Steve Charles, MD is the world’s leading vitreoretinal surgeons and has developed many of the techniques and devices used by vitreoretinal surgeons worldwide. He has performed over 36,000 vitreoretinal surgeries, lectured in 50 countries and operated in 25, delivered 17 named lectures, and over 1000 speaking trips. He authored a leading textbook
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From his earliest recollections Chris Bird was always interested in business, commerce and sales-from operating drink stands by the neighborhood tennis court to advertising his lawn mowing business on white match book cases with a rubber stamp with his contact information. In college, Chris even started 1520 Enterprises Unlimited to loan money to f
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Carl Ring is the retired Chairman of Ring Container Technologies. Ring Container is one of the largest plastic container manufacturers in North America. They are headquartered in Oakland TN and have grown from one factory in 1980 when Carl joined, to eighteen manufacturing locations, employing over 700 people, across the United States, Canada, and
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The success story of Crye-Leike is one that is well known in the real-estate world. In 1977, Harold Crye and Dick Leike founded a company that they promised would make a difference – it would be results-oriented, professional, and would be dedicated to providing the utmost in service to the people it helped. Beginning from the ground up, the two
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When Tommy Earl and Gary Dodson purchased four of Barloworld Truck Center’s dealerships in the summer of 2007, they say their $25 million bought the best Barloworld had to offer in the Freightliner business in terms of employees and customers. The service center and dealership locations are in Jackson, TN, Jonesboro, AR, Tupelo, MS, with headquar
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When Tommy Earl and Gary Dodson purchased four of Barloworld Truck Center’s dealerships in the summer of 2007, they say their $25 million bought the best Barloworld had to offer in the Freightliner business in terms of employees and customers. The service center and dealership locations are in Jackson, TN, Jonesboro, AR, Tupelo, MS, with headquar
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Staley Cates is the Vice-Chairman of Southeastern Asset Management, Inc., an independent global investment management firm. Southeastern manages over $15 billion as the investment advisor to the Longleaf Partners family of mutual and UCITS funds and to separately managed institutional accounts. Mr. Cates joined Southeastern in 1986. Morningstar nam
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Chip Dudley and Susan Stephenson are the Co-Founders and Co-Chairmen of Independent Bank in Memphis, Tennessee. Established in 1998, Independent Bank now has over $800 million in total assets and over $100 million in capital. It is the second largest bank headquartered in Shelby County with 10 branches and 180 employees. Stephenson and Dudley ha
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Hilliard founded Memphis Glove Company in 1974 as an importer of industrial gloves. After several years of success, he co-founded with his brothers Crews Safety Glasses and River City Rainwear. In 1984 he formed Shelby Specialty Gloves to concentrate on the Fire Fighting Industry. All 4 of these companies are leaders in the Personal Protectio
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From art student to artist, designer to chef to restaurateur, Karen Carrier has been creating in different mediums for over 25 years. An energetic and vivacious woman, Carrier was born and raised in Memphis. Her first love was painting and glasswork and that, in a roundabout way, is where she got her start in the culinary world. Apprenticing and
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