INSBANK’s Gupton returns as senior VP, COO

Friday, December 19, 2014, Vol. 38, No. 51

Gupton

Green Hills-based INSBANK has named Scott Gupton as its senior vice president and chief operating officer. Gupton, who has nearly two decades of banking experience, will oversee INSBANK’s operations, marketing, human resources, information technology and corporate and regulatory reporting.

He is rejoining INSBANK after serving as first vice president from 2000-2007.

Prior to his new role at INSBANK, Gupton held leadership positions, most recently serving as COO at First Advantage Bank in Clarksville. He also has served as COO and principal financial officer at Sumner Bank & Trust in Gallatin.

Gupton earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration and marketing from the University of Tennessee. He also is a graduate of Southeastern School of Banking at Vanderbilt University’s Owen Graduate School of Management.

Medalogix picks Wood for chief operating officer

Wood

Nashville-based predictive analytics company Medalogix has named a new chief operating officer, Elliott Wood, 30, who was formerly senior vice president of product management. He joined Medalogix in 2013.

As COO, Wood will maintain his current responsibilities of all aspects of product management, including working with development, in addition to his new duties covering client experience, client operations and professional services.

Wood began his career in database administration and marketing with HealthStream.

Waddey Patterson adds Palmer as associate

Palmer

Tiffany N. Palmer has joined intellectual property law firm Waddey Patterson as an associate.

Palmer’s practice focuses on global patent and trademark prosecution and related counseling. While in law school, Palmer has spent summers as a summer associate at The Coca-Cola Company, Lightfoot, Franklin & White in Birmingham and Morris, Manning & Martin in Atlanta. She previously worked as a patent examiner at the United States Patent and Trademark Office in Alexandria, VA.

Palmer earned her J.D. at the University of Alabama School of Law, where she was senior editor of Alabama Civil Rights and Civil Liberties Law Review. She also was president of the Intellectual Property Law Society and a member of Bench and Bar Legal Honor Society, John A. Campbell Moot Court Board, and the Intellectual Property Moot Court Team. She served as a mentor in the Black Law Students’ Association.

Palmer earned a degree in chemical engineering from Vanderbilt University in May 2009, where she was chapter vice president and regional membership chair of the National Society of Black Engineers.

North Highland taps Ehrig for vice president

Ehrig

Tina Ehrig has joined North Highland as vice president of strategy with a focus on the health care industry.

Based in the Nashville office, Ehrig will initiate and drive strategic client projects for North Highland’s national health care practice while supporting the firm’s south region.

Ehrig has more than 20 years of experience as a strategic consultant across a diverse set of industries, including health care, public sector, communications, high tech and hospitality. As a partner with Accenture’s business and IT strategy practices, Ehrig managed high-performance teams that specialized in market growth, IT and cost reduction strategies.

Ehrig earned her MBA at the University of Texas, Austin and her bachelor’s degree from Washington University in St. Louis.

W Publishing Group hires VP of marketing

Cloud

W Publishing Group has hired Lori Cloud as vice president of marketing. She most recently served as an executive director of client services for G7 Entertainment.

Cloud has 25 years of entertainment marketing experience including promotions, PR and digital and artist management. At G7 Entertainment, her role was to identify unique opportunities, formulate groundbreaking campaigns, and deliver programs with measurable results. She has worked on campaigns including Harley-Davidson’s “Kid Rock Rebel Soul tour,” Cracker Barrel’s Brad Paisley “Can’t Beat This Summer Tour” and Diet Coke’s Taylor Swift “RED” Tour.

Previously she was VP Brand Strategy and Digital Media at Big Enterprises, an artist management company, and a Brand Agent at the LA headquarters of Creative Artists Agency where she managed client relationships such as The Coca-Cola Company, P&G, Sprint, Harley-Davidson Motor Company and Starwood Hotels.

W Publishing Group is an imprint of Thomas Nelson - a division of Harper Collins Christian Publishing.

Dougher joins Aerial as chief investment officer

Dougher

Financial and real estate industry veteran Yogi Dougher has joined Aerial Development Group as the company’s first chief investment officer.

As CIO for the residential and commercial development company, Dougher will manage and monitor Aerial Development Group’s investment activity, financial relationships and land acquisitions.

Dougher has more than 30 years of experience in the real estate and financial industry.

Most recently, he opened and operated the Nashville office for First Advantage Bank. He has also held positions with US Bank, The Bank of Nashville and First Union/Wachovia Bank. As managing partner of Angel Capital Group, Dougher facilitated the funding of promising small business startups through a nationwide network of angel investors.

Dougher is co-host for WTVF’s weekly Real Estate, Real Talk educational and call-in show and is an instructor and speaker for Real Estate Investors of Nashville.

GS&F adds 6 to PR, traffic teams

Nashville-based marketing agency GS&F has increased its workforce with the addition of six new hires across both the public relations and traffic teams.

GS&F has added four traffic coordinators to its staff: Meredith Clapp, Thomas Bynum, Ginny Hoskins and Katherine LaViscount.

Clapp and Bynum both graduated from the University of Virginia in 2014 and 2013, respectively. Hoskins, a 2012 graduate, joins GS&F with experience on a variety of digital media campaigns. LaViscount graduated from Vanderbilt University in 2014.

Additionally, the agency’s public relations team has grown over the last few months with two new employees. Marieke Bianchi joined the team as director of public relations and Margaret Kercher came on as an account coordinator.

Bianchi has 10 years of experience in consumer PR and comes to the agency from Hunter Public Relations in New York City, where she worked on accounts like Barefoot Wines and Kraft Foods. In her position with GS&F, Bianchi will manage the PR efforts for Hunt Brothers Pizza, Tractor Supply Company and many others.

Kercher will support the Tractor Supply Co., Applebee’s, Universal Lighting Technologies and Argent Financial accounts.

Lifepoint Hospitals selects Waddey for chief of staff

Waddey

LifePoint Hospitals has named Melissa Waddey to the newly created role of chief of staff.

In this position, Waddey will provide full-time leadership and attention to strategic projects that cross multiple disciplines in the organization. She also will lead the company’s strategic priorities pertaining to population health management, ensure the representation of key stakeholders on important issues, and coordinate project management for top company initiatives across all departments.

In addition, Waddey will support the CEO in efforts to promote LifePoint’s culture and priorities in its hospitals, among potential new hospital partners and with other company constituents.

Waddey joined LifePoint in 2010 and has more than 15 years of hospital operations and strategy and service line development experience. She most recently served as vice president of the company’s strategic resource group.

Waddey is former chair of Leadership Health Care in Nashville, the founder and a former board member of the American College of Healthcare Executives’ Middle Tennessee chapter.

RCG selects Brown as director of sales

Brown

RCG, a single-source telecom solutions provider based in Franklin, has announced the hiring of Richard Brown to lead the firm’s business development efforts as director of sales.

Brown joins RCG after working as a senior solutions architect for the IT and cloud services company, Cloudsmartz. There he assisted in the company’s launch of agent carrier services nationwide.

Brown also worked in a number of successful sales positions with local communications companies, including Level3 Communications and XO Communications.

Brown graduated the University of Tulsa.

IABC Nashville names new executive board

The Nashville Chapter of the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC) has announced the election of new officers for 2015.

  • President: Jennifer Fuqua, Meridian Surgical Partners
  • President-elect and secretary: Phil Matisak, ABC, UPS (retired)
  • Past president: Julie Davis, Brookdale Senior Living, Inc.
  • VP, finance: Pam Eldridge, Connexon Partners
  • VP, membership: Lynn Yates, WG Yates Construction
  • VP, communications: Misty Moore, Brookdale Senior Living, Inc.
  • VP, professional development: Steve Turney, Ten Adams
  • VVP, awards: Tom Kenley, The Rogers Group
  • VP at-large: Paul Ladd, World Christian Broadcasting
  • VP at-large: Dr. Sherry Roberts, MTSU

IABC/Nashville is one of more than 100 chapters in 70 countries providing learning opportunities and professional development sessions for its members. Information: nashville.iabc.com.