James A. Massey, Chairman

James A. Massey is the founder and Chairman of the Board of Cyber Operations, Inc., a global provider of security solutions including network security, biometrics and digital media distribution. Cyber Operations' products are running on some of our nation's most sensitive and secure networks in this country and abroad.

Mr. Massey began his career after service in U. S. Army Aviation in the 60's.

An environmentalist, in 1971, Mr. Massey founded Resource Industries of Tennessee and Alabama. He conceived and permitted first liquid hazardous waste incinerator in United States in Memphis, Tennessee. Resource Industries later became the nation's premier landfill for the disposal of industrial hazardous and toxic waste. That lead to a medical waste company he created in 1985 called Health Management Incorporated where the "red box on the wall" was born. Now doctors, hospitals and medical facilities everywhere use the "red box" to safely contain medical waste.

Never idle, Mr. Massey has served or currently serves in management and on boards in industries including wound care, computer technology, copyright & anti-piracy, aviation, hazardous, infectious and low-level nuclear waste, real estate, agriculture, and mortgage.

His devotion to his community lead him to twenty years in law enforcement serving in all capacities from recruit to Chief. He has served twice in Tennessee State government as Chief of Staff to the Lt. Governor and Speaker of the Senate for six years. Highest appointed office in the Legislature.

He is a venture capitalist, Master Mariner and since 1957, an avid aviation enthusiast. He is an Airline Transport Pilot and Flight Instructor, type-rated in Learjets, Citations and military L-39s. A Scottish Right Mason and Shriner, Mr. Massey is married to the former Debra Marcrum, and has three daughters and two grandchildren.

Ira Drayton Pruitt

Graduate of Marion Military Institute in 1955. A Bachelor of Science Degree from the University of Alabama in 1959, A Juris Doctor from the University Of Alabama School Of Law in January of l96l, A Doctor of Laws Degree from Livingston University in l990.

Profession
Practiced law in Livingston, Sumter County, Alabama since February of 1961.Licensed to practice law in the State of Tennessee and practiced as an associate with the Harkavy, Shainberg Firm which has now merged with Armstrong Allan PLLC. Armstrong Allan has law offices in Memphis and Jackson, Tennessee, Jackson, Mississippi and Little Rock, Arkansas.Licensed to practice in Alabama and Tennessee. He is admitted to practice in all state courts in Alabama and Tennessee; United States District Court Northern, Middle and Southern Districts of Alabama. United States District Court Western District of Tennessee and the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals. He is a member of the Alabama State Bar Association, Tennessee State Bar Association and the American Bar Association.

Military Service
Served in the US Army Infantry beginning in 1957. He served in National Guard or Reserve Units until 1968. He served as a Military Police Officer at Fort Gordon Georgia during the Berlin crisis. As a Captain he became S3 of the 156th Military Police Battalion headquartered in Linden, Alabama and was federalized during the Selma to Montgomery March.

Political
Elected to the City Council of the City of Livingston in 1964 and served until 1968, was elected as Mayor and served as Vice Chairman of the Utilities Board of the City of Livingston from 1968 - 1980. During term as City Council member and Mayor, Livingston formed an Industrial Development Board which developed three Industrial Parks, the South Heavy Industrial Park, the North Industrial Park and the McDowell Interstate Industrial Park. He was featured in the lead article in Venture Magazine for using Industrial Revenue Bonds as venture capital which assisted in locating many industries to the area.

During the time that he was Mayor, the City of Livingston received more money per capita from the Federal Government that any other city in Alabama. A study done by the economic development subcommittee of Congress concluded that Livingston had the most success and best used the monies it received from the federal grant and loan programs of any City in the Nation. He testified twice before the Congressional Subcommittee concerning the planning and organization needed to accomplish such a successful use of money. The Chairman of that Subcommittee, Jim Wright from Texas came to Livingston and visited the numerous committees which were at work, and upon leaving was quoted in the paper as saying "I see why Livingston is successful, I see Democracy at work."

Erskine Ramsay, II

Erskine is a graduate of Indian Springs School, Birmingham-Southern College (Bachelor of Science Degree), and the University of Alabama (Master of Science Degree - Engineering.) He also attended Tulane University where he was a member of Phi Delta Theta fraternity. While a student at Birmingham-Southern, Erskine and fellow classmate Clint Folsom built a NASCAR race car and competed in races across the South.

After graduation, Erskine went to work with his father at the Mechanical Contracting firm of Banks, Ellett, and Ramsay. In 1981 Erskine and his father formed Superior Mechanical, Inc. Superior Mechanical, Inc. is one of the largest mechanical contracting firms in the city of Birmingham. Recent jobs completed have been: UAB - North Pavilion Hospital, Saint Vincent's Hospital - North and South Towers, Saint Vincent's - 119 Health Center, UAB - Shelby Biomedical Research Center, UAB - Research Support Building and the Dekalb County Public Safety Center. In his spare time Erskine enjoys hunting, fishing, snow skiing, gardening, scuba diving, real estate, genealogy, and travel.

Erskine is a member of Canterbury United Methodist Church, Monday Morning Quarterback Club, Birmingham Historical Society, St. Andrew's Society of the Middle South, Sons of the American Revolution, Birmingham Botanical Society, and Birmingham Museum of Art.

Erskine is married to Laura and they have two sons, Chris Clegg and Erskine, III. Chris is married to Missy and they have two children, Preston and Olivia. Erskine, III is a student at Birmingham-Southern College.

Bob Geddie

Bob Geddie is a native of Elmore County. After graduating from Marion Military Institute and Auburn University, he joined the Washington staff of the late U.S. Senator John Sparkman as legislative assistant. He served a brief time as Associate Director or the Alabama Petroleum Council and rejoined Sparkman to coordinate his Alabama offices. Geddie served four years as Legislative Assistant to Governor Fob James.

He was the Governor's representative to the National Governor's Association, Interstate Mining Compact and the Tennessee-Tombigbee Commission. He was also Director of State Governmental Affairs for Alabama Power Company. He currently serves on the Board of Trustees of Marion Military Institute and the Board of Directors of The Advocacy Group.

He and Joe Fine formed Fine Geddie & Associates in 1984. The firm represents scores of corporations, business trade associations and public entities before the Alabama Legislature and state government agencies. Geddie serves as President of Fine Geddie & Associates.

A. Clint Folsom

Clint attended Birmingham Southern College where he received a Bachelor of Science degree in Biology. As a student he worked in direct sales with Bill Ash of Ashcraft selling cookware and George K. Moss Company selling industrial process equipment. Clint and fellow Birmingham Southern student Erskine Ramsay, constructed a NASCAR race car and competed in races throughout the South, including a 500 mile race at Talladega Speedway with Clint as driver. Experience in racing inspired Clint to form Folsom Metal Products; the first parts manufactured were chassis components for NASCAR racing cars. NASCAR Champion Bobby Allison worked closely with Clint in developing the parts. Bobby drove Clint's car which was used for development in a 100 lap race at Huntsville, Alabama and lapped the entire field.

The energy crisis of the seventies brought new opportunities; the Seal Tech Division was formed to provide high pressure connectors for the oil and gas industry. The development of the first Rotating Blowout Preventer by Seal Tech was one of the technologies that ushered in Horizontal Drilling. Seal Tech expanded to a 100,000 square foot plant in Bessemer Alabama and a 35,000 sq. ft. plant in Houston, with sales and service in all major Oil Centers of the US.

Seal Tech Space was formed in 1986 after the Challenger tragedy. Seal Tech Space received a contract from NASA and Morton Thiokol to redesign the Space Shuttle Solid Rocket Motor O-ring Seals. Seal Tech Space constructed a Coordinate Measuring machine guided by Lasers to evaluate the O-ring Seals of the Rocket Motor; this was the first use of Laser alignment and Interferometry on a Large Scale Measuring Machine. Seal Tech Space employed 52 at its facility in Clearfield Utah. Clint's Cyber Operations partner Tommy Hudson (Hudco Industrial Products) developed the foundation materials for the Measuring Machine.

Clint serves as Chairman of Peregrine Energy, an Exploration and Production Company. Peregrine has three producing gas wells in Chocolate Bayou near Alvin, Texas.

Clint's interest in NASCAR Racing spurred the formation of Seal Tech Motor Sports. The team competed in Busch Grand National, ARCA and Winston Cup (now Nextel Cup) Series. Drivers for the team included the late Clifford Allison, the late Stan Fox, Dave Mader, Stanley Smith, Steve Kinser and Clint.

Crystal Medical Division was formed in 1994 to develop and manufacture Dental Implants. Crystal is located in the Cyber Operations building in Pelham. The company provides a unique product line of Dental Implants that allow replacement of a missing or diseased tooth in one visit to the Dentist.

Clint has two sons, Clint III and his wife Leslie are in Boulder, Colorado and Greg is in Birmingham with his wife Muriel and their daughter Camille.

Jim Palumbo

Jim Palumbo held key executive positions at SONY, including President/CEO of Aiwa America, a SONY Corporation subsidiary, as well as Senior Vice President of Sony's Consumer Television and Digital Media Company. He was instrumental in many new businesses initiatives at SONY, including the launch of HDTV and digital media business. He also served as Sony's Senior Vice President of External Affairs where the Technology Standards Office, Industry and Government groups were under his leadership. Palumbo is now a Corporate Business Advisor focusing on the Consumer Electronics Industry and currently serves as President of the Plasma Display Coalition whose founding members are Hitachi, LG, Panasonic, Pioneer and Samsung.

Mark M. Layne

Mark has been a licensed Certified Public Accountant since 1985. He graduated from the University of Tennessee with a B.S. in Business Administration in 1982. He went on to receive his Masters of Accountancy degree from the University of Tennessee in 1984.

He began his career with the Memphis, Tennessee office of Deloitte, Haskins, and Sells (now Deloitte & Touche) in 1984. While there he ultimately worked as a tax manager until his departure in 1990. While working at Deloitte, his primary focus was the tax practice. He also taught Accounting Periods and Methods at Deloitte's national tax school.

Layne left Deloitte in 1990 to join Crain & Company, a certified public accounting firm in Jackson, Tennessee. He became managing partner in 1997 and managed the firm until his departure in 2004. During the time Layne was at Crain, it grew from a firm of 15 employees to a total of 34 employees and revenues tripled. In 2004, Crain merged with HORNE LLP, which is the 5th largest accounting firm in the Southeast.

Presently he is the President of Layne Capital Management and Consulting, Inc. a firm that continues to provide consulting services for HORNE LLP and is involved in real estate development throughout the Southeast.

He served as the President of the Tennessee Society of Certified Public Accountants in 1998/1999, he was appointed by then Governor Don Sunquist to serve on the Tennessee State of Board of Accountancy, and he has served on Council of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants. He has been an adjunct instructor at Union University and Cumberland University.

He is very active in his church as a Sunday School teacher and deacon. He has served or is serving on the Boards of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, Young Life, and Trinity Christian Academy. He is a Paul Harris Fellow of the Rotary Foundation.

He is married to Teresa and they have four children.

Peaches Blank

Businesswoman; Healthcare consultant: Vice Chair of the Board of HealthMark Partners: Deputy to the Governor Don Sundquist of Tennessee (First female in history to hold this position): Private Consulting in Healthcare and Government: President, Hospital Alliance of Tennessee: (Quoted in NY Times, LA Times; appeared on Today Show) Senior Policy Staff to Governor Lamar Alexander of Tennessee: Director, Health Facilities commission:

NCSTATE University

  • Chairman of the Board of Trustees, 4 years (elected annually)
  • Chair, Campus and Student Affairs Committee, Board of Trustees
  • Chair, Endowment Board
  • Board of Visitors, member initial board
  • 1993 Distinguished Alumni in the College of Humanities Arts and Sciences
  • The Walter Hines Page Endowed Scholarship in the College of Humanities
  • Alumni Association, Lifetime Member
  • Chancellor's Search Committee
  • (Marye Anne Fox and Jim Oblinger)

Selected Community Activities (past and present)

  • Tennessee Higher Education Commission, Chairman appointed by Governor Ned McWherter for Two Terms - elected chairman after one year of service; first female in the Southern States to chair a coordinating board in higher education
  • Member, NC Higher Education Bond Oversight Committee
  • YWCA Public Funding Committee, Chairman
  • Junior League of Nashville, Vice President, Executive Committee
  • Nashville City Club, board member (first female on the board)
  • Southern Regional Education Board, Member
  • Baptist Hospital Foundation, Vice Chairman
  • The Harpeth Hall School, Grade Level Coordinator
  • 1988 North Carolina Association of Students Councils Leadership award
  • Leadership Nashville, Alumni

Church Activities: (past and present)

  • United Methodist Church, Member
  • Chairman, Nominations Committee
  • Chairman, Finance Committee
  • Member, Administrative Board
  • Chairman, Work area on Education
  • Delegate to Annual Conference
  • Chairman, Stewardship Campaign
  • Teacher, Senior High School Sunday school

Education

  • 1974 MA in Public Administration, Minor in Economics, North Carolina State University
  • 1973 BA Degree in Political Science, North Carolina State University
  • 1969 Frank L. Ashley High School, Gastonia, NC

Widow - one daughter, Raleigh Anne Blank, age 20