James March-April 2024 online - Flipbook - Page 32
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HUGH “TRIP” TOLLISON
PAULA WALLACE
DAVE WILLS
PRESIDENT & CEO, SAVANNAH ECONOMIC
DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY
PRESIDENT, SAVANNAH COLLEGE OF ART & DESIGN
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, ASSOCIATED COUNTY
COMMISSIONERS OF GEORGIA
This former Capitol Hill aide
to U.S. Sen. Sam Nunn has his
fingerprints on nearly every major
economic development project in
Chatham County over the past decade. In
2023 that meant 3,731 new job opportunities
and $2,631,994,199 in capital investment as
the Savannah area continues to be one of
the nation’s fastest-growing business communities in the state.
CAROL TOMÉ
CEO, UPS
When the visionary Wallace
helped found SCAD in 1978, the
tiny Savannah art school had seven
faculty members and 71 students.
It’s not so tiny anymore. Today SCAD enrolls
more than 16,000 students with satellite
campuses in Atlanta and Lacoste, France,
and is known as one of the premier art and
design schools in the world.
NIKEMA WILLIAMS
U.S. CONGRESSWOMAN & CHAIR, DEMOCRATIC
PARTY OF GEORGIA
Georgia has the second most
counties— and thus county governments— of any state. So, as the
lead advocate for all 159 of them,
Wills and team stay busy in his job heading
ACCG. Key legislative priorities in recent
years for the group’s 80,000-member county
employees include mental health, broadband
access and tort reform.
PAT WILSON
COMMISSIONER, GEORGIA DEPARTMENT OF
ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
Twice named to the Forbes list of
‘The World’s 100 Most Powerful
Women,’ Tomé brought a finance
background to the Atlanta-based
shipping giant in 2019 after a distinguished
career as an executive at Home Depot. Her
civic endeavors include board seats for the
Grady Memorial Hospital Corporation and
the Buckhead Coalition, among others.
Williams pulls double duty as a
U.S. congresswoman representing
Georgia’s 5th district in Atlanta as
well as serving as chair of the state
Democratic Party— the first black woman
to hold the title. A former state legislator,
she has connections across the state and in
Washington D.C., making her a formidable
political force as her party revs up for the
2024 election season.
WILLIAM UNDERWOOD
FANI WILLIS
PRESIDENT, MERCER UNIVERSITY
FULTON COUNTY DISTRICT ATTORNEY
CHRIS WOMACK
Mercer’s 18th president has overseen one of the most successful
stretches in school history since
being appointed in 2006. Since
that time the school has increased enrollment by more than 25 percent, launched
two new needed medical school campuses in Savannah and Columbus and even
brought football back to Macon after a
72-year hiatus.
Willis has been DA of Georgia’s largest county since 2021 but this year
serious allegations and discoveries
emerged against her and her special
prosecutor (and romantic partner) Nathan
Wade. They initiated prosecution against
former President Donald Trump and co-defendants for 2020 election interference, and now
the charges against her have damaged her
professionally and politically.
PRESIDENT & CEO, SOUTHERN COMPANY
The 2022 James “Georgian of the
Year” brought a public service
background to GDEcD when he was
appointed commissioner in 2016.
He has especially worked closely with Gov.
Brian Kemp to maintain Georgia’s position as
the “No. 1 state to do business” with GDEcD
rated as the nation’s best state-level economic development organization by the International Economic Development Council.
Last year the former Georgia Power
CEO succeeded Tom Fanning as
president and CEO of its parent
company, Southern Company.
One of the nation’s largest utilities, Southern
serves more than 9 million gas and electric
utility customers across six Southern states.
Womack is also the 2024 chair of the Metro
Atlanta Chamber’s Executive Governing
Committee, a veritable who’s who of Georgia
business executives.
CAL WRAY
Local Superior Court judges are obviously influential but one in
particular— Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee—
has certainly emerged on the national stage as a very influential
Georgian who will make important decisions that not only affect
our state but also the nation’s 2024 presidential election.
The judge will decide if Fulton County District Attorney Fani
Willis and her office should be removed from her controversial prosecution of
former President Donald Trump and co-defendants for allegedly interfering with
the 2020 presidential election. McAfee’s decision will certainly impact whether a
conviction of the presumptive 2024 GOP presidential nominee can ever be accomplished. Indeed, it won’t just be Georgians who will be very interested in how all
this drama plays out in McAfee’s Georgia court.
PRESIDENT, AUGUSTA ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
AUTHORITY
The single point of contact for economic development projects across
Augusta-Richmond County, AEDA
hired Wray in 2017 due to his
background in industrial recruitment. For the
Augusta area that has meant a renewed and
successful focus on military-related companies to orbit Fort Eisenhower’s (formerly Fort
Gordon) Cyber Command Headquarters.
ANDREW YOUNG
FORMER ATLANTA MAYOR, FORMER U.N.
AMBASSADOR
This former Georgia congressman,
U.S. ambassador to the United Nations and two-term Atlanta mayor
has been out of public office for
over 30 years but not the spotlight. The onetime 1960s civil rights activist still remains
active as an influential Democratic Party elder
statesman and prominent business booster.
