Kemp Appoints Five to Board of Regents

“For many years, I have worked closely with each of these individuals and found them to be honest, hardworking, and committed to our state’s long-term success. I am truly honored to name them to the Board of Regents to serve our top-notch university system with integrity and lead by example,” said Governor Brian P. Kemp. “On behalf of all Georgians, I want to thank the outgoing members for their service.”

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Cade Joiner (At-Large)

One year after earning a BBA in Marketing from the University of Georgia in 2001, Cade Joiner founded Shred-X Secure Document Destruction. Shred-X is one of the largest independent shredding companies in the Southeast and was named as one of the 100 fastest growing businesses in Georgia.

Joiner is the Chairman of the National Federation of Independent Business of Georgia, an organization with 8,000 member businesses across the state. He serves as a board member for the UGA Entrepreneurship Program, Georgia Chamber of Commerce, and Georgia Workforce Development Board, and he also advises the boards of several start-ups. The University of Georgia recently named him as one of its forty most distinguished graduates under the age of forty.

In 2018, Joiner served on the Finance Committee for Governor Brian Kemp and was also on the Executive Committee of the Kemp Inaugural. In early 2019, he was named the Co-Chairman of the Georgians First Commission. He regularly appears in the media discussing business issues and has been featured on Fox News, CNN, and in the Wall Street Journal.

Joiner and his wife, Katie, and sons live in Brookhaven. In his free time, he enjoys traveling and watching college football and basketball. Joiner will serve as an at-large member of the Board of Regents.

T. Dallas Smith (At-Large)

T. Dallas Smith is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer at T. Dallas Smith & Company. He leads all new business development initiatives. His role includes overseeing all brokerage affairs related to the company and providing chief liaison services to key clients.

Dallas began his commercial real estate career in 1982 at Atlanta Air Center Realty under the guidance of Thomas W. Tift as leasing and management representative for the portfolio. In 1989, he became the first African-American broker at Cushman & Wakefield of Georgia. His affiliation with the company opened doors for many minority brokers.

In 1995, he pioneered the brokerage division for H.J. Russell & Company, an African-American owned construction and management firm, where he served as Vice President of the Brokerage Division. Dallas led the company initiative of acquiring forty parcels of real estate, a full city block in the intercity of Atlanta resulting in a mixture of office, retail, and multifamily developments now valued at over $20 million.

In 2006, with the blessing of the late Herman Russell, Dallas opened T. Dallas Smith & Company, specializing in tenant representation. T. Dallas Smith & Company has led projects across the country with metrics exceeding more than seven million square feet of commercial property leasing and acquisitions and five thousand acres of land purchases. Since its inception, the team has grown exponentially, successfully leading transactions totaling over $15 billion in aggregate value.

Dallas, a Georgia State University alumnus, is the Chair of the Real Estate Committee at his alma mater. He also serves on the boards of the Council for Quality Growth and Atlanta Commercial Board of REALTORS. He has been awarded numerous honors including Atlanta Most Admired CEO in 2017, Atlanta Commercial Board of REALTORS’ Realtor of the Year in 2018, and Empire Board of Realists Broker of the Year in 2018. T. Dallas Smith will serve as an at-large member of the Board of Regents.

Harold Reynolds (10th CD)

Harold Reynolds is the Chief Executive Officer of privately held BankSouth Holding Company headquartered in Greene County, Georgia. The company owns and operates BankSouth, BankSouth Mortgage headquartered in Atlanta, Coldwell Banker Lake Oconee Realty, and other subsidiaries. He is a graduate of Georgia Tech where he earned his bachelor’s degree in Industrial Systems Engineering and has been inducted into the Council of Outstanding Young Engineering Alumni.

During the early 1980s, Reynolds was among the first developers of property near the newly impounded Lake Oconee. He was also General Manager of Greensboro Lumber Company, a local, innovative manufacturer of pine and hardwood timber products. The company operated a steam-powered electrical generating plant that was entirely fueled by waste and byproducts of milling and logging operations. The facility was one of the first in Georgia to export excess generation capacity to the electrical grid.

In 1987 through 1992, Reynolds was a founding partner, the President, and the Chief Operating Officer of Linger Longer Development Company. The company was the owner, developer, and operator of Reynolds Plantation, now known as Reynolds Lake Oconee. Reynolds served on Savannah-based Coastal Bankshares Board of Directors. He was a founder and director of Specialty Surgery Center Partners.

Governor Zell Miller appointed Reynolds to the State Board of Technical and Adult Education, now known as the Technical College System of Georgia. He served for ten years as the chairperson of the capital outlays committee and a two-year term as board chairman during the thirteen years that he was a board member.

Reynolds and his wife, Lesley, reside on Lake Oconee. They have a daughter attending the University of Alabama and a son attending Southern Methodist University. The family is a member of Lakeside Church. Reynolds will represent the 10th Congressional District on the Board of Regents.

Everett Kennedy (12th CD)

Everett Kennedy is Chief Executive Officer and Broker of Berkshire Hathaway Kennedy Realty in Statesboro where, for thirty-seven years, he has specialized in residential and commercial sales and development.

Everett, a lifetime resident of Bulloch County, is a 1987 graduate of Georgia Southern University with a BBA in Finance. He is passionate about Georgia Southern athletics and committed to the education of the regional workforce.

He is a past and current President of the Statesboro Board of Realtors where he was named Realtor of the Year three times in his career. He served two terms on the Board of Governors for the Georgia Association of Realtors, and he is active in the community. Kennedy serves on the board of directors of the Statesboro Bulloch Chamber of Commerce, is a Rotary Paul Harris Fellow and Charter Member of the Rotary Club of Downtown Statesboro, and serves on the Bulloch First Bank Advisory Board and Bulloch Academy Board of Directors. Kennedy is also active in the Sigma Chi Alumni Chapter. He was named to the “40 Under 40” class in 2005 by The Business Report & Journal.

Everett and his wife, Staci, have three children: Greyson, Harrison, and Alexandra. They are active members of the Statesboro First United Methodist Church. Kennedy will represent the 12th Congressional District on the Board of Regents.

Lowery May (14th CD)

Lowery May grew up in rural Georgia in the small town of Nashville and received her bachelor’s degree from the University of Georgia.

Lowery is a 2014 graduate of Leadership Georgia and received the organization’s Cora Lee Fanning Award that year. She served as a program chair for Leadership Georgia in 2015, and she continues in an active role with the organization. Lowery serves on the Georgia Student Finance Commission, which helps students access higher education by providing financial aid options and programs to make college more affordable. She also serves on the Rome-Floyd County Land Bank Authority, which works to acquire, manage, maintain, and facilitate the redevelopment of underutilized, vacant, blighted, and tax-delinquent properties.

Lowery is an active member of the Young Life Rome-Floyd County committee and a long-time board member of Open Door Children’s Home, a local group foster home in Rome. She serves on the Linda Brannen Williamson Foundation Rome Advisory Committee, a leadership development program for women founded in Statesboro in 2015.

Lowery previously worked in the insurance and staffing industries, and she currently assists with a family land management enterprise. She lives in Rome with her husband, Charlie, and their two children, Cappie and Charlie III. Their family attends Seven Hills Fellowship church. May will represent the 14th Congressional District on the Board of Regents.