Oliphant

Edward W. Oliphant has been named interim CEO of the Nashville MTA and Regional Transportation Authority of Middle Tennessee, effective April 1, 2014.

Oliphant currently serves as chief financial officer of the MTA and RTA. Prior to his appointment as CFO in October 2002, Oliphant was the director of finance at Private Business Inc. in Brentwood. The University of Tennessee graduate is a certified public accountant and has more than 30 years of professional experience in accounting and finance.

Oliphant will serve in the interim role until a new CEO is hired later this year. The MTA Board of Directors has initiated a national search to replace Paul J. Ballard, who has been named president and CEO of the Fort Worth Transportation Authority.

Library promotes Sherrard to director of development

Sherrard

Elizabeth Sherrard will oversee the Nashville Public Library Foundation’s annual fundraising, major gift solicitations and donor cultivation and corporate engagement as its new director of development.

Previously, Sherrard worked as campaign coordinator and facilitated the steering committee and solicitation process for the Library Foundation’s comprehensive campaign. To date, her efforts have helped yield more than $11.5M for the Nashville Public Library.

The Nashville Public Library Foundation was established in 1997 to provide support for innovative Library programming like Bringing Books to Life and T.O.T.A.L., which have won national awards for excellence. In 2010, the Nashville Public Library received the National Medal for Museum and Library Services.

Nelson Books promotes vice president of marketing

Cannon

Nelson Books, an imprint of Thomas Nelson, has promoted Chad Cannon to vice president of marketing. Cannon joined Nelson Books in April 2012 as senior director of marketing.

In his two years with the company, Cannon worked on more than 50 book campaigns per year and helped place books onto the CBA, ECPA, Publisher’s Weekly, USA Today and Wall Street Journal bestsellers lists. Several titles also have been nominated for ECPA Book of the Year Awards.

CapStar adds to retail finance and operations

Dye

CapStar Bank announces the addition of several staff in the retail, finance and operations areas.

Laura Dye has joined the bank as vice president, financial center manager for the Hendersonville office. Dye comes to CapStar from the Bank of Nashville, which she served as assistant vice president and manager of its Hendersonville branch. Her career spans more than 25 years in consumer and corporate banking, including eight years as Financial Center Manager of Fifth Third’s Glenbrook office in Hendersonville and 12 years as an assistant vice president of securities operations for Deutsche Bank/Bankers Trust in Nashville.

Kirby

Thompson

Sharon Kirby joins CapStar’s Green Hills Financial Center as financial service representative. Kirby has more than 15 years of banking experience, most recently with Fifth Third Bank, where she was a customer service manager in Williamson County, supervising and training customer service staff.

Danisha Thompson is joining CapStar’s retail division as a floating financial services representative. She was formerly at Citizens Saving Bank & Trust where she has been a relationship banking specialist since 2012.

Eric Davis is CapStar’s new financial systems administrator within the planning and analysis team in Finance. He was formerly with Fifth Third, rising to senior financial analyst and winning the Circle of Excellence production award during his 10 years there.

Chrisanthi Zotos has joined CapStar’s loan operations department as primary Credit Quest financial specialist. Most recently, Zotos was a leasing credit analyst with Banc of America in Warwick, Rhode Island, managing credit monitoring activities.

Erin Connors, from Katy, Tex., joins CapStar as a non-credit support specialist.

Metropolitan Bank hires senior managing director

Dresch

Metropolitan has hired Nashville banker Emily Dresch as a senior managing director for private banking. She will be located at the bank’s Nashville headquarters on West End Avenue.

Dresch is a Nashville native with more than 25 years of banking experience in the Nashville market. She spent 13 years with National Bank of Commerce as a senior consumer banking executive, working closely with Bill Menkel, Metropolitan’s Nashville market CEO. Most recently, Dresch served as senior vice president of private banking for a large regional financial institution in Brentwood.

She earned her degree in business administration and marketing from the University of Alabama and completed her master’s at the Graduate School of Banking at LSU.

Southeast Venture principal named ‘Outstanding’

West

The Nashville chapter of the National Association of Industrial and Office Properties has honored Southeast Venture Principal Axson West with its 2014 Outstanding Member Award.

The award honors one commercial real estate professional for his or her valued contribution and commitment to the industry. The selection committee, made up of NAIOP’s board of directors and past presidents, takes into consideration the individual’s leadership, NAIOP involvement, years as a NAIOP member and community involvement.

Since 1980, West has been involved in all aspects of the commercial real estate brokerage business, including office and industrial leasing, as well as improved property sales. Most recently, West represented the National HealthCare Corporation (NHC) in acquiring sites in Gallatin and Bellevue.

He also sold the old Middle Tennessee Medical Center’s hospital campus in Murfreesboro to Middle Tennessee State University, and sold the Tennessee Baptist Convention property as the corner of Franklin Road and Maryland Way to H.G. Hill Realty Company.

MDSave adds Blackburn as VP, business development

Blackburn

Chad Blackburn is joining MDSave as vice president of business development. He was previously with CredenceHealth/Midas+ Live.

MDSave is an online marketplace for customers to compare the quality and price of medical services.

Health care consumers can select their provider based on pricing via website (www.mdsave.com) or via the MDSave mobile app.