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Atlanta Business Radio

Month: July 2012

Dekalb Chamber Edition with Leonardo McClarty, Betsy Mercier, and Dar’Shun Kendrick

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Leonardo McClarty/ Dekalb Chamber of Commerce

As President of the DeKalb Chamber of Commerce, McClarty is charged with membership development, business advocacy, program implementation, and interfacing with local, state, and federal government officials and staff. Other duties and responsibilities include staff management, budgeting, and strategic planning.

Betsy Mercier/ CDC Federal Credit Union

Betsy has worked in financial services for 37 years, primarily serving the small business and consumer communities. Currently she is the President/CEO of CDC Federal Credit Union in Atlanta, GA. They are the 10th largest credit union in Georgia, providing membership eligibility to people from multiple employee groups and geographic regions, especially Dekalb County. Betsy serves as a Director on the Dekalb Chamber of Commerce and acts as Trustee on the Georgia Credit Union CUPAC/CULAC committee. Her special interests include public education, financial literacy, and legislative issues relevant to financial services.

Dar’shun Kendrick/Kendrick Law Practice, LLC

Rep. Kendrick currently is in her 1st term as a Member of the Georgia House of Representatives serving DeKalb and Rockdale counties, specifically the Cities of Lithonia and Conyers.

Rep. Kendrick serves on the Children & Youth, Interstate Cooperation and Special Rules Committee. She also serves as the ONLY FRESHMAN appointed by the House Minority Leader to the Reapportionment Committee and the ONLY FRESHMAN to Co-Chair a Committee, the Economic Security and Development Committee.

Larry Greene and Candice Crossfield: Meeting Professionals International Georgia Chapter, Elizabeth Cogswell Baskin: Tribe Inc., and Rob Davis: Sprout Baby Food

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Larry Greene/ Greene Classic Limousines/ GaMPI

Larry Greene is the Director of Sales and Marketing at Greene Classic Limousines. Larry is also the President of Meeting Professionals International Georgia Chapter (GaMPI). Meeting Professionals International Georgia Chapter has 800 members and is the largest source of education and networking opportunities for the hospitality industry in the southeast. Their annual Summer Educational Alliance is coming up this August and will be held in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

Candice Crossfield/ Georgia Economic Development Association (GEDA)

Candice Crossfield proudly serves as the Manager, Member Services at GEDA.  Candice was previously with Electric Cities of Georgia (ECG) and has been instrumental in event coordination and member services while at ECG.  Prior to ECG, Candice worked in hospitality sales for the Ritz-Carlton, Monte Carlo Productions and Disney Regional Entertainment.  Currently Candice is the President-Elect at Meeting Professionals International Georgia Chapter.

Elizabeth Cogswell Baskin/Tribe Inc.

Elizabeth Cogswell Baskin is the Founder and CEO of Tribe Inc., an internal communications agency working with national and global clients like UPS, Embassy Suites and Warnaco. She is a recognized thought leader in the field of internal communications, the author of several books and writes a weekly post called Monday Zen at www.goodcompanyblog.com.

Ron Davis/Sprout Baby Food

Ron, CEO of Sprout Baby Food, is a value-driven executive and proven leader with 30 years of experience in the Food Industry, including the past 20 years in Senior Management with large, medium and small size markets. His successful track record in leading an organization’s turnaround, growing existing business as well as creating new business development is quite impressive. He has extensive experience in strategic planning, brand building, business development, process improvement, supply chain management, operations, budget development & control and team building.

Ron served as CEO for The Wornick Company Prepared Foods (’99-’04) where the business grew five-fold over a 5-year period under his leadership, up through the sale of the Company. He started his career at HJ Heinz (’80-’91) and held various management positions. He also held senior management positions with Truitt Bros., Edwards Baking Company and Atlanta Cheesecake Company. Ron is a member of Sprout Foods Board of Directors as well as other businesses. Ron holds his BS/BA Business from Robert Morris College and Master’s Degree from Carnegie Mellon.

 

Chris Hendley with Atlanta Convention and Visitors Bureau. Aaron Zucker with LevelUp. Jason Hennessey with Everspark Interactive. Micah Porter with Minerva Planning Group

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Chris Hendley/Atlanta Convention and Visitors Bureau

Established in 1913, Atlanta Convention and Visitors Bureau (ACVB) is a private, nonprofit organization created to favorably impact the Atlanta economy through conventions and tourism. ACVB is the liaison between meeting planners, tour operators and its 1,200-plus member organizations.

As the director of membership, Chris Hendley leads recruitment and retention programs for current and prospective ACVB members while managing the membership department.

Hendley brings 11 years of sports experience in sales, marketing and management to the ACVB, including positions with Georgia Force of the Arena Football League, The Arena at Gwinnett Center and Philips Arena.

In his time at The Arena at Gwinnett Center, Hendley served most recently as business and community development manager, responsible for implementing the sponsorship sales program. In addition, he functioned as arena manager, director of arena booking and marketing and media manager.

Chris was a founding member and the first President of Right to Hike, Inc., a non-profit organization started to celebrate the memory of Meredith Hope Emerson. He also serves on the Advisory Board for the Sports Marketing Department of Gwinnett Technical College as well as the Advisory Board for the Hercules Council at Dobbins Air Reserve Base.

Chris grew up in Knightdale, NC, and graduated from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. He has been a proud Atlanta resident for 11 years and has been married to his wife, Leslie, for six years.

Aaron Zucker/LevelUp

Aaron Zucker is the Marketing & Public Relations manager for LevelUp in Atlanta. In addition to media appearances on behalf of the company, Aaron also handles event opportunities for LevelUp in the area. Aaron is originally from Charlotte, NC and received both his undergraduate and masters degrees from the University of Alabama. He can be reached via email at Aaron@thelevelup.com.

Jason Hennessey/Everspark Interactive

As CEO of Everspark Interactive, Jason oversees search marketing campaigns for companies in a wide variety of fields when they want to rank for extremely competitive terms in short periods of time. He is continually learning, teaching, and practicing all that goes into a successful SEO campaign.

Micah Porter/Minerva Planning Group

Micah Porter is President and CEO of Minerva Planning Group, a CFA charterholder, and a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER practitioner. He began work at Minerva in 2003 with extensive experience in business planning and corporate finance. Micah enjoys working together with individual clients to formulate, implement and update their comprehensive financial plans. Additionally, as a CFA charterholder, he is responsible for establishing and implementing Minerva’s overall investment strategy. Micah is a NAPFA Registered Financial Advisor.



Workplace Learning Special – Atlanta Conference and Expo Preview: Align, Connect and Engage

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Today on our Workplace Learning Special Edition we interviewed with some of the presenters and organizers for the upcoming 2012 Greater Atlanta Chapter of ASTD Atlanta Conference and Expo happening on August 20th at the Westin Atlanta Perimeter North. The Theme of the conference this year is “Align, Connect, and Engage!” The Keynote speakers for this event are Jane Bozarth (opening) and Elliott Masie (closing).

Our guests today are Leigh Ann Lankford, Todd Wilmore, and Sarah Gilbert. Leigh Ann Lankford is an organizer for this event, as is Sarah Gilbert. Sarah is also one of the presenters along with Todd Wilmore. Their sessions are “Blended Learning: Driving the Virtual Classroom” presented by Sarah and “Storytelling and Talking Frogs” presented by Todd.