link to this
This article was written so poorly- adversarial pieces like this just scratch the surface of real issues in clumsy, “stirring up a hornets nest” ways and then fall short of fostering an intelligent dialogue.
I totally agree with the (few) people who point out that while being “colorblind” would be nice, its la-la land and not reality. Race, and the judgments, stereotypes, and assumptions that come along with it are, unfortunately very real. That being said “pure” tokenism based solely on race and not merit, is also surface-level, dangerous thinking as it inevitably treats people as nothing more than their race (something they have no control over), and discounts their merits as a person/professional. What this article SHOULD have addressed are the assets that diverse perspectives from people from different racial/ethnic/cultural/sexual orientation/gender/ability backgrounds bring to organizations and how these assets must be considered (in addition to other relevant skills and merits) when selecting board members, or in any other employment process. In the context of a city as diverse as Atlanta, not to mention a quickly “shrinking,” multi-cultural world, diverse perspectives are an especially important commodity in developing innovative and effective solutions for any organization or initiative.
By Disappointed
May 7, 2008 4:00 PM | Link to this
Horrible. Just horrible. Look at every other “business” blog written by her, she does the same exact thing with either gender or race. Poor excuse for journalism. Can you picture Maria calling as a reporter from the AJC to speak with the CEO of a company about his annual shareholders meeting to only sling a screwball question like that? Really hurts the AJC’s credibility and angers readers…not to mention the entire business community of metro Atlanta. There should be an editor catching this kind of crap.
By Are you serious?
May 7, 2008 4:22 PM | Link to this
I am embarrassed of this article and amazed how something so off the wall could make it through to press. I imagine Maria was “that girl” that we all hated in grade school because she was always starting unnecessary trouble. Thank you Maria for fueling the fire - it really shows your true ignorance. How about an apology to Atlanta?
By Bitter EX democrackkk
May 7, 2008 6:07 PM | Link to this
Good Gawd, why in hell would Cousins have that idiot who married well, Erskine Bowles as a director? He is an evil Clintonista! The UNC system is SO CORRUPT you cannot believe it, and this guy runs it!
By quick point
May 7, 2008 9:11 PM | Link to this
Just so everyone knows, Cousins does not have an African American on the Board. However, Lisa Borders is a vice president with the company. She happens to be African American and A woman. She is very well qualified, and her voice is very influential in the company’s day to day operations.
By ummmmm
May 7, 2008 10:11 PM | Link to this
Lisa Borders no longer works at Cousins. Quick point is confused>
By RMCJ-In VA
September 27, 2008 2:04 PM | Link to this
I do not live in Atlanta, but I just heard one of the many success stories that was basically create by Tom Cousins. I saw a piece on “East Lakes” and what Tom has done to revitalize that community. This is a great man and humanitarian who took a chance on a vision he had. That vision ended up changing the lives of many people for the better. Hats off to you Tom and congrats to you and your company on it’s 50th anniversary. You could teach the politicians in Washington and the greedy corporate CEO’s a thing or two about honor, integrity, and good will toward your fellow Americans. I wish you were running for President of the United States. You would definitely have my vote.