The city, which announced the founding of the board Wednesday via press release, hopes the board will “continue propelling the city forward within the technology sector.” The board will work directly with the Atlanta Information Management team, partnering with and supporting the work taking place under CIO Gary Brantley.
The board is slated to hold its first meeting in May, and is made up of 12 members, who came from government, the public sector and academia. The private-sector companies providing members for the board are a diverse bunch, including the restaurant chain Chik-fil-A, the credit service Equifax, the Atlanta-based Delta Air Lines, and the media group Cox Enterprises, among others. Georgia State University has a member on the board, as does the Metro Atlanta Chamber and Atlanta Tech Village.
It was unclear in the city’s initial release if the board would have any decision-making power, with the city noting specifically that “this board of leaders will help influence the City of Atlanta’s innovation agenda and city-wide adoption of technology development and implementation through consultation.”
"Consultation" seems like the keyword there. A full list of the advisory boards members can be found below:
- Eric Anderson, Egon Zehnder
- David Cummings, Atlanta Tech Village
- Cynthia Curry, Metro Atlanta Chamber
- Martin Davis, Southern Company
- Michael "Mike“ Erbrick, Chick-fil-A
- Jay Ferro, QuikRete
- Roy Hadley, Adams and Reese LLP
- Bryson Koehler, Equifax
- Danielle McPherson, Delta Air Lines
- Gregory Morrison, Cox Enterprises
- Narayanan "KK“ Krishnakumar, Delta Air Lines
- Phil Ventimiglia, Georgia State University