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Curated Collection Of The Best Interviews From Our Sandy Springs Studio





High Velocity Radio Interviews Tag Education Collaborative Executive Director, Michael Robertson and Chairman, Dan McDade

ABOUT TAG EDUCATION COLLABORATIVE (TAG ED)

Mission Statement: Strengthen Georgia’s future workforce by uniting Technology Association of Georgia (TAG) resources with leading education initiatives while emphasizing science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM).

Background: Formerly The TAG Foundation, The TAG Education Collaborative is a 501c3 non-profit organization which was formed by the Technology Association of Georgia in 1999. In 2009, the organization’s name was changed to The TAG Education Collaborative to facilitate a rebranding that would enable it to be a catalyst for Georgia’s K-12 education system to become a leaders and innovator for STEM related education.

The STEM Challenge in Georgia: “We are not producing, in this country, the United States of America, enough young people going into science, technology, and engineering – the fields that are going to be essential for entrepreneurship and innovation in the 21st century” (Thomas Friedman: The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the 21st Century, 2005) Georgia, with its growing technology community, needs to enhance, upgrade and develop new activities, processes and programs to, not only, raise the quality of schools in general, but equally important, elevate the effectiveness of schools to produce more students pursuing STEM specific majors in institutions of higher education and ultimately STEM related careers.

A few points of concern:

1. In Georgia, the number of high school non-graduates in 2007 was 28,842. The lost lifetime earnings for this class of drop-outs are estimated to be more than $15 billion.

2. In 2007, only 60% of Georgia’s Hispanic students and 63% of economically disadvantaged students graduated from high school.

3. In 2008, over 4,000 new teachers were certified in Georgia, only 8 of these were chemistry teachers and 3 were physics teachers.

4. Georgia’s science and technology talent is rapidly approaching retirement age and our schools are not producing the required level of STEM talent to replace them.

Strategy: Establish the TAG Education Collaborative as the preeminent vehicle and clear catalyst through which the TAG community broadly participates in community service through leading STEM education initiatives, uniting TAG community service interests and resources with the organizations best equipped to drive success.

Key Initiatives:

  1. Ensure that all TAG Premier Members fully understand the TAG Education Collaborative role and value proposition. Work with each of these Member companies to understand their community service goals and, when possible, influence these goals to focus on STEM education initiatives.
  2. Identify and “certify” a leading group of STEM education initiatives which will be leveraged to fulfill the community service objectives of the TAG Premier Member companies.
  3. Work with the TAG Premier Member companies to connect them with the most relevant STEM education initiatives.
  4. Create awareness of the importance of STEM and design and implement a community vehicle that companies use to match their service programs with relevant initiatives. This includes facilitation of volunteer opportunities and donations, both financial and in-kind.
  5. Expand to the broader TAG community once a proper number of the TAG Premier Member companies are participating in STEM initiatives.

 

High Velocity Interviews Ryan Magnon: VP Quality West Paces Hotel Group / Capella Hotels And Resorts

Ryan Magnon: The West Paces Hotel Group

Ryan Magnon is Vice President of Quality for The West Paces Hotel Group. His current responsibilities include oversight of global customer and employee satisfaction, service excellence training, process management and improvement, change management, and quality leadership training for all brands within the company. Ryan also consults with outside organizations and companies on applying the service and quality principles that have enabled growth and customer loyalty.

Ryan has a track record of success including his service as a Quality Officer in the U.S. Air Force and selection to US Air Force Flight School. As a Quality Officer, he implemented a number of successful Quality initiatives as a Six Sigma Black Belt, in areas such as flight operations, logistics, and medical services.

He then applied the same skills and expertise within the commercial real estate industry at Prosero, an e-procurement solutions provider, assisting property owners and retail management companies like Trizec Properties and Cushman and Wakefield by improving their purchasing strategy and supply chain processes.

He then joined the management team that established the first supply chain consortium for the tire manufacturing industry, RubberNetwork, saving its member companies millions annually and vastly improving service efficiency.

Ryan assisted companies like Michelin, Goodyear, Continental and Cooper Tire with their processes and service delivery. Ryan graduated from Georgia Tech with a BS in Management.

He currently serves on the Board of the US Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Foundation and is a senior member of the American Society for Quality. Ryan has spoken on the topic of Service Quality for organizations like Net Promoter, Aflac and American Society for Quality.

High Velocity Interviews Debbi Shapiro, Diana Renton, Brenda Joiner, and Lisa Calhoun

Henderson Shapiro was established in 1994 in an effort to provide marketing and related business services in a non-traditional agency setting and when Jill Peck became a partner the firm rebranded as Henderson Shapiro Peck. HSP is located in Roswell, Georgia and has about 20 employees.

Henderson Shapiro Peck is a relationship driven, award winning marketing and business support company. The comprehensive scope of services include strategic planning, consumer and B2B marketing campaigns (creative, media, public relations, research) start-up business strategy and execution services and collateral development. In addition, the agency develops sales programs, promotions, and incentive programs. Some Henderson Shapiro areas of practice include health care and related fields, communications/technology, transportation and non profit.

Henderson Shapiro accomplishments include: being awarded the 1996 Coca-Cola Olympic City marketing roll-out initiative, recognized in 2007 by Working Mother Magazine as one of the Top 50 Small Businesses for working moms, self-publishing The Common Thread; a book highlighting 35 years of the Peachtree Road Race t-shirt as well as 21 awards for outstanding creative for clients including Intelliverse, GreenGuard, Georgia Pacific, Litchfield Research, Prevent Child Abuse Georgia, Hadassah, The Council on Alcohol and Drugs and others.

Diana Renton has served in various sales and marketing positions in the Healthcare Industry, and has an MBA from Georgia State University. Diana became a Long Term Care Specialist after experiencing two events in her immediate family. Her expertise in Long Term Care insurance with the major carriers enables her to help others put a plan in place to avoid becoming a burden to their families, maintain their independence, and protect their retirement assets.

Brenda Joiner has spent the majority of her career in the insurance industry in sales and marketing and currently. Her career includes 22 years at major health insurers where her responsibilities included sales and marketing management and benefit plan design for large and small companies and individuals. For the past 11 years, she has specialized in long term care planning.

She currently helps more than 1600 people with long term care planning and has a $1.5 million dollar book of business in long term care. She believes that long term care insurance should be designed to fit the needs and budget of each individual with whom she meets. Some is better than none because some gives a family time to plan whereas none invokes crises management.

Impassioned by a vision of a better marketing agency, Lisa Calhoun has developed Write2Market into a global authority on creating recognizable industry leadership. She is proud to have helped dozens of companies break their first Wall Street Journal article and reap the rewards of recognition from there forward.

Relied on by top-performing CEOs as their publicity council, Lisa is no stranger to
entrepreneurship. She was raised in her family’s printing business and later
pursued a degree in professional writing from Baylor University on National Merit
Scholarship–while using her dorm fax machine to run a small ad agency. She
graduated summa cum laude in 1994 and later worked in financial services
marketing with BBDO and Ogilvy Worldwide in Manhattan.

After eight years running fast-growth sponsorships, national events and trade
journals in the financial services space, Lisa received her MBA from University of
Texas with honors in 2003, the same year she launched Write2Market. The firm
has been recognized by Wall Street Journal, Inc., Entrepreneur, and USA Today
for its innovative approach to publicity. Lisa is also a frequent guest columnist,
speaker and author, appearing at local business conferences as well as national
speaking opportunities such as National Speakers Association on a regular
basis. She is president elect of the Atlanta Chapter board of Entrepreneur’s
Organization, a global network of 7,000 entrepreneurs in 38 countries.

High Velocity Interviews Lisa Romine & Team With Entrepreneur Advisors

Entrepreneur Advisors

Today we shined the spotlight on Executive Director Lisa Romine, and her team from Cliff Oxford’s Entrepreneur Advisors . . .

Listen in as we learn about their upcoming Symposium (May 20, 2011 — featuring Governor John Y. Brown Jr. and Starr Hall), discuss their unique approach to serving the medical profession, and explore the challenges of today’s entrepreneur.

Having launched a three-time Inc. 500 Fastest Growing Company to endowing Emory University’s top-10 ranking Executive MBA program, W. Cliff Oxford is bridging the gap between Harvard and hard knocks. Currently presiding over the fastest-growing entrepreneurial education company, Entrepreneur Advisors, Inc, Oxford brings talent and experience to entrepreneurial industry. Today, his experience, expertise, and knowledge are highly sought after making him the leader in entrepreneur education.

Lisa Romine has over twenty years of sales and marketing experience in financial services, real estate, hospitality and consumer products. She is responsible for the overall administrative functions of E.A. and coordinates symposiums and other member events.