Oct
11
2010
My Profession profile for The Commercial Appeal
Oct. 11, 2010
Small-business ownership can, at times, feel like a life-or-death situation. Jonny Filsinger knows this all too well, but he manages to keep things in perspective.
The president of Master Video Productions has certainly had his ups and downs during his 31 years in business. But Filsinger comes from a place where the dangers are very real: He was an officer with the Memphis Police Department from 1973 until 1997, including serving on the TACT squad for 16 years.
Filsinger was at the Shannon Street siege in 1983. And he was among the officers who responded to the 32-hour hostage standoff at St. Jude Children’s Research hospital in 1982, for which he was awarded a medal of honor.
Master Video was started in 1979 when Filsinger, his father, Siegfried, and friend, Jerry Jeter, each put in $2,000 for equipment and he taught himself how to use it.
“I would work my eight hours on the police department and then put in six to eight hours on my job, and worked just about every weekend if I wasn’t already working with the police department,” he said. “I would put in a good 30 to 40 hours each week for 20-something years until I opened full time when I retired.”
Filsinger eventually bought out Jeter and his father retired. In addition to weddings and corporate training videos in the beginning, Filsinger used his own equipment, until the city bought its own, for police-training videos … (read more)
2,270 comments | posted in business news, commercial appeal, film, my profession, profile, small business
Jul
6
2010
My Profession story for The Commercial Appeal
July 6, 2010
Ewing Carruthers shows up at his office 5 1/2 days, each and every week.
Nothing remarkable about that — except Carruthers is 93 years old and he has been at it a long time.
“I’ve been working since I was 12 years old,” Carruthers said. “I enjoy it. It’s rewarding. And it pays well.”
Since 1939, Carruthers has sold insurance for Mass Mutual and recently was inducted into the Estate Planning Hall of Fame by the National Association of Estate Planners & Councils.
Born in 1917, he grew up in Evergreen in a house built by his grandparents at the corner of Evergreen and Autumn, near Overton Park where his grandfather, A.B. Carruthers, tethered a black bear named “Natch” to a tree, the beginning of what would later become the Memphis Zoo. Nearby is a small street named for his family of land developers who also had a hand in developing the Evergreen neighborhood … (read more)
2,388 comments | posted in business news, commercial appeal, my profession, profile
May
19
2010
My Profession story for The Commercial Appeal
May 19, 2010
After years away for college and work, Laurita Jackson returned to Memphis to be closer to family and raise her children in the South.
She moved home in 2003 to work for the family business, Memphis Chemical & Janitorial Supply Company, and took over as president in the beginning of May, bringing aboard a commitment to her employees and community.
“It’s great working for a family business,” Jackson said. “One of the things that allows us to make it work is we have a saying, ‘We do what’s best for the enterprise,’ and that allows us to make the right decisions for the company, and also maintain our family relationships.”
Memphis Chemical is a distributor of janitorial supplies, cleaning chemicals and cleaning equipment, in addition to servicing that cleaning equipment. Distribution ranges from throughout the city to nationally for some FedEx facilities and customers in the federal government such as the departments of Energy and Veterans Affairs.
“We are locally based but we do have the capability to ship nationwide, and we do that,” she said … (read more)
1,948 comments | posted in business news, commercial appeal, my profession, profile
Mar
10
2010
My Profession profile for The Commercial Appeal
March 10, 2010
George Hernandez is a man on the move.
As the new CEO of Campbell Clinic, Hernandez is charged with carrying the 100-year-old orthopedic clinic into its next century of operation. He took the reins from former CEO John Vines, who retired Dec. 31.
Hernandez, 57, now oversees an organization that is at the top of its field in orthopedic surgery in the Mid-South, produces the top-selling textbook on orthopedics in the world, Campbell’s Operative Orthopedics, and facilitates research in its field and the training of physicians domestically and internationally.
In addition, Campbell Clinic works with orthopedic implant manufacturers such as Smith & Nephew to develop new implants and devices for use in surgery.
“The support staff and I are here to provide the framework that allows the doctors to practice their skill, and that’s to treat patients with orthopedic problems,” Hernandez said … (read more)
2,459 comments | posted in business news, commercial appeal, health/fitness, my profession, profile
Feb
11
2010
My Profession business profile for The Commercial Appeal
February 11, 2010
In spring 2009, Richard Morrow willingly jumped from the reasonably sound ship of commodities futures trading into the sinking boat of stocks and bonds.
“In commodities, what you do is get a small percentage of someone’s high-risk capital because commodities are considered risky,” Morrow said. “I’ve always wanted to manage a bigger piece of someone’s pie, so to speak.”
For the previous 20 years, Morrow had managed individual and institutional accounts in the commodities futures market for Bondurant Futures. He went with Wunderlich Securities during what he calls “ground zero for the financial meltdown” to manage individual and institutional client portfolios using an equity and bond-based platform that does not include futures trading.
“In commodities, we were relatively unscathed by all that (financial meltdown), so I didn’t have the financial and emotional baggage of a blow-up,” Morrow said. “I was essentially an observer, upset for my friends and country, but for the most part I averted disaster.” … (read more)
2,409 comments | posted in business news, commercial appeal, my profession, profile
Dec
11
2009
My Profession profile for The Commercial Appeal
December 10, 2009
There is no debating that the Rhodes College mock trial team is one of the best of its kind in the country.
The team holds the record for most consecutive Final 48 (that’s mock trial’s equivalent to the Final Four) appearances at 23 straight years.
At the helm of this team for exactly that many years is political science professor Dr. Marcus Pohlmann.
Originally from Davenport, Iowa, Pohlmann did his undergraduate work at Cornell College and graduate work at Columbia University. Having spent more than two decades at Rhodes, though, he considers himself a Memphian and, as a political scientist, appreciates the political show here and its accessibility.
“I know Willie Herenton, I know A C Wharton, I run into them at restaurants,” Pohlmann said. “You can’t say that in every city, that you can have that kind of access to the players.” … (read more)
2,249 comments | posted in business news, commercial appeal, my profession, politics, profile
Mar
19
2009
My Profession story for The Commercial Appeal
March 18, 2009
Mike Palazola is a peddler.
Despite his 55,000 square feet of mostly refrigerated warehouse space, the 30 trucks that bear his name, the three states he services and the 100 people he employs, Palazola is, at heart, a peddler of onions, apples, bananas and tomatoes.
M. Palazola Produce is a business based in the Old World that has adapted to the new world of corporations, virtual meetings and convenience.
Family is at the core of M. Palazola Produce, where three brothers work with their mother and a son-in-law. Inside the mammoth warehouse with its wood- and-glass offices, when Palazola introduces employees, he mentions where they went to high school … (read more)
1,736 comments | posted in business news, commercial appeal, my profession