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Business stalwarts have led and continue to lead the Partnership.  Former Board chairs include Bill Gaston, Goldkist; Roy Richards, Southwire Company; Carl Swearingen, BellSouth; Ann Cramer, IBM; Gary Lee, UPS Foundation; David M. Ratcliffe, CEO, Southern Company, and Phil Jacobs, retired BellSouth and AT&T executive.  Robert L. Brown Jr., President and CEO, R L Brown and Associates, Inc., is the current Board Chair.  Mike Garrett, President and CEO, Georgia Power Company, serves as the Vice Chair.  Checkout the Leadership page for members of the Executive Committee.

The Partnership is an affiliate member of the Georgia Chamber of Commerce and serves as its education advisor.  Dr. Steve Dolinger, the organization's president, is an advisory member of Governor Sonny Perdue's Alliance of Education Agency Heads that brings the leaders of seven state education agencies together to better pool expertise and resources.  Dolinger's primary responsibility is to team with a representative of the Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce to advise Alliance members on education issues from the business perspective.

In 2004, the Georgia Partnership and the Georgia Chamber joined to produce the "Economics of Education" briefing that raised awareness on the importance of public education when it comes to individual and collective prosperity.  The presentation was initially given in 12 cities across the state and over the past four-plus years - the report was updated in 2007 - has been given almost 100 times.  Using a report authored by Georgia Southern University as the basis of the presentation, business audiences are presented dollars and cents facts and figures that show them what they have to gain - and lose - when it comes to things like graduation and dropout rates, post-secondary education participation numbers, early childhood education and teacher quality.

Several communities - Elbert and Troup Counties for example - not only listened intently but took the next step by formally energizing their business communities to get involved with their education systems.  The Partnership has worked closely with them in facilitating their efforts.  A replication manual was created after the Elbert County efforts and is available here to other communities interested in follwing their footsteps.  The How Tos of Community Planning brochure was created as a quick read of this process and is also available here on the Web site.