north fulton business journal 10/14

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NFBJNorth Fulton Business Journal

n VOL 1. ISSUE 4 WWW.NORTHFULTONBIZ.COM OCTOBER 2014

Culinary tours come to Roswell

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Peak 10 opens in Alpharetta

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WHAT’S INSIDEINDUSTRY FOCUS:

MEDICAL 02

REAL FIX OPENS ON CANTON

STREET 04

NORTH FULTON WOMEN IN

BUSINESS PROFILE 06

SCENE: NATURE CENTER

ECO CHALLENGE 08

SCENE: GNFCC 09

BUSINESS ADVANTAGE 12

THE DIGITAL WALLET

REVOLUTION 13

VETERAN JOBLESSNESS 14

EGGS & ENTERPRISE 15

Published By

Staff / Samantha M. ShalFrom left, U.S. Sen. Johnny Isakson, R-Marietta, and moderator Richard Warner listen as retired Army Gen. George Casey discusses the global economy at a U.S. Global Leadership Coalition luncheon.

ECONOMIC IMPACTIsakson: Georgia’s economy linked to global engagement

5 THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW about Avalon

By Bobby [email protected]

U.S. Sen. Johnny Isakson, R-Marietta, said the state’s economic and job creation ambitions are correlated to its level of global engagement.

Isakon’s remarks came last month during the America’s Global Leadership: Impact on Georgia panel/luncheon at the Grand Hyatt Atlanta hotel in Buckhead.

“You’ll hear people complain about foreign assistance, saying we’re sending too much money overseas,” said Isakson. “It’s not 1 percent of our budget; it’s about nine-tenths of 1 percent of our budget.

“Maybe there are a lot of good reasons why that money is going [where it’s going]. … A lot of people complain about the $3.5 billion going to Israel, but that’s a small price to pay for an ally in a very dangerous part of the world.”

The state is home to some of the largest global brands. Meanwhile, local manufacturers are exporting billions of dollars in products overseas annually, the sitting senator noted.

“I have seen the impact of America’s

investments in global development can make during my own travels in Africa,” Isakson said. “And I’m proud these investments save the lives of thousands around the world, while also creating jobs here at home.”

Retired Army Gen. George Casey joined Isakson for the aforementioned panel discussion. “One of the major lessons we’ve learned since [the terrorist attacks on] 9/11 is that the threats we face today won’t be resolved by military means alone,” Casey said. “Non-military tools like development and diplomacy are also vital to our success, and they can be far less costly in dollars and lives.”

Isakson referenced the country’s policy of coalition-building while exercising “soft power” — a sharp contrast to the current aggression demonstrated by forces representing the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria. He called America’s military engagement with ISIS the ultimate war between good and evil.

“We will destroy ISIS … but [afterward] show it the same peace we gave the Japanese, Germans and Koreans,” said Isakson.

The flourishing of the country’s non-conflict efforts around the globe were repeatedly referenced throughout the day.

By Rachel [email protected]

The wait is finally over. Phase I of Avalon will be opening to

the public Oct. 30 — a decade after the project was originally proposed to the city of Alpharetta under the name Prospect Park and under the ownership of Thomas Enterprises.

Late in 2009, Stan Thomas filed Chapter 11 on the project and it was eventually seized by the bank.

But two years later, the property was bought by Atlantic Station developers North American Properties Atlanta, re-named Avalon and set on a path to completion.

From the half-built parking deck it was when acquired by North American Properties to a $600 million, 86-acre development with 2.4 million square feet of retail, office and residential space, Avalon has been one of the most widely-anticipated projects in north Fulton in the past decade.

Here are five things you should know about the community:

1. Grand OpeningAvalon’s opening will kick off with

four days of events, including music, family entertainment, chef demonstrations, a performance by American Idol alum Kellie Pickler and more to introduce the collection of shops and restaurants. The fun begins Thursday, Oct. 30 at 9 a.m. with the opening ceremonies. From noon to 6 p.m., local singers and songwriters will entertain guests, while local chefs give demonstrations from 1 to 4 p.m.

The next day, which is Halloween, will feature Mommies and Strollers store-to-store trick-or-treating from 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. For adults, a Trick-or-Drink event will take place from 5 to 7 p.m., followed by a performance from Von Grey, indie-rockers from Milton, at 8.

Saturday, Nov. 1 will include a fall festival from noon to 4 p.m., a Georgia/

See AVALON, Page 3

I N D U S T R Y F O C U S : M E D I C A L

OCTOBER 2014/NORTH FULTON BUSINESS JOURNAL2

From Staff Reports

Marilyn Margolis, RN, vice president of operations and chief nursing officer at Emory Johns Creek Hospital, has been named interim CEO of the hospital.

This comes after former Emory Johns Creek CEO Craig McCoy was appointed CEO of Emory Saint Joseph’s Hospital, effective

Sept. 1. Margolis has held the positions of VP of operations and CNO at Emory Johns Creek Hospital since 2011.

Prior to that, she served in various positions at Emory including director of nursing for Emory Healthcare’s Emergency Services, director of nursing for neurosciences at Emory University Hospital and director of nursing operations at Emory University Hospital.

Margolis began her career at Emory in 1982 and has spent more than 30 years caring for patients, teaching students and developing innovative patient safety models and nurse retention models.

While Margolis assumes her interim CEO role, Heather Redrick, RN, director of the hospital ICU and observation unit, will serve as interim chief nursing officer.

Redrick will oversee nursing operations in the catheterization lab, emergency department and medical and surgical floors, among other duties. “I am honored and excited to serve as interim CEO of Emory Johns Creek Hospital,” said Margolis.

“Our goal is to make the hospital run smoothly and seamlessly during this transition time.”

Margolis named interim CEO of Emory Johns Creek

Pharmaceutical research company moves to areaBy James [email protected]

Earlier this month, the Atlanta Institute for Medicine & Research relocated to Alpharetta. To coincide with the move, the clinical research organization has renamed itself the Institute for Advanced Medical Research.

“What we decided to do was kind of rebrand ourselves in a way that people would have a better understanding of who we were and what we did,” said founder and principal investigator Dr. Angelo Sambunaris.

“And we wanted to do that in the suburbs, where there is this need for better and more advanced health care and outcomes research than just standard medical practice.”

Founded in 1998, the institute

focuses on neurological research, including work in Alzheimer’s disease, anxiety, depression and Post traumatic stress disorder.

“Even though it’s considered pharmaceutical research, we’re beyond the safety and experimental and testing phases,” Sambunaris said.

“We offer research-level diagnostic evaluation and sometimes, access today to medications that might not be on the market for a number of years.”

Before starting the organization, Sambunaris served as an associate director of clinical research for Bayer Pharmaceuticals and a clinical research fellow for the National Institute of Mental Health.

Originally based in Roswell, the institute relocated to Sandy

Springs in 2001. The corridor’s aging population, Sambunaris said, was a major reason for the organization’s recent migration northward.

“That’s where our population of patients resided and we wanted to make it easier for them if they wanted to participate in a study,”

he said. “We started out in Roswell, so

why don’t we move back into that area, especially now that we’re doing the work in Alzheimer’s?”

Located at 5895 Windward Pkwy., the instituteIAMR plans on holding open-house meetings and a ribbon-cutting ceremony

next month. Sambunaris said he is

looking for individuals with clinical and research experience to fill positions at the recently opened facility. Internships, he said, are also offered for area college students.

Beyond the institute’s Alzheimer’s research, Sambunaris said it is studying responses to anti-depressants.

“We’re doing a very

interesting study looking at Botox injections as a possible treatment for depression,” he said.

“The program we’re running now is women-only, but if it works, they’re planning on expanding future studies to do men and women.”

Among the institutes previous partners, he said, were Harvard University, Pfizer and Novartis.

The relocation to the corridor, Sambunaris said, is also a boon to potential patients.

“We’re going to where the patients are as opposed to making them come to difficult-to-reach areas,” he said.

“We now have access and we can offer services to a much larger group of potential volunteers, while at the same time, making it easier for them to access the clinic.”

“

”-Dr. Angelo Sambunaris

We started out in Roswell, so why don’t we move back into that area, especially now that we’re doing the work in Alzheimer’s.

QSpex announces optical lens serviceFrom Staff Reports

Optical technology company QSpex Technologies announced the launch of a new prescription eyewear service model that transforms lens production and delivery so that customers will receive finished premium eyewear in a fraction of the time compared to conventional industry methods.

To deliver prescription eyewear within hours - not days or weeks - company has established a first-of-its-kind, community based lens production and service center that provides faster turnaround times and personalized customer support.

Through these new QSpex Optical Service Centers, customers will receive their finished eyewear on the same day they are ordered and have their custom eyewear personally delivered to wherever they choose via the company’s fleet of environmentally friendly, Mercedes Benz-produced, Smart Cars.

“The QSpex Optical Service Centers offer a complete range of state-of-the-art progressive and single vision lenses, utilizing a pioneering touch less transfer technology that provides a precise and unadulterated surface geometry,” said Brett Craig, the company’s President and CEO.

“The QSpex system,” added Dr. Kai Su, the company’s Founder and Chief Science Officer, “…integrates four t e c h n o l o g i c a l backbones to deliver a lens with little to no design variance. The first is no-polish mold making, the second is mold design confirmation, the third is precision injection-compression molding, and the fourth is pure design transfer.”

The new QSpex service model is designed to deliver improved service experience, technology advancements and enhanced profit potential to eye care providers, due to the manufacturing and supply chain efficiencies the company has achieved in lens and lens treatment production.

The company authorized eye care provider can offer their customers a distinct service advantage over conventional suppliers, including internet/web based eyewear providers, given the

personalized, same-day service to a location of choice.

“Our new model gives consumers a unique shopping experience without any compromises,” said Craig.

“That means our customers are receiving superior p r e s c r i p t i o n eyewear with same-day, personalized, anywhere delivery at reasonable prices,

with a ‘no questions asked’ guarantee.”With custom-matched, digitally

designed power curves, customers receive lenses with consistent and uncompromised quality.

The company’s embedded, fused treatment processes for anti-reflection, photo chromic and polarization technologies provide best-in-class performance and longevity.

Since Craig took the helm of company in January 2014, he has frequently remarked that the company was poised to become a disruptive force in the eyewear industry.

He and a new management team led the transformation by moving the company away from providing lens production machinery in the offices of eye care providers and to a new model in which the lenses are produced at small, community-based facilities and delivered by the company’s certified and licensed professionals to a customer’s designated location within hours

With this new process, customers order their eyewear at any authorized company eye care provider, who then places an order at a local company optical service center, which next produces and delivers the finished eyewear to wherever the customer chooses, all on the same day.

To date, scores of U.S. and international eye care providers have joined the company network, and the company will soon announce additional retail choices.

The first optical service center was launched in the Greater Atlanta market. Additional locations will be revealed over the coming month.

“We are bringing prescription eyewear into the present,” Craig said, “by disrupting a slow and traditional service model, just as FedEx did in the parcel space, and offering customers the finest product and service at a reasonable price.”

“

”-Brett Craig

We are bringing prescription eyewear into the present by disrupting a slow and traditional service model, just as FedEx did in the parcel space...

NORTH FULTON BUSINESS JOURNAL/OCTOBER 2014 3

N E W A N D N O T E W O R T H Y

Continued from Page 1AVALON

Florida football game viewing party at 3:30 p.m., Pickler’s performance at 8 and fireworks at 9:30. Things begin to wind down Sunday, Nov. 2 when lawn games are played in the plaza from noon to 6 p.m., while more chef demonstrations are hosted from 1 to 4 p.m.

The celebration wraps up with entertainment in the plaza with Joe Gransdens’ 16-Piece Big Band from 6 to 7:30 p.m.

2. Community Outreach

While Avalon’s primary focus is on all things up-scale, the development is also involved in giving back to the surrounding community.

Just last month, Avalon partnered with the Greater North Fulton Chamber of Commerce and Roswell United Methodist Church for a job fair, attended by more than 800 people.

On Nov. 2, The People’s Food Truck, a nonprofit food truck benefiting City of Refuge, will be at Avalon during the grand opening events.

Avalon will also host toy and food drives during the holiday season and weekly charity nights at the ice skating rink will benefit North Fulton Community Charities, City of Refuge, Manning Oaks Elementary and The Lionheart School.

Coming up in 2015, Avalon is hosting American Diabetes Association’s Step Out Walk.

Year-round, Avalon will donate the money thrown into its fountain to a different local charity each month.

3. Regal CinemasGetting in on the up-scale aspect of

Avalon, Regal Cinemas is opening one of its few luxury theaters in the country right

in the heart of the new community. Every seat at Regal Avalon will be a plush,king-size recliner, with a footrest and an electric control for multiple positions, and a table area for dining.

The menu will feature restaurant-quality food and drink selections as well as traditional cinema snacks. The Avalon lobby design includes a lounge where guests can relax before or after the movie or table seating for more room to hold appetizers, entrées, desserts and drinks.

There will also be a full bar in the lobby.

4. Georgia’s First Fiberhood

Georgia’s first fiberhood: One of the more anticipated features of Avalon is its status as Georgia’s first “fiberhood” — an ultra-high-speed fiber-to-the-premises broadband network.

Fiber connection speeds are more than 100 times faster than services currently available in the Atlanta region.

Hotwire, a leading provider of fiber optic telecommunications services, will offer 1 gigabit speeds to every resident, hotel guest, retail shop, restaurant and office worker at Avalon. This is part of the community’s effort to “future-proof” its operations, staying ahead of the technology curve.

5. Phase IIPhase II: Phase I is nearly complete and

ready to open, but Phase II is still very much in development and slated to open spring 2016. Avalon recently secured commitments from Lily Pulitzer, Brooks Brothers and Peek Boutique, who will be joined by 12 more retailers and three restaurants in the second phase.

This phase will also include 250,000 square foot of class A office building over retail, 276 luxury rental homes over retail, a full-service hotel and conference center and a boutique hotel over retail.

Phase II will be located on the east side of the property.


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Real Fix Pizzeria opens on Canton StreetBy James [email protected]

Forget a five-star rating from Zagat. The Real Fix Pizzeria Co-owner Hicham Azhari said his new restaurant recently received the ultimate rave review — from a 12-year-old chowing down on a Margherita pie.

“He said the food just wasn’t good,” Azhari recollected. “He said it was ‘stupid good.’”

The menu is loaded with unique offerings, ranging from the Get Crackin’ white pizza — with candied pistachios and Brussels sprouts — to the Hot Fix red pie, topped with capers, red onions and fennel sausage.

In addition to customizable fried pies, the restaurant also allows customers to build their own thin crust pies and load them with both traditional and exotic toppings.

But it is not just the ingredients that make the menu stand out, Azhari said — it is also how the food is prepared.

“It starts with our piazzolo,” he said.

The restaurant’s head chef, Giacomo Lazzano, was brought in from Palermo,

Italy. In the kitchen, he and Azhari communicate via a translator application on their phones.

“He definitely has a lot of experience, just from growing up and the way his family was structured,” said Lazzano’s wife, Megan Nones.

His father was a butcher and his brother was a baker. Lazzano spent much of his childhood at his grandmother’s trattoria in Sicily.

“He’s very passionate about working with genuine products,” Nones said. “He does very extensive research on how to evolve products without losing their traditional root, specifically in the yeast and dough.”

Procedurally, Azhari said the restaurant goes the extra mile to ensure a quality pie.

Their water is filtered five times, and instead of table salt, the establishment opts for Sicilian salt.

The eatery also uses a fork mixer instead of a standard dough mixer. “The bowl itself spins, so basically, it’s not hitting the dough,” Azhari said. “But it’s folding it, so the dough never gets hot or warm.”

The piazzolo, he added, was not the only Italian native in the building.

The restaurant is home to two brick ovens imported from Naples, Italy. Manufactured using ash from Mount Vesuvius, the twin units reach temperatures in excess of 900 degrees Fahrenheit.

“With the ovens that we have, there is no room for mistakes,” Azhari said. “The pizza cooks in 90 seconds … the second you turn around, if you don’t pay attention, it’s ruined.”

The 35-year-old restaurateur is no stranger to Canton Street. His business F&H Food Trading Group already has three other establishments — Little Alley Steak, the 1920 Tavern and the Salt Factory Pub — in the area.

As to what makes the recently opened 14 Elizabeth Way eatery different from his other restaurants, Azhari brought up its atmosphere.

“By doing this, we’re creating an opportunity for kids to come as well,” he said.

“This restaurant is absolutely and definitely made for families.”

From left, The Real Fix Pizzeria co-owner Hicham Azhari and head chef Giacomo Lazzano regard their restaurant’s one-of-a-kind pies.

Grounds Guys of Roswell build

strong reputationFrom Staff Reports

Garrison Spearman, owner of The Grounds Guys of Roswell, received the builder of the year and personal achievement awards from The Grounds Guys corporate office during The Dwyer Group International Conference held Sept. 7 to 10 in Orlando, Fla.

The Grounds Guys is a franchise specializing in commercial and residential landscape management services.

The builder of the year award is presented to a franchisee in recognition of their contribution in building the team.

The award is given to the franchisee who has provided franchise leads that have culminated in the greatest number of franchise sales.

The Personal Achievement Award is given to individuals who attain outstanding achievement in sales, manpower growth, franchise development or personal growth during the year.

“Garrison is well-deserving of these awards,” said Chris Elmore, president of The Grounds Guys.

“His dedication to his customers, employees and trade is evident in all he does.”

“I am honored to receive these awards,” Spearman said.

‘“The Grounds Guys of Roswell is committed to working hard every day to provide timely, courteous and professional lawn care and landscape solutions to commercial and residential clients that meet and exceed our customers’ expectations.”


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Roswell opens door for mobile vendorsBy James [email protected]

The city of Roswell may soon allow mobile retailers to sell their goods on the streets – just as long as they are also willing to pay a licensing fee.

Last week, the city council approved the first reading of an amendment to the Roswell code of ordinances which establishes regulations comparable to those for the city’s food trucks for wheeled retailers of all varieties.

It was approved by a 5-1 vote, with Councilman Jerry Orlans the sole dissenter.

The new regulations will apply to vendors who make sales directly from their motor vehicles as well as businesses operating from towable vehicles.

The proposed ordinance essentially prohibits any tangible item from being sold out of a motor vehicle — including “trunk sales” — without city approval.

“It could be clothing, jewelry, shoes, purses,” said

Community Development Director Alice Wakefield. “The proposal is to treat these vendors similarly to what we do for mobile food vendors.”

Vehicular retailers will have to take out a $1 million liability insurance policy before hitting the road. Whereas most mobile food vendors are prohibited from residential areas, mobile retailers will have the ability to sell outside of commercial zones, as long as they have homeowners’ or condominium association approval.

As with mobile food vendors, mobile retailers are barred from sales between 9 p.m. and 6:30 a.m., unless the retailer is working in conjunction with a city-approved event or has a film production permit.

Brick-and-mortar businesses with mobile retail operations are not exempt from the new regulations.

In addition to permanent location occupational license fees, they, too, will have to apply for a separate mobile retail license.

There will be restrictions on what mobile retailers can

sell. “We are saying tangible items,” Mayor Jere Wood

said. “You can’t sell stocks and bonds out of the back of

your truck.”City Attorney David Davidson said bans on items

prohibited by the code of ordinances were also off limits to mobile retailers.

Those who do business out of their trunks without a license, Wakefield said, will find themselves staring down a citation and a municipal court date.

A second reading, and a second vote, is required before the ordinance amendment becomes official.

Wakefield said city staff will iron out a license fee amount, which will be set by resolution, before the proposal faced the city council again Monday.

She said she anticipates the fee for mobile retailers to resemble those for food vendors, who pay $150 for their annual licenses.

GOING MOBILE

W O M E N I N B U S I N E S S P R O F I L E

LOCAL FLAVOR

There are a variety of dining options along Roswell’s Canton Street, and resident Mariel Sivley wants visitors, newcomers and longtime residents to experience the different culinary offerings. She recently launched the Roswell Food Tour to do just that.

Sivley, who has lived in the city for about two years, takes guests on five stops along Canton Street. The first is Oli+Ve at 1003 Canton St. where tourgoers experience a tasting of the different oils and vinegars sold there.

Next is Roux on Canton at 946 Canton St. for appetizers and beers. Then it’s on to Table and Main, 1028 Canton St., for entrees followed by more entrees and wine at Vin 25, 25 Plum Tree St. The tour ends with dessert and coffee at Greenwood’s at 1087 Green St.

“I just chose places that I personally like [and] that I think everyone would like,” Sivley said.

She picked the Canton Street area of Roswell because she said it was the perfect corridor to host

a walking food tour.“I think what I really appreciate [about the

restaurants] is the mixture of sophistication and comfort,” Sivley said. “You can find very upscale food, but you can be very comfortable in your evening out.”

Sivley was inspired to start the business after attending food tours in Athens and Decatur led by her friend Mary Charles Howard.

“She started the company Georgia Food Tours a couple of years ago,” she said.

“I went on one of her first tours in Athens and I had a lot of fun.”

Sivley started her tours in June, and Saturday will be the third tour she has hosted. She keeps the tours fairly small, preferring to host between six to

eight guests at a time.Tickets for the tour are $65 each, which include

food and drinks from a pre-selected menu. If guests want to order additional items, they can open a tab separate from the group’s and pay for extra items individually, Sivley said.

Tickets must be reserved at least 24 hours in advance.

Sivley said she sends guests questionnaires to factor in any allergies, health concerns or food aversions when selecting the menus. Tours generally start at 4 p.m. on Saturdays or Sundays and last about two and a half hours.

As the tour business grows, Sivley said she thinks she will stick with the same restaurants but might expand by adding different tours.

“I do want to do this for as long as there’s a market for it, and I think the market is growing,” she said.

“The restaurants are so wonderful, so I think that the interest is only going to grow in our tour.”

Though the tour is open to all, Sivley said she thinks her business will mostly come from residents who have lived here for a while and are looking for a different way to spend time on the weekend or those who are entertaining out-of-town guests.

Roswell business owner leads tours of Canton Street eateries

STORY BY NICOLE DOW n PHOTOGRAPHY BY ERIN GRAY

Roswell resident Mariel Sivley recently started the Roswell Food Tour where she takes guests on walking tours down Canton Street to five locations for tastings and meals.

NORTH FULTON BUSINESS JOURNAL/ OCTOBER 2014 7


From left, Lancope CEO Mike Potts, Peak 10 CEO David Jones and Vice President Angela Haneklau, Alpharetta Mayor David Belle Isle, Georgia Association of Technology President Tino Mantella and Greater North Fulton Chamber of Commerce President Brandon Beach.

IT firm shows off new digs in AlpharettaBy James [email protected]

Peak 10 offered a sneak peek of its newest data center at an event last last month.

The Charlotte-based information technology infrastructure company announced it was moving to the Golden Corridor last year. The 15,000 square foot facility is located off Windward Parkway at 12655 Edison Drive.

The company CEO and President David Jones said his company had maxed out its available space at its other two Georgia data centers in Norcross.

“We did a very extensive canvas across Gwinnett, north Fulton and even the Kennesaw area,” he said. “Because of the technology corridor and the power capabilities … when you look at the customer base we serve, the mid-market, it just made a lot of sense.”

A major benefit of the relocation, he said, was the room for future developments. “That makes it a lot easier for us, because next time, we won’t have to go searching for land.”

The company’s 26th data center, Jones said, was truly state of the art. “I guess you could say it’s our fourth generation of data centers,” he said.

Alpharetta Economic Development Director Peter Tokar said while he cannot

give an official estimate for the number of jobs the new facility may create, the center’s shared-space structure certainly could draw quite a few employers to the area.

“What makes Peak 10’s center so unique is the fact that they have an office component to it as well,” he said. “Potentially, with the available offices that they have here, they could create literally a few hundred jobs.”

In addition to the data center and upstairs office space, the facility is also home to a business disaster recovery space and a meeting space open for possible community events.

“We offer so much more than we were able to offer before,” said company Vice President and General Manager Angela Haneklau. “We now have a facility to really complement our footprint in Atlanta.”

Alpharetta-based Lancope, Inc. was announced as the facility’s first official tenant.

“It’s great to know they’re only five minutes away from the rest of the team,” said Lancope President and CEO Mike Potts.

Greater North Fulton Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Brandon Beach said his organization is committed to providing a high quality of life for transplant businesses like the company.

“The chamber and the state love ribbon cuttings, because that means you’re

investing in our state and in our community,” he said. “But more importantly, you’re hiring people and adding jobs.”

Through its data and storage services, Mayor David Belle Isle said the company was an

“enabler” for other businesses. “As happy as we are to have you here just for

your own sake,” he said, “what we also equally love is that you’re helping the companies that are here be more successful.”

N F B J S C E N E


STAFF PHOTOGRAPHY BY ERIN GRAY

Corporate team building at the ‘Hooch

Below, from left, Chattahoochee Nature Center employees Evie Tauchert and Rebecca Gilbert with Johanna Dawson with Auto Trader, Bill Hoban with Play Works and the Greater North Fulton Chamber of Commerce, Abby Burle with Play Works, Shonnie Warner with Auto Trader and Jeff Lewis with Play Works all volunteered their time during the corporate team building challenge at the nature center recently. Right, Atlanta Gas Light employees Marcus Rubenstein helps his partner Deborah Bettman through the ‘Spi-der Web’ maze during the sponsored team building event. The event was led by a professional team building company run by Bill Hoban, director of Sales of PlayWorks Group, LLC. The event started with a trolley ride to ‘Shoot the Hooch” at Azalea Park, where teams were assembled. Then they jumped into their canoes to paddle to the nature center’s boardwalk. There, they completed five unique event stations, solving clues and using their cell phones to prove that they had accomplished each challenge.

Atlanta Gas Light em-

ployee Greg Corbit tries

to hit his mark during

the ‘Sling Shot’ game

at the nature center cor-

porate team building

event.

Above, Chattahoochee Nature Center director of development Deann Fordham, Executive Director of the nature center Chris Nelson and Di-rector of Community Relations Lynn McIntyre all helped put together and supervise the first corporate team building event put on by Play Works and Auto Trader at the nature center. Below, from left, Newfields employ-ees Warner Golden, Dan Wurzel and Nick Diluzio try to hit their mark during the ‘Sling Shot’ game.


BUSINESS AFTER HOURS

N F B J S C E N E

STAFF PHOTOGRAPHY BY ERIN GRAY

From left, John

Jakovenko of the Jakovenko

Group and Lindsay

Sprague with Roswell Urgent Care enjoyed an evening of

networking at the Greater

North Fulton Chamber of

Commerce’s event at

the Roswell Cultural

Arts center recently.

Above, from left, Janet Kincaid and Anita Allen Farley with the Georgia Ensemble Theatre and Karen Daniel with the Autrey Mill Nature Center enjoyed an evening of networking at the Roswell Cultural Arts Center. Below, from left, King Stracke with the chamber and Katrina Kaiser with LGE Credit Union.

At top, from left, Kate Johnson and Rachel Hamilton of the Georgia Ensemble Theatre served beverages to guests. Above, from left, Bob Farley with the Georgia Ensemble Theatre along with Debbie Ryals with the chamber and Michael Von Osch of the Georgia Ensemble Theatre enjoyed an evening of networking at the chamber’s event at the Roswell Cultural Arts center.

By Nicole [email protected]

Laura Pearce Ltd., a Buckhead jewelry boutique, will celebrate 25 years in business next month. To commemorate the

anniversary, owner Laura Pearce launched a 25-piece signature collection of necklaces, bracelets, earrings, rings and cufflinks, which she said is already getting positive feedback from customers.

“Everything is very classic and

traditional,” she said. “I decided to design everything so it would be timeless pieces that you could pass down over the generations.”

Pearce, who sells jewelry from designers such as Monica Rich Kosann and Katie Decker, launched her own collection last year.

“It’s exciting to think about the next 25 years, because I’ve just started this collection, which we’re going to build on,” she said.

Pearce said the inventory in the store — and the store itself — has changed significantly over the years.

In 1989, she opened her business in a 10-foot-by-10-foot space in an arts and antiques shopping center at 2300 Peachtree Road in Buckhead. She operated as a one-woman enterprise and sold mostly estate pieces and antiques.

Pearce started the store after working for Tiffany and Co. in New York for five years as a jewelry buyer directly out of college.

“When [my husband and I moved] down here, I decided I didn’t want to work for another store, because I had these wonderful resources and all this knowledge

from Tiffany’s,” she said.About 15 years ago, Pearce moved

to a 2,000-square-foot space in the same complex and now has five employees.

“Over the past 25 years, it’s evolved into a business that has demanded more custom work where people come in and bring a stone or we start from scratch and create an engagement ring or we create a special pair of earrings for a wedding,” she said. “We’ve also started to carry a lot more newer pieces by newer designers.”

Pearce said the high quality of the jewelry she sells sets her store apart from others. She also said she makes excellent customer service a top priority.

“I’ve had such an amazing, loyal customer base,” Pearce said. “They’re the ones that have really helped this business grow.”

Sandra Pierson, an employee who has worked at the store for the past seven years, said it is unique, because the pieces there are timeless and classic.

“[Pearce] has such great taste and style that is hard to beat,” she said. “Her customer service is old-school, and customers … always come back.”


N E W A N D N O T E W O R T H YConsultants project Roswell impact fees to increase

Jewelry boutique celebrates 25 years

By James [email protected]

TischlerBise consultant Dwayne Guthrie was brought in by the city of Roswell to assess future residential and commercial impact fees.

“They’re just a one-time payment for growth-related infrastructure, collected at the time building permits are issued,” he explained at a city council work session held at Roswell City Hall Sept. 22.

“It’s not a ‘newcomers tax’ like some people kind of think of it … it’s more like a contractual arrangement, with three key legal requirements.”

Those requirements, Guthrie said, were need, benefit and proportionality.

“We can’t just look at what other communities are charging and charge the average,” he said. “We have to base it on real data for your community.”

Guthrie suggested the city tweak its

formula for impact fees to include persons per housing unit and trip ends per housing unit as multipliers.

“To make impact fees more proportionate, TischlerBise does not recommend an average fee for all house sizes, because it makes small units less affordable and essentially subsidizes larger units,” he said.

“It’s not social engineering, it’s just the numbers … how many people are out there and what are the reasonable expectations of how much driving is being done by those people, based on how many cars they have.”

TischlerBise’s residential fee proposals are based on square feet of finished living space, while commercial and industrial fees are based on floor area increments of 1,000 square feet.

For residential units 1,000 square feet or smaller, Guthrie expects impact fees to increase by 17 percent. For units 2,000 to 3,000 square feet, he expects fees to jump up

by 84 percent to 98 percent.Today, fees for residential units greater

than 4,000 square feet are a little over $2,000. Under the proposed fee model, that cost would swell to nearly $4,800 – a 132 percent increase.

Under the proposed formula, a 2,000 square foot multifamily dwelling would carry an impact fee of $3,260. In Alpharetta today, the fee for a similar unit would be $1,722. In Atlanta, the fee is just $857.

However, nonresidential impact fee increases are projected to be less dramatic.

Industrial fees per 1,000 square feet would rise by 72 percent, while commercial fees per 1,000 square feet would actually decrease by about 3 percent.

Impact fees for offices, Guthrie said, would increase by about 67 percent.

At $2,978 per 1,000 square feet, Roswell’s proposed commercial impact fees are about $1,300 less than the fees for Alpharetta and

Sandy Springs. The fees, Guthrie said, will help cover the

costs of three departments: recreation and parks, public safety and transportation.

To maintain current levels of service and accommodate population growth, Guthrie said the city can expect to spend about $2.5 million on new sports fields, trails and rec buildings over the next 10 years.

With apparatus and expected construction costs combined, he said Roswell will pay nearly $6 million on an eighth fire station. Impact fees, however, would only cover a little over half of the bill.

“We’re going to have to come up with about $2.6 million from other funding sources to go ahead and do that new fire station within 10 years,” he said.

Guthrie tabbed the next decade’s local transportation projects at about $38 million. Impact fees, he said, would cover about 20 percent of those costs.

Staff / Samantha M. ShalLaura Pearce looks over the signature necklace from her signature collection, created especially for the store’s 25th anniversary.

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Business BuzzRockler Relocatesto larger space

Rockler Woodworking and Hardware’s new lo-cation in Sandy Springs held its formal grand open-ing last month with a full schedule of woodwork-ing demonstrations, special appearances and prod-uct giveaways. Rockler recently moved to a larger, 10,000-square-foot location at 6690 Roswell Road, Suite 450. The larger space features an expanded selection of products and a large glass-enclosed demonstration area with ample seating for viewing in the middle of the store. Woodworkers of all ages can see first-hand how they can put the power of woodworking in their hands. In addition to prod-uct demonstrations, Woodworker’s Journal writer and editor Chris Marshall will make a guest ap-pearance at the store. He will hold demos through-out the day and share his insights on the growing popularity of woodworking as a hobby and for home improvement projects. Several prizes will be given out, and door prizes will be handed to the first 150 customers.

Schroder PRpromotes Funderburk

Sarah Funderburk recently was promoted from

account manager to account director at Schroder Public Relations, a full-service public relations firm in Midtown. Funderburk has assumed various responsibilities for complete management of the firm’s real estate concentration including commer-cial real estate development, construction, architec-ture, engineering and related fields.

“Sarah is an instrumental part of our team. Her leadership has secured us many clients and helped expand our service offerings while maintaining our current portfolio to grow us into a truly full-service firm,” said Chris Schroder, compnay president and founder.

Van Michaelwins award

Van Michael Salon, which has locations in Buckhead and Sandy Springs, recently won the Best Salon Team category honor during the 2014 Professional Beauty Association North American Hairstyling Awards in in Las Vegas.

Winning an award from the association is wide-ly considered the pinnacle achievement for profes-sional hairstylists and makeup artists.

This is the first time the 30-year-old salon has won the category. Previous honors include North American hairstylist of the year, makeover stylist of the year (two-time winner), avant garde stylist of the year and editorial stylist of the year.

I N T H E M A R K E T P L A C E

Kids ‘R’ Kids founders receive recognition

for $50,000 donationFrom Staff Reports

Pat and Janice Vinson, the founders of Georgia-based Kids ‘R’ Kids Learning Academies, were honored at Sunshine on a Ranney Day’s 2014 Annual Evening of Sunshine Gala in Atlanta.

Sunshine on a Ranney Day is a nonprofit dedicated to creating special living spaces for children facing long-term illnesses and disabilities.

The Vinsons, who have devoted their lives to early education, child care and philanthropy, were recognized with the 2014 Gracie’s charitable hearts of the year award.

“The vision for Kids ‘R’ Kids was built in the Vinson’s Decatur, Ga., home in March 1961,” read part of a statement published on Facebook by the nonprofit.

“Their love for children and their understanding of the importance

of an uplifting environment for a child makes them perfect partners with Sunshine on a Ranney Day.”

In December 2013, the Vinsons became major supporters of the nonprofit with a check for $50,000 on behalf of the Kids ‘R’ Kids International corporate office and their franchisees.

The donation has helped offset constructin costs and supplies for the organization’s renovation projects.

Kids ‘R’ Kids International, established in 1985, is headquartered in Duluth. For more information, visit www.kidsrkids.com.

To make a secure online donation to the nonprofit, visit www.sunshineonaranneyday.com.

Corporate partnerships are also available and volunteers are needed to assist with renovation projects.

B U S I N E S S A D V A N T A G E


Brighter economy drives up holiday hiring plansThe Associated Press

UPS will hire up to 95,000. Kohl’s plans to take on 67,000 and FedEx 50,000. Wal-Mart will add 60,000.

One after the other, a flurry of major U.S. retail and transportation companies announced sharp increases this week in the number of temporary workers they plan to hire for the holiday season. Collectively, such hiring could reach its highest point this year for stores since 1999, when the economy was roaring and the Great Recession was still eight years away.

Credit the combination of a strengthening economy and optimism about consumer spending. Stores have determined they will need more temporary help for the holiday season, which accounts for 20 percent of the retail industry’s annual sales.

Their stepped-up hiring plans reflect another reality, too — more retailers have come to recognize the need to improve their customer service in the age of online kings

such as Amazon. Many shoppers now jump back and forth between their mobile devices and physical stores and expect the same easy shopping experience at both.

Challenger Gray & Christmas Inc., a global outplacement consultancy, predicts retailers will add more than 800,000 seasonal workers for the October-through-December period. Such hiring last topped that figure in 1999, when stores added 849,500 temporary workers. It credits brightening confidence among consumers.

“The last two years saw holiday hiring return to pre-recession levels,” said John Challenger, CEO of the Chicago-based outplacement firm.

“This year, we could see hiring return to levels not seen since the height of the dot.com boom ... There are more people who are surer about their spending.”

The outlook for job and income growth has improved, said Bernard Baumohl, chief global economist at the Economic Outlook Group.

The U.S. unemployment rate has tumbled to 6.1

percent. A year ago, it was 7.2 percent. Three years ago, it was

9 percent.So far this year, employers have added a solid average

of 215,000 jobs a month, up from a monthly average of 194,000 in 2013 and 186,000 in 2012.

Companies have been slower to offer workers decent pay increases, but that may finally be changing, Baumohl said.

Workers’ inflation-adjusted earnings rose 0.4 percent in August, the Labor Department said Sept. 17. It was the sharpest monthly gain in more than a year.

Consumers, long beaten down by the recession’s bleak aftermath, have been feeling more hopeful. A measure of consumer confidence by the Conference Board reached a seven-year high last month.

And after shrinking their debt loads for years after the recession officially ended in 2009, consumers are pulling out their credit cards again.

Georgia crowdfunding backers hope to raise interestThe Associated Press

If Georgia is any measure, it will take years for Americans and companies vying for investment through crowdfunding to get comfortable with the practice.

About three years after Georgia began allowing individual residents to invest in small businesses, 35 companies have registered with the state to try it.

At least a dozen states have passed similar laws or rules as the Securities and Exchange Commission continues working on interstate crowdfunding rules designed to open the practice up nationally. Backers complain the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is slowing down a viable way to get more money into small business owners’ hands, while the agency has said it is seeking the best ways to protect investors and companies.

The slow but steady interest in Georgia’s version could be a sign the federal process is just one hurdle facing the much-hailed crowdfunding concept.

“Like any new technology, you have early adopters who spread the word,” said Brian

Dally, co-founder and CEO of real estate investment portal GroundFloor. The company, which connects investors with builders pitching specific projects, moved to Georgia from North Carolina this summer because of the state’s flexible crowdfunding rules.

“Equity crowdfunding,” as the strategy is known, isn’t as simple as donating $5 on the popular site Kickstarter — where people have contributed toward albums, movies and products, including a smart watch.

Georgia’s secretary of state’s office created the rule — known as the Invest Georgia Exemption — in December 2011. Without it, companies can only raise money from individual investors who are “accredited,” with $1 million net worth, or at least $200,000 income for at least two years according to federal rules.

You do not get your money back if the company doesn’t meet their crowdfunding goal, such as on typical crowdfunding sites. People wanting to invest in Georgia companies must live in the state and have to provide plenty of personal and financial information.

The latter has been a stumbling block for

some who like the idea of investing locally or crowdfunding in general but get skittish when faced with long legal documents, said Megan Johnson, a co-founder of SparkMarket. The site features companies’ crowdfunding investors in Georgia, including a manufacturer of guitars from oil cans and a TV network targeted at men.

“You own a stake in the business, and you’re on board for the good, bad and the ugly,” Johnson said.

Vincent Russo, the secretary of state’s general counsel when the crowdfunding exemption was created, said plenty of small companies could use it but have to find the crowd.

“It has taken longer than I would have liked, or than anybody would have liked,” Russo, who now works as a commercial attorney, said. “But Georgia is leading the conversation.”

Richard Swart, director of a University of California Berkeley program on finance innovations, supports crowdfunding generally but said companies have to generate enthusiasm in many investors. That equals

more valuable time and effort from people already stretched thin.

Georgia business and investment types in metro Atlanta are trying to boost interest. Well-known investor Knox Massey recently founded a MeetUp group that brings companies in almost every month to talk about how crowdfunding might benefit them. Most attendees know little about Georgia’s exemption, but that is to be expected with any new form of financing, he said.

Rodney Sampson was one of those people a few years ago. He and three co-founders launched a crowdfunding campaign in January for Opportunity Hub, an incubator that gives new companies work space and access to experienced mentors.

They have raised about $50,000 so far, with 90 percent coming from people who do not qualify as accredited investors under federal rules.

Sampson said success is the best way to spread awareness.

“What better model for it to be tested on than a company that helps other companies?” Sampson asked.

Labor commissioner finds it ‘odd’ Georgia has top U.S. jobless rate By Noreen [email protected]

Last month, Georgia outdid the nation in its jobless rate – 8.1 percent, up from 7.7 percent in July.

On Sept. 19, the U.S. Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics issued a report saying, for August, “Georgia had the highest unemployment rate among the states.”

The Georgia Department of Labor Commissioner Mark Butler said he found the conclusion “questionable” and “confusing.”

“According to the U.S. Department of Labor, yes [Georgia is the highest], but according to them we are top in job growth at the same time,” he said. “That’s

odd.” Butler said the

state’s job growth rate – 2 percent a year, compared to the national 1.8 rate – translated to 80,000 new positions in a year.

“It’s kind of a strange situation that the Bureau of Labor Statistics has us in. They are saying our unemployment is high due to their household survey,” he said. “However, if you look at the same information they also released, they say we are sixth in job growth for the last 12 months.”

Butler said the bureau surveyed 1,400 participants and interpreted the results to conclude an

additional 54,000 workers were separated from their jobs.

“You have to look at it this way. The household survey is the only data that says we’re losing jobs,” he said. “There’s a mountain of data on the other side that says we’re gaining jobs. Most of that comes from payroll surveys – actual payroll

numbers. Both can’t be right.”Another indicator, the number

of new unemployment claims filed, is in direct contrast to the survey results, Butler said.

“You also have to add in another big indicator is, if we’re losing all these jobs as the household survey says, then why has our initial claims fallen almost 30 percent

last month?” he said. “When people lose their job, they come in and file for unemployment. That’s why we question it.”

Butler said he viewed the report with equanimity.

“I don’t think it’s embarrassing because it’s flawed,” he said. “If you only look at that one metric, you’re not getting the whole picture.”

Department spokesman Sam Hall said the metro Atlanta rate also increased, from 7.9 in July to 8.0.

“Despite the rate increase, the number of jobs in metro Atlanta increased by 5,900,” he said in a statement, “while the number of initial claims for unemployment insurance dropped 22.9 percent from July.”

The monthly job gains were in state and local government, private education and health services, manufacturing, construction and other services.

Hall said over-the-year job growth outdid the state’s 2.0 percent by one-tenth of a point.

“This was the second largest August-to-August growth since 2007,” he said.

Government jobs, which had been losing ground, wound up flat for that time period with more than 311,000 public employees in place.

New unemployment claims dropped by more than 4,400 compared to July.

In August, Fulton County’s jobless rate was 8.9 percent, up 0.2 percent from July.

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B U S I N E S S A D V A N T A G E


The Associated Press

Consumers who want to support local food and farms aren’t limited anymore to buying locally produced veggies, meats and cheeses. They can make direct investments — big or small — into local food businesses through a national movement called Slow Money, which links investors with farmers and small food producers.

Since the national network started in 2010, Slow Money networks and invest-ment clubs around the country, including in Maine, Massachusetts, California, North Carolina and in cities such as Boston and New York, have made a total of $38 million in investments in 350 small food enterpris-es. Vermont — which has a vibrant local foods scene — is about to launch its own network Tuesday.

The idea is to take “a little bit of our money out of the abstract craziness of the stock market” and instead put it to work closer to home, said Slow Money founder Woody Tasch.

The investment movement started after Tasch wrote his 2009 book “Inquiries into the Nature of Slow Money: Investing as if Food, Farms and Fertility Mattered” dis-cussing investments that focus more on sustainability than consumption. The fore-word was written by Slow Food Interna-tional founder Carlo Petrini, who started a

movement to counter fast-food lifestyles by focusing on home cooking with local, sustainable ingredients.

Many of the Slow Money chapters orga-nize events where entrepreneurs put on pre-sentations to investors. Then, the interested investors deal directly with the businesses.

“If you invest, and make a small loan to a small farmer near where you live, you don’t need somebody else to explain to you what the benefits are,” Tasch said. “And it’s a very positive thing. It engages neighbors and people it connects to each other and to the land.”

Most of the $38 million from 1,000 funders has been in loans, such as to Tarbox Farm, in Westport Island, Maine, which needed another greenhouse to raise winter greens and heat-loving summer crops such as peppers and eggplant. Kyle DePietro and Angie Trombley thought about asking rela-tives or going to a bank for the money. But a Slow Money Maine coordinator learned about their need and matched the farm with an investor who loaned them $5,000 several years ago at a rate of 5 percent, after visiting the farm.

“This seemed very easy. There wasn’t really much to it as far as securing the funds for it,” said Kyle DePietro, who said they have since paid off the loan.

When the farm needed to buy a box truck this spring, they went directly to the investor

and took out a $10,000 loan for two years.“It was cool that she was able to help us

out, and I think she got a lot out of lending us the money,” he said.

“It was a personal nice connection that I guess you wouldn’t have with a bank.”

This type of venture taps into some investor disenchantment with the stock market and their desire to help their local communities, said Charles Schnitzlein, the Steven Grossman endowed chair of finance at the University of Vermont.

“I look upon these sorts of ventures as positive developments in the sense that they get people involved in their communities and they get people possibly promoting bet-ter ways of doing things for the environment or keeping things local,” he said.

But it is risky, he said. To be effective with Slow Money or a similar vehicle, investors must be actively involved and really understand the company that they are working with, he said.

It is not a way to get rich quick, Slow Money vice president Michael Bartner said. It is more about helping local food produc-ers.

The organization is relatively new and it is too soon to track the return on the invest-ments, he said.

Microfinance is used in other regions of the world, for low-income entrepreneurs and small businesses who do not have access to

financial services. In Vermont, the Vermont Community Loan Fund makes loans to food and agriculture businesses.

There has already been a lot of activity in Vermont that has taken place organical-ly over the last six or seven years because of the state’s vibrant food entrepreneur-ship culture and interested investors, said Eric Becker, a co-founder of Slow Money Vermont and a chief investment officer at Clean Yield, a Norwich-based investment advisory firm. But the one thing missing, is a way for individuals to plug into directly that activity without knowing someone who has been raising money, he said.

Vermont’s chapter plans to put on entre-preneur showcases where a group of vetted businesses will present their business plans and interested investors can deal with them directly. Events in other places have gener-ated not just dollars for local food providers, but social capital — leading to other forms of support like technical assistance, Becker said.

For investors who want to get their money — or at least some of it — out of Wall Street and into their local community, the new Slow Money Vermont events will be a boon.

“Slow Money is trying to create that go-to place, so that those individual inves-tors and entrepreneurs can find each other,” Becker said.

Slow Money movement invests in small food firms

Will digital wallet kill credit cards?

The Associated Press

Apple wants the plastic credit card to become as rare as the paper check.

On Sept. 9, the compa-ny announced Apple Pay, a digital payment system that lets people pay for retail store purchases using their phones, rather than cash or credit cards. The service, which will work both with iPhones and Apple’s new watch, is backed by a host of big retailers, along with most major banks and credit card issuers, including Visa, MasterCard and American Express.

So-called contactless pay-ment is not new. Starbucks, McDonald’s, PayPal, Google and Square offer their own ser-vices, but only a small portion of customers use them. Some experts believe Apple Pay —with its presence on millions of iPhones and its advanced security features — could be the service that leads to wide-spread adoption of the digital wallet.

Citi Investment Research analyst Mark May said he believes the sum total of mobile payments could grow from $1 billion in 2013 to $58.4 billion by 2017.

Payment digitization paints an enticing vision of shop-ping’s future: simply tap your device against a checkout screen and walk away with your new shoes.

But despite the flashy Apple Pay launch, Apple faces challenges making their vision a reality. The company and other digital wallet providers must convince shoppers the transactions are safe — espe-cially in the wake of recent high-profile data breaches at Home Depot and Target. Meanwhile, the company must also make a case to retail-ers that it’s worth it for them to invest in new point-of-sale systems.

Many U.S. merchants still aren’t sold on the idea. About 220,000 stores are set up to accept Apple Pay. That’s only 5.5 percent of the 3.6

million retail locations in the U.S., according to the National Retail Federation. The biggest U.S. retailers, including Wal-Mart and Best Buy, are not participating in Apple Pay.

The main reason is cost. Each point-of-sale device, which uses something called near-field communication technology, costs hundreds of dollars, plus hours of worker training. And there’s been lit-tle customer demand for the systems.

That may change now that Apple has entered the arena, said Gartner analyst Avivah Litan.

“There’s no doubt young people want to use phones to make payments, but they have to have a place to pay,” said Litan. She predicts big-ger retailers will see how well Apple partners such as McDonald’s do before they move into mobile payments.

“If it goes well at other retailers, Wal-Mart and other companies may break down and start taking it,” Litan said.


N A M E S I N T H E N E W S

KNOCKOUT PUNCHFormer UFC star looks aims to strike blow at unemployment

By James [email protected]

Brian Stann is a natural-born fighter.A retired Ultimate Fighting Championship

competitor, the Alpharetta resident once held the World Extreme CageFighting Light Heavyweight Championship. Prior to that, he served in the U.S. Marine Corps in 2006, he earned a Silver Star medal for his actions in the Battle of Al Qaim.

Far removed from the battlefield and the ring, Stann now finds himself waging a different kind of war. As president and CEO of Hire Heroes USA, he is fighting to help fellow veterans find jobs.

“The men and women who have volunteered to serve this country should not be the last in line for a job when they get home,” he said. “The transition assistance program in the military is obviously

insufficient, or else Hire Heroes wouldn’t exist.”

The nonprofit was founded by MedAssets CEO John Bardis in 2005. Stann became head of the Alpharetta-based organization in 2009.

Oftentimes, Stann said, vets have difficulties expressing their abilities and talents to employers. It is a major reason, he said, why veterans face an unemployment rate double the national average.

“There is a large disconnect between the civilian populace and the military,” Stann said. “There is certainly a better appreciation for their service, but there’s not really an understanding of what they do.”

A big flaw with most transitional services, Stann said, was the automation process. Whereas other veteran services rely on online job boards and other forms of electronic communication, he said the

nonprofit opts for a more human touch.“When a veteran first registers with us,

the veteran transition specialist calls them, just to understand that veteran’s situation,” Stann said. “Then, we go in and teach them how to verbally communicate their skillsets — we help them do all the things necessary to communicate their value and go out and find that job.”

Veterans themselves make up about four-fifths of the organization’s transition specialist staff.

“My staff can speak to these people a little differently,” he said. “They can speak as someone who’s already done this, and that’s important.”

Recruits are taught how to build resumes and network through websites like LinkedIn. The average nonprofit enrollee spends less than three months in the program.

“We’re really the only ones who track

metrics down to the individual employee,” Stann said. “We average over 27 veterans a week who get jobs.”

The nonprofit brings in about 130 new recruits each week, many who are culled from the nonprofit’s weekly military base seminars. The nonprofit is also actively engaged with several corporate partners, training companies how to recruit and retain veteran employees.

In 2009, the nonprofit had three employees. Today, it employs 40 at six locations across the nation.

With operations expanding, Stann said “costs per hire” have continually diminished.

“That cost per hire doesn’t get bigger because we’re adding overhead, it’s actually gone down,” he said. “As our budget has gone up, we’ve gotten more efficient … I don’t know any other charities or nonprofits out there that can say that.”

Alpharetta health company hires Tuscan chef from

acclaimed Buckhead restaurantFrom Staff Reports

Jackson Healthcare, the Alpharetta-based company honored as the best place to work in 2014 by an Atlanta newspaper, hired noted Tuscan chef Gianni Betti to prepare food and manage its company dining room, Ciao Bella.

Betti, who was born and raised in Reggello just outside of Florence, Italy, opened Antica Posta with his two brothers in Buckhead in 1999. It is the sister restaurant of Antica Posta in San Casciano, Italy, in the Chianti region of Tuscany. Sterling Spoon Culinary Management partners with Jackson Healthcare to operate the dining room inside the corporate offices.

“We are delighted to have such a wonderful chef now in house to cook meals for our employees,” said Shane Jackson, company president. “His expertise in creating incredible meals with fresh healthy ingredients fits perfectly into our vision for nutritional wellness. I know I can’t wait to see what he is making for lunch.” Two weeks ago, the company, one of the nation’s leading health care staffing companies, was named the best place to work and for eight consecutive years it has ranked among the very top leaders by the publication. With 600 employees in Atlanta, the company emphasizes health, fitness and wellness programs and comprehensive benefits for employees as well as support of charitable and community organizations to create a well-balanced place to work.

Betti graduated from culinary school in

Florence and worked for several restaurants. After he and his brothers started their first

restaurant in the Tuscan countryside, he moved to the U.S. to work at a trattoria in Baltimore. He returned to Tuscany in 1994 where he launched the Italian version of Antica Posta and, five years later, the Buckhead restaurant. The original and its sister restaurant have earned many honors and mentions in best restaurant guides.

Betti also has had other experiences cooking for the Southern palate. In 2008, he was executive chef at Posta Tuscan Grille at the Raleigh Marriott City Center. After three years he returned to Buckhead’s Antica Posta.

“We have a heavy emphasis on healthy eating, and the food speaks for itself,” said Leslie Day-Harrell, vice president of property management for the copmany.

“He will create food with Mediterranean flair, but we will still have the favorite traditional fare, also incorporating vegetables and herbs from Jackson Healthcare’s onsite organic garden.” There are many benefits to having such a reputable chef work in the building, Day-Harrell added.

“Certainly with such fine quality now in-house, it will help with productivity when you don’t have employees leaving the building,” she said. Betti and his family are north Fulton residents, and he said he was looking forward to preparing food in a corporate environment so he could stay closer to home and be near his family.


E G G S & E N T E R P R I S E

LEARNING FROM NONPROFITSWoodruff Arts Center CEO: Industries of the future will focus on team skillsBy James [email protected]

The head of one of the largest nonprofits in Atlanta since 2012, Woodruff Arts Center CEO and President Virginia Hepner has a somewhat unexpected background.

For 25 years, she dabbled not in the arts or entertainment, but the very much for-profit industry of corporate banking. Throughout her quarter century stint with Wachovia, she served as both Executive Vice President and Head of U.S. Corporate Finance.

“What businesses can learn from nonprofits is actually the integration of various creative skills,” she said at a Greater North Fulton Chamber of Commerce event in Alpharetta last month.

“And frankly, that also impacts business results.”

Nonprofit organizations, she said, are often adept at operating with scant resources and coming up with creative ways to procure funding.

“The industries of the future, I believe,

will be focused on team skills, collaboration and thinking outside the box … that’s the definition of operating nonprofits.”

Whereas the Lincoln Center and the Kennedy Center are heavily subsidized by public funds, Hepner said the Woodruff Center — the third largest performing arts center in the nation — is reliant upon private philanthropic dollars.

“It’s quite an improvement every year,” she said.

“We are as supported as any region by north Fulton companies and individuals.”

On average, she said about 500 people work with the center full-time.

“It’s the regional brand of regional prominence, and it’s the only major U.S. performing arts center with a museum,” Hepner said. “We are an economic engine, without a doubt — we serve over a million visitors a year, and depending on the shows we have on, it can exceed that extremely well.”

Each year, she said the center works with a $90 million to $100 million budget. A

surprise to some, she said the nonprofit paid about $1.9 million in sales tax last year.

“We have to recapitalize that every year,” she said. “So we raise a third of what we spend … I did lose a little sleep over that fact.”

However, she said the center earnings cover about half of its expenditures, which is supplemented by previous endowments.

In September, a labor dispute between the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra Players Association led to a lockout of the 2014 season.

“The challenge is, at the end of the day, we sell about $4 million worth of classic tickets,” Hepner said, “and it costs $22 million to produce it.”

That “structural deficit,” she said, has been an ASO trend for more than 12 years.

The labor solution, Hepner said, was “very solvable.” However, continuing to cover the losses of the Orchestra, she added, will continue to pose a daunting challenge.

“We are part of one legal entity, the Arts Center,” she said. “When one of our partners

is suffering, potentially, we all suffer and we’re all at risk.”

One operation under the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, however, is proving quite the revenue generator — Alpharetta’s own Verizon Wireless Amphitheater at Encore Park.

Since 2008, the venue has brought in about $43 million in ticket sales and nearly $100 million in total revenues, Hepner said.

The economic impact of the Amphitheater for north Fulton, she said, was large. In addition to $4 million in annual direct impact, she said the center generates about $2 million in local wages each year.

The estimated combined assets for Fulton’s arts and culture groups, Hepner said, was $1.7 billion. However, she said those same groups shouldn’t count on state subsidies.

“We also rank 50th per capita in the entire United States for public funding,” she said. “It tells you why it’s so important to have philanthropic and earned income, and we have to balance a budget.”

north fulton business journal 10/14

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