Atlanta attorney John Stephenson has shed the “interim” tag from his position as leader of the organization formed to build and operate the College Football Hall of Fame here.
Atlanta Hall Management’s board of directors approved Stephenson as the organization’s permanent president and chief executive officer, it was announced Monday.
Stephenson had been AHM’s interim president/CEO since December 2011, when he succeeded Gary Stokan.
Stephenson “has taken a shared vision and ushered it to the point where we can all see the finish line,” National Football Foundation chairman Archie Manning said in a statement. “There is no question in my mind he is the right man to continue leading this endeavor.”
The National Football Foundation, which owns the college football hall, decided in September 2009 to relocate it from South Bend, Ind., to Atlanta. Fund-raising difficulties stalled the project here until a flurry of corporate sponsorship commitments last year green-lighted it.
The facility broke ground last week in a former Georgia World Congress Center parking lot on Marietta Street across from Centennial Olympic Park. The 95,000-square-foot, $66.5-million attraction is scheduled to be completed in August 2014.
“We have a lot of work to do, but I’m thrilled to be part of such an exciting project here in my hometown,” Stephenson said in a statement.
A partner in law firm Troutman Sanders, he was retained by project organizers in 2009 to assist with bringing the hall here.
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