Cathy moved from Georgia 9 months ago to take the position of President & CEO of Feeding the Gulf Coast, formerly Bay Area Food Bank.
She has a Bachelor of Science in Mathematics from Georgia Southwestern University, an MBA in Finance from Texas Christian University, and a Master of Arts in Political Science from Georgia State University.
Prior to this position, Cathy was the Executive Director for Meals on Wheels of Middle Georgia in Macon, Georgia where she had lived for 27 years and raised 4 children. She has 3 boys, ages 28, 25 and 22, and a girl 20 who is a Junior at the University of Georgia.
Prior to her position at Meals on Wheels, Cathy was the Community Health Director and Grant Administrator with Susan G. Komen Foundation.
She has been a Middle and High School Math Teacher and flipped houses way back when the economy was good.
Cathy serves as: Feeding Florida, Board Member
Association of Alabama Food Banks, Board Member
Policy, Engagement, Advocacy Committee, Feeding America, Member
She enjoys traveling, reading, playing golf and spending time with family and friends.
Cathy is passionate about helping those struggling with hunger, specifically children and seniors, and is thrilled to call the Gulf Coast her new home.
June 22, 2017–Travis Randall Short /Founder, Owner, President–Horizon Shipbuilding, Inc.
Travis Randall Short, Founder, Owner, and President of Horizon shipbuilding, Inc., Bayou La Batre, Alabama graduated with a Business Management Degree from the University of South Alabama, Mobile in 1988. His entire career history, before and after graduation, was accrued in the marine industry.
Mr. Short, the son of a career U.S. Navy officer, grew up, learning of ships, boats, and marine equipment. He began an apprenticeship, working in his father’s shipyard at age fourteen and advanced through various shipyard trades. After graduating from the University of South Alabama, he managed the family small-boat manufacturing facility, responsible for manufacturing methods and production control of products in steel, aluminum and fiberglass. Contracts with the U.S. Government and various commercial entities included an aluminum submarine tender for a Cayman Islands company and several high-speed fiberglass river patrol boats for the U.S. Navy. The construction of several 65-Ft. steel Coast Guard Buoy Tenders followed.
In 1997, Mr. Short and his father founded Horizon Shipbuilding Inc., located on the extant Steiner Marine site. As President of the company, Travis was responsible for day-to-day operations. He introduced the company into international markets and constructed the largest steel vessel ever launched in Bayou La Batre at the time. He designed and adapted a vessel haul-out system utilizing an existing marine launch-way and constructed a side-launch capable of handling vessels to 250-Ft. in length and 1200 tons displacement. In 2002, he assumed complete ownership of the company and began expanding manufacturing capabilities, including the acquisition of additional adjacent facilities, which eventually quadrupled the shipyard land holdings, equipment, annual sales, and employment.
During the past ten years, Mr. Short has continued to expand domestic and international markets and the grade of manufacturing methods of Horizon. He redesigned the launching systems and acquired a TravelLift™ for launching vessels up to 700 Tons displacement. In 2007, he constructed and launched a 100 by 200 Ft. crane barge for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Launching of this barge required consultation and cooperation with a renowned salvage and floating crane company. The week-long operation was featured on the History Channel.
For the past three years, Mr. Short, redesigned the buildings and manufacturing facility and made major changes to the shipyard waterfront. Horizon recently purchased the 22-Acre Graham shipyard directly across the Bayou, from Horizon and established a modern fiberglass and aluminum construction facility with upgraded and enclosed manufacturing buildings. These upgrades and those made at its main facility have made Horizon the most versatile and modern shipyard in Bayou La Batre.
Mr. Short and Horizon have received local and state-wide recognition for its contributions to the city of Bayou La Batre and the Mobile County area. In 2010, Horizon received the Governor’s Trade Excellence award for Exporter of the Year as well as recognition from the Alabama International Trade Center for Exporter of the Year as well as numerous Certificates of recognition for supporting community/city/civic organizations.
Travis has lent is expertise and support to numerous activities whose purposes are to improve educational and economic opportunities in Mobile County and the cities of Mobile and Bayou La Batre. He currently serves as President Bayou La Batre Port Authority, Advisory Council Chairman of the Maritime Training Center and Advisory Board Member of Booth Elementary Advisory Board. His participation in other boards and organizations are as follows:
• Board member Mobile Works, Inc. since 2012
• Council Member of Southwest Alabama Workforce Development Council (SAWDC) since 2013
• Bayou La Batre Area Chamber of Commerce Member since 2002 and member of the Board of Directors since 2005
• Member Mobile Area Chamber of Commerce since 2009 and member of the Board of Directors and Partners for Growth since 2012. He has served as Vice Chair Workforce Development since 2013 and Vice Chair Small Business Development since 2014
• Member of Oil and Gas Task Force
• Member Gulf Coast Shipbuilders Consortium
• Board Member of South Mobile County Community Development Corporation
Phone: 251 824 1660 Ext. 222
Email: trshort@horizonshipbuilding.com
June 15, 2017–Mr. Rhett Ross, President of Continental Motors Group
June 8, 2017–Mike Lee / President & CEO, Page & Jones, Inc. –What’s Happening on the Mobile Waterfront (especially, The Bridge, Carnival Cruise Line, etc.)
June 1, 2017–Charles Hyland / Director, Mobile Area Water & Sewer System (MAWSS)
Introduction for Charles Hyland, MAWSS Director
Charles Hyland took over as Director of the Mobile Area Water and Sewer System, better known as MAWSS, in March 2013. He was no stranger to the organization having worked at MAWSS since 1988 in a variety of management positions overseeing Warehouse Operations, Customer Service, Meter Reading and Fleet and Facilities Management. Prior to working at MAWSS, he was an Administrator for the Mobile County Health Department.
A long time resident of Mobile, he attended McGill Institute and earned both his undergraduate degree and a Masters in Public Administration from the University of South Alabama. He has served in leadership roles at St. Mary’s School as well as other diverse community organizations including the Lebanese American Club. He is a graduate of the American Water Works Association Utility Management Institute and the Leadership Mobile Class of 1997. He is currently on the Board of Directors for the Mobile Area Chamber of Commerce and Chairs the Board of United Way of Southwest Alabama.
He has been married to his wife Patricia for 38 years. They have two sons and two grandchildren.
April 13, 2017
Minutes of the April 13, 2017 Meeting
The Rotary Club of Mobile
Call to Order: The meeting was called to order by club president Les Greer at 12:10 PM. Allen Ladd offered the invocation and Tom Martenstein welcomed members’ guests and visiting Rotarians. Larry Sindel led the club in song and the Pledge of Allegiance
Announcements:
• Dan McDaniel reminded members of the upcoming Rotary Golf Tournament on April 18 and asked that all come out to support the event.
• Les said that the Murphy Interact Club will be sponsoring an intermural sports event on Saturday, April 15.
• There will be no luncheon meeting on April 20. Instead a dinner at the Battle House will take its place that evening at 5:30.
• A Caribbean cruise for the district meeting is scheduled for April 27.
• Les said that we will be honoring the graduating children or grandchildren of Rotarians. Please invite them to the meeting on May 18th.
Program: Aaron Beam: Business Ethics
Bill Kinnaird introduced the former CFO of Health South, Aaron Beam who described his ascent from having recently earned his CPA degree to becoming the CFO of the largest company in Alabama: Health South.
Beam traced the firm back to its beginnings when Richard Scrushy created a company to offer out-patient surgery centers which could provide services formerly only available in a hospital setting, at a fraction of the former cost.
As the company grew its stock price began to skyrocket and Richard Scrushy demanded that the price must continue to climb, leading to “cooking the books” which resulted in 1500 general ledgers and ultimately a $3 billion collapse of the firm.
Beam left the firm to retire in Fairhope and the company’s stellar collapse came a decade later. He was called to testify and Beam said he spent three months in jail and paid substantial fines. Scrushy, on the other hand, “found religion” donated $1 million to an inner city church and walked away from the charges after a six month trial. Jury members later said they could not convict such a “fine Christian man.”
Beam blamed his downfall on simple greed. “It was fun being rich,” he said. He added he was lucky that his wife did not leave him and that had he listened to her in the first place he would probably never have accepted the original offer to work for Richard Scrushy.
Les Greer thanked him for speaking to the club and said that a donation has been made in his honor to the Rotary International Foundation. Mr. Beam said he hoped that he would be invited back to speak to the club to tell the rest of his story.
Adjournment
The meeting adjourned at 1:00 PM.
Tom McGehee
April 6, 2017
April 6 , 2017 Minutes
Submitted by Tommy Fulton, Contributing Editor
Call to Order: The meeting was called to order by President Les Greer.
Quote of the Day: “Your Destiny is fulfilled as you invest in the destinies of others.”
Rotary Tidbits: In the last 20 years, our club has given out 82 Paul Harris Fellowships. Due to our 100th year celebration of the Rotary Foundation and special drive, we now have approximately 40 more to give out on the 20th of April. We raised more than $10,000.00 in the process. Congratulations!
Eddie Brister gave the invocation, followed by Larry Sindel, who led us in song and the Pledge. Bill Oppenheimer accompanied on the piano.
Introduction of Guests & Visitors: Tommy Blankenship introduced our guests along with visiting Rotarians.
Student Guest: Saty Putcha introduced Angelica Franklin of LeFlore High School.
Announcements: The Golf Tournament will be held on April 18th. The District Cruise will be April 27th. There will be a Board Meeting next week on April 13th.
Program: Bill Kinnaird introduced our speaker, Dr. Terry Ellis. He is an Author, Professional Interventionist & Speaker. His topic was “Addiction & Recovery”
Dr. Ellis began drinking alcohol at the age of 52, in 2003. In addition to several life challenges, his brother was murdered, which contributed to his desire to feel nothing. He lost his desire to actively live. Another minister recognized his problems and told Dr. Ellis that he really needed to get well. It was then that he went through rehabilitation for 90 days in Louisiana. During this time, Dr. Ellis learned much more about his addiction. He was very open about his challenge, which prompted many others to come to him for help and support.
Around a year-and-a-half ago, Dr. Ellis founded Christian Intervention. He stated that there are no demographic boundaries for the problem of addiction. Somewhere between 8 and 10 percent of Americans suffer from this disease. He went on to discuss a tale of two brains, which are the mid-brain and the frontal cortex.
The brain has two neurotransmitters, dopamine, which provides pleasure, and glutamate, which affects memory. In a healthy brain, those are in balance. In addiction, the mid-brain (limbic system) takes over and provides too much dopamine, while the cortex engraves those memories. Addiction wrecks that balance and creates chaos both internally and externally to others.
Dr. Ellis said that addiction causes a catastrophic inability to make proper choices. The brain is sick, but can be healed. In America, 24 million people suffer from addiction. Ninety thousand of those will die each year. Less than 10% of alcoholics get help. Thirty-five thousand will die from Opioid overdoses this year. Anti-anxiety medicines and cocaine will take another sixteen thousand lives.
His advice is that when you even suspect a problem, reach out for help. He made the point that he is now excited about each new day.
During the Q&A period, Dr. Ellis stated that if you suspect you are an alcoholic, you probably have a problem.
Les Greer thanked Dr. Terry Ellis for his presentation and presented a certificate to him, noting that a donation in his honor had been made to the Rotary International Foundation.
The meeting was adjourned at 1:00 pm.
May 25, 2017–Aaron Beam / Former Chief Financial Officer, HealthSouth
Aaron Beam
Bio
Aaron Beam was a founder and the first Chief Financial Officer of Healthsouth from 1984 until 1997. Today he lives in Loxley, Alabama with his wife of 45 years, Phyllis. In 1996 he took part in the accounting fraud at Healthsouth. In 2003 he pled guilty to the fraud and spent time in a federal prison for his crime.
He began his public speaking career in 2009 and as of January 2017 has spoken to over 325 different groups. These include universities, associations, companies and civic groups. His primary message is about corporate fraud: Who is actually responsible for these frauds, how they take place, and what can be done to prevent frauds such as Enron and Healthsouth.
Mr. Beam is also an author. His first book “Healthsoth:The Wagon to Disaster” was published in 2009. His second book was published in January 2015 and is titled “Ethics Playbook:Winning Ethically in Business”