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Burr Forman's Results Matter Radio

Month: May 2013

Special Edition: LawJam 2013

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Come join the Atlanta Bar Foundation on Saturday, June 8, 2013 for the fourth annual “LawJam: Battle of the Atlanta Lawyers’ Bands”! Watch as your fellow lawyers compete for the top awards in this exciting competition. Come vote for your favorite bands! Tickets can be purchased through the Variety Playhouse.  Please contact Sally Hogsette at shogsette@atlantabarfoundation.org or (404) 521-0781 if you have any questions.

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Scott Hitch/Burr & Forman

Scott Hitch practices in Burr & Forman’s Environmental group and works with clients in all aspects of environmental law. Scott counsels clients on business strategy, regulatory compliance, permitting, policy, transactions and resolution of disputes. Scott’s services include: land conservation, historic preservation, brownfield redevelopment, environmental remediation, corporate responsibility/sustainability and recycling and regulation of wastes. He also consults with corporations in dealing with resource allocation and regulation such as water quality and its environmental impact, air quality, greenhouse gas, climate changes and energy sources. Scott’s environmental services also include dealing with commercial real estate transactions and the entire sustainable building process.

Prior to joining Burr & Forman, he practiced at national and regional law firms and had his own law practice. Scott’s environmental law background also includes previous law clerk experience at the U.S. Department of Justice, Environmental & Natural Resource Division, Environmental Enforcement Section and the Georgia Land Trust Service Center. Scott is a U.S. Green Building Council LEED Accredited Professional and has been named a “Georgia Rising Star” by Super Lawyers for three consecutive years in environmental law. He serves on the Board of Directors for the Georgia Land Conservation Center and Georgia Wetlands and Streams Trust Fund, and has served on the Stakeholder Committee for the City of Atlanta Sustainable Building Ordinance and the Georgia Chamber of Commerce Environmental Conference Steering Committee.

Aside from Scott’s professional leadership, he is involved in a variety of community organizations including: Board of Directors for Keep Roswell Beautiful, Vice President on the Board of Trustees for the River Eves Education Foundation, Inc., and President of the International Board of Directors for the Center for Mediation, Peace and the Resolution of Conflict, Inc.

Scott received both his B.S., in ecology, and J.D. from the University of Georgia where he served as President of the Environmental Law Section in law school.

Bert Reeves/GMHC360

Bert Reeves is an Associate Attorney, practicing in the areas of criminal defense and DUI defense, personal injury, probate law and estate planning, and civil and general litigation. Bert joined the GMHC360 team after serving in the Cobb County District Attorney’s Office as an Assistant District Attorney for five years. As a prosecutor, Bert handled a wide variety of felony and misdemeanor crimes, including traffic offenses, DUI, drugs, white collar crime and theft, aggravated assault, armed robbery, and homicide. He has extensive courtroom experience as a trial attorney. Bert has tried a number of cases to juries, argued hundreds of motions, and handled all other aspects of criminal law and civil litigation. His experience and training in the courtroom as a prosecutor has enabled Bert to obtain to great results in both the criminal law and civil law arena.

Bert earned his J.D. from Stetson University, graduating Cum Laude in 2005. While there he received the Judge Raphael Steinhardt Award for Leadership, Character and Service (voted on by the law school faculty) and the Stetson Law School Spirit Award (voted on by the law school administration). Bert received his Bachelors of Science in Management from Georgia Tech in 2000 with Dean’s List honors and was a member of Omicron Delta Kappa – the highest leadership honor at Georgia Tech. While at Georgia Tech, Bert served as the school mascot “Buzz” from 1997-2000. Bert has formerly worked with U.S. Senator Johnny Isakson and U.S. Representative Phil Gingrey.

Bert is an active member of the Marietta Rotary Club, Leadership Cobb Class of 2010, serves as a member of the Board of Directors for The Strand Theatre, Reconnecting Families, and The Marietta Visitors Bureau. He is currently Chairman of the Cobb Youth Leadership Class of 2013. Bert is also a member of the Executive Board of the Leadership Cobb Alumni Association. Bert is very active with the Cobb Bar Association, he is currently a member of the Board of Trustees of the Cobb Bar, is the social chairman of the Cobb Bar, and was awarded the “Ross Adams Cobb County Young Lawyer of the Year” in 2012 by the Cobb Bar. He is also a member of the Georgia State Bar and the Atlanta Bar Association. He is an alumnus of the Georgia State Bar Young Lawyers Division Leadership Academy.

Outside of work, Bert spends his time performing as the lead singer and guitarist for his band, “The Goodbye Machine”, which was named the Best Local Band in Cobb County by Cobb Life Magazine in 2012 and 2013. Bert frequently performs on stage as an actor, having played lead roles in productions of “The Odd Couple” and “The Sunshine Boys”, and each year reprises his role as emcee for the annual Atlanta Bar Association event “Law Jam: the Battle of the Lawyer Bands.” An avid mountaineer, Bert has summited Mt. Kilimanjaro (Tanzania, Africa), Mt. Rainier (WA), Mt. Whitney (CA), Mt. Hood (OR), Middle Teton (WY), and Kesugi Moutain (AK). Bert attends Buckhead Church in Atlanta and is active with his small group men’s Bible study. Bert will serve as the Em-Cee at this year’s LawJam.

Sally Hogsette/Atlanta Bar Foundation

Sally is the Executive Director of the Atlanta Bar Foundation as well as a member of the Atlanta Bar Association.

She has practiced law for 30 years now in Atlanta with the last 20 of these spent as senior international counsel for Delta Air Lines, Inc. She retired from Delta in 2009. Sally was Treasurer of the Atlanta Bar Foundation and the Board invited her to become Executive Director.

Brenton Hund/Turner Broadcasting System

Brenton Hund is an Attorney with Turner Broadcasting System. In this role, he serves as music counsel.

Spotlight on WIT Connect

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The 19th Annual WIT Connect will be held on June 13, 2013 at the Georgia Aquarium. WIT Connect is a unique, auction-style fundraiser where companies come to network and bid on quality time with Georgia’s top technology executives, mostly from the C-suite. More than $1.8 million has been raised since 2007, and proceeds from the event fund WIT and WIT Foundation programs and initiatives.

Co-chaired by Intercontinental Hotel Group’s CIO Eric Pearson and jobTopia Partner Betsy Robinson, the auction at WIT Connect 2013 will feature meetings with multiple executives from four live auction companies: American Cancer Society, Carter’s, Intercontinental Hotels Group and SunTrust.

Eric Pearson/IHG 

Eric Pearson is Chief Information Officer for IHG. In this capacity, he is accountable for all technology systems supporting IHG hotels and corporate offices globally. This includes the development and application of all global systems supporting our day-to-day business of driving top-line revenue.

Previously, as Chief Marketing Officer for the Americas division of IHG, Eric was accountable for all sales and marketing activities across IHG brands in the regions, including brand marketing, global sales, and revenue management. In addition to his responsibilities, Eric became interim Head of Global Brands in July 2011.

Prior to this, Eric served as Senior Vice President, Distribution Marketing, where he was responsible for overseeing IHG’s worldwide channels including reservation centers, e-commerce, 3rd party intermediaries, global revenue management, and channel marketing. Under his leadership, IHG launched several industry firsts including the Lowest Internet Rate Guarantee, Web language support for 12 languages including Japanese and Chinese with full booking and loyalty program integration. IHG also launched the first wireless services products enabling researching and booking capability on hundreds of mobile devices and platforms.

Betsy Robinson/jobTopia 

Betsy Robinson is a Partner at jobTopia and serves as a Director of IT Services. She co-founded the Information Technology staffing division, and is responsible for new business development, building and expanding existing client relationships, recruiting strategy, managing high performing teams, strategic planning, sales support and wearing any hat that needs to be worn in a growing company.

jobTopia is a full service contract staffing and direct hire search firm specializing in Information Technology and Accounting Finance. Because they’ve limited their focus to the Finance & Accounting and Information Technology industries, their professional advisors are deeply familiar with the common challenges people experience. Their expertise allows their clients to spend less time worrying about hiring decisions and more time focused on improving the performance of their team.

Jay Ferro/American Cancer Society 

Prior to joining the American Cancer Society in 2012, Jay Ferro served as Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer for AdCare Health Systems, a rapidly growing and recognized innovator in health care facility management. Jay spent the previous 7 years at AIG (American International Group). In recognition of his accomplishments, Jay was selected as Georgia CIO of the Year in 2011, and is currently serving as Chair for the Georgia CIO Leadership Association.

The American Cancer Society is a nationwide, community-based voluntary health organization dedicated to eliminating cancer as a major health problem. Headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, the ACS has 12 geographic Divisions, more than 900 local offices nationwide, and a presence in more than 5,100 communities.

Vicki Hamilton/The Wright Answer 

Vicki Hamilton is a Senior IT / Operations Executive with The Wright Answer who comes up with new IT strategies to take care of old workplace problems. An award winning technology executive with over 20 years of senior level experience, Vicki’s strategic, multidisciplinary competencies include conceptualizing, designing and executing innovative technology strategies for high value results ($20M+.)

Recognized three years in a row by CableFAX magazine as one of the “Most Influential Minorities in Cable,” Vicki and has been named to the “Top Women in Cable Technology” and “Most Powerful Women in Cable.” She currently serves on the Board of Directors for the National Urban League’s Black Executive Exchange Program, Foundation Board of Directors for Women In Technology, she is Executive Team Leader for Global Exec Women and is a Growing Leaders Board Member.

Sustainability in Georgia and the Southeast

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Madeline Reamy/EarthShare of Georgia 

Madeline Reamy has been Executive Director of EarthShare of Georgia since March 2006. EarthShare of Georgia is a non-profit that raises funds through employee giving programs for a network of more than 60 environmental organizations dedicated to conserving and protecting our air, land and water. Since coming to EarthShare of Georgia she has helped secure new employee-giving campaigns with Cox Enterprises, the Atlanta office of Accenture, Acuity Brands, Arnall Golden Gregory, Habif, Arogeti & Wynne and many others, while developing strong partnerships with business leaders for EarthShare of Georgia’s annual Earth Day events and marketing initiatives.

Her background includes more than thirty years of non-profit work, mostly in Director of Education positions and also as an Executive Director for two organizations. For fourteen of those thirty years, she worked in the environmental field, including six years as Director of Education and (for one year) as Interim Executive Director of the Chattahoochee Nature Center, one of EarthShare of Georgia’s member groups, managing a staff of twenty, developing the education programs and securing a variety of grants to help support organizational growth.

Before coming to EarthShare of Georgia, she was the Education Director with a Keep America Beautiful affiliate from 1998-2006 (Keep North Fulton Beautiful), where she was responsible for extensive community partnership development, including the creation and management of an award-winning urban forestry education program, funded by the Urban and Community Forestry program of the Georgia Forestry Commission.

She has served on the Board of Directors of Georgia’s Environmental Education Alliance as Vice President, and was President of the Georgia Association of Museums and Galleries. She is a 2004 graduate of Leadership Sandy Springs and a 2011 graduate of the Institute for Georgia Environmental Leadership. Madeline is the mother of two grown children, enjoys animals, hiking and painting.

Beth Bond/Southeast Green 

Beth Bond, the Curator of Green and Sustainable Business News at Southeast Green, is the driving force of Southeast Green. As a Southerner, Beth was tired of hearing about everything “green” happening outside her native region which is what drove her to create the website.

Owning her own marketing company for over 15 years and working with sustainability groups, Beth knew the story of sustainability and green resided here in the Southeast. There was just no one place to tell the cohesive story of all the things that are happening in the Southeast. Since relaunching Southeast Green in September 2008, she has been establishing even broader liaisons and partners to help continue the story of green and sustainability.

Beth serves on a variety of boards and committees in the Atlanta sustainable community. In 2011 she joined the board at Georgia Interfaith Power and Light. She is the Collaboration Chair for the Green Chamber of the South. In December of 2011 the Georgia Solar Energy Association awarded Beth with a Solar Advocate of the Year award. She has also served on host committees for This is Market, River Revival, Earth Hour, Green Law’s Environmental Heroes, Gwinnett Sustainability Summit and Get the Lead Out to name a few.

 

Joe Massaroni with Commercial Finance Association, Amir Farokhi with GeorgiaForward and Ashley Meggitt with Georgia Municipal Association

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Joe Massaroni/Commercial Finance Association 

Joe Massaroni is a Director in SunTrust Robinson Humphrey’s Asset Based Lending (ABL) Group, working as a Portfolio Manager. Mr. Massaroni has over 20 years of experience in Asset Based Lending working for Key Bank, Wells Fargo and SunTrust primarily. Mr. Massaroni has worked in many capacities including field exam, management, underwriting, portfolio management and business development. Currently, Joe is a member of the Turnaround Management Association (TMA) and is serving as President of the Atlanta Chapter of the Commercial Finance Association (CFA).

The Commercial Finance Association is the international trade association dedicated to the asset based lending and factoring industries. Founded in 1944, the CFA has nearly 300 member companies and 16 chapters throughout the United States, Mexico and Canada. CFA members include a diverse collection of lending institutions that range from international banks to independent entrepreneurial finance companies. CFA offers several publications, including the Secured Lender, a bi-monthly magazine devoted exclusively to the asset based financial services industry.

Mr. Massaroni has established the Atlanta CFA’s annual educational program, organizing and speaking at 3 educational panel discussions annually for the past 4 years. He has been a speaker/moderator on both TMA and CFA panels in Georgia and Florida and was previously an instructor for the National CFA Field Examiner School in Atlanta.

Amir Faroki/GeorgiaForward 

Amir Faroki is the Executive Director of GeorgiaForward, an independent, non-partisan organization working to improve the state of Georgia by engaging business, political, academic and civil leaders to collaboratively shape a statewide policy agenda. GeorgiaForward works to bring leaders together to articulate a common vision for the state, respective of regional strengths and needs and focused on smart, bold actions.

Ashley Meggitt/Georgia Municipal Association

Ashley Meggitt has been hired as the newest member of the team in the governmental relations associate position at the Georgia Municipal Association (GMA). Ashley helps to develop and advocate for, environment and natural resources policies of vital interest to municipalities in Georgia. By engaging members of the Georgia General Assembly and the Executive Branch Ashley helps to shape public policy. Ashley was also been named a 2012 Young Gamechanger with GeorgiaForward.

Ashley worked for three years in the governmental relations office of ACCG both in the research department, and as a lobbyist handling a variety of policy issues, including health and human services, public safety and the courts, local government services, and revenue and finance. Prior to Ashley’s local government work with Georgia’s counties, she worked at the state capitol during Governor Sonny Perdue’s administration. Ashley attended Georgia State University in Atlanta, Georgia where she attained a Master of Public Administration with a concentration in Policy Analysis and Evaluation. She completed her undergraduate studies at the University of Georgia in Athens, Georgia and holds a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and a Bachelor of Arts in International Affairs.

June Newsletter Article

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Results Matter Radio Spotlights WIT Connect

On Tuesday, May 21, 2013, Elizabeth Gordon, host of Results Matter Radio on Business RadioX® and producer Dana Barrett, were joined in-studio by WIT Connect co-chairs Eric Pearson (CIO of Intercontinental Hotels Group) and Betsy Robinson (partner at jobTopia) along with Jay Ferro, CIO of the American Cancer Society and Vicki Hamilton, Senior IT/Operations Executive with The Wright Answer to talk about WIT Connect.

The 19th Annual WIT Connect will be held on June 13, 2013 at the Georgia Aquarium. WIT Connect is a unique, auction-style fundraiser where companies come to network and bid on quality time with Georgia’s top technology executives, mostly from the C-suite. More than $1.8 million has been raised since 2007, and proceeds from the event fund Women in Technology(WIT) and WIT Foundation programs and initiatives.

The live auction at WIT Connect 2013 will feature meetings with multiple executives from four major Atlanta-based companies: American Cancer Society, Carter’s, Intercontinental Hotels Group and SunTrust, while the silent auction will have meetings with multiple executives from many more Atlanta-based companies looking for technology vendors.

Eric Pearson, Chief Information Officer for IHG, is accountable for all technology systems supporting IHG hotels and corporate offices globally. This includes the development and application of all global systems supporting the day-to-day business of driving top-line revenue.

Jay Ferro is CIO of the American Cancer Society, which is a nationwide, community-based voluntary health organization dedicated to eliminating cancer as a major health problem. Headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, the ACS has 12 geographic Divisions, more than 900 local offices nationwide, and a presence in more than 5,100 communities.

Vicki Hamilton is a Senior IT/Operations Executive with The Wright Answer who comes up with new IT strategies to take care of old workplace problems. An award winning technology executive with over 20 years of senior level experience, Vicki’s strategic, multidisciplinary competencies include conceptualizing, designing and executing innovative technology strategies for high value results ($20M+).

Betsy Robinson is a Partner at jobTopia and serves as a Director of IT Services. She co-founded the Information Technology staffing division, and is responsible for new business development, building and expanding existing client relationships, recruiting strategy, managing high performing teams, strategic planning, sales support and wearing any hat that needs to be worn in a growing company.

Both Eric and Jay, who will be up for auction this year, talked about how they are inundated with vendors trying to get their time every day. Jay explained further saying, “Companies who bid at this auction are prepared. They know who you are and what you’re working on and they make sure they have a product or service you can use before they spend money to get your time.”

Vicki agreed noting, “Once the company has won the bid and has a lunch or a meeting set up with one of our sponsors, they come prepared.” Betsy explains, “Companies spend thousands of dollars to get this time with these CIOs and they don’t want to waste it.”

The panel further explained that the event is a lot of fun, a great place to network and that while companies are laying out a lot of money at the auction, the money is going to a great cause which is promoting the advancement of women and girls entering and succeeding in the technology field.

To learn more about the organizations and guests featured, listen to the complete interview on the Results Matter Radio page for Business RadioX®.