TRANSITION:

Strickland has ‘policy playbooks’

Mayor-elect names leaders to help write ‘playbooks.’

When Memphis mayor-elect Jim Strickland moves into the top floor of City Hall Jan. 1, he’ll bring with him a stack of “policy playbooks” that his administration will rely on for the next four years.

Compiling those playbooks will be a team of 100 or so people led by team leaders, including chief strategist Brian Stephens, Strickland announced Wednesday. Stephens, who specializes in crisis management, is chief executive and co-founder of Memphis-based Caissa Public Strategy.

Here are the team leaders who will oversee compilation of their playbooks:

CITY PLANNING

Maria Lensing, vice president, Signature Client Group, AT&T

Mike Pohlman, president and CEO, Pickering, Inc.

John Vergos, co-owner, Charlie Vergos’ Rendezvous

COMMUNITY

Julie Ellis, senior counsel, Butler Snow

Evelyn Homs Medero, se-

nior director of multicultural marketing, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital

Isaac Rodriguez, CEO, SweetBio Inc.

Amy Stack, president, Junior League of Memphis

CRIME AND PUBLIC SAFETY

Melvin Burgess Sr., former Memphis police director

Mauricio Calvo, director, Latino Memphis

Travis Green, chief administrative officer, Shelby County General Sessions Court Clerk

Mike Keeney, attorney, Lewis Thomason

FINANCIAL RESPONSIBILITY

Lynn Evans, CPA Carolyn Head, chief financial officer and vice president of administration, Christian Brothers University

Andre Fowlkes, president, Start Co.; managing partner, Wolf River Angels

METRICS AND ACCOUNTABILITY

Kim Hackney, deputy chief administrative officer, Shelby County government

Dr. Manoj Jain, MD MPH

MINORITY BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT

Jerry L. Hall, president, Jerry Hall & Associates

Carolyn Hardy, CEO, Chism Hardy Enterprises

Joy Touliatos, Juvenile Court Clerk, Shelby County

POVERTY

Estella Greer, president and CEO, Mid-South Food Bank

Norma Lester, commissioner, Shelby County Election Commission

Ben Orgel, partner, TNBG, LLC; asset manager at Tower Ventures

Stephanie Simpson, senior vice president of Disability and Absence Management Practice and Compliance, Sedgwick

YOUTH

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

Amy Mulroy, chief operations officer, A Step Ahead Foundation

Sandra Walls, president and CEO, AIL Logistics Solutions

Strickland, who promised on the campaign trail to make his administration as diverse as the city, picked 14 women and 13 men as team leaders. The team will oversee the transition between his administration and that of Mayor A C Wharton, whom Strickland bested in the Oct. 8 election.

“I am humbled that this talented, diverse group of business and community leaders is willing to provide sound guidance to ensure we are poised to provide better service, greater accountability and heightened transparency to our city,” Strickland said in a prepared statement Wednesday.

The announcement about the team leaders came a week after Strickland announced his team’s co-chairs: Rosie Phillips Bingham, vice president of Student Affairs for the University of Memphis; Mitch Graves, president and CEO of HealthChoice LLC; and Emily Greer, chief administrative officer of ALSAC, the fundraising arm of St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.

The transition team leaders will seek business and community leaders to serve as members of their transition team, and are accepting letters of interest and resumes at memphistransition@gmail.com.