BUSINESS PEOPLE
Here’s a look at promotions, hirings, movers and newsmakers in the Memphis area business scene:
New Memphis recently added seven new members to its Board of Trustees: Nancy Averwater, vice president of Human Resources/chro at Baptist Memorial Health Care Corp; Renee Bailey, senior accountant in Benefits/ Restructuring at Pfizer; Naren Balasubramaniam, senior vice president and chief Human Resources Officer at Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare; William Barksdale, president of Cargill Cotton; Tammy Locascio, senior executive vice president and Chief Human Resources Officer at First Horizon Corporation; Kelly Lomax, chief financial officer of Dunavant Enterprises; and Mickell Lowery, managing director of sales at Fedex Logistics and District 8 Shelby County commissioner.
Martin, Tate, Morrow & Marston announced Gary P. Snyder has joined the firm. As a senior attorney with the Memphis office, he’ll continue his Mississippi practice and will maintain a general business practice, which includes
commercial transactions, real estate, probate, estate planning, civil litigation and elder law. He was a former partner in the Olive Branch law office of Jones Walker and is a member of the Tennessee Bar Association and the Mississippi Bar Association. Snyder regularly participates as a facilitator in the James O. Dukes Law School Professionalism Program at the University of Mississippi. Additionally, Dillan C. Mcqueen joined the firm. He is a 2020 magna cum laude graduate of the University of Memphis Cecil C. Humphreys School of Law where he was recipient of the Herbert Herff Presidential Law Scholarship and the Law Review Award for Excellence in Legal Writing. He served as an extern for U.S. District Court Judge Jon P. Mccalla and in the
University of Memphis Office of Legal Counsel.
Changes were announced among Youth Villages chief officers. Cliff Reyle, formerly chief human resources officer, will be in a new position as chief of staff. He has been with the organization for the past 30 years in Human Resources, IT, legal, communications and business development. Latonya Pendleton has been promoted to chief human resources officer. She has been with Youth Villages for more than 22 years as a teacher at the organization’s Dogwood Campus and most recently as managing director of human resources. Charmaine Kromer has been promoted to chief operating officer for community-based programs. Kromer began working with the in-home services program, Intercept, more than 24 years ago. She worked her way up to regional director for Intercept. For the past eight years, Kromer has been the executive director of Tennessee.
inferno, an advertising, public relations, design and digital marketing firm, appointed Amber Schleicher as its new director of digital marketing. She has nearly 20 years of experience working in digital marketing.
Sanderson Farms, based in Laurel, Mississippi, held its annual meeting of stockholders in mid-february and the stockholders re-elected four Class B directors for terms expiring at the 2024 annual meeting. Re-elected to threeyear terms were John Bierbusse, retired vice president and manager of Research Administration, A.G. Edwards; Mike Cockrell, treasurer, chief financial officer and chief legal officer of Sanderson Farms; Edith Kelly-green, partner, The KGR Group; and Suzanne T. Mestayer, owner and managing princi
pal, Thirtynorth Investments.
Amber Griffin Shaw, an attorney with Harris Shelton Hanover Walsh, was extended membership into The National Trial Lawyers Top 100 and The National Women Trial Lawyers Top 25 for her work as a civil trial attorney. An invitation-only organization, The National Trial Lawyers Top 100 is made up of top trial lawyers from each state who demonstrate superior qualifications of leadership, reputation, influence, stature and public profile. The selection process begins with peer nominations, followed by a combination of third-party research. Membership is extended to a select few of the most qualified attorneys. For more than a decade, Shaw has been the managing member of Harris Shelton’s office in Covington.
Memphis-based Cooper Hotels,a hotel development and management company, recently announced 15 of the company’s hotels have received 2021 “Loved by Guests Awards” from Hotels.com. The award is earned for consistently receiving exceptional guest ratings and reviews from guests who booked via Hotels.com. The award-winning hotels, primarily Hilton brand properties, are located in 11 cities in four states, including the company’s Doubletree by Hilton in Memphis at 5069 Sanderlin Ave. Hotels.com is an affiliate of Expedia Inc.
Yamaha named Willie Garfield as an honoree of the 40 Under 40 music education advocacy program. He is the chief executive officer of the Garfield Institute of Music in Memphis and joins 39 other innovative, creative and impactful music educators under the age of 40 who exemplify the highest level of music education in the United States. As a 13-year-old, he started a community drumline with a few of his junior high marching bandmates.
That’s when he realized he wanted to be a music instructor. The 40 Under 40 music education advocacy program was established by Yamaha to celebrate music educators at all grade levels, public or private, as well as private music instructors, selected from hundreds of music education leaders nominated by students, parents, other teachers or administrators, local instrument dealers and mentors last fall.
Noteworthy
Junior Achievement of Memphis and the Mid-south received a $15,000 grant from the Truist Foundation to support its JA Biztown and JA Inspire programs. The JA Biztown program is a multi-week classroom curriculum culminating in fourth- through sixthgrade students running a model city for a day; JA Inspire provides middle school students a creative look at various job options.
Memphis Library Foundation received an $85,000 grant from the International Paper Foundation to support its programs that promote youth literacy. The grant provides children the opportunity to expand their reading skills outside the classroom through unique activities that are engaging, enriching and fun. The grant will provide financial assistance for MPL’S range of literacy programs and learning resources, particularly in branches located within underserved communities. They’re designed to help students achieve literacy proficiency benchmarks respective to their grade level and beyond. The programs benefiting from the grant include Discoverread centers, Explore Memphis, Teen Innovation Centers and Family Tunes and Tales.
Mind Over Data, a Memphis-based custom systems development and integration firm, recently developed software and multiple interactive displays for the National Museum of African American Music, which opened in February in Nashville. Mind Over Data worked in tandem with Gallagher & Associates, out of New York, with whom they’ve partnered before on projects including the Clinton Museum, the Grammy Museum, and the Woody Guthrie Center. For the National Museum of African American Music, Mind Over Data created an underlying infrastructure and pairing app that allow museum visitors to save components of their museum visit to a personal website.