James November-December 2024 web - Flipbook - Page 10
billion global payment transactions
processed in Georgia, 6 of the 10 largest U.S. payment processing firms are
here, among the 245 fintech companies. There are more than 42,000 people employed in fintech alone, helping
to process more than two-thirds of U.S.
card transactions.
“TAG is celebrating our 25th anniversary this year. And we’ve seen a
lot of this growth happen over those
years,” Williams says. “I think a lot of
the things we thought about were
being fulfilled, and evidence of that
was the skyline starting to change. If
you drive down the I-75-85 Connector,
you started seeing tech brands on the
skyline. Google had already moved
in, and they were expanding. But you
started to see other things pop up, and
that just accelerated very quickly over
the last eight years.”
Williams wonders if sometimes
Atlanta’s Southern roots mean we
don’t tout our successes enough, or
brag enough. “We’re not audacious
10
JAMES
GOVERNOR BRIAN KEMP AND FIRST LADY MARTY KEMP WITH MEMBERS OF TAG AND OTHER SPEAKERS
CAPTION
AT
THIS YEAR’S GEORGIA TECHNOLOGY SUMMIT.
enough. We’re just Southern lawyers,”
says Williams. This is not a bad thing
per se but it means Williams’ role
certainly has a sales component of
pitching Atlanta and Georgia as a destination for tech companies.
“This evolution of technology that
has existed here is really part of our
DNA, and we continue to evolve. So, we
had this mantra that we’re going to be
a top five technology state— and we are
one,” he says. “Think about the innovation that comes out of here, the amount
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of people that are employed here, the
patents that come out of here. All of this
is part of our DNA, and we just quietly
continue to build great businesses.”
The other part of growing the tech
sector here is, as Williams puts it, the
world finding us.
“Cisco is now here. They don’t
call it this, but their second headquarters is now in Atlanta,” said Williams.
“Their top leadership are Georgia Tech
grads. They are still over in San Jose,
but they’ve got a lot of assets that con-
