Octavius Nickson is the president of Nickson General Contractors, a company he co-founded in 2015. The company is a Certified Minority Owned Small Business with the core principles of people, purpose, and pride. Past projects include the Shelby County Health Department, Grind City Brewery & Ghost River Brewing and Whitehaven and Central High Schools. The project he’s most proud of has also been one of the most challenging: renovating the historic Cossitt Library in Downtown Memphis. Nickson is replacing and relocating all the systems in the building from the chillers to the switchboard. He says the transformed space will be a great asset to the community.

[Read more…] about Meet the Chairman’s Circle: Octavius Nickson

Oliver Doughtie is the Chief Financial Officer of Mimeo.com, a company he describes as the perfect combination of technology, manufacturing, and logistics, all of which play to the strengths of the Memphis market. Mimeo provides on-demand digital printing services to a broad spectrum of clients from Fortune 100 companies to small consulting firms. Mimeo has three main business lines. MimeoBusiness provides business customers the ability to build, print and ship high quality documents globally. With the tagline “Hold the Moment,” MimeoPhotos enables consumers to turn meaningful moments like vacations and weddings into high-end photo books, calendars, cards, and wall art. MimeoSchool’s creates customizable student planners for schools worldwide. Mimeo’s location near the FedEx World Hub means orders placed by 10pm can be produced and delivered as early as 8:30am the next day.

[Read more…] about Meet the Chairman’s Circle: Oliver Doughtie

Dr. Vernell Bennett-Fairs became the 13^th president of LeMoyne-Owen College in January. The Ohio native is the second woman to lead the HBCU. A trained vocalist and orator,  she dreamed of becoming the first singer to successfully cross multiple musical genres from opera to gospel. But she also aspired to become a college president. She says she was just waiting for the right opportunity.

[Read more…] about Meet the Chairman’s Circle: Dr. Vernell Bennett-Fairs

Gil Uhlhorn joined Bass, Berry & Sims in 2006. The law firm has more than 300 attorneys in four cities, including Memphis, Nashville, Knoxville and Washington, D.C. He became a managing partner of the Memphis office in June and is proud to share that “public service is an important part of who we are as a firm at Bass, Berry & Sims. In 2020, attorneys in our Memphis office invested an average of 50 hours of pro bono support to strengthen families, empower communities and protect civil rights.” That work lead to the TN Supreme Court naming the Memphis office as a 2021 “TN Supreme Court Recognized Law Office for Justice.” In addition, at the end of last year, the Memphis office announced a diversity scholarship program in partnership with the University of Memphis. The goal is to grow and strengthen a diverse local legal community. The first scholarship candidate started at the U of M this fall.

[Read more…] about Meet the Chairman’s Circle: Theodore G. Uhlhorn, V

Bill Bradley joined the law firm of Glankler Brown 37 years ago. He’s been the managing partner since 2000. He describes himself as a problem solver with an “eclectic” practice, focused mostly on business litigation and intellectual property law counseling and litigation. Founded in 1918, Glankler Brown is based in Memphis, and has attorneys licensed in Mississippi, Arkansas, Alabama, Georgia, New York, New Jersey, Texas, and Washington, D.C. 

Straight out of Ole Miss, where he graduated with a B.B.A. and J.D., Bill had a job offer from a judge in Mississippi who had been nominated to the federal bench. When the judge’s confirmation process was held up, he decided to interview with law firms in Memphis, the big city just 75 miles north of his hometown of Clarksdale, Mississippi. Law runs in the family. His father practiced law for nearly 65 years. His wife, Beth Bradley, is a lawyer with Burch Porter and Johnson. His daughter, Maggie, graduated from the University of Virginia Law School this year and is practicing in Washington, D.C. His daughter Kate works at Vanderbilt Children’s Hospital in Nashville.

His family’s favorite vacation destination is Sanibel Island, FL. They first visited more than 20 years ago after he read an article about collecting shells on Sanibel. He thought his young daughters would love it, and they did.

Bill credits his father, who was still practicing law in his 80s, for giving him an invaluable piece of advice: It is far better to look forward rather than look back. It’s not productive to look back and lament over the things you have done, could have done, or should have done. Applying that to modern-day Memphis, Bill says that “from a community standpoint, our goal should be to make Memphis an even better place in the present and in the future than what we remember it was in the ‘good old days.’“ He adds: “The Chairman’s Circle provides an opportunity for more businesses to become more engaged in addressing issues common to all businesses in our community. It also provides an opportunity for a unified voice in the political arena.”

When he’s not working, Bill’s primary hobby is golf. He briefly – and in his words “poorly” – played football at Ole Miss. As a fan of Ole Miss football since childhood, he said he’s taking great delight in a rare successful season.