The Council for Quality Growth formally announces its 2023 Board of Directors and Officers. The 2023 Board was ratified at the Council’s 37th Annual Meeting & Legislative Reception, held December 13, 2022. The Council was joined by legislators and members from around the region for a cocktail reception at the Cherokee Town & Country Club to welcome the new leadership and present legislative priorities to the Georgia General Assembly. Mayor Andre Dickens provided welcome remarks on behalf of the City of Atlanta. “When Atlanta succeeds, so does the entire region,” said Mayor Dickens, encouraging collaboration and shared goals to create region-wide success. State Senator Frank Ginn and State Representative Betsy Holland also provided brief remarks on behalf of their legislative bodies.

The Council’s outgoing 2022 Chairman, Al Edwards, Founder & CEO of CERM, then handed off the gavel to the new 2023 Chairman of the Board, Rob Ross. Ross is the Vice President of Kimley-Horn and the 36th Chairman of the Council for Quality Growth. Ross is pushing to focus his year of Chairmanship on strategic policy initiatives, or the core issues impacting Atlanta’s development industry today. “The Council was formed to service the development industry,” said Ross, “and I’m eager to further align our organization’s goals with those of our members.” In doing so, Ross is also committing his year as Chairman to increasing the Council’s board and member engagement. “The Council’s impact on local policy is largely a product of its membership. The deeper our members get involved, the better we are able to represent them, and larger the impact we can make,” said Ross.

Ross is a civil engineer with more than two and a half decades of experience. He has served on the Council’s Board of Directors since 2013 and was added to the Executive Committee in 2018. He was nominated to the Board’s Officers in 2019 and completed his term as Vice Chairman at the end of 2022. “Rob’s expertise of Atlanta’s development industry has been a constant resource for the Council,” said Michael E. Paris, President & CEO of the Council for Quality Growth, “and we are grateful for his vision and leadership as we continue to advocate for quality growth throughout the region.”

The 2023 Officers of the Board are Sally Riker of Lowe Engineers as Vice Chair, Clyde Higgs of Atlanta BeltLine, Inc. as Treasurer, and Gerald McDowell of the ATL Airport CIDs as Secretary. Al Edwards, the outgoing 2022 Chairman, will continue to serve among the Council’s executive leadership as Immediate Past Chair. Gregg Metcalf, the Executive Vice President of JLL, will serve a one-year appointment on the Council’s Board as the Immediate Past President of the Atlanta Commercial Board of Realtors (ACBR). Darryl Edler, Associate Project Manager at CERM, was elected Chairman of the Council’s ELI Board of Directors for 2022-2023, and he will continue to serve his two-year appointment to the Council’s Board during his tenure as ELI Chair.

There were seven newly elected Board Members that will each serve a two-year term starting in 2023, including:
Jon Antoine, Executive Director, South Forsyth CID
Stacey Chapman, Senior Vice President, CROFT & Associates
Nate Hammond, Vice President, Hammond Engineers
Jennifer Larosa, Vice President, State & Local Government, Ohio River South
Keith Mason, Founder, KWM Capital Management
Taylor Morison, Chief Strategy Officer, MCP Foundation
Lawrence Sharp, Real Estate Broker, Lawrence Sharp Realtors

This new board was formally welcomed at the 37th Annual Meeting & Legislative Reception on December 13, 2022 before more than 250 members of Council, local municipal leaders, and members of the Georgia General Assembly. Sally Riker, 2023 Vice Chair, then presented the Council’s legislative priorities for the coming year. As Vice Chair, Riker will also Chair the Council’s Government Affairs Task Force in 2023.