Americans elected a new president this year who promised to "drain the swamp" and revamp the federal government.
In Chattanooga, new leaders also were picked to head many of Chattanooga's biggest and most influential businesses during 2017. But in most instances, those moving into the top jobs ascended from within their organizations and are planning more evolutionary than revolutionary plans.
Chattanooga's largest bank, top tourism attraction, biggest college system, two biggest municipal utilities and two of Chattanooga's three biggest hospitals all got new leaders during 2016.
Retirements and job changes elevated new CEOs to the top jobs this year at Memorial and Parkridge hospitals, First Tennessee Bank, EPB, Southern Adventist University, Tennessee Aquarium, Dalton Utilities and Hospice of Chattanooga. In each case, the new heads of the area businesses were either promoted from within or from similar businesses.
Most of the new leaders are white men, who comprise more than 80 percent of the heads of Chattanooga's biggest employers. But this year Flora Tydings became the first female named as chancellor of the Tennessee Board of Regents and Tracy Wood became the first female and first African-American to head Hospice of Chattanooga.
As the year ends, local boards also are moving to fill two of the top education jobs in Chattanooga. The Hamilton County school system, under the direction of a new board elected by Hamilton County voters this August, is trying to select who should become the next superintendent to succeed Rick Smith, who retired in April. The county school system is the largest employer in Chattanooga with more than 6,000 employees and has been headed since Smith's departure by interim Superintendent Kirk Kelly, who also is a candidate for the permanent job.
Chattanooga State Community College, the largest community college in the region, also is ending 2016 in search of a new president for the second time in just three years. Tydings, who was named president of Chattanooga State in July 2015, is being promoted to the top job at the Board of Regents, which will name her successor next year.
Who are the top bosses who joined Chattanooga's biggest employers in 2016?
Hospice of Chattanooga
Tracy Wood
Tracy Wood, who has spent the past 13 years helping to manage Hospice programs, was appointed head of Hospice of Chattanooga in October. She succeeded the retiring Dr. Clark Taylor as head of the 250-employee agency. Wood said she is eager to continue to build on the 35-year history of Chattanooga's biggest hospice, including raising money for a new stand-alone facility to replace the existing 16-bed facility Hospice of Chattanooga has operated for the past six years in East Brainerd. Wood started and built her own private Hospice program in Atlanta before selling that business in 2012. The non-profit Hospice of Chattanooga provides an array of palliative and hospice care services to those with life-limiting illnesses in the 18 counties in and around Chattanooga.
Memorial Hospital
Larry Schumacher
Larry Schumacher, the former systems chief operating officer for Hospital Sisters Health Systems in Springfield, Ill., became president of CHI Memorial Health System in January. He succeeded Jim Hobson who left the hospital in 2015 and was named CEO of True North Custom in October. Schumacher has a strong background in nursing, beginning his career at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore in critical care and nursing. Memorial, owned by Catholic Health Initiatives, operates hospitals in Glenwood and Hixson and has other outpatient, clinics and rehabilitation facilities in Ooltewah, East Brainerd, Hixson. Memorial has more than 2,800 employees in Chattanooga.
Parkridge hospital Thomas Ozburn
Thomas H. Ozburn, a Chattanooga native who has worked in hospital management for the past 16 years, was picked this year as president of Parkridge Health System. Ozburn, who grew up on Signal Mountain, will take over Feb. 17 from CEO Darrell Moore, who retires Saturday after 40 years in the industry. Ozburn was most recently CEO of Nashville-based TriStar Southern Hills Medical Center, which is also owned by HCA, the world's biggest hospital chain. Parkridge is the biggest investor-owned hospital in Chattanooga and operates Parkridge Medical Center, Parkridge West Hospital, Parkridge East Hospital, and its two behavioral health facilities - Parkridge Valley Adult and Senior Campus and Parkridge Valley Child and Adolescent Campus.
EPB
David Wade
David Wade, a 33-year engineer at EPB, succeeded the retiring Harold DePriest in September as head of EPB. Wade becomes only the seventh director for the city-owned electric utility in its 79-year history. Wade, who helped develop EPB's community-wide fiber optic network, was previously elected president and chief operating officer of EPB in February. EPB serves nearly 180,000 homes in a 600-square-mile area in and around Chattanooga with electricity, internet, cable TV and telephone services.
First Tennessee Bank
Jeff Jackson
Jeff Jackson, a former IBM financing manager who joined First Tennessee Bank as a commercial lender in 2009, was elevated in March to market president of Chattanooga's biggest bank. He succeeded Keith Sanford, who left the bank after 36 years to head the Tennessee Aquairum. Jackson is only the fourth president since First Tennessee came to the Chattanooga market 40 years ago after buying the assets of the failed Hamilton National Bank. First Tennessee Bank, a subsidiary of First Horizon Corp., is the biggest bank in Chattanooga with more than $2.3 billion in local assets.
Tennessee Aquarium Keith Sanford
Keith Sanford was market president of First Tennessee Bank for the past five years before hired to head the Tennessee Aquarium. Sanford, who rose through the ranks to the top job in Chattanooga at First Tennessee during his 36-year career at the bank, succeeded Charlie Arant as CEO of the Aquarium. Sanford had served for three years on the Tennessee Aquarium board. Arant, a former manager of the IBM office in Chattanooga, headed the Tennessee Aquarium since 1995. The riverfront attraction, which opened as the world's biggest freshwater aquarium in 1992, added the IMAX theater in 1996 and the Ocean Journey in 2005 during Arant's tenure.
Dalton Utilities
Tom Bundros
Tom Bundros, a former chief financial officer at Dalton Utilities for nearly 13 years, who went on the serve in a similar role for Colonial Pipeline Co, returned to Dalton Utilities and assumed the utility's top job in January. He succeeded Don Cope, who retired after nearly two decades as head of Dalton's biggest utility. Bundros, who started his career for the Southern Co. in Atlanta, oversaw a new strategic plan developed this year to guide Dalton Utilities in its diverse array of municipal services, including electricity, natural gas, water, sewer, internet, cable TV and telephone. The plan developed this year is designed to help the business react to changing market conditions and environmental regulations. The city-owned utility has more than 17,000 customers and generates total revenues of more than $207.2 million.
Southern Adventist
David Smith
David Smith, a former professor and chair of the English department at Southern Adventist University for 17 years, returned to Southern this year as president of the Collegedale-based college. Smith, who previously served as president of Union College in Lincoln, Neb., was picked to succeed long-serving president Gordon Bietz after he retired this spring. Smith first returned to Collegedale in 2011 as senior pastor for Southern's campus church. Southern Adventist has an enrollment of more than 3,100 students who come to the Adventist school from around the world.
Tennessee Board of Regents
Flora Tydings
The Tennessee Board of Regents this week unanimously approved the appointment of Flora Tydings as the system's new chancellor, making her the first woman in state history to head a state higher education system. Tydings, who will take over her new job on Feb. 1, has served as president of Chattanooga State Community College since July 2015. She succeeds interim TBR Chancellor David Gregory, who delayed his retirement from the system after taking the system's helm temporarily following the retirement of then-Chancellor John Morgan last year. In her new role, Tydings will help appoint the next head of Chattanooga State, which is the biggest two-year college degree college in the region with more than 10,000 students. Tydings previously served from 2003 to 2015 as president of Athens Technical College in Athens, Ga., a campus of the public Technical College System of Georgia, before succeeding the retiring Jim Catanzaro last year at Chattanooga State.