Junaid Odubeko, a partner in Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP’s Nashville office, has been accepted to the American Bar Association Section of Litigation’s Diverse Leaders Academy.
DLA provides opportunities for lawyers in underrepresented groups to participate in leadership roles within the ABA Section of Litigation. Odubeko will serve a two-year term beginning Aug. 1, during which he will participate in Diversity & Inclusion Committee activities and engage in substantive work as a member of a Section committee or task force.
A member of Bradley’s Litigation Practice Group, Odubeko focuses his practice on advising and representing clients in complex commercial and business disputes and real estate litigation. He also represents and advises clients in the political arena on legal and other issues related to election law and campaign finance.
Odubeko has served on the Leadership Council on Legal Diversity, which is a national organization made up of general counsel and law firm managing partners who participate in programs designed to attract, inspire, and nurture the talent in society and within the members’ organizations, thereby helping a new and more diverse generation of attorneys ascend to positions of leadership.
At Bradley, Odubeko is an active member of the firm’s Recruiting Committee and the firm’s Lawyers of Color Resource Group. He was the recipient of the firm’s 2019 Diversity Leadership Award.
Bridgestone names division president
Bridgestone Americas has made leadership changes, selecting Mirella Cielo as president, consumer replacement tire sales and marketing, U.S. and Canada, effective Sept. 1. She backfills Erik Seidel, who has been named to a new role overseeing corporate development and M&A for Bridgestone Americas, effective immediately.
Cielo will be responsible for setting the sales and marketing strategy for the consumer replacement tire business in the U.S. and Canada with a focus on pursuing new business opportunities, enhancing revenue and increasing brand equity with consumers. She also will be responsible for cultivating customer relationships that accelerate sales growth for the company’s core tire business.
Cielo joins Bridgestone Americas from Bridgestone Europe, Middle East, India and Africa (EMIA), where she most recently served as vice president of the consumer replacement business.
Seidel joined Bridgestone in 2013 as vice president of consumer marketing and quickly transitioned into leading the replacement tire business. He has played a key role in the delivery of some of the company’s most important consumer tire initiatives, including the revolutionary DriveGuard tire launch, the acquisition of the TireConnect e-commerce platform and the successful launch of the company’s TireHub joint venture in tire distribution. Before Bridgestone, Seidel spent more than a decade at Kimberly-Clark Corporation in marketing and general management roles of increasing responsibility.
Also at Bridgestone, Charlie Rule, formerly vice president of operations, Latin America, has been named president, Bridgestone Americas Tire Operations Latin America. Rule succeeds Joseph Saoud, who was in the role for two years.
Rule will be responsible for all Latin America tire businesses with full P&L responsibility, including dotted line responsibility for manufacturing, and will continue to lead category strategy, product planning, marketing branding and marketing communications in the region.
Rule is a marketing and general management executive with more than 25 years of experience working in international markets across Latin America, the United States, Asia, Central and Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Africa. He has served in several local, regional and global roles in general management, marketing, sales, innovation and strategy across his career.
He holds a degree in international finance and marketing from the University of Miami.
Moyer selected for TECNA vice chair
Brian Moyer, president and CEO of Greater Nashville Technology Council, has been named vice chair of the board of directors for Technology Councils of North America.
Based in California, TECNA represents about 60 information technology and technology trade organizations that, in turn, represent more than 22,000 technology-related companies in North America. Moyer’s appointment will enhance Middle Tennessee’s reputation as an $8 billion tech center.
Before joining the Greater Nashville Technology Council, Moyer served as executive vice president and CIO for GAFFEY Healthcare and HealthTechS3.
Moyer is a self-taught software developer and has founded and grown multiple technology companies during the past 25 years, won numerous awards for leading the fastest growing company in Middle Tennessee and is named on several patents.
He studied economics and engineering management at the Missouri University of Science and Technology.
Bishop returns to Southeast Venture
Nashville-based commercial real estate brokerage, development and design firm Southeast Venture has added Ashley Bishop to its brokerage team.
Specializing in site selection and land sales, Bishop will work with multifamily, retail, industrial and hotel developers to analyze the market, location, site and legal landscapes, allowing developers to make informed decisions about site selection across Middle Tennessee.
Bishop has more than 20 years of experience in real estate, specifically in assisting clients with commercial and residential development site selection. He is a Certified Commercial Investment Member (CCIM) and a member of the Urban Land Institute (ULI).
Bishop worked at Southeast Venture before founding his own company, Site Selection Tennessee, in 2016. He served as its principal broker, building a reputation as one of Tennessee’s leading site selection specialists.
Nashville State names Southeast Campus director
Nashville State Community College has appointed Jamica Hines as the associate dean and the director of its Southeast Campus. The campus is located at 5248 Hickory Hollow Pkwy in Antioch.
Hines assumes the director’s role from Kim Silverman, who was recently promoted to associate vice president of academic affairs for extended campuses. Hines leads site operations, while supporting the overall mission, values, plans, policies and procedures of the College. Additionally, she leads campus faculty and staff in continuous review and recommendations of instructional programs.
Hines brings nearly 20 years of experience in higher education, having served in positions such as campus coordinator, academic adviser and admissions recruiter. She holds a Master of Education from Tennessee State University and a degree in mass communications from Middle Tennessee State University. She is pursuing a Ph.D. in educational leadership, higher education, from East Tennessee State University.
Reliant Bank taps Crawford as market president
Brentwood-based Reliant Bank has named Matt Crawford executive vice president, Williamson County market president.
Most recently, Crawford served as Reliant’s senior vice president, construction banking manager, where he consistently ranked as a top producer and always delivered top-notch experiences to a diverse group of clients. He joined Reliant shortly after its opening in 2007, and has grown alongside the bank, holding multiple leadership roles within the retail and commercial areas of the bank.
Crawford will maintain his focus on construction banking while providing leadership and guidance for all commercial banking activities in Williamson County.
Crawford is a member of the Middle Tennessee Chapter of the Home Builders Association. He holds an MBA from Lipscomb University, along with a degree in finance.