Blog

The May meeting of the Roundtable is at noon, Thursday the 19th, at the downtown Capital City Club. 

Our speaker is Donna Hyland, CEO of Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta.  For the last 32 years, Hyland has helped shape the delivery of health care to children in Georgia and beyond. First as Chief Financial Officer, then Chief Operating Officer and now as CEO, she has overseen monumental growth and achievement at Children’s.  

Children’s is consistently ranked as a top pediatric hospital by U.S. News & World Report and one of Fortune magazine’s “100 Best Companies to Work For.” 

Children’s “Future of Pediatric Care” 70-acre campus is scheduled for completion in 2025.  The $2.5B project is one of the largest construction projects in the history of Atlanta.  

The April meeting of the Roundtable is at noon, Thursday the 21st, at the downtown Capital City Club. 

Our speakers are Michelle Jackson and Greg Singer.  Their theme is “deglobalization”, including the potential long-term impacts of the Ukraine War and a review of the economic outlook.

Roundtable member Michelle Jackson is Senior Vice President and Private Wealth Advisor at Capital Group Private Client Services.  Prior to joining Capital Group in 2019, Michelle was an Executive Director and Regional Sales Manager at Morgan Stanley, a Managing Associate at John Hancock and a Financial Advisor at Prudential Securities. Michelle received her BBA from the University of Miami and has earned the CFP, CPWA and CIMA designations. 

Greg Singer is a Senior Vice President and Investment Director for Capital Group Private Client Services. Before joining the firm in 2012, he spent seven years at Bernstein Global Wealth Management, where he was a senior managing director and head of the Wealth Management Group. He has an MBA in finance from Northwestern University, along with a BS in finance and BAS in computer science from the University of Pennsylvania. 

The March meeting of the Roundtable is at noon, Thursday the 17th, at the downtown Capital City Club. 

We’re pleased to have as speaker Dr. Catherine Lewis, Assistant Vice President of Museums, Archives & Rare Books; Director of the Museum of History and Holocaust Education; and Professor of History at Kennesaw State University. Dr. Lewis is the author, co-editor, or co-author of fifteen books, including Bobby Jones and the Quest for the Grand Slam and Don’t Ask What I Shot: How Eisenhower’s Love of Golf Helped Shape 1950s America. She is also Capital City Club’s historian.   

Dr. Lewis has served as the Bobby Jones curator since 1997 and will talk about golf in the state of Georgia and the legacy of Bobby Jones. She will be available to answer audience questions. She has been a museum director and university administrator since 2003, faculty member since 1997, and is a thought-leader and sought-after public speaker on leadership, sport, museums, and history. She holds degrees from Emory University and the University of Iowa and has curated more than 40 exhibitions for a range of clients, including Augusta National Golf Club. 

A note from Dr. Lewis: March 17th is Bobby Jones’ birthday.

The February meeting is at noon, Thursday, February 17th, at the Capital City Club downtown. 

 Our speaker is Dr. Brian Blake, the new president of Georgia State University. Prior to joining Georgia State, he was Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost at George Washington University.

Dr. Blake’s undergraduate degree is from Georgia Tech in electrical engineering. His PhD is in information and software engineering from George Mason University. Blake worked as an engineer with General Electric, Lockheed Martin, and the MITRE Corporation before joining Georgetown University as a professor of computer science. He has authored or co-authored more than 200 journal articles and refereed conference/workshop papers.

Blake grew up in Savannah and attended Benedictine Military Academy. He and his wife, Bridget, have two sons, Brendan and Bryce.

About Georgia State University:U.S. News and World Report ranks GSU as the second most innovative university in the nation. GSU has the largest student enrollment in the state (above 50,000) and has gained national recognition for having closed the achievement gap across socio-economic and racial divides. GSU’s massive building program has transformed a deteriorating quadrant of Atlanta.

The January meeting of the Roundtable is at noon Thursday the 20th at the downtown Capital City Club. RSVP whether you plan to attend.

Our speaker is Georgia Tech president Ángel Cabrera. Dr. Cabrera is the first native of Spain to serve as president of an American university. He holds BS and MS degrees in computer and electrical engineering from Universidad Politécnica de Madrid. Cabrera came to Georgia Tech in 1990 as a Fullbright Scholar and earned his PhD in cognitive psychology.

Cabrera has been named a “Young Global Leader” by the World Economic Forum, a “Star of Europe” by Bloomberg Businessweek, and a “Henry Crown Fellow” by the Aspen Institute. He serves on the boards of the Atlanta Committee for Progress, the Bankinter Innovation Foundation, the Metro Atlanta Chamber, and the Harvard College Visiting Committee.

Dr. Cabrera is married to management scholar and Georgia Tech classmate, Elizabeth. Their son Alex is a recent Georgia Tech graduate and their daughter Emilia is a senior at Harvard.

The November meeting of the Roundtable is at noon on Thursday the 18th at the downtown Capital City Club, 7 John Portman Blvd.

Lawrence Shaw, co-founder of Winshaw Global, will lead a roundtable discussion on entrepreneurship.  Lawrence will interview two native Atlantans, Jason Pritchett and Nick Purdy.  The program will take us through the highs and the lows of the entrepreneurial journey.

Jason Pritchett is the Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Sport-Travel College. His company is the “Official Team Travel Provider” for 30 NCAA Athletic programs.  Nick Purdy is the co-founder of Wild Heaven Beer, with two brewery and taproom locations in metro Atlanta, the original one in Avondale Estates and the newest overlooking the Westside Trail of the Atlanta Beltline.  

The October meeting of the Roundtable is at noon on Thursday the 21st at the downtown Capital City Club.  RSVP to me whether you plan to attend. And remember to pay your Dues.

We’re pleased to have as speaker, Dan Corso, President of the Atlanta Sports Council. The Council’s mission is to facilitate the growth of sports in metro Atlanta by serving as a recruiter for major sporting events. The council’s recent successes include Super Bowl LIII and the College Football Playoff National Championship.

Dan will tell us about the council’s mission and work towards hosting World Cup soccer matches in 2026. World Cup events in Atlanta could have a larger economic impact than Super Bowl LIII in 2019.

The September meeting of the Roundtable is at noon on Thursday the 16th at the downtown Capital City Club.  You must RSVP in order to attend.

We have acceptances from four of the major candidates for mayor of Atlanta: Felicia Moore, Andre Dickens, Sharon Gay and Antonio Brown. We’ll have one candidate at each table. At 12:45, each candidate will have 10 minutes for a presentation and/or Q&A.

Don’t miss this opportunity to meet the candidates up close and personal.

The June Roundtable meeting is online at noon on Thursday the 18th.

Our speaker is Atlanta-based photographer Steven Thackston, author of Flowers in a Thorn Tree: On the Road with the Warriors for Peace and Wildlife.  In his book, Thackston follows the wildlife, the people sworn to protect it and the people of northern Kenya. He rides with the commandos of the Northern Rangelands Trust in Kenya, who do much more than combat poachers in the wildlife reservation—they operate within communities to support peace and local economies.  

Steven Thackston is a photographer and multi-media artist. His work has been published by The Smithsonian, The New York Times, Time Magazine, CNN, Rolling Stone, and The Wall Street Journal.  Steven’s focus is observing and documenting human behavior, culture and, in some cases, how humans affect animal cultures and the environment.