Since returning to Birmingham full time in late 2017, I have made a conscious effort to integrate myself into the day-to-day life of my hometown.
I joined the boards of three companies and four non-profits, worked closely with the finance department at City Hall, joined Birmingham-Southern College as an adjunct professor, and then, a year later became its 16th president. Continue reading Birmingham’s colonial economy→
On our first date – January 1995 in Chicago – Brooke and I talked about Birmingham.
Although we had both believed we had to leave our shared hometown to start our lives – Smith and graduate school at the University of Chicago for her, Yale and the MBA program at the University of Chicago for me – we also both knew we would move home someday. Continue reading Man wakes from 35-year cryogenic freeze to find a new Birmingham→
Having lived all over the country I moved back to Birmingham 24 years ago—first to Homewood and then Mountain Brook.
For much of that time, even though I worked within the city limits of Birmingham and paid the occupational tax, I had very little interest in Birmingham itself.
Twelve years ago, a small group of Birmingham business leaders decided to scrap the 122 year old Birmingham Regional Chamber of Commerce and create a hybrid organization called the Birmingham Business Alliance (BBA). Continue reading Ouch! Birmingham has no Chamber of Commerce→
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Shipt is one of Birmingham’s great start-up success stories. The company went from a few employees to a $550 million acquisition in less than five years.
The big question is, ‘How can Birmingham replicate that success?’
When I was a young business person four major banks were headquartered in Birmingham: First National Bank, Birmingham Trust National Bank, Exchange Security Bank, and Central Bank. These banks eventually morphed into AmSouth, SouthTrust, Regions, and Compass.