Retired Judge Monte D. Watkins has joined Neal & Harwell, PLC, as of counsel.

Watkins was previously appointed to the court by former Governor Phil Bredesen in 2003 and served as judge for Division V of the Tennessee 20th Judicial District Criminal Court. Before his judicial appointment, Watkins practiced law for 19 years as a sole practitioner with an emphasis on criminal defense, probate law and real estate.

Watkins earned his J.D. from North Carolina Central University and undergraduate and graduate degrees in psychology from Tennessee State University.

During his career, Watkins has been named a life member of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), past president and life member of the Napier-Looby Bar Association, life member of the National Bar Association, life member of the National Bar Institute, fellow of the Tennessee Bar Foundation, fellow of the Nashville Bar Foundation, fellow of the Napier-Looby Bar Foundation, a master in the American Inn of Court, life member of the Tennessee State University Alumni Association and life member of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Incorporated.

Ryman Hospitality announces transition

Ryman Hospitality Properties, Inc. has announced chairperson and CEO Colin Reed will transition to executive chairman of the company after more than 21 years as CEO, and company president Mark Fioravanti has been named to succeed Reed as president and CEO, effective Jan. 1.

Reed’s role as executive chairman will include his responsibilities as executive chairman of the company’s board of directors and as chairman of the Opry Entertainment Group board of directors. Reed also will focus on working with OEG strategic investor Atairos and with NBCUniversal to unlock opportunities for value creation; advancing the Company’s ESG and diversity, equity and inclusion goals; and community and government affairs.

Reed will continue his role with artist and shareholder relations alongside Fioravanti.

Since joining predecessor company Gaylord Entertainment in 2001, Reed led a strategic reorganization of the company’s holdings, divesting noncore assets and refocusing the Company under its hospitality and entertainment segments. In the years that followed, the Company built a portfolio of hotel assets, flagged under the Gaylord Hotels brand, which now includes five of the top 10 largest non-gaming resort and convention center hotels in the United States.

In 2002, Reed recruited Fioravanti to join the Company’s management team to oversee marketing as the company further refined its Gaylord Hotels brand. His roles included senior vice president of sales and marketing for Gaylord Entertainment, president of Gaylord Entertainment’s subsidiary ResortQuest, a position he held until 2007, and senior vice president and treasurer of Gaylord Entertainment.

Fioravanti took on oversight of finance in 2008 and was promoted to SVP and chief financial officer in 2009.

Harris named principal at Thrivence consulting

Business and community leader Paula Harris has joined Nashville-based management consulting firm Thrivence as a principal.

Harris previously served as executive vice president and chief relationship officer for Barge Design Solutions, where she guided client experience efforts for the firm across five states, including five offices in Tennessee. She previously served more than 20 years as Barge’s chief marketing officer.

A graduate of Vanderbilt University’s School of Engineering, Harris serves on the Nashville State Community College Foundation Board. Harris also is board of trustees’ president for The Discovery Center at Murfree Spring in Murfreesboro, and a graduate of area leadership programs, including Leadership Rutherford, Leadership Middle Tennessee and Leadership Franklin, where she has served as executive director since 2012.

Woodson honored for education leadership

The Tennessee Business Roundtable has recognized former State Sen. Jamie Woodson with the organization’s Gordon Fee Leadership in Education Award.

Beginning in 1998, Woodson served three terms in the House before winning election in 2004 to the Tennessee Senate, where she chaired the Senate Education Committee and served as speaker pro tempore. In 2011, Woodson resigned her seat to lead the State Collaborative On Reforming Education (SCORE), a nonprofit education reform organization started by former U.S. Senator Bill Frist advocating for educational excellence for all Tennessee students from kindergarten to career, for more than seven years.

Today, as founder and president of Tristar Strategies, LLC, Woodson consults for a select group of student-centered, impact-driven clients, while also serving as a senior adviser to the Ayers Foundation, the John M. Belk Endowment, the Haslam 3 Foundation and SCORE.

She is a graduate of the University of Tennessee at Knoxville and its College of Law. She serves on the school’s board of trustees, as a member of the Tennessee Public Charter School Commission and on the board of directors of the Hunt Institute.

Other recipients of the award include former Gov. Bill Haslam (2018), current University of Tennessee President and former ECD Commissioner and Radio Systems Corp. CEO Randy Boyd (2014), former House Education chairperson Richard Montgomery (2012), former Gov. Phil Bredesen (2010) and former Knoxville Chamber President & CEO Mike Edwards (2009).

Cooley Public Strategies elevates Matthews to VP

Logan Matthews, who joined Cooley Public Strategies in February 2020 as director of community outreach, has been promoted to vice president.

Matthews will continue to serve clients in the health care, land use and energy sectors through community engagement and government relations. In that position, he will broaden his leadership role with regional infrastructure clients seeking strategic land use options.

Matthews is a graduate of Belmont University. He is pursuing a master’s degree in economics from George Mason University.

Sonata names Shaw SVP, commercial banking mgr.

Sonata Bank has named longtime Nashville-area banker Brian Shaw as senior vice president, commercial banking manager.

Shaw’s 24 years of financial experience includes mortgage, commercial and retail banking. He helped build the retail, mortgage and branch lines of business for Reliant Bank (now United Community Bank) and AmSouth Bank (now Regions). His most recent role was senior vice president, commercial banking for Fourth Capital.

Joining Shaw on the commercial banking team is Matt Ledbetter. With more than 17 years of experience, Ledbetter is tapped as vice president, commercial banking. He most recently served as commercial relationship banker at First Vision Bank.

Katherine Horne joins Sonata Bank as vice president, business development officer where she is responsible for sourcing and developing new deposit and loan relationships with clients, prospects and referral sources. She has more than 15 years of experience in the financial industry, including her most recent role with Fifth Third Bank. She also held roles with Peoples State Bank and Regions Bank.

Titans’ Hinkle shifts to MP&F

MP&F Strategic Communications has added Jennifer Hinkle as its director of paid media.

Hinkle brings more than 20 years of experience in marketing and digital strategy to MP&F after a long career in professional sports. Hinkle comes to MP&F from the Tennessee Titans, where she led integrated marketing and fan engagement initiatives as senior director of marketing and digital media strategy.

Previously, she spent 12 years with the NFL’s Washington franchise overseeing digital strategy for the team and their corporate partners and was most recently vice president of digital marketing.

Fourth Capital names Dumke senior VP

Fourth Capital, a Nashville-based community bank, has hired Travis Dumke as senior vice president, commercial relationship banker.

Dumke, who brings 10-plus years of banking industry experience, will support the growth of Fourth Capital’s commercial business by expanding its evolving client roster and growing existing accounts.

He previously served as senior vice president at First Bank. For more than a decade, his career has spanned the banking industry with positions at SunTrust, Fifth Third Bank and Wells Fargo.

Dumke is a graduate of Austin Peay and later attended Vanderbilt’s Owen Graduate School of Management program to study commercial lending. He is a graduate of the ABA Stonier Graduate School of Banking at the University of Pennsylvania, where he also attended the Wharton Leadership School.

He is a member of Leadership Franklin’s 2017 class.

Dowdle Const. Group adds 2 project managers

Dowdle Construction Group has addded two project managers to its growing team: John Donlon and Mathew Deaton.

Donlon comes to Dowdle from Hardaway Construction, where he most recently worked as project manager after starting there as an assistant project manager.

While there, he managed Bristol Church and Henley, Phase2 Labs and East Side Banh Mi. Before that, he was a project engineer at CITY Construction, LLC, where he worked on the Stocking 51 Development, SMACK Songs and the Nashville Predators locker room.

Deaton most recently worked as a construction administrator at Structural Design Group, where he worked on as many as 25 commercial projects simultaneously. Before that, he worked for Messer Construction Company for nearly a decade, first as a project engineer and then as a project manager.

Donlon graduated from the University of Tennessee with a degree in biosystems engineering, and Deaton earned a degree in civil engineering from Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology.