Keynote Speakers

Anna R. Cablik
President
ANATEK, INC.

Anna R. Cablik was born and raised in the Republic of Panama, where she obtained a degree in Medical Technology from the Canal Zone College. After finishing her studies, she got married to Jerry C. Cablik and together they came to Atlanta in 1974. She started out working at Piedmont Hospital, after two years, she had an opportunity to change jobs and in 1976 she started working with a construction materials company. She stayed there for seven years, progressing from clerk to Vice President of the Company. In 1982 she left her position to start her first company: ANATEK, INC., a contracting company that specializes in highway bridges.

After leading ANATEK, INC. to become one of the largest Hispanic owned firms in Georgia, Ms. Cablik started ANASTEEL & Supply Company, LLC in 1994. ANASTEEL is the only Hispanic/female owned reinforcing steel fabricator in the Southeast, and possibly the United States.

In 2001, Ms. Cablik joined forces with Mark Massmann and started a third company: MassAna Construction LLC. MassAna is a general contractor specializing in heavy construction. In 2006 she sold her ownership interest in MassAna Construction.

Ms. Cablik is also a partner of PanAmerican Logistics, LLC, a logistics company that operates the Perishables Center at the Atlanta Airport, and PanAmerican International, LLC, an importer of ethnic foods form Latin America.

She is on the Board of Directors of Georgia Power Company and a member of the Corporate Board of Branch Banking and Trust. She is a member of the fundraising committee of the Georgia Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, and a member of the Board of the Georgia Chamber of Commerce. She also serves on the Board of the United Way of Metropolitan Atlanta. She has served on the Boards of the Latin American Association, Saint Joseph’s Mercy Care, The Fulton Atlanta Community Action Authority, The Advisory Board of “211”, Woman Looking Ahead, the United States Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, and the Board of Counselors for the Carter Center and The Greater Atlanta Economic Alliance.

Ms. Cablik has received numerous awards and recognitions. Most recently she received the FBE Phoenix Tral Blazer Award by the City of Atlanta in March 2004, the Georgia Hispanic Chamber of Commerce 20th Anniversary Special Award in June 2004 and the 25 Power Women Award by Atlanta Woman Magazine in January 2007.

Dr. Richard Florida
International Best-Selling Author, Who's Your City?
Director, Martin Prosperity Institute
University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management

Richard Florida is one of the world's leading public intellectuals. Esquire Magazine recently named him one of the Best and Brightest in America. He is author of the international bestselling book, The Rise of the Creative Class. His ideas have been featured in major ad campaigns from BMW and Apple and are being used globally to change the way regions and nations do business.

He is regular columnist with the Globe and Mail newspaper and has written articles for the Atlantic Monthly, the New York Times, and the Financial Times. He was a contributor to the 2004 Harvard Business Review’s List of Breakthrough Ideas. He is founder of the Creative Class Group, a global advisory services firm in Washington, DC. He is Director of the Martin Prosperity Institute at the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management. Florida has been a professor at Carnegie Mellon University, a visiting professor at Harvard and MIT, and a visiting fellow of the Brookings Institution. Florida earned his Bachelor's degree from Rutgers College and his Ph.D. from Columbia University.

Arthur C. Nelson, Ph.D.
Director of the Center for the New Metropolis
Presidential Professor of City and Metropolitan Planning
College of Architecture + Planning
University of Utah

"Chris" (short for Christian) Nelson is the founding Director of the Center for the New Metropolis at the University of Utah where he is also Presidential Professor of City and Metropolitan Planning in the College of Architecture + Planning.

For the past thirty years, Dr. Nelson has conducted pioneering research in urban and regional development planning, public facility finance, economic development, and metropolitan development patterns. Numerous organizations have sponsored his work such as the National Science Foundation; National Academy of Sciences; U.S. Departments of Housing and Urban Development, Transportation, and Commerce (through the Economic Development Administration); Environmental Protection Agency; U.K. Department of the Environment; Lincoln Institute of Land Policy; Fannie Mae Foundation; American Planning Association; National Association of Realtors; MacArthur Foundation; the Urban Land Institute; and the Brookings Institution among many others. His research and practice has led to 18 books and more than 200 other scholarly and professional publications.

Prior to academia, Dr. Nelson managed his own West Coast consultancy in planning and management, and he continues to provide professional planning and development consulting services. His professional planning, education, and research accomplishments were recognized through election to the College of Fellows of the American Institute of Certified Planners, a recognition shared by fewer than one percent of all planners. In 2000-01, he served HUD as an expert on smart growth and growth management for the Clinton and Bush Administrations. In this capacity, he helped expand HUD's research scholar programs and create HUD's doctoral fellowship program with an emphasis on creating a new generation urban economists and policy analysts.

Dr. Nelson has earned three teacher of the year honors at two universities (Kansas State University and twice at Georgia Tech), researcher of the year honors at a third (University of New Orleans), and scholar of the year honors at a fourth (Virginia Tech). He joins the elite ranks of presidential professors at the University of Utah, a distinction shared by fewer than one percent of all faculty. Dr. Nelson's books have shaped the current thinking about several planning fields. His papers have won national awards and international distinction. Dr. Nelson's students have won numerous national awards including the national student project of the year award given by the American Institute of Certified Planners.

Dr. Nelson?s current area of work is projecting future development opportunities and implications for metropolitan areas. This work has been reported in the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Washington Post, and several times on the front page of USA Today.

John Rice
Vice Chairman, General Electric Company
President & CEO of GE Infrastructure

John G. Rice, 51, is Vice Chairman of GE and President & CEO of GE Infrastructure. This business segment includes Energy, Aviation, Rail, Oil & Gas, Water, Energy Financial Services, and Aviation Financial Services. Prior to his current position, Rice served as Vice Chairman of GE and President & CEO of GE Industrial.

Rice began his General Electric career in 1978 as a member of the Financial Management Program, moving to the GE Corporate Audit Staff in 1981. In 1984 he joined GE Appliances, having various assignments in operations and consumer service.

In 1992 Rice was named President and CEO of GE’s Canadian appliance affiliate in Toronto, Canada. He assumed leadership of the GE Corporate Audit Staff in 1994, and a year later was appointed President of GE Plastics Asia/Pacific business headquarters in Singapore. Rice was appointed President and CEO, GE Transportation Systems in Erie, Pennsylvania, in September 1997.

Rice was named President and CEO of GE Energy, a leading supplier of power generation technology, energy services, and energy management systems in November of 2000 through June of 2005.

Rice earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in economics from Hamilton College in Clinton, New York, and currently serves on the Board of Trustees there. Rice is also a trustee of various other institutions including Emory University and the Walker School, and is on the International Advisory Board of King Fahd University in Saudi Arabia. In addition, he is past chairman of the Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce. He and his wife Cammie have four sons and reside in Roswell, Georgia.

Roel Spee
Associate Partner, IBM Global Business Services
Global Leader, PLI-Global Location Strategies

Roel Spee is an associate partner with IBM Global Business Services and global leader of the PLI-Global Location Strategies service (aka IBM-PLI). He has over 20 years of experience as location strategy and economic development consultant.

Over the course of his career, he has built up huge expertise in advising international companies in location choices for a broad variety of industries and investment projects. He assisted corporate executives from international companies around the world with their strategic location choices for over 300 projects. Besides being a key advisor to IBM internally, external clients include over 200 companies such as Bayer, Citibank, Procter & Gamble, Shell, Sony, Toyota, Unilever, and many other leading global companies and fast growing companies in new emerging industries.

Moreover, Roel is one of the very few consultants globally that is able to leverage his broad pragmatic experience working directly with international companies in their location selection projects for advising investment promotion and economic development agencies: developing and implementing both marketing strategies to attract new and retain present businesses, as well as economic development strategies for improving business conditions in their regions. Customers worked for include over 100 public sector organizations as well as public-private partnerships worldwide. Many of these were assisted with multiple engagements leading to a total of over 300 economic development projects globally.

Roel is frequently quoted as location strategy and foreign investment expert in leading industry magazines and is a regular speaker at international events on corporate location decision-making and investment promotion strategies. He has spoken at events in Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, Ecuador, France, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Portugal, Russia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, and USA.

Roel Spee is a core member of the Consultants Advisory Group to the World Association of Investment Promotion Agencies (WAIPA), and member of the International Committee of the International Economic Development Council (IEDC).

J. Ronald Terwilliger
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Trammell Crow Residential

Mr. Terwilliger became Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Trammell Crow Residential in 1986. Trammell Crow Residential is a national residential real estate company and is the largest developer of multi-family housing in the United States. Mr. Terwilliger is responsible for all residential development and operations conducted by Trammell Crow Residential in 23 offices throughout the United States.

Mr. Terwilliger is an honor graduate of the United States Naval Academy. After serving five years in the Navy, he received his MBA degree with High Distinction from the Harvard Graduate School of Business where he was elected a Baker Scholar. He is past-chairman of the Urban Land Institute where he continues to serve on the Governance Committee. He additionally is Chairman Emeritus of the Wharton Real Estate Center, is past Chairman of the Atlanta Neighborhood Development Partnership and is Chairman of the International Board of Directors of Habitat for Humanity.

Philanthropically Mr. Terwilliger has recently made a $5 million gift to establish the ULI Terwilliger Center for Workforce Housing. Similarly, a $5 million gift to the Enterprise Foundation has created the Enterprise Terwilliger Fund – targeted to create 2,000 affordable homes annually.

He also currently serves as a Director of the Naval Academy Foundation, Subcommittee Chairman of the Naval Academy Athletic Committee and is immediate past Chairman of the National Association of Homebuilders Multifamily Leadership Board. He serves as a member of the Executive Committee of the Enterprise Board of Trustees.