Kiwanis Club of Nashville has honored Steve Buchanan as its 2012 Outstanding Nashvillian of the Year for his community contributions. Buchanan is president of the Opry Entertainment Group, a division of Ryman Hospitality Properties, and executive producer for “Nashville.”

Kiwanis Club of Nashville has presented the Outstanding Nashvillian of the Year Award annually since 1980. Past recipients include Martha Ingram, Jack Massey, Vince Gill, Phil Bredesen, Mike Curb, Darrell Waltrip, Marty Dickens, Karl Dean and Ellen Lehman/Brian Williams, among others. Raul Regalado was honored in 2011.

Founded in 1916, Kiwanis Club of Nashville is composed of nearly 200 business leaders in all professions, including consulting, health care, law, accounting, banking, real estate and retail. Its club members make an impact on the Nashville community by performing many worthy community service projects to serve children and young adults.

Nashville Area Chamber announces 2013-14 board

The Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce has named its 2013-2014 board of directors, with Wayne Smith, president of Community Health Systems, Inc., serving a second year as board chair.

In addition, four current board members were re-elected for a second three-year term beginning July 1:

Board vice chair Kent Adams, CAT Financial Corporation

Carol Hudler, Gannett U.S. Publishing

David C. Kloeppel, Gaylord Entertainment

Nelson Remus, Remar

Six new members joined on July 1:

Margaret Dolan, vice president, community relations, Ingram Industries Inc.

Gary Garfield, CEO and president of Bridgestone Americas, Inc. and vice president and senior officer of Bridgestone Corporation

Jim Schmitz, executive vice president and Middle Tennessee-area president of Regions Bank

Bob Patterson, partner, Bradley Arant Boult Cummings

Curt Stevens, CEO, Louisiana-Pacific Corporation

Tom Aaron, managing partner, Deloitte

During the final board meeting of the 2012-2013 fiscal year, the Chamber recognized retiring board members for their service. Outgoing members included Orrin Ingram of Ingram Industries, Christine Karbowiak of Bridgestone Americas, Rob McNeilly of Suntrust and Uzi Yemin of Delek US.

Additional 2013–14 board members are:

Immediate Past Chair: Bert Mathews, president, The Mathews Company, and partner, Colliers International Nashville

Secretary: Bob Higgins, CEO, Barge Waggoner Sumner & Cannon

President: Ralph Schulz, president, Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce

General Counsel: Leigh Walton, member, Bass Berry & Sims

Richard Bracken, chairman & CEO, HCA

Doug Brandon, regional managing principal, Cassidy Turley

David Briggs, area executive - Tennessee & West North Carolina Area, Bank of America

Alison Brown, president, Compass Record Group

Teresa Broyles-Aplin, CFO & vice president of finance and administration, Nashville Electric Service

William F. Carpenter, III, chairman and CEO, LifePoint

Jeff Cogen, CEO and alternate governor, Nashville Predators

David Fox, partner, McNeely, Pigott & Fox

Darrell S. Freeman, Sr., founder & executive chairman, Zycron, Inc.

Kate Herman, publisher & president, Nashville Business Journal

Damon Hininger, president & CEO, Corrections Corporation of America

Susan Lanigan, executive vice president and general counsel, Dollar General (retired)

George I. Lazenby, IV, CEO, Emdeon

Robert A. McCabe, Jr., chairman, Pinnacle Financial Partners

Steve Moore, president & CEO, Country Music Association (retired)

John Morgan, chancellor, Tennessee Board of Regents

Sri Movva, founder & president, Optimum Technology Solutions

Wayne Riley, M.D., former president, Meharry Medical College

Ron Samuels, chairman, president & CEO, Avenue Bank

Mike Schatzlein, M.D., president & CEO, Saint Thomas Health

Michael Shmerling, chairman, XMI Holdings, Inc.

Sherry Stewart-Deutschmann, CEO & founder, LetterLogic

Charles I. Story, president, ECS Group, Inc.

Steve Turner, principal, Marketstreet Equities Company

W. Carl Whitmer, president & CEO, IASIS Healthcare

Nick Zeppos, chancellor, Vanderbilt University

Regions hires Biggs as VP, wealth advisor

Regions Bank has expanded its team with the addition of David Biggs, who will serve as vice president and wealth advisor for Nashville and Middle Tennessee. In this role, Biggs will focus on total wealth management for high-net worth individuals and families, offering them multidimensional financial solutions.

Led by Lee Blank, Regions Bank’s Middle Tennessee Private Wealth Division employs 20 advisors throughout the service area.

Biggs brings more than 11 years of experience in both asset management and private banking to Regions. He previously worked at Tax Management Associates, and most recently spent nine years at Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner and Smith.

Former journalist joins McNeely Pigott & Fox

Ben Baden, a former U.S. News & World Report editor and reporter and senior communications and publications manager at the US-China Business Council, has joined McNeely Pigott & Fox Public Relations as an account executive.

At the Washington, D.C.-based trade association, he edited the council’s member newsletter, assisted with media outreach and helped manage social media accounts. In addition, he was an associate editor for the council’s digital magazine, China Business Review.

Prior to the council, he worked as an editor and reporter at U.S. News & World Report. While at U.S. News, he managed the Best Careers project and wrote stories for the Web, print and U.S. News’ weekly mobile app on a variety of topics, including the job market, the economy, personal finance and investing.

He graduated in 2009 from the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Housing Fund names new executive director

The Housing Fund board of directors has confirmed Paul Johnson as the organization’s second executive director in its 17-year history.

Johnson, who served as deputy director for THF for the past two years, was selected following a national search.

The Housing Fund is a private, nonprofit organization that helps finance affordable housing and neighborhood revitalization projects. THF offers several lending programs designed to meet the affordable housing needs of low- and moderate-income individuals including down payment assistance and shared equity loans, as well as loans to developers who build or rehab affordable housing.

Johnson has a master’s degree in urban and regional planning from the University of Illinois and a bachelor’s degree in political science and history from Millikin University. He spent 11 years in various positions at the Metropolitan Development and Housing Agency, including a stint as assistant director of community development.

Saint Thomas Health selects new leadership

Dawn Rudolph, currently president and CEO of Saint Thomas West Hospital, has been named chief experience officer for Saint Thomas Health.

Bernie Sherry, currently president and CEO of Saint Thomas Midtown Hospital, has been named president and CEO of Nashville Inpatient Operations for Saint Thomas Health.

As chief experience officer, Rudolph’s focus will be operationalizing patient, physician and family experience strategies across all facilities. This will include monitoring patient satisfaction scores, providing tools to address improvement opportunities and creating policies and procedures to insure a consistent, yet distinctive experience for all who enter a Saint Thomas Health facility.

As president and CEO of Nashville Inpatient Operations, Sherry will oversee operations at both Saint Thomas Midtown Hospital and Saint Thomas West Hospital. He will help to accelerate synergy between the two Nashville facilities including rationalization of service lines and capital allocation.

On July 11, Saint Thomas Health officially announced the renaming of its family of five hospitals in Middle Tennessee. The hospitals are now known as:

Saint Thomas West Hospital (formerly Saint Thomas Hospital)

Saint Thomas Midtown Hospital (formerly Baptist Hospital)

Saint Thomas Rutherford Hospital (formerly Middle Tennessee Medical Center)

Saint Thomas Hickman Hospital (formerly Hickman Community Hospital)

Saint Thomas Hospital for Spinal Surgery (formerly The Hospital for Spinal Surgery)

Barge Waggoner hires parks, recreation planner

Larry Zehnder has joined Barge, Waggoner, Sumner and Cannon, Inc. as senior parks and recreation planner. Zehnder spent three years at Barge Waggoner as senior park planner in the mid-2000s.

Zehnder comes with more than 40 years of professional experience in parks and recreation, including management roles for Chattanooga, Norfolk, Va., and Charleston, S.C. In 2000, he was appointed southeast region executive director for the National Recreation and Park Association.

Zehnder is past president of both Tennessee and Virginia recreation and park associations.