The Board of Directors of the Newnan-Coweta Chamber of Commerce has elected seven new Officers for 2009.

Board members elected to officer positions are: Jan Alligood, Chair, Georgia Power Company; Steve Mader, Chair Elect, SouthTowne Motors of Newnan; Vicki Kaiser, Treasurer, Piedmont Healthcare; Mark Fritz, Vice Chair-Membership & Marketing, Bank of Coweta; Grant Grimes, Vice Chair-Organizational Performance, Forestar Real Estate Group; Randy Cardoza, Vice Chair-Economic Prosperity, AGL Resources; and Phil Aaron, Past Chair, State Farm Insurance.

Alligood has been with Georgia Power for 35 years and currently serves as Area Manager for Coweta and Fayette Counties. She also serves as chair of the Central Education Center board of directors.

Mader is a Pittsburgh, PA, native who began in the car business in Georgia in 1976. He opened the first SouthTowne Motors dealership in 1992 and has added others since that time. He servecs on the boards of directors of Habitat for Humanity, the Boys and Girls Club, and Communities in Schools and on the school council for Smokey Road Middle School.

Kaiser joined Piedmont Healthcare in 2007 after a long career in health marketing and development with VistaCare Hospice in Atlanta and Newnan Hospital. She has chaired several Chamber of Commerce board committees and has served on the boards of the West Central Technical College Foundation, the Keith Brooking Children’s Foundation and the March of Dimes.

A former officer in the United States Navy, Fritz has spent the majority of his career in banking and has been with Bank of Coweta since 2002. He is a graduate of the U.S. Navy Flight School in Pensacola Florida and holds an MBA from Georgia State. He serves on the executive board of the White Oak Community Association of Georgia and coaches soccer for the Coweta County Soccer Association.

Grimes joined Forestar in 2006, bringing over 25 years of real estate industry experience. He manages the southern division of the company’s Atlanta land holdings directing entitlement and development of owned land. Prior to Forestar he served as Vice President of Land Acquisition and Development for the Atlanta division of a national home builder. He has also held executive positions with Winter Properties, Ackerman Development and Equitable Real Estate.
Cardoza has over 30 years experience in the field of economic development at the local, regional and state levels. He served as Commissioner of the Georgia Department of Industry, Trade & Tourism from 1990 until mid 2000, working for Governors Harris, Miller and Barnes.

Cardoza was Deputy Commissioner of the Economic Development Division from 1986 until his appointment as Commissioner. Prior to joining AGL Resources, Cardoza was Senior Vice President, Economic Development, for the Montgomery (AL) Area Chamber of Commerce.

Aaron, a native of Decatur, Georgia, began his career with State Farm Insurance in 1990 and became an independent State Farm Agent in Newnan in 1999. He is a member of Life Underwriters of Atlanta and First Baptist Church of Newnan, Kiwanis and Rotary, served on the board of Keith Brooking Children's Foundation, and led the board of the Newnan-Coweta Chamber of Commerce as chairman during 2008.

About the Newnan-Coweta Chamber of Commerce
With more than 700 members throughout Coweta County, the Newnan-Coweta Chamber of Commerce is an independent, nonprofit organization dedicated to increasing economic prosperity for all Coweta’s citizens. As the county’s largest business organization, the Chamber works to provide business leadership to foster an economic and cultural climate favorable to all business, in order to create a higher quality of life for all residents.

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