Category: Meeting Announcements

Roundtable meeting noon, Thursday, October 19th, at the Capital City Club downtown.

Our speaker is Mike Egan, Senior Vice President of AMB Group, the holding company for the Atlanta Falcons and Atlanta United. Mike provides executive oversight for the development and construction of the Mercedes-Benz Stadium. He will speak on the construction process and the work streams that operate the stadium.

Prior to joining AMB Group, Mike was a partner at King and Spalding, serving as primary outside counsel to Arthur Blank. In his 25-year career with K&S, Mike represented GE, Home Depot, Sprint, UPS and other leading companies.

Mike received his J.D., cum laude, from Harvard Law School in 1982 and clerked for former Chief Judge Elbert P. Tuttle on the U.S. Court of Appeals, Eleventh Circuit. He is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill.

The new stadium is an architectural and engineering wonder. Architectural Digest reports that Mercedes-Benz is “one of the most beautifully designed stadiums on the planet”. The stadium will host the college football final this January, the Superbowl in 2019, and the Final Four basketball games in 2020. Atlanta is a leading contender for hosting the World Cup soccer championships in 2026.

At the May 18th meeting, we’re honored to have as speakers Tread Davis and John Orr of the Atlanta Regional Commission. They will discuss the Commission’s recently-adopted Walk, Bike, Thrive! plan for Regional Trails, a network of hiking and biking trails extending outward from the Beltline and covering the entire Atlanta Region. The implementation of the Plan is on a fast track and the basic framework should be in place within the next five years.

Tread and John will report on the plans, discuss recent encouraging developments, and obtain members’ thoughts on priorities and ways to improve the Plan.

John Orr is the Manager of the ARC’s Transportation Access and Mobility Division. Before joining the ARC in 1999, he was a senior planner for the Athens-Clarke County planning department. John has an MS in Planning from the University of Tennessee and a BA in Business and Public Administration from the University of Virginia.

Tread Davis is a long-time Roundtable member, Senior Counsel of Dentons, and a long-time member of the Board of ARC. He heads an ARC task force which proposed a system of trails for our Region, and the proposal was unanimously approved and adopted by the ARC Board last month.

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.

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

We’re pleased to have as speaker Alicia Philipp, President of the Community Foundation for Greater Atlanta.  The Foundation donates $100 million annually, making it one of the largest service organizations in the Southeast.  Knowledgeable observers say that this foundation is changing the philanthropic landscape in metro Atlanta.

Ms. Philipp has led the foundation for almost 40 years.  Under her leadership, the Community Foundation has grown from $7 million in 1977 to more than $920 million.  She was named to Georgia Trend’s “100 Most Influential Georgians” list, one of the “100 Most Influential Atlantans” by the Atlanta Business Chronicle, the ninth most powerful Atlantan by Atlanta magazine and one of 175 “Emory History Makers” by Emory University.

She explains “What is the Community Foundation?” in the video at http://metroatlantaceo.com/video/2016/09/alicia-philipp-community-foundation-greater-atlanta/.

Ms. Philipp received a bachelor’s degree from Emory University and her MBA from Georgia State University. She lives in Decatur and has two adult children, both of whom live in Europe.

We look forward to seeing you on the 20th.

The next meeting of the Roundtable is at noon Thursday, September 15th, at the Capital City Club downtown. RSVP whether you plan to attend.

We’re pleased to have as our speaker Sheffield Hale, CEO of the Atlanta History Center (and former Roundtable member). In his four-year tenure at the Center, he has initiated major changes. “Sheffield is creative in constantly pushing it forward. He’s not satisfied with the status quo.” says Sam Massell.

Among many projects at the Center, Mr. Hale will oversee the relocation and restoration of the 15,000 square-foot Cyclorama painting to a new building on the grounds of the Center.

Prior to joining the Atlanta History Center, Mr. Hale served as Chief Counsel of the American Cancer Society, and was a Partner practicing corporate law in the firm of Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton LLP.

Mr. Hale serves as a Trustee of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, Robert W. Woodruff Library of Atlanta University Center, Fox Theatre, Inc., University of Georgia Press, and the Georgia Humanities Council. He is a Past Chair of the Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation, the Atlanta History Center, St. Jude’s Recovery Center, Inc., and the State of Georgia’s Judicial Nominating Commission.

Mr. Hale received his B.A. in History from the University of Georgia summa cum laude in 1982, and received his J.D. in 1985 from the University of Virginia School of Law. He is a member of the American Law Institute.