Inside Memphis Business October/November 2015

O C T/ N O V 2 0 1 5 | V O L U M E I X | N U M B E R 7

The 2015

INNOVATION AWARDS

Dr. Lisa Jennings UTHSC

Supplement to Memphis magazine

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For Katosha, there was never a doubt.

From the age of seven, she knew she wanted to be a doctor, and that’s exactly what happened.

She believed in herself, and needed a partner with the confidence to do the same.

See Katosha’s story at my.triumphbank.com

The My Triumph campaign exists to spotlight everyday people fulfilling their dreams. These are our customers, and these are their stories of triumph.

What’s your triumph?

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02 2015

project location client size project type

Eye Specialty Group Memphis, TN Healthcare Realty 6,323 sf Healthcare

100 Peabody Place, Memphis, TN 38103 • 901.260.7370 • www.belzconstruction.com

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CONSTRUCTION

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$

2.7 Billion

26,700

to the State Economy

Jobs Across Tennessee

www.uthsc.edu The University of Tennessee is an EEO/AA/Title VI/Title IX/Section 504/ADA/ADEA institution in the provision of its education and employment programs and services.

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fe a t u r e s OCTOBER / NOVEMBER 2015

32

VOLUME IX | NUMBER 7

The Fogelman College of Business & Economics

34

COLUMNS 4

••• B Y

6

R IC H A R D

J .

••• B Y

A L L E Y

D O U G

••• B Y

C A R P E N T E R

B I L L

••• B Y

PA R K S

K E N

••• B Y

S T E O R T S

D R .

D O U G L A S

••• B Y

S C A R B O R O

O C T/ N O V 2 0 1 5 | V O L U M E I X | N U M B E R 7

The 2015

O C T/ N O V 2 0 1 5 | V O L U M E I X | N U M B E R 7

The 2015

L A R R Y

WAY N E

L E Y E S

O C T/ N O V 2 0 1 5 | V O L U M E I X | N U M B E R 7

The 2015

INNOVATION

INNOVATION

Chuck Dunn

Dr. Lisa Jennings

Brett Norman & Clayton Plymill

Anne Pitts

AWARDS

AWARDS

UTHSC

L E E L O Y

O C T/ N O V 2 0 1 5 | V O L U M E I X | N U M B E R 7

The 2015

INNOVATION

Tru-D SmartUVC

C O L B E R T

C O U R T N E Y

INNOVATION AWARDS

M U R TA U G H

26 M U S I C

12 S C A R B O R O F A R E ••• B Y

F R A N K

25 L A W

10 V I S I B L E M U S I C C O L L E G E ••• B Y

M U R P H R E E

24 E D U C A T I O N

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY ••• B Y

T H O M A S

23 S P O R T S

MEMPHIS BIKE SHARE ••• B Y

8

22 R E A L E S T A T E

FROM THE EDITOR

AWARDS

The Levitt Shell

AgSmarts

Supplement to Memphis magazine

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ON THE COVER(S): Each of our four Innovation Awards winners grace the cover of this issue of Inside Memphis Business.

PHOTOGRAPHS BY LARRY KUZNIEWSKI

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DEPARTMENTS 14 T H E H O T S H E E T 18 A P P O I N T M E N T B O O K 20 M E M P H I S B E A T 28 P O W E R P L A Y E R S 55 L E A D E R S H I P 58 C O M M U N I T Y P A R T N E R S H I P S 60 T H E O F F I C E 63 I N S I D E T H E A R C H I V E S

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Memphis’ incubators are heating up

64 M A D E I N M E M P H I S

OCTOBER / NOVEMBER 2015 | INSIDE MEMPHIS BUSINESS.COM |

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F R O M

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B Y

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J.

A L L E Y

The constant effort to improve INSIDEMEMPHISBUSINESS.COM EDITOR CREATIVE DIRECTOR MANAGING EDITOR COPY EDITOR EDITORIAL CONTRIBUTORS

ADVERTISING ART DIRECTOR GRAPHIC DESIGNERS PHOTOGRAPHY BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT DIRECTOR

Richard J. Alley Brian Groppe Frank Murtaugh Michael Finger Doug Carpenter, Larry Colbert, Madeline Faber, Katherine Barnett Jones, Wayne Leeloy, Courtney Leyes, Sally Lyon, Thomas Murphree, Bill Parks, Douglas Scarboro, Ken Steorts, Eileen Townsend, Lance Wiedower, Lesley Young Christopher Myers Dominique Pere, Bryan Rollins Larry Kuzniewski Jeffrey A. Goldberg

ADVERTISING REPRESENTATIVE

March Gates

ADVERTISING OPERATIONS DIRECTOR

Margie Neal

PUBLISHED BY CONTEMPOR ARY MEDIA , INC .

CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER

Kenneth Neill

CHIEF OPERATIONS OFFICER

Molly Willmott

BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT DIRECTOR EDITORIAL DIRECTOR ADVERTISING DIRECTOR CONTROLLER EVENTS MANAGER

Jeffrey A. Goldberg Bruce VanWyngarden Penelope Huston Ashley Haeger Jackie Sparks-Davila

MARKETING AND COMMUNICATIONS MANAGER

Kendrea Collins

EMAIL MARKETING MANAGER

Britt Ervin

DISTRIBUTION MANAGER IT DIRECTOR RECEPTIONIST

Lynn Sparagowski Joseph Carey

In addition to the innovators and innovations themselves, on the following pages we’ll immerse you in the culture that surrounds innovation, the necessary legal issues, and trends leading towards progress in various industries.

You’ll hear from the experts and insiders, and how the Memphis branch of the St. Louis Federal Reserve fosters innovative ideas, what Memphis incubators are warming up local startups, the importance of protecting intellectual property, and how local colleges and universities are working to grow the next generation of great thinkers and innovators.

For the awards themselves, we turned once again to our panel of judges — experts in their fields of marketing, engineering, entrepreneurism, and communications — who carefully considered the nominations before meeting for a rousing

D I G

D E E P

F O R

discussion. This is the best part, really, of putting this issue together. It’s a lively gathering as the judges ask questions, expound, argue (in a decidedly professional and courteous manner), champion, reconsider, and reevaluate.

What we’re left with (after any number of follow-up e-mails, of course) is what you’ll find beginning on page 34: Four of the top innovations in the worlds of healthcare, nonprofit, bioscience, and agriculture found in Memphis, and the individuals who know that innovation is the constant act of improving.

Thank you to Dr. Rajiv Grover and the Fogelman College of Business & Education, each of our passionate judges, and all of you who wrote in to nominate products, ideas, and people. It’s for you, reader, that we continue to strive for a better product.

M E M P H I S

Shawna Gardner

Inside Memphis Business is published six times a year by Contemporary Media, Inc., 460 Tennessee Street, P.O. Box 1738, Memphis, TN 38101 © 2015, telephone: 901-5219000. For subscription information, call 901-575-9470. All rights reserved.

Periodicals postage paid at Memphis, TN. Postmaster: send address changes to Inside Memphis Business, P.O. Box 1738, Memphis, TN 38101. Opinions and perspectives expressed in the magazine are those of the authors, and do not necessarily represent the views of the ownership or management.

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Welcome to our third annual Inside Memphis Business Innovation Awards issue. Last year’s was the first I worked on as new editor of the magazine, so it’s another sort of celebration for me as I hold this final product in my hand. And what a year it’s been as we redesigned the layout, welcomed a new stable of contributors, and, of course, changed the name of the magazine — we’ve innovated and reinvigorated where we could, when we could, in a constant effort to improve the magazine for you.

A 2012 survey conducted by The Chronicle of Philanthropy ranked Memphis second in that magazine’s list of per-capita charitable contributions for America’s 50 most-populous metro areas. Memphisarea residents and businesses give over $700 million to charity annually.

Because of this, Inside Memphis Business in 2015 started working together with local companies to highlight the good work being done in our community. This is our “Dig Deep for Memphis” partnership program. During 2015, we matched every advertising full page purchased by our partners with a donated page for the charitable organization of their choice.

We are very pleased with the “Dig

Deep” program and look to expand it in 2016. For further information, contact neill@contemporary-media.com.

In the meantime, please join me in thanking our three 2015 Partners — Triumph, CBRE Memphis, and FedEx — for their support of philanthropy in the Mid-South, and their support for Inside Memphis Business.

—Kenneth Neill

INSIDE MEMPHIS BUSINESS.COM | OCTOBER / NOVEMBER 2015

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Bike share works to reach the future It’s an image you may have seen if you watch any Olympic or professional cycling event — dozens of riders so close together that it seems impossible for them to make progress. But in reality, they’re all working together, making the effort easier, keeping each other safe. That image reflects the way Memphians have been coming together to reshape our city over the last decade, and it’s the picture that comes to my mind whenever I consider the possibilities of a bike share system in Memphis.

Cooper-Young. Even pedaling from one side I assembled the team behind Explore of the city to the other is feasible; thanks to Bike Share after seeing the dramatic effects the Greenline and bike lanes, you could go these programs have had in cities from from seeing the Peabody ducks to the Shelby Philadelphia to Kailua, Hawaii. I’ll admit Farms buffalo in about an hour, and get to that, while I fully supported the concept, I enjoy a lot more of the scenery along the way. didn’t initially think I was the typical bike Research shows that share user, but as I’ve gotbicyclists are more likely to ten out on our prototype shop at stores they ride by bikes and explored the city, “BIKE SHARE ISN’T JUST A than those they drive by.

I see the huge potential NEW IDEA FOR MEMPHIS, IT I’d wager that they’re also for this system. Bike share more likely to talk to people isn’t just about putting IS A WAY TO UNLEASH NEW they ride by, engage in more bikes on the road. I IDEAS ALL OVER MEMPHIS.” community issues they ride am motivated to bring this by, and become active in events they ride by. amenity to Memphis because it reinforces Biking allows an openness to your surroundthe natural ties that already exist in our city, ings that isn’t possible in any other form of ties we often overlook. Both physically and wheeled transportation, while also providing philosophically, we’re closer than we think. a healthy, eco-friendly, time-flexible means Explore Bike Share has spent the last few of getting where you need to go. Bike share months meeting with people throughout isn’t just a new idea for Memphis, it is a way this community to discuss what they hope to unleash new ideas all over Memphis. to see in a bike share system. At every Memphis is defined by our resilience meeting, residents were thinking about and innovation, but it can be easy to focus each other’s welfare. Memphians are keenly so closely on our own efforts that we don’t aware that we’re all in this together, yet we notice those around us. If we just look up, can feel hemmed in by our self-imposed and we’ll see that our friends and neighbors structural separations. Bike share gives us an are right there next to us, all working to opportunity to break down those barriers. keep moving forward. Thriving as a city One of our biggest obstacles is geography depends on us celebrating our strengths or, more accurately, our perception of it. and using them to reach our common goals.

Because Memphis had decades of growth There are thousands of us looking to the that occurred without consideration to future, and we’re closer than we think. non-motorized transportation, it can feel like the distance between any two points is Doug Carpenter is founder of Explore Bike larger because it requires getting in a car. On Share and principal of doug carpenter & a bike, these distances shrink — we realize associates, llc., an advertising, public relations, it’s only a 20-minute ride from Tiger Lane and consulting firm in Downtown Memphis. to FedExForum, or from Overton Park to Bike share systems offer on-demand rentals of bicycles throughout cities from a network of bike stations. Explore Bike Share is a project being led by the public relations and marketing firm doug carpenter & associates to explore the feasibility of implementing a bike share program in Memphis. Learn more: e x p l or ebik e sh a r e .c om

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INSIDE MEMPHIS BUSINESS.COM | OCTOBER / NOVEMBER 2015

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G U E S T

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It is one thing to come up with the next great mousetrap; it is a far more complex issue to not only commercialize that mousetrap, but to reap at least some of those profits.

Copyrights protect the expression of an Imagine, however, a world that remains idea, not the idea itself. Such expression may stagnant, without any new “mousetraps.” A be engendered within a painting, a novel, a world where we live with the same music musical composition, a textbook, a software every decade, the same black-and-white program, a sculpture, choreography, basically television sets, and no means to differentiate anything that pertains not in a specific idea, the source of the same product types; a or a utilitarian concept, but to an expressive world without intellectual property rights. means that has been transferred from one’s In other words, imagine creating the first mind to a tangible medium. Such rights big-screen plasma television, trying to bring last for 70 years past the creator’s passing, it to market, and then every other company or, if a work made for hire (such as a corpocopies your television, uses your brand rate-owned copyright), name, and sells to the for 95 years from date of same consumers. Imagine writing the next great COPYRIGHTS HAVE ALLOWED creation. These rights are also exclusive, granting the American novel, only to see GEORGE LUCAS TO SELL HIS owner reproduction, publiit published everywhere cation, licensing, and other without any way to stop it.

STAR WARS KINGDOM FOR protections, ostensibly Why would you even try BILLIONS TO DISNEY. allowing for vast control to innovate? What benover such expression for long periods of efits would you possibly receive? time. Copyrights have allowed George Lucas Our Founding Fathers understood the to sell his Star Wars kingdom for billions to need to provide incentives to further our Disney, J.D. Salinger to control publication collective knowledge base, whether in and dissemination of his written works, and terms of inventions or artistic creations. Our John Lennon to still derive millions every Constitution specifically empowers Congress year for his heirs from royalties on his music. to provide such protections, outlining Trademarks (and service marks) protect the importance innovation brings to our the consumer from selecting undesirable market-based economy. With the Commerce products in the marketplace. With source Clause, Congress has further allowed for identification through the use of logos, federal trademark (and similar) laws to take fanciful word marks, even colors and sounds, effect, as well. At this level, intellectual a company may market a product (or service) property rights, whether patent, copyright, in a specific manner, thereby allowing the or trademark in effect, were granted to purchaser a clear distinction in appearance allow for protections for innovations. and effect. Such trademark rights last as Generally speaking, utility patents protect long as they are commercially used, basically the utilitarian and functional aspects of an in perpetuity, providing highly effective idea, whether a compound, composition, differentiation in the market place. synthetic living organism, or method of Innovations are everywhere, and many using, manufacturing, etc. Through sharing people come up with myriad improvements your inventive knowledge with the world on everyday objects, write their own stories (effectively through a patent application), and music, and constantly find creative the government offers a limited monopoly to outlets. To monetize those innovations, exclude others from practicing your patented knowing what, how, and why to protect them invention for a certain duration. This excluis imperative. The tools are there, provided sive right allows the owner control of manuby the government, to turn those creative facture, sale, import, export, and licensing of dreams into reality, not only in one’s own the subject matter of the claimed patent (for mind, but in the commercial world, as well.

20 years from patent application filing date).

Without patent protections, the proliferation Bill Parks is a principal with Hulsey Hunt of Apple iPhones or Microsoft Windows, & Parks, and has more than 25 years in or high-level antibiotics, for that matter, the field of intellectual property law. would most likely have not been created.

INSIDE MEMPHIS BUSINESS.COM | OCTOBER / NOVEMBER 2015

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Visible Innovation Rock-and-roll, higher education, and the church exist in three worlds that rarely meet. Christian musicians find their way into the small Christian music scene, play church shows, get record deals from tiny labels, and navigate the ever-present specter of “too much or too little” mention of Jesus Christ. It’s a minefield for a young guitarist.

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Spiritually, Visible operates with a constant By the time I launched Visible Music and relentless focus on the development College in Memphis in 2000, its concept of each individual student. Our dedicated had been rejected by several colleges as staff and community of students work too edgy or not needed. Music classes were together in music and ministry beyond standardized in classical music theory and the Sunday morning service. We call students could choose between an impersonthis “being Visible” outside the church al education at a big school or a small church walls: in service to our campus cities, school with a great choir but not much else. appreciating what is beautiful and where I was a guitarist, songwriter, and founding we can effect change, and sharing music member of the Christian band Skillet, who in a way that impacts students’ lives and had a vision to change the possibilities those outside the campus and the church. for Christian musicians in college.

Professionally, we innovate by our very A true community built around the spirit academic philosophy: we are unafraid of of innovation within music education, by its being vocationally minded from day one. nature, breaks ground. The energy required Our thriving record label is to stay in that groundbreaking internally run by students, and mode, of course, is masAfter a series of moves over our curriculum places students sive — particularly when the past 15 years, Visible in bands within the first days considering the resources of Music College has found its of the fall semester. They work a poor, urban, private school home downtown at 200 hands-on: recording, licensing in a niche field. Maintaining Madison Avenue. The school songs, auditioning, and interan academic environment in recently kicked off a $4 milviewing. We invite industry inwhich students can learn and lion capital campaign with siders to engage with students practice all music styles, and plans to expand its campus as classroom speakers and do so in a spiritual setting, is with a five-story building a big investment of time and containing more than 60 stu- encourage faculty to explain personal mentorship energy. dio-style apartments housing music profitability, utilizing And yet, for the past 15 more than 120 students when partnerships with industry legends and high energy years, Visible has continued it opens in the fall of 2016. music business professionals. to break ground. From our Last, but certainly not least, Visible all-Mac campus (2003) to our sister record continues to innovate academically: through label (Madison Line Records, founded in our accreditation, the unique way we 2011), Visible innovates regularly in four areas: schedule and pace our degree programs, the global, spiritual, professional, and academic. constant connectivity between academic Globally, the Visible Music College departments, the engagement of all staff vision is to launch physical teaching sites in real world programming, and young at around the world, each with 144 students heart, passionate, degreed professionals from dozens of countries, studying music working daily with students in the model. in an intentionally small, global artist There are no fraternities or sororities, community while connected with a network no general education majors at Visible. of campuses. So far, we’ve planted these Just serious students with enormous roots in Memphis, Germany, Chicago, and talent studying everything from classical to Dallas, while also launching programming hip-hop, in an environment that provides in California, India, and Eastern Europe. a high level of academic mentorship and While our campus communities remain provides the vocational experience that will intimate and mentor-driven, we work equip them to work in the music industry off-campus to nurture relationships with from the day they collect their degree. regional music scenes, local studios, clubs, and churches of every kind in each city. By Ken Steorts is founder and president design, students can flow between Visible’s of Visible Music College. various locations and experience the world.

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S C A R B O R O

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What do an Air Force veteran who served three tours of duty in Afghanistan and three in Iraq, and a 13-year-old bowtie aficionado have in common?

Air Force veteran Jerome Hardaway and teenager Moziah Bridges are founders of Memphis-based start-ups who were invited in early August to the first-ever White House Demo Day, an event designed to showcase inclusive entrepreneurship from around the country.

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Innovation as investment

hILliPS

Ty E diR

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are experts in economic and community Hardaway is the founder of FRAGO, a development. They represent nonprofit start-up nonprofit that provides computer organizations, financial institutions, programming skills training to help veterans universities, government, and foundations, succeed in the digital economy and transition and help keep St. Louis Fed President James back into civilian life. Bridges started his Bullard and the Bank informed about relevant handcrafted bowtie company, Mo’s Bows, issues in the District, as well as suggest when he was 9 with the help of his mother ways to support local development efforts. and grandmother. Another Memphian invited This year, Memphis-area leaders on the to the White House that day was Brittany council include Eric Robertson, president Fitzpatrick, CEO and founder of MentorMe, of Community LIFT a cloud-based mentoring and River City Capital program platform.

Investment Corp.; These Memphis residents Deborah Temple, senior reflect a growing diversity THE ST. LOUIS FED ALSO manager, entrepreneurof innovative spirit across a HOLDS AND PARTICIPATES IN ship, Communities variety of entrepreneurial, A NUMBER OF CONFERENCES Unlimited, Inc.; Keith civic, and government secTurbett, community tors in the Memphis region.

AND PROGRAMS DESIGNED TO development manager While Memphis is resilBRING THOUGHT LEADERS AND at SunTrust Bank for the ient and remains strong in POLICY MAKERS TOGETHER. Memphis and Nashville the logistics, transportation, regions; and John Bucy, education, and healthcare executive director, Northwest Tennessee services sectors, with unemployment dipping Development District, Martin, Tennessee. to pre-Great Recession levels, innovation The St. Louis Fed also holds and participates has to remain an integral part of the region’s in a number of conferences and programs future development strategies. Public-private designed to bring thought leaders and policy commitments such as Memphis Fast Forward, makers together. This past March, we and combined with accelerator and incubator several regional Feds co-hosted “Tools toward programs such as Start Co., which runs Market Restoration” at the Chicago Fed, the Seed Hatchery, Upstart, and Sky High where Memphis-based panelists included programs, and Emerge Memphis, are key to Community LIFT’s Robertson and McLean growing jobs and revitalizing neighborhoods Wilson, principle of Kemmons Wilson, Inc. and communities. So are initiatives like and co-leader of the Crosstown Development MemFix and MemShop, just to name a few.

Project. In addition, the St. Louis Fed hosts The St. Louis Fed’s interest in innovation, as the “Exploring Innovation in Community well as the other 11 Federal Reserve banks in Development” webinar series that connects the Federal Reserve System, is shown through community development professionals with our Community Development offices that are industry experts to hear and discuss the latest engaged in fostering collaboration and proinnovations in developments and initiatives. viding information designed to improve comAnother outstanding resource is fedcommunities and the lives of the people who live munities.org, which brings together in one in them. Our place at the intersection of the website a treasure trove of valuable content and federal government and private financial indata from across the Federal Reserve System. stitutions helps us facilitate relationships with Last but not least, our “Eight from the Eighth” local governments, nonprofits, foundations, podcasts cover a variety of innovative strategies academic institutions, and financing entities. and emerging trends, including an interview Leaders at the St. Louis Fed meet twice with Start Co. founder and CEO Eric Mathews. a year with its Community Development Advisory Council, which is composed of executives from organizations throughout Dr. Douglas Scarboro is Regional Executive/VP of the the St. Louis Fed’s Eighth District who Memphis branch of the St. Louis Federal Reserve Bank.

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The HOT Sheet Advancement Brett A. Schubert has been named a shareholder with the law firm of Martin, Tate, Morrow & Marston, P.C. A native Memphian, Schubert received his law degree in 2003 from the University of Mississippi. He received his undergraduate degree in 2000 from the University of Mississippi and is a graduate of Christian Brothers High School.

Paragon Bank has appointed Kent “Brooks” Moneypeny as Managing Partner and Wealth Advisor of its Wealth Solutions team. Prior to joining Paragon, Moneypeny worked at Morgan Keegan for more than 30 years.

Red Door Wealth Management has announced the addition of Daniel Allen to its team. This marks Red Door’s first new hire of a financial advisor since the firm’s inception in 2010.

Tioga Environmental Consultants has hired two new employees: John Luke Hall will serve as the firm’s first geologist and will handle site assessments, well installation monitoring, and soil and groundwater sampling for industrial and commercial clients; Will Gray, environmental scientist, will be involved in site assessments, sampling events, and facility evaluations.

Charles Tarkington has been named general manager of Wolfchase Galleria, and will be responsible for mall operations, tenant relations, leasing, marketing, business development, security, and customer service.

Kimberly O’Donnell has joined Trezevant as director of resident services. Prior to her new role at Trezevant, Kimberly served as executive director and community relations director for Apple Grove Alzheimer’s Residence in Memphis. Before that, she spent a decade at CRSA, a management, development, and consulting firm for continuing care retirement communities.

Eric Beaty has joined Financial Federal Bank as vice president of commercial banking, where he will focus on establishing and maintaining commercial lending and depository relationships, providing flexible solutions for cash flow needs, business expansion opportunities, and providing general business needs.

The Greater Memphis Chamber announced that Andre Gibson has joined as member services coordinator, the primary liaison for members at the Chamber. Gibson will engage with Chamber membership, made up of 80 percent of small businesses, connecting it to the resources the Chamber 14 |

provides to help businesses grow as well as tools and contacts that address any issues. Additionally, Gibson will assist with programs to recruit and retain Chamber members, as well as providing support on member programs and the Small Business Council task forces. He will also help new members be aware of benefits such as the Affinity Program, which offers exclusive discounts to Chamber members on products and services.

David Shibata, MD, FACS, FASCRS, has been named as the Scheinberg Endowed Chair of Surgery for the University of Tennessee Health Science Center Department of Surgery following a national search. In addition, Shibata will serve as a professor in the department.

R. Lebron Cooper, MD, has been named as chair for the University of Tennessee Health Science Center Department of Anesthesiology.

Appointments Carpenter Art Garden has announced the following new board of directors: Lauren Squires, WMC-TV; Marlon Brown, SOS Builds, youth minsistry; J.R. Futtrell, Young Man University, youth ministry; Danny Valle, Hnedak Bobo Group; Anna Vescovo, attorney; Clark Butcher, owner, Victory Bicycle Studio; Rush Waller, Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital; Peggy Seesel, community volunteer, retired director of arts education, ArtsMemphis; Miki Skeen, educator, community volunteer.

The Memphis City Council has approved the appointment of Michael Keeney, managing shareholder at the Memphis office of Lewis Thomason Law Firm, to the Memphis-Shelby County Airport Authority (MSCAA) Board of Commissioners. Keeney, who was nominated by Shelby County Mayor Mark H. Luttrell Jr., replaces the board position vacated by Jack Sammons, who accepted the position of chief administrative officer for the City of Memphis in May. Keeney will complete Sammons’ term, which will expire on December 31, 2016.

Pinnacle Financial Partners, Inc. announced that Bill Hagerty, co-founder and managing director of private equity investment firm Hagerty Peterson & Company, has been elected to its board of directors.

Lisa A. Lichterman, a shareholder in the Memphis office of Littler, the world’s largest employment and labor law practice representing management, has been elected a Fellow of the College of Labor and Employment Lawyers.

Brandon Edgerson, PharmD, MS, of Lakeland, was installed as the 2015-2016 president of the Tennessee Pharmacists

Association (TPA) Tennessee Society of Health-System Pharmacists (TSHP) at TPA’s 128th annual convention and expo held recently in Murfreesboro.

Matthew Allman, MPAS, PA-C, has been named chair for the University of Tennessee Health Science Center (UTHSC) Department of Physician Assistant Studies. Allman is assuming the position vacated by Linda Reed, EdD, PA. Joining the UTHSC faculty in November 2012, Allman served as clinical coordinator for the PA Studies program until July 2014, when he became the program director. His appointment as department chair and program director became effective on July 1st.

Linda Nichols, PhD, professor in the University of Tennessee Health Science Center (UTHSC) Department of Preventive Medicine in the College of Medicine has been named a 2015 Fellow by the Gerontological Society of America. The recognition, the highest class of membership within the society, is an acknowledgement of outstanding continuing work in gerontology, including research, teaching, administration, public service, practice, and participation in the organization.

Awards William B. Howard, Jr., ChFC, CFP, president of William Howard & Co. Financial Advisors, Inc., a fee-only financial planning and investment advisory firm, has been included in the 2015 list of “Best Financial Advisers for Dentists.”

Harris Shelton Hanover Walsh had 21 lawyers selected for inclusion in The Best Lawyers in America 2016: James L. Kirby, commercial litigation, medical malpractice law — defendants, and construction law “Lawyer of the Year” in Memphis; A. Neal Graham, health care law and tax law; Allison T. Gilbert, real estate law; Barbara B. Lapides, municipal law; Brett Hughes, litigation – insurance; Charles C. Drennon III, corporate law, and mergers and acquisitions law; Edward J. McKenney Jr., employment law, management, litigation, and municipal law; G. Rice Byars Jr., trusts and estates; George T. Wheeler Jr., health care law; J. Max Shelton, health care law; James B. Jalenak, real estate law; James D. Wilson, medical malpractice law — defendants; James R. Newsom III, commercial litigation; e rey ri fin, litigation — health care, medical malpractice law — defendants, personal injury litigation — defendants; John Kevin Walsh, eminent domain and condemnation law; John L. Ryder, bankruptcy and creditor debtor rights/insolvency and reorganization law and litigation — bankruptcy; M. Anderson Cobb Jr., personal injury litigation — defendants and real estate law; Philip G. Kaminsky, real estate law; Steven N. Douglass, bankruptcy and creditor debtor rights/insolvency and reorganization law and litigation — bankruptcy; Susan Callison, trusts and estates; and William W. Dunlap Jr., medical malpractice law — defendants, and personal injury litigation — defendants.

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Lichterman-Loewenberg Foundation • Jill & Ken Steinberg • Mary Lee & Peter Formanek • Dorothy Kirsch • Don Levy • Terry Lynch • Shipp Foundation

This year the Levitt Shell presented more than 50 free concerts in the heart of Midtown, Memphis.

These community-building events were made possible by our extraordinary team of 2015 sponsors and donors.

To find out how you can help keep the music free, visit: levittshell.org/sponsor MUSIC & COMMUNITY IN CONCERT

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The HOT Sheet contin u ed from page 1 4

U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Community Development inancial nstitutions und CD und has certified River City Capital Investment Corporation as a CDFI. This certification makes River City Capital Memphis’ only certified homegrown CD loan fund for small businesses. Through monetary awards and the allocation of tax credits, the CDFI Fund helps promote access to capital and local economic growth in urban and rural low-income communities across the nation.

Waddell and Associates, Inc., an SEC-registered wealth management firm, is pleased to announce that it has been ranked 29th on CNBC’s list of the “Top 100 Fee-Only Wealth Managers” for 2015.

Five entrepreneurial teams have been selected for the 2015 EPIcenter Logistics Innovation Accelerator, which is sponsored by FedEx, and began the 14-week program on August 17th: ◗◗ Burro, from Austin, Texas, is a father and son team who are leveraging the popularity of ridesharing and applying it to local deliveries. ◗◗ LiLoE, from Washington, D.C., is founded by a U.S. Navy veteran who is working on a solution to the doorstep delivery of unattended packages. ◗◗ L7, of Memphis, is developing an online marketplace for consumer-to-consumer shipping options. ◗◗ One Click Ship, from San Francisco, is developing a website that aggregates available shipping options and costs for freight forwarders. ◗◗ Thaddeus Medical Devices, founded by a former Mayo Clinic researcher from Rochester, Minnesota, is developing a device that regulates package temperature.

Fisher & Phillips LLP has announced that two Memphis attorneys have been selected for inclusion in the Best Lawyers of America 2016: Jay Kiesewetter, senior counsel; and Jeff Weintraub, regional managing partner.

National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) Chairman Jane Chu announced 69 Our Town awards totaling almost 5 million through the program’s fifth year of funding. Community LIFT is one of those recommended organizations and will receive $75,000 to fund a music engineer apprenticeship and workshops at the Memphis Slim House. The grant also includes funding for a visioning process for a possible new community artist co-work space in the Soulsville USA neighborhood. The NEA received 275 applications for Our Town this year and made grants ranging from $25,000-$200,000.

Immigration attorney and founding partner of Siskind Susser P.C., Greg Siskind has been selected by his peers for inclusion in the 22nd edition of The Best 16 |

Lawyers in America. This is Siskind’s 10th year to receive this recognition.

The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) announced that the ZeroTo510 Medical Device Accelerator, operated by Memphis Bioworks, and Start Co., both integral parts of EPIcenter, are two of 80 winners of the 2nd annual Growth Accelerator Fund Competition.

Each organization will receive a cash prize of $50,000 from the SBA. The U.S. Small Business Administration awarded Memphis a $50,000 Start Small Model prize in its Startup in a Day Competition. The SBA Startup in a Day initiative aims to make it easier for entrepreneurs to start a business by reducing the amount of time it takes to register and apply for permits and licenses. The Startup in a Day Competition awards prizes to support the development, implementation, and improvement of online tools that will let entrepreneurs learn about the business startup process in their area, including how to register and apply for all required local licenses and permits, in one day or less.

The Mayor’s Institute for Excellence in Government (MIEG) announces it has been awarded $356,560 in federal funds for its Commute Options Travel Demand Management Initiative. The Commute Options team will work with Memphis-area employers to help their employees and students take transit, walk, rideshare, and bicycle to work and school. The $356,560 comes from the Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality grant program managed by the Tennessee Department of Transportation, with a local match of nearly $90,000 from MIEG’s private funders. The project will increase access to transportation options through outreach and incentives, to be piloted with large employers then made available to interested employers in the Memphis area.

Jonathan E. Kaplan, a shareholder in the Memphis office of Littler, the world’s largest employment and labor law practice representing management, has been named the Employment Law – Management “Lawyer of the Year” in Memphis by Best Lawyers in America.

Metropolitan Inter-Faith Association (MIFA) has received a $45,000 contribution to assist with its Meals on Wheels program. The grant was awarded through the Walmart Foundation’s State Giving Program and will help MIFA deliver more than 15,000 extra meals this year, allowing the organization to provide meals for nearly 60 new clients.

DHG Wealth Advisors LLC has been named to CNBC’s 2015 “Top 100 Fee-Only Wealth Management Companies in the United States.” There are 12,575 Registered Investment Advisory firms that manage at least 50 million, and 3,303 RIA’s that manage more than $1 billion.

The University of Tennessee Health Science Center (UTHSC) has made the following announcements of grants and awards: Dr. Cordero-Morales, an assistant professor in the Department of Physiology in the College of Medicine, has received a grant totaling $231,000 from the American Heart Association. The award will be used to support a project titled, “Elucidating the Mechanism of TRPV4 Activation and its Role in Vascular Function.” The funds will be distributed over three years.

The UT Institute for Research, Innovation, Synergy and Health Equity (iRISE) at UTHSC has announced the latest round of grant recipients from its Pilot Translational and Clinical Studies (PTCS) Program. Six UTHSC researchers were chosen out of a competitive field of 2 submissions.

The PTCS Program provides funding and support to further the iRISE goal of promoting clinical and translational science, bringing health care discoveries from “bench to bedside,” and from “bedside to community.” The recipients are: Ilana Graetz, PhD, assistant professor, Department of Preventive Medicine, will receive $75,000 for a project that uses a mobile application to track adverse effects of endocrine therapy for breast cancer treatment; Shalini Narayana, PhD, assistant professor, Department of Pediatrics, will receive $80,000 for her project using transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) to reduce the effects of seizures in patients with refractory epilepsy; Brooke Sanford, PhD, assistant professor, Department of Orthopaedic Surgery and Biomedical Engineering, will receive $47,000 to develop new clinical guidelines for patients to return to unrestricted activity following ACL surgery; Thomas J. Schroeppel, MD, associate professor, Department of Surgery, will receive $50,000 for his project exploring the use of beta-adrenergic blockade to lessen the catecholamine surge (a surge of stress hormones which impair cardiac function) following traumatic brain injuries (TBI) to lower mortality; Nhu Quynh T. Tran, PhD, assistant professor, Department of Preventive Medicine, will receive $75,000 for her project to identify genetic mutations and clinical risk factors associated with recurrent non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) in patients undergoing liver transplantation; and Dahui You, PhD, assistant professor, Department of Pediatrics, will receive $75,000 for her project exploring the pathogenesis of respiratory syncytial virus (RSV).

Marie Chisholm-Burns, PharmD, MPH, MBA, FCCP, FASHP, dean and professor in the College of Pharmacy, received the Paul R. Dawson Award from the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy (AACP) for her research contributions related to health services delivery affecting patient outcomes. The award was bestowed during the recent annual AACP meeting.

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Noma Anderson, PhD, dean of the College of Health Professions, will receive the Honors of the Association Award from the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) during its convention in Denver. She will be presented with the honor during an awards ceremony in November.

UTHSC has been designated a “VETS Campus,” an honorary distinction given to state colleges and universities that effectively foster a supportive environment for veterans and dedicate resources to assist veterans in their transition from military service to postsecondary education. UTHSC is the first in the T ystem to have the designation from the Tennessee Higher Education Commission (THEC). The Tennessee Veterans Education Transition Support (VETS) Act was passed in 2014 by the Tennessee General Assembly, creating the “VETS Campus” status.

Methodist Healthcare

Mayo Clinic

Inked River City Capital Investment Corp., an affiliate of Community LIFT, has announced a $200,000 equity-equivalent investment from Cadence Bank into its Small Business Loan Fund. Through this loan fund, River City Capital strategically provides loans to community development organi ations and for-profit businesses that operate within the targeted neighborhoods of Greater Binghampton, Frayser, and Upper South Memphis.

Campbell Clinic has opened the Campbell Clinic Spine Center, located at 8000 Centerview Parkway in Cordova.

This facility offers comprehensive care for both common and complex disorders of the neck and back.

Shareholders of Magna Bank voted overwhelmingly in favor of merging with Pinnacle Bank, a wholly owned subsidiary of Pinnacle Financial Partners, Inc. Once the merger is complete, Pinnacle will have total assets of more than billion and operate 2 offices in 1 counties, including all four of Tennessee’s urban markets.

Onyx Equities, LLC, a leading private real estate investment, management, and development firm based in oodbridge, ew ersey, has opened a Memphis office. eading the Memphis office will be Claudia Woods, who comes from Cushman akefield Commercial Advisors where she managed a 2, 5, -s uare-foot distressed property that consisted of 25 industrial, flex, and retail buildings.

Now working together for you.

Methodist Healthcare is working with Mayo Clinic by joining the Mayo Clinic Care Network. This means you’re able to stay close to home with your trusted physician, while gaining additional expertise from Mayo Clinic specialists. This collaborative care comes at no added cost to you. And it’s one more way Methodist Healthcare is improving the health of people in the Mid South.

To learn more, visit MethodistHealth.org/Mayo.

The Peabody has added a resort-style, luxury spa called Feathers Spa, offering a variety of upscale spa and salon treatments, including massages, body wraps, loofah scrubs, facials and facial enhancements, wax treatments, manicures and pedicures, hair styling, and make-up application. A highlight among the offerings will be Ashiatsu Barefoot Massage, including a treatment for couples that will be a first in Memphis.

OCTOBER / NOVEMBER 2015 | INSIDE MEMPHIS BUSINESS.COM |

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A P P O I N T M E N T

B O O K

Business events, networking opportunities, continuing education, and cultural highlights for October and November 2015 • • •

C O M P I L E D

B Y

R I C H A R D

J .

A L L E Y

OCTOBER 1

OCTOBER 8

p.m. The Greater Memphis Chamber of Commerce gives members and non-members alike an opportunity for an inside view of the Chamber. You will gain valuable knowledge about the Chamber, network at a high level, meet Chamber leadership, and participate in interactive demonstrations of membership benefits. Come away from Chamber 101 with a clear understanding of the organization’s mission and role in our community, giving you the opportunity to develop a better relationship with Chamber staff and take full advantage of your membership.

22 North Front Street, suite 200.

Parking vouchers provided for the Metro 67 parking garage on Front Street (across from the University of Memphis Law School). For more information, email agibson@ memphischamber.com.

a.m. – noon. CEOs Collaborating with CEOs for Success — You Don’t Need to Be Alone. The CEO Forum is a diverse group of 10 to 12 peers from non-competing small businesses. These top executives/owners meet once a month to confidentially collaborate and support each other with innovative perspectives on topics of common interest. The Forum is facilitated by two SCORE leaders who include retired executives from ortune 500 firms such as FedEx and General Motors, as well as entrepreneurs who have launched, bought, and sold businesses. For more details and registration information please visit scorememphis.org.

CHAMBER 101: 4:00 – 6:00

OCTOBER 1 6TH ANNUAL MEMPHIS ORAL SCHOOL FOR THE DEAF GOLF TOURNAMENT: 11:00 a.m. registration and lunch; 12:30 p.m. shotgun start. Register your team early for a fun afternoon of golf to benefit the children of Memphis Oral School for the Deaf. Enjoy a 4-person scramble with snacks and beverages on the course, contests for great prizes, and a barbecue buffet awards dinner. $150 per player, $600 per 4-person team; sponsorships available from $200 - $5,000.

Cherokee Valley Golf Club in Olive Branch. For more information, contact Carol Kirby at ckirby@mosdkids.org or 758-2228.

18 |

SCORE CEO FORUM: 8:30

OCTOBER 8

fire trucks, children’s activities, and fire safety demonstrations.

Bartlett Station Municipal Center, 5868 Stage Road (at railroad tracks). Adults, $4.00; children ages 7 to 11, $1.00. For more information, call 385-5589.

BUSINESS AFTER HOURS:

OF COMMERCE MONTHLY

5:00 - 7:00 p.m. Enjoy the chance to network with fellow Chamber members in a relaxed atmosphere while gaining firsthand knowledge of the host business. Don’t forget to bring your business cards as there will be plenty of opportunities to exchange them with others; you’ll also want to drop one in the fish bowl for door pri e drawings. Deadline to register/ rsvp is noon, October 16th.

Doc’s Wine, Spirits & More, 6645 Poplar Avenue, Suite 101.

LUNCH MEETING: 11:30 a.m.

- 1:00 p.m. This event begins with networking followed by lunch and a program at noon.

Topic: “State of the County” with guest speaker Mayor Mark Luttrell. Bartlett Performing Arts & Conference Center, 3663 Appling Road.

OCTOBER 15 GERMANTOWN AREA CHAMBER OF COMMERCE

p.m. A celebration of MIFA’s (Metropolitan Inter-Faith Association) 47 years of uniting the community through service.

Presented by SunTrust, Feed the Soul is expected to draw a sell-out crowd of 1,000 for a casual evening of food, friends, and music. Live entertainment by singer Tameka “Big Baby” Goodman, The Soul Therapy Band, and DJ Stan “The Bellringer” Bell of radio station V101 playing favorite tunes.

The Warehouse at 36 East G.E. Patterson. General admission is $45, and tickets may be purchased online at mifa.org or by calling 529-4569.

11:15 a.m. - 1:00 p.m. Speaker is Dr. Jim Downing, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.

Sponsored by AT&T. Networking begins at 11:15 a.m., lunch buffet opens at 11:30 a.m., program begins at noon.

Advance reservations required by noon on Monday prior to the luncheon; $20 for chamber members. Call the Chamber at 755-1200. 1780 Kimbrough Road, Germantown.

32ND ANNUAL PANCAKE BREAKFAST: 7:00 – 11:00 a.m.

All you can eat breakfast with static displays of old and new

OCTOBER 17 A MAGICAL NIGHT AT OVERTON PARK: 6:00 9:00 p.m. The Overton Park Conservancy’s 4th-annual fundraiser transforms the park’s formal gardens into a dramatic celebration with music, drinks, and special treats. Tickets are $100 per person, with all proceeds benefitting the Conservancy’s work to restore and maintain the park. Join as a park member and receive

INSIDE MEMPHIS BUSINESS.COM | OCTOBER / NOVEMBER 2015

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CHAMBER OF COMMERCE

BARTLETT AREA CHAMBER

MEMBERSHIP LUNCHEON:

BARTLETT FIREMAN’S

OCTOBER 20 GERMANTOWN AREA

OCTOBER 13

FEED THE SOUL: 6:00 – 10:00

OCTOBER 10

a $10 discount on your ticket.

Reserve your spot for this festive event at overtonpark. org/magicalnight. For more information, contact Melissa McMasters at 214-5450.

OCTOBER 25 MAKING STRIDES AGAINST BREAST CANCER WALK:

1:30 p.m. registration; 3:00 p.m. start. oin the fight against breast cancer with this 5K walk. Funds raised at this noncompetitive, familyfriendly event enable the American Cancer Society to save lives from breast cancer by investing in groundbreaking research, and by providing free, comprehensive information and support to those touched by the disease; and by helping people take steps to reduce their breast cancer risk or find it early when it’s most treatable.

Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium.

For more information, call the American Cancer Society at 729-3586, contact Tracy McFall at tracy.mcfall@cancer.org, or visit makingstrideswalk.org/ memphistn.

OCTOBER 25 STEP UP FOR DOWN SYNDROME: Noon to 4:00

p.m. Calling on the community to celebrate the abilities and accomplishments of individuals with Down Syndrome. A familyfriendly event with a one-mile fun walk, live entertainment, picnic, children’s activities, and team and individual prizes.

The mission for this event is to join with the community to show that people with Down Syndrome are “more alike than different.” Hosted by The Down Syndrome Association of Memphis & the Mid-South, this event is $10. For more information, contact Martine Hobson at martine.hobson@ dsamemphis.org.

NOVEMBER 21 ADULT TUTOR TRAINING:

10:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m. Literacy Mid-South has adults who are willing and ready to learn, but need a special person in their life to help them. Facilitate learning in the life of an adult who struggles with reading, writing, and math through Literacy Mid-South’s Adult Learning Program. Volunteers are able to serve as facilitators to groups of adults or provide individual, goal-centered tutoring to an adult learner.

Volunteers attend a one-day training that provides the tools for moving adults forward, and commit to meeting two hours once a week for six months. Must be 18 years or older to participate. This event is free. For more information, contact Stacy Early at searly@ literacymidsouth.org.

Let us know about your group’s events at richard@contemporary-media.com.

9/8/15 5:31 PM

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M E M P H I S

Every

HERO needs a

mentor, every mentor needs a GUIDE.

Selected news items you might have missed since our last issue.

7.11

Memphis-based Monogram Foods, a leading manufacturer and marketer of high-quality meat snacks and other food products, purchases Golden County Foods. Based in Plover, Wisconsin, the frozen appetizer manufacturer has an annual revenue of $100 million and employs 550. The purchase of Golden County is expected to boost Monogram’s revenue by 25 percent, up to $500 million; and employment by more than 30 percent, to 2,300. Golden County filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in May.

7.17

Liang Lin and Xiao Dan Chen (Union Group LLC), embattled owners of the Nineteenth Century Club, apply for a $2.17 million building permit with the ffice of Construction Code Enforcement for renovations to the turn-of-the-century home at 1433 Union Avenue. Plans are to turn the 15,800-square-foot structure into a restaurant. Archer Custom Builders is listed as the contractor, Bank of Bartlett has secured the construction loan. Union Group LLC won the home with a $550,000 bid in January of 2013.

7.28

MEMPHIS

PARENT memphisparent.com

20 |

B E A T

Memphis-based Guardsmark is acquired

by Universal Protection Service, a division of Universal Services of America and a portfolio company of Warburg Pincus and Partners Group. Terms of the transaction are not disclosed. Guardsmark is one of the world’s largest security service companies, with over 125 offices serving more than 400 cities in the U.S., Canada, Puerto Rico, and the United Kingdom. Headquartered in Santa Ana, California, Universal Protection Service has been the fastest growing security services company in the industry, and provides an innovative mix of traditional security services with cutting edge systems and technology. Universal operates nationwide in 100-plus locations, including Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. The combined com-

pany will employ approximately 60,000 security professionals across the United States and Canada.

8.4

Startup accelerator Start Co. and medical device accelerator ZeroTo510 each win $50,000 awards from the U.S. Small Business Administration’s Growth Accelerator Fund. Among 80 winners, the two Memphis-based accelerators are announced at the first-ever hite House Demo Day. The total award amount is $4 million and winners were selected by a panel of more than 0 udges from the fields of entrepreneurism, investment, startups, economic development, and academic backgrounds from both the public and private sectors.

8.18

Barbara B. Newman is named as the new president and CEO of The Blues Foundation, taking over for the retiring Jay Sieleman. The Memphis-based, international music organization works to preserve blues music history, celebrate recording and performance excellence, support blues education, and ensure the future of the art form. Newman, a fourth-generation Memphian, was raised in the world of music, with many family members working in the music industry. Her introduction to the blues occurred when she attended a 7th grade assembly in which Blues Hall of Famer Furry Lewis performed. Even though she was only 11 years old, she knew she was in the company of greatness.

8.10

8.27

8.11

8.30

Visible Music College kicks off a $4 million capital campaign and breaks ground on new student housing located on the college’s campus at 200 Madison Avenue in Downtown Memphis. The five-story building will contain more than 60 studio-style apartments to house more than 120 students when open in the fall of 2016. The college, founded in 2000, trains and equips musicians, technicians, and business professionals in skill and character for service in the music industry and the church.

Loeb Properties purchases three parcels of land that make up the Shops of Chickasaw Gardens along Poplar Avenue for $3 million. Working as Loeb Bros.

Realty LP, the company buys the property from 3181 Poplar Avenue oldings C, an affiliate of C Capital Asset Management LLC. Located on the south side of Poplar, between Lafayette and Marne streets, the structures total 53,969 square feet. ncluded are a four-story office building and a single-story retail building. The three properties have a combined 2015 tax appraisal value of $2.6 million.

The 100 N. Main building — the tallest structure downtown — sells two years after it was purchased to be renovated into a hotel and apartment complex, a development that never saw the light of day. IMH Memphis LLC has bought the building from One Hundred North Main LLC for $5 million, the same amount seller Isaac Thomas paid in August 2013.

The hotel-apartment combination was to have 171 hotel rooms and 266 apartments.

Robert Lipscomb, Memphis Housing and Community Development director, is relieved of duty due to a criminal complaint by a former Memphian, now in Seattle, alleging improper sexual relations several years ago.

HCD deputy director Debbie Singleton is subsequently appointed interim director. In the following days, Lipscomb is suspended with pay from his role as director of the Memphis Housing Authority as well, with Maura Black Sullivan, now the city’s deputy chief administrative officer, filling in as interim.

INSIDE MEMPHIS BUSINESS.COM | OCTOBER / NOVEMBER 2015

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PEER

A Better Way to Learn • 160 University of Memphis students now tutoring 1,000 man hours per week, in classrooms at East High and Whitehaven High.

• An unprecedented Partnership combining a large public school system, with a major university and an innovative private foundation.

STAY TUNED, THIS COULD BE THE BIG ONE! info@peerpowerfoundation.org

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901-761.8498 | www.peerpowerfoundation.org

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R E A L

WE’RE CURRENTLY IN A GOOD LENDING ENVIRONMENT AND THE MARKET HAS BEEN STEADY TO STRONG ALL YEAR.

Speak well of Memphis, you’ll be glad you did • • •

BY

T H O M A S

M U R P H R E E

Memphis is a good place. And on our best days, it is a great place.

There, I said it. No apologies, no caveats.

As President of the Memphis Area Association of REALTORS® this year, I have made “Speak well of Memphis, you’ll be glad you did” a personal motto that I honestly believe benefits all of us.

In fact, all of us should be active ambassadors for Greater Memphis. I’m not just talking about REALTORS®, but everyone. We are all citizens in arms, if you will, because we all call Memphis home.

Now, I understand different people have different situations. For some folks, deciding whether to settle down in Memphis is a tough 22 |

decision. And I respect that.

But I also am thrilled that a certain 7-footer from Spain chose to stay in Memphis.

Grizzlies All-Star center Marc Gasol recently signed a long-term contract to remain a Grizzly. And a Memphian.

In other words, he made a commitment. So here’s a serious question for you: Are you committed to Memphis?

In survey after survey all across this country, the same results come back: Neighborhoods with high rates of ownership graduate more young people from high school, have less crime, a stronger feeling of “community,” and a higher degree of stability.

I think I know why. Buying a home is a commitment. It says, “I want to live here and I plan to stay a while.” And being committed to a place and the people there is a nice way to live.

Now, I understand there are times when renting makes sense. If your company tells you they’re moving you to the east coast in 18 months, it’s probably not wise to buy a home.

But in many circumstances, owning a home goes handin-hand with embracing the place where you live. We’re currently in a good lending environment and the market has been steady to strong all year.

So there’s opportunity for first-time buyers, people

looking to move up to a bigger home, or to downsize as they become empty nesters.

Memphis is full of fantastic and diverse neighborhoods. Without ever leaving the metro area, you could live in several places that are culturally and historically different. Collierville is not Cooper-Young, and Downtown is not Hernando, Mississippi.

The options are limitless.

But wherever you might choose to settle in the area — or next settle in the area — I would encourage you to think about the important role that you, I, and everyone share as neighbors. Anybody can dwell on the latest sensational story from the 10 o’clock news.

After all, they exist in every city. But this is your city. My city. If we won’t speak well of our home, who will? # Thomas Murphree is president of the Memphis Area Association of REALTORS®.

INSIDE MEMPHIS BUSINESS.COM | OCTOBER / NOVEMBER 2015

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PHOTOGRAPH BYLARRY KUZNIEWSKI

S P O R T S

Bluff City Rag • • •

BY

F R A N K

M U R TA U G H

PHOTOGRAPH BY MONKEYBUSINESSIMAGES | DREAMSTIME

When you take out that “Memphis vs. Errrbody” Growl Towel for an upcoming Memphis Grizzlies game (the 2015-16 season opener is October 28th against Cleveland at FedExForum), you might pause a moment and remember . . . the Vancouver Canucks.

The origin of the most famous rag in the Mid-South actually dates to a 1982 NHL playoff game in Chicago. Trailing the Chicago Blackhawks at the time, Vancouver coach Roger Neilson waved a towel from the end of a hockey stick, a mock surrender in a series the Canucks would actually go on to win. This moment remains a distinct memory for John Pugliese, the Grizzlies’ current vice president of marketing, communications, and broadcast, one of two remaining employees from the franchise’s original days in Vancouver (1995-2001).

“The next game,” reflects

Pugliese, “[the Canucks] came home and fans had brought their own towels: hand towels, beach towels, whatever. They started using them as a rallying cry. We were underdogs, snuck into the playoffs, and were able to make some noise. When you think back to 2004 in the Pyramid — when you first saw a Growl Towel — we were underdogs, facing [defending champ] San Antonio. It was a white towel and said, ‘Believe It Baby.’”

The towels have become the Grizzlies’ definitive promotional item over the last five years,

as the team won its first playoff game and series (2011), reached the Western Conference finals (2013), and won a pair of games against the champion-to-be Golden State Warriors last May. The towels — distributed

WE DON’T WANT I T JUST TO BE A MARKETING SLOGAN. WE WANT IT TO REPRESENT THIS TOWN, AND I T S PSYCHE. 19,000 at a time for specific games — are less marketing slogan than mantra. Pugliese notes the “organic” nature of the messages, from “Grit” and “Grind” to “We Don’t Bluff ” (expressions first coined by Grizzly players like Tony Allen and Zach Randolph).

Remembering the towels’ debut 11 years ago, Pugliese says, “There was so much lint from how aggressively the towels were swung, you could

see it floating in the lights prior to tip-off. It was a magical moment. They’ve been used differently here, as a statement of pride.” Pugliese knew the Grizzlies had connected with a fan base during a 2011 playoff game against Oklahoma City, when fans rose collectively and, instead of waving the new gold towels, simply held them up, a massive (if redundant) display of two words: “Believe Memphis.”

How does the Grizzly brass determine when a message is towel-worthy? “What’s part of our DNA?” asks Pugliese. “What really represents our team?

We don’t want it just to be a marketing slogan. We want it to represent this town, its psyche.

The great thing about technology today, if people connect with [a slogan], they’ll tweet it.

They’ll hashtag it. They’ll use it in their vernacular. It then gets picked up by print media, radio, TV. It becomes bigger.

The mayor uses the message.”

The towels are printed in — ahem — Nashville by Something Inked, and are delivered within 24 hours of an order being placed. Between 30 and 50 Griz employees — from executives to ushers — take about two hours to drape the towels over seat backs throughout FedExForum. “It’s become a great staff bonding event,” says Pugliese, “because it gets us ready for playoff games.”

Growl Towels aren’t just for waving, of course. They’ve been turned into quilts, neckties, vests, window shades, and mailbox covers. Pugliese says he’s seen a woman’s dress made entirely from Growl Towels. “People take the towels around the world with them,” he adds. “You’ll see pictures of people [with Growl Towels] in all sorts of locations, from Egypt and China to the beach.”

What will be the next slogan to gain immortality on a Growl Towel? It will be spelled out, surely, over 82 games by the 2015-16 Memphis Grizzlies.# Frank Murtaugh is managing editor of inside memphis business and memphis, and a lifelong sports fan.

OCTOBER / NOVEMBER 2015 | INSIDE MEMPHIS BUSINESS.COM |

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Early financial literacy is a key to success • • •

BY

L A R R Y

CO L B E R T

Business leaders claim that the generation entering the workforce today lacks “soft” skills, including communication, problem solving, and critical thinking. It may seem odd that teaching children how business works in an experiential setting starting as young as kindergarten is a proven remedy for this, but that is exactly the case.

Nine out of 10 teachers believe experiential learning is effective in getting students interested in higher education and careers.

More specifically, elementary school students who participate in Junior Achievement programs demonstrate significantly higher critical thinking and

24 |

problem-solving skills than their counterparts. Ninety-five percent of teachers report that students who participate in JA programs have a better understanding of how the real world operates. Teachers and volunteers agree that JA students work together better as a team.

The majority of middle school

students (71 percent) reported that JA helped them recognize the importance of education and motivated them to work harder to achieve educational and work goals. In addition, they understand more about personal finance, business, and economic concepts.

Seventy-nine percent of high school students agreed that JA positively influenced their attitudes toward continuing their education. What’s more, JA students were more likely than non-JA students to enroll in college immediately after high school. And finally, the majority of JA students noted that their experience made the transition to college easier, and encouraged them to work harder.

This year marks the 60th anniversary of Junior Achievement of Memphis. The local arm of this national nonprofit organization was founded in 1955 with the goal of educating youth about financial literacy, free enterprise, entrepreneurship, and workforce readiness in order to secure their future and improve the quality of their lives.

Junior Achievement Worldwide (now JA USA) was founded in 1919 by Theodore Vail, president of AT&T; Horace Moses, president of Strathmore Paper Co.; and Senator Murray Crane of Massachusetts. Its purpose was to inspire and prepare young people to succeed in a global economy.

Programming includes grade-specific JA curriculum taught in K-12 classrooms throughout the city by volunteers; JA BizTown, a model city that 4th-6thgrade students run for a day after weeks of classroom preparation; and job shadowing professionals on-site in their workplace. The effects of this programming are evidenced by feedback received from its recipients: “I learned how difficult it is to run a real business. I also learned how helpful math is because I was an accountant and had to do lots of math! I learned

PHOTOGRAPH BY BOWIE15 | DREAMSTIME

E D U C A T I O N

NINE OUT OF 10 TEACHERS BELIEVE EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING IS EFFECTIVE IN GETTING STUDENTS INTERESTED IN HIGHER EDUCATION AND CAREERS. many useful skills like how to use a checkbook, obey the law, and how important it is to pay off a loan. It was really fun!”

— JA Elementary School Student “JA taught me how to properly write a check, deposit, and spend my money. I also learned the importance of keeping my credit score up and debt low, how to manage money, and make a budget.”

—JA High School Student Without financial literacy, children do not know how to budget. A lack of this knowledge leads to a myriad of negative consequences including the inability to save, increased spending, exhausted credit opportunities, and predatory lending. Eventually, this widespread lack of financial education may affect not only the financial stability of our nation’s citizens, but of our nation as a whole.

Junior Achievement of Memphis reaches tens of thousands of students annually. It takes 1,000-plus adult volunteers each year to help reach these children through JA programming that has been inspiring young minds for six decades. I invite our city’s adults to make a difference by volunteering in a K-12 classroom, volunteering at JA BizTown, or sponsoring a school for JA BizTown. $ For more information, visit jamemphis.org.

Larry Colbert is president and CEO of Junior Achievement of Memphis and the Mid-South, Inc.

INSIDE MEMPHIS BUSINESS.COM | OCTOBER / NOVEMBER 2015

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PHOTOGRAPH BY NEXUSPLEXUS | DREAMSTIME

L A W

New wage-hour regulations have widespread implications • • •

BY

CO U R T N E Y

L E Y E S

The proposed regulation changes defining the federal Fair Labor Standards Act’s Section 13(a)(1) executive, administrative, professional, outsides-sales, and other related exemptions have been published by the U.S. Labor Department for public consideration and comment. But what do these changes mean for employers? Blaring headlines notwithstanding: ◗◗ These provisions are not in effect, ◗◗ The exemption rules have not yet been changed, and ◗◗ Employers are not required to do anything differently for the moment.

A key point of information is “for the moment.” Comments and criticisms of these proposals must be submitted to the DOL within 60 days (as opposed to 90 days in 2003) after their publication in the Federal Register.

While there is no set date of when this publication will occur, labor and employment attorneys urge employers to evaluate what these changes would mean for your organization and employees in the short-term, and consider preparing comments

for submissions to the DOL. It is crucial to get ahead of the issue before it comes to fruition, and the best way to do that is by evaluating your organization and coming up with a plan now.

To prepare for such change, it’s important to understand the proposals. The DOL currently intends to increase the minimum salary threshold by approximately 200 percent, to $921 per week, which annualizes to $47,892.

This is on the high side of what was anticipated. It appears that sharply reducing the proportion of exempt workers and “giving employees a raise” are the driving forces behind this figure, rather than fundamentally distinction-drawing principles that are actually authorized and

have been historically followed.

Additionally, the DOL is looking to raise the total-annual-compensation threshold for the “highly compensated employees” exemption by about 22 percent from its present $100,000 minimum to a new level of $122,148. For the first time in these exemptions’ more than 75-year history, an updated salary rate would be published annually. The DOL’s accompanying remarks suggest that this might result in a $970 threshold (annualizing to $50,440) as early as 2016. The “highly compensated” threshold would also be updated annually.

THE DOL CURRENTLY INTENDS TO INCREASE THE MINIMUM SAL ARY THRESHOLD BY APPROXIMATELY 200 PERCENT, TO $921 PER WEEK, WHICH ANNUALIZES TO $47,892.

The good news is that the DOL is not yet proposing to change any of the exemptions’ requirements, as they relate to the kinds or amounts of work performed. Recently, there has been widespread speculation

that a strict 50 percent or more requirement would be proposed in connection with the proportion of exempt work that would be necessary.

The DOL asks for comments directed toward whether there should be such changes “for consideration in the Final Rule.”

In addition to the recommendations listed above, employers are urged to start thinking about the following now: ◗◗ Whether and how to bolster the FLSA exemption status of those whom management treats as exempt under Section 12(a)(1), ◗◗ What other FLSA exemptions might apply to one or more employees, and ◗◗ What alternative FLSAcompliant pay plans would serve management’s needs if it decides to convert one or more employees to non-exempt status.

It is difficult to predict when these changes will officially be put into effect, which is why employers cannot wait around. Using history as a rough guide, these specific changes will most likely occur late this year or in early 2016. $ Courtney Leyes is an associate with Fisher & Phillips.

OCTOBER / NOVEMBER 2015 | INSIDE MEMPHIS BUSINESS.COM |

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M U S I C

PHOTOGRAPH BY CLEWISLEAKE | DREAMSTIME

Mural of famous

A commission with musicians’ interests at heart • • •

BY

WAY N E

L E E LOY

Memphis knew about “Grit & Grind” long before the Memphis Grizzlies came to town. So many have found an identity in the phrase because they’ve lived it, especially in the music community where the hustle is real and, much of the time, the only means of survival.

Memphis birthed the popular music heard around the world today and built its tourism practice on the heritage and history of this once-vibrant and prolific music scene. But it is today’s working musicians and creative entrepreneurs who nurture the entrepreneurial passion and keep the spirit alive for the next generation of music makers and fans.

Local artists and music entrepreneurs are scrappy enough to get things done on their own. They just need a little direction, a champion for the cause, awareness for their efforts, support for innovative ideas and people in the trenches, and a strategy on how to collectively grow a music community that benefits both art and commerce.

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The idea that a music commission can “save” or “fix” the local industry is a dangerously misguided one.

WHAT MEMPHIS NEEDS IS AN ENTITY TO STEP UP AND UNDERSTAND THAT SUCCESS COMES FROM EMPOWERING THE COMMUNITY AROUND THEM. What Memphis needs is an entity to step up and understand that success comes from empowering the community around them. Respect the hustle, and musicians will love you for it; disrespect it, and you no longer deserve to represent them.

In 2003, I was recruited to run business development and community relations for the Memphis & Shelby County Music Commission (MSCMC).

It was my great honor and privilege to be asked to work on behalf of, and advocate for, the creative community.

I was tasked with developing educational initiatives and cross-platform marketing programs to empower the populace with a hands-on ethic for the business of music.

Since then, my professional journey has allowed me a window into the traditional side of the business, as well as a front-row seat to the technological revolution and how it’s shaping the future of music. Today, I sit at the intersection of brands, music, and technology as the head of Brand Partnerships & Digital Strategy for G7 Entertainment Marketing in Nashville. But Memphis continues to run through my veins as the city that gave me my passion, a career, my better half, and a school-of-hard-knocks education in music, business, and life.

I believe the MSCMC today should be an organization

Memphis that: 1) works tomusicians provide meaningful and actionable insight, and best practices for the business of music; 2) is a global advocate for Memphis’ creative community and music entrepreneurs; and 3) is a strategic leader and business-development champion for Memphis’ creative community.

If the MSCMC would simply allocate resources to projects and initiatives that give local artists and entrepreneurs the opportunity to work smarter in their business and reap the benefits of a world-class marketing campaign, what a testament to the creative power of investing in a creative community that would be.

If the choice were mine to make, I would remove ineffective programs like Memphis Music Monday, First Fridays Rock, Memphis Music Revealed TV, and Generation Next, and reallocate those budgets (and additional operating capital) toward programs such as a music business educational initiative (monthly or quarterly); a Marketing Memphis Music campaign (a social and event-focused campaign to help support a “Memphis as a musical mecca” message); and a “Gig Swap” initiative with sister music cities such as Austin, New Orleans, Chicago, Nashville, St. Louis, Oxford, and others.

I believe these simple changes could make a difference in the lives of this music community, and I hope the MSCMC recognizes and embraces the opportunity that’s right under their noses and works to embrace these or other similar ideas from the community they serve. #

Wayne Leeloy is Memphis made and Nashville paid as the head of Brand Partnerships & Digital Strategy for G7 Entertainment Marketing.

A version of this column ran in a previous issue of our sister publication, the memphis flyer.

INSIDE MEMPHIS BUSINESS.COM | OCTOBER / NOVEMBER 2015

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The root of educational innovation in the heart of Memphis.

CBU continues to innovate through its Latino Student Success Program and its many partnerships in the community, including Memphis Reads, Crosstown Concourse, Maxine Smith STEAM Academy, and the STEMM CoLaB at CBHS. 6 5 0 E A S T PA R K WAY S O U T H •

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www.cbu.edu

• MEMPHIS, TENNESSEE 38104

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P L A Y E R S

Commercial Real Estate PHOTOGRAPH BY PHARTISAN | DREAMSTIME

P O W E R

J. KEVIN ADAMS Chief xecutive fficer, C Richard llis Memphis, C. . .A., M . C and Chairman, reen allast, nc. . ther business ventures include ocally lobal nvestments , 20 Properties, luff City Realty, and The Realty Advisors of un alley, C. Past and present board memberships include Magna ank, Carnival Memphis, ew Memphis nstitute, D C Property Management, Diversity nstitute of Memphis, Memphis rooks Museum of Art, rpheum Theatre, and Make-a- ish.

The city’s Commercial Real Estate (CRE) market is constantly in flux.

There is always a business considering relocating from one part of the city to another, and new businesses looking for a location. CRE professionals are the ones businesses look to to help them find that perfect site for their needs. We asked: When it’s time for your office, retail, or industrial deal, who do you want brokering it? CRE development requires a different set of skills and a determination to take properties from seed to fruit, from inception to conclusion. Whether renovating properties, repurposing old spaces, or imagining the potential of undeveloped parcels and carrying out their vision, developers are the facilitators of growth in Memphis and its environs. They’re not just developing properties, they’re developing our business environment.

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RONALD “RON” BELZ President and C , el nterprises. ne of the largest commercial and industrial developers in the outh.

Developments include more than 25 million s uare feet of property, including helby aks, oodlett arms, Appling arms, The Peabody, Peabody Place, and numerous office and industrial parks. peciali es in the development and management of industrial, retail, office, and residential properties across the country. oard Member, Methodist e onheur ealthcare and The Assisi oundation.

PAUL BOYLE President, oyle nvestment Company. raduate, ashington and ee, ew Memphis nstitute, and eadership Memphis. Member, Chairman’s Circle, reater Memphis Chamber. oard Member, aptist Memorial ealth Care,

INSIDE MEMPHIS BUSINESS.COM | OCTOBER / NOVEMBER 2015

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Urban Land Institute, and Brooks Museum. Executive Committee Member, Commercial Real Estate Owners’ Alliance. Former Board Member and Treasurer, Hickory Hill Chapter, Boys & Girls Clubs. Founder, West Institute for Cancer Research. Member, Germantown Presbyterian Church.

DANNY BURING Managing Partner, Memphis Office, The Shopping Center Group, LLC. B.A., Psychology, University of TennesseeKnoxville. Company provides full assortment of retail real estate advisory services to landlords, developers, investors, financial institutions, and retailers throughout the Eastern U.S. Notable clients include Fresh Market, Dick’s, Bed Bath & Beyond, Panera Bread, Chipotle, LA Fitness, and Fleming’s Steakhouse. Member, International Council of Shopping Centers.

DARRELL T. COBBINS President and Principal Broker, Universal Commercial Real Estate, LLC. B.A., Rhodes; M.B.A., University of Memphis; Chairman’s Circle/Board of Directors, Greater Memphis Chamber. Board of Directors, National Civil Rights Museum. 2013 Board Chairman, New Memphis Institute. Past Chairman, MLG&W. Recipient, 2011 Agent of Change Award, MULYP, and 2012 African American Male Image Award for Business, Hobson-Goodlow Foundation.

THOMAS FARNSWORTH Partner, Farnsworth Investment Company and Holdings. Has been a real estate developer and investment builder for more than 40 years, building more than 10 million square feet in 60 warehouse buildings and 25 office buildings. Member, ociety of ffice and ndustrial Realtors R . Recipient, MAAR Commercial Broker Lifetime Achievement Award, the Lambda Alpha International Excellence in Real Estate Lifetime Achievement Award, and Carnival Memphis Cook Halle Award, among others.

With ten locations across the Memphis area, Healthcare Realty is the go-to source for on Baptist Memorial Hospital campuses.

A variety of locations and levels of build-out provide move-in ready suites, time-share space and the ability to build to suit.

It’s your move.

ERIC FUHRMAN President, Crye-Leike Commercial.

Certified Commercial nvestment Member. Member, National Association of Realtors, Memphis Area Association of Realtors, and Tennessee Association of Realtors.

Recent clients have included Henco, Keystone Healthcare Management, and Fred’s. Awarded the “Circle of Excellence” by company founders Harold Crye and Dick Leike in 2010. Involved with sons in the Boy Scouts of America Troop 95 in Somerville.

OCTOBER / NOVEMBER 2015 | INSIDE MEMPHIS BUSINESS.COM |

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Architecture & Interior Design

Structural & Seismic Engineering

Building Systems Engineering

Site Planning & Development

Infrastructure Engineering

Transportation Engineering

Learn more by visiting A2H.com

by Joy Bateman A new restaurant guide with signature recipes At bookstores and gift shops 30 |

www.joysartofdining.com

STEVE GUINN Vice President, Highwoods Properties. B.B.A., Baylor. Has more than 30 years’ experience in commercial real estate. Received the Pinnacle Award’s Commercial Broker of the ear in 200 and 201 . Certified Public Accountant and D Accredited Professional.

Member, ociety of ndustrial and ffice Realtors. Certified Commercial nvestment Member. Member, ambda Alpha nternational. oard Member, oulsville oundation. Pro ect oard Member, helby arms Park Conservancy.

LAWRENCE “LARRY” JENSEN President and C , Cushman akefield | Commercial Advisors. Represents and advises families, corporations, and institutions on real estate. nstrumental in mith ephew’s ac uisition of their orthopedics head uarters building. ther clients have included ed x, erviceMaster, and Auto one. onors include 2005 Commercial roker of the ear and 200 ffice roker of the ear. ormer President, Memphis Tomorrow. oard Member, helby arms Park Conservancy.

Past Chairman, reater Memphis Chamber.

CARMA C. JUDE Portfolio Manager, Healthcare Realty. . ., usiness Management, ouisiana Tech niversity M. .A., inance and Real state, niversity of Memphis.

Certified Commercial nvestment Member. Company is a publicly-traded R T that focuses on owning, managing, ac uiring, and developing outpatient medical facilities throughout the nited tates. ealthcare Realty owns seven properties totaling 51 ,000 s uare feet in Memphis. Clients include aptist Memorial ealth Care Corporation and numerous physician practices in the Mid- outh.

MICHAEL A. LIGHTMAN wner, Michael ightman Realty Co., a regional leader in commercial property brokerage and land investment. Developed helby usiness Park, a 500,000-s uarefoot, high-end industrial park, ermantown’s xeter illage, Centennial Place, the 2 0,000-s uare-foot outh ake Centre in outhaven, and multiscreen movie theater complexes for Malco Theatres. Recently expanded into the ashville area. nducted into the Commercial all of ame, MAAR. ROBERT “BOB” LOEB President, oeb Properties, nc. . . and M. .A., outhern Methodist niversity.

Portfolio of more than 2 million s uare feet of office, multifamily, and industrial space, including more than 100 retail properties in Memphis noted for their architectural designs. Current pro ects in Memphis include the redevelopment of verton uare Theater District and road Avenue Arts District. Trustee, Memphis niversity chool and Memphis College of Art. Director, Playhouse on the uare and eighborhood Preservation, nc. Member, rban and nstitute.

INSIDE MEMPHIS BUSINESS.COM | OCTOBER / NOVEMBER 2015

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LEWIS K. MCKEE JR. Partner with Terry McFarland in McKee and McFarland, Inc. Full-service commercial real estate firm actively engaged in the ac uisition, management, and marketing of commercial and agricultural properties throughout the outh. as represented corporate and investor clients including Prudential, orthwestern Mutual, oodmen of the orld, and nternational arming. icensed real estate broker in Tennessee, Arkansas, Mississippi, and Missouri. egan career in Memphis with Trammel Crow affiliate.

TIM MOORE Market fficer, D a eley formerly D . arned . . in iology at Rhodes College. Responsible for the marketing and leasing of both D a eleyowned development properties and third-party-owned buildings in Memphis, De oto County, and est Memphis.

Recogni ed as Co tar Power roker for Memphis ndustrial Market for 200 and 200 . Prior to oining D a eley in 2005, was Regional Marketing Director at The Pauls Corp. in Colorado.

G. DAN POAG ounder, Poag Mc wen ifestyle Centers. raduate, Princeton. M. .A., mory. riginated lifestyle center concept redefining the retail mall. tarting with addle Creek in 1 , the company has taken the concept to California, Colorado, Connecticut, llinois, ansas, ew ersey, and Pennsylvania. ormer Chairman, Memphis ymphony rchestra, rban and nstitute, Memphis Regional Design Center, and mni chools Charter Management rgani ation. Member, ociety of ntrepreneurs.

GARY PROSTERMAN President and C , Development ervices roup, nc. . ., niversity of Te n n e s s e e - K n o x v i l l e; eorgetown Comparative conomic ystems . ounder, Ambulatory Management ervices, ac uired by ymbion in 1 . Pro ects include redevelopment of historic federal courthouse in Tampa into e Meridien otel and redevelopment of Chisca otel in Memphis. oard Member, apten ciences, nc., niversity of Tennessee College of Consumer ervices, and ousing oundation of West Tennessee.

EDWARD “EDDIE” SAIG President, A aig Company, a full-service industrial, retail, and office brokerage firm. as business degree from niversity of Arkansas. arned Pinnacle Award as the ighest Producing Commercial Real state roker. Recently received the A old Club Award. erved as president of Memphis Chapter of ociety of ndustrial and ffice Realtors R . as R and Counselor of Real state CR designations.

Member, ambda Alpha ational Real state Chapter. contin u ed on page 52

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Tara Carlson, JD/MBA

Stacie Waddell

Wealth Strategist Nashville Branch

Global Communications Director

For a complimentary strategic analysis, please call W&A at 901.767.9187.

5188 Wheelis Drive • Memphis, TN 38117 7100 Executive Center Dr #200 • Nashville, TN 37027

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The Fogelman College of Business & Economics • • •

B Y

R I C H A R D

J.

A L L E Y

In a building on the University of Memphis campus, a massive, well-lit concrete stairwell rises four floors. Amid students scurrying up and down, artists erect scaffolding and climb even higher to paint stalks of bamboo with glimmering beads of water, scattershot insects, and the images of children and women pulling wheelbarrows. This isn’t the art building, or anthropology, or biology, but the Fogelman College of Business and Economics. The bamboo and water are taken from a Hindi song about water beginning as beads and turning into rivulets, which in turn become a stream leading to a tributary, a river, and finally, the ocean. The insects and figures from a third-world country represent community and the success gained from working together.

FCBE BY THE NUMBERS ENROLLMENT

(Fall 2014)

3,081

◗

◗◗TOTAL:

◗

◗◗UNDERGRADUATE MAJORS:

◗ ◗

2,437 ◗◗MASTER’S STUDENTS: 579 ◗◗PH.D. STUDENTS: 65

UNDERGRADUATE BUSINESS MAJORS OFFERED: MASTER’S DEGREES OFFERED:

5

PH.D. CONCENTRATIONS OFFERED: FULL-TIME FACULTY:

97

8

6

11 ANNUAL SCHOLARSHIPS AWARDED: $500,000 ALUMNI: 30,000+ CHAIRS OF EXCELLENCE PROFESSORS:

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If you think this artistic expression refreshing, if not odd, for a school purportedly concerned with the bottom line of a quarterly report or the branding plan of an industry, then you haven’t met Dr. Rajiv Grover, dean of FCBE. Grover came to the university in 2007, bringing with him philosophy. Not a philosophy — but philosophy itself. “This is what education is,” he says, gesturing to the mural, his eyes twinkling at the very thought.

“Clearly I need to know accounting, I need to know finance, I need to know marketing, I need to get a job. But is that complete education? No. This is complete education: How do I become a successful person that is useful for society?”

Grover defines success as having been reached when a student is able to “love yourself, love your colleagues, and love your planet.”

It’s a holistic path to learning and one that has paid off in dividends. Though the school was decades old by the time Grover arrived, he says, “The heyday was in the past for whatever reason.” There was a “reasonable amount” of publishing and teaching going on, and without laying blame, he says the school was on the verge of losing its accreditation. “Something had happened in the environment that had resulted in some kind of malaise.”

What he did immediately was to seek out the opportunities, not just at the school, but in the Memphis business community as well. Those opportunities

took the shape of AutoZone, FedEx, International Paper, Smith & Nephew, and Medtronic, among others. These companies at the time were passing executives around, Grover says, like “musical chairs.”

Memphis was wading in the shallow end of a professional talent pool.

The answer was cooperation. Grover began The Customer-Driven MBA program where various companies would fund the education of students. The school and company jointly select candidates, and the education and an assistantship is paid by the company. The graduate student works on company projects instead of a professor’s project; 20 hours with the company during the school year, and 40 hours during the summer. Students are guaranteed a job after graduation, providing everything has gone smoothly during the MBA process.

The program has proven to be a win-win for students and sponsoring companies as well, as the students get a first-rate, real-world education, and the companies are guaranteed an employee already familiar with its internal workings and who has been closely monitored along the way.

Despite such professional programs at the master’s level where students are arriving from the likes of New York University and Dartmouth, there was still a lack of fundamentals in students who were entering the college as undergraduates.

When Grover first arrived in Memphis from Atlanta ahead of his family, he was being shown apartments by working students who appeared lackluster, unengaged, and unprofessional. A series of initiatives were soon implemented, such as the Avron B. Fogelman Center for Professional Career Development, and Fogelman Fit. This is where the holistic portion of Grover’s vision comes in. “If you don’t look good, you don’t feel good,” he says. “Eating right and exercising” became terms as crucial as “overhead and expenses.” Taking the stairs was encouraged, hence the mural to liven up an otherwise dead space. Employee

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PHOTOGRAPH BY LARRY KUZNIEWSKI

Dr. Rajiv Grover says the CustomerDriven MBA program has proven to be a win-win for students and sponsoring companies as well, as the students get a first-rate, realworld education, and the companies are guaranteed an employee already familiar with its internal workings and who has been closely monitored along the way.

opment: “I observed through my associawellness is a huge human resources contion and relationship with Dr. Grover that cern these days and Grover went into the students were graduating but were not realinitial classes to tell students, “Your job is ly equipped to enter the workplace to the not to get an ‘A’ in this particular class, your extent the dean and I thought they should job is to go out and change 10 people’s lives. be. The center will give students direction That’s how we make a difference.” in writing resumes, in making speeches, This holistic approach was innovative and having successful job interviews. It’s a thinking on the part of Grover and his multilayered curriculum, all team. It is an approach that directed toward making the hadn’t been taken before student better prepared for because it hadn’t been need“YOUR JOB IS NOT TO GET employment.” ed in other locales. “This FCBE began building problem is not anywhere AN ‘A’ IN THIS PARTICULAR professionals from the else — Charlotte is not CLASS, YOUR JOB IS TO GO ground up on a foundation having this problem, ChatOUT AND CHANGE 10 PEOof basics that might be taktanooga is not having this en for granted elsewhere. problem . . . we are unique, PLE’S LIVES. THAT’S HOW What it’s created — the we have unique problems, WE MAKE A DIFFERENCE.” wide-ranging community this is a unique solution.” support, the holistic mindIn addition to a new — DR. R AJIV GROVER set, the world-class instruccurriculum that included tion — is a complete professional program fitness and even guidance on dining etithat is now being studied by schools around quette, came instruction on resume writing the country, and potential employers see “a and interviewing. Avron Fogelman told night and day difference in students now,” Memphis magazine last April in regards to Grover says. the Center for Professional Career Devel-

The school has led by example, by rallying the troops in local business to turn out leaders with a new worldview. “Getting people to work together is the role of a leader,” Grover says. “A leader can manage by getting people to compete among themselves and may the best get the most fruits. That is a philosophy that is used, and I am of the opinion that that is more dysfunctional than the approach of getting people to work together. That’s extremely important . . . In any organization, in any job, what you can achieve with others is far more important than what you can do by yourself.”

We all begin as drops of water and somewhere along the way, as a young person engaging with family and society, as undergraduates at the University of Memphis, or when entering the graduate program with FCBE, those beads become rivulets and streams and rivers before finding success and fulfillment in the ocean of life. # For more information on the Fogelman College of Business and Economics and its programs, please visit memphis.edu/fcbe.

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The Eureka Factor Well before it became a vacuum cleaner company’s brand name, and even before the word made its way onto The Great Seal of the State of California, the word “eureka” was simply Greek for “I found it!” Legend has it that, over 2,000 years ago, the mathematician Archimedes solved one of the ancient world’s greatest scientific problems while sitting in his large wooden bathtub. “Eureka!” he cried excitedly after he’d figured out the puzzle — he'd discovered that a precise volume of water would be displaced by a solid of equal volume. In this case, the solid was Archimedes himself. He was so excited that he purportedly jumped out of the tub and into the street, naked, shouting at everyone he encountered, “I found it!”

We’re not quite that excited down here at the offices of Inside Memphis Business — we’re keeping our clothes on — but we are very pleased this month to announce the recipients of our Third Annual Innovation Awards, presented in conjunction with the Fogelman College of Business & Economics at the University of Memphis.

Once again, the competition was stiff; it’s remarkable what wonderfully innovative projects are going on inside the research centers of our private and public institutions, and inside the homes and garages of individual Memphians. After reading the next few pages, I think you’ll agree with me that all four of this year’s winners are truly worthy honorees.

Keep in mind what these awards are all about. Much as we all value business acumen and financial success, this celebration is not about entrepreneurship or profitability. The Innovation Awards salute vision and endurance, and most of all, they celebrate real breakthroughs. There’s nothing inevitable about what our winners have done. These are real people solving real problems.

Special thanks again to Dr. Rajiv Grover, Dean of the Fogelman College, and to our now well-experienced panel of judges, who graciously adjudicated these awards for a third straight year and, clearly, took their mission very seriously. The results speak for themselves. Thank you all for your excellent efforts.

Eureka!

— Kenneth Neill, Publisher

!1

SPECIAL THANKS TO OUR SPONSORS

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The Brain Trust Andy Cates

F

ounder and CEO of RVC Outdoor Destinations and founding Managing Member of Value Acquisition Fund, an acquisition, development, and asset management company created in 2004. In 1999, Cates moved back to his hometown of Memphis to develop the Soulsville Revitalization Project as its Project Developer and founding board Chairman. The nonprofit public/private project includes the Stax Museum of American Soul Music, The Soulsville Charter School, and The Stax Music Academy. Beginning in 2000, Cates worked with a team of business and civic leaders to attract the Vancouver Grizzlies NBA franchise to Memphis and to get public support for the teamâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s arena, FedExForum. Successful in its bid, Cates was a member of the original local ownership group. Cates earned a B.B.A. from the University of Texas at Austin and began his real estate career in Dallas at Trammell Crow. He was a founding partner in Viceroy Investments, LLC, in 1996, and is currently a partner in two Viceroy-sponsored partnerships. Heâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a board member of Pioneer Natural Resources, the best performing publicly traded energy company from 2009 to 2014.

Dr. Eugene Eckstein

P

rofessor and Chair of the Department of Biomedical Engineering at the University of Memphis.

He has been in his current position since 2001, where his leadership and active scholarship have resulted in a growing topic of research that encompasses many areas related to improving human health. He holds a Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and he has held faculty positions at Harvard, the University of Miami, and University of Tennessee Health Science Center. His interests include educational methods for biomedical engineering and analysis of motions, blood flow, and artificial organs. He served as President for the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering, and he is a member of the Biomedical Engineering Society, American Society for Mechanical Engineering, Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, Society for Biomaterials, International Society for Artificial Organs, and the American Society for Artificial Organs. Patents he holds include a method and device for connecting biological duct to a prosthesis, a shock-absorbent prosthetic hip joint, a hydrogel surface of a urological prosthesis, and intervertebral spacers.

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Dr. Balaji Krishnan

D

irector, MBA Programs, and Professor of the Department of Marketing and Supply Chain Management in the Fogelman College of Business & Economics at the University of Memphis. He has a Ph.D. in Business Administration with a concentration in Marketing from Louisiana State University, and he received his Bachelor’s in Electronics and Telecommunication Engineering and Master’s in Marketing from India. He has been instrumental in making the Fogelman MBA the largest MBA program in Tennessee.

His research interests are in the area of crosscultural issues in marketing, pricing and price promotions, branding and brand equity, and services marketing. He has published a number of journal articles in prestigious journals.

Krishnan was honored with the “Best Conceptual Paper” and “Best Empirical Paper” awards in the college. He has 18 years’ experience in marketing research, consulting, and marketing education. Krishnan has consulted with small businesses as well as multinationals in India and the United States. He currently teaches in the doctoral program and the MBA programs.

Anna Mullins

D

irector of communications and marketing at the New Memphis Institute, a nonprofit that works to attract and retain talent and make Memphis magnetic for the best and brightest. In this role she leads the organization’s communication strategy, broadens awareness of its programs and mission, and generally works to share positive stories about the people and organizations that are solving problems, looking forward, and successfully shaping our community.

In 2014, she helped steward the launch of the new digital magazine High Ground News, a weekly news source focused on what’s next for the city of Memphis, and currently serves as managing editor of the publication. She recently led the team that established TEDxMemphis and served as executive director of the inaugural conference in August. Through the new TEDx platform, Memphians are able to share local “ideas worth spreading.” After receiving her MFA from the University of Memphis, she worked as editorial director of Niche Publications for E.W. Scripps, where she edited and helped launch a number of titles, including Skirt! magazine. A longtime Memphian, she serves on the Shelby County Mayor’s Young Professional Council, on the Board of the Mid-South Peace & Justice Center, and on the Advisory Team for GiVE 365.

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Chuck Dunn Tru-D SmartUVC

•••

BY LESLEY YOUNG

W

hen Dr. Jeffrey Deal returned to the U.S. on the last flight from Liberia on August 31, 2014, he went straight to the hospital with an infection.

Deal did not have Ebola.

Instead, he had something equally as dangerous — a resistant staph infection.

It was then that Deal knew that all the work he had been doing with Memphis entrepreneur Chuck Dunn was not in vain. “Seven-hundred thousand people go to a healthcare facility for treatment and come out with a new infection. Seventy-five thousand of those people don’t go home at all,” Deal says.

Dunn is the president and CEO of Tru-D SmartUVC, and together with Deal, they are working on eliminating the spread of hospital-acquired infections with an

invention created by Deal close to a decade ago.

Deal, with the help of his brother, David, came up with a machine that transmits UV-C light in a measured dose to disinfect all areas of a room, including nooks and crannies. UV-C light, which is man-made UV light, performs double-strand breaks to DNA and RNA in bacteria, to which there is no resistance. Once Deal realized he had a product that worked — most importantly, a machine that killed all the mildew in his brother’s bathroom (“If you knew the hygiene habits of my younger brother, you’d understand why we were so excited,” Deal says) — he called in the experts.

Enter Dunn.

Dunn grew up in the UV world. Through his family business, Lumalier Corp., Dunn spent much of his 20s improving indoor air quality with UV technology to prevent the contraction of tuberculosis

by HIV/AIDS patients with weakened immune systems.

When Dunn was contacted

by Deal to see if he was interested in commercializing his invention, Dunn immediately took action. “I bought exclusive patent rights to the innovation and technology,” Dunn says.

That was in 2006, and since then Dunn has worked tirelessly to recruit researchers and leaders in the industry to conduct studies using the Tru-D SmartUVC technology and become the leader in the UV sterilization of hospitals.

“I proceeded to find independent thought leaders and experts in the sterilization and

Innovator: Chuck Dunn Innovation: Eliminating the spread of hospital-acquired infections with a machine that emits an automated measured dose of UV lights from a solitary position in a hospital room, ensuring 99.99 percent pathogen reduction in a single cycle, and removing the threat of human error.

Website: tru-d.com

disinfection environment, and researchers from different parts of the country, in hospitals and universities, so that we could step away from the research and have no input on how they were testing,” Dunn says.

The first round of studies concluded that their claims were accurate and that the technology could consistently disinfect an operating room or patient rooms in the intensive care unit.

Recently, the Centers for Disease Control and the Prevention Epicenter Program at Duke University, and the University of North Carolina conducted a $2 million infection reduction study called “Benefits of Enhanced Terminal Room Disinfection,” which was a double-blind data pool that included 25,000room disinfection cycles, 100,000 patient days, and nine hospitals of varying sizes.

The study concluded in the summer of 2014, with the collating of the data concluding this past spring.

The results will be unveiled at the Infectious Disease Week in San Diego this October.

“This means a huge number of hospitals will have the data they need to make the decision to deploy technology that improves hospital infections,” Dunn says.

Dunn says his product has come about at a very important time in healthcare. “UV was used a lot in the 1930s and ‘40s, in schools and hospitals.

Then penicillin came along as an effective antibiotic and the idea of disinfectants fell off,” Dunn says. “What we’ve seen in the past 10 or 15 years is that infections have become drug-resistant. Antibiotics don’t always work anymore.

We’re back to the elimination of the passage of pathogens.”

The Tru-D SmartUVC “robots” emit an automated,

measured dose of UV lights from a solitary position in the room, ensure 99.99 percent pathogen reduction in a single cycle, and eliminate the threat of human error.

UV-C light is not dangerous to humans, and the low-pressure mercury vapor lamps are endorsed by the Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Department of Energy for use in health-care environments.

Dunn’s product could not have come about any sooner in light of the Ebola outbreak of 2014.

His company sent two devices to Liberia to disinfect rooms where patients had displayed symptoms, had not yet been diagnosed, and were being moved to other rooms.

“We were able to improve the conditions of these hospitals,” Dunn says, adding, “This has been a valuable entrepreneurial learning experience.

Improvements in the field of healthcare require much more than a marketing campaign.

You have to demonstrate your claims are factual, and you have to do this through third-party independent research. You have to be patient. And there are challenges, because once an innovation is proven to work in the healthcare community, competition without third-party data enters the space.”

When Dunn is not busy traveling the world to save it, he spends the majority of his time watching his two sons either play music or sports. He says the Innovation Awards serve as a reminder of all the hard work he’s done. “You get so absorbed in your passion that you forget all of the accomplishments that have occurred over the years to get you where you are today. Being recognized forces you to look back in time and see and appreciate your accomplishments.” +

• • • INNOVATOR PHOTOGRAPHS BY LARRY KUZNIEWSKI

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“Antibiotics don’t always work anymore.

We’re back to the elimination of the passage of pathogens.”

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Anne Pitts The Levitt Shell

•••

BY RICHARD J. ALLEY

I

n 2003, when the next phase of the Overton Park Shell was just a glimmer of hope, the subject of a conversation at a nearby restaurant, Broad Avenue was still a dead-end street, the Sears distribution center in Crosstown was the largest blight on the cityscape, and Overton Square was a ghost town of mostly boarded-up storefronts.

That lunchtime conversation at the Brushmark Restaurant at the Brooks Museum of Art among Katie Smythe, Barry Lichterman, and Elizabeth Levitt Hirsch of Levitt Pavilions, was carried on the wind, just over the hill to a crumbling, neglected, yet important piece of Memphis cultural history.

The Levitt Shell (as it’s now known) opened in September 2008 with its first free concert

and is a lot of things today. It is first and foremost a gathering place for the community. It is a venue for free concerts with the ability to showcase many diverse genres of music. It is a historical stage once graced by the likes of Elvis Presley who performed what many consider the first rock-and-roll show in 1954. But it is also an economic engine.

“All of our performers get paid and get paid a very fair wage,” says Lichterman, president emeritus of the Friends of the Levitt Pavilion Memphis Inc. “One of the things we had to convince people of [in the beginning], was that it’s safe to go into this area of town. Overton Square was boarded up and the current owners have come over and told us this is one of the reasons they realized this was still a very viable area of town to do business in, because they can see the success of the Levitt Shell.”

The Shell is the hub, and the development of those areas at its spokes — Broad Avenue, Overton Square, and the Concourse at Crosstown — is testament to the innovative nature of being first.

The mission of the national nonprofit Levitt Pavilions is “to strengthen the social fabric of America” and to “transform neglected outdoor spaces into welcoming destinations where the power of free, live music brings people together and invigorates community life.” There were only two such venues in 2004 when the process of saving the Shell began in earnest.

Today there are eight pavilions (the name “Shell” was retained due to its iconic stature in the city), but Memphis is unique mainly because Memphis

needs such a site more than any of the other cities. Pasadena doesn’t have the history of economic and racial tensions of Memphis. Nor does Denver; or Westport, Connecticut; or Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. It is what executive director Anne Pitts describes as “that one Memphis experience” when she looks out from the stage on any given night of the run of 50 free concerts during the spring and fall season. “It’s the kids in front of the stage, that is the most powerful example of what we’re all about and what we do. Kids are so much easier to lose their inhibitions, so you see kids of every race, every neighborhood playing together, and they just gravitate to each other in front of that stage. But you’re seeing that in the audience as well, seeing people sitting side by side and knowing that they come from different backgrounds, they have a completely different set of experiences, and all of that is just falling away, and here is one group of people representing one connected, united city.”

This coming together is by design. Pitts was hired just four weeks before the kickoff of the first season and spent that time, and time since, going into every possible zip code in the city to share the gospel of free music.

That work has paid off, the people have heard, and crowds today average 2,800, up from the 1,100 average seven years ago.

The opportunity for community-building was a vision seen by almost everyone involved from the beginning. Lichterman, the cause’s torchbearer since the beginning, saw an immediate buy-in from the city council, the parks department, the other

Overton Park stakeholders, and from the big-name donors he’d need to get the funding not provided by Levitt Pavilions.

Renovation of the Shell ran $1.2 million with the city putting in half, Levitt Pavilions providing 25 percent, and the rest raised from private donations. To continue to operate, the organization relies on another unique model of having no gate, seeking corporate sponsorships and individual donations, and with only one major fundraiser each year.

And, of course, passing the hat — or, in this case, the bucket — which sees upwards of $65,000 per year collected on the lawn.

The Shell is owned by the city, the Friends acting as conservators with a 25-year lease and an option for the same length.

Where other such pavilions around the country rent the space from their cities, holding concerts, then handing the venue back over when finished, Memphis’ Shell is maintained year-round by the Friends.

The Shell celebrates its 80th birthday next year and with that celebration comes a capital campaign to makes sure it will endure another 80. With the success of the past years of concerts, the buy-in from the community is surely a given.

“The concept of what we were asking people to invest in,” says Pitts, “was a brand new idea and that was ‘We’re going to turn this community around. First invest in us and we’re going to take that investment and we’re going to invest it in the community, we’re going to bring the community out here, we’re going to show them that they belong, that this is all for them, that we can be a connected city.’” ,

Innovator: The Levitt Shell Innovation: Fifty free concerts held in an outdoor venue of historic and cultural importance to the city bringing the community together from disparate neighborhoods and with an eye to diversity of race and socioeconomic conditions. The renovation and programming of the venue was a catalyst to nearby economic development as well.

Website: levittshell.org

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“It’s the kids in front of the stage, that is the most powerful example of what we’re all about and what we do.”

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Brett Norman & Clayton Plymill AgSmarts •••

BY RICHARD J. ALLEY

W

ith weather patterns becoming even more dynamic these days, and with recent droughts in places like California reinforcing our dependence on water for food and life, the need for innovation in agriculture is paramount.

Add new seed technologies to the mix, along with the rollercoaster of available labor, and farming has become increasingly complex.

The startup AgSmarts is looking to “close the loop” between the automation of industrial and commercial spaces, and the need for supplemental irrigation in an agronomy that boasts an ever-increasing economy of scale with acreage in the thousands.

Drive east on Walnut Grove Road from the concrete complexes of Christian Brothers High School and Baptist Memorial

Hospital until the road gives way to Shelby Farms Park on your left and the fertile land of Agricenter International on the right. There, you pass fields of corn and soybeans, and it’s among the maze of office suites, expo centers, and showplaces that you’ll find cofounders Brett Norman and Clayton Plymill.

In an engineer’s version of Santa’s workshop, AgSmarts’ elves wield soldering irons and voltage meters in an effort to change the way farmers everywhere go about their dayto-day business. With sensors and software developed and patented by AgSmarts, a grower can get real-time readings from the soil on moisture content, temperature, mineral content, and nutrients, as well as rainfall and wind speed.

That data is sent wirelessly to a mobile phone, handheld device, or desktop computer.

The current model collects this information and data and, Norman says, allows farmers “to configure the farm and their field to have very specific scenarios set up, or models whereby the data that’s coming off the field is laid-over . . . to make it very relevant to what their cropping system and their environment looks like.”

Norman and Plymill met in 2007 while working in the industrial controls industry and the markets of building automation, oil and gas, and manufacturing automation.

“Machines making decisions on when to heat and cool a space, when to move a robot, when to open up a valve to allow liquid to flow through a pipe,” explains Norman. Environments in those industries are changing at a rate too quickly for humans to physically manage. “It wasn’t feasible for a human, or even a

team of humans, to manage a 100-story building and open up a thousand dampers. When I understood conceptually how this technology was taking environmental feedback to help humans make better decisions, I thought, ‘Wow, this is really powerful across a lot of different industries’ and the first one that just intuitively hit was agricultural irrigation.”

The innovative slant the team is bringing to the agriculture space is in the ability for fields to drive their own decisions, and the ability for the producer or farm manager to allow that environment to dictate what it needs when it needs it. Yields will be boosted and resources of labor, energy, water, and nutrients minimized to optimize that crop’s outcome.

“This is a software that really complements your seed technology’s hardware because the seed is being built and genetically modified to withstand different environmental conditions or be able to thrive in hotter, dryer climates,” Norman adds. “The challenge for a seed technology company is that once that seed leaves a growing facility or test plots, I can’t control what happens. It’s built to be a racehorse under these scenarios, but it ends up being an old nag because it didn’t get the water it needed or the nutrients. Well, this is a feedback loop that allows that strategy to be dynamically followed. In the hands of the right producers or crop consultants or agronomists, they can have that seed thrive and meet its potential.”

The long-term vision for AgSmarts is artificial intelligence, and for the system to run and manage itself based on what it knows, and to continually learn about its environment.

Fundraising efforts began in earnest in early 2014 when Norman traveled the country looking for capital. The problem he found was that “venture capital did not play in the ag space” and he was spending his time explaining farming basics to potential investors. It has changed in that short time, due in part to the concentration of venture capital in Silicon Valley and the drought faced by California, and AgSmarts is riding that wave.

One of the first people they’d reached out to was Jan Bouten, a partner with Innova Memphis, who watched the fledgling company from the periphery. Once a few strategic investors — including two USDA general counsels, commodity brokers, and farmers — came on board, enough momentum was built that Innova wanted to become involved.

“That happened pretty quickly that we went from prototype to pilot to commercialization this year,” Norman says. “Our first delivery of units was in March of this year to John Deere. We put units in their stores. And then we continued to sell to other dealers, consultants, and producers.”

Today, AgSmarts’ sensors are mainly found in the Delta and across Georgia, Virginia, Illinois, Texas, California, and Arizona. They’ve also been contacted by a micro-credit lender in Kenya setting up half-acre plots with centralized irrigation management who is interested in the price point and flexibility of the product.

As populations swell and droughts persist, efficiency in farming becomes more crucial. From the Agricenter in East Memphis, a team of engineers and agronomists is innovating at the way farms are managed and, with it, the way the world thrives. ,

Innovator: AgSmarts Founders: Brett Norman and Clayton Plymill Innovation: A system of sensors and software that collects data — moisture, nutrients, minerals, temperature, wind speed — and analyzes it, allowing the farmer to manage crops remotely and more efficiently.

Website: agsmarts.com

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“When I understood conceptually how this technology was taking environmental feedback to help humans make better decisions, I thought, ‘Wow, this is really powerful across a lot of different industries’”

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infections, thrombosis, scar tissue, and other common causes of device failures.

CirQuest Labs is a multi-service specialty laboratory and direct marketer of clinical trial logistics to the pharmaceutical and medical device industries, as well as public and private institutions at the forefront of clinical research.

“CirQuest fills the gap in the pharmaceutical and device industries,” Jennings says. “The last several years they’ve downsized the research and development departments. There are fewer people who can bridge the research. We bring that expertise. We understand the biology. We help them run the clinical trials. It’s an interesting niche to be in. Typically there are academic labs that know the science and then companies that are clinical research organizations that are good at doing testing and getting results back to clients, but not many companies that bridge the two.”

Started in 2008, CirQuest Labs helps in the early stages of drug development to increase the chances of having a safe and effective drug for patients that also reduces costs. The company performs testing for studies that are conducted in the U.S., Canada, Europe, and Asia.

As a professor at UTHSC, Jennings became an internationally recognized expert in the area of platelets and clotting. There was a healthcare movement in the 1990s to add drugs that treat patients with cardiovascular disease in an effort to reduce the risk of having an event or preventing a second one from occurring. And Jennings began having more opportunities.

“After awhile it became clear to me it was time to focus my

Dr. Lisa Jennings UTHSC •••

BY L ANCE WIEDOWER

A

s a clinical professor in the College of Medicine at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center, Lisa Jennings has a far-reaching impact on the scientific and medical communities in Memphis.

Her work as founder of CirQuest Labs LLC and co-founder of Ariste Medical Inc. takes Jennings to the front of innovation in Memphis. The two Memphis-based biomedical companies put science into action for the benefit of the healthcare industry, filling a major gap in the process.

Jennings co-founded Ariste Medical with Tim Fabian, the Harwell Wilson Alumni Professor and chairman of the Department of Surgery at UTHSC in 2007. The business develops drug-delivering surgical implants to prevent

Innovator: Dr. Lisa Jennings Innovation: A new class of implantable drug-delivering devices to improve patient outcomes and lower costs of care by reducing complications associated with surgical procedures; and a multi-service specialty laboratory and direct marketer of clinical trial logistics to the pharmaceutical and medical device industries, as well as public and private institutions at the forefront of clinical research.

Website: aristemedical.com; cirquestlabs.com 44 |

academic position on basic science and training of graduate and medical students,” she says.

She stayed at the university running the academic lab and collaborating with other faculty on campus as she took the pharmaceutical contract work to CirQuest Labs in 2008. A year later the company hired its first employee.

Today, it has a staff of 14.

CirQuest Labs works with pharmaceutical and medical device companies of all sizes. Many of them, in fact, are Fortune 500 firms, Jennings says.

“We have a unique capability, plus the fact we are in Memphis with FedEx and we have the ability of either sending out kits for getting samples for trials, or receiving samples from clinical sites for testing,” she says. “Our storage facility, along with FedEx, gives us the unsurpassed capability to receive samples and store them for short- or long-term periods.”

CirQuest Labs is Good Clinical Practice compliant, meaning it meets higher standards of quality, reliability, and integrity of data collected.

“We can run clinical samples that can be reported to physicians and recorded in a patient file,” Jennings says regarding the importance of the GCP compliance. “These are very important credentials to have because the industry wants to know we have the best practices in place, that we’ve met criteria with little to no corrective action.”

If operating CirQuest Labs wasn’t enough, as co-founder and co-manager of Ariste Medical, Jennings is at the forefront of leading the technological development of drug-device combination products.

Ariste Medical has developed a new class of implantable drug-delivering devices to improve patient outcomes and lower costs of care by reducing complications associated with surgical procedures. That includes ways to remedy surgical infections, including a vascular graph closure that has a localized release of drugs that are known to prevent scar tissue.

They disclosed the invention to the University of Tennessee Research Foundation who in turn filed the patent. The company was formed in 2007, and in 2011, $1.3 million was raised to get the company going.

In the past year, Ariste Medical raised $4.6 million from an investor to continue development, testing, and preparations for commercialization of a new combination product to reduce risk of infection after hernia surgery.

That money is being used to scale up the manufacturing process to do the required U.S. Food and Drug Administration testing, with the hope of gaining approval by the third or fourth quarter of 2016 with official product launch in 2017.

Along with CirQuest Labs, Jennings says she is happy about the impact both are having on the local workforce.

“We’ve generated a lot of technology-related jobs in Memphis.

People who graduate now have an option to do technical and high-level science. We’re hoping the company grows and we can continue to keep that in Memphis and provide jobs in the transitional biology sector.

And hopefully having CirQuest in Memphis may attract other industries to the city. … It’s a win-win situation to have a company such as CirQuest in Memphis that can provide these services to our university colleagues who are doing the research to the industry at large.”

Jennings recently transitioned from her full-time tenured professorship so she can devote her time and focus on CirQuest Labs and Ariste Medical.

But that doesn’t mean she’s moving on from UTHSC. “I have accomplished 30 years of service at UT,” says Jennings, who began as an assistant professor in 1985. “The university has been a really good career for me. I can’t imagine a better experience or better academic career than what I’ve had. I’ve worked with great students and great faculty at UT and at the University of Memphis. It prepared me for moving into these entrepreneurial opportunities.”/

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“It’s a win-win situation to have a company such as CirQuest in Memphis that can provide these services to our university colleagues who are doing the research to the industry at large.”

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Memphis’ incubators are heating up

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With so much assistance starting a company or developing an idea, where entrepreneurs might end up is anyone’s guess.

INSIDE MEMPHIS BUSINESS.COM | OCTOBER /NOVEMBER 2015

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• • •

BY

M A D E L I N E

FA B E R

The startup scene is deceptively quiet at Start Co.’s co-working lab Downtown. A couple of people are relaxing before hurtling toward the next milestone. Figures still remain on the giant whiteboard supporting pitch statements that finally made their way out into the investment ether.

It’s the day after Demo Day, the culmination of Memphis’ summer of business acceleration.

Fourteen teams participated in entrepreneurial boot camp over the past three months refining their startup ideas into scalable businesses with the potential to change the tech and biomedical industries. On August 15th, the graduates of Start Co.’s three accelerator programs — Seed Hatchery, Upstart, and SkyHigh — shared the stage with the graduates of Memphis Bioworks’ medical device accelerator, ZeroToFive10, for the very first time.

The inaugural cooperative Demo Day was born out of EPIcenter, or Memphis Entrepreneurship Powered Innovation Center.

Only launched this year, EPIcenter aims to unite the various startup efforts and kick Memphis’ ecosystem into high gear.

The summer may be cooling off, but Memphis is getting ready for its busiest startup season ever.

••• hey were up here all hours of the day,” Start Co. founder and CEO Eric Matthews says of the week before Demo Day. His 10 teams distilled their three months of hard work into five-minute pitches for a community of investors and business leaders, but the hardest work is still ahead. “These next 90 to 100 days can be critical.

We want the teams to stick around so we can work with them and help them stay on track.”

To keep up momentum, Start Co. offers a post-accelerator program to help the businesses as they scale.

In September, Start Co. will be the kick-off location for a six-city tour of the Delta Challenge Pitch Competition hosted by federal-state partnership Delta Regional Authority. In October, Matthews will be taking the for-profit teams to San Francisco for a “Demo Day light” to meet with 10 to 20 investors from Start Co.’s network.

T

Start Co.’s founder and CEO, Eric Matthews (left), and president, Andre Fowlkes, see Memphis as on the starting line of a 20-year transformation.

Until the fifth-annual accelerator series kicks off in May, Matthews is working on what he calls recoiling the spring: talking to partners, investors, and mentors, refining the application process, and traveling to national conferences to draw more talent and much-needed capital to Memphis.

Thanks to a partnership with Innova Memphis, an early-stage venture capital firm and the investment arm of the Memphis Bioworks Foundation, teams that participate in the for-profit accelerators — tech-focused Seed Hatchery and women-led Upstart — receive $25,000 in seed money. Nonprofit accelerator Sky High doesn’t receive capital, but Start Co. pulls together local foundations and mentors to help the organizations in their work to solve social ills.

If any business wants to get off the ground, it’s going to have to look outside of the city for post-accelerator investment, says Matthews. Two graduates of Start Co.’s accelerator programs, Musistic and Graph Story, are at the stage where they need to raise a couple of a million dollars over the next six to 12 months if they’re going to stay on track. And that money just isn’t here.

“Until startups become the fabric of the community, it could collapse at any time,” adds Andre Fowlkes, Start Co. president.

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“We have to think about the future and material resources.”

Increased public and private partnerships, and commitment from the Memphis business community, are necessary to secure that foundation, but mostly it will take time. Start Co. has been steadily supporting the startup environment with a direct investment of $1.8 million.

Fowlkes and Matthews see Memphis as on the starting line of a 20-year transformation. It will take 10 years from a series A investment for a company to exit the startup community and ideally return back to the Memphis ecosystem to be a mentor and angel.

“While we can look back on a day like yesterday and think, ‘Wow, this is great,’ we can’t rest on our laurels there; there’s such a long road to this,” Matthews says.

••• even floors of innovation are taking place under Memphis Bioworks’ massive solar panel roof. Bioworks collects enough electricity to power 100 houses yearly, and their influence in galvanizing the biotech industry is difficult to measure.

As part of the Memphis Bioworks Business Incubator, 25 compa- “WE’RE A TRUE HUB FOR nies are working THE BIOSCIENCES.” under Bioworks’ — ALLAN DAISLEY, roof. The startup PRESIDENT OF businesses gain access to technical ZEROT0510 resources that would be too cost-prohibitive to obtain otherwise: a metal prototype and fabrication facility for small batch manufacturing, a 3-D printer, lab space equipped with fume hoods, freezer rooms, centrifuges, and other equipment. The businesses also share conventional resources, like an auditorium, conference rooms, and co-working space, as well as back-office support and valuable mentoring. Most companies stay three or four years before graduating to take their products to large-scale manufacturers.

“We’re a true hub for the biosciences,” says Allan Daisley, president of ZeroTo510, and director of sustainability and entrepreneurship at Memphis Bioworks.

One of the floors is dedicated to the ZeroTo510 program, the only accelerator in the country laser-focused on getting medical devices cleared for commercial deployment through the FDA’s 510(k) process.

This year, teams received $50 million in seed money through Innova and MB Venture Partners.

Now in its fourth year, ZeroTo510 has graduated 20 companies that have garnered investments upwards of $8 million. Four of those products are already on the market.

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“Every year we double applications,” Daisley adds. “People are starting to figure out that if you want to do a successful medical device company, Memphis is a good place to come.”

One team, GlucosAlarm, moved from Chihuahua, Mexico, to participate in this year’s accelerator program. They received international acclaim for their device which rests in the toilet and measures glucose level in urine rather than pesky finger pricks.

The device won first place in the international Tech-I competition held in Nairobi, Kenya, over the summer.

“They came all the way from Mexico because they had a dream and they wanted to pursue it,” says Daisley. “It was almost like the old musicians used to come to Memphis to realize their dream back in the day.”

With a one-month infant in tow, GlucosAlarm co-founder Nancy Guerra and her husband, and partner Carlos Bernal, looked at programs across Mexico and the U.S. to accelerate their product. They realized quickly that ZeroTo510 was the acceptable option.

At Demo Day, Guerra put forth an ask for $1.1 million to go toward finalizing the prototype, gaining FDA clearance, and getting 200 devices to market. They’ve already received favorable attention from big pharmaceutical companies and investors in Mexico.

“We love Memphis,” says Bernal. “It’s a really interesting ecosystem, especially when we talk about healthcare. That’s one of the great things here. You can talk to a lot of people: doctors, CEOs, diabetes educators, endocrinologists. They all love the product.”

••• emphis’ entrepreneurial backbone is born out of Emerge Memphis.

Founded in 1999, the 60,000-square-foot warehouse on Tennessee Street grew from being just physical place for sharing resources and office space to serving the Memphis community as a full-fledged business incubator.

Carlton Crothers, CEO, views Emerge as part of the continuum that takes business accelerator graduates to the finish line.

“Most people think entrepreneurship is a sprint and it’s not, it’s a relay,” he says. “The ultimate goal is securing customers and rapidly scaling. Once entrepreneurs do that, they can graduate out into the community of Memphis.”

Emerge nurtures fledgling businesses by providing office space at a low-overhead cost and services like business development assistance, financial oversight, and access to fundraising and a partner network. It takes most businesses fewer than five years to graduate on a stable foundation, and over 60 percent of them relocate to the Downtown area.

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Think Outside the Box.

Emerge’s emphasis on rapid customer discovery and development has successfully created over 160 companies. Among those incubating is CompliantGames, designer of a wireless game that interacts with a spirometer so children with respiratory illnesses can complete their pulmonary exercises in a fun, effective way.

This month, CompliantGames received a Proto Labs Cool Idea! Award, which will provide funding for the first run of production. Emerge has been working with CompliantGames on the design of the device and is currently engaging with several area hospitals to take it on for first clinical trials.

Start Co., a startup in itself, also came of age at Emerge. Matthews’ startup support system, at the time called LaunchYourCity, spent a year at the building. Matthews also served as the interim director before Crothers came on board.

“If you really look deeper, you have a sense of drive and entrepreneurialism that is absent in many communities,” Crothers says. “What I want to do is be one of the strong supporters of that spirit to keep Memphis becoming and establishing itself as the Mid-South hub of innovation.”

••• collaborative Demo Day was just the beginning of the way that EPIcenter hopes to catalyze Memphis’ startup environment.

According to Leslie Lynn Smith, president of EPIcenter, Memphis has reached the tipping point where the Leslie Lynn Smith ecosystem needs to collaborate and make a major bet on the work that’s already being done.

“There’s a notion in entrepreneurial ecosystems that you know you’ve arrived when you’re evaluating, assessing, and addressing the portfolio of opportunities collectively and in partnership with other providers. I think that’s where Memphis has arrived.”

The initiative is one of the five “moon missions” launched last year by the Memphis Chamber of Commerce’s Chairman’s Circle, a collection of more than 100 business leaders who are investing in Memphis’ startup ecosystem with a plan to create 1,000 entrepreneurs and 500 companies over the next 10 years.

To achieve that, Smith is currently taking a macro look at the startup ecosystem and identifying where she can bring in additional resources and partners to take Memphis to the next level.

Epicenter, which is housed in Memphis Bioworks, aims to be the front door for all of Memphis’ entrepreneurial activ-

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ities: Start Co., Emerge Memphis, the Crews Center for Entrepreneurship at the University of Memphis, Innova Memphis, Co-Work Memphis, and Bioworks’ programs including ZeroTo510, the Crop Development Center, federal partnership AgLaunch, and Bioworks Business Incubator. Epicenter will work in conjunction with Economic Development Growth Engine and the Brookings Regional Economic Development to support Memphis’ startup environment.

“We think of ourselves as the EPICENTER, WHICH IS connective tissue HOUSED IN MEMPHIS catalyzing the entrepreneurBIOWORKS, AIMS TO ial movement,” BE THE FRONT DOOR Smith says.

FOR ALL OF MEMPHIS’ In addition to accelerating the ENTREPRENEURIAL work already ACTIVITIES being done, Epicenter is adding new programs to the mix.

Starting in the fall, teams will be able to apply to Co.Starters, a nine-week pre-accelerator program for entrepreneurs with an idea and little more. The Growth Academy will provide ongoing programming support for existing businesses in the city that could take their business to the next level with appropriate coaching, consulting, and capital.

Eventually, Smith hopes to add EPIcenter storefronts all over Memphis, making entrepreneurship an undeniable part of the city’s makeup. The physical spaces will host co-working space and opportunities for entrepreneurs to convene and work through their concepts. Based on existing partnerships with Advance Memphis and Community LIFT, the first locations are likely to open in the Frayser and Binghampton areas.

This could be executed as early as fall if the funding is secured.

In August, the first cohort of the FedEx Express-sponsored EPIcenter Logistics Innovation Accelerator got under way. The five groups, hailing from San Francisco to Austin, Texas, will work on technologies and products that will continue to strengthen Memphis’ reputation as a distribution hub. After the 14-week series, the teams will present at 2016’s Demo Day, making it the largest Demo Day to date.

••• emphis’ various accelerators are in their own incubation periods now, but when summer comes around again the startup environment is going to be stronger and richer than ever. With the EPIcenter convening resources and advocating for entrepreneurs, and Memphis’ incubators and accelerators traveling across the globe to spread the Delta startup gospel, we’re in for a veritable startup quake. 1

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L E A D E R S H I P

Martha Flowers • • •

B Y

F R A N K

M U R TA U G H

PHOTOGRAPH BY LARRY KUZNIEEWSKI

Martha Flowers is not a brain surgeon. But she’s determined to let the world know that if you need surgery for your brain (or spine), there’s no better place to be than Memphis, Tennessee; specifically, the Semmes-Murphey Neurologic & Spine Institute.

“We have doctors at St. Jude,” notes Flowers, who was astonished at how little she knew about the neuroscience institution when she was named executive director of the Semmes-Murphey Foundation in 2014.

“If your child has a brain tumor and flies here from anywhere in the world, we operate on them. We’re the doctors for spine and brain at Le Bonheur, Regional One [The Med]. We just signed a contract with Baptist. We have 32 neurosurgeons. We have pediatric neurosurgeons, neuropsychologists, neuroradiologists.

These people are all on site.”

The foundation Flowers heads is tasked with, fundamentally, spreading the word for Semmes-Murphey, educating doctors, patients, and potential patients about the latest methods, techniques, and resources for neurological treatment. There’s a fundraising component (among the largest sources for the foundation are Semmes-Murphey doctors themselves), but the mission is more about advancing research both here in Memphis and beyond. “We are looking at which surgeries are good,” says Flowers, “what readmittance rates are, what infection rates are, who recovers faster. We’ll have outcome data to show this is successful and necessary, and that it doesn’t cost that much money.” With such information, hospital administrators, patients, and yes, insurance companies, can better plan — and execute — treatment for brain and spine ailments.

During her college days at the University of Tennessee, Flowers was a diver and volleyball player. (She joined the Lady Vols volleyball team initially to rehab a shoulder she injured diving. She had played the sport in high school at St. Mary’s.)

While in Knoxville (the only stage of life Flowers has spent away from Memphis), she came under the influence of a young women’s basketball coach you may have heard of, a Hall of Famer and winner of eight national championships at UT. “Pat Summitt was our academic adviser,” explains Flowers. “She’s about

five years older than me, and was fairly new there. She probably made the biggest impact on my life. She made it clear we were students first and athletes second, expected us to keep our grades up. If you made good grades, you helped tutor other athletes, men and women. Every once in a while, she’d show up in one of our classes.

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[for leadership lessons], among all the people I’ve worked with, I always go back to her. She was impressionable, fair. She was not afraid of hard work, and that’s what she taught us.”

Flowers graduated with a degree in Sports & Educational Psychology, but returned to Memphis unsure of where or how exactly to start a career. She interviewed for a job with Methodist Hospital for a position in the relatively new field of health promotion.

Businesses finally seemed to recognize the casualty factor (to their bottom lines) of employees who failed to practice good health. “I was put on site at First Tennessee Bank,” says Flowers, “and we developed their health-promotion pro g r a m . D o n ’t s m o ke , ke ep yo u r we i g ht low, exercise. It was brand new; we didn’t even have classes on [the subject] in college.” Flowers oversaw a “I LOVE EMPOWERprogram that measured a perING PEOPLE TO DO son’s functional THE BEST THEY CAN age, which can DO. MICROMANAGEbe horrifying if a 40-year-old MENT STIFLES PEOPLE; person tests as THEY DON’T FEEL LIKE if he’s 70.

She spent 14 THEY’RE TRUSTED.” years at First Tennessee and considers former president Ron Terry another influential leader in her own career growth. “He knew how to treat everyone holistically,” she says. “Not just at work, but your family makes a difference, your health makes a difference in how you produce. And I learned business there, from tellers to loan officers. I learned how to budget. Back to Pat Summitt: Absorb as much as you can, because you never know when you’re going to use it again.”

Flowers left the workforce for six years to stay home with her two children (each now in college), then leaped a hurdle faced so often by women who choose to prioritize child rearing mid-career. “It was extremely hard,” reflects Flowers. “I hadn’t interviewed [for years], being at the bank so long. I had social contacts, but business contacts . . . not so much. There weren’t a lot of career transition groups like we have in Memphis now. It was interesting, just putting a resume back together. You had to explain why you had a hole on your resume.”

She landed back in health promotion, at Caesars Entertainment in Tunica in 2003.

Casino employees were in particularly poor

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health and not earning the kind of income thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s conducive to improving personal health. â&#x20AC;&#x153;They got one free meal a day in the casino,â&#x20AC;? notes Flowers, â&#x20AC;&#x153;and we couldnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t tell them what to eat.â&#x20AC;? When Caesars discontinued the program, Flowers moved on to Baptist Womenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Hospital, where she met another role model in Dr. Anita Vaughn. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve been fortunate,â&#x20AC;? says Flowers, â&#x20AC;&#x153;in that Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve never had a job that someone else had before me. At Womenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s, they ended up putting the educational, retail, and guest services into one job. It was fun, kind of making things the way I envisioned. I got to work with patients and learn about the healthcare field from the medical perspective. [Former Baptist CEO] Steve Reynolds was a great leader. Thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a lot of competition [in the healthcare industry] in Memphis; it keeps you on your toes.â&#x20AC;?

After six years with Baptist Womenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s, Flowers took an oďŹ&#x20AC;er from Memphis Jewish Home & Rehab, but only after visiting and falling in love with the process of care for people near the end of their lives. â&#x20AC;&#x153;It was basically letting people know what services we had,â&#x20AC;? explains Flowers. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Getting people to refer [loved ones], especially for rehabilitation. It was a new learning curve.â&#x20AC;?

Flowers and several colleagues were casualties when the Jewish Home chose to eliminate â&#x20AC;&#x153;non-essentialâ&#x20AC;? positions upon enactment of the AďŹ&#x20AC;ordable Care Act (there was uncertainty over reimbursement policies under the new federal program).

A little over a year later, Flowers found herself at Semmes-Murphey, again charting her own path, and again under the influence of a leader who made a large impact in a short time. Dr. Clarence Watridge practiced at Semmes-Murphey more than 30 years and was chairman of the clinic until his retirement in June. He remains among the finest neuroscience educators in the world. â&#x20AC;&#x153;He trained directly under Dr. Semmes,â&#x20AC;? says Flowers. â&#x20AC;&#x153;He believes God gave him a talent to save peopleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s lives. And heâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s done it numerous times. Heâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s genteel. He believes the patient is a person, too. It was hard for him to leave, because he trains interns and fellows.

He would tell them what Pat Summitt told me: You gotta work hard. Everything he does uses stepping stones to better this world.â&#x20AC;?

Having absorbed lessons on leadership at several stops in her career, Flowers identifies a few unifying traits in the men and women we choose to follow. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Enthusiasm is important,â&#x20AC;? she says, â&#x20AC;&#x153;but it has to be well-founded.

I believe in what we do here. Communication and training are important, too. I love empowering people to do the best they can do.

Micromanagement stifles people; they donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t feel like theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re trusted.â&#x20AC;? And from basketball coaches to brain surgeons, Flowers has learned that teamwork is everything. â&#x20AC;&#x153;[Our surgeons] do what it takes to treat the patient.

They know the cause.â&#x20AC;?

Working to make Memphis a better place for everyone.

Join us at www.diversitymemphis.org.

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C O M M U N I T Y

P A R T N E R S H I P S

Girls Inc. & Nike • • •

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Now, teen girls are enrolling in the Eureka! program, inspiring them to get involved in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math); they are getting paid to manage and maintain a working Youth Farm in Frayser; and they’re preparing for their college years through the College Prep program, among many others.

The network of adult volunteers at Girls Inc. enriches the programming and reiterates the mission to help girls be “strong, smart, and bold.” Individual and corporate volunteers mentor girls, coordinate staff events, and tutor. Perhaps one of the largest corporate groups to volunteer and sponsor Girls Inc. programs is Nike.

When it opened its $301 million distribution center in Frayser last July, Nike became Girls Inc.’s neighbor.

“Nike has a rich volunteer program,” says Moore. In 2013, U.S. Nike employees volunteered for over 130,000 hours and gave away nearly $1.5 million from their own pockets. “Over the years,” she continues, “we have had lots of Nike volunteers at our events like National Girls and Women in Sports Day, which commemorates the Title IX amendment.” Nike is especially interested in helping girls locally, nationally, and internationally through its programs Girl Effect, the Girl Declaration, and the International Day of the Girl. “We try to target toward corporate interests,” she adds. Nike employees have volunteered as literacy tutors; they’ve staffed the annual Celebration Luncheon, which recognizes women who exemplify the Girls Inc. traits of strong, smart, and bold; been a part of International Day festivities; and given away backpacks as a back-to-school incentive. In addition, Nike has been of great help to the Girls Inc. Youth Farm in Frayser.

“Nike is in Frayser,” says Moore, “and Frayser is a food desert.” Health and wellness and access to fresh food go hand-in-hand. “Nike and the farm are about four miles apart. Part of the farm’s mission is to help educate the community in healthy living. The girls Now known as Girls Inc. (the name was changed have developed a business model, have attended the in 1990 after a dispute with the Boys and Girls Club of America), the club strives to inspire all girls “to be Frayser Exchange Club meetings, and are selling strong, smart, and bold.” In Memtheir produce at the farmers market Downtown.” But one phis, Girls Inc. maintains three centers: the Lucille DeVore TuckNIKE IS ESPECIALLY INTERESTED IN of the most important things er (LDT) Center downtown, the the Nike volunteers provide is HELPING GIRLS LOCALLY, NATIONAL- “the mentoring relationships beFrayser Center, and the South Park Center. Assorted programs LY, AND INTERNATIONALLY THROUGH tween the girls and Nike folks,” are tailored for girls as young as says Moore. “I just heard a story ITS PROGRAMS GIRL EFFECT, THE 6 up through high school seniors. the other day about a guy who GIRL DECLARATION, AND THE INTER- came to work on some of our Unlike their 1940s predecessors, today’s Girls Inc. members aren’t computers as a volunteer. The NATIONAL DAY OF THE GIRL. learning homemaking skills. As girls surrounded him and all of them wanted him as their ‘grandparent,’ as they call girlhood has changed, so have the programs. “It’s not just a place to hang out,” says Lisa Moore, CEO and the mentors,” she says. “An hour makes an impact; no president of Girls Inc. Memphis. “It’s about the business matter how long someone can mentor a child, it is a big moment for that child.” of girlhood.”

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PHOTOGRAPH BY RMARMION | DREAMSTIME

Girls Incorporated was founded in Waterbury, Connecticut, in 1864, when families were moving to Northeastern cities in droves, looking for factory work, and often leaving their children home alone. Early girls’ clubs provided a safe place off the streets where girls and young women could gather and learn practical homemaking skills. The trend caught on and, by the mid-1930s, there were enough girls’ clubs that the leaders decided to informally organize to further help girls in their various urban communities. In 1945, Girls Clubs of America was established and just a year after that the first Girls Club of Memphis was born.

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Thursday, November 12

Friday, November 13

Saturday, November 14

Girls Night Out 6 – 9 p.m. $25 in advance, $30 at the door

Marketplace Morning 9 – 10:30 a.m. $25 in advance, $30 at the door

Saturday with Santa 9 – 11 a.m. $30 in advance, $30 at the door

General Shopping 9 a.m. – 5 p.m. $10 for adults, $5 for children

General Shopping 9 a.m. – 5 p.m. $10 for adults, $5 for children

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The Office Pat Halloran The Orpheum Theatre

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• • • PHOTOGRAPHS BY LARRY KUZNIEWSKI

It appears as if 2015 will be the curtain call on Pat Halloran’s storied career as president and CEO of The Orpheum Theatre. Halloran, an imposing man with a booming, stageready voice (though he’ll tell you he’s never acted a day in his life), has spent the past 35 years as a fixture in both the local and national theater scene. Three Tony Awards for producing, countless shows, and one successful theater later, and Halloran is preparing to bow out this December.

But as of this past September, the burly producer was still busy with his part in readying the new Halloran Centre for Performing Arts & Education, a $15 million project that will expand the Orpheum’s operations to include a series of educational programs, a new conference space, and a 355-seat theater. When we spoke, Halloran was mid-move, in the process of sorting his stuff to transition it to the new center. Pictures, posters, and other stage career ephemera were strewn around his office.

Halloran started at the Orpheum in 1980, after a failed mayoral race (“I didn’t have much going on at the time”). He quickly set about turning the abandoned vaudeville house into a reputable venue, one that could host the likes of Robert Goulet and Cary Grant — men that Halloran eventually came to call his friends. Halloran’s work coincided with, and contributed to, the reemergence of Downtown Memphis: a neighborhood that looks much different than it did when Halloran began his career.

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1. Orpheus Statue: “This was the symbol we used in my new book about the history of the Orpheum. It is the second book I’ve written about the history of the Orpheum, and it [came] out in September. We had a contest for who could make the best Orpheus playing the lyre. The winning statue is made out of bronze. It’s very heavy.”

2. Tie: “There used to be a bar and restaurant here called Sleep Out Louie’s. On one wall they had ties from a lot of different people. They had Elvis, they had the governor, they

had Rufus Thomas, and BB King.

When the business changed over to another name, they gave us our ties back. I said, ‘Well, this tie is so out of style now I’ll just hang it on the wall.’

People always ask, ‘What the hell is your tie doing over there?’ and I tell them it is a long story.”

3. Street Sign: “In August, at the city council meeting, they named a street after me right behind the theatre. It’s called Pat Halloran Boulevard. I guess it is like a preliminary obituary. This is a replica they gave me at the meeting. It’s awfully difficult for me to take

all the credit, though, because I have had a lot of good people helping me.”

4. Granddaughter: “That’s my granddaughter. We’ve got three grandkids in Nashville, and we’ve got one here. I have a star out on the sidewalk that [the Orpheum] gave me. Her father took that picture.”

5. Halloran Centre: “I don’t really have a prized possession, but I think naming the new building after me was by far the most dramatic and impressive thing that has happened in my career. That will last for a long time. It’s an extremely important

space. I’ve been very fortunate and honored in many ways, on behalf of the whole team here and the theatre.”

6. Political cartoons: “All those caricatures back there are from when I was on the City Council and when I ran for mayor. They ran in the political editorial page of The Commercial Appeal back in 1980.”

7. Sopranos poster: “That was a gift from my stepson. He said, ‘You remind me of that guy from the Sopranos.’ I said, ‘No! I haven’t whacked anybody in a long time!’”

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I N S I D E

T H E

A R C H I V E S

Dancing Days • • •

B Y

VA N C E

L A U D E R D A L E

At one time, the only casino Memphians knew about was located at the Mid-South Fairgrounds.

Everyone is familiar with the glitzy casinos just across the state line in Mississippi. But those are fairly recent additions to the local entertainment scene.

Years ago, Memphis had its own casino, but it wasn’t for gambling — it was a giant dance hall, and one of the best you’d find anywhere.

Located on East Parkway, the Mid-South Fairgrounds Casino was hailed as “The Showplace of the South.” The place was constructed in 1930 by a fellow named Lynn Welcher for $100,000 — an enormous sum in those days. Some of that high cost came from a fancy teak and rosewood inlaid dance floor that was mounted on felt, which gave it a nice bounce when you did the Jersey Hop or the rhumba.

Long before the days of dis-

cos, there was also a remote-controlled lighting system — operated from the orchestra stand — that flashed precisely 96 colored lights off a spinning glass ball dangling from the ceiling.

The Fairg rounds Casino thrived for two decades, with crowds dancing to such bigname acts as Louis Armstrong and Kay Starr. In the 1950s, when the big-band era was drawing to a close, the place was turned over to a new man-

ager named Dick Morton, who believe, people apparently lost told reporters he was initiating interest in dancing in big public a new policy: no drinking. He halls like this, and the music fitold the Memphis Press-Scimitar, nally stopped. The Memphis Park “We believe Commission there are converted the people of all huge building THE FAIRGROUNDS CASINO ages who into a public don’t drink basketball THRIVED FOR TWO DECADES, but do dance, a ren a (no WITH CROWDS DANCING TO and they word on how would love to SUCH BIG-NAME ACTS AS LOUIS those bouncy have a place floors affectARMSTRONG AND KAY STARR. where they ed dribbling), won’t be bumped around by a but the fire marshal eventually bunch of drunks.” considered the ramshackle place I suspect he was referring a fire hazard. Building inspecto the Lauderdales, though he tors estimated it would cost more didn’t mention us by name. than $50,000 to bring the Casino You’d think a place as big and up to code, and the city decided it beautiful as the Casino would last just wasn’t worth it. The “South’s forever. Old postcards show the Most Beautiful Ballroom,” as the eye-catching exterior and stunpostcards describe it, was torn ning interior. Though it’s hard to down in 1963.

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M A D E

I N

M E M P H I S

American Paper Optics B Y

K AT H E R I N E

B A R N E T T

J O N E S

What do the Fourth of July, Chick-fil-A, A Nightmare on Elm Street, and the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition have in common?

It’s not the start of a bad joke — it’s John Jerit’s client base. The owner and founder of American Paper Optics (APO) in Bartlett is about to celebrate 25 years of manufacturing a marketing tool that has served all of these industries, and many more: 3D glasses.

John Jerit had his start buying thousands of 3D glasses wholesale and reselling them for $1 at Memphis in May. Within a few years, he opened his own manufacturing facility.

AMERICAN PAPER OPTICS IS ONE OF ONLY TWO MAJOR COMPANIES IN THE U.S. THAT MANUFACTURE 3D GLASSES AND FILM, AND THE BUSINESS HAS CLIENTS ALL OVER THE WORLD.

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While working for a fireworks importer in Mississippi after graduating from Louisiana State University, part of Jerit’s job was marketing 3D glasses to enhance the show. Seeing an opportunity, his entrepreneurial nature took off. Initially, Jerit, a native Memphian, sold the glasses himself, ordering thousands wholesale and selling them for $1 at Memphis in May. Within just a few years, he opened his own manufacturing facility.

Today, American Paper Optics is one of only two major companies in the U.S. that manufacture 3D glasses and film, and the business has clients all over the world.

Jerit’s products can be found in print publications, kids’ fast food meals, movie theaters, cereal boxes, and more.

APO started in a small manufacturing facility on Union Avenue, eventually moving to a larger facility in Bartlett and soon growing into an even larger one down the street where the company remains today, operating with around 36 employees.

Jerit’s successful mass production of 3D glasses over the years helped expand the product’s use from the world of comic books and fireworks shows into largescale marketing opportunities.

“When I started the business, 3D was just 3D,” Jerit says. “3D glasses had never really been used as a marketing tool or a giveaway. We teach people to use it as a marketing tool.”

The 1991 installment of the Nightmare on Elm Street horror film series was APO’s first big project, with an order of 12 million glasses. Within six months, the company nearly doubled that success, creating 20 million glasses for a special broadcast by Mexican multimedia

company Grupo Televisa. Soon after, National Geographic included APO glasses in every copy of an issue featuring 3D photos of Mars and the Titanic.

Despite a strong start, business has ebbed and flowed over the last few decades. In the mid-2000s, the industry boomed. Movies like Shrek, Journey to the Center of the Earth, Hannah Montana, and Polar Express were huge clients for APO. In 2009, Avatar hit theaters and became a 3D blockbuster hit, and APO sold 134 million glasses the same year for a Superbowl XLIII commercial advertising DreamWorks’ Monsters vs. Aliens.

Jerit refers to 2009 as the beginning of the end of the 3D explosion in the U.S. Only 40 percent of today’s 3D moviegoers pick up the accompanying glasses, compared to 90 percent of Avatar viewers six years ago. Ever the entrepreneur, Jerit continues to lead APO into a world of 3D products as endlessly unique as ever, constantly working with inventors to license the best new technology. Whatever the challenge, whether it’s fitting lenses into a yogurt box or creating a customized 3D mailer, Jerit says that his business has always been about finding a way to say “yes.”

“Our success all along has been based on big projects, great customer service, doing our own manufacturing, and continuing to acquire or get exclusives on different types of optical effects,” Jerit says. “We’re good at taking new technology to the next market.”

While the various outlets provide a consistent profit for the company, Jerit’s sights are set down to the minute for the next big boom in 3D — August 21, 2017, at 10:47 a.m. CST, to be exact. At that moment, a total solar eclipse will be visible from the United States for the first time since 1979. While most of the country will be able to see at least some of the eclipse, the total phase will be visible beginning near Salem, Oregon, and traveling southeast toward Charleston, South Carolina, with the maximum point of eclipse taking place at 1:22 p.m. CST for two minutes and 40 seconds of total darkness in Hopkinsville, Kentucky, a town of 31,577, and only 200 miles from Memphis.

Jerit has become an expert on this event. Maps of the eclipse path can be found all over the APO office, with glasses already printed with sayings like, “GET MOONED: ECLIPSE USA 8.21.17.” APO has been selling special glasses for lunar and solar eclipses around the world for years, allowing viewers to stare directly at the sun without injuring their eyes.

“We’re very focused on continuing to show people how to use 3D, developing new products, and we’re really working hard to get prepared for the business to explode again,” Jerit says, looking ahead to 2017. “My goal is to be as prepared for that as you can be.”

Katherine Barnett Jones is a freelance writer and former intern for Contemporary Media Inc.

PHOTOGRAPHS COURTESY APO

• • •

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