Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP has named Lauren B. Jacques managing partner of the firm’s Nashville office. She succeeds Lela M. Hollabaugh, who has served as the Nashville office managing partner since 2015. Hollabaugh will continue as a litigation partner in the Nashville office.

Jacques is a member of Bradley’s Healthcare and Corporate Practice Groups and focuses her practice on health care transactions including mergers, acquisitions, divestitures and joint ventures, and the regulatory and operational issues that affect health care providers. She has experience handling transactions involving hospitals, home health agencies, hospices, cancer centers, physician practices and cardiac catheterization and office-based laboratories.

Jacques also is on the planning committee for the Nashville Council of Health Care Attorneys and is an active author and speaker for the American Health Law Association. She previously served on the board of The New Beginnings Center, a Tennessee nonprofit dedicated to improving the health, strength and wellness of women. In 2017, Jacques received the firm’s Cameron J. Miller Award for Excellence and Community Service.

She earned both her undergraduate and law degrees from Vanderbilt University.

Dietz appointed to lead Metro Legal

Nashville attorney Wallace W. Dietz has been named Metro’s next legal director, succeeding Bob Cooper who is resigning to return to private practice effective early June.

Cooper has led the Metro Department of Law since Nov. 4, 2019. He served as Tennessee attorney general 2006-2014. He will rejoin the Nashville-based law firm of Bass, Berry & Sims, where he worked before joining Metro.

Dietz serves as chair of the Compliance & Government Investigations Practice Group at Bass, Berry & Sims in Nashville, where he focuses on international anti-corruption and corporate governance litigation. He has 35 years of experience as a practicing attorney.

He previously served as a judicial clerk for the Hon. Thomas A. Wiseman, Jr., U.S. District Judge for the Middle District of Tennessee, and as a legislative assistant and media aide to former U.S. Senator Jim Sasser. He graduated from Georgetown University Law Center.

Mire selected for national physicians post

Ryan D. Mire, M.D., FACP, has been named president-elect of the American College of Physicians. He will become president of the organization in April 2022.

The American College of Physicians is a community of internal medicine specialists and subspecialists seeking to optimize patient outcomes and experiences by fostering excellence in the practice of medicine.

In addition to being the largest medical speciality organization and second-largest physician group in the United States, ACP boasts members in more than 145 countries.

Mire is affiliated with Ascension Saint Thomas Hospital West and Heritage Medical Associates, a key physician group partner to Ascension Saint Thomas. He will be the fourth African American to serve as president of the ACP.

A Louisiana native who has long called Tennessee home, Mire is a graduate of Rhodes College and the University of Tennessee College of Medicine, both in Memphis. He completed his internship and residency at the Medical College of Virginia/Virginia Commonwealth University, where he served as chief resident. Upon completion of his residency, Mire relocated to Middle Tennessee, where he has been in private practice for 19 years as an internal medicine physician. He practices in Nashville and resides in Franklin.

Mire holds an academic appointment as assistant professor of clinical medical education for the University of Tennessee Health Science Center College of Medicine. He previously served as president of Heritage Medical Associates and at Ascension Saint Thomas Hospital West as vice chief of medicine and chair of the Medical Advisory Committee.

He has served since 2017 on the ACP Board of Regents and previously chaired the ACP Medical Practice and Quality Committee and the ACP Council of Young Physicians, among other committees.

He is a recipient of the Laureate Award for the Tennessee ACP Chapter and has been a fellow of the American College of Physicians since 2006. FACP is an honorary designation that recognizes professional accomplishments, demonstrated scholarship, ongoing individual service, and contributions to the practice of internal medicine.

Dowdle Construction sets senior management team

Dowdle Construction Group has established a new senior management team that includes principals Allen Buchanan and Chase Manning, along with Glynn Dowdle, who founded the company and serves as president. Buchanan and Manning became partners in the company in 2019.

Dowdle is a seasoned construction professional, working in the industry for more than 30 years. He leads a team of project managers, project engineers and superintendents in completing award-winning projects for clients in the commercial, light industrial, institutional, mixed-use, public and private sectors. Dowdle Construction Group’s revenue increased 654% between 2013 and 2019.

Buchanan has 15-plus years of experience in construction project management. He has worked on a variety of project types, including restaurant and hospitality, such as Blanco Cocina + Cantina in the new Fifth + Broadway development in downtown Nashville, as well as renovations, site improvements and ground-up construction.

He originally joined the Dowdle team as a project manager in 2010.

Manning handles the company’s day-to-day operations, working behind the scenes to ensure Dowdle’s project management and accounting systems support its superintendents and project managers. He also has a background in construction project management, estimating, budgeting, contract administration and LEED/sustainable building.

Manning has managed many public construction projects, including the Votes For Women exhibit at the Nashville Public Library, other public library branch renovations, the A.A. Birch Criminal Justice Center and the Nashville Airport Authority Joint Information Center.

Genesco names Desai to new senior VP role

Nashville-based Genesco Inc. has named Parag Desai senior vice president - chief strategy and digital officer. He previously served as senior vice president, strategy, and shared services since Dec. 2014.

Desai will continue to provide critical leadership in executing Genesco’s footwear focused strategy and building its shared technology, logistics and analytics platforms.

Since joining Genesco in 2014, Desai has overseen the continued advancement of Genesco’s technology and the acceleration of the company’s supply chain and driven critical corporate initiatives and business development opportunities. Genesco’s past digital and supply chain investments allowed the company to take advantage of the recent accelerated shift to online spending, achieving record digital revenue of nearly $450 million in our last fiscal year, an increase of almost 75% year-over-year, while also fueling record profitability for this channel.

As chief digital officer, Desai will drive further synergies across the company’s portfolio of e-commerce businesses, continue to integrate systems and digital best practices, and expand our consumer insights and customer relationship management capabilities. Desai will continue to serve as a member of the company’s management committee and work closely with executive management and our board of directors to drive the company’s digital strategy.

Desai has several decades of experience developing strategies for businesses given changes in consumer behavior, channels and technology. He previously spent 14 years with McKinsey & Company, including seven years as a partner, where he was part of the firm’s global retail leadership team and a core member of the consumer practice both in the Americas and in Australia.

In addition, Desai held business development and technology positions at Outpace Systems and Booz Allen & Hamilton.

He earned a degree in business administration degree from George Washington University and an MBA from Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College, where he graduated as a Tuck Scholar.

Margaritaville adds sales, marketing director

Margaritaville Hotel Nashville has appointed Michelle Stuermer as the urban hotel’s director of sales and marketing.

Stuermer will oversee all facets of sales, marketing and revenue management for the property, which debuted in Oct. 2019 in Nashville’s SoBro neighborhood. The Four-Star, Four-Diamond property is operated by Davidson Hotels, the heritage brand for Davidson Hospitality Group, and features luxury accommodations, a rooftop pool and sundeck, two on-site contemporary dining concepts – JWB Grill and FINS Bar, state of the art meeting space and the world-famous Distinctive Margaritaville Spirit.

With more than 25 years of experience in the hospitality management industry, Stuermer has held leadership positions within multiple hotel brands including Marriott and Starwood Hotels, Westin Hotels, Luxury Collection and St. Regis.

Stuermer was most recently with the Sheraton Grand Nashville Downtown. Before her move to Nashville, she served as the director of sales & marketing for the Little Rock Marriott.

She holds a degree in business administration from Sam Houston State University with a specialty in marketing.

Alliance Residential taps development director

Alliance Residential Company has promoted Stephen Keller to Nashville development director. Keller will be moving from Alliance’s southeastern headquarters in Atlanta.

Keller is responsible for sourcing and executing new development opportunities throughout Tennessee to further expand Alliance’s portfolio in this market. His duties include site selection, negotiating land purchases for development, capitalization, and managing the entitlement and design processes.

Since joining Alliance in 2019, Keller has been involved in the execution of 1,000-plus multifamily units in the Atlanta area. There he led the development of Broadstone Summerhill and played a key role in the development of Broadstone Yards, The Irby and Broadstone Junction.

Alliance has two developments under construction in Nashville, Broadstone SoBro and a 6.32-acre development in The Nations.

Keller graduated from the University of Alabama with a degree in Finance.