Board Chair Terry Harbin (left) and Mobile Area Chamber President and CEO Bill Sisson (right) presented James (Jimmy) K. Lyons (center) with the Delchamps Award at the Chamber’s recent annual meeting. Photo by Jeff Tesney Photography
CHAMBER HONORS JIMMY LYONS WITH DELCHAMPS AWARD Mobile Area Chamber President and CEO Bill Sisson and Board Chair Terry Harbin presented James (Jimmy) K. Lyons the Delchamps Award at the Chamber’s Annual Meeting on May 27. Sisson and Harbin outlined a long list of Lyons’ accomplishments. The former director and CEO of the Alabama State Port Authority retired in December 2020. “While his 40-year maritime career merits acknowledgment on its own, I am here today to recognize his vision and leadership that steadily advanced not only Mobile’s economic development efforts but those of the entire state of Alabama,” said Sisson. “With his contributions, influential companies have established operations here and hired thousands of Alabamians.” An integral member of Team Mobile, a group of local utilities, universities, elected officials and the Chamber that recruit economic development projects, Lyons was part of the eightyear effort to recruit Airbus to Mobile. He also came up with 8 AUGUST 2021
the solution that cleared the way for the ThyssenKrupp steel mill, which, at the time, was the largest private investment ever made in the U.S. That site in Calvert is now operated by AM/NS and Outokumpu. Other Alabama success stories Lyons contributed to include Aker Solutions, Berg Spiral Pipe, Hyundai Motor Manufacturing Alabama, International Shipholding, MTC Logistics, SSAB (née IPSCO), Walmart Logistics and Yamaha Motor Corp. Another success – and what some called a “risky endeavor” – was APM Terminals’ five-phase plan for a container terminal that is now one of the fastest-growing in the country, according to the Journal of Commerce. Lyons is the 13th recipient of the Delchamps Award named after Alfred F. Delchamps, a previous board chairman of the Mobile and U.S. Chamber of Commerce. It was first given in 1991.
