Lattimore Black names new COO

Friday, September 7, 2012, Vol. 36, No. 36

Lattimore Black Morgan & Cain, PC, Tennessee’s largest regional accounting and business consulting firm, has named John A. Litchfield, Jr. as its COO.

Litchfield, a CPA and previously the leader of the firm’s audit practice, will be responsible for and oversee LBMC’s internal accounting, technology, human resources, training and all administrative functions of the firm’s operations. He also will maintain some of his client relationships.

He is a cum laude graduate of Murray State University with a degree in business with an area of concentration in accounting.

Also, Andrew Bissonnette, CPA and LBMC Healthcare Partner in the Accounting and Assurance Practice, has been named to the Nashville Health Care Council 2012-2013 Board of Directors.

Bissonnette has been practicing public accounting for 18 years and has spent the past 13 years serving the health care industry. Andrew serves as the client service partner or technical consulting partner on a number of health care engagements, including for profit and not-for-profit hospitals, behavioral hospitals, surgery and imaging centers, continuing care retirement communities, rehabilitation, physician practice management, pharmacy and home health care companies.

The Nashville Health Care Council, founded in 1995 as an initiative of the Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce, is an association of health care industry leaders working together to further establish Nashville’s position as the nation’s health care industry capital.

Avenue Bank announces five promotions

Andy Moats has been promoted to Bank Group director and is responsible for management of the bank’s private client banking team, music & entertainment division and business banking, as well as oversight of retail banking growth and client service.

He joined Avenue Bank in October of 2006. He remains executive vice president and chief credit officer, with continued responsibility for management of credit underwriting and credit strategy.

Aaron Dorn has been named vice president, director of concierge banking, responsible for management of the bank’s retail banking team and four branch locations. He was one of the original group of employees who started Avenue Bank in 2006. He left the bank in 2009 to serve in the United States Marine Corps, where he achieved the

rank of First Lieutenant. He returned to Avenue Bank upon completion of his military service in June, 2012.

Mallory Bishop has been promoted to assistant vice president, West End branch manager. She joined Avenue Bank as a concierge banker in 2009. She is a native of Knoxville.

Chris Schlueter has been promoted to business banking manager and is responsible for business development and management of the bank’s new team dedicated to small business owners and their companies. He most recently served as the branch manager of the bank’s West End location, the role he held since the branch location’s opening in 2008.

John Moore has been promoted to senior vice president, private client banking manager. He earned his M.B.A. at the Owen School of Management at Vanderbilt University and holds a degree in political science from The University of the South. John joined Avenue Bank when it opened in July of 2007.

First Freedom adds to Mt. Juliet Team

Matt Austin, who has more than seven years of banking and management experience, has joined First Freedom Bank as manager of the bank’s Mt. Juliet office.

Austin was most recently a business banking relationship manager at Regions Bank, where he handled all business banking clients for five branches. He is a 2002 graduate of the University of Mississippi with a degree in business management.

Hudson Agency names new account executive

Jessica Turner has been promoted to account executive at Bill Hudson Agency (BHA), a Nashville-based advertising and public relations firm.

Turner was first hired by BHA in 2011 as an assistant account executive. Before joining BHA, she was marketing coordinator for Kiawah Partners, a real estate firm based in Charleston, SC. Previously, she taught writing and speech at Clemson University.

In her new position, Turner manages delivery of marketing, advertising and PR services to a client group that includes McDonald’s Restaurants, Indiana University Department of Athletics and Holiday World & Surfin’ Safari.

Polkow named CFO of Saint Thomas Health

Saint Thomas Health has named Craig Polkow Chief Financial Officer of the five-hospital health system.

Polkow, who previously held both CFO and COO positions at Saint Thomas Hospital, has more than 20 years of progressive management experience with broad expertise in both operations and finance. In his new role, Polkow will oversee and direct all financial functions for Saint Thomas Health’s hospitals, joint ventures and affiliate relationships.

In the CFO role at Saint Thomas Hospital, Polkow oversaw all hospital financial functions including accounting, statistical reporting, budgeting, tax and audit activities.

Prior to coming to Nashville and Saint Thomas Hospital, Polkow was COO for Dupont Hospital, serving as interim CEO for a time.

Lane honored by engineering group

Stephen Lane, executive vice president and chief operating officer for Smith Seckman Reid, Inc., has been inducted into the College of Fellows for the American Council of Engineering Companies (ACEC). The honor recognizes an ACEC member who through their career has elevated the standards of the engineering profession.

ACEC is the Washington-D.C.-based business association representing the interests of more than 5,000 independent engineering companies throughout the United States.

Lane joined Smith Seckman Reid, Inc. in 1978, and assumed increasing responsibilities as a design engineer, project engineer and client manager. For 20 years he has been a member of the firm’s Board of Directors, and he is currently executive vice president and chief operating officer, leading the firm’s business units both in the U.S. and internationally. His expertise in water/wastewater systems resulted in his designing some of the largest membrane water treatment plants in Tennessee.

Lane has also held several leadership positions with ACEC/Tennessee including President and National Director, and he is currently chairman of the organization’s Government Affairs Committee.

Changes follow CapStar Bank merger

CapStar Bank has announced several leadership changes within the organization resulting from CapStar’s merger with American Security Bank & Trust.

Mark Brooks is now senior vice-president of commercial and industrial lending. Brooks joined American Security in 2005, serving first as a commercial lender, than as general banking group executive managing the commercial and retail groups. He earned a degree business management with an engineering minor from David Lipscomb College. He is also a graduate of the Tennessee School of Banking and the TSB Commercial Lending School.

Also on the Sumner County Commercial Lending team are relationship managers Jay Roney and Richard Polka.

Roney is a graduate of the Southeastern School of Advance Commercial Lending and Tennessee State University. Previous experience includes the Bank of Goodlettsville, Union Planters Bank, Regions Bank and Green Bank. He joined American Security Bank & Trust as city president in September, 2011.

Polka, senior vice president of commercial lending, gained significant lending experience at First State Bank and, prior to that, Bank of America before joining American Security.

Nicole Lowe is a loan document specialist and will work from CapStar’s downtown Nashville office. Lowe came to American Security Bank & Trust in 2011 from Bank of America in Murfreesboro, where she was a home service specialist. She has also worked in loan processing at Franklin American Mortgage, Blue Star Mortgage and Old Tree Mortgage.

Patrick Towns is a commercial portfolio manager and was formerly senior commercial credit underwriter at American Security, which he joined in 2007 after serving as a commercial portfolio manager at Regions Financial Corporation and in various other credit roles at AmSouth Bank/First American.

The C & I Lending team is supported by client service representative Yvette Gregory. Before joining American Security, Gregory spent 18 years at SunTrust and Third National Bank as a client support specialist in the sports and entertainment private banking division.

Brent Turpen has been appointed assistant controller and will be located in CapStar’s downtown Nashville office. Prior to joining American Security, Turpin was a senior vice president at First Southern Bank in Florence, Ala., having also served there in numerous other positions, including SVP of operations, SVP of finance and treasurer.

Overseeing both the Hendersonville and Gallatin locations is financial center manager Jason Kotler. Kotler has 11 years of business-to-business sales experience, including as a small business owner, in Sumner and Davidson Counties.

Roberts appointed to accountancy board

John G. (Gabe) Roberts, an associate at Sherrard & Roe PLC, has been appointed to the State Board of Accountancy as an attorney member by Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam. Roberts will serve on the Board through June 2015.

Roberts has been associated with Sherrard & Roe since 2008 where his legal practice includes general corporate law, mergers and acquisitions, health care, and estate litigation.

Roberts is a 2008 graduate of Vanderbilt University Law School. While at Vanderbilt, he graduated from the Vanderbilt Law & Business Program and was a member of the Vanderbilt Law Review. He earned bachelor degrees in accountancy and business administration (Economics), both magna cum laude, in 2003 from the University of Mississippi.

CCA hires new programming director

Kim White has joined Corrections Corporation of America as its new managing director of inmate programs.

White will be overseeing CCA’s Inmate Programming department, which offers recidivism-reducing programs and helps prepare inmates for a successful life upon release.

White most recently served as assistant director of the Human Resources Management Division for the Federal Bureau of Prisons. She began her career as a correctional officer and has served nearly seven years as a regional director.

Her interests in the corrections industry stems from a course she completed in college on correctional institutions, which led to an internship with the BOP.