Category: Past Speakers

Jerry Carl is new to the business of political service, but an old hand at the business of making successful businesses.
A native of Mobile, the District 3 Mobile County Commissioner has started, built and sold numerous businesses. His professional experience, along with an abiding interest in the welfare of his community, brought him into the realm of public service.
He and a contingent of supporters in District 3 campaigned in the November 2012 election cycle to seat Mr. Carl as representative of the vast southern district of Mobile County, stretching from Mobile Bay to downtown Mobile and west Grand Bay.
The commissioner continues to manage his businesses. A sampling of his entrepreneurial efforts during his 30-year career includes:
• Manufacturing / Church furniture.
• Wholesale Sales / Independent Sales Rep group of Home Medical Equipment and Funeral Home supplies.
• Retail Sales / Open 20 plus retail locations supplying Home Medical Equipment and Supplies across multiple states / Pharmacy’s specializing in Inhalation Solutions and bleeding disorders.
• Timber sales & management / Cricket & Butterfly, LLC
• Developer / Developed River Oaks subdivision in Orrville, AL, as well as West Side Park a commercial office development on Schillinger Road.
But his proudest accomplishment is being married to his wife, Tina, for more than 30 years, raising his three kids, focusing on his four grandchildren and service as a deacon at his Luke 4:18 Church.
Other service work includes church missions as far away as Africa.
For leisure, Mr. Carl enjoys the outdoors with a dose of adventure. He is an avid hunter, fisherman, skydiver, scuba diver, and an airplane pilot.

BIO OF SY LICHTENFELD
Sy Lichtenfeld served almost three years in the U.S.Army during World War II in airborne and combat infantry units as a rifleman. He was captured during the Battle of the Bulge after his unit was surrounded for three days and had run out of food and ammunition. He was taken prisoner at the point of a bayonet and spent over five months as a Prisoner of War in Germany.
The war Department has awarded him the Combat Infantryman’s Badge, The Purple Heart, The Bronze Star, the Prisoner of War Medal, World War II Battle of the Bulge Medal, The European Theatre of Operations Medal with three battle clusters, as well as many others for his years of service.
After the war, he attended Purdue University and obtained a degree in engineering and operated successful businesses in Chicago and Miami. He resided in Miami for 47 years with his wife, Natalie and their three children. In February 2011, Sy & Natalie relocated to Mobile to be near family.
He has been very active in the American EX-Prisoners of War Organization having served as a Commander of three EX-POW Chapters and on the Board of Directors of the Florida Dept of Ex-POWs. He was a Veterans Service Officer for many years helping other Vets in obtaining their benefits.
He is presently active in the South Alabama Veterans Council, Military Order of the Purple Heart, Alabama Chapter No.1 of the Rolling Thunder and various Veteran Service Organizations. In addition, he travels throughout Mobile and Baldwin counties educating school children and others about World War II.
In April 2014, he was appointed by the Governor of the State of Alabama to serve as a member of the Alabama State Board of Veterans Affairs.
The Library of Congress has accepted his book which he has written about his experiences in the Army as a Prisoner of War.

Joe Savage Bio
Dr. Joe Savage is an author and speaker who also serves at the University of Mobile as the executive dean of the School of Christian Ministries and the director of the Center for Leadership. He also recently created a new non-profit organization called Projects That Matter which is helping girls overseas from becoming victims of human trafficking.
Prior to coming to the University of Mobile, Joe was a forerunner in training and inspiring more than 200 coaches and executives in the National Football League (NFL) to maximize their influence. For several years, he wrote a weekly motivational email which became the most requested Christian devotion in all professional sports.
He has personally spoken to more than 2,000 audiences in fifteen nations. His audiences have ranged from inner-city youth in America’s largest cities to corporate and team events for Aflac, NASA, Coca Cola, Olympic athletes, NFL coaches and executives, and others.
Joe has led numerous large-scale outreach events, meeting the physical and spiritual needs of tens of thousands of impoverished people around the world through the provision of medicine, clothing, food, toys, and spiritual counsel. In total, Joe’s projects and works have provided well over $1,000,000 in humanitarian aid and assistance to orphans, children, and the poor in America and around the world.
Joe is the author of two books. He is a graduate of UMS Preparatory School. He and his wife Pamela reside in Fairhope. And as a side note, he is the brother of Senior Bowl director and long-term NFL executive Phil Savage.

Dr. Ulrich Weber
BIO
Since July 2012, Ulrich Weber is head of Airbus Final Assembly Line USA. In this position, he is responsible for all A320 Family Final Assembly USA activities.
Before, he was Senior Vice President and head of the Center of Excellence Freighter and Aircraft Maintenance at EADS Elbe Flugzeugwerke in Dresden, Germany. There, he was in charge of all processes and activities to ensure aircraft pax to freighter conversions and maintenance on quality, time and cost. The organization comprised engineering, work preparation, industrial engineering, aircraft teams/customer liaison, the conversion production line, aircraft maintenance, supply chain management and Logistics.
Prior to the appointment at EFW, he has been working as head of Airbus Final Assembly Line China from 2006 to 2010. In this role he was responsible to set-up Airbus’ industrial activities to assemble A320 family aircraft in Tianjin, which is roughly 80 miles east of Beijing. The scope of responsibilities included not only the complete start-up of industrial activities but also the recruitment and training of local workforce, the set-up of all required infrastructures, the implementation of a reliable supply chain and a transportation system for major aircraft components from Europe to China. On top comprehensive agreements with local authorities have been managed.
Before, Ulrich Weber was head of Hamburg site, which is Airbus’ biggest facility in Germany with approximately 14.000 employees at that time. Prior to this, he was head of the A380 final assembly line in Hamburg. He joint Airbus in 1990 and has been working in various areas such Manufacturing Engineering, Information Technology, the management of efficiency improvement initiatives and major projects during A330/340 and A320 production ramp-up.
Ulrich Weber earned a diploma in mechanical engineering and received a doctor’s degree from Hannover University, Germany.