A note to readers from the SB&D staff: The following individuals are being named in the first volume of the Southern Economic Development Hall of Fame. A second and third volume will be published in July and again in November.
Methodology: In 40-plus years, SB&D owner Michael Randle has visited over 1,300 different communities and counties in the South (or all 12 of the Southern states and D.C. that it covers), from El Paso to Richmond.
Randle formed many relationships, and those visits on his own dime are the basis of our first “Southern Economic Development Hall of Fame.” Randle has a story about almost every person on the list and he does not need notes.
Michael always said, “I can tell if the local economic developer is on a long rope, short rope or no rope at all in less than five minutes. I always found those on little or no rope held by their board were the ones I could learn from. And I did.”
So, this attempt to recognize over the next three or four issues those who have taken the South to incredible heights over the last 70 years (1955 to 2025), was something that we thought was badly needed.
From a backwater, dirt-poor South in the 1950s to the third largest economy in the world in 70 years. . .these are the people who did it! They built a massive beachhead for industry in the American South that has no peer over the last 70 years.
You can still nominate your favorites for the next two or three Hall of Fame issues. Just send your nominees to Michael at michael@sb-d.com and Stacy at stacy@sb-d.com.
Please note, all comments are from Michael Randle, and trust us, all of it comes from the top of his head. He needs zero notes.
George Allen
Governor and Senator of Virginia
I met Virginia Gov. George Allen at his going-away party at the Bull and Bear Club in Richmond in the fall of 1997. He was nearing the end of his first and only term (Virginia governors can only serve one). Wayne Sterling sent me the invite and he was with Gov. Allen and lots of other powerful folks from Blue Blood Richmond and beyond at a fine celebration.
I got in the kiss-the-ring line to meet Gov. Allen, and when I was nearing the front of the line, I thought, “I just have to find something that he will remember about me.” So, I greet him and while shaking hands, I told Gov. Allen, “Governor, I am Michael Randle, owner of Southern Business & Development, and we are naming you as one of the top five governors in the South for economic development in our fifth anniversary issue.” (I just made that up on the spot.)
Gov. Allen: “Who are the other four?” Me: “Uh, let’s see, let’s see, Gov. Jim Folsom of Alabama, Ned Ray McWherter of Tennessee, Jim Hunt of North Carolina, uh, uh. . .and George Bush of Texas.” Allen: “George Bush of Texas? You stay after the reception. We need to talk.” We ended up running the “five best economic development governors over the last five years.”
He didn’t have nice things to say about George W. Bush, who had invited me to Austin several years before. I had no idea Gov. Bush and Gov. Allen were running against each other for the Republican primary.
Sherry Vance Allen
Butler Snow; Louisiana Economic Development; Oklahoma Department of Commerce; Mississippi Department of Economic & Community Development
Jim Anderson
Northeast Tennessee Valley RIDA
Peter Arnoti
Greenwood County, S.C. EDA; Colleton County, S.C. Economic Alliance
Connie Bainbridge
Central Alabama Electric Cooperative; Prattville, Ala., Chamber of Commerce
Andy Beshear
Governor of Kentucky
Steve Beshear
Governor of Kentucky
I was lucky enough to get a seat on the Kentucky Governor’s Derby Train in 2013, and Orb won in the mud that day. The Derby Train is just fantastic, the finest red carpet the South offers in my opinion.
So, we spent an entire day riding the train from Frankfort to Louisville to attend the Derby. After all the races and festivities were over, the group walked back to the train.
As we walked through the first car, I found Gov. Steve Beshear, who was running his own Karaoke dance contest. Gov. Beshear was giving it his best, but it was pretty lame.
Next, we entered the entertainment car featuring a flute player, and that’s it! There is a full band, but only the flutist was playing some kind of ambient music which was even more lame than Gov. Beshear and Karaoke.
I looked at the situation, stuffed some cash in the tip jar and yelled, “Play Brick House!” Immediately, the familiar song was playing and just about everyone (including Gov. Beshear) danced all the way back to Frankfort.
Kathleen Babineaux Blanco
Governor of Louisiana
John Bradley
Tennessee Valley Authority; Memphis Area Chamber of Commerce
We have known John Bradley and Heidi Smith for decades. I cannot think of two people in the same company that have done more for the South than Heidi, and John. . .and TVA in general. Going back to 1955, this is one federal program that worked almost to perfection, which is tough to achieve.
Phil Bredesen
Governor of Tennessee
Alan Bridwell
Northeast Tennessee Valley RIDA
I was first introduced to Northeast Tennessee, a dynamic manufacturing region that bridges the South and the Northeast U.S., by “Big Jim” Anderson, who also made this list.
Jim was really something else to me. You know, the type who demands you listen, and that was all I wanted to do when I spoke with him. He was a wealth of information when I was trying to learn about the world I had just entered.
Alicia Summers and Alan Bridwell took over from Big Jim, and the longest economic development agency name in the South — the Northeast Tennessee Valley Regional Industrial Development Association — continues on after Jim. I would name all those towns up there — Johnson City, Erwin, Kingsport, Bristol and others — “Certified Factory Towns.”
Cliff Brumfield
Lincoln Economic Development Association, N.C.; Brookhaven-Lincoln County Chamber, Miss.; Greenwood Leflore Carroll EDF, Miss.
George W. Bush
Governor of Texas; President of the United States
The Bush administration in the mid-1990s invited me to Texas to meet Gov. Bush. They flew me out there and I was shuffled and shuttled fast to Gov. Bush’s conference room. There was Jack Campbell of Alabama, who had just assumed the head economic development job for the state of Texas.
So, Gov. Bush appears through a side door, shakes my hand and says he wanted me to meet his new economic development team. Jack had never been in economic development before, but he was the new boss for the state.
Jack leaned over to me and whispered, “So, Mike, we hear you know a lot about economic development.” Me: “Just starting out, sir.” Jack: “We are really glad you are here to help us. What is this economic development thing, anyway?” I swear that happened!
Jim Byard, Jr.
Byard Associates LLC; Alabama Department of Economic and Community Affairs; Mayor of Prattville, Ala.
Carroll A. Campbell
Governor of South Carolina
Greg Canfield
Alabama Department of Commerce; Burr Forman
Ted von Cannon
Birmingham Metropolitan Development Board
Randy Cardoza
Georgia Department of Economic Development
Dale Carroll
North Carolina Department of Commerce; Sanford Holshouser Economic Development Consulting; Progress Energy/CP&L; AdvantageWest (N.C.)
Bob Cassell
Southern Economic Development Council
Ed Castile
Alabama Department of Commerce; Alabama Industrial Development Training (AIDT)
Clif Chitwood
Cotton-to-Steel, Mississippi County, Ark.
Brent Christensen
Greensboro, N.C. Chamber of Commerce; Mississippi Development Authority; Gainesville (Fla.) Area Chamber of Commerce
Bill Clinton
Governor of Arkansas; President of the United States
Martha Layne Collins
Governor of Kentucky
Jack Connor
Georgetown-Scott County, Ky.
McKinley “Mac” Conway
Conway Data; Site Selection
When I sold the Birmingham Business Journal, I was dead-set on a “Southern Forbes” type of magazine, you know, general reach like a business journal, which I had just sold.
So, I traveled the South for nine months before I started Southern Business & Development to simply figure out my niche. I looked at my competition and met this man named Mac Conway.
It was clear to me the competition was tough, and Site Selection was far and away superior, therefore I had to be that, too.
We are still competitors, but I think we are the only real economic development media properties based in the South. I mean, do you really want to do business with an economic development magazine based up North?
Mac Conway, to me, was one of the most important people driving the South’s growth, even though his company is global in reach.
Al Cook
City of Opelika Economic Development; Alabama Development Office
Roger Cook
H+M Companies
Glenn Cornell
NationsBank; Bank of America
Jim Degennaro
Central Florida Development Council
David Dodd
DADCO Consulting, Inc.
Jim Fain, III
North Carolina Department of Commerce
I loved Jim Fain, a long-time banker who ran the North Carolina Department of Commerce at a critical time in the early and mid-2000s.
About 20 years ago, Toyota was searching for a site for its new pickup truck plant that eventually went to San Antonio. In the process, they looked at the site in Liberty (Randolph County, N.C.) where they are currently finishing up their multi-billion-dollar battery plant.
When I got word that Toyota was considering North Carolina for an assembly plant, I went to walk the site myself in about 2003.
I found the site, but also found a house that overlooked the center of the land. I knocked on the door and a woman (who has never wanted to be named) answered. I asked, “Have you seen anyone in the land your deck overlooks?” She said, “No.” So, I said, “You are about to!”
I told the lady, “Here is a camera I bought you at Best Buy. Keep it. If you see anyone, take multiple photographs and send them to me.”
And behold! That lady sent me multiple photos of Toyota’s Dennis Cuneo and Commerce Secretary Fain walking the property. I was so excited! Serious guerrilla journalism. So stoked!
I emailed the photos to Cuneo and Fain. Me: “Hey, Cuneo, Fain, is that you walking the Liberty, N.C., site?” Needless to say, they were baffled. Fain said, “How did you find us?” Cuneo (good friend by then) said, “Mike!? Dammit!? The only place we were seen was this little BBQ joint and no one was in there but us.” Gotcha!
Ernie Faucett
Electric Cooperatives of Arkansas
Charleigh Ford
Golden Triangle Development LINK
Gary Fuller
Mayor of Opelika, Ala.
Jay Garner
Garner Economics; Asheville Area Chamber of Commerce
Fred Gassaway
SC Power Team
Charlie Gatlin
Georgia Department of Economic Development; Electric Cities of Georgia
Randy George
Montgomery Area Chamber of Commerce
Clark S. Gillespy
Duke Energy; Google
Margaret Peake Grissom Gittner
Bowling Green Area Chamber of Commerce; Kentucky Cabinet for Economic Development; Greater Louisville Economic Development Partnership; Peake Consulting
Dr. Angeline Godwin
Patrick Henry Community College, Martinsville, Va.;
Liberty University; Area Development Partnership, Hattiesburg, Miss.; Innovate Mississippi
Bob Goforth
Leak and Goforth, Jacksonville, Fla.
John L. Gornall Jr.
Arnall Golden Gregory
Christopher R. Grissom
Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP
Maria Haley
Arkansas Economic Development Commission
Elmer Harris
Alabama Power
Fred Harris
Nashville Chamber of Commerce
Fred Harris was a kind, nice, true gentleman. And Nashville would not be Nashville today without Fred.
If you recall in the late 1990s, the new-fangled economic development trend was “growth management.” Really? Miami started a sewer moratorium because of “too much growth.” Of course, after the Dot.com bust, the words “growth management” went away.
That stuff wasn’t for Fred. Fred was far from “new-fangled.” Fred was the truth.
In the late 1990s, he called me and demanded to be interviewed for some big reason. I asked him, “What’s the hurry, Fred?” “Mike, I have never seen it before in this town. It is a major achievement. My shining hour as a sendoff into retirement.” Me: “What is it, Fred?” Fred: “We have people who are working who don’t even want to work.”
Bill Haslam
Governor of Tennessee
Larry Hays
Kentucky Cabinet for Economic Development
Mark Heath
Martinsville-Henry County EDC; Charlotte Regional Partnership; Danville Development Council; Roanoke Valley EDP; Lake Norman Regional EDC
Okay, so I get to write about Heath. First thought is, “Move off to the side and let the man go through.” Everywhere Heath has been has had a masterfully planned strategy of both community and economic development. From the formation of the Charlotte Partnership to Martinsville, this skeptic practitioner is about as good as they get.
Jimmy Heidel
Mississippi Development Authority
Oh, my. Jimmy and Joanna Heidel? They did a lot for Mississippi.
Mark Herbison
Tipton County, Tenn.; HTL Advantage; Greater Memphis Chamber; Nashville Chamber of Commerce; Rutherford County, Tenn. Chamber of Commerce
Bobby Hitt
South Carolina Department of Commerce; BMW Manufacturing; Nelson, Mullins, Riley & Scarborough
Mac Holladay
Market Street Services; North Carolina Department of Commerce; South Carolina Department of Commerce
Joe Hollingsworth
The Hollingsworth Cos.
Hollingsworth is the author of the book, “The Southern Advantage,” which Trisha Ostrowski and I helped write. It was good timing. The book sold well.
Gov. James E. Holshouser
Governor of North Carolina
Fred Humes
Aiken-Edgefield; Western South Carolina; Humes & Associates
James B. Hunt
Governor of North Carolina
Brian Kemp
Governor of Georgia
I don’t know Gov. Brian Kemp, but what he has accomplished in his time as governor of Georgia. . .well, no governor in the South in the last four years has captured more in non-oil-related deal projects in both categories — manufacturing and service. Georgia’s economic development prowess under Kemp is the best I have seen in over 40 years. This dude arrived and Georgia blossomed. So much more efficient than the governors of Georgia in the past that I have known.
Paul Latture, Jr.
Rutherford County, Tenn. Chamber of Commerce
Paul Latture, Sr.
Port of Little Rock
Robert Leak, Jr.
Whitaker Park, Winston-Salem, N.C.; Winston-Salem Business, Inc.
Bob Leak, Jr. and Winston-Salem Business Inc. became Southern Business & Development’s first advertiser in 1991. I will never forget that.
Right after I sold my first ad (a half-page), I asked Leak how to get to High Point, my next appointment. Leak: “Just go down this highway (I-74 was not finished then) and when you start seeing the trailers and folks out front with no teeth, you are in High Point.” (Man, I miss that brutal competition back in the day.)
Robert Leak, Sr.
Leak-Goforth Company
Michael Lehmkuhler
Virginia Economic Development Partnership
Harry M. Lightsey, III
South Carolina Department of Commerce
Christopher Lloyd
McGuireWoods Consulting
Mike Lott
NationsBank; Bank of America
Raymond Edwin Mabus
Governor of Mississippi
Jerry Mallot
JAXUSA
Harry A. Martin
Community Development Foundation, Tupelo, Miss.
Steve Mayberry
Florida Department of Commerce
Mitch Mays
Tenn-Tom Waterway Authority; Franklin County, Ala. Development Authority
Ed McCallum
McCallum Sweeney Consulting (MSC)
James McClain
Martinsville-Henry County EDC; Southwestern Virginia Gas
Glenn McCullough
Tennessee Valley Authority; Mississippi Development Authority; Mayor of Tupelo, Miss.
Bill McDermott
Central Florida Development Council
Ellen McNair
Alabama Department of Commerce; Montgomery Chamber
Ned Ray McWherter
Governor of Tennessee
Now, this guy was old school. He was still talking “farm-to-market roads” in 1993. Farm-to-market roads, curbs on state highways in the middle of nowhere, Ned Ray was the first governor I met when we first started.
One day I answered the office phone and it was Gov. McWherter. “Mike, I hear you have a car (Have a car?) and will travel anywhere and everywhere to see different communities in Dixie (Dixie? But I liked it). I want you to see Tennessee, Mike.”
I told the governor, “Gov. McWherter, I can do that. And we have others who can, too.” McWherter: “Mike, I don’t think you heard me correctly. I want YOU to get to know Tennessee.”
The next day, I received a facsimile from the governor’s office of 96 places to go see in Tennessee. I visited the economic developer in every single place he put on that fax in six weeks. The only place I was stood up was Crockett County, but to be honest, I don’t think they had an economic developer and the city manager was probably 23.
That was our first real statewide marketing thingy in that Gov. McWherter pre-paid for everyone I met to participate in the Tennessee section he wanted to publish, so all advertising was 75 percent off for them. Brilliant by Ned Ray. It was a 96-page section published that fall of 1993.
Melissa Medley
Enterprise Florida; VisionFirst Advisors
Stephen Moret
Virginia Economic Development Partnership; Louisiana Economic Development
Jim Newsome
South Carolina Ports; JimNewsome3 LLC; Hapag-Lloyd (America)
Michael Olivier
Harrison County (Miss); Louisiana Economic Development; Louisiana Committee of 100
Olivier was instrumental throughout my career. I first met him when he was working the Harrison County Development Commission job. He was one I visited in those nine months of figuring out what my angle would be with this new publication. Olivier solved it for me.
“Here is what you do, Michael. Write and cover the South’s economic development scene and send the publication to CEOs up North and to all the site consultants in the South,” Olivier said. So, I did.
John Malcolm Patterson
Governor of Alabama
Willie Paulk
Dublin-Laurens County, Ga. Chamber of Commerce
Billy Payne
Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games; Masters at Augusta
Ernie Pearson
Sanford Holshouser Economic Development Consulting, LLC; Maynard Nexsen
Raul Peralta
ECS Southeast; Southern Economic Development Council
Mike Philpot
West Tennessee Industrial Association
Jim Pickens
Arkansas Economic Development Commission
Robert Pittman
Janus Institute for Community & Economic Development
Lynn Pitts
Florida Power & Light; Georgia Power
Penny Pritzker
U.S. Secretary of Commerce
Bob Quick
Commerce Lexington, Ky.
Ann Richards
Governor of Texas
Steve Rieck
Nassau County Economic Development Board; Georgia Department of Economic Development of Industry, Trade & Tourism
Bob Riley
Governor of Alabama
Joe Riley
GEMC, Atlanta, Ga.
Thom Robinson
Tullahoma Area Economic Development Corporation; Morristown Area Chamber of Commerce; Chamber/Southwest Louisiana
Gov. Winthrop Rockefeller
Governor of Arkansas
Dr. Bob Rohrlack
Tampa Chamber of Commerce
Bob Rolfe
Tennessee Department of Economic & Community Development
John Rucker
Oktibbeha County, Miss. Economic Development Authority
Way back, I go see Mr. John Rucker at Mississippi State University at this research park in Starkville. “Research park” was still kind of a new phrase then.
So, Rucker has this little Mac with a tiny screen and he said, “Soon, I will be able to send this promotional graphic of Oktibbeha County and our research park to millions of people in real time.”
I responded, “No way! You are going to fax that to millions of people?” Rucker: “No, Randle, it’s called the Internet.” Me: “Oh, I know about that. But how are you able to fax it to millions at the same time? Our fax machine doesn’t work that way.”
David Rumbarger
Community Development Foundation (Tupelo, Miss.)
Chandler Russ
Natchez, Miss. Inc.; TVA; Mississippi Development Authority
Steve Rust
Sumter County (S.C.); Fayetteville, Ark. Chamber
Ed Schons
University of Central Florida; Interstate 4 High Tech Corridor
Steve Sewell
EDPA
Heidi Smith
TVA
Lamar Smith
Alagasco; Spire
Peggy Smith
Cullman (Ala.) Economic Development
John Smolak
Sanford Holshouser Economic Development Consulting; AEP
Leland Speed
Mississippi Development Authority
Rocky Springer
Southern Industrial Constructors; Emcor
Walter Sprouse
Randolph County, N.C. EDC; Chattanooga Chamber; Augusta Chamber; Monroe, N.C.
Ron Starner
Site Selection Magazine
Wayne Sterling
South Carolina Department of Commerce; Virginia Economic Development Partnership; Martinsville-Henry County EDC; Greater Paducah Economic Development
Gene Stinson
Southern Economic Development Council; Cleveland-Bradley Chamber of Commerce; Springfield-Robinson County, Tenn. Chamber of Commerce
Marvin E. “Gene” Strong Jr.
Kentucky Cabinet for Economic Development
Wes Stucky
Ardmore (Okla.) Development Authority
Holly Sears Sullivan
Amazon; Rutherford County, Tenn. Chamber; Nashville Chamber
Linda Swann
Alabama Development Office; Alabama Department of Commerce; EDPA
We loved the late Linda Swann. Everyone did.
Few knew that Linda was the backbone of Alabama’s job-generating surge post-Mercedes-Benz in a leadership role with organizations like the Alabama Development Office (Alabama Department of Commerce) and the Economic Development Partnership of Alabama.
Neal Wade (her boss) and former Alabama Gov. Bob Riley did some awesome things during Riley’s two terms — Alabama’s most competitive long-streak of big deals, winning five-straight-years of SB&D’s “State of the Year” during those eight years, and Linda Swann had a lot to do with that.
Linda would be the first one to tell you that she did a lot of things that had to be done. Case in point — gopher tortoises!
Linda told me around the ThyssenKrupp announcement in the 2000-oughts, “Michael, I have been tasked with finding 24 gopher tortoise burrows on the site and relocating them to the state park.
“I have personally checked each one of the burrows and found not a single gopher tortoise, much less ‘partners.’ I even climbed into a tortoise burrow to the very back. . .I crawled in the darn thing. Believe me! No one was home!”
Then Linda said, “I really think these gopher tortoises have high-rise condos in Gulf Shores or Orange Beach. That is the only answer I have because I have already named and checked all 24 burrows.”
Mark Sweeney
McCallum Sweeney Consulting (MSC); South Carolina Department of Commerce
George Swift
Southwest Louisiana Economic Development Alliance
I first met George Swift at the SEDC automotive conference in 2004. Once I finished my presentation, I sat next to George and one of his co-workers. Another speaker started and I overheard George ask his employee, “I guess the first thing we need to do is figure out what ‘OEM’ means.” I knew I was dealing with an honest man.
From Selma, Ala., to Lake Charles, La., George Swift’s career has been phenomenal. I would guess, without looking at the data, that more billions have been spent by heavy industry in Southwest Louisiana since that SEDC conference than any multi-county-region anywhere in the country.
For example, LNG, petrochemical, oil and gas, all of that stuff was converging on Southwest Louisiana at the same time, it seemed. I called George and he told me, “Mike, I know. There are so many of them. . .if it isn’t a $2 billion or larger deal, we don’t have the time to send out a press release.”
Gray Swoope
VisionFirst Advisors; Enterprise Florida; Mississippi Development Authority; Butler Snow; Area Development Partnership; Arkansas Industrial Development Commission
Mary Swoope
Duke Energy; Florida’s Great Northwest; Mississippi Economic Development Council
Ralph Thomas
SC Power Team
Lee Thuston
Burr & Forman
Mark Vitner
Piedmont Crescent Capital; Wells Fargo
Mark Vitner and I go back 40 years as we spoke many times together and in several different states. We still do.
Neal Wade
Economic Development Partnership of Alabama; Alabama Department of Commerce
As one person called him, “The Godfather of Economic Development in the South.” Shoot, that could go to no more than 10 people that I have gotten to know so far. If ever there was a man who shaped the state of Alabama, Neal Wade is that man.
Don Walden
Tenn-Tom Waterway Authority
Larry Walther
Arkansas Economic Development Commission
Alvah Ward
North Carolina Department of Commerce
I got to know Alvah Ward in the early 1990s when the Tar Heel State was breaking up into eight or nine different regions to satisfy the newest economic development word of the day at that time — “regionalism.” That was after, if you remember, the other 1990s economic development cry, “Sorry, we just don’t recruit ‘smokestack industries.’ ”
Since I always walked in with the data, I would sometimes ask, “But your unemployment rate is 19 percent. What’s wrong with smokestacks?”
Sorry, getting into the weeds. So, Alvah and I were talking at lunch after talking for two hours before lunch, and this is what he told me about “regionalism”: “It is the end of economic development as we know it in North Carolina.”
Alvah Ward. Not sure what he meant to this day.
Mark Warner
Governor and Senator of Virginia
Rick Weddle
Site Selectors Guild; Metro Orlando EDC; Hampton Roads EDA
Knox White
Mayor of Greenville, S.C.
Mac Williams
Alamance Chamber of Commerce, N.C.; Sanford Holshouser Economic Development Consulting, LLC
Mark Williams
Strategic Development Group
Nancy Windham
Southern Economic Development Council; Texas Forest Country Partnership; Frisco, Texas EDC; Nacogdoches, Texas EDC
Greg Wingfield
Greater Richmond Partnership; Hampton Roads EDA
I first met Wingfield when he was in Hampton Roads. . .Norfolk, I think. I was always impressed by Greg. He is one of a handful of folks that have captured a chip plant.
One afternoon I was with Wingfield in his office, which I think was on the 14th floor, when a large shadow darkened the entire office. I looked behind me and the superstructure of an aircraft carrier had blocked out the sun.
Agnes Zaiontz
Tenn-Tom Waterway Authority
All three leaders of the Tennessee Tombigbee Waterway made our Hall of Fame, including Mitch Mays, Don Walden and Agnes.
The deadline for SB&D’s second volume of the “Southern Economic Development Hall of Fame” is set for June 20, 2025.
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