Guests

Mr. Marty Mosby, Exec. VP Strategic Planning & Investor Relations, First Tennessee Corporation

Here is my profile on Ms. Hollie Vowell. She is the Executive Director for Martin Economic Development Corporation.Her birthdate is 7-6-81 and her birthplace/hometown is Fulton , KY. She relocated back in Martin in Fall of 2002. Her major was Communications/ Public Relations. She is very involved here in Martin. Her community involvement includes:Brian Brown Greenway Committee member, Central Business District member, United Way volunteer, Industrial Board member, Rotary Club member, Martin Beautiful committee member, Soybean Festival Committee chair. Ms. Vowell is an alumni at UT Martin and she also works continuously with the university through her career because of their strong status here in Martin. The university provides many resources to the city of Martin and in with recruitment of business and industry and she also works with the professors on internships.

The Martin Economic Development Corporation (MEDC) is a non-profit organization, and it is a department of a larger organization, which is the City of Martin . Also, this organization is funded by the City of Martin . The MEDC office is located in the Martin City Hall . It consists of a thirteen-member board of directors, which represent various community interests. Hollie Vowell is the executive director of MEDC. The MEDC addresses economic and community development issues in Martin , Tennessee . The MEDC Vision Statement is as follows:

The City of Martin will be recognized as a community of planned and orderly growth. The city will have a safe and friendly environment, with the public and private sectors placing a value on quality of life, especially education, culture, and recreation. There will be a mutually beneficial relationship between the University of Tennessee and the community. The economy will be sustainable due to its diversity. The community’s location and transportation system will be a major marketing asset. The community will promote itself as the economic and cultural center for Northwest Tennessee . Recruitment efforts will focus on building a strong technological base and will focus on more joint efforts between the city and UT Martin. The community will value a revitalized central business district and there will be a focus on social and health services providing an enhanced quality of life for residents.

Larry Carter started Ken-Tenn Sporting Goods in 1981. Since then it has grown into a corporation which now services High School, College, and Intramural sports teams in Illinois , Western Kentucky , Tennessee , and Northern Mississippi . Ken-Tenn Sporting Goods is a private corporation that sells sports equipment ranging from uniforms to gear and equipment. They have 18 employees, three of which are road salespeople that sell to the surrounding areas. Combined, the three road servicemen have over 80 years of sales experience.

Ken-Tenn’s primary market is high schools. They are currently selling to schools on the outskirts of Nashville and entering Memphis . Ken-Tenn has also been able to reach schools in Hopkinsville , KY. Their current competitors are All-American located in Memphis and Nashville Sporting Goods, located in Nashville , TN.

At their retail location in Martin , TN , Ken-Tenn does printing, screening, trophies, monogramming, and more. Their retail sector used to be the leading contributor to sales; however, it has taken a backseat to supplying High Schools. Ken-Tenn supplies uniforms for all sports and carries the leading name brands: Nike, Adidas, Russell, New Balance, etc. Their retail store carries equipment for all sports and outdoor activities. Ken-Tenn Sporting Goods is currently working on a web page.

John Harris was born on April 7, 1958 . He is married and has two children. Martin , Tennessee is where he was born and where he refers to as his hometown. He has lived in Texas , Rhode Island , West Virginia , and St. Louis , Missouri . He now lives back in Martin. John is involved in the Rotary Club and a member of First Baptist Church . Fishing, hunting, and golfing were his main hobbies. He is a UTM graduate that majored in Business Administration Management. John attended Westview high school before his college career at UTM.

Currently he is the general manager and chief executive officer at WLJT. Prior to his current job, he held positions as the general manager of television and radio in Texas , director of finance and administration in Rhode Island , and radio station manager in St. Louis . John’s responsibilities at WLJT include managing and controlling public duties, budget planning and expenditures, and announcing ballgames. The link to his web page is www.wljt.org. WLJT is a public broadcasting network that serves the public in general. It is a non-profit organization and is located on the campus of UTM. John Harris works hard to serve the public and broadcast educational and recreational shows. A major responsibility he has is dealing with budgets. Even though it is a non-profit organization, sufficient funds have to be obtained by state funding and other donations to keep the business operating.

WLJT’s mission is to educate, enrich and enlighten by providing programs and services of quality and value to West Tennessee and the surrounding area. WLJT strives to achieve a new generation of television that will offer a higher level of programming excellence, educational opportunity and viewer involvement.

WLJT signed began their production in March of 1968 as a repeater site in Lexington , TN for the PBS station in Memphis . However, at the present time PBS was operated by the State of Tennessee under the Department of Education. However, in 1981, a studio was established at the campus of University of Tennessee Martin , and in 1984, the studio was taken over by WLJT. As the years progressed, the staff and services have grown, and the station has provided local programs that were produced from the studio that is located on the campus of UT Martin.

WLJT broadcast special programs, local issues, public affairs, community events, parades, and sport games. Furthermore, in 1993, a grant was obtained to construct a master control room in the communication building which housed the studio at UT Martin. Furthermore, in 1999, an additional office space was secured in downtown Jackson , TN which houses WLJT’s marketing staff, and serves as a centralized office for the other staff.

We had two speakers who came from MTD to speak to our class. One of the speaker’s name was Holly Garrigus. Holly Garrigus is a woman that was born here in Martin , Tennessee on August 22, 1962 . She has been married to Derrick Garrigus for twenty one years and has two children. She has a son named Andrew which is nine and a daughter who is eight. She attends a Baptist church here in Martin. She is involved in American Cancer Society, United Way , and is a member of the Eastern Star. Some of her hobbies are spending time with her family at the lake house, fishing, outdoor activities, Nascar, and watching the Tennessee Vols. She has worked for MTD for sixteen years and her current title is HR Manager. She is also the Safety and EPA director and an Assistant HR Manager. Some of her job duties include, interviewing, performance evaluations, budget compliances, overseeing safety and EPA, maintaining an issue free work environment, and community involvement. Holly has also recently graduated from the Emerging Leader program at Baldwin Wallace college in Berea , Ohio . Holly has not finished her college degree, but she has plans on starting back this summer. She was a very interesting person, and she was more than willing to help me out at anytime.

Dusty Gibson is the speaker who I profiled for the Executive-In-Residence class. Mr. Gibson is an employee of MTD in Martin , Tennessee . He holds the title of Safety and Environmental Coordinator. Mr. Gibson has always lived

in Martin, He is twenty seven years old, married, and has eight year old son. He is an active member in the community; some of the activities that

he is active with include raising money for the American Cancer Society, Cub Scout den leader for two years, and he has coached tee ball and coach pitch for three years. Mr. Gibson has a relationship with UTM through his father Ernie, who teaches in the Health and Human Performance department. Dusty graduated from Tennessee Martin in the fall of 1998 with a Business Administration degree in Management. Some of Mr. Gibson’s hobbies include hunting, fishing, boating, golfing, and he loves spending time with his family. Mr. Gibson has been working with MTD since he graduated from UTM in 1998. He is responsible for making sure that MTD is always up to standard with safety issues that OSHA provides. Mr. Gibson deals with all safety inspections that take place in the factory.

***

MTD is a private but a profit company that was owned by one family. It has been around for over forty years and has been a leader in designing and building durable, easy-to-use outdoor power equipment. MTD was founded in 1932 in Cleveland , Ohio . It was started as a tool and die supplier to the local manufacturing community. Then it took off to be a company that makes lawnmowers, tillers, and other equipment for the lawn. Some of the name brand mowers they make are Club Cadet, the Yard Man, the Yard Machine, Bolens, and the White Outdoor lawnmower . They also make some name brand tillers too like the Troy-bilt and Ryobi. They have around 975 employees at the company here in Martin. They also have other companies in Valley City , Ohio , Cleveland , Ohio and they are also international. MTD mission statement is to remain a highly competitive manufacturing facility that meets our customer and team member expectations through product quality and continual improvement. MTD also strives to provide a total team environment by developing each team member and competitive technologies, while maintaining a safe and rewarding work environment in order to maximize profitability and create job security for all team members. You can contact MTD online at www.mtdproducts.com.

in Martin and Paris , Tennessee . He also owns Java’s Collections in Martin as well. Hunan ’s is a Chinese restaurant and serves lunch and dinner buffets and other dishes. Java serves coffee, mochas, lattes, and other little sandwiches and smoothies. Java was just recently opened in Martin and Hunan ’s has been operating for a while. Both of these businesses are for profit organizations. He is in a partnership in these businesses and owns them with a group of fellow entrepreneurs. His current job title in the manager of the restaurant while his wife currently runs the coffee shop business. He has several plans for the future that coincide with liquor by the drink being passed in the city of Martin . He wants to open up a nicer restaurant in Martin that serves alcohol and dubs as kind of a club atmosphere. He plans to have two floors in the building. He already is working on the building quite a bit and has plans to open this up as soon as possible. Mr. Day hopes these businesses will flourish in the small market of Martin and hopes he will be apart of the community for a long time to come.

Mike Day is an Asian American business owner. He owns businesses in Martin , Tennessee and Paris,

Tennessee . Mr. Day was born in Taiwan in 1970 and grew up in the United States of America . He went to

high school here and later attended college. The colleges he attended were Memphis State University and Georgia Tech University . Mr. Day is happily married with a wife and a son. He has expanded his entrepreneur ability in the United States and is living the American dream. He has several hobbies he enjoys while he is not on business ventures. Mr. Day enjoys playing computer games on his computer. He also enjoys surfing the internet. Another one his hobbies is watching television. His business ventures,keep him a very busy man and he does not have a lot of time to do these hobbies as much as he would like to. Mr. Day is also planning on expanding his businesses in and around Martin , Tennessee and is currently living in the area. He would like to see the community grow to the capacity and economic stability that would make this city grow into its potential. He is a very nice mannered man and a great citizen.

Andres Gallegos is the Vice President of the Memphis chapter of the Hispanic Business Alliance. He spoke to our class about what he does and explained how important the organization was that he worked for. He also explained how important the Hispanic population was and how it was going to grow and how much money this group of people would be responsible for spending in future years to come. He is a Hispanic from Mexico who understands his people and strives very hard to help them in any way he can. He loves his native culture and foods in particular he mentioned all the “real” Mexican restaurants in Mexico City . He said that here he confides in Taco Bell to remind him of home. The responsibilities of his job are that he has to oversee all the operations up to him and try to make sure that the company is doing it’s utmost to sufficiently serve the Hispanic business community in the Mid-South. He has to give speeches at events for the HBA as well as visits to schools such as the University of Tennessee at Martin. Mr. Gallegos seems like an easy going man who likes simple things and he seems to have his eye set on the future.

The Hispanic Business Alliance was founded in 1978 to help Hispanic businesses and Hispanic individuals get ahead and advance. It was started in the state of Michigan throughout the Detroit Metropolitan area and since then spread throughout the United States . Their Mission Statement reads as follows: The Hispanic Business Alliance is your #1 business resource, serving entrepreneurs and professionals; a premier virtual information center, efficient and reliable. We provide valuable networking opportunities and entrepreneurial leadership for all. We are your voice to corporate and governmental organizations. The Hispanic Business Alliance , Your Gateway to Success! Some of their corporate sponsors include DTE Energy, Ford Motor Company, and General Motors. Mr. Gallegos was the Vice President of the Memphis chapter of the HBA. This is a local division of their company that helps Hispanic business interact with each other so that more of the money they put into the community comes back to them. I think that the HBA is not privately owned but rather more of non-profit business since they rely so heavily on endorsements. They’re main mission is to help struggling or new found Hispanic businesses succeed. They even allow businesses not owned by Hispanics the opportunity to help invest in their business. In all it is a very important business because it helps people who really need help and allows them to grow and prosper by working together.

The local Kiwanis club in Weakly County is very involved in community. As I ate lunch with several of there members I realized the amount of work they do. Kiwanis build play grounds and recreation areas, sponsor youth baseball, soccer, football, and several other sporting events. The Kiwanis of Martin are involved in the high school key club and the circle key for UTM which are both higher thinking organizations. Some other events they are proud of are: the participation with the mental challenged, parades in the community, participation in the soy bean festival, the builders club and the Special Olympics. All these events take a lot of man hours and patience which speaks very highly of the club. One member laughed when I told her my mother was a Rotarian, she explained the Rotarians have all the money and the Kiwanis do all the work. The Special Olympics are going to be held April 28 and any body willing to help should report at 8:30a.m. In the field house of UTM. Ms. Betty Giles was honored for her years of service to the community and to the Kiwanis. She would truly appreciate any help or donation through out the year especially with the Olympics. This lunch in was a great experience for later in life and it really showed the compassion and interest people have in their communities and there children.

The College of Business and Public Affairs presented the Business Career Week, March 17-21.

The week’s career day was held from 8 a.m.-3 p.m. on March 19 in the University Center. The day featured sessions including job interview skills with Candace Goad, government accounting with Nancy Bacon, Phillip Bell and Danielle Maners, internships with Dan Tracy, international business with Ree Russell and personal financial management with Joe Hollingsworth.

After the sessions, there was a career fair in the University Center Lobby. The career fair lasted from 10:00 a.m. - noon.

At noon, there was a keynote speaker and lunch in the ballroom. The keynote speaker was Marty Mosby, executive vice president for strategic planning and investor relations at First Tennessee Corporation.

Four more sessions began after the luncheon. The sessions included finance with Christina Bailey, Kevin Cavin and Marty Mosby, internships with Dan Tracy, political science with Kyle Crow and personal financial management with Joe Hollingsworth.

At 2:00 p.m., sessions continued with computer science/information systems with Mark Bondurant, James Burton, Ken Blankenship and LeeAnn Rainey, marketing with Rod Merriweather and legal with Paula Hearn.

A hospitality room was also open from 8 a.m.-3 p.m.

Sponsors for Business Career week were Colonial Diversified Polymer Products, LLC, Maggart and Associates, Northwestern Mutual Financial Network and The University of Memphis.

For more information or to send questions and comments , contact the College of Business and Public Affairs at ext. 7306.