Robert R. McLeod has joined Butler Snow’s Nashville office and will practice with the firm’s pharmaceutical, medical device and health care litigation group.
Before joining Butler Snow, McLeod clerked for Judge Thomas W. Brothers.
McLeod is a graduate of The University of Texas and earned his juris doctor from the Vanderbilt University Law School.
Legal Aid hires Kent as brand, content manager
Legal Aid Society of Middle Tennessee and the Cumberlands has hired Alex Kent as the firm’s first brand and content manager. Kent will be responsible for the overall management and creation of print, digital and multimedia communications.
Before joining Legal Aid Society, Kent was creative director for the Tennessee Justice Center. He worked alongside patients, advocates and community leaders advocating for affordable, quality health insurance.
He also previously worked as an associate video producer with Kent Creative, producing multimedia materials for nonprofits and educational institutions across the nation, including Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Williamson Medical Center, AWAKE TN, The Dan Marino Foundation and La Jolla Institute of Immunology.
As a volunteer, Kent serves as communications lead on UNICEF UNITE’s Tennessee team. He creates and implements communications strategies to help expand the reach and fundraising capacity of their Nashville branch.
Kent graduated from the University of Tennessee with a degree in psychology.
Wealth Strategies promotes Beckwith
Wealth Strategies Partners named Heather Beckwith its operations manager. In this role, Beckwith will manage the day-to-day operations of the practice and serve as compliance manager, working closely with Raymond James’ home office.
She’ll also continue working directly with the WSP team to assist in developing comprehensive financial plans on behalf of the practice’s clients.
Beckwith previously served as client service manager at the company. She has extensive experience in branch administration and all aspects of client service, including client support, compliance and communications.
Before joining WSP in 2014, Beckwith served in multiple positions at Raymond James’ headquarters in St. Petersburg, Florida. She was a transition specialist and provided advisers with resources and assistance to make firm and client transitions to Raymond James both smooth and successful. Before that, she managed a $10 billion platform and served as a compliance specialist.
Beckwith holds her FINRA Series 7, 24, 53 and 63 licenses. She earned a degree in business administration from Tennessee Technological University.
Massey Graduate School honoring alumna Berger
Christie Berger, a Nashville-based certified executive coach who has worked with some of Nashville’s top organizations, including HCA, Tractor Supply, KPMG, Sony Music, Sarah Cannon and AllianceBernstein, is being honored with the Distinguished Graduate Award by Belmont University’s Massey Graduate School of Business. The award recognizes Berger’s excellence in the areas of professional achievement, community involvement, and commitment to the Massey School.
Berger supports individuals and organizations striving to enhance their performance and reach their potential. In addition to her private coaching practice of more than 10 years, Berger has served as head of executive coaching for Belmont University’s Center for Executive Education and collaborated with a variety of global management consulting firms.
Berger developed a coaching division in Belmont’s Center for Education to enhance leadership development program offerings, designing and managing more than 300 executive coaching engagements for client organizations and for the Executive Leadership Experience Development Program. Berger also created an executive career coaching program for Vanderbilt University alumni.
Berger also is founder and leader of Fusion Leader Circuit, her flagship executive development program for women leaders in Nashville. Through participating in a 12-month circuit, leaders establish connections that help them ignite performance and discover new opportunities to make a greater impact.
Best Lawyers honors Adams and Reese attorneys
Nineteen Adams and Reese attorneys based in Nashville have been included in the 2020 edition of The Best Lawyers in America.
Additionally, the firm was top-listed in Tennessee and Nashville for copyright law, and Guilford F. Thornton Jr., was named Nashville insurance law “Lawyer of the Year”
Nashville attorneys honored are:
• C. Dale Allen, government relations practice
• Cynthia Mitchell Barnett, public finance law
• Reber M. Boult, copyright law, litigation – intellectual property, litigation – patent, patent law, trademark law
• F. Laurens Brock, personal injury litigation – defendants
• Martin S. Brown, Jr., corporate law, litigation – securities, mergers and acquisitions law
• William R. Bruce, government relations practice
• Charles W. Cook III, financial services regulation law, health care law, litigation – banking and finance, litigation – bankruptcy
• Fred Russell Harwell, real estate law
• D. Reed Houk, banking and finance law, financial services regulation law, real estate law
• Linda Edell Howard, copyright law, entertainment law – music, media law
• Philip M. Kirkpatrick, commercial litigation, entertainment law – motion pictures and television, entertainment law – music, litigation – intellectual property
• Brad A. Lampley, government relations practice
• Haverly MacArthur, litigation - intellectual property, litigation - patent, trademark law
• Lynn Morrow, copyright law, entertainment law – music, litigation – intellectual property
• Anne L. Russell, litigation and controversy – tax
• Larry Stewart, bankruptcy and creditor debtor rights/insolvency and reorganization law, public finance law
• Thomas Anthony Swafford, labor law – management, litigation – labor and employment
• Guilford F. Thornton Jr., education law, government relations practice, health care law, insurance law
• Maia Woodhouse, copyright law, litigation – intellectual property
Steeplechase hires new business dev director
The Iroquois Steeplechase has hired Autumn Eklond as director of sponsorships and business development. Eklond’s role will include fostering current sponsor relations and selling new sponsorships as the event grows.
Eklond is a Lipscomb graduate who has more than 10 years of sales experience. Throughout her career, she has gained experience at Prudential Financial Insurance Company, where she rose to vice president of account management of national accounts.
Additionally, Eklond founded a charity that empowers and encourages high-school girls by recruiting mentors in various industries to create an educational program for the students to follow throughout their time in the program.
Cooper announces communications hires
Mayor John Cooper has announced three additional appointments to his administration:
Katie Lentile, chief communications officer, previously served as CEO of The Lentile Group, a creative marketing and design firm. She has lived in Nashville for 11 years, during which time she’s worked on projects in more than 30 countries for a diverse set of clients, including Google, Vanderbilt University and Kenneth Cole.
She most recently served as communications director for the John Cooper for Nashville mayoral campaign. Additionally, she helped launch the coworking space WELD. A graduate of the University of Mississippi, Lentile holds a degree in business administration and marketing.
Chris Song, press secretary, has worked in political communications for multiple local and statewide campaigns based in the Nashville area and previously served as deputy press secretary to former Vice President Al Gore.
Most recently, Song served in strategic marketing and public relations roles for local health care technology companies Healthcare Bluebook and InQuicker. He is a graduate of Vanderbilt.
Brandon Marshall, digital director, is a four-time Emmy nominated journalist. Before three years of reporting in Nashville, he spent time reporting in Waco, Texas, and Scottsbluff, Nebraska.
Marshall Hospitality adds to executive team
Cindy Anderson has joined A. Marshall Hospitality as chief financial officer, following Mark Gothard’s advancement to director of business development.
Anderson is a certified public accountant who comes to A. Marshall Hospitality from LBMC, where she was a senior manager in the firm’s tax practice and a member of the wealth management team for the past five years. She has extensive tax experience in individual, business, estate, trust and inheritance returns with an expertise in the hospitality industry.
Gothard will shift his focus to the expansion of A. Marshall Hospitality’s line of retail products in stores, in addition to vetting new business opportunities and overseeing those projects to completion.
HarperCollins names senior VP, group publisher
HarperCollins Christian Publishing and HarperCollins Focus have selected Don Jacobson to lead the organizations’ book publishing programs as senior vice president group publisher.
Jacobson will be based in Nashville and will serve on the company’s executive leadership teamm.
In this role, Jacobson will be responsible for the strategy and direction for trade books and curriculum publishing for Thomas Nelson and Zondervan.
In addition, Jacobson will oversee HarperCollins Focus’ publishing strategy and its expansion in the general market.
Jacobson is a 35-year publishing industry veteran, with experience in owning and operating publishing companies, as well as representing authors as a literary agent.