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Atlanta Business Radio

Month: August 2014

Vicky Sleight with GSMA, and Tom Stanfill and Tab Norris with ASLAN Training

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Vicky Sleight / GSMA Linkedin Twitter Facebook

As Senior Director of Member Services at the GSMA since 2008, Vicky Sleight is responsible for growing membership within the mobile ecosystem, leading membership communications and operations for a community of 20,500 industry executives. She is also the driving force behind the GSMA Connected Women program: an initiative which aims to highlight the opportunities available to women in the mobile industry at all levels, as well as increase the number of women in senior management positions. Before joining the GSMA, Vicky led on a number of ground-breaking mobile industry initiatives. As Motorola developed the world’s first smartphones, she was responsible for creating consumer propositions and content services around the new devices in Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA). Prior to joining Motorola, Vicky started her career in marketing at O2.

Tom Stanfill / ASLAN Training & Development Linkedin

Tom is what some would call a “natural born salesperson”. Outgoing and full of enthusiasm, this Atlanta native’s story is what you might expect to hear from a typical VP of Sales for a Fortune 500. College football player (Ga Tech) married to his college sweetheart Claire, Tom worked on 100% commission sales from the day he left college until he started his first company. Full of energy, this fifty three year old grandfather of nine (no that is not a typo!) is still running full speed.

But Tom’s much more than a big personality who can sell. He’s a seasoned sales executive, having personally and successfully led large sales organizations in multiple industries. Since launching ASLAN with his partner Tab Norris in 1996, he has grown that company to become a true leader in sales training solutions – serving more than 50,000 sales professionals in 30+ countries around the world and being named for the past two years to Selling Power magazine’s prestigious Top Twenty Sales Training Companies.

Tab Norris / ASLAN Training & Development

In ASLAN, Tab is best known for his ability take a sales training workshop and turn it into an event. A successful sales person before the days when he and partner Tom Stanfill founded ASLAN, he’s continued to prove that sales effectiveness is not just something he can teach, but something he lives. Where he really shines though is when he’s training and coaching other sales professionals. There, Tab combines years of successful sales experience with the spirit of an entertainer and the rare ability to tell someone that what they are currently doing is incorrect and yet leave them feeling positive and encouraged and equipped to improve.

Away from ASLAN, Tab and his wife Elizabeth are heavily invested in their hometown of Athens, GA where they regularly serve as volunteers with area high school students (two of whom, along with their little sister, make up the balance of the Norris household).

 

 

Special Edition: Annona Enterprises Trusted Advisors

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Soyini Coke / Annona Enterprises Linkedin Twitter youtube

Warren King / Vistage International 

Warren King hails from Wisconsin and spent over 35 years with the British Petroleum/Amoco Oil Company. He has held CEO and Sr. Global Management positions for BP/Amoco and has lived in Singapore and Hong Kong. He is currently a Group Chair for Vistage International, a company focused on establishing peer advisory boards for CEOs, Business Owners, and Sr. Executives. These boards are private, confidential, collaborative groups of non-competing business leaders. Warren is an engineer from the University of Wisconsin, holds an MBA from the Kellogg School at Northwestern University and currently lives on Lake Lanier in Dawsonville, GA. He also teaches International Business at the University of North Georgia.

John Coffin / Atlantic Capital Bank Linkedin Twitter

Mr. Coffin is the Executive Vice President and Banking Group Executive of Atlantic Capital Bank. He oversees the bank’s corporate and private banking divisions. Mr. Coffin’s background includes commercial, capital markets and corporate banking experience. Before co-founding Atlantic Capital Bank, he spent ten years at Wachovia Bank, most recently in the position of Senior Vice President and Atlanta Commercial Banking Team Leader. Prior to this role, he was the Head of the Business Services Corporate Banking Group following Wachovia’s merger with First Union. Prior to joining Wachovia in 1996, Mr. Coffin worked in New York in the Media and Telecommunications Group at Manufacturers Hanover Trust Company, Chemical Bank and Chase Manhattan Bank (through these two mergers).

Mr. Coffin earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in English from Dartmouth College. He received a Master of Business Administration from Columbia University Graduate School of Business, with a Finance and International Business concentration.

 

 

 

Signature Bank Presents: Atlanta Commercial Real Estate

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Business RadioX welcomes guest co-host Melanie Brown, Managing Director SBA /SVP with Signature Bank, to spotlight Atlanta Commercial Real Estate.

Sim Doughtie / King Industrial Realty Linkedin Twitter

Sim Doughtie is an experienced 30+ year veteran in the Atlanta commercial real estate market. He has been with King Industrial Realty, Inc. for 20+ years where he has served as President of the firm since 2008. Sim is a Life Member of The Million Dollar Club through the Atlanta Commercial Board of Realtors, and in 2003, received The Phoenix Award for ten consecutive years of outstanding sales and leasing achievement.

Sim has worked on many notable assignments over the years. The largest being the Regional Distribution Center for General Mills. This build-to-suit project on 130± acres developed and built by The Rockefeller Development Group consisting of 1,508,765 total square feet was the largest LEED Certified Gold facility ever built in the United States at the time of its completion.

Sim is an Atlanta native, and a graduate of Georgia State University’s School of Business, where he majored in real estate and management. While attending Georgia State, he served as President of his fraternity, Pi Kapa Alpha. Sim and his wife Tricia are members of Peachtree Presbyterian Church, The Atlanta Track Club and The Concourse Athletic Club.

Alan Joel / Joel & Granot Twitter

Joel & Granot’s principals and professional brokerage staff have deep roots in the Atlanta business community and for more than 50 years have been actively involved in Georgia commercial property including Atlanta office space, commercial real estate Fulton County, commercial real estate DeKalb County, commercial real estate Cobb County, Gwinnett County commercial real estate and commercial real estate throughout the entire metropolitan Atlanta area. Joel & Granot professionals are known for local market knowledge, integrity and for being intensely client focused

Alan is a native of Atlanta whose family has been in the real estate business for over 50 years. He attended the University of Georgia on a swimming scholarship and in 1981, he was selected as a member of the United States team to participate in the Maccabia Games held in Tel Aviv, Israel. Alan graduated with a degree in Finance from the School of Business where he was a member of the Phi Eta Sigma Freshman Honor Society as well as a Dean’s List student. He obtained his Masters Degree in Real Estate from Georgia State University and has received his CCIM designation. In 2004, Alan received the prestigious Atlanta Commercial Board of Realtors Alvin B. Cates Award for the most outstanding real estate transaction of the years. In 2010, Alan was President of the Atlanta Commercial Board of Realtors; a 2,500 member organization. In 2011 Alan was named Atlanta Commercial Board of Realtors’ Realtor of the Year.

 

 

BlueFletch Announces Atlanta Mobility Radio

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Brett Cooper / Founding Partner & CEO Linkedin Twitter Facebook

Brett Cooper is CEO of BlueFletch Mobile. Since founding BlueFletch in 2008, Brett and his business partners have grown the company to a 25 person boutique consulting firm focused on Mobile Solutions. They serve a wide range of companies, from small startups to large enterprises, helping to build innovative and creative Mobile Solutions that help solve important business problems.

Prior to staring BlueFletch, Brett managed teams at Accenture and Coca-Cola Enterprises. Despite not being born in Atlanta, Brett considers himself an Atlanta native. He grew up here and graduated from Georgia Tech with a Computer Engineering degree. After working in multiple cities around the US, he moved back to Atlanta to start BlueFletch. Additionally, he received his executive MBA from Emory University.

Blake Byrnes / Founding Partner & CTO

BlueFletch is a mobile consulting company. We help enterprise customers develop cross-platform mobile solutions and strategies.

As a founder at BlueFletch, I help hire talented employees, build a culture encouraging learning and growth, make this a great place to work, find new business, help decide the direction of the company, and make sure our projects succeed.

As CTO of the company, I make sure we have the right skills, that people are learning upcoming technologies, and that our projects are well built and architected. I help brainstorm solutions and direct our team to technologies that will make their lives easier.

Stephen Weber / Marketing Manager

 

 

Spotlight on Peak 10

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Peak 10 provides reliable, tailored cloud computing, data center and other information technology (IT) infrastructure solutions and managed services, primarily for mid-market businesses. Peak 10 solutions are designed to scale and adapt to customers’ changing business needs, enabling them to increase agility, lower costs, improve performance and focus internal IT resources on their core competencies. For more information, visit www.peak10.com.

Angela Haneklau and Beverly Crisler / Peak 10 Linkedin Twitter Facebook

Angela Haneklau is the Vice President and General Manager for Peak 10’s Atlanta operations. She is responsible for managing the overall operations of Atlanta data center facilities including engineering, sales, business development and customer service. Angela brings more than 25 years of experience in managing mid-sized business operations to her leadership role at Peak 10. Active in the community, Angela chairs a build for Atlanta Habitat for Humanity, serves on the board for the Alpharetta Tech Council and also volunteers at the Atlanta Women’s Shelter.

Beverly Crisler is the Director of Service Delivery (DSD) for Peak 10’s Atlanta operations. She is focused on the consistent and timely execution of service delivery, for Peak 10’s Atlanta customers. She oversees the market level engineering resources, as they follow processes and procedures, used to deliver contracted Peak 10 services and is in charge of all things service related.

Andrew Borland / Wellcentive Linkedin Twitter

Chris Hooper / Emergence – Georgia Medical Accelerator

Chris Hooper is President, EmergenceGMA, Inc. Chris is a career business-capabilities builder, envisioning and commercializing products, concepts and technologies, in the fields of medical device, medical research, healthcare IT, internet commerce, consumer goods, consumer financial, manufacturing, and distribution. The business capabilities he creates generate substantial increases in shareholder value (growth, efficiency, profitability).

His functional expertise is in the areas of performance management, financial management, product development, supply/demand chain, customer relationship management, sales and operations planning, IT enablement, as well as workers compensation, and the establishment and management of preclinical and clinical research organizations.

Chris has a long history of effectiveness in key leadership, management and individual performance positions, as well as advisory roles. He is a patent-holder and published author. He is an accomplished leader with expertise in strategy formulation, competitive analysis, acquisition planning and due diligence, post-merger integration, growth initiatives, concept and technology commercialization, earnings improvement, asset utilization, process engineering, organization design, complex program management, software development, and the implementation of change.

 

 

Bill Fasig with TopRight Partners and Myrna Orphan with Grapes on the Vine Events

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Bill Fasig / TopRight Partners

Myrna Orphan / Grapes on the Vine Events Linkedin Twitter Facebook

Myrna Orphan has over 30 years of experience in many areas of marketing including communications, advertising, merchandising and event planning with large, mid-size and start-up companies. Most recently, she was a Senior Vice President of marketing communications at Equifax from which she retired in 2009. Myrna first planned group trips to the California wine country in 1999 and since has organized numerous events including sales reward trips, customer meetings, reunions, wedding events, board meetings and alumni meetings. Her attention to detail, creativity and leadership skills—as well as her appreciation for wine— have contributed to the success of many wine country trips and events. For the past 12 years, Myrna has also been involved with the High Museum of Art’s wine auction, the largest wine auction to benefit the arts in the country. Through this activity she has created numerous relationships with wine makers which have been very beneficial in creating unique experiences for her clients.

 

 

 

Kevin Olsen and Jordan Amadio with ForgeATL, Stephanie Friese with Pursley Friese Torgrimson and Vivek Agrawal with Skava

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Kevin Olsen and Jordan Amadio / ForgeATL Twitter Facebook

Kevin Olsen is a 4th year medical student at Emory University School of Medicine, pursuing residency in Anesthesiology this Summer, and the Forge Hackathon Director. He holds a degree in Nuclear Engineering from the University of Florida and is co-founder of NOK Medical, an Atlanta-based medical start-up. With his work at Forge, he hopes to bring together the Atlanta start-up, medical, and engineering communities to build a vibrant med-tech hub in Atlanta. Twitter: @KO_Potato

Dr. Jordan Amadio is co-founder and medical adviser of Forge, a nonprofit organization that facilitates the development of health startups in Atlanta. He completed his medical education at Princeton, MIT, and Harvard Medical School, where he performed novel research in neurogenetics and led an award-winning initiative to commercialize noninvasive neurostimulation therapy for chronic pain. He now works as a senior neurosurgery resident at Emory University, where he treats patients with brain and spine disorders. In 2014, he was awarded the American Medical Association’s Excellence in Medicine Leadership Award in recognition of his achievements in med-tech invention, medical journalism, and mentorship. Dr. Amadio holds an MBA with Distinction from Harvard Business School and has been instrumental in several key Atlanta-based initiatives connecting the world of medical innovation with entrepreneurship, including the recent creation of NeuroLaunch, the world’s only startup company accelerator focused on neuroscience.

Stephanie Friese / Pursley Friese Torgrimson LLP Linkedin Facebook

Stephanie Friese is a strategic advocate and negotiator who represents commercial real estate clients across the United States in both transactional and litigation matters. She is a founding and managing partner of Pursley Friese Torgrimson. Previously, she founded and managed Friese Legal for 13 years as one of the first woman-owned, woman-managed law firms certified by the Women’s Business Enterprise National Council.

Stephanie is involved in all aspects of commercial real estate transactions, from acquisition of land, to leasing, foreclosure, construction, and disposition. While she makes every effort to minimize a client’s inherent risks, she also litigates her client’s real estate issues related to the development, leasing and management of real estate.

Her clients include businesses that own and develop properties, as well as lenders, owners and investors involved in financing, acquisitions and dispositions of commercial office and industrial properties across the country. She brings extensive experience in all matters related to commercial real estate law and litigation for retail, industrial, office and mixed use property.

Vivek Agrawal / Skava

 

 

 

Special Edition: TiE Atlanta

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Dr. Paul Lopez / Element Funding Linkedin

Dr. Lopez is co-managing principal of Element Funding, a mortgage lending company offering residential mortgages with branches in GA, FL and NC. Paul serves on the Boards of MUST Ministries and Action Ministries which are non-profits organizations addressing the needs of the poor in north Georgia. He is also the co-chair of an initiative called TYE University, co-sponsored by TiE Atlanta and the Georgia Small Business Development Centers (SBDC).

Lydia Jones / UGA Small Business Development Centers Linkedin Twitter Facebook 

Lydia Jones, senior public service associate faculty with the University of Georgia, serves as the District Director for the Georgia Small Business Development Centers (SBDC). Her leadership supports consulting and educational activities of a large team of SBDC professionals and facilitates innovation throughout Metro Atlanta and north Georgia on behalf of small business communities. In addition to service on several advisory boards, she is a member of the Georgia Economic Developers Association and she serves as the co-chair of an initiative called TYE University, co-sponsored by TiE Atlanta and the Georgia Small Business Development Centers.

 

 

Special Edition: Working Together For Change

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Working Together For Change Linkedin Twitter Facebook

Working Together For Change (WTFC for short), is a student-led nonprofit that is creating a large student-network to help the homeless people. Right now, in Atlanta alone, over 10,000 people experience homelessness! There is a lot of work being done by many organizations – but nothing really includes the students. We want to raise awareness about this problem among the students and find many more that also care about this issue. Join our cause!

 

View / Download WTFC Brochure Here

 

Spotlight on ProWIN Atlanta

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Becky Davis / MVPwork LLC Linkedin Twitter Facebook

Leadership Transformation Coach Becky Davis works with leaders in corporate and small business owners on business growth though effective leadership. Becky helps small businesses stay up after they start up. Becky specializes in helping leaders build their business and boost their bottom line through effective and engaging leadership.

Becky has over 20 years leadership and business building experience. She was the turnaround queen in her former role as a regional vice president the largest optical company in the world, Luxottica (Lenscrafters, Pearle Vision, Sunglass Hut, Sears and Target Optical and EyeMed Insurance), where she managed 12 regional directors and over 200 store locations with 45 million in sales. Becky was frequently assigned to the worst performing markets to turnaround performance and increase profits, which is where she learned and acquired the skills she now teaches to business leaders.

She is the President of MVPwork LLC, a consulting and executive coaching/training firm for small businesses, entrepreneurs and business leaders, and the Founder of Leading In High Heels (Healing, Elevating, Entrusting Love to Sisters) a non-profit business that provides leadership workshops to professional women who donate their shoes to women of domestic violence and abuse.

Becky is a national speaker, trainer, coach and author of six books. She is an expert in leadership, personal development and entrepreneur growth.

Carol Dunlop / Creative Services International, Inc. Linkedin Twitter Facebook instagram pinterest 

Laura Biering / True Voices Linkedin Twitter Facebook

Laura Biering is a Certified Life and Leadership Coach and the Founder and President of True Voices – a coaching, consulting, and creative agency. Since finding her own True Voice, she has made it her mission to help others find theirs. Laura has been coaching individuals and teams to authentic success since 1999. In addition to providing insightful questions and perspectives, Laura provides a safe and courageous space for her clients. In this open, non-judgmental environment, her clients – ranging from executives to entrepreneurs, from ministers to moms – build the courage to take meaningful, intentional risks, thus more easily and quickly achieving their goals and dreams. Laura is currently excited about offering groups and retreats using the highly experiential methodology of The Daring Way™, based on the research of Dr. Brené Brown. In her spare time, Laura enjoys relaxing with her partner and their two adorable, “four-legged children,” and retreating to her centuries-old farm in SE Georgia.

To find out if working with Laura is the right next step for you, please contact her at Laura@TrueVoices.com and mention that you heard her on Atlanta Business Radio. This will entitle you to a complementary clarity conversation – one that you won’t want to miss!

Karen Curry Davis / Access to Capital for Entrepreneurs (ACE) Twitter

Karen Davis currently serves as Access to Capital for Entrepreneurs’ (ACE) Strategic Initiatives Director. In this role, she directs ACE’s Women Investing in Successful Entrepreneurs (WISE) Initiative which is a $2.5 million revolving loan fund specifically for women entrepreneurs wanting to expand or start a business within Metro Atlanta and the North Georgia region. In addition to the loan funds, WISE offers business advisory support through individualized business consultations, business development seminars, speed coaching, and mentoring from high net-worth business owners. Karen is also the Principal Consultant of Curry Davis Consulting Group, LLC. Karen has more than 13 years of program management and community development experience and has made strides in her efforts to assist families with moving towards economic self-sufficiency, health and wellness.