It was a heart-stopping moment for Columbus’ Mike Gaymon back in 1996 when word leaked out that one of his community’s most valuable corporate citizens, the credit card processing giant TSYS, was thinking of relocating. “They were talking about 2,500…
By the time unemployment figures for Southwest Georgia counties were announced last August the region’s optimism index was already at a two-year high, thanks to a number of announcements that promised more jobs, the better-paying kind, and more capital investments,…
For years Donald Bates had struggled with keeping new hires in place at Tara Foods, an Albany plant that produces products such as sauces and peanut butter for its parent company Kroger, the supermarket chain, as well as custom orders…
Despite job losses, the citizens of Milledgeville are heartened by some promising developments. New businesses downtown, ongoing construction, an exciting technology project and the forecast of a major transportation improvement are brightening what could be a much gloomier picture. In…
This year’s heroes include an Atlanta advocate for people with disabilities, a Columbus hospital professional who helps fledgling doctors soar into their practices, and physicians in Albany and Brunswick dedicated to spreading the growing wealth of modern medical services to…
Not since the brutally destructive 1936 tornado has so much of Gainesville been reduced to rubble, but this time the broken bricks, glass shards and shredded lumber that mark the landscape along one downtown stretch of Jesse Jewell Parkway are…
John Crawford and Traycee Martin were conducting a tour of the new athletic facility on the campus of Valdosta State University (VSU) when their visitor asked the formal name of the 42,000-square-foot building. Crawford, CEO of the VSU Foun-dation, smiled…
It’s late on a still and sweltering afternoon at Lake Oconee, but a small sailboat has found just enough breeze to move it slowly toward shore and into the lengthening shadows. Nearby, a handful of Jet Ski riders are crisscrossing…
After several years of on and off drought conditions, Georgia farm-ers saw 2009 unfold with seemingly unending rains that kept them out of the fields during the critical spring planting season. The warm, wet weather that followed created ideal conditions…
In the middle of the largest surplus of new homes in the nation’s history, Patti Goff is facing a housing shortage. And she has a waiting list of customers lined up, cash in hand, ready to lease some space. Goff…
Paul Mechler was sitting in his office doing a little economic forecasting and thinking out loud about how his company may ride out the present economy and position itself to fit nicely into a national recovery. His musings are a…
John Henry admits it’s a bit unusual for him to be conducting a tour of all the new fire hydrants along the Effingham County portion of Georgia Highway 21, known here as the Savannah River Parkway, but he says he…
Sit down with Beheruz Sethna for just a few minutes of conversation and you may feel an uncontrollable urge to buy something. Sit with him for an hour and you might pull out the Visa or ask for a sales…
Jenna Guthrie is standing in the crowded kitchen of a home in a neighborhood of mossy oaks on St. Simons Island. It’s nearing noon and she’s been cooking under hot lights, tracked by a TV camera for more than four…
There are always risks in joining family and business, but there are also some pretty substantial rewards. This year’s winners are proud of their history, their tradition and their commitment, as well as their successes. The 2009 recipients were selected…
On a Sunday afternoon, John Norton stands in the shop attached to his Albany home and holds a 15,000-year-old fossilized Siberian mammoth tusk in his hands. He’s surrounded by containers holding shredded currency, denim, exotic woods, shotgun shells, large-caliber ammunition,…
The orange robotic arms embrace the skeletal chassis of the automobile for just a moment as they plant their welds on the steel frame and then withdraw, pause and smoothly move to another part of the body. This is the…
When an Albany job fair opened for business last January, more than 1,500 people showed up to apply for 125 jobs at the Marine Corps Logistics Base, overwhelming interviewers who canceled hundreds of appointments. The massive turnout was a reflection…
Mentoring Assistance: When the Atlanta consulting firm Pathbuilders, Inc. was founded in 1995, the company’s mission centered on helping talented women further their careers. The idea was to unite promising candidates with mentors from outside their corporate culture who could…
Looking at recent economic activity in Bibb County and Macon it’s difficult to believe they are part of a suffering U.S. economy. New commercial construction in the area during the first 11 months of 2008 rose by more than $48…
Last April when The Associated Press carried a story about the online monthly publication JobBait.com’s including Valdosta on its list of two dozen American “recession-proof” communities, the city’s residents received the recognition with the same mixture of joy and dread…
Help For Hospitals?: Rural Georgia has attracted the attention of an Atlanta area healthcare company looking to expand. Alpharetta’s Jackson Healthcare, a staffing and technology firm, announced last fall it is forming a new company to acquire community hospitals in…
A sign of the times, perhaps, but the demand for MBAs is rising. Georgia universities and colleges offering Master of Business Administration programs are seeing an increase in inquiries and, in many cases, an uptick in enrollment. Georgia State University’s…
Ciji Fox still isn’t entirely clear about why she uprooted herself from the small Iowa college she was attending back in 2006 to come to Clayton State Uni-versity (CSU) on the south side of Atlanta. “I think I decided to…
It’s midmorning and Flowers Foods CEO George Deese is near the end of a 30-minute meeting when he’s gently reminded by one of his executives that he has a plane to catch. Rising from his chair, Deese announces he is…
The drive from Grovetown to Harlem in southern Columbia County is only nine miles and the country scenery is straight off a feed and seed calendar – at least for the first few miles. Then the landscape becomes dotted with…
Viewed from atop the 50-foot-tall earthen dike that surrounds a reservoir on the South Carolina side of the Savannah River, the topography ranges from marshy and swampy to pitted stretches of sand resembling a moonscape. With darkening storm clouds gathering…
On more than a few occasions in modern times the people of southwest Georgia have resorted to prayer to bring rain for thirsty crops or provide other forms of relief for their economic woes. But those were times when almost…
Name Of The Game: When Atlanta’s JVC America Inc. an-nounced earlier this year it would be adding 540,000 square feet to its existing 360,000 square feet of warehouse space, the move was further tribute to Georgia’s solid reputation as logistics…
It is mid-afternoon and Yvonne Williams steers her SUV in and out of light traffic, crisscrossing the Perimeter area on the northern side of Atlanta pointing out to her passenger office towers, restaurants, roads, residential high rises, municipal buildings, pedestrians,…
Sylvania is one of those small Georgia towns (pop. 2,541) where everybody knows your name, and if they don’t they soon will – and they’ll know the name of everyone in your family, your history, your likes and dislikes; and…
This year’s Healthcare Heroes can trace to their youth a passion for their professions, and their generous contributions of time and talent have meant better healthcare for their communities, their state, and even the world at large. A rural doctor…
As director of the Henry County Building Department – and a 28-year veteran of county government – Doug Gilbert has enjoyed an up-close view of the turn-of-the-21st-century growth that came at the county like a roaring freight train on a…
Putting the Cart Before the Horsepower: A flood of new developments and products has electrified Georgia’s transportation industry. Last summer when Augusta golf cart manufacturer Club Car rolled out its first street-legal electric vehicle, the event seemed to symbolize the…
When Irwin County vintner Chris Paulk was facing a few difficulties in converting the byproducts of his muscadine grapes into a saleable commodity, he turned to the Agribusiness Innovation Center (AgIC) in nearby Tifton. “He needed a way to add…
For decades, the citizens of Jasper County seemed perfectly content to watch from a distance the rising numbers of new businesses and residences in neighboring counties. But population growth, like water, seeks a void, and Jasper County had plenty of…
By the numbers: The newest stars in corporate America are the number-crunchers and bean counters that form the chief financial officer ranks, says an Atlanta headhunter specializing in tracking down CFOs who keep the books and sign the checks. “More…
It’s just after dawn on a Thursday morning and South Georgia farmer Brian Robinson is standing in a field of waist-high wheat pulling the grain off the top of one of the shafts. He tosses the kernels in his mouth…
In May, when officials of Microsoft Corp. and Augusta’s Fort Gordon signed an agreement to open a Microsoft Academy on the military base, the announcement was hailed as further proof that the city’s boast of being a world-class information technology…
Taking place, as it does each year, in early spring, the annual Heart and Soul Bus Tour, sponsored by the Georgia Cities Foundation – a subsidiary of the Georgia Municipal Association – offers an unparalleled opportunity to see the seeds…
In Thomasville these days, you can hardly turn around without running into a newly arrived Florida refugee. Not only are their numbers growing, several have brought their businesses and employees along with them. This story is repeating itself all across…
The game’s afoot: It isn’t often that high school-age business developers flock to Atlanta for a conference designed to open the doors to entrepreneurship, but that’s just what happened last spring when the Game Development eXchange (GDX) opened its doors…
When the Jekyll Island Authority (JIA) announced last year that it had formed a partnership with Linger Longer Commun-ities, a Georgia resort developer, to revitalize the island’s aging infrastructure and tourist attractions, a cacophony of protests arose. From public meetings…
Two years ago when a ribbon cutting ceremony opened the sales office for Brunswick’s Liberty Harbor, a $1 billion residential and retail development at the northern end of Glynn County’s magnificent Sidney Lanier Bridge, the site became an object of…
Bee Malady: Some 165 billion members of Georgia’s most critical workforce are without badly needed healthcare and their numbers are diminishing. This is the estimated number of bees in Georgia’s 100 or so commercial colonies who, every year, work their…
There’s only one place in the state where you can have a wedding ceremony conducted in the presence of Georgia golfing legend Bobby Jones and Gone With The Wind author Margaret Mitchell – Atlanta’s Oakland Cemetery. A cemetery wedding may…
With a pelting rain falling from a sky the color of oatmeal, it wasn’t exactly a chamber of commerce day for announcing the arrival of 134 new jobs brought to Albany by the Senior Life Insurance Company at its new…
Empowerment In Crisp: At first, it seemed the hotels, fast food restaurants and travel centers springing up along Exit 99 on Interstate 75 in rural Crisp County were just another step in the evolution of highway development. But the 400…
Information age: Central Georgia Technical College President Dr. Ronald Natale, left, and Jackie Turner, head of the school’s Computer Information Systems program
City boosters have long promoted Savannah’s image as the romantic city by the sea, a colonial village of mossy oaks and fragrant magnolias that beckons visitors – and their dollars. But Savannah was carved out of marsh and swamp almost…
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