Author: pmiller

At our April 20th meeting, our resident, world-renown BBQ expert Bob Herndon will have BBQ samples from around Atlanta. After our traditional Capital City Club meal, you will taste and judge the BBQ. The kitchen staff and catering staff will also participate.

The BBQ is for tasting only—it does not replace the Capital City Club fare. We’ll be judging three samples of pulled pork. Tasting and judging procedures of the Kansas CIty BBQ Society will be in effect. Bob will instruct us on judging for taste, appearance, and texture. His presentation will include an assessment of the state of BBQ in Georgia and its wider potential to bring together a deeply-divided nation.

Bob Herndon is president of the Atlanta BBQ Club and has run the popular Atlanta BBQ Festival for the last eight years. Bob has appeared on “Kitchen Nightmares with Gordon Ramsey”, “BBQ Pitmasters” and the Emmy award-winning GPB “The BBQ Show”. He is a certified BBQ judge in the Kansas City BBQ Society, the Memphis BBQ Network, and the International BBQ Association. He has been a guest judge at international festivals in Sweden and Germany.

Bob graduated from Emory University and is retired from the Decatur City Schools system His daughter, also an Emory graduate, is currently a student at Columbia University. He has a son at Georgia Tech.

At our March 16h meeting, we’re honored to have as speaker, Margaret “Marjy” Stagmeier, a founding partner of TriStar Investments. Ms. Stagmeier has received considerable attention for her innovations in providing and managing affordable housing. A recent AJC article describes her concept of caring capitalism that transforms communities and still makes a profit for investors.

Her topic will be “Stabilizing Failing Schools Through Housing”.

Ms. Stagmeier has over 25 years of experience providing asset management and fund development for European and U.S. high net-worth individuals and institutions. She is the author of the book Real Estate Asset Management: Executive Strategies for Profit-Making, a landmark book in its third printing.

Ms. Stagmeier has Bachelor of Science degrees in Accounting and Finance from Georgia State University. She is a Distinguished Toastmaster, past board member of the Atlanta Commercial Board of Realtors, and serves on the board of the Atlanta Food Bank. She lives in Midtown with her husband, John.

We’re honored to have as speakers, Louise Blais, Consul General of the Canadian Consulate, and Javier Díaz de León, Consul General of the Mexican Consulate. The Consuls General will conduct a panel discussion on trade and NAFTA.

Ms. Louise Blais has served abroad as Counsellor at the Embassy in Washington and Tokyo and as Minister-Counsellor for Political Affairs at the Embassy in Paris. In Ottawa, she has held the position of Director of the Public Diplomacy Division and Executive Director of the Rotational Staff Division before being appointed Consul General of Canada in Atlanta. She holds a B.A. from McGill University in Montreal.

Sr. Javier Díaz de León has served 25 years in the Mexican Foreign Service and currently holds the rank of Minister. He has held consulate positions in San Diego, New York and Raleigh, NC, where he was Consul General. In 2016, he was appointed by President Enrique Peña Nieto as Consul General for Atlanta. His undergraduate degree is from Universidad Iberoamericana in Mexico City and he holds a Masters in International Conflict Analysis from the University of Kent in England.

The next meeting of the Roundtable is at noon Thursday, January 19th, at the Capital City Club downtown. RSVP whether you plan to attend.

We’re honored to have as speaker Ambassador Mary Ann Peters, CEO of the Carter Center. Before taking over the Carter Center responsibilities in 2014, she was provost of the U.S. Naval War College and dean of academics at the College of International and Security Studies at the George C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany.

Ambassador Peters spent more than 30 years as a career diplomat with the U.S. Department of State. From 2000 to 2003, she was U.S. Ambassador to Bangladesh, leading the mission’s efforts in support of the war on terrorism and other key U.S. foreign policy goals. She received a Presidential Meritorious Service Award in 2003 for her work there.

Ambassador Peters holds a Bachelor of Arts from Santa Clara University and a master’s degree in International Studies from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. Her formal education also included courses at the Institut d’Etudes Politiques in Paris.