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August 16, 2013 • Vol. 35, No. 33 • $1 • 24 pages

Building jobs or not? » The craziness in the construction industry continues. Across the U.S., construction lost more than 6,000 jobs and spending was down slightly, yet the unemployment rate actually dipped. Can anyone make sense of it all?

— Page 2 MBJ FOCUS: TECHNOLOGY

Changes are coming Today’s ATMs not your mom and dad’s ATMs — Page 15

2 I Mississippi Business Journal I August 16, 2013 BUSINESS

CONSTRUCTION

Building jobs? » Construction industry sees more confusing numbers

BY WALLY NORTHWAY I STAFF WRITER wally.northway@msbusiness.com

The construction industry has again released statistics that do not seem to quite add up, this time concerning employment.

In July, builders recorded a loss of 6,000 jobs in July, according to figures from the U.S. Department of Labor. Yet, construction unemployment fell to 9.1 percent, down from 9.8 percent last month and significant decrease from the 12.3 percent jobless rate reported in July 2012.

According to a leading construction economist, the labor numbers make sense when compared with spending, and it is yet more bad news for the industry. “(This) employment report is consistent with the June construction spending report, which indicated that overall construction spending declined by 0.6 percent and that nonresidential construction spending was off by 1 percent,” said Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC) chief economist Anirban Basu. “That type of performance is not consistent with robust job creation, so it’s no surprise that the construction industry did not deliver net new jobs last month.”

In the U.S., nonresidential building construction employment increased by 300 jobs for the month and is up by 18,700 jobs, or 2.8 percent, since July 2012. Nonresidential specialty trade contractors lost 9,800 jobs for the month, but employment remains 1.8 percent higher compared to one year ago. Employment for heavy and civil engineering construction was down by 2,000 jobs for the month, but is up by 19,200 jobs, or 2.2 percent, on a year-overyear basis.

In comparison, residential building construction employment increased by 100 jobs in July and has expanded by 7,400 jobs, or 1.3 percent, during the past 12 months. Residential specialty trade contractors added 6,200 jobs in July and have added 84,700 jobs, or 5.8 percent, since July 2012.

“The major source of construction employment loss was among nonresidential specialty trade contractors, which forfeited nearly 10,000 jobs in July,” Basu said. “This segment had been recovering nicely, but now appears to be feeling the effects of an economy growing at less than 2 percent.

“Meanwhile, the loss of 2,000 jobs in the heavy and civil engineering construction sector may be a partial reflection of sequestration. Despite the job losses, the construction unemployment rate de-

clined last month; however, much of the drop has been attributed to people leaving the industry.”

The Mississippi Department of Employment Security (MDES) projects a 7.3 percent increase in construction managers through 2020, while construction trade workers are forecast to grow 4.9 percent.

MDES projects the state’s construction industry will need 6.5 percent more general laborers over the same time period.

The latest figures from the U.S. Department of Labor shows Mississippi’s construction community employing

approximately 50,500 workers — or about 46.742 employment per 1,000 state jobs.

The employment picture follows a recent trend of confusing construction numbers. In June, construction materials prices decreased 0.1 percent. Taken as a whole, materials prices had remained flat for the previous several months. However, among the various commodities, prices showed wide variances — some up, some down.

“This elevated level of price stability is somewhat unexpected given shifting monetary policies in much of the world, including in the form of substantial money supply creation, concerns regarding the U.S. fixed income and equity markets, which has rendered investors a bit more skittish of late, and a global economy positioned to expand more than 3 percent this year,” said Basu in a statement back in June. “Despite those factors, commodity prices have remained relatively stable and so have nonresidential construction materials prices.”

PREDICTING THE FUTURE While the current construction employment picture remains clouded, some areas of the industry are projected to add jobs through 2020, according to figures from the Mississippi Department of Employment Security.

Here are the construction positions that are forecasted to increase the most through the decade: Position Projected Employment Growth Tapers 50% Helpers-brick masons, block masons, stone masons, tile and marble setters 29.6% Helpers-carpenters 25.8% Brick masons/block masons 24.2% Helpers-pipelayers, plumbers, pipefitters, steamfitters 15.5% Glaziers 15% Reinforcing iron and rebar workers 14.7% Drywall and ceiling tile installers 9.7% Construction managers 7.3% Pipelayers 7.3% Cement masons and concrete finishers 6.9% Painters, construction and maintenance 6.7% Construction laborers 6.5% Insulation workers-mechanical 6.1%

Some Habitat homeowners used hailstorm claims checks as personal windfall » Housing non-profit trying to get fix on how many homeowners diverted repair checks to personal expenses

By TED CARTER I STAFF WRITER ted.carter@msbusiness.com

A yet-to-be determined number of metro Jackson Habitat for Humanity homeowners spent insurance money received for damage from the March 18 hailstorm on expenses other than repairs to their homes.

About 350 of greater Jackson’s 560 Habitat for Humanity homes fell in the path of the late afternoon storm that dropped hail larger than baseballs throughout 18 Central Mississippi counties, leaving behind extensive damage to buildings and vehicles.

Cindy Griffin, executive director of Habitat for Humanity/Metro Jackson, suspects insurers may have been overwhelmed by the volume of claims and inadvertently sent claims checks to homeowners without requiring Habitat to co-sign them.

“A bunch of my houses had hail damage,” she said in an interview last week, but emphasized she has yet to determine how many diverted their repair checks to personal expenses.

“I don’t know the extent of what has happened,” she said. “I have had reports that some of the insurance checks did not list us a co-payee.”

Had correct procedures been followed in all instances, checks that went to Habitat homeowners would have required a signed endorsement from the faith-based home building organization, which as the mortgage provider is the lien holder on the homes.

Money from the checks would then go into individual accounts with funds released at each stage of the home repairs.

“We would release the money as the contractor invoices came in,” Griffin said.

Insurers typically follow a similar procedure, a circumstance that could limit the headaches endured by Habitat for Humanity/Metro Jackson over the misSee

HAILSTORM, Page 9

August 16, 2013

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Mississippi Business Journal

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INSIGHT INTO MISSISSIPPI

Neshoba County Fair: Paranoia strikes deep with Bryant “Paranoid state: Transient psychotic disorder in which the main element is a delusion, usually persecutory or grandiose in nature.� —Abnormal Psychology and Modern Life

R

OLLING FORK — The Republican cheerleader camp that the fabled Neshoba County Fair has turned into in recent years is usually a lot more noteworthy when there’s an election coming up, but this year’s may go down as the one when the fellow in charge of this state relaxed, let his guard down and allowed a little bit of something either mighty presumptuous or flat crazy to seep out.

I am reminded of an old family story from my mother’s side. Quite a few years ago in a certain Delta county, a certain lady we’ll call Mrs. Smith, a fine old Southern damsel if ever there were such, had tragically lost her husband and at the funeral, consistent with the equally Southern tradition of nosing into the business of others, some concerned soul asked her what might she do in the wake of that loss.

Unnerved, and with stiff upper lip, Mrs. Smith immediately responded that folks need not worry, in that she could “fully lean upon� her son for any and all of her needs. Regrettably, that self-same young man was known by virtually everyone else in that gathered crowd to be a more than slightly addled-brained, shiftless, ne’er-do-well, unable to adequately take care of himself, much less another.

There was, as the story goes, a brief period of dead silence following her remark, which was then broken (perhaps not surprisingly) by a relative of mine who turned to the dear lady, took her by the hands and (perhaps not surprisingly) said to her: “Mrs. Smith, in that case, I fear you are leaning on a bent stick.�

That story, I related, in order to suggest this: If a certain speech at the Neshoba County Fair from this state’s highest elected official is any gauge, then the fine people of the great and sovereign state of Mississippi, not unlike that poor, long ago lady, just might also be leaning on a bent stick.

No doubt feeling the need to match his most ambitious lieutenant governor, who recited the entire Republican creed the day before, the governor of this state confirmed my long-held suspicion that he doesn’t get many calls for advice from NASA by saying something, that if taken literally, which I do not, would classify him as clinically delusional.

First, Gov. Phil Bryant said that after focusing on education and creating jobs in his first term of office, he will now concentrate on public safety. Fine. Good. I and the rest of the public are wholeheartedly in favor of safety.

But then the governor said something else. Then the governor said that he has a “divine responsibility� to oppose abortion, re-establish prayer in schools and protect gun ownership. And that’s not fine. And that’s not good. “Divine responsibility,� governor? Really? Do you think yourself anointed by the Almighty to carry out what you perceive to be conservative Christian policies? Have you alone been “divinely� chosen as the one to do so?

Well, sir, if you do, then I have a constitutional responsibility to tell you something: The Blues Brothers were on “a mission from God,� Gov. Bryant.

You aren’t. And you shouldn’t be. And if you really

think you are, then you just might be a little bit wacky.

Kindly see the highly relevant definition above.

Thinking you have a “divine responsibility� is a little bit like thinking you are Napoleon and a whole lot like what a competent psychiatrist would call a messianic complex.

This isn’t about your stated policy priorities,

governor, all of which are wildly popular in this state and hence, most courageous of you to champion. But how dare you, sir, claim to fathom the mind of God and how dare you proclaim yourself the agent to carry out His wishes?

There is very little godly in politics, governor, and nothing divine at all in cheap, populist,

political theatrics.

Ray Mosby is the owner of Ray Mosby the Deer Creek Pilot in Rolling Fork, and is a former winner of the Oliver Emmerich Award for editorial writing in Mississippi.

touching the lives of every Mississippian

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4 I Mississippi Business Journal I August 16, 2013

PUBLIC SERVICE COMMISSION

Bentz: ‘I own Kemper’ » Commissioner leaving PSC for South Mississippi Planning & Development District

By CLAY CHANDLER I STAFF WRITER clay.chandler@msbusiness.com

By CLAY CHANDLER I STAFF WRITER clay.chandler@msbusiness.com

Southern District Public Service Commissioner Leonard Bentz leaned into a radio reporter’s microphone Tuesday morning in his office, and sang the first few bars of Elvis Presley’s “Blue Christmas.”

It wasn’t bad. For Bentz, it must have felt awfully good, even though he said the appearance of shedding years of coal plant-related stress was “just a show.”

Bentz had just finished what was likely his final meeting as a member of the Mississippi Public Service Commission. Though he would not reveal an exact timetable for his departure, he will probably have started his new role as executive director of the South Mississippi Planning and Development District by Sept. 10, when the PSC meets again.

Bentz has served on the PSC since 2006, when former Gov. Haley Barbour appointed him to fill the unexpired term of former Southern District commissioner Michael Callahan. Bentz was re-elected in 2007 and 2011.

Bentz’ tenure — the longest in the Southern District since Lynn Havens served from 1980-88 — will be defined by Mississippi Power Co.’s Kemper County coal plant. Bentz, whose district holds the vast majority of the utility’s 190,000 ratepayers, has been the preferred target of the plant’s opponents. The Sierra Club has criticized Bentz’ support of the plant. The environmental advocacy organization has long opposed it, calling it an unnecessary and expensive environmental danger. The organization, in an early August press release, called Bentz’ decision to leave the PSC “cowardly.”

That’s one example of the Kemper rhetoric Bentz said had gotten “way too personal.”

The plant is scheduled to begin commercial operation in May 2014. The project’s certificate of public convenience and necessity has twice been approved by the PSC, the first one invalidated by the Mississippi Supreme Court for having insufficient citations from the record of proceedings before commissioners.

Those proceedings included a handful of public comment hearings in which the majority of those who spoke were Mississippi Power ratepayers who lived in Bentz’ district. Their comments were often pointed, sometimes hostile, and were almost always directed at Bentz. One Ocean Springs resident in a hearing last year accused Bentz of being a puppet for the utility, and told him to “sleep well.”

Their complaints were fear-driven, centered on the possibility their power bills would spiral out of sight once the plant came online.

For his part, Bentz said the settlement agreement Mississippi Power and the PSC reached last year — the result of litigation after regulators denied a rate increase associated with the plant — that capped at $2.4 billion the construction costs the utility could recoup from ratepayers will hold any rate increases under 20 percent for the life of the plant. That figure applies to residential customers who use 1,000 kilowatts hours of electricity per month.

“I own Kemper,” Bentz said Tuesday. “It’s mine. I believe in it. I support it. I think it’s the right thing to do, so there’s no running away. We’ve done our jobs. When you have leadership, that’s when you put cost caps on it like we did.”

NO TIMETABLE FOR REPLACING BENTZ

FILE / The Mississippi Business Journal

Leonard Bentz is leaving behind the politics — and paperwork — of the Mississippi Public Service Commission for economic development.

Since the cap was made part of the settlement, Mississippi Power has revealed over $1 billion in cost overruns at Kemper, and said the utility’s shareholders would pay for them.

Legislation passed during the 2012 session allows the utility to recover up to $1 billion in overruns as part of a bond package. Bentz said while that bill circulated through the Capitol that he did not support it.

“At the end of the day, doing the right thing is what matters,” Bentz said of his support for the Kemper, and the cost caps associated with it.

His replacement will be confronted sometime next year with prudency reviews for the project, in which the utility will have to justify certain costs before commissioners will allow it to pass them to ratepayers.

“It’s imperative” the new commissioner keep in place the $2.4 billion cap, Bentz said. “Absolutely imperative.”

Bentz said SMPDD board members approached him several months ago about the job. “I really put it to the side, until I started having discussions with my family,” he said. “I thought about it, prayed about it, and realized it would be an opportunity for me to go back to South Mississippi and help in the economic development realm, help elderly people and seniors, and put smiles on people’s faces.”

Bentz said he made the decision to pursue the job within the past six weeks or so. “But I had been thinking about it for a long time.”

His salary will nearly double, rising to $150,000 from $78,000. The SMPDD’s board revised the job qualifications, removing the mandate that the executive director have a college degree. Bentz, who attended the University of Southern Mississippi but did not graduate, denied that the provision was made solely to benefit him. He called the insinuation – and the suggestion that Bentz’ father’s role as SMPDD board secretary created the appearance of nepotism – unfair. Bentz’ father has since resigned from his position, as part of an agreement for his son getting the executive director’s job.

“I anticipated it,” Bentz said of the criticism of SMPDD’s selection process. “I don’t believe it was fair, but we’re big boys. It was wrong. I filed requests with the Ethics Commission. I’m not going to do anything that’s not above board.

It’s in the past. We’ve got to quit worrying about what’s happened, and look to move Mississippi forward.”

Southern District Public Service Commissioner Leonard Bentz had not, as of Tuesday, sent Gov. Phil Bryant a letter noticing his resignation from the Mississippi Public Service Commission.

It’s a matter of time before he does, Bentz said. Bentz was hired last week as the new executive director of the South Mississippi Planning and Development District, a publicly funded, regional economic development organization.

Bentz would not reveal a timetable for his transition, but said it would probably happen before the next PSC meeting, scheduled for Sept. 10.

He wouldn’t say who he would like for Bryant to appoint to replace him, either. He did say what qualities he would like for that person to possess.

“Integrity, leadership, the ability to make the right decision and not necessarily the politically popular decision,” Bentz said. “That’s what I hope for, and I’m sure the governor will find somebody who has all that.”

Bentz himself has labeled politically unpopular some of the decisions he’s made regarding Mississippi Power Co.’s Kemper County coal plant. Bentz and the Central District’s Lynn Posey have been the main supporters of the project on the PSC. But Bentz has been the one who has drawn the majority of the ire from utility ratepayers, the vast majority of whom live in his district. That dynamic would have likely earned Bentz a strong opponent, had he sought re-election in 2015.

That won’t happen. The focus now shifts to who will replace Bentz. A handful of South Mississippi legislators have been mentioned as possibilities. Bentz did not endorse anybody during an interview in his office Tuesday.

State law defines the presence of two commissioners as a quorum, making it theoretically possible the regulatory body could conduct business at its September meeting with only Posey and the Northern District’s Brandon Presley in attendance. That’s unlikely, due to some of the issues commissioners consider requiring unanimous vote, not a majority.

Bryant spokesman Mick Bullock said in an email earlier this week that he would not speculate when the governor might appoint Bentz’ replacement.

Whoever replaces Bentz will have to wrestle with prudency reviews — hearings where the utility will have to justify costs it wants to pass to ratepayers — sometime next year. Bentz said it was “imperative” his replacement adhere to the $2.4 billion recoverable cost cap commissioners inserted into a settlement agreement with the utility last year.

If Bentz’ replacement seeks election in 2015, their decisions related to Kemper will almost certainly be a central campaign theme.

August 16, 2013

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Mississippi Business Journal

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5

TOURISM

Hotter tamales » Greenville preparing for second festival

BY WALLY NORTHWAY I STAFF WRITER wally.northway@msbusiness.com

While it remains a mystery just how the romance between the City of Greenville and hot tamales began, few question the Delta community’s right to hold the title of Hot Tamale Capital of the World.

A simple dish of Mexican origins consisting of a usually corn-based dough called masa filled with meat, cheese and/or other ingredients and wrapped in a corn husk, it has been an iconic treat in Greenville for a century or more, selling from eateries, kitchens and even street corners.

And, city leaders are currently preparing for the second Delta Hot Tamale Festival scheduled for October in their continuing effort to package hot tamales as lure for tourists.

“I personally know people who would fly into Greenville — often on their personal plane — with a dozen or so empty coffee cans to put hot tamales in,” said Mal Kretschmar, longtime Greenville resident and owner of Kretschmar Realty Inc. “They are willing to fly all the way here just to get some hot tamales.”

The idea to use hot tamales to draw visitors to the Mississippi Delta’s largest city originated from a meeting between late Mayor Chuck Jordan and Betty Lynn Cameron, director of the Greenville Main Street program. Nearby Belzoni is called the “Catfish Capital of the World,” and the two wanted a similar designation for Greenville and its hot tamales.

In July 2012, Jordan and city leaders held a press conference announcing the city’s new title as Hot Tamale Capital of the World. The city would subsequently get an official declaration from the Governor’s Office.

Special to the Mississippi Business Journal

Over the past century or so, hot tamales have become one of the Mississippi Delta’s iconic dishes. Now, leaders in Greenville are hoping to cash in on the savory treats, luring tourists — and their wallets — to the area.

Greenville is certainly the tamale capital of the state. According to Southern Foodways Alliance, which has established the Mississippi Delta Hot Tamale Trail in conjunction with Viking Range Corp., Greenville has more hot tamale restaurants and food stations than any other city in Mississippi.

How and why that’s the case is open to debate. Southern Foodways Alliance did research on the history of hot tamales and the Mississippi Delta, and found differing theories: “Many hypothesize that tamales made their way to the Mississippi Delta in the early 20th century when migrant laborers were brought in from Mexico to work the cotton harvest. The African Americans who shared the fields easily recognized the basic tamale ingredients: corn meal and pork.

Others maintain that the Delta’s history with tamales goes back to the U.S.-Mexican War 100 years earlier, when U.S. soldiers from Mississippi traveled to Mexico and brought tamale recipes home with them.

Others argue that tamales have simply always been in the Delta. The Mississippian culture of mound-building Native Ameri-

cans in the area reaches back thousands of years, with an agriculture based in maize.”

Whatever the origin, hot tamales continue to get hotter in Greenville. Just last month, Kretschmar brokered a deal with the owners of Hot Tamale Heaven for a new locale on U.S. Highway 82 East. Willie Harmon began selling hot tamales from street stands decades ago, and in 2003, Kretschmar sold Harmon the former Pepsi plant on Main Street. Carrying on the tradition, his son, Aaron, and wife, Natasha, subsequently opened Hot Tamale Heaven.

Now, the Harmons are working to renovate the U.S. Highway 82 locale as a second restaurant, with plans to have it up and running by the time of the Delta Hot Tamale Festival.

“We want this to be the one the whole city will be proud of,” Aaron Harmon said in a statement.

Leaders are also looking to grow the festival. Last October, the first-annual event drew some 5,000 attendees, far exceeding expectations.

“We ran out of tamales at 1:00,” said Cameron, who is coordinator of the festival.

This year, Cameron is expecting approximately 10,000 attendees, and has increased the number of hot tamale chefs to insure supply meets demand.

To be held Oct. 17-19, the second-annual Mississippi Delta Hot Tamale Festival will feature the Chuck Jordan Hot Tamale Parade, Frank Carlton Hot Tamale Cooking Contest, hot tamale-eating contest, three stages featuring live music, Literary/Culinary Mash-Up and more.

Cameron says Jordan, who died suddenly of pancreatic cancer last November after only holding office a few months, would be proud.

“One of the last event Chuck attended was the festival,” Cameron remembered.

“He was so sick, he only stayed a few minutes. But, he called me over and told me how much he appreciated all of our hard work and how proud he was of us. I still cry when I remember it.”

For more history of the hot tamale in the Delta, visit Southern Foodways Alliance’s web site at www.southernfoodways.org/.

For more on the Delta Hot Tamale Festival, visit www.hottamalefest.com/.

“I personally know people who would fly into Greenville — often on their personal plane — with a dozen or so empty coffee cans to put hot tamales in” Mal Kretschmar longtime Greenville resident and owner of Kretschmar Realty Inc

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MBJPERSPECTIVE August 16, 2013 • www.msbusiness.com • Page 6

OTHER VIEWS

Decisions about the prison system

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t should be no surprise that Mississippi’s Parole Board, under the leadership of former Hinds County Sheriff Malcolm McMillin, was letting fewer people out of prison than it used to.

McMillin, with a lifetime spent chasing criminals, was more accustomed to locking offenders up than letting them out. It only takes one sensational crime committed by someone on probation or parole to bring unwelcome attention to a necessary part of the criminal justice system.

The problem is, if the Parole Board is too restrictive, prison costs go up. That's the point that Chris Epps, the longtime corrections

commissioner, has been making for a while.

Epps, who annually wrestles with budget problems, cannot be blamed for advocating a greater use of parole as a method to reduce corrections spending. Earlier this year, Epps grumbled that the McMillin-led board granted 539 fewer paroles over 10 months than it did in the 10 months before McMillin joined the board.

For an agency that needed an extra $30 million to get through the prior fiscal year, and which got $7 million less than it asked for in the current year, this is an issue worth discussing.

Providing an even greater challenge to the corrections budget is the news Mississippi's prison population has continued to increase in recent years, while most other states have

» CHUCK MCINTOSH

» FROM THE GROUND UP

It’s all about the jobs

MELISSA KILLINGSWORTH Sr. Account Executive

melissa.harrison@msbusiness.com • 364-1030 ASHLEY VARNES Account Executive ashley.varnes@msbusiness.com • 364-1013

“As I said in my inaugural address, my first job is to make sure every Mississippian has a job.”

— Gov. Phil Bryant State of the State Address — Jan. 24, 2012

VIRGINIA HODGES Account Executive virginia.hodges@msbusiness.com • 364-1012 TACY RAYBURN Production Manager tacy.rayburn@msbusiness.com • 364-1019

“So we should be doing everything we can as a country to create more good jobs that pay good wages. Period.”

— President Barack Obama Remarks at Amazon Chattanooga (Tenn.) Fulfillment Center July 30, 2013

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had fewer inmates.

Only Louisiana continues to have a higher incarceration rate than we do.

Epps may have won this battle. Gov. Phil Bryant said he's willing to consider the idea of placing more non-violent offenders on house arrest instead of sending them to prison. And at the end of July, McMillin abruptly resigned from the Parole Board after serving as chairman for only 15 months.

House arrest, drug courts and other alternatives to incarceration certainly should be used as much as possible for non-violent offenders. They are much less expensive than keeping someone in prison.

They also have better odds of rehabilitating offenders before they become hardened criminals.

» HOW TO WRITE Letters to the editor are one of the most widely read features of the Mississippi Business Journal, and they give everyone a chance to voice their opinions about current affairs. We’re interested in what you think and we welcome Letters to the Editor for publication. Here are the guidelines: >> Letters should not exceed 300 words in length as a general rule. >> All letters must bear the writer’s address and telephone number. Street addresses and telephone numbers will not be published, but may be used for verification purposes. Letters may not appear without the author’s name. >> Form letters, thank you letters and letters to third parties generally are not acceptable. >> Letters must be typed or e-mailed. >> Letters must conform to good taste, not be libelous and not involve personal attacks on other persons.

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» CORRECTIONS The Mississippi Business Journal takes seriously its responsibility to provide accurate information, and will correct or clarify articles produced by the editorial department if we have made an error or published misleading information. The correction will be placed in the perspective section.

If you see inaccuracies in Mississippi Business Journal news stories, please report the mistake via email at editor@msbusiness.com.

s the above remarks by our governor and our president illustrate, it really is all about jobs, especially good jobs. If that is the case, then how much should government — local, state or federal — pay to assist in the creation of a good job?

Phil Hardwick The answer depends on a variety of circumstances and situations. Do we want jobs that have a certain economic impact? Do we want jobs that provide a return on the investment by the government? Is it ever appropriate to provide incentives when there is a negative return on investment?

In the midst of these questions it is appropriate to consider how the return on investment is calculated and phrased. Feasibility studies offer a clue to the answers to these questions. A consultant doing a feasibility study first makes a determination as to what is feasible. And guess what? Feasibility is determined by the client. If a client wants a return on investment of 12 percent, and the study shows that the return will be 15 percent then the project is deemed feasible. If the project returns 10 percent then the project is not feasible, even though the project has a positive return on investment. Sometimes See HARDWICK, Page 7

PERSPECTIVE

August 16, 2013 I Mississippi Business Journal

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» RICKY NOBILE » MIND OVER MONEY

Green always take precedence over red and blue politics

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HARDWICK

Continued from Page 6

a project may be feasible even if it has a negative return on the investment. For example, if a governmental entity invests more per job than will be returned financially, but results in changing the image of the state then the project would be deemed feasible if that was the goal of the state.

Enough of the generalities. Assume that as an economic developer or elected official you have a choice of two new jobs for your community.

One is that of a barber, the other is that of a physician. No doubt an easy choice. You would certainly take the physician. After all, a 2008 study by a Mississippi State University economist concluded that one new doctor practicing in a Mississippi county can have an economic impact ranging from $120,000-$2 million, depending on the county. That physician would also create an average of 31 new jobs.

No wonder that the Governor’s Health Care Economic Development Summit on Aug. 15, 2013, has hundreds of registrants.

And what about that job of the barber? Most barbers serve the local community. They are considered secondary employers, not primary employers, meaning that they do not bring in additional money into the local economy. But what if a celebrity barber moved into the community and brought in customers from all over the world? What if that barber had to hire 40 other barbers to keep up with demand? And what if that barber put the community on the international map? And what if the economic impact of that barber shop was estimated to be $1.2 million? OK, it’s an absurd example. However, it illustrates that in order to do economic forecasts about jobs that certain assumptions have to be made. And therein lies the challenge in estimating the value of a job.

Also, form an economic standpoint all jobs are not created

equal. Kentucky’s economic development organization provides a good example of the value of jobs by occupational sector. It shows, for example that adding 100 new jobs in the manufacturing sector has a direct economic impact of $12,072,000, while adding 100 new jobs in the retail trade sector has a direct economic impact of $4,375,000. Check out the website at www.thinkkentucky.com/kyedc/pdfs/100jobs.pdf.

Economic impact software such as IMPLAN (IMpact Analysis for PLANning) and REMI (Regional Economic Models, Inc.) are routinely used by those making economic impact studies.

There seems to be no shortage economic impact studies related to job creation and legislation. For example, in the Summer 2013 edition of the Rand Review there are synopses of studies regarding the Affordable Care Act. One states that under the Affordable Care Act the State of Arkansas will see 6,200 new jobs and $550 million “... in net economic growth, accounting for subsidies, Medicaid expansion, taxes and Medicare cuts.” Another states that Pennsylvania will have 35,000 jobs “...retained by economic growth stemming from Medicaid expansion,” and that there will be $3.5 billion in “...net economic growth for the state, accounting for subsidies, Medicaid expansion, taxes and Medicare cuts.”

In summary, the value of a new job to a community depends on many things. Calculating the value of that job depends on the assumptions made about the job and its effects.

Fortunately, for those making the investment through tax incentives, infrastructure improvements, grants, etc. there are tools for evaluation.

... the value of a new job to a community depends on many things. Calculating the value of that job depends on the assumptions made about the job and its effects.

Phil Hardwick is coordinator of capacity development at the John C. Stennis Institute of Government. Pease contact Hardwick at phil@philhardwick.com.

olitics makes for strange bedfellows.

When Terry McAuliffe, BFF of The Clintons, decided to burnish his business reputation as preparation for a run at the governor’s office in Virginia, he went to none other than our own Gov. Haley Barbour. According to the latest political gossip release, This Town, Barbour, Clinton (the former Prez) and McAuliffe, hooted it up backstage at the ribbon cutting in Horn Lake for GreenTech Automotive in Nancy Anderson July, 2012.

McAuliffe bought the company from the Chinese, rebranded it, and brought it to Mississippi with the backing of Mississippi taxpayers. With a little help from his friends, McAuliffe secured $5 million in taxpayer subsidized loans, among other things. Of course, the promise was jobs, jobs, jobs.

5000 of them, in fact. Today, 78 people work in the plant.

GreenTech’s product is MyCar, an affordable electric car. The idea was to build cars designed for everyday use that would be part of the solution to our energy concerns. That Mississippi would get to participate in such a venture seemed unbelievable.

McAuliffe resigned from his top position in the company in December to hit the campaign trail. I’m told grass is growing up around the plant in rural Mississippi, and it’s hard to find one of their model cars on site. Now, McAuliffe and GreenTech are being investigated by the Securities and Exchange Commission for abuses of the EB-5 visa program.

EB-5 is a fast-track program for immigrants to gain visa status.

All they have to do is participate to the tune of $500,000 in a business venture that promises to create at least 10 jobs in a rural area. It’s a little loophole created by Congress that rewards wealthy foreigners with legal status in the blink of an eye (or the cha-ching of the cash register).

And GreenTech fit the bill. Rural and big, all wrapped up in “green” technology to make everyone feel good, it was the perfect way to take advantage of the system. Foreign investors were happy to ante up for the promise of legal status and guaranteed returns, and Mississippi politicians were happy to ante up for the promise of much-needed jobs. Now, taxpayers and investors are left holding the bag.

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again. The lines between red and blue politics get blurred when “green” takes over.

Rural and big, all wrapped up in “green” technology to make everyone feel good, it was the perfect way to take advantage of the system.

Nancy Lottridge Anderson, Ph.D., CFA, is president of New Perspectives Inc. in Ridgeland — (601) 991-3158. She is also an assistant professor of finance at Mississippi College.

Her e-mail address is nanderson@newper.com, and her website is www.newper.com.

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8 I Mississippi Business Journal I August 16, 2013

BUSINESSES ON EMPLOYER MANDATE BUBBLE MUST SEPARATE FACT FROM FICTION » A key is knowing what makes for a full-time worker and how the employer mandate calculates full-time employee totals

By TED CARTER I STAFF WRITER ted.carter@msbusiness.com

As a legal specialist on the Affordable Care Act, Balch Bingham‘s Pepper Crutcher has a lengthy list of advice for Mississippi businesses on the bubble for falling under Obamacare’s “employer mandate.”

Atop the list: Move beyond the mountain of misconceptions about the mandate.

“Typically, my first conversation is to disabuse them of all the bad information they have in their heads,” says Crutcher, a health care attorney in Balch & Bingham’s Jackson office who in recent months has spent about 1,800 hours pursuing answers to Affordable Care Act questions.

A starting point for employers is often to simply identify who is an employee of the business — an important distinction considering the employer mandate that will go into effect Jan. 1, 2015, applies to businesses with 50 or more full-time employees.

Whether a business arrives at the 50 fulltime employee threshold often hinges on knowing just what makes for a full-time employee and how the employer mandate calculates the total, Crutcher says.

Getting the calculation correct is especially crucial for businesses on the 50employee bubble.

Often, misconceptions about the rules on fulltime employee status cause employers to puzzle over why their current payroll tally does not match the government’s tally, according to Crutcher.

Typically, the confusion is rooted in the government having a different view of who an independent contractor is than employers do, he says.

“If they are working for you exclusively and not working for others, the govern-

ment is very unlikely to agree with you that they are contractors.”

Just monitoring the time they spend completing a task or project can make them an employee, Crutcher notes. “If you are tracking their hours, the government is very likely to call them an employee.”

Equally important, he says, is whether the company tracks the delivery of a result provided by the Crutcher contractor and how the contractor achieved the result. In a close call, the distinction between contract worker and employee can come down to how the worker must conduct himself in carrying out the work assigned by the company and how he interacts with other Dieckman employees of the company, Crutcher says.

Whether intentional or not, the ACA’s creation of the individual health insurance exchange, which opens for enrollment on Oct. 1 with policies starting Jan, 1, gave the IRS a very effective way to determine if a company is correctly classifying a worker as a contractor.

“Most employers don’t see this coming,” Crutcher says. “The reason is there is a whole new mechanism to alert the IRS about misclassification – it’s called the exchange. It’s a wonderful way for the IRS to discover an employee withholding problem.”

Crutcher gives a scenario of a worker

PERSPECTIVE

TOWNS, COUNTIES, AND STATE FACE OBAMACARE IMPACTS “Municipalities challenged by Affordable Care Act,” read the headline of a story about Obamacare provisions taking affect in 2014.

“There is a lot of uncertainty about what the impact is going to be,” said one insurer. “I can, at least, tell you the budgets aren’t going to go down because of it.”

It appears Obamacare’s impact on Mississippi’s state and local government health insurance costs will vary from minimal to severe.

One small municipality reports it faces a 43 per cent increase in premiums, while a large county reports it will have no increase for next year. The state’s self-insured plan could see a three or four per cent increase.

(Unlike retirement, counties and municipalities are on their own. The state plan covers state agencies, schools, See

IMPACT, Page 9

who files taxes as a 1099 independent contractor but goes to the exchange with a claim he is employed by a company that does not provide health insurance, a key requirement for getting a premium subsidy on the exchange. The exchange may ulti-

mately deem the worker an employee regardless of his tax filings. In these instances, the IRS may force the employer to pay several years of withholding on the worker’s behalf, Crutcher says.

With the IRS eager to narrow the portion of the federal tax gap caused by employers not paying their share of an employees’ withholding taxes, companies should expect aggressive enforcement on the withholding front, he adds, and notes: “The IRS for years has been increasing its enforcement of withholding tax classifications.”

Now it has precisely the tool it has needed, he says.

“I would make sure all those employees you are treating as independent contractors really are independent contractors.”

Counting heads Just as with the difficulties of getting employee classifications right, coming up with a correct full-time equivalency employee count poses challenges, according to Crutcher.

Some employers are already cutting workers’ hours to below 30 a week to avoid having them classified as full-time employees. But simply doing that may not be sufficient to avoid the 30-hour threshold for a full-time employee classification under the ACA, Crutcher cautions.

“Many employers think all they have to do is count work hours,” but they neglect to figure in the compensation the worker gets when not on the clock, he says, citing sick time, vacation time, personal time, time off for jury duty and time off for milSee

OBAMACARE, Page 9

August 16, 2013

HAILSTORM

Continued from Page 2

spent claims money. Insurance companies, having learned from the massive rip-offs of insured homeowners by unscrupulous contractors during Katrina, typically send only enough in initial claims checks to initiate the homeowner repairs.

The metro Habitat chief said she has alerted the organization’s governing board to the problem.

Habitat sells the homes at cost to buyers with modest incomes after closely vetting potential buyers and having them undergo training in the responsibilities of homeownership.

Habitat remains the servicer of the mortgages even though it sells the mortgages to the Mississippi Home Corporation, a quasi-public entity that promotes housing opportunities for Mississippians. In a revolving loan arrangement, money provided for the mortgage purchase on one home is put toward building the next Habitat home, explained Scott Spivey, spokesman for the Mississippi Home Corporation.

The hailstorm produced 40,000 homeowners and automobile claims, the Mississippi Insurance Department says.

By mid April, carriers reported they had paid out more than $25 million in damages on nearly 10,000 homeowners claims and more than 31,000 auto claims from the storm.

The Department of Insurance expected claims to reach 60,000.

Insurance Commissioner Mike Chaney reported the department had received very few complaints about the claims process.

State Farm, the leading insurer in Mississippi, told the insurance

OBAMACARE

Continued from Page 8

itary duty and the like.

Employers should be concerned, he says, that they could have “a no-mans’ land between 24 hours and 38 hours.”

Crutcher’s remedy?

“You want to have a big gap so if you miss it some you won’t have people going over the edge” into full-time worker status.

Ensure your workers are “very part time or very full-time with no one in the middle,” he says. “You want to avoid having people you have to track very closely.”

Penalty Paradigm Say you’ve done your homework and concluded, yes, the company meets the 50-employee threshold. Your next move should be a visit with your tax advisors, says Richard Roberson Jr., an attorney in Bradley Arrant Boult Cummings’ Jackson office who focuses on state and federal regulatory compliance.

“Get with your CPA and look at the tax and penalty implications of providing coverage and not providing coverage,” Roberson advises.

Some employers may conclude they will save money by paying the yearly $2,000 penalty and letting uninsured workers go to the individual exchange for coverage. On the surface, many business executives may think it’s an easy call – just pay the penalty, says human resources and benefits consultant Gary Kushner of Portage, Mich.

In a talk last fall at a Mississippi College summit on the Affordable Care

Had correct procedures been followed in all instances, checks that went to Habitat homeowners would have required a signed endorsement from the faith-based home building organization, which as the mortgage provider is the lien holder on the homes. industry website Property Casualty 360 in mid April that it had received about 15,790 auto claims and 6,575 homeowners claims in Mississippi.

Act, Kushner used the example of an Fortune 1,000 manufacturing company CEO who was entirely sure that paying the penalty made more fiscal sense that covering the employer share of premiums certain to rise under the ACA’s employer mandate.

The CEO’s first thought, Kushner said, was that he would save $8,000 a year on each employee. The CEO said it was a “no brainer.”

“I suggested it was not a non-brainer – not with the way they competed for talent… They competed hard to get the best people they could on to the factory floor.”

The talent is going ask for extra compensation because they must go off and buy their own insurance, Kushner warned the CEO. He put a typical annual premium cost at $15,000 with the company picking up 80 percent at a cost of $12,000. So the CEO’s idea was to give the employee an extra $12,000 to help him buy coverage on the private market.

But here is the rub: The company would be on the hook to the government for a $2,000 penalty and would pay withholdings on the additional $12,000 in compensation; of course, the employee is not going to be happy about paying his share of taxes on the extra $12,000.

“So when all is done what use to cost you $12,000 now costs you $17,600 [with the fed penalty],” Kushner says.

In the end, the CEO conceded he did not have a no-brainer on his hands.

The Vision Factor Employers whose businesses fall under the health-care insurance mandate face

two types of penalties: one is for failing to provide adequate employee coverage and the other is for opting out of providing employee coverage. “The penalties are mutually exclusive, meaning companies will not be hit with both,” advises CPA Marsha Dieckman, a health care tax partner with HORNE CPAs in Ridgeland.

“Both penalties are triggered when an employee obtains a subsidy for coverage in the exchange,” she said in an email reply to several questions on the ACA issue.

Dieckman says none of the business clients she has talked to want to drop coverage and pay the per-employee penalty instead. “But it is being considered,” she notes.

Her advice is for companies to examine the cost-to-benefit and weight any conclusions to “the company’s vision and growth strategy.”

Yes, premium costs are already increasing as a result of the coming mandate, Dieckman says. “But, employee retention and how companies will meet the needs of their clients and customers is critically important in the overall discussion.”

As they decide what course to take, employers ought not lose sight of their overall goals, she advises.

Those businesses not now offering coverage and on the on the bubble are trying to guess at human behavior and determine the worst case scenarios to decide how to proceed, Dieckman says.

“There are definitely some employers that will find paying the penalty is worth eliminating the headache of it all.”

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Mississippi Business Journal

IMPACT

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Continued from Page 8

community colleges and universities.)

The potential for higher costs come from the new rules governing employer health insurance plans that take effect in January, 2014.

Obamacare treats governmental entities just like any other employer.

While the requirement that employers with more than 50 workers provide health-care coverage or pay fines of $2,000 per employee has been delayed for a year, other requirements still apply.

The Mississippi Association of Supervisors published guidance on these changes for its members. The Mississippi Municipal Association plans to discuss the issue at its fall meeting.

Here are key changes affecting cost: • Health plans must now provide “Essential Health Benefits,” which include: ambulatory patient services; emergency services; hospitalizations; maternity and newborn care; mental health and substance use services; prescription drugs; rehabilitative services and devices; laboratory services; preventative and wellness services; chronic disease management; pediatric services (including dental and vision care); and contraceptive services.

• Annual cost-sharing between the employer and the employee (out of pocket cost to employee) is limited to $6,350 for individuals and $11,900 for a family.

• No pre-existing exclusions allowed. Employer plans must issue and renew health insurance regardless of person’s status.

• Premium rating variations by insurers (based on age, geographic area, family composition and tobacco use) will be limited.

• Plan waiting periods for coverage is limited to no more than 90 days.

• Employers must pay fees of $63 and $1 per covered person in 2014. The $63 fee decreases in 2015 but the $1 charge doubles.

As a result of these and other changes, health insurance providers are raising rates to cover their increased exposure and the new fees.

The difference in impacts comes from the type of insurance plans and the preparation governments made in advance. The State and School Employees’ Health Insurance Management Board began preparing for the 2014 changes back in 2011.

Some counties and municipalities are just now finding out that the impact on their budgets will be significant.

Bill Crawford is a syndicated columnist from Meridian. Contact him at crawfolk@gmail.com.

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10 I Mississippi Business Journal I August 16, 2013

MUSIC

Summer of blues » Thirteen days in the Hill Country

By STEPHEN McDILL I STAFF WRITER stephen.mcdill@msbusiness.com

It was the summer of 1967.

The Summer of Love for some. The Long Hot Summer for others.

American troops poured into Vietnam while race riots broke out in major cities across the country from Detroit to Atlanta.

“Gentle people with flowers in their hair” flocked to San Francisco while The Rascals and Aretha Franklin rocked the top of the music charts.

A different kind of music was playing in the north Mississippi counties of Marshall, Tate and Panola that summer, a special flavor of blues with hints of Appalachian and African influences that musicians says is distinct and isolated compared to the more popular Delta blues.

“Mississippi Hill Country Blues 1967” tells the story of that unique style of blues and one man’s quest to find it.

“It is often said that blues was born in Mississippi, and this may be true,” writes author, journalist and blues aficionado George Mitchell. “Where a harsh life afforded no other means for providing entertainment, gaining prestige or shedding frustrations, the blues filled a vacuum.”

Retired to his native Ft. Myers, Fla., Mitchell says he discovered the blues as a teenager.

“A friend of mine was flipping the dial on the radio trying to hear the most recent Elvis song,” he says. “Then we heard something as we were turning the dial and we said, ‘Hey, stop what’s that?’”

The sound was Muddy Waters playing on WAOK in Atlanta, one of the few black-owned radio stations in the country at the time.

Mitchell’s love affair with blues began that night and it wasn’t long before he was finding and hanging out with bluesmen from Peg Leg Howell in Atlanta to Furry Lewis in Memphis. He also worked for record companies and concert promoters in Chicago.

While studying journalism at the University of Minnesota, Mitchell read “The Country Blues” by Sam Charters and convinced his wife, Cathy, to join him in their tiny VW Beetle with no air conditioning on a road trip to the Deep South in search of more soulful music.

“We’re living right here on the Mississippi River,” Mitchell recalls in the book. “Why don’t we travel south down the river to the state of Mississippi and find and record some blues singers? Unknown blues singer — people who have never been on record.”

The Mitchells didn’t have much money and only brought along a 35mm camera borrowed from the journalism department and a cheap tape recorder to capture the music and voices of this obscure sound.

“It was absolutely amazing in the hill country,” Mitchell says. “(The people were) especially friendly. I was recording and taking pictures. People would just let me photograph anywhere.”

Mitchell says one interview with Fred McDowell of Como turned into a late night session that included harmonicas and bottleneck guitarists. Other instruments

they encountered were the gutbucket bass, drums and hand carved river cane fifes, all staples of Hill Country blues. “(Music was often) played with homemade instruments that doesn’t exist anywhere else,” says Oxford attorney Tom Freeland.

“The songs don’t have the stanMitchell dard 12-bar change that people think of Delta blue; it’s almost drone like before there’s a change.”

“Hill Country blues was more uplifting, danceable,” Mitchell says in contrast to the more “gutwrenching” Delta blues. “Just makes you feel good.”

The Mitchells made more stops in Senatobia, Coldwater, Holly Springs and Nesbit going from front porches to church picnics, acting as veritable music archaeologists.

Photographs of a cowboy-hat wearing Othar Turner and a guitar-strumming Rosa Lee Hill fill the book.

Some of Mitchell’s recordings were with musicians who hadn’t been recorded in years. Others, like R.L. Burnside of Holly Springs, had never been recorded.

“The people of the Hill Country of Mississippi were just as open and welcoming and friendly as they could be,” Mitchell says.

The African-American families that he met may have been hospitable but it was their white neighbors that Mitchell had to be careful around.

“We were looking for a blues singer named Bullet Williams,” says Mitchell, “I was taking pictures of some sharecropper shacks and the guy that owned them came out.”

It had only been three years since a group of collegeage civil rights workers were found murdered in Neshoba County.

The white farmer wasn’t happy with George and Cathy Mitchell and their camera.

“He said you hit the highway and get the hell out of Mississippi,” Mitchell says. “We were kind of scared.”

Mitchell believes that even though Hill Country blues isn’t as popular internationally as Delta blues; it has similarly broken down racial barriers and is finding new listeners with the younger generations. Both black and white blues fans flock to the North Mississippi Hill Country Picnic every summer in Waterford to hear the children and grandchildren of some of the bluesmen Mitchell interviewed. “(Mitchell was) somebody that went out in the field and found musicians,” says Freeland, adding that the research has been useful to blues lovers and music historians.

“George is definitely respected among the academy: folklorists, anthropologists and other cultural academics who write about it and study it,” says Jake Fussel, a blues musician and friend of Mitchell’s that recently finished a graduate degree at the Center for the Study of Southern Culture at the University of Mississippi.

“George has always had a real humanist perspective- not academic as much as just showing the human side of people, their thoughts and dreams, childhood memories,” Fussel says. “George’s recordings are really soulful and intimate. You can hear his close relationships to the subject and how much he cared and was passionate. He was a really important documentarian.”

GEORGE MITCHELL IN JACKSON George Mitchell will be in Jackson, August 20-21 to visit an exhibit of his photographs at the Mississippi Museum of Art and sign copies of his book at Lemuria Books in Banner Hall. For more information please visit msmuseumart.org or lemuriabooks.com. Fat Possum Records in Oxford sells a box set of hundreds of original George Mitchell recordings over the years with Mississippi bluesmen like R.L. Burnside, Houston Stackhouse, Cecil Barfield, Buddy Moss and Leon Pinson. For more information or to find the recordings near you visit www.fatpossum.com.

Courtesy of George Mitchell

Pictures like this one of George Mitchell and Rosa Lee Hill in 1967 were recently discovered unpublished and undeveloped in Mitchell’s Florida home. They are featured in the new book “Mississippi Hill Country Blues, 1967.”

August 16, 2013

REAL ESTATE

UMMC in talks to make Jackson’s Landmark home for 300 workers » Medical Center would need IHL approval to buy the building that has been on the market for $7.6 million

By TED CARTER I STAFF WRITER ted.carter@msbusiness.com

Downtown’s long vacant Landmark Center is the preferred choice of the University of Mississippi’s Medical Center for a new workplace for around 300 information technology workers and other support staff.

The governing board of the Mississippi Institutes of Higher Learning would have to approve UMMC’s purchase of the 340,000 square-foot building, which is on the market at a discounted price of $7.6 million, down from $14 million in 2011.

The IHL has not yet received a proposal for acquiring the building, an IHL spokeswoman said.

IHL’s policy makers, however, have been kept posted on the deal’s progress, said Dr. James E. Keeton, UMMC’s vice chancellor for Health Affairs. “The board and commissioner are aware that we are having these discussions,” he said in an email.

One downtown leader who put the transfer of workers at 300 employees said reports are that the IHL board is not fully sold on a deal for the Landmark.

The relocation of the UMMC workers would mark a significant turn of fortune for downtown Jackson after the disappointment of losing a competition last spring with Clinton’s South Pointe Business Park to become the new headquarters of the Mississippi Department of Revenue.

“It would be tremendous for downtown,” said one commercial real estate broker.

It is not yet clear how much of the building’s space the UMMC employees would occupy.

Keeton said talks have centered on a purchase of the office building at 175 East Capitol Street rather than a long-term lease. “We do have an interest in the Landmark Center because we are in need of general office space for support staff as UMMC continues to grow,” he said.

The idea is to reserve space at the core campus at State Street and Lakeland Drive for patient care and research activities.

Some components of the medical center’s IT department would be moved into the Landmark, though Keeton emphasized

DON SMITH

The University of Mississippi Medical Center is looking for more space to house its IT professionals, and the Landmark Center is the hospital’s top choice.

the move would not be an actual consolidation of IT operations. Along with the IT workers, the move would include “some support staff from other locations, all yet to be determined,” he said.

AT&T was the Landmark’s principal tenant until it downsized into new space on Capitol Street in late 2011. The telecom and data processing capacity AT&T left behind helps to make the building attractive to UMMC, according to Keeton.

He said no estimates have been prepared on buildout costs, though he added: “The building does have infrastructure that lends itself to the support of IT operations.”

UMMC has about 250 IT workers at South Pointe, which workers are readying for the late spring move of the Department of Revenue. The DOR will require significant space for its approximate 500 workers and hundreds of daily visitors.

Duckworth Realty, leasing agent for South Pointe, said UMMC has a long-term lease at South Pointe and its current space will be unaffected by the DOR relocation.

Most of the Medical Center’s IT workers are at the Medical Mall on Woodrow Wilson Avenue. A smaller group occupies space at the main Medical Center campus.

Downtown’s business and civic leaders have been eager to fill office vacancies that have lingered for several years for all but

the highest-grade of Central Business District office properties. They see filling the empty space as a key component of injecting dollars into the shops, restaurants, hotels and other downtown businesses.

The UMMC relocation would most likely include medical records and health information technicians, an employee classification that the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics says earns about $32,350 a year.

Another likely group of workers, computer systems administrators, makes around $69,000 a year, while workers in the related classification of computer systems analysts earn about $77,450, the BLS says.

Purchase talks are reported to have been under way for more than a year, paralleling the period in which the Landmark Center vied with South Pointe for the DOR headquarters.

“Dr. Keeton has made no secret of his interest in the Landmark,” said one Central Business District leader familiar with the talks.

Participants kept a lid on the talks, having taken “a blood oath” to stay quiet, the CBD leader said.

The Hertz Group, downtown’s dominant landlord having acquired One Jackson Place and other major properties, has an option to purchase the Landmark from New York’s U.S. Bancorp.

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11

Yokohama opens office in MSU’s Cochran Research Park Yokohama Tire Corp. has opened an office in the Thad Cochran Research, Technology and Economic Development Park on the campus of Mississippi State.

The tire company is building a manufacturing facility in West Point.

The office in Starkville will serve as the company’s operational headquarters while its West Point facility is under construction. It will house several divisions, including general management, human resources, information management and business and strategic planning.

“We are very pleased to welcome members of the Yokohama Tire team to the Thad Cochran Research Park and Industry Partners Building, and to develop a new pipeline of communication between us,” Marc McGee, director of the MSU Research and Technology Corporation, said in a school press release. The RTC manages the technology park.

The West Point facility is expected to have a total investment of $300 million initially and employ approximately 500 people. Additional phases are expected to create up to 2,000 jobs and represent a total investment of $1.2 billion over the next decade. Production is scheduled to start in fall 2015.

The state provided $70 million to help Yokohama purchase the property and upgrade infrastructure.

— Clay Chandler

Casino planning $50M hotel tower renovation on Coast GULFPORT — Island View Casino Resort is expanding with a planned $50 million investment to transform a hotel tower vacant since Hurricane Katrina into a 400-room hotel and convention center.

The tower on the south side of U.S. Highway 90 had been part of Grand Casino Gulfport before Katrina struck in August 2005.

Island View owners Rick Carter and Terry Green say it will become part of 40-acre Island View Resort, which will include restaurants, meeting and convention space and a swimming pool and bar overlooking the beach and the Gulf of Mexico.

“The 16-story beachfront hotel tower will offer exceptional views of the Gulf of Mexico, along with immediate access to the beach,” said Carter.

Construction is expected to begin this fall and be completed by summer 2015.

Island View has a 565-room hotel and casino north of U.S. 90 and recently opened Beach Blvd.

Steamer restaurant and Coast Candymakers next to the resort. It is the only locally owned casino in south Mississippi.

— from staff and MBJ wire services

12 I Mississippi Business Journal I August 16, 2013

NEW BUSINESS ANNOUNCEMENT

Homecoming for Smith » Former football star looks to score with new Deane, Smith and Partners office

By FRANK BROWN I STAFF WRITER frank.brown@msbusiness.com

Todd Smith is returning home – at least in a business sense.

Smith, a former star football player (and sometimes mascot) at Jackson Academy and now president and chief communication officer of Deane, Smith and Partners, says the Jackson area is home for the new office of his Nashville-based public relations, marketing, advertising and branding agency.

“I’m very excited about bringing Deane, Smith and Partners to Jackson,” said Smith.

opened a door into Jackson.

“Three strong clients have now given us a foothold in Jackson, so now we’re officially opening our Jackson office. We feel there’s an abundance of opportunity here. Jackson is a thriving business center and a huge health care magnet.”

Smith said the new office is in the Renaissance at Colony Park in Ridgeland.

The agency also has an office in Washington, D.C. Smith was born in Dallas, but moved to Jackson when he was four years old and graduated from Jackson Academy in 1984.

At JA, he was an all-conference center and defensive end, and sometimes played the role of mascot, donning the “Raider’s” tight white pants, black boots, and the big plume. “It’s not something I’m proud about,” he said jokingly, “but it’s something

Washington Times.

“My passion has always been writing,” he said. “I think most successful public relation firms are advanced by people who know how to write. A foundational base to our business is good solid writing.”

He used that writing skill during the several years he spent in public relations. He was public relations manager of Gaylord Entertainment’s Opryland operation and did PR work with Hospital Corporation of America — experience that would come in handy when he and Deane launched DS&P in 1999.

“Our niche has always been in health care and health care technology,” Smith said. “About five years ago, we decided to maintain our core, but go into other areas like the financial services industry, technology and tourism.

STEPHEN MCDILL / The Mississippi Business Journal

Todd Smith said he sees an abundance of opportunities for Deane, Smith and Partners in the metro market, calling Jackson a “thriving business center and a huge health care magnet.”

partner launched the company 14 years ago, he was smart enough to know the future of the industry was web-based, digital, app development and social media. A big component then was website development, so we have a technology team that does website development.

“Social media is the tip of the spear for our industry.”

Deane, Smith and Partners has seen success in year-over-year growth. “We had $1.6 million in revenue last year, and are looking at $1.8 million this year. We expect to be around $2 million next year,” said Smith.

Other major clients include The National Foundation for Cancer Research, Electrolux, the Hutton Hotel, Healthcare Information Management Systems Society, Baden Supply, The Buffkin Group, Cybera

“What I saw, as someone running an agency, was that we needed to figure out a way to bridge the digital divide.”

Todd Smith “I’m a Jacksonian, and this is a coming home of sorts for me.

“I’m excited about tapping into the unlimited potential in Jackson.”

Smith, the agency’s president and chief communications officer, and his partner Silas Deane founded DS&P in 1999.

Deane, Smith and Partners creates strategic branding campaigns, and already has three Jackson clients – Butler Snow law firm, Faces Clinic and Waggoner Engineering.

“About year and a half ago, Butler Snow tapped Nashville as one of its top-growth areas. We won them as a client, and we do all their public relations and marketing,” said Smith. “That relationship with Butler Snow

people may remember me from.”

He also swam and played tennis, but his first love was writing.

“I’d call myself an average student, but two of the biggest influences in early life on the writing side were the librarian Judy Kirkpatrick, who recently passed away, and my creative writing and English teacher Bobbie Downey,” said Smith. “Those two were critical in forming my passion for writing and stringing words together on a written page.”

Smith went on to earn a journalism degree at Baylor University in his native Texas, then spent five years as a business and police writer and country music critic at the

“A big part of what we do is advise our clients on government relations. My partner, the Deane in DS&P, and I both have backgrounds in Washington, D.C., on Capitol Hill. He was Al Gore’s press secretary, and I was a speechwriter for George W. Bush.”

But Smith said he has a vision for growing the company.

“It’s interesting, with the recession, a lot of agencies had to find a way to survive, ways to grow or shutter,” he said. “So there were a lot of agencies that closed down.

“What I saw, as someone running an agency, was that we needed to figure out a way to bridge the digital divide. When my

Inc., Microsoft Health and the Sumner County (Tenn.) Board of Education.

He hopes to expand hiring in the Jackson area as more clients come on board.

“As business ramps up, we’ll be hiring more account executives,” he said. “I’ll be looking for strong entry level folks and senior level folks.

Smith and his wife of 18 years, Grace, make Nashville home, and they have two children, Zachary, 13, and Mary Grace, 11.

Smith’s parents, J. George Smith and Mary Elizabeth Smith, and his brother Brad all live in Jackson.

August 16, 2013

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Mississippi Business Journal

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ECONOMY

EDUCATION

Ole Miss launches new program for law/engineering OXFORD — Following a national trend to make higher education more “user-friendly,” the University of Mississippi schools of Engineering and Law have joined forces to create a new program that provides early admission to the latter.

Through the accelerated law program, students in the general engineering pre-law program can be admitted into a fast-tracked Bachelor of Engineering and law degree program. Juniors who have maintained a 3.6 grade-point average and passed the LSAT with a minimum score of 160 can be admitted early to law school.

“If they are admitted to the program, in their engineering senior year they are simultaneously the first-year law students and will be taking the firstyear law courses,” said Alex Cheng, dean of the engineering school. “At the end of four years, students are granted a B.E. degree. In another two years, they earn a law degree. Hence, rather than the traditional four-plus-three years for a law degree, it becomes three-plus-three.”

UM alumnus and former U.S. attorney general Jim Greenlee (BE ’74, JD ’81) was very supportive even in early discussions about the program.

“This innovative program not only provides a saving to the gifted students through efficient use of their education dollars,” said Greenlee, partner at Holcomb Dunbar in Oxford. “It provides much more value to all, the students and the schools.”

Students gain an incalculable analytical, technical and scientific education that transitions to a vibrant legal education, providing a path to excel in both fields, Greenlee said.

“The School of Engineering gains by providing the future legal support for the profession and its emerging advances,” he said. “The School of Law is provided with top students of outstanding analytical ability to mold into leaders in law in this everadvancing technological society.”

Marni Kendricks, assistant dean for undergraduate academics, will be managing the program for the School of Engineering and advising students in this degree path.

“This 3+3 Accelerated Engineering + Law Program provides an excellent opportunity for the student with an interest in both fields,” Kendricks said. ”We’re very excited to have formed a formal partnership between schools.”

The arrangement also benefits law school students, Dean Richard Gershon said.

“The program benefits the students, because they can complete the engineering and law degrees in six years instead of seven, which is a huge savings to them,” said Gershon, also a law professor. “The schools benefit because we keep strong students at Ole Miss, rather than having them go to other law schools outside of Mississippi.”

Alumni attorneys agree that engineering is a great background for a career at a law firm.

“I definitely think having a technical background would help,” said Sally I. Gaden, an attorney in Cordova, Tenn.

— from staff and MBJ wire services

Cochran pushing for measures aimed at protecting shrimpers GULF OF MEXICO — U.S. Sen. Thad Cochran (RMiss.) is pushing the enforcement of trade rules that would allow the U.S. shrimp industry “to compete with international competition on a level playing field.”

Cochran has submitted testimony to the U.S. International Trade Commission (USITC) for an investigative hearing on the economic threat to the U.S. shrimp industry posed by foreign subsidies from China, Ecuador, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam.

“The Gulf shrimp industry is important to Mississippi’s economy, contributing to thousands of jobs and over a hundred million in annual economic output. Unfortunately the recent surge in imports due to foreign subsidy programs has been a detriment to

these jobs and the industry as a whole. While I support maintaining strong international trade relations, it is important that our trading partners play by the rules,” Cochran said in his testimony.

The USITC hearing precedes a final determination by U.S. Department of Commerce on whether to impose countervailing duties against unfairly subsidized shrimp imports. The Commerce Department could make a final determination this month.

In late May, the Commerce Department announced preliminary affirmative countervailing duty determinations on frozen warmwater shrimp imports, indicating that government subsidies from China, India, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam pose an economic threat to the U.S. shrimp industry on

the Gulf Coast. The determination found that the average government subsidy rate has been more than 9 percent, based on the overall volume of imports from these five nations.

In February, Cochran encouraged the International Trade Administration to act on the determination from the USITC that the U.S. shrimp industry is being harmed by imported frozen warmwater shrimp. The USITC found that U.S. shrimpers are being “materially injured” by unfairlysubsidized imports from countries at the core of the ongoing investigation.

The Biloxi-based Coalition of Gulf Shrimp Industries is the petitioner in this trade case.

— from staff and MBJ wire services

MARKETING

Ole Miss ranks No. 44 on apparel sales list Collegiate Licensing Co. has announced its annual list of institutions whose apparel makes up the company’s top sellers.

Ole Miss, at No. 44, was the only Mississippi school in the top 75. The University of Texas — who Ole Miss plays Sept.

14 in Austin — was No. 1 for the eighth consecutive year.

CLC says the retail marketplace for college-licensed merchandise in 2012 reached $4.6 billion. Royalties generated from the sale of a school’s apparel goes back to the institutions, but not to the player who wears the jersey.

That has been an issue at Texas A&M, whose Heisman-winning quarterback, Johnny Manziel, has dealt with accusations the past few weeks that he took money in exchange for autographing memorabilia. That would violate NCAA rules. (Texas A&M, due in no small measure to Manziel’s Heisman season, jumped from No. 19 to 12th in total apparel sales on CLC’s latest list.)

“CLC is proud to work on behalf of our partner institutions to connect the more than 173 million passionate college fans to the brands they love,” Cory Moss, Senior VP and Managing Director of CLC, said in a company press release. “Licensed merchandise provides fans an outward expression of their college traditions and spirit. As we kick off another school year, we look forward to assisting our partner institutions in expanding their brand protection, management, and development initiatives to grow the collegiate licensed segment of the marketplace in conjunction with collegiate licensees and retailers.”

LAW

Lawyer gets jail time for real estate fraud scheme RIDGELAND — A Ridgeland lawyer has been sentenced to nearly four years in prison for fraud.

ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

Bednarzyk recognized for work in Mississippi The Madison County Business League and the Madison County Economic Development Authority hosted A Summer Celebration Reception recently at the Jackson Yacht Club.

Dan Bednarzyk, former vice president of Manufacturing Nissan North America in Canton, was honored for Nissan's many accomplishments during his tenure at the Canton plant from 2002-2013.

Bednarzyk will continue his career with Nissan in a newly created position at their North America corporate office in Tennessee. Tim Coursey, executive director of MCEDA, and MCBL executive director Jan Collins presented Bednarzyk with a crystal award in recognition for his service to Nissan and Madison County.

— from staff reports

The July 2011 indictment says Michael Earwood and a partner formed Kinwood Capital Group LLC, a real estate business that operated from 1998 to 2006.

Prosecutors say Earwood asked the partner for money to pay taxes on Kinwood’s property, but transferred the money to another business Earwood controlled. Earwood also was accused of transferring Kinwood property to another business he formed.

Prosecutors say Earwood later filed for bankruptcy for one of those companies.

He pleaded guilty to one count of bankruptcy fraud in August 2012. He was sentenced earlier this month in U.S. District Court in Jackson and ordered to pay $792,228 in restitution.

He must report to prison Sept. 16.

LOCAL POLITICS

Voters in Ripley say yes to liquor sales RIPLEY — Voters in this Tippah County community have approved two proposals to allow the sale of liquor.

WTVA reports Proposition 1, governing sale of liquor and wine, passed by a vote of 887-721 in Tuesday’s voting.

Proposition 2, to permit the sale of beer and what is described as light wine, was approved on a vote of 883-684.

— from staff and MBJ wire services

14 I Mississippi Business Journal I August 16, 2013

EDUCATION

Lacking dorm space, JSU rents motel for $800K-plus JACKSON — Facing more demand than it has dormitory beds, Jackson State University will spend more than $800,000 to rent a motel to house students for the coming school year.

The College Board has voted unanimously to approve the plan to rent the 120-room downtown Jackson Travelodge from Bapu Hotels LLC. The money comes from student housing fees.

Higher Education Commissioner Hank Bounds says Jackson State has 250 students awaiting housing. That’s in part because enrollment is expected to rise this fall at JSU. “I think we’re doing a better job of telling the Jackson State story,” said spokesman Eric Stringfellow.

He said officials expect more than 9,000 students this fall, compared to 8,800 last fall. Stringfellow said the largest growth is in new freshmen and transfer students from community colleges. The space crunch is exacerbated by renovations at Alexander Hall, a campus dorm that will

ENERGY

Entergy, ITC retool agreement in the face of opposition NEW ORLEANS — Faced with likely rejection because of procedural reasons, Entergy Corp. and ITC Holdings Corp. have withdrawn their Texas application to merge transmission systems.

The move came at the end of an hours-long hearing Friday in Austin, Texas, before the state’s Public Utility Commission.

New Orleans-based Entergy and Michigan-based ITC are trying to merge by late December. They asked Texas commissioners to reconsider a new application even faster than the 180-day schedule required there.

Administrative law judges had recommended Texas reject the application, saying higher rates would outweigh hard-to-quantify benefits. The two companies offered to waive rate increases for at least five years, a benefit the companies say is worth $90 million to Entergy Texas customers. But that plan came after a procedural deadline, and commissioners said Friday they couldn’t consider it, in part because other parties in the case hadn’t had a chance to respond, and because the current 180-day deadline arrives next week.

COSTS

Entergy Mississippi to raise rates on customers JACKSON — Beginning in September, Entergy Mississippi customers will see a slight increase in base rates. The typical residential customer using 1,000 kWh per month will pay about $2.71 more under the Formula Rate Plan. That’s an increase over the current bill of $100.12.

Entergy Mississippi’s residential rates will remain about 10 percent below the current national average residential rate of $116.30.

(Source EIA, April 2013).

— staff and MBJ wire services

have 272 beds out of use again this fall. Next year, officials expect to be renovating the other 272-bed wing at the X-shaped residence hall in the heart of the school’s campus.

JSU considered multiple hotels before settling on the 240-bed Travelodge, more than 2 miles east of campus between the Mississippi State Fairgrounds and Interstate 55. The school will provide a shuttle service every 15 minutes, Stringfellow said, as well as security and residence staff at the site it plans to call Tiger Plaza.

Despite the distance from the campus, Stringfellow predicted Tiger Plaza would be popular with juniors and seniors who will be assigned there. There’s onsite parking, plus the rooms are larger than the traditional doubles in most of JSU’s dorms, and have in-room bathrooms.

“I think the experience will be pretty good,” he said.

Students will pay the same $2,149 per semester to live in the hotel as in half of a double room at JSU. Housing fees will pay enough to cover the

DESOTO COUNTY

Ex-mayor’s embezzlement trial rescheduled again SOUTHAVEN — Former Southaven Mayor Greg Davis’ trial on charges of embezzlement and false pretense has been rescheduled for a second time.

DeSoto County District Attorney John Champion says Davis’ trial was scheduled for Aug. 19 but has been continued until Dec. 9.

Davis, 47, was indicted by a DeSoto County grand jury on the felony charges in December. The three-count indictment accuses Davis of embezzlement by a public official linked to his cityleased vehicle and using city gasoline in his personal vehicle.

The third charge is false pretense involving a $1,000 check Davis received from the city for a donation intended for the Bully Bloc, a political action committee at his alma mater, Mississippi State University. Investigators say the PAC never received the donation.

This is not Davis’ only court case this year. The former mayor is slated to return to Jackson Oct. 1618 to complete the civil trial in which he has been sued by Mississippi Auditor Stacey Pickering.

Pickering ordered Davis to repay more than $170,000 to Southaven taxpayers. Through supporters, Davis has repaid $96,000 but disputes he still owes more than $70,000, money that the auditor alleges Davis misspent on personal trips, expensive dinners and clothes.

Davis lost his re-election bid during municipal elections in June.

A federal investigation into Davis by the FBI is

cost of renting the hotel, but will cut into the profit JSU would otherwise make, Bounds said.

In addition to $715,000 to lease the entire hotel, Jackson State will also spend more than $90,000 to erect more fencing, pressure wash and paint the hotel and upgrade electrical outlets, smoke detectors and cabling.

It’s not uncommon for universities to lease hotels to handle student overflows. Stringfellow said the University of Southern Mississippi and the Mississippi University for Women have both done so in the past.

But over the long run, JSU is looking at a new dormitory. Stringfellow said JSU is negotiating with a private company to build an 800-bed dorm on the northern edge of campus that JSU officials hope will be open by next fall. If not, the contract with Bapu Hotels has options for two additional years.

also ongoing, said FBI spokeswoman Deborah Madden.

GAMING / TOURISM

Silver Slipper to build 140-room hotel BAY ST. LOUIS — Construction will begin soon on a $17.5 million, 140-room hotel at the Silver Slipper Casino, according to its parent company.

Full House Resorts received a commitment for a $10 million loan on Aug. 2 and will finance the remaining $7.5 million cost of construction with cash on hand.

“We continue to move forward on a muchneeded hotel at our Silver Slipper property and expect to finalize financing and commence construction within the next 30 days,” said Andre Hilliou, chairman and CEO of Full House, which purchased the Silver Slipper on Oct. 1, 2012.

The casino’s general manager, John Ferrucci, said he expects to get permission to proceed in that time frame as well.

Construction will take about a year to complete once ground is broken.

The company also reported that for the second quarter of 2013, Silver Slipper had revenue of $13.4 million and adjusted Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortization, of $2.5 million.

“Despite increased competition and a stagnant economy, our casinos continued to perform well in the second quarter,” Hilliou said.

Net income Adjusted EBITDA for the second quarter was $4.4 million compared to $2.9 million for the same period in 2012.

— staff and MBJ wire services

GULF COAST

Air Force delays plans to shift aircraft from Keesler BILOXI — Air Force Reserve Command headquarters has announced a delay of plans to move 10 C-130Js from Keesler Air Force Base to Pope Airfield, N.C. Keesler officials said in a news release yesterday received by the Sun Herald the movement of planes from 815th and 345th airlift squadrons was scheduled for Oct. 1, but has been delayed until April, and could be further delayed until October 2014.

“The Air Force’s decision to postpone 10 aircraft leaving Keesler is welcomed news for our employees and their families affected by the restructuring,” said Col. Craig LaFave, commander of the 403rd Reserve Wing. “All future proposals to our C-130 fleet is speculative now but is tied to planned Army and Marine Corps strength reductions, which ultimately drives the need for tactical airlift. We should have more clarity over the next few months as to how their end strengths are shaping up and what that might mean for Team Keesler.”

A base news release said the aircraft are being used primarily for tactical airlift missions locally and overseas. In addition to the loss of aircraft, the Force Structure Action Implementation Plan indicated the 815th Airlift Squadron and its active-duty partners, the 345th Airlift Squadron at Keesler Air Force Base, would have closed their doors.

The 53rd Weather Reconnaissance Squadron, known as the Hurricane Hunters, is not scheduled to lose aircraft or personnel under the proposal.

— from staff and MBJ wire services

DEEPWATER HORIZON

Judge sets deadline for claims administrator to respond to BP allegations NEW ORLEANS — A federal judge has set an Aug. 26 deadline for courtsupervised claims administrator Patrick Juneau to respond to BP’s allegations that it has uncovered new allegations of fraud and conflicts of interest inside a settlement program that has awarded billions of dollars to Gulf Coast businesses and residents.

In an order earlier this week, U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier indicated he won’t hold a hearing on BP’s latest request for him to suspend settlement payments

while former FBI Director Louis Freeh investigates alleged misconduct by a lawyer who worked on Juneau’s staff.

Barbier rejected the same request last month, but BP said it only recently learned of new evidence of “more widespread and potentially systemic improprieties” in the settlement program for compensating victims of the company’s 2010 Gulf oil spill.

— staff and MBJ wire services

August 16, 2013 • MISSISSIPPI BUSINESS JOURNAL • www.msbusiness.com

AN MBJ FOCUS:

TECHNOLOGY MANUFACTURING

Changes coming to ATMs near you

By LYNN LOFTON I CONTRIBUTOR mbj@msbusiness.com

T

oday’s ATMs (automated teller machines) are not your mom and dad’s ATMs. Technology and society’s increased demand for convenience bring constant changes to these stalwarts of modern life. No company knows this better than Triton Systems in Long Beach.

A major shift in debit and credit cards of all types is in the works as the U.S. joins other countries of the world to convert cards from magnetic strips to the chip and pin mechanism. “That will be happening across the country and will affect all card holders,” says James Phillips Phillips, Triton’s vice president of sales and marketing. “The joke has been than all countries have chip and pin except the U.S. and Mongolia. This method is safer because with it cards have a computer chip embedded.”

One of the reasons the U.S. is lagging behind other countries with this conversion, Phillips thinks, is the large number of banks here as compared to other countries in the world. “We also have no governing body that regulates payments, and we’re a very broad country,” he said. “All the different cards have to get together and it’s a long process here.”

With few countries still using the magnetic strip on cards, Phillips predicts that more fraud will come to this country before the conversion is complete. Projected conversion dates are October 2016 for Master Card, October 2017 for Visa, 2015 for point-of-sale card use and 2017 for gas pump card use. “After those dates, fraud claims will be pushed to owners of the ATMs,” he added. “It will be gradual, but we’re seeing the conversion begin with our customers who are ordering machines.”

Phillips also says the conversion will be a huge shift in consumers’ mind set as ma-

chines will hold onto cards until the transaction is complete rather than spitting out cards immediately.

Triton’s newest machine, ARGO, has several features in addition to dispensing cash. It can give users quick pick lotto tickets in states where lotto is legal. This feature is currently in testing deployment in Minnesota and Missouri. “Consumers can beat the long lines at the checkout counter, and it will help store owners because they won’t have their lines slowed with those buying lotto tickets,” Phillips said.

The new ARGO can also offer consumers opportunities to make charitable donations from a selection of regional and national charities and gift card programs whereby any amount can be loaded onto a gift card directly from the consumer’s checking account. “This way the owner of the ATM doesn’t have to have money in the machine for gift cards,” said Nancy Lewandrowski, Triton’s marketing manager. “It’s neat: If you’re on your way to a birthday party, you can stop and get a gift card from an ATM and it gives you a thin plastic card to give.”

Direct currency conversion is another new ATM feature that’s helpful for consumers. “This affects foreign travelers who can perform the transaction in their own language even though the machine will dispense dollars,” Phillips said. “This feature allows them to see the fees in their own currency.”

On the environmentally friendly front, Triton launched a machine in March that has a touch screen application to give consumers the option to receive a receipt by text or e-mail. “We’re getting away from so much paper and that will help machine owners,” Phillips said. “Also, all our machines meet the lead-free requirement.”

Owners of ATMs like the machines’ wireless communication and Triton Connect which allows companies to connect with their local machine owners to add graphics, paper and other features. “Additionally, merchants can pull out big bills and audit how much money they have in machines,” Phillips said.

FILE / The Mississippi Business Journal

Automated tellers machines, or ATMs, continue to evolve, and Triton Systems remains on the forefront of the technology with its many products, including the new ARGO.

Furthermore, machine owners can load advertising graphics to machines that will flash ads while machines are idle and can have toppers above machines with ads.

“This is really good in convenience stores where merchants can let machine users know about specials they’re running in the store,” Phillips said.

Triton has long been a major player in the Long Beach Industrial Park and is now part of Triton Systems of Delaware. Employing just under 200 people, the Long Beach facility assembles ATMs, repairs them and trains technicians from all over the country.

“We’re getting away from so much paper and that will help machine owners.”

James Phillips Triton Systems

INNOVATE HALL OF FAME

16 I Mississippi Business Journal I August 16, 2013 Inductee

Achievements

Year Inducted

Jim Barksdale

Chairman of the board and president of Barksdale Management Corporation; president and CEO of Netscape Communications Corporation; Time Warner directors

2009

Edward Barq Sr.

Founder and inventor of Barq’s Root Beer

John D. Bower, M.D., FACP

Professor emeritus, University of Mississippi School of Medicine

2010

Fred Carl Jr.

Founder and former chairman, president and CEO of Viking Range Corporation

2009

James H. Creekmore Sr.

Co-founder of C Spire Wireless

2008

Wade H. Creekmore Jr.

Co-founder of C Spire Wireless

2008

Frank Day

Founder of the Luckyday Foundation; former chairman of the board and CEO of Trustmark National Bank

2012 (posthumously)

Arthur C. Guyton, M.D.

Author of the Textbook of Medical Physiology; University of Mississippi Medical Center

2008 (posthumously)

Fred Haise

Apollo 13 astronaut

2009

John E. Hall, Ph.D.

Arthur C. Guyton professor and chair of physiology and biophysics; associate vice chancellor for research at the University of Mississippi Medical Center

2012

James D. Hardy, M.D.

University of Mississippi Medical Center

Robert Khayat, Ph.D.

Chancellor emeritus and CEO of the University of Mississippi

2010

John N. Palmer

Former ambassador to Portugal, entrepreneur, telecommunications pioneer, community leader and venture capitalist

2008

Hartley Peavey

Founder, CEO and chairman of the board of Peavey Electronics

2008

Will Primos

Founder and director of Primos Hunting Calls

2010

Bill Rayburn, Ph.D.

CEO, chairman of the board and co-founder of FNC Inc.

2010

Shelby F. Thames, Ph.D.

Distinguished university research professor; founder of the Department of Polymer Science at the University of Southern Mississippi; former president of the University of Southern Mississippi

2012

Bill Yates

President of The Yates Companies Inc.; founder of W.G. Yates & Son Construction Company

2012

2008 (posthumously)

2009 (posthumously)

Source: Innovate Mississippi. No inductions were made in 2011. Send questions or comments to Wally Northway at research@msbusiness.com/.

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TECHNOLOGY

August 16, 2013

I

Mississippi Business Journal

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ACHIEVEMENT

MS Innovators Hall of Fame honors entrepreneurs with global influence

By BECKY GILLETTE I CONTRIBUTOR mbj@msbusiness.com

M

any people outside of Mississippi might be surprised to find out that Mississippi hasn’t just produced some of the country’s most famous entertainment stars like Elvis Presley, Oprah Winfrey and Morgan Freeman. The state also has been fertile ground for a large number of business entrepreneur superstars.

Believing it is important to tell the stories of Mississippi business greats, in 2008 Innovate Mississippi (formerly the Mississippi Technology Alliance) instituted the Mississippi Innovators Hall of Fame. Former Ambassador to Portugal, John N. Palmer, a telecommunications pioneer and venture capitalist, received the first Legends Award in 2008. In 2009 the Legends Award went to Jim Barksdale, who was CEO of Netscape Communications Corp. until it merged with AOL in 1999.

The 2010 Legend Award recipient was Dr. Robert C. Khayat, chancellor emeritus of the University of Mississippi. The

2012 Legend Award went to Bill Yates, president of the Yates Companies, which has grown to be the largest general construction firm in the state and one of the largest in the Southeast.

“The Mississippi Innovators Hall of Fame is important because these inductees have set a standard that we would all be well served to follow and have distinguished themselves on a global level,” said Tony Jeff, president and CEO, Innovate Mississippi. “They’re not just big fish in the ‘small pond’ of Mississippi, but they are truly innovative on a nationwide and worldwide scale. The more of these stories people hear–especially about people they know, who grew up in their hometown or went to their school–the more inspired we all are.”

Telling the stories of these business pioneers is significant not just for the reputation of the state. Jeff said it is also important because every small business owner feels

“The Mississippi Innovators Hall of Fame is important because these inductees have set a standard...”

overwhelmed sometimes and wonders if he or she will succeed. These stories show how people just like them did so.

“Entrepreneurship and innovation are two important elements of America’s greatness, and in many ways these are the stories that highlight how important Mississippi’s entrepreneurs have been in adding to that greatness,” Jeff said. “The stories of these entrepreneurs and companies are each unique. Together, they paint a wonderful picture of how innovation across a wide array of industries has been fostered in Mississippi. By focusing across industry sectors, innovation can be defined far beyond pure technology and hopefully open up more existing industry innovation.”

There is also more evidence that Mis-

sissippi is a place where entrepreneurial business dreams can become a reality. The Kaufmann Foundation ranks Mississippi as the fifth most entrepreneurial state in the nation.

The ceremonies to induct Legend award recipients to the Innovators Hall of Fame are a premier networking event for movers and shakers in the state.

“Inductees get a lot of positive energy from sharing with their peers,” Jeff said.

“Because most entrepreneurs don’t have the opportunity to interact much with other entrepreneurs, they often don’t realize how common their problems are. Putting dozens of their stories together in the Mississippi Innovators Hall of Fame allows entrepreneurs to see similarities with their own businesses ventures–and how success can still be achieved despite those difficulties.”

Attendees include recipients of not just the Legend Award and the Excellent Award, but people who have been put on the “Innovators to Watch” and\or the “Companies to Watch” list. These are pioneering companies that exemplify the potential to be inducted one day.

Innovate Mississippi Director of Marketing Sandra Buckley said the first two Legend Awards went to Palmer and Barksdale for “putting Mississippi on the map” when it See

HALL, Page 18

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601-364-1011

TECHNOLOGY

18 I Mississippi Business Journal I August 16, 2013

HALL

Continued from Page 17

comes to the telecommunications industry. “Both of these men were true technology pioneers,� Buckley said. “Another Mississippi Innovators Hall of Fame inductee and telecommunications success story is C Spire Wireless (formerly Cellular South). What began as an idea for a startup between brothers James and Wade Creekmore resulted in the business’ growth into the nation’s largest privately held wireless company.�

Other inductees include Hartley Peavey and Will Primos, who have literally shaped the entertainment industry on a global level. “The success of both Peavey Electronics and Primos Hunting are incredible examples of turning a passion into a Buckley business,� Buckley said. “Both were inducted into the Mississippi Innovators Hall of Fame as Excellence Award winners.�

Also recognized are physicians and researchers who have made a significant mark on the world. “People may not realize the significant medical research that has come out of the University of MisJeff sissippi Medical Center, and that the research there rivals that of any other state,� Buckley said. “Recognized for their groundbreaking work there, Doctors John Bower,

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(601) 364-1011 (601) 364-1030 (601) 364-1012

C Spire launches new WiFi On app for Android phones RIDGELAND — C Spire Wireless has launched WiFi On, a free app that gives users a connection to a Wi-Fi network with over 12 million global hotspots.

C Spire is partnering with Devicescape, a San Bruno, Calif.-based Wi-Fi connection services company, to provide the new, always-on clientbased app.

The service allows customers with Android touchscreen smartphones to use Wi-Fi Internet connections.

Kevin Hankins, C Spire COO, said customers can download the free WiFi On app from the Google Play store on any Android-powered smartphone with the 2.2 (Froyo) or later mobile operating system. The app also will come preloaded on new C Spire Android-powered smartphones, including two that will be arriving soon on the company’s 4G LTE network — the Samsung Galaxy S 4 and the HTC One. The app prompts users to add their own home Wi-Fi networks, automatically connects to public hotspots when available and saves battery power on smartphones and tablets by turning the device’s Wi-Fi radio signal off when it isn’t available or strong enough to provide a quality experience, he added.

Two companies graduate from MSET incubator at Stennis

AL

SIPPI BUSINESS JOURN

MISSIS

By LYNN LOFTON I CONTRIBU mbj@msbusiness.com

Arthur Guyton, John Hall and James Hardy have each been inducted into the Mississippi Innovators Hall of Fame for their many scientific contributions to the medical field.�

Innovate Mississippi works to assist innovation-based startup companies, inventors and entrepreneurs and strengthen Mississippi’s manufacturing and renewable energy innovation economies. The next Innovators Hall of Fame event will be in 2014. For more information, see the website www.innovatorshalloffame.com.

tami.jones@msbusiness.com melissa.harrison@msbusiness.com virginia.hodges@msbusiness.com

HANCOCK COUNTY — The Mississippi Enterprise for Technology (MSET) recently graduated two companies from their incubator program at Stennis Space Center.

DQSI, is a woman-owned, 8(a), small disadvantaged firm that specializes in information technology and GIS, document management and seismic digitization, construction and environmental consulting.

Melhcorp builds electronics systems, particularly for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) including Hunter, Predator, Pioneer, Snowgoose and Raven.

Twenty-nine companies have graduated from the MSET incubator. — staff and MBJ wire services

TECHNOLOGY

August 16, 2013

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PROFILE

Managing angels » Coughlin matches innovators with investors

By LISA MONTI I CONTRIBUTOR mbj@msbusiness.com

off the ground.

Innovate Mississippi also goes to college campuses throughout the state looking for innovative entrepreneurs and not just in the business department. “We’ve had people in psychology and communications come up with an idea we love,” he said.

Coughlin said good ideas aren’t re-

“I actually made it to the top 10 finalists before I was fired by Donald Trump”

N

icholas Coughlin is the angel network manager for Innovate Mississippi, a nonprofit organization dedicated to growing and strengthening the state’s technology culture.

Coughlin’s job is recruiting and managing high net worth individuals who are interested in entrepreneurship and new technology businesses here.

He calls it “a high-end dating service.”

Coughlin himself was recruited from the Mississippi Development Authority by Innovate Mississippi, formerly the Mississippi Technology Alliance. He previously worked for several years as a project manager with Overtime Sports. That was followed by a short stint what he called “a fun little thing in television.”

It all started with Donald Trump, his childhood idol. Coughlin was in the fourth or fifth grade when he bought a book about the legendary businessman. “As a kid I always wanted to work for him,” he said.

He almost made it.

In 2010, Coughlin took a friend’s suggestion and went to an open casting call in Atlanta for the 10th season of Trump’s television show “The Apprentice.” He’d done some modeling in print and in commercials but had never done any reality television.

About 29,000 people turned out to audition. After narrowing down the field, the show’s producers picked 40 men and 40 women and flew them to Los Angeles for a week’s worth of final interviews.

“I actually made it to the top 10 finalists before I was fired by Donald Trump,” he said.

“They only picked seven guys to be on the show. Three of us were sent home on the last night. I had the opportunity to at least meet (Trump) and spend a couple of days interviewing with him.”

The Trump audition led to another reality show. “Through that experience I was able to meet Mark Burnett, the executive producer of ‘Survivor’ and other shows.”

About six months later, Burnett’s team contacted Coughlin to ask him to join a new high adventure racing reality show called “Expedition Impossible.”

The 10-episode show pitted 13 threemember teams during a month-long trek by foot through Morocco, about 600 miles.

“It was a blast, absolutely unbelievable,” Coughlin said. “But it definitely was rough.”

He fractured both feet during the trek.

Coughlin captained his team which consisted of a cousin and a school classmate.

“We made it about 80 percent but got eliminated at the end of the seventh episode,” he said.

The challenge, as difficult as it was, appealed to Coughlin because, as he said, “Fitness is a huge thing to me.” He was

FILE / The Mississippi Business Journal

Nicolas Coughlin has long admired Donald Trump, but has forged a career on helping others succeed.

overweight as a kid but once he was in high school, he dedicated himself to staying in shape. While he attended Mississippi College, he worked for a year as a certified fitness trainer.

His business administration major with an emphasis on marketing set Coughlin on a career path in business development and strategy.

At Innovate Mississippi, which he joined in 2012, Coughlin holds regional meetings where innovative entrepreneurs can pitch their ideas to angel investors in the hopes of getting funding. It’s like the television show Shark Tank but without the rudeness, he said.

There are about 100 accredited investors working with Innovate Mississippi, both individuals and those representing institutions inside and outside of the state.

Innovate Mississippi offers entrepreneurs and business developers a free program that prepares them for getting their companies

stricted to college students, either. “As long as the product or service is innovative, then we are very interested,” he said.

Among Innovate Mississippi’s success stories are Ridgeland-based Bomgar Technology, a successful tech company that started out a decade ago, and SmartSynch in Jackson which was acquired last spring for $100 million.

Coughlin said of the six companies in the network now, five have received funding during the last two quarters.

“Sometimes people see Mississippi as a state that is not very innovative or ahead of trends, but we’re proving time and time again that’s not the case. Every day individuals have phenomenal ideas and we have individuals who can fund them. It’s important for us to put them together. That’s what makes my job so cool,” he said.

Coughlin said one of his favorite quotes is from Zig Ziglar: “You can have everything in life you want, if you will just help other people get what they want.”

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NEWSMAKERS

20 I Mississippi Business Journal I August 16, 2013 Profiles of growing young professionals in Mississippi

Age: 33 Director of Public Relations , Neel-Schaffer Inc.

Keeping our eye on... ANNA MASTERS Anna Masters has two lives, both involving public relations.

By day, the Atlanta native is director of public relations for NeelSchaffer, one of the South’s most esteemed engineering firms.

By night, she is “Anna Bombination” throwing elbows and streaking down the track as the publicist for the Magnolia Roller Vixens, Jackson’s tough-as-nails all-girl roller derby team.

“I started playing when I moved to Jackson and found it to be addictive and one heck of an outlet,” Masters says. “The women on the team are some of the most amazing people I have ever met. They come from all different backgrounds and professions.

Some are teachers, doctors, program managers, you name it, but once they get on the track, they become your pack. It is one of the most challenging sports I have ever played.”

After earning a mass communication degree from the University of West Georgia, Masters landed her “dream job” at CNN in At-

Davis makes list Baker Donelson attorney Nakimuli O. Davis has been named to the Lawyers of Color's inaugural Hot List. Davis is an associate in Baker Donelson's Jackson office, where she focuses her practice on general business and employment litigation in both federal and state courts. She is licensed in Mississippi and Tennessee and has experience working on a wide range of litigation matters, including insurance defense, employment discrimination, lender liability, contract disputes, bad faith breach of insurance contract and personal injury claims brought against motor carriers.

A 2009 magna cum laude graduate of the University of Mississippi School of Law, Davis serves as cochair of the Community Service Committee for the Jackson Young Lawyers Association. She is a member of the Defense Research Institute and the Capital Area, Magnolia, Metro-Jackson Black Women Lawyer's and American Bar Associations, and was selected as the 2013 recipient of the Jackson Young Lawyers' Outstanding Service Award. Davis was also recognized by the Jackson Public School District for the volunteer service she provided to Dawson Elementary School during the 2012-2013 school year at the Volunteer of the Year Awards program.

Brown wins award APLU's Commission on Access, Diversity and Excellence (CADE) has named Alcorn State University President M. Christopher Brown II, Ph.D., as the 2013 recipient of the Distinguished Service Award for significant contributions to increasing diversity and access in the higher education community. Brown is the first president of a historically black college or university (HBCU) to be honored with the CADE Distinguished Service Award. Throughout his professional career, Brown has dedicated his life to CADE’s mission by helping students receive a high-quality education and achieve their goals. Brown inaugurated one of the first HBCU offices of equity and inclusion and appointed Dr. Derek Greenfield, who is white and Jewish, to lead it.

Murphy announces retirement Carol Ann Murphy of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Vicksburg District is retiring after 26 years of service. Murphy began her career in the Contracting Office as a procurement technician and later trans-

lanta, helping report on major world events like the 2000 presidential election, the death of Pope John Paul II, the 2004 tsunami and Operation Iraqi Freedom.

“I was actually present in the newsroom the night of ‘shock and awe,’ and to say it was exhilarating watching the images come across the feed would be an understatement,” Masters says.

In addition to representing Neel-Schaffer, Masters childhood dream to be a marine biologist was recently filled assisting the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality’s cleanup of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.

“The fact that we are trying to do all we can to make the environment whole makes me feel good about what I do every morning when I get up,” she says.

— By Stephen McDill Read the full biography at www.msbusiness.com

ferred to the Safety Office as an office administration assistant. She was presented the Commander's Award for Civilian Service by Col. John W. Cross, Vicksburg District Commander, at a retirement ceremony recognizing her exceptional service.

Murphy is a native of Vicksburg. She is married to Richard Murphy, and they are the parents of three children and six grandchildren.

Firm brings in Phillips Nail McKinney Professional Association in Tupelo recently welcomed Hollie Phillips. She received her bachelor of accountancy in 2012 and her master of taxation in May 2013 from Mississippi State University. She has recently completed the CPA exam.

Phillips is a native of Corinth and currently resides in Tupelo.

Phillips

Helveston succeeds Estes Campbell Helveston has been promoted to president-community bank for Trustmark in Meridian. Helveston has most recently served as a senior vice president and commercial relationship manager at Trustmark in Meridian, where he has over 10 years of experience in the financial industry. A native of West Point, Helveston earned a bachelor of arts degree in jourEstes nalism from the University of Mississippi. He has completed the Graduate School of Banking at Louisiana State University.

Helveston is a board member for United Way, vice president of the board for the Meridian Little Theatre and is a board member for the Mississippi Council of the Navy League and board member Helveston and past President for the Meridian Ole Miss Club. He is married to the former Suzanne Herron, they have two daughters.

Helveston succeeds Billy Estes as president, who has retired after giving more than 40 years of dedicated service to the financial industry. Estes, a native of Natchez, graduated from the University of Southern

Best thing about Mississippi: The Magnolia Roller Vixens Best Mississippi event: The Canton Flea Market Favorite Mississippi food: “When I first moved to Mississippi I had no idea how to eat a crawfish but I learned quick and continue to prefect this skill.”

Favorite TV show: “The Walking Dead” Favorite movie: “28 Days Later” Favorite music: Madonna Heroes or mentors: “My mom. She is made of nails.”

Favorite hang out spots: “My house, the flea market or on the roller derby track.”

First job ever: “Lifeguard. I got a tan, hung out at the pool and got paid. It still may be one of the best jobs I have ever had.”

Twitter handle: @annarosanadanna

Mississippi with a bachelor of science degree in business administration. He completed the Graduate School of Banking of the South at Louisiana State University, the American Bankers Association’s National Commercial Lending School and the Tennessee Bankers Association Southeastern School of Advanced Commercial Lending. In the mid-1970s, he was a founder and charter member of the Miss Lou American Institute of Banking chapter and served as an instructor. Active in his community, Estes has served for a decade as a director of the Meridian Little Theatre, including two terms as president of this organization.

He is a member of the Mississippi Arts and Entertainment Center Board, Hope Village Board and the Image Committee for the East Mississippi Development Corporation. Estes is a board member and past council president for the Boy Scouts of America in Columbus and Meridian. He was honored by this organization in 1985 as the recipient of the BSA Silver Beaver award.

Previously, he served as a director of the Jimmy Rodgers Foundation, member and director of the Meridian Rotary Club and past director of the State of Mississippi Games. He is married to the former Phillys Tarrant, they have four children, eight grandchildren and one great grandchild.

Society elects Green Robert Green, a Mississippi State University veteran research engineer and undergraduate coordinator for the James Worth Bagley College of Engineering, is the new president of the National Society of Professional Engineers. Green, who has been active in the NSPE for more than 25 years, earned a bachelor's degree in chemical engineering and a master's degree in mechanical engineering, both from Green Mississippi State. He also has a master's in national security and strategic studies from the U.S. Naval War College. He is working toward completion of a doctoral degree in public policy and administration at MSU. The registered professional engineer previously was the chief test engineer and manager of the field operations team with MSU's Diagnostic Instrumentation and Analysis Laboratory.

His areas of expertise while at DIAL were gas analysis, stack sampling and other EPA test methods, infrared pyrometry, the design of intrusive probes for measuring specific parameters in harsh, high temper-

ature, particle-laden environments, and the design of experiments.

Green also serves as a Navy Reserve Officer and recently was promoted to the rank of Captain (O-6).

He is a Naval Engineering Duty Officer with expertise in the area of design and acquisition of ships and ships' systems and combat systems. He is currently the commanding officer of SurgeMain Region Gulf.

Prior assignments have been with the Norfolk Naval Ship Yard, Philadelphia Naval Ship Yard, Naval Sea Systems Command and as commanding officer of Naval Weapons Station Yorktown Detachment 609, the Amphibious Ready Group Intermediate Maintenance Activity Detachment 0948, USS Emory S Land (AS-39) Detachment 407, NAVSEA St. Louis, Mo., and NAVSEA Houston, Texas. He also has served as a qualified facilitator for Reserve Officer Leadership Training and was a science fair judge for the Office of Naval Research.

Green's personal awards include the Navy and Marine Corps Meritorious Service Medal, Navy and Marine Corps Commendation Medal, Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medal, Military Outstanding Volunteer Service Medal, and the Navy Unit Commendation Medal.

A past president of the Mississippi Engineering Society, Green also is involved in his local community, where he is a member of the advisory board of the Starkville Chamber of Commerce and chair of the Greater Starkville Development Partnership Military Affairs Committee. He is an elder within the Presbyterian Church PC (USA), and holds various other positions in volunteer and professional organizations.

Harris named chief The town of Walls has appointed Reggie Harris, who has been serving as the town's interim chief for the last four weeks, as its new police chief. Harris has worked as a police officer with Walls for nearly four years, and replaces former chief Gary Boisseau, who was not reappointed to his position by the Board of Aldermen.

For announcements in Newsmakers; Contact: Wally Northway (601) 364-1016 • wally.northway@msbusiness.com

August 16, 2013

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MISSISSIPPI BUSINESS PROFILES by Alan Turner

The Art of Bouncing Back Gulf Cost Produce alking to Christi and Mike Alise, president and vice president of Gulf Coast Produce, one is led to marvel at just what determination, teamwork, and dedication can achieve.

The Alises have been in the produce business for most of their adult lives, having grown up in Louisiana and then moving to the Mississippi Gulf Coast in 1995 to take on a business challenge with a company that was not doing well at the time. Through their efforts, the company became a solid, profitable business, with strong growth over the next 10 years.

Then came 2005, and the arrival of Hurricane Katrina.

“It was devastating,” said Christi. “It basically closed down our business.”

Among other things, their building was one of the few that was relatively undamaged, with the result that FEMA took it over as their headquarters.

Christi and Mike wound up working in a business in the Memphis area for a while, but not to be denied, they returned to the Gulf Coast and entered into a partnership

T

FILE / The Mississippi Business Journal

Christi and Mike Alise are president and vice president of Gulf Coast Produce.

with another company and began to rebuild their business base as the Katrina recovery gathered momentum.

Once again, they ran into obstacles with the partnership, and finally wound up tak-

will to succeed.”

That “iron will” has carried them once again to a position of strength in the produce distribution business. They cover a good portion of southern Mississippi, Alan Turner and have 13 colorfully painted delivery trucks supplying markets in the region from Pensacola to Hattiesburg to the Louisiana border. The company is once more strong and profitable, with strong growth.

However, that’s not the end-all for the Alises. There are some plans in the works to develop an open air market in the area, and their goal is to grow their operations to $30 million in sales.

They also believe the Gulf Coast has a bright future.

“For one thing,” Mike pointed out, “our port can handle the bigger vessels, and other ports are just about at max. To us, that means things will only go in one direction — up.”

As that growth materializes, one thing seems certain: Christi and Mike Alise will be along for the ride.

ing the business over once again and starting yet another recovery effort.

Contact Mississippi Business Journal pub“We’ve proven to ourselves that we are lisher Alan Turner at alan.turner@msbusiness.com an untouchable team,” said Mike. “We or (601) 364-1021. just don’t give up, and we have an iron

Looking toward a strong future in Mississippi Ward expanding his business throughout the Magnolia State

now been in business for eight years, and he has 47 employees.

“Over 90 percent of my employees are veterans,” he said. “I’m proud of that, and also proud of the work ethic of my people, and their achievements.”

As Ward sees it, a company such as his is more of a family, with the people working together as a team to solve problems and make things happen.

He works with local contractors, and construction represents about 25 percent of his assignments.

“It’s like assembling a puzzle,” he said.

“You have to understand first how the pieces fit together, and then work hard to make it happen…what you have to do to make things work as they’re supposed to. That’s the core of our business.”

Asked if he had advice for other entrepreneurs, Ward said “you have to have the right people. You have to have a good accountant and attorney. And above all, you have to know your business better than anyone else can ever know it.”

lthough his company has grown up in St. Louis, Mike Ward, president and CEO of Project Management Solutions Group, still has some roots in Mississippi. Now, he wants to expand his business to the Magnolia State.

His company takes on government and private sector project management assignments, and he’s worked with the Veterans Administration, the Corps of Engineers, Homeland Security, and other agencies.

In a recent conversation, he discussed why he likes Mississippi as a business location.

“I’d say Mississippi is ideally positioned for doing business throughout the South,” STEPHEN MCDILL / The Mississippi Business Journal he said. “I see a lot of advantages in doing Mike Ward likes his Mississippi business location. business here — people have a great work ethic, the state is growing, and there are lots Contact Mississippi Business Journal publisher of opportunities.”

Ward has lived and worked in 14 coun“I love my work,” he said. “Being able to Ward is presently looking to open an of- work in strategic planning, creating a vision, tries during his career, and prior to starting Alan Turner at alan.turner@msbusiness.com or fice in Mississippi and expects to be working and then make things work as they’re sup- his own firm, worked for companies such as (601) 364-1021. on projects in the state in the next year or so. posed to — that’s what I thrive on.”

AT&T and American Express. His firm has

A

22 I Mississippi Business Journal I August 16, 2013 SMALL BUSINESS SPOTLIGHT: Sweet Magnolia Ice Cream

The cream of Clarksdale » Sweet Magnolia Ice Cream started out just for family, now its for everyone

By STEPHEN McDILL I STAFF WRITER stephen.mcdill@msbusiness.com

H

ugh Balthrop says he just started making ice cream in his kitchen for his kids.

Then for the rest of his family.

Then his friends.

Today, the Clarksdale entrepreneur is having pints of his acclaimed Sweet Magnolia Ice Cream delivered all over the state: From upscale restaurants in Greater Memphis to coffee shops and caterers throughout the Mississippi Delta.

“For me it was all about using local ingredients,” Balthrop says. “Some of these other places put stuff in this ice cream that you can’t pronounce and I didn’t want to feed that to my kids.”

The principal ingredient for Sweet Magnolia ice cream comes from cream harvested from grass-grazed cows on a farm in Oxford.

“What really makes it stands out is the family cows,” he says. “They know all the names. They have tags on them.”

Balthrop uses an Italian-made Bravo ice cream machine to mix pint after pint. The ice cream is then cooled and frozen alternately before being stored in the company’s 2,400 square-foot “ice cream factory.”

“We use the gelato technique with a Southern flair,” Balthrop says.

The ingredients for his different flavors are also natural like wild honey, local blackberries and blueberries, Balthrop is originally from Washington D.C., where he says he did everything from working in the hospital industry to owning an art gallery. His wife grew up in Chicago and spent many summers in Mississippi. They married in 1999 and moved to Clarksdale a year later where she is a practicing obstetrician.

After studying the science and manufacturing of ice cream online, Balthrop enrolled in a weekend short course at the University of Pennsylvania and learned all about desserts, pastries and gelato, the Italian form of ice cream.

Balthrop jokes that he wears the chef hat, manager hat, delivery hat and accounting hat.

“I never thought the business would take off like it is,” he says. “The demand has really been incredible.”

The business really picked up last winter, the season is usually pretty mild in Mississippi and locals were happy to try a bowl of his eggnog and candy cane flavors.

Balthrop says he is grateful for the Clarksdale Chamber of Commerce’s small business incubator program, which allowed him to rent space at a reduced rate for his equipment and storage.

“We don’t have any trucks yet,” he says. “We have cold packs and coolers and are hauling them. We have these ice blocks that we transport the ice cream in. We’re trying to figure out the next step.”

That next step will probably include moving his ice cream from wholesale to retail. Balthrop recently partnered with the Delta Bistro and Mississippi Gift Company in Greenwood as well as the Amerigo Italian Restaurant family in Memphis. He’s also interested in the emerging food truck industry and possibly expanding to eventually include a dining area at the Clarksdale location.

Up Close With ...

SWEET MAGNOLIA ICE CREAM 1540 DeSoto Avenue #4, Clarksdale www.sweetmagnoliaicecream.com To find it at a place near you please call (662) 313-6551 Sweet Magnolia serves traditional American and Italian flavors as well as seasonal combinations.

The bestseller is the Gravel Road flavor while the lemon drop, muscadine sorbet and watermelon lemon sorbet are very popular in the summertime. Other summer flavors include orange cream gelato, sweet tea sorbet and lemon frozen yogurt with blueberry sauce.

Sweet Magnolia pints are boxed up for the retail spaces while Balthrop and his team ship one to three gallon buckets to the restaurants and coffee shops.

In addition to finding local places to introduce his ice cream, Balthrop is also working on the logistics for customers who want to order the ice cream online.

Garden & Gun magazine recently contacted Sweet Magnolia about doing a story on the ice cream. Balthrop says it cost him $150 to ship them overnight samples. The company was featured in the magazine’s July issue along with four other “Ice Cream Makers with Southern Soul.”

The company was also named a semi-finalist on the Garden & Gun “Made in the South” list.

“I’m passionate about the ice cream,” Balthrop says.

“I’ve gotten a great response from the community. They really love it.”

ABOVE: Sweet Magnolia Ice Cream owner Hugh Balthrop turned a hobby into a business with his plan to make and distribute homemade organic ice cream from his home in Clarksdale.

BELOW: Sweet Magnolia manager Christian Barrett holds a tray of the ice cream that’s ready to be shipped to coffee houses, restaurants and shops throughout the Mississippi Delta.

August 16, 2013

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» MISSISSIPPI LEADERS by Martin Willoughby

Help along the way Gunnoe grabs opportunity

A

s I interview leaders across the state, it is always interesting to hear about the people who played a role in shaping and developing these leaders. I have great respect for those who invest in the life of others. It creates a ripple effect.

When I was in college at Millsaps, my family fell on some financial hard times, and I was considering switching schools to complete my education. However, a family friend secretly provided a scholarship that allowed me to finish my degree. I did not find out about this until years later, but it had a profound effect on me. Paul D. Gunnoe, chairman of Gunnoe Investment Group, L.P., and CEO of Ortho Kinematics Inc., similarly had someone alter the course of his life.

Gunnoe grew up in Austin, Texas, but his mother was from South Mississippi so he spent considerable time as a child coming to the state. After high school, he played football at Sierra Nevada College in northern California. Gunnoe shared, “After Sierra, a Mississippi businessman who I had the great fortune of meeting, took me in, realizing that I was a young man who was just looking for an opportunity.” Bobby Dunlap of Dunlap & Kyle offered him a scholarship to the University of Mississippi. Gunnoe had the opportunity to take a walk-on position to play football, but he decided it was time to concentrate on academics and what he was going to do after college. After grad-

Up Close With ... Paul D. Gunnoe Title: Chairman of Gunnoe Investment Group, LP, and CEO of Ortho Kinematics Inc.

First Job: ”My first job was in sixth grade — a friend and I had a yard service.”

Favorite Books: Rich Dad, Poor Dad (Robert Kiyosaki); The Firm (John Grisham)

Proudest Moment as a Leader: ”The day I sold my first company because I was able to recognize the success derived from mine and my wife’s hard work and also because I realized how I effected the lives of all the employees who were a part of that success.”

Hobbies/Interests: ”Playing with my two sons, exercise and Ole Miss football and baseball.” uating from Ole Miss with a B.S. in biology, he attended nursing school at Pearl River Junior College in Poplarville.

While working as a travel nurse, he began assisting several staffing companies in recruiting and filling their staffing orders for hospitals. Shortly after that, Gunnoe and his wife started their first health care staffing

company. Through acquisition and organic growth, they created one of the three largest health care staffing entities in the country.

They also branched out into purchasing hospitals as well as developing health care software systems focused on various health care needs such as vendor management systems used in staffing and credentialing.

“The greatest leader is the greatest servant.”

Paul Gunnoe LP and CEO of Ortho Kinematics, Inc.

After a successful exit of his business, he founded Gunnoe Investment Group, which focuses on health care companies, start-ups, turnarounds and acquisitions.

Mr. Dunlap, who built one of the largest tire companies in the country, also taught Gunnoe the core principle of providing the best customer service possible. Gunnoe said, “His success truly is an example of how always treating people (employees & customers) right and fair will pay off a million times over.” He also noted the influence of his parents who taught him to finish everything he started, to always do the right thing, lead by example and treat people as you want to be treated. As a person of faith, Gunnoe’s personal leadership philosophy comes from the Bible. He believes, “The greatest leader is the greatest servant. A leader’s duty is to serve those he/she leads and provide them the tools and opportunities to be successful.”

Today, Gunnoe and his family live in Oxford, and he continues to apply his principles to grow and build businesses. In addition, Gov. Phil Bryant recently appointed Gunnoe to the state of Mississippi Medical Care Advisory Committee. While Gunnoe certainly would have been a success in life whatever he went, Mississippians certainly have Mr. Dunlap to thank for pointing Gunnoe’s entrepreneurial energy towards building companies here in Mississippi. Perhaps the next time you see a young person with real potential, you may want to consider making an investment in their future. You never know the how far and wide the impact may be.

Martin Willoughby is a business consultant and regular contributing columnist for the Mississippi Business Journal. He serves as Chief Operating Officer of Butler Snow Advisory Services, LLC and can be reached at martin.willoughby@ butlersnow.com.

China's rapid changes sweep characters along

E » Five Star Billionaire

By Tash Aw Published by Spiegel & Grau $26.00 hardcover

xpect to see and hear more about this book because it's good and it's about China, which as we all know, is the 800-pound gorilla in the world. There are people who're fascinated by all things China. I've never been among their number, but all of us need to keep a look out at the vast changes in this large country that so dominates commerce.

Five Star Billionaire is set in the Shanghai of today, a place — like most all of China — that is becoming westernized at a rapid pace. Capitalism is overthrowing the old rules and culture. One of my down-the-street neighbors, who's made several trips to China, told me after her most recent trip that she will never go there again because it's so similar now to the U.S. This book, which is on the long list for the Man Booker Prize,

Britain's top literary award, takes its title from a fictional selfhelp book and its mantras function as chapter titles. For instance, some of those mantras/titles are 'Move to where the money is' and Reinvent yourself.' Aw's five central characters are mostly insecure strivers from the outlands who're trying to make it in the big city by whatever means are necessary.

One character is Phoebe, an amoral spa receptionist who

shows up for a date at a sophisticated Western restaurant after making a list of things to remember. That list includes things such as "how to use the cutlery" and "what to do with the little baskets of bread."

All the characters are juxtaposed against the capitalism and rapacious change of the New China where wealth brings respect as well as the heartburn of moral queasiness. Dwight Garner, a reviewer for the New York Times, wrote, "Five Star Billionaire is a meditation, at heart, on impermanence. The New China never stands still; to pause for even a moment is to be left behind. Every village, every city is changing. A young woman says, 'It's as if we are possessed by a spirit — like in a strange horror film.'"

— Lynn Lofton, mbj@msbusiness.com

All the characters are juxtaposed against the capitalism and rapacious change of the New China...

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