1. PeopleIn The News
P E O P L E I N T H E N E W SATLANTA BUSINESS CHRONICLE October 29-November 4, 2010 • Page 33APage 32A • October 29-November 4, 2010 ATLANTA BUSINESS CHRONICLE
ACCOUNTING
• UHY Advisors Inc.
named Frank Fenello
as the new head of its
Southeast operations,
leading a team of more
than 40 professionals
and serving clients across
the region from the firm’s
Atlanta office. As manag-
ing director, Fenello will
be responsible for all
operations of the office,
with a particular focus on
expanding the firm’s audit,
attest and tax services.
He continues his role as
managing director of UHY
Advisors Management
Consulting practice.
• Adams Harris named
Therese Webb as manag-
ing director of the Atlanta
office.
ARTS&NONPROFIT
• AIA Georgia elected
Edward A. Bernard,
Southeast regional man-
ager and vice president at
Marx|Okubo Associates
Inc., president of the
association. Gerald D.
Cowart, owner of the
Cowart Coleman Group,
was named past presi-
dent. Roy L. Abernathy,
CEO and managing prin-
cipal of Jova/Daniels/
Busby, was appointed
president-elect. Janice N.
Wittschiebe, partner at
Richard Wittschiebe Hand,
was elected treasurer.
S. Keith Bailey, market
sector leader for higher
education/science and
technology with Leo A
Daly, was elected secre-
tary. Robert T. Buscemi
with the Georgia State
Financing and Investment
Commission; Richard B.
Hinman Jr., president and
CEO of Studio 3 Design
Group; Leslie Gage, a
market segment man-
ager with GREENGUARD
Environmental Institute;
Dr. Wilson “Bill” Barnes,
dean of the School of
Architecture at Southern
Polytechnic State
University; Kevin Cantley,
president and CEO of
Cooper Carry Inc.; and
David Hauseman, founder
of the Hauseman Group,
were elected directors.
• William C. Carpenter,
founder of Lightroom and
member of the faculty at
Southern Polytechnic State
University, was elected
to represent Georgia as
a director of the South
Atlantic Region Council of
the American Institute of
Architects for 2011-2013.
In this capacity, Carpenter
will chair the South
Atlantic Region Conference
in Atlanta in 2012.
• Matthew S. Hart,
designer and project
manager with IPG Inc.,
was elected to represent
Georgia as an associ-
ate director of the South
Atlantic Region Council of
the American Institute of
Architects for 2011-2013.
• Atlanta Symphony
Orchestra appointed
Sandy Smith as the
Orchestra’s vice president
of development.
BANKING&
FINANCE
• Chattahoochee Bank
of Georgia promoted Sue
Ladd to vice president of
deposit operations/com-
pliance with daily admin-
istration and regulatory
compliance of the deposit
operations function of the
bank. Laurie Tullis was
promoted to vice president
of loan operations/compli-
ance with daily oversight
of the loan operations
function of the bank, which
includes pre-closing sup-
port to the administrative
staff as well as post clos-
ing audit and monitoring
of all lending transactions.
Tullis is responsible for
the oversight of regulatory
compliance as it relates
to the lending area as well
as providing compliance
support to the deposit
function.
• FSC Securities Corp.
named John Dillon the
new chief compliance
officer. Rick Kundracik
was appointed senior vice
president of recruiting and
national sales.
• Regions Bank named
Bradley L. Barton senior
vice president and
commercial real estate
executive for the com-
pany’s Georgia and South
Carolina markets.
BOARD
APPOINTMENTS
• Kilpatrick Stockton
LLP attorney Yendelela
Neely was named to the
Jumpstart Atlanta advisory
board.
• The YMCA of
Metropolitan Atlanta
elected the following to
the board of directors:
Kathy Betty, owner of the
WNBA’s Atlanta Dream;
John Reyhan, executive
vice president and gen-
eral manager of Skanska
USA Building Inc. for the
Georgia region; Rebekah
Joy Rohadfox, CEO of
Rohadfox Construction
Control Services; JuE
Wong, CEO of Astral Health
& Beauty.
CONSTRUCTION
• Catamount
Constructors Inc. added
John C. Champagne to its
Atlanta business develop-
ment staff as business
development manager.
EDUCATION
• University of Phoenix –
Atlanta hired E.W. Newlin
as director of academic
affairs. Newlin will oversee
and direct day-to-day aca-
demic affairs, which include
faculty recruitment, train-
ing, assessment, academic
quality, and governance at
the campus level.
GOVERNMENT
• Keith R. Blackwell,
a partner with Parker,
Hudson, Rainer & Dobbs
LLP, was appointed by
Gov. Sonny Perdue to the
Georgia Court of Appeals.
HEALTHCARE
• UnitedHealthcare
named Dr. Linda Britton
medical director for
UnitedHealthcare of
Georgia. Britton will
focus on helping ensure
UnitedHealthcare plan
participants have access
to appropriate medi-
cal services while also
promoting quality clinical
care and positive patient
outcomes, and effectively
managing health-care
costs. She will also main-
tain relationships with
contracted physicians
and physician organiza-
tions throughout the
region and collaborate
with other staff physi-
cians to achieve quality
objectives
HOSPITALITY
• Hotel Equities Inc.
named Courtney Willis
Harper to the position of
director of sales for two
hotels in Macon, Ga.: the
Fairfield Inn & Suites and
the Candlewood Suites.
Harper has responsibility
for initiating sales and
implementing the market-
ing strategy for both cor-
porate and leisure market
sales for the hotels.
• Hotel Equities Inc.
appointed Nancy Curtin
Morris as the company’s
training and people devel-
opment coach. In that role,
Morris will provide ongoing
consulting services to
Hotel Equities.
INSURANCE
• J. Smith Lanier & Co.
appointed Tom Yearian as
the lead resource on the
recent health-care reform
legislation passed by
Congress earlier this year.
Yearian’s role will facilitate
compliance and educa-
tion pertaining to the new
health-care reform legisla-
tion within J. Smith Lanier
& Co. He will be available
to consult with clients/
prospects and serve as a
resource for understanding
the legislation and the fed-
eral guidance forthcoming.
LAW
• Elizabeth Green
Lindsey, shareholder with
Davis, Matthews & Quigley
P.C., was named a fellow
of the American College of
Trial Lawyers.
MEDIA&
COMMUNICATIONS
• Engauge hired Tessa
Horehled as a senior
strategist within the Digital
Innovation Group (DIG).
• Leah Peterson was
promoted to vice president
of client development for
Response Mine Interactive.
Peterson’s responsibili-
ties include new business
development, strategic
planning and marketing for
the Atlanta-based agency.
PERSONNEL
& HUMAN
RESOURCES
• Synergis promoted
Alex Putman to vice presi-
dent of workforce solutions.
• Fallon Benefits Group
Inc. added Martha Olson
to the organization as an
account manager.
SPORTSBUSINESS
• The Houston Local
Organizing Committee
named the following
as the executive staff
for the 2011 Summer
National Senior Games:
DJ Mackovets was named
president and executive
director; Sean Gomez was
added as director of com-
petition; Lloyd Richards
Jr. was named director
of operations; Bethany
Kocian was appointed
director of event services;
Lou Botello was appointed
director of business opera-
tions; Amanda L. Payne
was appointed volunteer
director; and Art Kent was
added as director of com-
munications.
• M. Andrew Burrow
was named director of
tennis at Midtown Athletic
Club at Windy Hill. As ten-
nis director, Burrow will be
responsible for executing
a comprehensive tennis
program that includes
ALTA and USTA Leagues,
Quickstart junior tennis
programs, tournaments,
social events, group and
private lessons, and
overseeing a staff of 10
professionals.
GENERAL
BUSINESS
• Carl Seville was added
as a member of EcolQ’s
EcoSpeakers.com speakers
bureau.
• AlliedBarton Security
Services promoted
Michael Dunning to the
new position of director of
health-care quality assur-
ance. In this new role,
Dunning will oversee qual-
ity assurance initiatives,
further develop operational
resources and provide tran-
sition support for health-
care clients.
• L2C named Scott
Pranger vice president of
sales. Pranger is respon-
sible for leading and
expanding L2C’s demand
activities and customer
relationships in the finan-
cial services, telecommuni-
cations, retail, health-care
and collection industries.
ACHIEVEMENTS
• Jaymie Miller, assis-
tant vice president and
deposit operations officer
with KeyWorth Bank,
obtained the Accredited
ACH Professional
Certification.
• Business Insurance
ranked J. Smith Lanier &
Co. No. 4 in the medium
sized agents/brokers
category.
• Trayce Billingsly Leak
earned her APR (Accredited
in Public Relations)
certification from the
Georgia chapter of the
Public Relations Society
of America. Leak is assis-
tant professor of public
relations at Clark Atlanta
University.
• Leslie Burke was
awarded CREW Network’s
Entrepreneurial Spirit
Award. The Entrepreneurial
Spirit Award is a national
award honoring a CREW
member who has achieved
unique career success
or milestone during the
past 12 to 24 months as
the result of an excep-
tional entrepreneurial
spirit. Lori Kilberg was
awarded CREW’s Career
Advancement Award, which
honors a CREW member
who has made signifi-
cant contributions to the
advancement of women
in commercial real estate
in 2009.
• Brightworth partners
Dave Polstra, Chris
Dardaman, Ray Padron
and Annika Ferris were
selected as 2010 FIVE
STAR: Best in Client
Satisfaction Wealth
Managers SM for metro
Atlanta.
• Allstate Insurance
Company Field Sales
Leader Chuck McGhee
of Canton, Ga., was
honored by the company
earning the coveted Key
Manager Award for the
20th time.
• Best Lawyers, a legal
peer-review publication,
named Nelson Mullins
Riley & Scarborough part-
ner Taylor T. Daly as the
2011 Atlanta Alternative
Dispute Resolution Lawyer
of the Year. Daly practices
in the areas of commercial
litigation, product liability,
dispute resolution and col-
laborative law.
F
or Ken Rhyne, playing the blues is
much more than a hobby.
“I’ve been playing harmonica about
32 years,” said Rhyne, a designer with
an architecture and interior design firm.
Rhyne’s musical prowess became such
as obsession in his early years that it
yielded painful consequences.
“I would play [harmonica] until my
mouth bled,” he said.
Rhyne, who is a partner at Urban Design
Group with studios in Atlanta and Dallas,
has been playing harmonica and writing
songs for more than three decades. “I
really enjoy writing songs and performing
live,” he said.
The designer’s zeal for performing live
stems from playing baseball in front of
crowds. When Rhyne was a youngster, he
was groomed to be an All-Star in the big
leagues.
“I studied baseball; it was like a job. I was
geared to do nothing but play professional
baseball,” said Rhyne of his childhood
aspirations.
Rhyne, whose father played in the pros,
was even born “on the road” in Moultrie,
Ga. “They were down there [playing base-
ball] for the summer,” he said.
After excelling in both football and base-
ball during high school, he went on to play
at Pfeiffer University, a small college in
Misenheimer, N.C., where he also studied
art. “I took a lot of art and graphics
classes, so I was more interested in design
and art [than music].”
Once he graduated from Pfeiffer, Rhyne
signed on to be a catcher with the
Washington Senators.
Rhyne followed the Senators (now the
Texas Rangers) to Texas, and was side-
lined with an injury — enduring nearly a
year’s worth of surgeries.
When doctors told him his career in
baseball was virtually over, a devastated
Rhyne returned home to High Point, N.C.
“I … pretty much was at a loss of what to
do,” he said.
A friend told him about Institutional
Interiors Inc., a company that designed
libraries for institutions of higher learning.
Although Rhyne was an avid athlete in
high school and college, academically,
because of an early interest in design,
his courses were mostly art and
graphics, so a job in interior design was
Designer takes passion
for blues to the stage
By Michelle Montrese Henson
STAFF WRITER
practical considering his background.
“I went and interviewed for the company
and started working right away,” he said.
“I worked for them for five years. It was a
good training. That’s where I got my start
in the design world.”
While at Institutional Interiors, Rhyne
was able to hone his skill for design, but
after a stint with the company, he decided
to indulge in a love greater than his love
for sports: his love of music.
Rhyne’s affection for the blues stems
from his admiration of rock ‘n’ roll music
from the ’50s and ’60s.
“[Rock ‘n’ roll was] really an offshoot of
old blues music that came out of the
South,” he said.
After listening to more and more blues
bands, Rhyne decided to pick up the har-
monica, which he taught himself to play.
He took his desire for perfection to the
limit and would make personal contact
with established musicians and “would call
all these great harmonica players around
the country. It was kind of a network of
people that were recording at the time. ... I
would listen to their records and call them
and ask them how they did a certain thing
on their record that I couldn’t understand,”
Rhyne said.
Using this methodology, Rhyne estab-
lished his own style from a smorgasbord
of blues players, and created his own band,
Daddy’s Money.
“I had such an obsession with music,
that I had to give it a try. And [the band]
did pretty well,” Rhyne said.
Peter Chakales, a principal of Design
Media Group LLC in Atlanta, met Rhyne in
the late ’70s when he was a young
drummer in Asheville, N.C.
“I was part of Daddy’s Money,” Chakales
said. “It was, in fact, my daddy’s money.”
Chakales and Rhyne went on the road
with Daddy’s Money for several years.
“[We] got to play with a lot of really estab-
lished and big-name blues and R&B folks,
so it was great,” Rhyne said.
The band had to cut their desired
touring short, because Rhyne, as he put it,
“had mouths to feed. It’s hard to make a
living playing as a blues musician.”
After running his own design firm and
working with several large firms throughout
his tenure in the architecture and design
industry, Rhyne collaborated on a project
with Urban Design Group, and the firm
offered him a position within the company.
“We decided we liked each other, and
our philosophies were the same, and so
they asked me to come in and I jumped at
the opportunity,” Rhyne said.
Urban Design Group focuses on casinos
and Rhyne, a Tuscarora American Indian,
is very involved with the architecture and
design from conceptualization to
realization.
“We do a thing called a Cultural Values
Workshop; when we meet with a tribe it’s
important to me to understand how much
of their culture they’re willing to share
with the outside world,” he said.
Rhyne jokes that his design work in
essence supports his blues habit.
He has since formed another band with
Chakales, who moved to Atlanta in the ’80s
around the same time as Rhyne, and sev-
eral others, and released an album,
“Caught You White-Handed.” The album
earned Rhyne a nomination for a Native
American Music Award in the Best Blues
Album category in 2003.
“My first CD was all original music and I
wrote everything except for one song. It
did pretty well in Europe,” he said.
Rhyne says his family: his wife, Lisa;
four daughters, Misty, Sarah, Mandy and
Lily, and 5-year-old granddaughter,
Josephine, are “very supportive of every-
thing. I never have quit playing. I’ve always
had a band of some sort.”
Rhyne said he’s had to slow down in
recent years because of health challenges.
However, he’s “still anxious to get out and
perform from time to time.”
He’s currently in the process of creating
another album, which he plans to release
early next year. He also finds time to visit
local elementary schools to make presen-
tations to the children about Native
American culture.
“I take a lot of traditional things, cultural
things and explain them and let them
touch,” he said.
Rhyne is earnest about sharing his cul-
ture and feels it’s important for his
generation to teach future generations the
value of Native American culture. “If you
don’t do things to keep your culture alive
… we might lose a lot of things.”
Playing
the blues:
Musician
Ken Rhyne
taught
himself
how to
play the
harmonica,
eventually
starting his
first band,
Daddy’s
Money.
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CONTACT THECHRONICLE
EXECUTIVE
PROFILE
KEN RHYNE
Age: 62
Born: Moultrie, Ga.
Raised: Pembroke, N.C.
Education: Business
administration, Pfeiffer
University,
Misenheimer, N.C.
Current job: Partner/
designer, Urban Design
Group
Family: Wife, Lisa;
daughters Misty, 38,
Sarah, 34, Mandy, 24,
Lily, 16; granddaughter,
Josephine, 5
Hobbies: Music and
motorcycles
If you know an executive whose hobby —
or day job — is unusual enough to be in
print, contact Misty Williams
at mistywilliams@bizjournals.com.
Reach Henson at mhenson@bizjournals.
PHOTOS/JOANN VITELLI
Fenello
Webb
Ladd
Tullis
Neely
Champagne
Blackwell
Harper
Peterson
Burrow
Miller
Seville
Lindsey
Horehled
Morris
Britton