Speedway Motorsports has promoted motorsports industry executive Matt Greci to senior vice president and general manager of Nashville Superspeedway, replacing Erik Moses, who is leaving to become executive director of the Fiesta Bowl.
Greci relocated to Nashville shortly after the company acquired the 1.33-mile speedway as part of its purchase of Dover Motorsports in 2021. Before that, he spent nearly 16 years at Charlotte Motor Speedway, where he began his career as a sales department intern, then joined the speedway full-time as the track rental and suite coordinator for corporate sales. Greci moved to the events department in 2008, working his way from events manager to vice president of events.
During his tenure at Charlotte, Greci earned recognition as the CMS Employee of the Year in 2013. He also received the company’s highest honor, the prestigious Speedway Motorsports O. Bruton Smith Award in 2018, while managing event production at zMAX Dragway, The Dirt Track and the legendary superspeedway. Greci holds a degree in sports management from Wingate University.
Dodson Parker adds to business, litigation teams
The Nashville law firm of Dodson Parker Behm & Capparella, PC, has added two new attorneys to the firm. Jacob Vanzin has joined the trial and appellate litigation practice group, and Julie Downs Payne is the newest member of the business services team.
Vanzin previously was in private practice for almost a decade in Franklin, where he litigated cases both large and small, including those in which he served as lead appellate counsel and represented criminal defendants.
He holds a history and political science degrees from the University of Pittsburgh, and earned his law degree from Washington University in St. Louis. While at Washington University, Vanzin was a national quarterfinalist and 10th-place National Best Advocate in the American Bar Association’s National Appellate Advocacy Competition.
Vanzin will represent clients in commercial litigation, real estate disputes and appeals.
Payne previously was a full-time law clerk under Harlan Dodson. She was the first graduate of the Harriet L. Wilkes Honors College of Florida Atlantic University, where she graduated with a bachelor’s degree in political science and pre-law.
She earned her law degree from Nashville School of Law, where she won the Founder’s Award and was inducted into the Honorable Society of Cooper’s Inn for holding the highest overall grade-point average in her graduating class.
Payne will represent clients in all aspects of estate planning and business law.
Wilbon elected chair of Adams and Reese
Clarence Wilbon has been elected chair of the Adams and Reese executive committee. Wilbon will become the first African American in the law firm’s 71-year history to be elected to chair the committee.
He is a litigation partner, resident in the Memphis office. Wilbon has practiced at Adams and Reese since 2014 and was elected to the EC in 2021.
The executive committee consists of six partners, elected by fellow partners to serve a three-year term. Adams and Reese has close to 300 attorneys and advisers located in 21 offices across 10 states throughout the Southern United States and Washington, D.C.
Wilbon has practiced for 23 years, representing companies in the areas of risk management, product liability, contract disputes, employment, restrictive covenants and business disputes. He litigates in state and federal courts, in bench and jury trials, and in appellate actions before state courts in Tennessee and Kentucky and the Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth U.S. Circuit Courts of Appeal. Wilbon also works closely with Adams and Reese’s newly launched HBCU/Minority Serving Institutions practice team.
Wilbon is a Litigation Counsel of America Senior Fellow and among Best Lawyers in Commercial Litigation, Banking and Finance. In the community, he graduated from the Tennessee Bar Association Law Leadership Class and Memphis Bar Association Leadership Forum.
Kidd is No. 1 consultant again for Raymond James
For the second consecutive year, Pinnacle Asset Management’s Brock Kidd is the No. 1 financial consultant in the nation among the Financial Institutions Division of Raymond James Financial Services for fiscal year 2021-22.
Kidd earned this distinction for having the highest total dollar amount of assets under management at more than $850 million. Kidd also is ranked No. 14 among Raymond James Financial Services internationally and was named to the company’s Chairman’s Council for the sixth consecutive year.
Kidd is a founding partner and managing director of Pinnacle Asset Management and a private wealth manager with Raymond James Financial Services, Inc. He began at Pinnacle Asset Management in 2000 and joined Raymond James in 2002.
Genesco adds pair to independent directors
Genesco Inc. has announced the appointments of two independent directors – Matthew M. Bilunas, CFO of Best Buy Co., Inc., and Carolyn Bojanowski, executive vice president merchandising, Sephora USA – to Genesco’s board of directors.
Genesco also announced that current directors Matthew C. Diamond and Kevin P. McDermott will retire from Genesco’s Board and will not stand for reelection at Genesco’s 2023 annual meeting of shareholders. In order to facilitate an orderly transition, Genesco has expanded the size of its board from nine to 11 directors until its 2023 annual meeting, at which time the Board will revert to nine directors.
These additions are part of Genesco’s ongoing commitment to board refreshment and reflect the company’s commitment to evolving and strengthening its director expertise, enhancing board diversity and bringing new perspectives to its boardroom. Since 2019, the company has added seven new directors to its Board.
Bilunas has 27 years of experience in finance, capital allocation, financial planning and analysis, technical accounting, operations, supply chain, e-commerce and strategy experience.
Bojanowski brings more than 20 years of retail expertise with a record of driving e-commerce, dotcom merchandising, brand marketing, digital marketing, brand and product development, loyalty and revenue optimization performance. She played an instrumental role in the introduction of Sephora’s best-in-class Beauty Insider loyalty program.
MTSU’s Patterson named top physician assistant
Marie Patterson, the director of MTSU’s Physician Assistant Studies program, has been named the Physician Assistant of the Year by the Tennessee Academy of Physician Assistants.
Patterson has worked as both a clinician and an educator, and for many years staffed the student health center at MTSU, according to a TAPA announcement. She moved into academia in 2017 when she helped establish the PA Program at Lipscomb University in Nashville and served as both an assistant professor and the admissions director.
In 2020, she was named the program director for the PA program at Middle Tennessee State University and launched that program, which started its first class in May.
Patterson, who has a doctorate in health science, has long been involved with TAPA, serving as the TAPA Board secretary from 2005-2009, and she is the current TAPA vice president. She was appointed by the governor to the Board of PAs in 2018 and is currently the board chair. She was one of TAPA’s delegates to the AAPA House of Delegates in 2019 and was recently elected to serve again in 2023 and 2024.
She has been active with her church through mission work and participated in a medical mission trip to Kenya in 2001. She is also a regular fundraiser and team captain for the Special Kids race, all while raising eight children.