Buckhead Coalition Founder Sam Massell to speak to GABB on April 29
Buckhead Coalition Founder Sam Massell to speak to GABB on April 29
Buckhead Coalition founder and former Atlanta Mayor Sam Massell
ATLANTA, GA. – Sam Massell, the founder of the Buckhead Coalition and former mayor of Atlanta, will speak to the Georgia Association of Business Brokers on Tuesday, April 29. The GABB is the state’s largest professional organization dedicated to buying and selling businesses and franchises.
Massell, a life-long resident of Atlanta, has had successful careers in real estate brokerage, elected office, the field of tourism, and association management. He spent 20 years as a Realtor, becoming Vice President of Allan-Grayson Realty Company, then one of the city’s largest commercial brokerage firms. During that time, he was elected a charter member of the Atlanta Real Estate Board’s Million Dollar Club and was honored three times by the Georgia Association of Real Estate Boards for creating the “Outstanding Transaction of the Year.”
While in real estate, Massell became extremely active in a wide range of civic work, which eventually led to the political arena. He served 22 years in elected offices, including eight as President of Atlanta’s Board of Aldermen (now known as the City Council) and four as Atlanta’s mayor. While holding that office, he was also chosen as President of the 15,000-member National League of Cities. In addition, he has served a four-year term on the Board of the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority, and was a Board Member of the Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games.
Among other achievements, his administration as Mayor is credited with establishing MARTA , with developing the city’s first enclosed arena (the Omni Coliseum), and with providing the “Five Points” Central City Woodruff Park, all with no call on ad valorem taxes. He also pioneered minority opportunities in city government, appointing the first female to Atlanta’s City Council and the first blacks as city department heads.
After leaving full-time public service, he entered the tourism business in Buckhead where he operated for thirteen years under the name of Your Travel Agent Sam Massell. He is a Certified Travel Counselor (CTC), and a former President of the Travel Industry Association of Georgia.
Mayor Massell now manages a nonprofit civic organization as founding President of the Buckhead Coalition, a prestigious association of Chief Executive Officers of major businesses on the north side of Atlanta. His many board memberships include Atlanta Convention and Visitors Bureau, Atlanta Historical Society, and Atlanta Speech School. In addition, he is in the Atlanta Convention and Visitors Bureau “Hospitality Hall of Fame;”Georgia Trend Magazine’s “Most Influential Georgian’s Hall of Fame;” the International Civil Rights’ “Walk of Fame;” and has received the coveted Council for Quality Growth “Four Pillar Award.”
GABB members represent owners of Georgia businesses and help them estimate the value of their businesses, create marketing plans and strategies for the sale of their businesses, and identify and qualify potential business buyers while keeping the sale confidential from employees and customers. Many of today’s business buyers are individuals who have decided not to re-enter corporate America , but are ready to control their own destiny by purchasing and operating a Georgia business. Many business buyers are also current business owners who saw 2013 as an opportunity to grow their revenues through purchases of competitors or strategic partners.
The GABB’s monthly meeting at 10:30 a.m. at the South Terraces Conference Center is preceded at 9:45 a.m. by a free light breakfast and networking session. The GABB is the state’s largest professional organization dedicated to buying and selling businesses and franchises.
The South Terraces Conference Center is at 115 Perimeter Center Place, Atlanta. For more information about the GABB, contact GABB President C. David Chambless at dchambless@abraxas.biz or 404-627-4454.
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