People to Watch: The names behind Nashville's biggest storylines of 2018
In 2018, Nashville will decide its mass-transit future. A new bank may shake up the city’s financial scene. And a small pizza joint will expand its reach beyond Music City’s restaurant boom.
Those are just a few of the storylines that will fascinate the city’s business community in the months to come. And the people listed here will be the ones driving them.
In the fall, we at the Nashville Business Journal roll out our list of the most powerful people in Nashville business. To kick off 2018, we’re shining a light on a different group: the ones to watch.
Yes, some of them, in their own ways, already are powerful or high-profile. But their roles at the center of the city’s biggest issues, behind its most promising companies and leading its most prominent institutions put them in position to make a bigger impact than ever before in Music City.
Expect to hear these names again.
Sally Williams, Opry Entertainment Group
With new venues in New York City and downtown Nashville, 2018 is poised to be a big year for Opry Entertainment Group. And Sally Williams is at the center of it all.
Williams, the immediate past chairwoman of the Country Music Association, was named senior vice president of programming and artist relations for Ryman Hospitality Properties’ entertainment arm a year ago. In that role, she’s responsible for booking, programming and artist relations across the company’s entertainment properties, a growing portfolio with particular significance to Nashville’s booming tourism scene.
In 2017, Opry Entertainment opened Opry City Stage in New York City and Ole Red Tishomongo in Oklahoma. Some time this year, the Blake Shelton-branded Ole Red will open in downtown Nashville, joining Lower Broadway’s roster of honky-tonks and watering holes. That adds two high-profile projects to the already stacked responsibilities of Williams, who also oversees the lineup at the Grand Ole Opry and Ryman Auditorium, where she long served as general manager.
In short, it’s going to be a big year for one of the biggest brands in Nashville’s signature industries, and it’s Williams’ job to make sure it’s a good one.
— Eleanor Kennedy
Pictured from left: Derrick Moore, Clinton Gray and Emanuel Reed
Clinton Gray, Derrick Moore & Emanuel Reed of Slim & Husky’s
The trio of Nashville natives behind Slim & Husky’s Pizza Beeria had a huge 2017, as the new Buchanan Street eatery attracted long lines, national notice and quickly expanded with the opening of a sister restaurant across the street.
But 2018 is shaping up to be even bigger for Clinton Gray, Derrick Moore and Emanuel Reed. The first Slim & Husky’s outpost outside North Nashville is expected to open in Antioch this spring. Later in the year, the group will open a new cocktail bar, Three Double Jacks, on Jefferson Street. And they’ve inked deals for two more Slim & Husky’s locations: one in Nashville’s trendy Wedgewood-Houston neighborhood and one in Atlanta.
The expansion to Atlanta reflects the trio’s desired to “be aggressive with [their] brand,” Gray said, something they feel would be best accomplished by taking Slim & Husky’s to a major market. Working on four new restaurants at once is certainly aggressive and represents lightning-fast expansion for a group that opened its first-ever restaurant less than a year ago.
But Slim & Husky’s — offering pizza, loud music and community — has filled a niche in the Buchanan Street corridor, an historically black neighborhood where some developers and entrepreneurs are aiming to foster growth while staving off the pressures of gentrification that have hit other parts of the city.
And that’s the same niche the restaurateurs hope to fill as they grow. They’ve focused on opening restaurants in diverse areas with a shortage of local dining options. That’s what they found in Antioch, an area that’s proven attractive to new residents due to its low prices and is experiencing a surge of commercial growth with new office openings, but has yet to ride the culinary wave being felt in other parts of the city.
Likewise, in Atlanta, Slim & Husky’s is headed to Mechanicsville, an often-overlooked neighborhood that sits near multiple historically black universities.
Asked how the group handled the flurry of attention and lengthy lines in 2017, Reed had a quick answer.
“It’s teamwork, No. 1,” he said, explaining that the trio’s long history as close friends makes it easy to pick each other up, work hard and drive success. Their goal, Reed continued, is to make each year better than the last and be “constantly growing.”
The name of their restaurant company, which now has 35 employees, reflects the founders’ vision for the impact they can have on neighborhoods, Gray said. It’s called Soon Hospitality, which stands for “something out of nothing.”
— Eleanor Kennedy
Tim Adams is the new CEO of Saint Thomas Health.
Tim Adams, Saint Thomas Health
Saint Thomas Health has seen a lot of change in the past year, and the health system will lean on a new leader as it heads into 2018.
Tim Adams took over as president and CEO of Saint Thomas Health, as well as senior vice president of Ascension Healthcare and ministry market executive for Ascension Tennessee, Saint Thomas’ parent company, on Jan. 1, replacing Karen Springer.
Adams, former CEO of Tenet Healthcare’s Texas region, will be counted on to oversee a system that in the past two months named new leaders for Saint Thomas Medical Partners and two Nashville hospitals after former Saint Thomas Midtown and Saint Thomas West CEO Don King was promoted to lead Ascension’s Birmingham operations.
Adams also will be tasked with completing a $47 million vertical expansion of Saint Thomas Rutherford Hospital and an eventual rebranding of the system under the Ascension name.
Saint Thomas, No. 9 on the Nashville Business Journal’s List of top employers with more than 6,000 area employees, has seen increased market competition from HCA Healthcare’s TriStar Health in recent years. Adams’ leadership will be critical in regaining its position as Nashville’s signature health system.
— Joel Stinnett
Metro Councilwoman Erica Gilmore
Minority Caucus, Metro council
Expect a particular contingent of Nashville’s huge Metro Council to wield influence in 2018.
The Minority Caucus comprises almost a quarter of the 40-person council, with members including the chairwoman of the powerful Budget and Finance Committee, Tanaka Vercher, and two of the council’s five at-large members, whose districts are countywide. One of the highest profile in the group is Councilwoman Erica Gilmore, who previously represented downtown before winning her countywide seat.
Their support is poised to be pivotal on a range of issues, from a potential expansion of mass transit to the ongoing debate over Metro General Hospital. At a time when income inequality is widening at a faster clip, the caucus has voiced concerns about the flow of contracts to minority- and women-owned businesses — and suggested their future votes may be influenced by whether Metro makes progress in that area.
— Adam Sichko
Robin Alberts-Marigza
Robin Alberts-Marigza, Transit for Nashville
Robin Alberts-Marigza will spend the next four months corralling people, including business leaders, public relations professionals, an army of volunteers and, ultimately, voters.
As the campaign manager of the Transit for Nashville campaign, Alberts-Marigza is responsible for making sure the effort to pass Mayor Megan Barry’s ambitious $5.4 billion plan is on schedule.
All eyes will be on her in the coming months as the debate over Barry’s plan intensifies. And while she likely will be playing defense as skeptics of the mayor’s plan launch their own coalitions, Alberts-Marigza will have to balance that with maintaining the enthusiasm for mass transit that’s already been shown in Nashville.
She’s already cleared three of her early hurdles: raising $2.5 million to fund the campaign, securing 30,000 signatures for a nonbinding petition to support the campaign and building a coalition of more than 100 business and civic groups throughout the city, including HCA Healthcare Inc., Ingram Industries and the Nashville Predators. However, her biggest test will be converting that support into votes on May 1.
“What’s surprising to me is the urgency around the issue and the consensus around that,” said Alberts-Marigza, a 32-year-old Nashville native. “I’m making sure people understand their options.”
To be sure, Alberts-Marigza — who previously worked for State Sen. Jeff Yarbro and U.S. Rep. Jim Cooper, both Democrats — isn’t doing it alone. There’s a long list of seasoned local political heavyweights helping her, including McNeely, Pigott & Fox Public Relations; Cooley Public Strategies, a government relations firms led by political operative Dave Cooley; and Calvert Street Group, a public affairs firm led by Darden Copeland.
As for her opponents, Alberts-Marigza said it’s fine for them to criticize the plan, but until they can reveal their own mass-transit solution, she’s not listening.
“The most important thing is that we have a problem, especially if we do nothing,” she said. “The opposition doesn’t offer a clear alternative. … That’s essentially a nonstarter.”
— Meg Garner
Court Jeske is the CEO of Nashville Soccer Club
Court Jeske, Nashville Soccer Club
Professional soccer is coming to Nashville in 2018. And it’s Court Jeske’s job to make sure it’s a success.
Jeske moved to Nashville about a year ago, shortly after joining Nashville Soccer Club (also known as Nashville SC) as CEO. In the months since, the soon-to-play United Soccer League team has been bought by John Ingram, the lead investor in Nashville’s successful quest for Major League Soccer.
Now that MLS has selected the city for expansion, Jeske and his team will be building excitement for Nashville’s eventual entrance into the sport’s top-tier American league.
It’s not yet clear what will happen to Nashville’s USL franchise once the city’s MLS club takes the field, likely in 2019 or 2020. But Ingram has said he’ll likely retain the lower-tier team’s name, increasing the importance of brand-building for the team’s staff.
And Jeske, a former vice president with MLS, could be a frontrunner for executive leadership of the MLS club, giving him potential for an even higher profile.
— Eleanor Kennedy
Douglas Kreulen
Doug Kreulen, Nashville International Airport
British Airways is set to launch a direct flight from Music City to London in May, and Doug Kreulen will be responsible for managing it all. As the newly appointed CEO of Nashville International Airport, Kreulen and his team make the city’s first impression to travelers, whose tourism tax dollars play a critical role in financing Nashville’s boom.
The launch of the city’s London flight will be Kreulen’s first big test, but he’ll face other challenges in the new year, including maintaining morale as the airport squares off with his predecessor, Rob Wigington. Wigington is suing the airport’s governing board, alleging wrongful termination and retaliation for taking medical leave.
Kreulen also is responsible for overseeing the airport’s $1.2 billion expansion. The multiyear plan will help the airport sustain its growth, with leaders hoping to draw an additional 3 million annual travelers within the next six years. The airport broke its own record in 2017, with 14 million annual travelers.
— Meg Garner
Brett Jackson
Brett Jackson, Digital Reasoning
Digital Reasoning CEO Brett Jackson took the helm from founder Tim Estes in April, and while he is happy about the attention the cognitive computing company has received since raising $40 million in 2016, he would rather stay out of the spotlight.
“I’m not the one to watch; it’s the company,” Jackson said. “I’m just here to help the company realize its potential.”
That potential seems to be enormous, considering the company is backed by the likes of Goldman Sachs, Credit Suisse, Nasdaq and, most recently, HCA Healthcare Inc.
Large rounds of funding have left many to speculate that Jackson, who led Axent Technologies through an initial public offering before it was acquired in late 2000, was brought on to take Digital Reasoning public. In fact, in 2016, when asked if Digital Reasoning was likely to become a public company, Estes told the Nashville Business Journal, “We hope so.”
Jackson, however, said an IPO is not on his mind.
“If you’ve never been through it, it can look really attractive and it becomes the goal of many companies, especially for founders,” he said. “Having been through one, I remember thinking afterward, ‘God, that was just miserable.’”
He said going public changes the way a company operates — entrepreneurialism is inhibited, quarterly results become paramount and shareholders expect results.
That doesn’t mean Digital Reasoning will never be on Wall Street. Going public is not a goal unto itself; it’s a funding mechanism that creates liquidity for shareholders, Jackson said, and if the opportunity presented itself, it’s something the company would look at.
As one of Nashville’s most-watched technology companies, if Digital Reasoning did decide to enter the public markets it could be one of the biggest success stories for the region’s tech industry.
“It’s not OK just to be the second-largest tech company in Nashville. We want to be one of the top one, two or three in our verticals, globally,” Jackson said.
— Joel Stinnett
Aaron Dorn is launching Studio Bank.
Aaron Dorn, Studio Bank
Aaron Dorn wants to do something that hasn’t been done in Nashville since 2008: launch a bank from the ground up. And 2018 will be the year to see if he does it.
A former Avenue Financial Holdings Inc. executive, Dorn has been plotting how to build the city’s next homegrown lender for more than a year now, culminating in the submission of his Studio Bank’s charter application to regulators in October. His current efforts revolve around building his team of bankers — primarily former Avenue players — and persuading investors to help him raise $40 million in initial capital.
Dorn not only is one to watch since regulators could green light his efforts in the new year, but also because he’s stacked the deck with a team of high-profile, influential business leaders — including billionaire John Ingram and developer Pat Emery — to give him clout as he tries to bring in business for the bank.
Industry insiders are watching Dorn closely. His leadership ability will be put to the test as the city’s banking industry rolls into what likely will be another year of red-hot competition for talent, clients and deposits.
Dorn’s true litmus test in the new year will be whether his team can successfully reignite the passion clients had for Avenue while convincing them to move their business to the newborn Studio Bank.
— Meg Garner
John Eldridge
John Eldridge, E3 Construction Services
Profit is what keeps John Eldridge in business. But it’s not the all-consuming reason why he’s in business.
More fellow real estate developers will have to embrace Eldridge’s mindset if Nashville is going to solve one of the most urgent problems stemming from its blitzing growth: a deficit of housing units in the urban core and wildly escalating housing prices. The flight of people moving farther from the city center to find more attainable housing undercuts the quality of Nashville’s public school system and worsens our already hairy traffic congestion.
“Don’t get me wrong. Money is good. It’s great. But there has to be some room there for a greater sense of morality, where you’re trying to also do your part to help the community you’ve profited from,” Eldridge said.
Eldridge is one of a few developers voluntarily adding some workforce housing units into his projects. And of that small batch, his scale is notable.
Eldridge, founder of E3 Construction Services, has latched onto an area just off fast-changing Charlotte Avenue, between Interstates 40 and 440. He is all-in, to the point where he has rebranded the neighborhood as City Heights and moved his office there.
So far, he has opened or is about to break ground on a total of 134 apartments and single-family homes. The apartments rent for $1,500 a month or less; most of the homes are priced at $300,000 or less.
This month, Eldridge paid $3 million for 2.1 acres in City Heights where he is pursuing a $30 million to $40 million project containing about 75,000 square feet of office space, a comparable amount of retail and restaurant space, and 100 to 120 residential units.
Eldridge plans to price 10 to 20 percent of those units as “workforce housing.” For him, that means he’s targeting renters or buyers who make $40,000 to $60,000 a year.
“We’ve also always said we want to be one of the first builders, innovators, that voluntarily does [workforce housing] without being held by a gun by Metro planning or the city council,” he said.
Eldridge believes Metro will need to offer incentives to spur the broader development community to build more workforce housing. He hopes his approach will spark others to embrace workforce housing.
“I like to think that when we do good things, good things are paid back to us,” Eldridge said.
— Adam Sichko