Five regional “listening” sessions have been scheduled during May concerning the needs of Georgia’s freight and logistics industries.
The Freight and Logistics Task Force of the Commission for a New Georgia, an organization created in 2003 by Gov. Sonny Perdue to improve management practices in the state, is organizing the sessions.
The task force activities are being facilitated by Georgia’s Logistics Innovation Center, or LINC, a division of the Georgia Department of Economic Development.
“Freight and logistics, the way products and materials are moved from point to point in the supply chain, is a critical economic driver throughout the state and in every county,” according to the commission’s Web site, www.newgeorgia.org.
The site also says that freight and logistics is responsible for one out of every 10 jobs in the state.
The times and locations of the sessions are as follows:
Monday, May 12, from 8 a.m.-noon at Valdosta State Tech, Conference Center, Building 500, 4089 Val Tech Road, Valdosta;
Wednesday, May 14, from 8 a.m.-noon at Georgia Tech Savannah Campus, PARB Building, Room 126, 210 Technology Circle, Savannah;
Friday, May 16, from 8 a.m.-noon at Central Georgia Tech, 3300 Macon Tech Drive, Macon;
Monday, May 19, 8 a.m.-noon, Dalton State College, Goodroe Auditorium, Elizabeth Gignilliat Memorial Building No. 6, 650 College Drive, Dalton;
Tuesday, May 20, 8 a.m.-noon, Atlanta Technical College, Cleveland L. Dennard Conference Center, 1560 Metropolitan Parkway, S.W., Atlanta.
Mr. Perdue organized the task force last year to examine the needs of the freight and logistics industry throughout the state. It is the most recent of 22 task forces under the commission ranging from tourism to state health benefit plans.
It has been assigned to acquire a working knowledge of how economic opportunities are bolstered by freight movement to and through Georgia’s transportation infrastructure.
Members of the task force include its chair, Robert J. Fauls Jr., president and owner of Southern Freight Inc.; Neel Shah, vice president of Delta Air Lines Inc.; Cheryl Fulginiti, vice president, engineering, United Parcel Service Inc.;
Mark Holifield, senior vice president, global supply chain, Home Depot Inc.; Christian Fischer, executive vice president, packaging, Georgia-Pacific LLC; Tom Armstrong, director of strategic development, Georgia Ports Authority;
Warren Jones, aviation development manager, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport; Edward Sutter, vice president, supply chain, Coca-Cola Enterprises Inc.; Raybon Anderson, board member, Georgia Department of Transportation;
Rudy Bowen, board member, Georgia Department of Transportation; Vance Smith, chair, transportation committee, Georgia House of Representatives and Jeff Mullis, chair, transportation committee, Georgia Senate.
