Moving Business Forward

On April 7, Chattanooga Whiskey commemorated the company’s 10th anniversary with a special event at its Riverfront Distillery that introduced the Chattanooga Whiskey Founder’s 10th Anniversary Blend. A few weeks prior to the 10th anniversary event, Chattanooga Whiskey Founder and President Tim Piersant took Moving Business Forward on a walking tour of the company’s Riverfront Distillery in downtown Chattanooga. Along with taking our listeners through the inner workings of the company's operation, Tim shares the history of how Chattanooga Whiskey has grown from its roots to become a recognized brand among craft whiskeys.

Founded in 1986, Chattanooga Neighborhood Enterprise is a nonprofit organization focused on helping families navigate the home-buying process and become successful, lifelong homeowners. In this edition of Moving Business Forward, we’ll be featuring our interview with Martina Guilfoil, the President & CEO of Chattanooga Neighborhood Enterprise (CNE). We’ll discuss the overall mission of CNE and the impact the organization has made in Chattanooga. We’ll also talk with Martina about the changes Martina has seen in the Chattanooga-area housing market since she began working at CNE in 2013 as well as what she sees on the road ahead.

Chattanooga Area Chamber of Commerce President & CEO Christy Gillenwater is our guest for this edition of Moving Business Forward. As you hear, when Christy began her tenure leading the Chamber in the latter part of 2017, the business climate in the region was “humming,” as she notes in this PodTopics interview. The strong momentum continued until the global pandemic hit the U.S. in March of 2020. This episode of Moving Business Forward explores how the Chamber has evolved its programs to meet the challenges of the day. You’ll also hear Christy share her observations on the resiliency of the Chattanooga business community along with how her career path led her to Chattanooga.

What was the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the tourism industry in Chattanooga? How has an important part of the Chattanooga economy adapted and innovated within what has become the new normal? Moving Business Forward asked those questions and much more during our conversation with Barry White, the CEO and President of the Chattanooga Tourism Company. You’ll also hear about Barry’s background in the tourism industry, what brought him to Chattanooga and how he sees tourism in Chattanooga moving forward.

As we near the end of January, the countdown clock for filing annual tax returns is beginning to tick a little louder, and April’s tax deadline served as the inspiration for the sixth episode of the Moving Business Forward Podcast. We visited the Chattanooga offices of Elliott Davis, a firm which has more than 100 years of history as a leading accounting, audit, tax and business advisory firm with offices across the Southeast. This episode of the podcast features an in-depth conversation with Sarah Denton and Alan Doak, two of the firm’s senior managers in the Chattanooga office. During the podcast, you’ll learn how Elliott Davis has evolved its broad scope of services since the COVID-19 pandemic and you’ll get some perspective on the firm’s commitment to community involvement in Chattanooga.

With the fifth installment of our podcast series, we travel to Chattanooga's South Side to spend some time with Max Poppel, the co-founder of the Crash Pad: An Uncommon Hostel and the Flying Squirrel Restaurant & Bar. More than a decade ago, an interest in rock climbing and other outdoor sports activities drew Max to the Chattanooga area. Max quickly developed a love for the area and what it had to offer for outdoor enthusiasts. As you’ll hear during our interview, Max and his business partner, Dan Rose, identified an opportunity to start what became The Crash Pad: An Uncommon Hostel in 2011. The development of Crash Pad served as part of the revitalization taking place within Chattanooga’s South Side. In 2013, Max and Dan took the leap to build the Flying Squirrel Restaurant & Bar, an addition to their overall business operation that is located just off of Main Street.

The Moving Business Forward Podcast visits the offices of Network Transport, a Chattanooga-based logistics company that, in 2021, earned a spot on Inc. Magazine’s prestigious Inc. 5000 List. We will be talking with Network Transport President and Co-founder David Ferguson during the first part of the podcast. Bob Poulos, the Chief Commercial Officer for Network Transport, will join us as well. You’ll hear how Network Transport used its strong roots within the logistics hotbed of Chattanooga to become recognized as one of the nation’s fastest-growing private companies.

The third episode of our Moving Business Forward series takes us to Girls Inc. of Chattanooga, which is currently celebrating the organization’s 60th anniversary of service to the Chattanooga community. You’ll hear our wide-ranging conversation with Toccora Johnson-Petersen, the CEO of Girls, Inc. of Chattanooga. Joining the organization 12 years ago, Toccora shares her career path within Girls Inc. and you’ll also hear how her passion for service ultimately led Toccora to be selected by the organization's Board of Directors as the CEO of Girls Inc. in February of 2021. Our discussion on the podcast includes a look back at the history of Girls, Inc. of Chattanooga and how the organization has evolved through the decades in the ongoing effort to meet the needs of girls and their families. In addition to offering a historical perspective and talking about what Girls, Inc. does today with its current programming, Toccora spends part of our discussion looking ahead to the future of the organization.

For our second episode of the series, we make a visit to CoLab just days before the official beginning of Chattanooga’s Startup Week 2021. During this podcast, we’ll be talking with Chloé Morrison and Lya Kimbrough, who are part of the new team at CoLab. Chloé serves as the Director of Communications for the organization, and Lya is the Manager of Capital Access and Community Engagement. In addition to our conversation covering Startup Week, you’ll hear how the respective career paths for Chloé and Lya led them to CoLab. You’ll also hear how the new team is working to move the organization forward.

In the debut episode of the series, we talk in-depth with Rodney Van Valkenburg, the Executive Director of the Chattanooga Theatre Centre. Rodney began his new leadership role with the Theatre Center in early August of 2020 – which, of course, was still in the pre-vaccine days of the COVID-19 global pandemic. Rodney tells us about the adjustments he and his team at Theatre Centre have made over the past year. As you’ll hear, Rodney explains how the entire Theatre Centre team has responded, becoming quite innovative with a number of new approaches to carrying out their mission in the community.