Term: 07/01/2022 - 06/30/2025
Term: 2/14/2024 - 6/30/2027
Term: 7/1/2023 - 6/30/2026
Rich Johnson is Assistant Vice President-Legislative & Regulatory Affairs at AT&T based in Atlanta. He has grown in External Affairs, with increasing roles of responsibility, for almost 10 years. Previously he was the Senior Director of Public Affairs for Technology Association of Georgia. Rich graduated from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, with a BA degree in Political Science. As a volunteer, he currently serves the GA Hispanic Chamber, GA Partnership for Excellence in Education, and Communities in Schools of Atlanta.
Term: 7/1/2024 - 6/30/27
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.
Term: 7/1/2023 - 6/30/2026
Term: 7/1/2023 - 6/30/2026
Andy Macke is an Infrastructure Deployment Executive with Corporate Environmental Risk Management, working projects across the Southeast from the corporate headquarters in DeKalb County. He joined CERM in Spring of 2023, after 22 years with Comcast Cable, most recently as Vice President for external affairs of the Big South Region. Andy earned a BA in Political Science from the University of Georgia and a Masters in Telecommunications Policy from the Georgia Institute of Technology.
Term: 7/1/24 - 6/30/27
John J. (“Jay”) Neely, III currently serves as Vice President, Law & Public Affairs for Gulfstream Aerospace Corporation. His responsibilities include management of the Legal Department, its lawyers and other personnel, and his Public Affairs responsibilities include management of State and Local Government Affairs and Community Relations. Before joining Gulfstream in 1999, Neely was an attorney in the Atlanta office of Paul, Hastings, Janofsky & Walker, LLP. He served as Law Clerk to the Honorable Dudley H. Bowen, Jr., U.S. District Court, Southern District of Georgia, Augusta. Neely received a J.D. in 1992 from the University of Georgia School of Law, and a B.S. in 1989 from Vanderbilt University. He has been married to Courtney Parks Neely since 1993, and they have two children – Laura and John. He and his family attend the Community Bible Church.
Term: 7/1/23 - 6/30/26
Term: Ex Officio
Neil L. Pruitt, Jr. is chairman and CEO of PruittHealth, Inc., an integrated health care company offering independent and assisted living, skilled nursing services, rehabilitation services, home health and hospice care as well as pharmacy services, community-based services, medical supplies and care management. Pruitt served as chair of the Board of Governors of the American Health Care Association and chair of the Georgia Health Care Association. As shown by his February 2013, Congressional appointment to the Commission for Long Term Care – a 15-member panel charged with developing plans for a comprehensive, coordinated and high-quality system ensuring long-term care for older adults and people with disabilities, Pruitt has become a recognized leader in the health care profession. Pruitt served as chair of the Board of Trustees of the University System of Georgia Foundation, Inc. and currently serves as a Board Member for the Georgia Regents Health System. He received a Bachelor of Arts degree in economics from the University of the South in Tennessee and was awarded a Master of Business Administration and a Master of Health Administration from Georgia State University. He is an active member of the Peachtree Presbyterian Church in Atlanta. He and his wife, Mebane, have three children.
Term: 7/1/2023 - 6/30/2026
Sarah-Elizabeth Langford is the Executive Director of the Development Authority of Fulton County which encourages development throughout Fulton County through incentives and other strategic initiatives. She is also a partner with Five Points Development, which builds market rate and affordable housing. She specializes in affordable housing and commercial construction projects, including business strategy and operations for companies doing government and commercial construction and facilities work. A former First Lady of the city of Atlanta, Langford is passionate about community and service. She has worked on initiatives that include partnering with Google Fiber to provide low income families with technology and high-speed internet services. She also helped open a technology center and computer lab with the WNBA in partnership with the YWCA and supported the grand opening of technology incubator Tech Square Labs and the Vine City At-Promise Youth Center. Langford is an Atlanta native and Pace Academy graduate. She was an NCAA Academic-All American gymnast at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Mich., she received a B.A. in French. She went on to receive her J.D. from Howard University School of Law. While in law school, Langford worked for U.S. Congressman John Lewis and later worked for the D.C. Office of the General Counsel. She has devoted much of her time to bringing greater awareness to the importance of early childhood education. She serves on the boards of the Atlanta Children’s Museum, the Georgia Early Education Alliance for Ready Students (GEEARS), the Motherless Daughters Foundation and the nonprofit BIH.
Term: 7/1/2024 - 6/30/2027
Term: 7/1/2023 - 6/30/2026
Term: 7/1/2023 - 6/30/2026
Term: 07/01/2022 - 06/30/2025
Malcolm joined Aflac in 2007 and is Vice President of State Affairs, responsible for overseeing the State Affairs team which represents Aflac in front of State Legislatures, Departments of Insurance, Governors, and Attorney’s General in all 50 states. Malcolm and his wife, Sydne, live in Atlanta and have three children. They enjoy spending time in Blue Ridge, Georgia and visiting family in Waycross, Georgia.
Term: 7/1/2024 - 6/30/2027
Julie Smith is vice president of state and local government affairs for Verizon Communications. Julie is responsible for government and community affairs at the state and local level across the southern United States. Before joining Verizon in 2007, Julie worked for two Members of Congress in Washington DC and spent four years working for Governor Sonny Perdue. She also worked at Fox News in New York City. Julie was raised in the suburbs of Atlanta, Georgia and resides in Sandy Springs, Georgia. She is a graduate of the University of Georgia having received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science. Julie serves on the Board of Visitors for the School of Public and International Affairs at the University of Georgia and the board of directors of the Cobb County Chamber of Commerce. Julie was selected by the UGA Alumni Association as a 40 under 40 Honoree in 2016.
Term: 7/1/2023 - 6/30/2026
Jeb Stewart is an entrepreneur and investor. He is president of Xana Management, LLC, among other businesses and investment/philanthropic ventures.
As an entrepreneur, partner, or advisor, Jeb has been part of building businesses in the banking, computer hardware, construction, engineering, manufacturing, technology, and telecommunications industries. Among prior involvements, he was the founder, chairman of the Board, and CEO of SciHealth Holdings, Inc., a healthcare decision support software and consulting company, acquired by Mediware Corporation in 2008.
Stewart has served in leadership positions of more than 40 businesses and investment/civic organizations. These include Leadership Georgia and Leadership Gwinnett, the Northeast Georgia Council of the Boy Scouts of America, and Tech High, a charter school which the Georgia Public Policy Foundation helped establish in the Atlanta Public School System. Stewart has served on multiple boards for his alma mater, Georgia Tech. He is active locally in coaching youth sports, church, angel investment groups, multiple professional and civic associations, and philanthropic causes.
Stewart and his wife, Stephanie, have two sons and live in Gwinnett County.
Term: 7/1/2025 - 6/30/2028
Olga Sulyagina is the President of Omnichannel Customer Experience at United Parcel Service (UPS). She assumed her current role in November 2023, after most recently working as the company's VP of Digital Channels and Experience. Prior to joining UPS in 2020 as VP of eCommerce and Retail Strategy, Olga worked at Xerox in various executive roles, leading global sales enablement, business transformation, and international marketing teams. This followed her career in marketing and brand consultancy, where she was a business development and partner at the European brand consultancy, Mildberry.
She earned a Bachelor's degree in International and Intercultural Communication from Moscow State Linguistic University and an MBA in Business and Economics from California State University, East Bay.
Olga has lived in Georgia with her husband, Valeriy Mildzikhov for the past five years and has two boys, Alexander and Mikhail.
Term: 7/1/2025 - 6/30/2028
Term: 07/01/2022 - 06/30/2025