Fuel In The Pines
It was like a religious conversion for Jill Stuckey, or maybe the Big Bang, a tree falling in the woods hundreds of miles away, heard and felt. About two years ago she was called to Gov. Sonny Perdue’s office for…
Author: Jerry Grillo
Building Green
Peter Michelson has been walking the green line for about 30 years, since he was a kid in Boston going door-to-door for Greenpeace, campaigning to stop the bludgeoning of baby seals in Canada. He’s a fourth-generation contractor, an environmentalist with…
Heat And Light
Business incubators are like almost any other hatchery – the most important component isn’t the physical space. It’s the heat that you cook with. “Bricks and mortar are important, but you can get a building anywhere,” says Don Betts, program…
A New Direction For Georgia’s DOT
Gena Abraham wasn’t like the other little girls. Growing up in a house filled with her older sisters’ dolls, she was more likely to sit on the floor playing project manager, building make-believe homes and cities, shaping her vocational infrastructure.…
The Science Of Business
Robert Sumichrast is grounded in a reality where physics, philosophy and business converge. He’s an academic, a scientist interested in how things work in the world, and humanity’s place in it. And he thinks he can guide the Terry College…
Georgia’s Power Women
A few years before she became governor of Texas, Ann Richards gave the keynote address at the 1988 Democratic National Convention in Atlanta. She began by wryly noting the historic scarcity of women at the podium. “But if you give…
2008 Hall Of Fame: Lasting Influence
Places in Georgia Trend’s Most Influential Georgians Hall of Fame are reserved for individuals whose achievements and accomplishments ensure them a permanent place on any roster of prominent and powerful Georgians. The 2008 honorees are baseball legend Hank Aaron, former…
2008 Most Influential Georgians
There is no such thing as a perfect 10. What would be the point? “Ring the bells that still can ring, forget your perfect offering. There is a crack in everything – that’s how the light gets in,” writes Leonard…
100 Most Influential Georgians
Michael Adams President University of Georgia Athens Age: 59 UGA continues to be recognized as one of the nation’s best business and public research universities. Adams’ efforts to improve student quality are reflected in the growing campus. Total construction initiated…
Notable Georgians
Gena Abraham, Commissioner, Georgia Department of Transportation Ray Anderson, Founder/Chairman, Interface, Inc. Charles Bannister, Chairman, Gwinnett County Board of Commissioners Robert Benham, Justice, Georgia Supreme Court Sally Bethea, Executive Director, Upper Chattahoochee Riverkeeper Neal Boortz, talk show host, WSB Radio…
A Watershead Moment
There is as much water today as there was 4 million years ago, when the human population could be measured with a show of hands. Since then, in spite of difficulties that may have sent a lesser species scurrying for…
The Long Haul
Andy Landers needed to be anywhere else that winter night of 1979. He had to put some miles between himself and a gut-wrenching, season-ending loss by his Roane State women’s basketball team. So he started driving south, took mountain back…
A Literary Triple Crown
It is 1941 in the segregated South, and a young African-American journalist hops off a bus one town before his destination. He is pursuing the inside skinny for a story about a recent lynching. It is dangerous undercover work. So…
Moving The Masses: Running On Empty
When Patricia Williams left Washington, DC, she chose Atlanta as her next hometown for two reasons: the climate and MARTA. “I wanted to live in a warmer place – who needs six feet of snow? And I wanted a mass…
Transportation Gridlock: Can Atlanta’s Traffic Be Fixed?
The typical Atlanta commuter spends a couple of hours each weekday tediously crawling the brittle asphalt gauntlet between home and livelihood, alone in his car, which becomes a gas chamber on wheels in the creeping sludge of traffic that is…
Lights, Camera, Kudzu
It’s been more than 30 years since Deliverance jump-started Georgia’s film industry, and now movies, TV, commercials and videos have a $450-million impact on the state’s economy. But the competition is fierce, especially from other Southern states ready for their close-ups.
Healing Hearts
Angioplasty, once performed only at hospitals with onsite cardiac surgery capabilities, is now available at 10 smaller community institutions in Georgia, thanks to a ground-breaking study.
How Sweet The Sound
Hometown music festivals around the state draw legions of fans who come with lawn chairs to sit in and cash to spend. The celebrations combine culture, commerce and civic pride. There’s often a charitable cause and always a good time.
Are You Ready For Some Football?
Both Georgia State and Kennesaw State are considering new football programs – GSU has recruited Dan Reeves to lead its effort. Students, alumni, administrators and fans are enthusiastic, but in the end, it will all come down to money.
New Look For The Old Game
A roster of new Georgia golf courses, many serving as centerpieces for residential developments, is defying a national trend. But golfers’ demands for year-round course perfection are increasing the cost of playing the sport and, some say, taxing the environment.
All The Right Mooves
John is a mad for free fast food enlightenment, desperate to “Eat Mor Chikin,” so he places regular phone calls to the executive offices of Chick-fil-A and greets the receptionist not with a “hello,” but a heartfelt “moo.” “Another one…
Water Worries
With Georgia’s rapid population growth threatening its water supply – Atlanta could be in trouble as early as 2030 – conservation is on everyone’s mind. Some are betting the time is right for desalination projects to turn seawater into drinking water.
Going Public
Georgia’s 262 semi-private, daily-fee and municipal golf courses give golfers a wide range of options. The numbers reflect the golfing boom of the last 20 years and the changing landscape of the game itself.
Added Incentive
When a new industry – or an expanding one – needs a trained workforce, Georgia’s technical colleges are there to help. The system’s Quick Start Program is a not-so-secret weapon in the state’s economic development arsenal.
Last Aid
Nearly all of us will encounter severe illness at the end of our lives. As the population ages and costs escalate, health-care providers and patients will have to look at end-of-life care in new ways. And it starts with the conversation nobody wants to have.
Construction Choreography: Making The Pieces Fit
More and more nonprofits are turning to program managers to oversee construction budgets, handle zoning issues, keep building projects on schedule and generally serve as owner’s advocate.
True Believers
Three Georgia advocates are fighting the good fight for the environment, for consumers and for children with special needs.
Executive Education: Career Boost
Georgia’s MBA programs – several ranking among the nation’s finest – are making use of the latest technology to appeal to the techie crowd, as engineers and scientists find they need some business credentials to power their careers.
2007 Most Influential Georgians
There is an old Korean proverb that takes a stab at power, influence and the distinction between the two: “Power lasts 10 years; influence not more than a hundred.” Our ninth edition of the 100 Most Influential Georgians puts the spotlight on individuals whose influence has been tested over time, as well as some who have only recently ascended to positions of great power.
Georgia’s Energy Future
The University of Georgia is assembling a research team to solve the riddles of micro-algae, a potentially self-sustaining, renewable and clean energy source.
Biotech: The Big Picture
With a burgeoning research sector triangulated on Atlanta, Athens and Augusta, Georgia is a growing presence among the nation's leading biobusiness communities - and poised to climb into the top five.
Energy In Georgia, Part III: Alternative Energy
With a burgeoning research sector triangulated on Atlanta, Athens and Augusta, Georgia is a growing presence among the nation's leading biobusiness communities - and poised to climb into the top five.
Energy In Georgia Part II: Powering The State
Increased governmental incentives, rising natural gas prices and concern over global warming are driving the nuclear revival.
Energy In Georgia, Part I: Natural Gas Supply And Demand
Georgia's energy consumption is outpacing our population growth. This first installment of a three-part series looks at the realities of natural gas supply and demand, including AGL Resources' push for an instrastate pipeline.
General Rodeheaver: A True Leader
As commander of the Georgia Army National Guard's 48th Brigade Combat Team, Brigadier General Stewart Rodeheaver put the community building tactics he honed in economic development with Georgia Power to work for the people of Iraq
The Olympic Legacy
Ten summers after the 1996 Games delivered the world to Atlanta, the city's economy, its population, its landscape and its image are changed forever. But the man who brought the Olympics here says it was always about sports and athletic competition.
Carpet Maker To The World
Georgia's largest manufacturing industry supplies nearly 45 percent of the world's carpet, employs 45,000 workers and has a payroll that tops $4 billion annually. And it all started with tufted bedspreads sold along the sides of mountain roads.
The Play’s The Thing
Across the state, dozens of small theatre groups entertain audiences, enrich their communities and help a bevy of citizen-actors find their inner Hamlet.
Inside The Atlanta Fed
Georgia played a key role in establishing the cou ntry's central banking system, and the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta is one of a dozen regional banks that helps set national monetary policy. It's much more of a grassroots operation than you might think.
Unhealthy State
Atlanta is the public health capital of the world, home to the CDC and a long list of agencies and institutions that focus on health care. So why are 42 other states healthier than Georgia - and why do officials think things can improve? Plus, Public Health Classroom.
2006 Most Respected Business Leader: Corporate Citizen
A.D. "Pete" Correll's civic and charitable endeavors have long embodied and enhanced his company's reputation. Now he's leaving the corporate world, looking ahead to the next phase of his life and the family foundation he and his wife are creating.
Connecting The Dots
Georgia's continuing growth means a bigger role for the civil engineers who plan and build highways, bridges, airports, buildings, mass transit systems and entire communities.
Fannin County: Reinventing The Economy
Louis Schubert says Atlanta traffic was driving him nuts. "If you weren't home by quarter to five, you were in serious trouble," says Schubert, who lived with his wife Sandy off Chamblee-Dunwoody Road near I-285. "We'd get home and hibernate while the traffic happened."
Fannin County: Voices From The Past
Thirty years ago they hung children's art on clothesline strung between trees in Blue Ridge's city park and called it Arts in the Park.
Fannin County At-A-Glance
Fast facts about Fannin County: population, unemployment rate, top employers.
Georgia County Excellence Awards
Georgia is the 24th biggest state in the union but it has the second highest number of counties. That's 159 local governments crammed into a tight space, all of them scrambling to provide services for their citizens, accentuating their limited capacities for revenue generation, competing with one another for business, or joining forces to maximize their collective resources.
Dawsonville/Dawson County: Racing Toward Prosperity
Internal combustion has been the definitive way of life in Dawson County for more than half a century.
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