angishields, Author at Business RadioX ® Page

Sondra Rhoades Johnson of GACHI, Serving Deaf and Hard of Hearing

May 14, 2012 by angishields

Good People

Sondra Rhoades Johnson of GACHI, Serving Deaf and Hard of Hearing

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This week on Good People, Sondra Rhoades Johnson, Executive Director of GAIDA, Serving the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, joins us in the studio to talk about being one of Atlanta’s Best and Brightest Companies to Work For.

Sondra Rhoades Johnson is a Senior Executive possessing over 25 years of effective executive leadership with knowledge, skills and experience across multiple disciplines

and sectors (Non-Profit, Education, Government, Entrepreneur and Corporate). Sondra has consistently demonstrated success in adapting to different environments, added value and executive mission-aligned goals and objectives.

Having served in positions such as Fulton County Tax Commissioner, Girl Scout Council CEO, Chief Planning Officer for IT Strategic Planning for the State of Georgia, Chief of Staff of Morehouse School of Medicine, she is now the Executive Director for GACHI, a state-wide organization serving Georgia’s Deaf, Hard of Hearing, Late Deafened, Speech Impaired and Deaf-Blind.

For more information on GACHI, Georgia Council for the Hearing Impaired – serving the deaf and hard of hearing, visit

www.gachi.org

Atlanta’s Best and Brightest Companies to Work For is an awards competition providing the business community with the opportunity to gain recognition showcase their best practices and demonstrate why they are an ideal place for employees to work. This is the premier awards symposium that celebrates those companies that are making the lives of their employees better as well as the community as a whole. The program provides yearlong education, benchmarking, assessment tools and interaction amongst the best employers.

Nominate your company for 101 Best and Brightest Companies to Work For at www.101bestandbrightest.com

Transformational Women Highlights Debbie Smith & Rita Izaguirre, SVP’s Suntrust

May 11, 2012 by angishields

Transformational Women

Transformational Women Highlights Debbie Smith & Rita Izaguirre, SVP's Suntrust

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Debbie Riney Smith is a Senior Vice President in the Atlanta office of SunTrust Investment Services, Alexander Key Division. She has over 18 years of industry experience, with an expertise in investment analysis and portfolio management. Debbie started in the business in 1994 at Legg Mason in Baltimore, MD as a mutual fund analyst. In 1997, she was recruited to J.C. Bradford in Nashville, TN to provide mutual fund marketing and analytics to their advisors. In 2000, after PaineWebber merged with J.C. Bradford, she moved to Charlotte, NC to manage the mutual fund department, and build new marketing strategies to help advisors close business.

In 2001, SunTrust recruited Debbie to move to Atlanta, GA and build a new high net worth brokerage group entitled “Alexander Key Investments”, focused on high net worth individuals and corporations looking for unique investment solutions. She wrote most of the marketing and sales brochures for the products she was responsible for, provided “buy lists” for the advisors to use

with their clients, and traveled through the Southeast speaking at advisor and client events on the brokerage services industry.

In 2007, Debbie decided to make a career shift, going to the sales side in her industry. She joined Charles Wellborn, in his investment advisory and financial planning practice, still at SunTrust Investment Services. They formulated the Wellborn Group and manage $400 million in client assets.

Debbie is from Dayton, Ohio. She graduated from the College of Notre Dame of Maryland, a women’s college on Baltimore, MD, with a degree in mathematics. Her personal passion is helping people, whether that be personally or professionally. She herself has used a career coach from time to time to help keep her focused on the next challenge that comes her way.

Rita Izaguirre is Senior Vice President Diversity & HR Compliance for SunTrust Banks, Inc one of the nation’s largest financial services holding companies with total assets in excess of $170 billion. SunTrust is located throughout the Southeast, with over 1,600 branches and almost 3,000 ATMs. In her role, Rita is responsible for SunTrust’s employment brand driving corporate strategy and execution of diversity activities and talent acquisition. She also oversees regulatory compliance and operational risks associated with the human resources function for the Company. Rita joined SunTrust August 2009, and has extensive experience in human resources and employment law.

Prior to joining SunTrust, Rita was the Compliance & Diversity Leader for General Electric Healthcare where she managed human resources compliance, diversity and employer of choice efforts in the US and Europe. She practiced law in the US and Latin America, and in 1997 moved to the Human Resources field where she has held a variety of roles with Fortune 100 companies, as well as public sector organizations.

Rita holds an undergraduate degree in Political Science from Barry University, a Law degree from Nova University and a Certificate in Organization Development from Georgetown University. She is admitted to the Florida Bar; also holds the SPHR designation. Rita taught Managing Workforce Diversity in the graduate OD/ HR program at American University in Washington, DC, and has been published on the Intercultural Management Quarterly.

Rita is a member of the board of Year Up, a national organization that provides urban youth educational tools to achieve their potential. Rita is married and lives with her husband, Amado, in Atlanta, GA.

Transformational Women Highlights Annette Tirabasso, Partner Deloitte Consulting

May 11, 2012 by angishields

Transformational Women

Transformational Women Highlights Annette Tirabasso, Partner Deloitte Consulting

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Annette Tirabasso is Principal, Strategy and Operations for Deloitte Consulting. She brings more than 20 years of experience consulting and advising Financial Services and Consumer & Industrial Product organizations. She specializes in counseling companies experiencing major restructurings, business transformations, including streamlining processes and integrating operations with new technologies.

Ms Tirabasso has led teams that have delivered all phases of organizational change initiatives, from strategy development, business model creation, process design excellence, and systems implementation. She has also advised more than 20 client organizations to significantly improve their operating and financial performance, cost structure and service quality by eliminating trade-offs between cost and service. She has deep experience in strategy, program and change leadership, optimizing costs, business process reengineering, merger integration, shared services and outsourcing, and systems implementations.

In addition, Ms. Tirabasso developed a Service Delivery Maturity Model to help organizations develop targets and optimize operations across the dimensions of strategy, services, structure, and operations & technology. Ms. Tirabasso is the Lead Consulting Partner responsible for bringing all Deloitte Consulting services to clients. Her functional experience includes finance, human resources, and information technology, marketing, legal, sales, customer service, and corporate communications. She also leads Deloitte Consulting’s Women’s Initiative (WIN) for the Southeast United States.

Ms. Tirabasso is a sought-after speaker. She recently addressed The Conference Board on “Moving beyond the Traditional Boundaries of Shared Services.” She has also spoken several times to the Mortgage Bankers Association. She is often quoted in industry and trade publications such as Bank Technology News, and was acclaimed for authoring “The Silver Lining in Lending: Turning Doubters into Online Believers.” Ms. Tirabasso received the “Reengineering Team of the Year Award” from Computer World magazine for the best example of integrating business process and technology to implement significant performance improvement at one of her clients. She was also one of 20 recipients of the “Woman of Inspiration” Award from the City of Atlanta and the WNBA’s Atlanta Dream.

Her most recent articles include “Next Generation Service Delivery for Consumer Product Organizations,” “Enhancing Value from your Service Delivery Organization: Leap Ahead or Lag Behind,” and a look into how companies are using social discounting to penetrate the millennial generation titled, “Deal or No Deal?”

Ms. Tirabasso earned a Bachelor of Business Administration degree with an emphasis on Marketing, Communications and Quantitative Business Analysis from Cleveland State University. She lives in the Vinings area of Atlanta, GA, where she enjoys free time with family and friends, exercising, sports of almost any kind, and traveling, with a passion for destination spas.

Transformational Women Highlights Dr. Patricia Wheeler, Managing Partner, The Levin Group

May 11, 2012 by angishields

Transformational Women

Transformational Women Highlights Dr. Patricia Wheeler, Managing Partner, The Levin Group

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Dr. Patricia Wheeler is a global executive coach with over 20 years experience working with senior leaders in organizations around the world, from large multinational organizations to mid-sized and entrepreneurial ventures. Her strength and passion is helping smart, technically skilled people become effective and inspiring leaders. Her current research focuses on women moving up in organizations….what helps them move up and what challenges they face. She’s managing partner of The Levin Group (www.thelevingroup.com), a leadership advisory firm based in Atlanta GA.

MaShelle Epps, The Epps Agency, Atlanta’s Best and Brightest

May 10, 2012 by angishields

Good People

MaShelle Epps, The Epps Agency, Atlanta's Best and Brightest

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MaShelle Epps (Atlanta’s Best and Brightest Companies to Work For & The Epps Agency) comes on the show to talk about her HR consulting firm which specializes in HR program design to optimize investment in the most valuable resource – people.

MaShelle Epps is on the Advisory Board and the Business Development Representative to build a strong presence for the program in the Atlanta market. The Epps Agency partners with small to mid sized companies who unlike their larger counterparts, often lack the time, resources and expertise to design and implement strategic HR policies.

The Epps Agency’s focus is on delivering an HR optimization strategy that addresses your unique human capital needs in direct alignment with your strategic business goals. We’ll help you develop an infrastructure for best practices that delivers action based solutions that reduce the risk of employee litigation, fosters employee development and enrichment, and maximizes the ROI on your human capital investment. We are committed to developing solid relationships built on trust and designing solutions that deliver measurable and sustainable results.

MaShelle explains how maintaining competitive advantage in today’s marketplace through people is crucial to business success.

For more on Atlanta’s Best and Brightest, visit Atlanta’s Best and Brightest

Form more on The Epps Agency, visit www.theeppsagency.com

Twitter: @MaShelleEpps

ASTD Workplace Learning Special Today’s Focus is on Mobile Learning with Laurie Genevish and Larry Brambrut

May 10, 2012 by angishields

Atlanta Business Radio

ASTD Workplace Learning Special Today's Focus is on Mobile Learning with Laurie Genevish and Larry Brambrut

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Today we had a special ASTD Workplace Learning Edition of Atlanta Business Radio with a focus on mobile learning. Our guests today are leaders in the mobile learning space.

Laurie Genevish/The Performance Difference

Laurie serves as CEO of The Performance Difference. The Performance Difference is an organization that assists companies in achieving their business goals by building employee growth in specific skills based on the company’s business drivers. By providing a holistic approach that encompasses – determining skill gaps, comprehensive instructional objectives and analysis and selection of the best delivery modality, a learning environment is created that ensures the knowledge is implemented and carried forward. They have provided solutions for clients in various industries including – financial, healthcare, telecommunications, automotive, restaurant, software and services.

Laurie Genevish is a skilled performance improvement professional with more than 15 years of assessment and learning experience. Her extensive expertise encompasses strategic development, design, implementation and facilitation of technical, employee and management development programs.

Laurie served as Instructional Content Manager at InfoMentis. She was responsible for overseeing the design, development and project management of sales focused performance improvement materials. Designed and developed on premise and web based client programs, customized to individual business needs, based on client consultation. Consulted directly with clients on learning needs and objectives, ensuring the business need was satisfied.

As a manager of Global Professional Development at Manhattan Associates Laurie was responsible for strategy, design, implementation, and evaluation of all global training programs for over 1,700 employees. In addition, Laurie partnered with the CEO to develop and implement an Executive Leadership program. She also designed and implemented several programs focused on management development to coach and build the skills of front line and middle management and on-boarding to help integrate new employees into the company culture.

Laurie’s background includes extensive experience in developing and managing corporate training programs for large organizations such as Transamerica Insurance & Investments and Kinko’s. She began her career working for North Carolina State University as the Assistant Director of Parents Association/Annual Fund Development Coordinator and with the March of Dimes as a Community Director credited with improving fundraising goals by 200%.

Laurie is a member of the American Society of Training and Development (ASTD) both nationally and in Atlanta. With the Atlanta ASTD chapter she has served as Chair for the Corporate Training Special Interest Group and Project Manager for Community Involvement.

Laurie is a certified Harrison Assessment (HA) distributor and coach. Laurie earned a bachelors degree in Speech Communications and Marketing.

Larry Brambrut/VeryMobileApps

Larry is the 2012 Vice President of Technology at Greater Atlanta ASTD and has over 30 years experience in manufacturing, and the implementation and training of software applications. Applications include iOS applications and development (iPhone, iPad), ERP, Knowledge Management, Collaboration and Search. Larry is also the Founder and Creative Leader of VeryMobileApps.

Larry is an iOS developer with eight apps in the app store and has several mobile learning prototypes, one of which is being readied for sale. Mobile Learning is now a focus of his business. He is an excellent instructional designer developer, technical writer and trainer.

Larry volunteers to teach basic computer skills to seniors as part of Cobb County Computers4Seniors, Habitat for Humanity and other non-profits. He also helps develop the training materials.

Chris Brannon, Esq. Talks about Protecting Care and Preserving Assets

May 10, 2012 by angishields

Eugeria

Chris Brannon, Esq. Talks about Protecting Care and Preserving Assets

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A rare native of Georgia, Chris Brannon grew up in Gwinnett County, and went on to attend The University of Georgia. After graduating from UGA, Chris pursued his dream to be an attorney by attending law school at Ole Miss. Chris is a founding partner in the law practice of Duhon & Brannon, LLC. Mr. Brannon is a member of the National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys, the Georgia Bar Association and the Atlanta Bar Association.

After doing transactional work for a number of years, Chris wanted to focus his practice more specifically. As and elder law attorney, Chris’ job is to protect his clients’ quality of care and help preserve their assets. As such, Chris is an expert in the areas of veterans benefits and Medicaid. To find out more, visit his website at www.duhonbrannon.com, email him at chris@duhonbrannon.com, or call him directly at (678) 538-6697.

We want to thank Griswold Home Care for sponsoring today’s show. Griswold Home Care has been a preferred provider of high quality, affordable in-home senior care in Atlanta for 20 years. Griswold Home Care has offices in more than 175 markets nationwide.

David Van Tassel Holiday Inn Downtown Centennial Park

May 10, 2012 by angishields

Southern Hospitality

David Van Tassel Holiday Inn Downtown Centennial Park

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David Van Tassel Holiday Inn Downtown Centennial Park Sales Manager and Sales and Marketing Coordinator Lakinna Shuller talk about the Holiday Inn Downtown Centennial Park, Centrally Located in Downtown Atlanta

Nestled in the heart of the city and surrounded by top attractions, the modern accommodations of the Holiday Inn® Atlanta Downtown – Centennial Park hotel is a great place for family, business and group travelers.

With a central location in the Atlanta downtown area, our hotel’s the perfect choice for travelers with close proximity to top spots like Centennial Olympic Park, and the world’s largest aquarium, Georgia Aquarium, World of Coca-Cola, the CNN Center and Philips Arena just a short walk.

Whether it’s a business trip or a vacation, the hotel’s free high-speed, Wi-Fi access keeps you connected.

Seasons Bar and Grill, state-of-the-art Fitness Center and fun in the sun outdoor pool.

When it comes to a stay in the Atlanta downtown area, our hotel’s accommodations offer genuine value to our guests.

101 Andrew Young International Boulevard, Atlanta, GA 30303

http://www.holidayinn.com/hotels/us/en/atlanta/atlib/hoteldetail

http://www.holidayinn.com/hotels/us/en/reservation

404-524-5555

For all the amenities and a lot of Southern Hospitality, follow and be-friend David and Lakinna at The Holiday Inn Downtown Centennial Park

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Chattman Johnson – CEO, J&K Distribution and Consulting, Ltd.

May 10, 2012 by angishields

BRX National

Chattman Johnson - CEO, J&K Distribution and Consulting, Ltd.

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Mr. Johnson’s core capabilities are in finance and commercial real estate. He was in China on business relating to commercial real estate when one of his partners there asked for help importing several American pet food products to China. So the business started strictly as a distribution company in 2004. After 2007 Mr. Johnson and his brother, a veterinarian, decided to formulate and sell their own brand of pet food. Benchmark has plans for cat food and a new website in the near future.

The group goes on to discuss the issue of increasing food quality through better packaging rather than more preservatives, assembling an advisory board, business opportunities overseas, and gaining access to the American big box stores. Mr. Chattman also speaks on his professional inspirations and family history of entrepreneurship. Find out more at www.benchmarkpetproducts.com.