People

First as a Georgia Tech quarterback, then as one of Atlanta's top real estate developers, Kim King earned a reputation as one who played with a vengeance. He used every bit of his toughness to fight back when disaster struck.

Shirley Franklin, the first black female chief executive of any major American city, has put Atlanta back on track. The business community is embracing her as it has no other mayor since Ivan Allen, Jr. in the '60s.

Meet the winners of the first Excellence In Public Service Awards, presented by the Carl Vinson Institute of Government at the University of Georgia in partnership with Georgia Trend. The awards honor five outstanding government professionals at the state and local levels: Dr. Kenneth Breeden, head of Georgia's Department of Technical and Adult Education; Peggy Merriss, Decatur City Manager; Jim Burgess, Social Circle Mayor; Charlotte Nash, Gwinnett County Administrator; and Stephen Gooch, Lumpkin County Commissioner.

Our 2003 roster of Georgia's young superstars, the seventh such list we have published, includes representatives from business, government, academia and the arts. This year's 40 Under 40 include an award-winning poet, a hospital administrator, an environmentalist, the state's youngest legislator, the man responsible for processing all student grant and loan disbursements in the United States, a pair of urban pioneers and a genuine hero.

Vince Dooley has made UGA athletics a force to be reckoned with on the field, on the ledger sheets and in the halls of national power.

Home Depot co-founder Arthur Blank has launched a new high-profile career of civic involvement, as Falcons' owner, Chamber of Commerce chairman and philanthropist. For the second time in three years, he is Georgia's top CEO.

Georgia's new Republican governor talks about growing up on a family farm, becoming a veterinarian and starting a successful business -- and how those experiences are helping shape his administration.

Synovus CEO Jim Blanchard avoids the spotlight, but he's a major force in Georgia business and civic life.

Plant closings and layoffs send unemployed workers to Georgia's labor commissioner for help.

This year's list of up and coming young Georgians draws from business, government, education, academia, medicine, the arts, the nonprofit sector and the judiciary. The Class of 2002, selected by the editors of Georgia Trend, and profiled by Paige Bowers, Jerry Grillo and Kenna Simmons, are entrepreneurs, innovators, healers, painters, lawyers and public servants. The roster includes six elected officials, four doctors, two chefs, a science teacher, a veterinarian and a quarterback.