ATLANTA – An administrator at Georgia Tech has been tapped to become the next president of the University of North Georgia (UNG).
The University System of Georgia Board of Regents voted Wednesday to name Michael P. “Mike” Shannon sole finalist for the UNG post. The school’s current president, Bonita Jacobs, will retire next month after 12 years of service.
Shannon, a retired U.S. Army officer, currently serves as interim chief business officer at Georgia Tech as well as interim executive vice president for administration and finance.
“[He] has demonstrated tremendous leadership and effective communication while building solid relationships with his colleagues, peers and students,” system Chancellor Sonny Perdue said. “I believe his deep experience and energy make him an ideal candidate to help students, staff and faculty at UNG build on the great success they found with President Jacobs.”
“UNG is a special place, with five diverse campuses and a unique mission as the military college of Georgia and one of only six senior military colleges in the nation,” added Regent Jim Syfan of Gainesville, who chaired the search committee that recommended Shannon.
Shannon served as a commissioned officer in the Army for 20 years, retiring in 2015. For more than a decade, he provided technical and operational expertise to the Defense Department as an expert in nuclear technology.
Shannon also served as an instructor at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point and later as an assistant professor in the Department of Physics and Nuclear Engineering.
The New Jersey native is a first-generation college graduate, holding a bachelor’s degree in aerospace engineering and a master’s in aeronautical science from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach, Fla. Shannon also earned a master’s in health physics as well as a doctorate in nuclear and radiological engineering from Georgia Tech.
The regents will take final action on Shannon’s appointment to UNG at a future board meeting.
ATLANTA – Longtime Georgia Commissioner of Natural Resources Mark Williams is leaving the post to take the reins at the Jekyll Island Authority.
Williams announced his upcoming departure from the DNR Tuesday at the state Board of Natural Resources’ monthly meeting. At about the same time Williams was speaking, the Jekyll Island Authority board was naming him to succeed the retired Jones Hooks as executive director effective July 1, The Brunswick News reported Tuesday.
“It has been my absolute honor to serve you for 14 years,” an emotional Williams told DNR board members. “I’ve never dreaded a day’s work in this office.”
Williams will get to spend more time with his family in his new post. He lives in Wayne County, and the Republican represented House District 178 in the Georgia House of Representatives from 2007 until 2010.
The Jekyll Island board set Williams’ base salary at $250,000 per year, according to The Brunswick News, with a performance incentive of up to $25,000 and a vehicle allowance of up to $10,000 annually. His annual salary at the DNR is $180,000, according to the government transparency advocacy nonprofit OpenTheBooks.
In other business at Tuesday’s DNR Board meeting, board members voted to increase the salary of Rick Dunn, director of the state Environmental Protection Division, from $175,000 per year to $190,000.
Board member Ray Lambert, chairman of the board’s Environmental Protection Committee, said Dunn previously turned down a raise, directing it instead to the agency’s staff.
ATLANTA – Southeastern Georgia has landed another supplier for the state’s fast-growing electric mobility industry.
South Korea-based Hanon Systems. a global provider of automotive thermal and energy management solutions for conventional and electric vehicles will invest more than $40 million in a manufacturing plant in Bulloch County. The project is expected to create 160 jobs.
“Georgia’s automotive and e-mobility industries continue to grow as we proudly welcome Hanon Systems to Georgia,” Gov. Brian said Tuesday from Israel, where he is leading a trade mission. “As our state furthers its position as the EV capital of America, new jobs and opportunities like these are coming.”
Billy Allen, chairman of the Development Authority of Bulloch County, said Hanon will work closely with Hyundai Motor Group, which is building a huge EV manufacturing plant in Bryan County west of Savannah, a $5.5 billion investment.
The Hanon Systems plant is expected to begin operations in May of next year.
“We are pleased to be contributing to the local economy of Bulloch County through job creation,” said Min Sung, Hanon’s president and CEO. “Today’s announcement aligns with our strategy to support the industry shift toward electrification while growing our North America footprint.”
The Hyundai plant has been attracting EV suppliers to Bulloch County and other areas near Savannah since breaking ground on the project last October.
Ecoplastic Corp. announced plans in January to build an automotive parts plant in Bulloch that will create 456 jobs. Another auto parts manufacturer Joon Georgia, unveiled plans last November for a new manufacturing plant in Bulloch that will create 630 jobs.
“Bulloch County, as part of the Savannah Harbor-Interstate 16 Corridor Joint Development Authority, has been a part of this growing success story from the beginning,” said Pat Wilson, commissioner of the Georgia Department of Economic Development.
The state agency’s Global Commerce team worked on the Hanon Systems project with the Development Authority of Bulloch County, Georgia Power, the Georgia Ports Authority and the Technical College System of Georgia’s Quick Start program.
ATLANTA – Southwest Georgia’s popular Providence Canyon State Park is about to become larger.
The state Board of Natural Resources voted Tuesday to purchase two parcels of land next to the park totaling just more than 1,700 acres for $3.3 million.
The larger of the two tracts – 1,488 acres – is being bought from private owners for $2.9 million. Most of the funding – $2.4 million – is coming through the Georgia Outdoor Stewardship Act, which voters approved in a 2018 referendum. The remaining $500,000 was donated by the Knobloch Family Foundation, Steve Friedman, the state Department of Natural Resources’ real estate chief, told board members.
The smaller parcel at 215 acres is priced at $409,000. The Nature Conservancy and Knobloch Foundation are contributing $150,000 each toward the purchase, while the Georgia Natural Resources Foundation will supply the remaining $109,000.
The two purchases will allow the park to expand its hiking trails and camping sites, Friedman said.
Providence Canyon State Park, renowned as the “Little Grand Canyon,” is located in Stewart County west of U.S. 27.
Board members also approved six other land transactions at Tuesday’s monthly meeting, including the purchase of 2,409 acres for an addition to the Sansaville Wildlife Management Area in Wayne County, 386 acres for an addition to Dugdown Mountain Corridor in Haralson and Polk counties, and 375 acres for an addition to Morgan Lake Wildlife Management Area in Wayne and Long counties.
ATLANTA – U.S. Rep. Rich McCormick, R-Suwanee, Tuesday became the first elected official from Georgia to endorse Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis for president.
“Under Joe Biden’s failed leadership, our union has suffered,” McCormick said in his formal endorsement announcement of DeSantis. “The southern border is a wreck, crime is overrunning our cities, and our energy policy empowers Communist China, [which] pollutes the world more than anyone else.
“We need a warrior who will do whatever it takes to champion conservative values and safeguard the next generation. … Governor Ron DeSantis is battle tested and ready to be our next president.”
McCormick, an emergency room physician and Marine veteran, was elected to Congress last November representing Georgia’s 6th Congressional District in Atlanta’s northern suburbs.
He didn’t mention former President Donald Trump, currently the Republican frontrunner in the polls by a wide margin, in Tuesday’s announcement.
But McCormick did say the 2024 election “is not about the past, it’s about the future.” Several of Trump’s Republican opponents have made similar statements aimed at moving the GOP primary electorate away from the former president.
DeSantis has yet to announce he’s running for president but is expected to do so as early as this week.
Announced Republican candidates thus far include U.S. Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, who entered the race on Monday, former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, former biotech executive Vivek Ramaswamy, and conservation talk radio host Larry Elder.
