This August, the Greater Memphis Chamber is featuring a local Black business owner each week as it celebrates Black Business Month.
[Read more…] about Black Business Month Profile: Renee Malone
by Amy Daniels
This August, the Greater Memphis Chamber is featuring a local Black business owner each week as it celebrates Black Business Month.
[Read more…] about Black Business Month Profile: Renee Malone
by Amy Daniels
Katie Shotts is the CEO & Executive Vice President of the Memphis Area Association of REALTORS®. With 4,440 members, MAAR is one of the largest local REALTOR® associations in Tennessee. Founded in 1910, “The voice for local real estate” covers Shelby, Fayette, Tipton, Hardin, Hardeman and McNairy Counties. While MAAR’s focus is serving and representing real estate professionals and offering training which allows members to maintain or renew their licenses, they also advocate for consumers and work to ensure legislation doesn’t put up barriers to homeownership. [Read more…] about Meet the Chairman’s Circle: Katie Shotts
by Amy Daniels
by Amy Daniels
[Read more…] about Broker of the Week: Sarah Keffer of Knowlton Benefit Consultants, Inc.
by Amy Daniels
In the weeks ahead, we’re shining a spotlight on brokers who are offering level-funded health coverage to the Chamber’s small business members. Brokers can sign up by emailing Rob Recker. To see previous broker spotlights, click here.
BROKER OF THE WEEK
Stephen Lester
Broker | Felsenthal Financial Services, Inc.
Why do you like working with small businesses?
We love working with small businesses because they are generally overlooked by your larger insurance companies. Since we are a small business ourselves, we can offer more time and energy into making sure all avenues have been explored for our clients.
How important is affordable health coverage to small businesses?
Affordable health insurance is extremely important to employees of small businesses. This economic environment is requiring that excess spending be cut wherever possible. We represent all major carriers, offer many different types of group plans, and will even quote all employee individual policies to make sure that this is accomplished.
What are your other lines of business?
Some of the services we offer are employer and individual health, dental, life, and disability. We also provide 401K and group identity theft/device protection services.
About UnitedHealthcare Level-Funded Health Coverage for Small Businesses: Greater Memphis Chamber members have exclusive access to this new health coverage option that can save some small businesses as much as 32% off the cost of traditional plans. To get more details, click here.
by Amy Daniels
As president of Cargill Cotton, William Barksdale has his finger on the pulse of agriculture in the U.S. During his 29 years with Cargill, the largest privately held company in the US, William has worked in trading and risk management across the fiber, food and grain, and oilseed space. He’s held leadership roles in Minneapolis, Mexico City, and Shanghai. Cargill Cotton has offices in the UK and China, but Downtown Memphis is home to the company’s global cotton headquarters, where 75 employees focus on the core business of trading and shipping bulk cotton. They buy cotton from farmers and then ship it to textile manufacturers.
The Memphis native is a graduate of Memphis University School and the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville, where he obtained a BS in Agricultural Economics. He developed an early interest in agriculture while shadowing his father, a freelance agricultural photojournalist. William thought he’d become an agricultural lawyer until he was exposed to ag trading during a college internship with Sparks Commodities. When he left Memphis in 1986 to start his career as a feed ingredient merchant for Cargill Poultry Products in Albany, Georgia, he didn’t see himself returning. In 2014 he was working for Cargill in China when the opportunity arose to work in Memphis. He found the city had undergone, “an amazing and surprising major transformation” and says returning to the Bluff City was the best move he ever made with Cargill.
William is passionate about Cargill’s initiatives within Diversity, Equity and Inclusion and has been recognized as a leader in the space. He’s also passionate about Cargill’s commitment to moving Memphis forward and points out it is more than a cotton company. “Cargill has a large grain elevator in West Memphis where we buy grain and oils and then transport them. We have a corn milling facility on President’s Island. There’s a common thread with all those businesses of connecting the Mid-South’s agricultural community to global customers via supply chain and connecting the Mid-South to the world.”
He sits on several boards, including New Memphis Institute. “The work the group does, the notion of activating and developing talent in the Memphis area is integral to the growth of Memphis. One of the most exciting things is how people step up and advocate for the city and business in the city.”
William and his wife Stephanie have been married for 28 years. They have two sons, both MUS grads. Christopher is currently attending the University of Memphis. Alexander is a graduate of Texas Christian University. William gives major props to his family for weathering eight moves in 20 years while he pursued his dreams. William and Stephanie currently split their time between Downtown Memphis and Mountain Home, AR.
by Amy Daniels
Congrats to Spherion-Memphis Relationship Manager Omar Aquil on being named the Greater Memphis Chamber Ambassador of the Month for June! Our ambassadors are the heart and face of the Chamber’s membership, helping welcome new companies to Memphis, cut ribbons, break ground, and much more.
[Read more…] about Ambassador of the Month: Omar Aquil of Spherion
by Amy Daniels
In the upcoming weeks, we’re shining a spotlight on brokers who are offering level-funded health coverage to the Chamber’s small business members. Brokers can apply to be featured — here, on social media, and in our weekly newsletter — by emailing Rob Recker here.
[Read more…] about Broker of the Week: Natalie Cummings, Clay & Land
by Amy Daniels
Over the next several weeks, we’re shining a spotlight on brokers who are offering level-funded health coverage to the Chamber’s small business members. Brokers can apply to be featured — here, on social media, and in our weekly newsletter — by emailing Rob Recker here.
by Amy Daniels
Over the next several weeks, we’re shining a spotlight on brokers who are offering level-funded health coverage to the Chamber’s small business members. Brokers can apply to be featured — here, on social media, and in our weekly newsletter — by emailing Rob Recker here.
[Read more…] about Chamber Broker of the Week: Timothy Finnell
by Amy Daniels
Briggette Green is the co-founder and CEO of TopCat Masonry Contractors, LLC, a licensed and award-winning general contractor specializing in brick, block, rock, glass block, pre-cast and stone masonry services established with her husband Robert in their Whitehaven home more than 25 years ago. With the motto “brick by brick, we build your tomorrow” TopCat has constructed numerous schools, hotels, business complexes and retail stores, and counts among its previous projects the renovation of Hotel Chisca and the construction of Beale Street Landing, Hattiloo Theatre, Douglass High School, and the LeMoyne-Owen College dorms. Current projects include the UTHSC apartments and the Georgette and Cato Johnson YMCA in Whitehaven.
[Read more…] about MEET THE CHAIRMAN’S CIRCLE: BRIGGETTE GREEN
by Amy Daniels
Today’s hiring market is intense for businesses looking to fill jobs. The most recent JOLTS report by The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics showed that the number of open positions is more than double the number of unemployed people. Having few candidates in the market means that businesses are recruiting people who are currently employed, which adds a layer of complication to the hiring process.