Meeting |
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Report |
Meeting |
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Report |
September 28, 1999 |
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President Worth called the meeting to order and asked Chip Gwynn if he would introduce visiting Rotarians and guests. There were twelve guests and four visiting Rotarians with us for the meeting. The invocation was given by Ron Bryson. Worth then led the club in the pledge of allegiance and afterwards commented that the stock market has had a tremendous drop in the last two weeks and that must have something to do with the fact that we had a stock broker leading us in our invocation. "Some things just work out right," commented Worth. He also announced that the membership had contributed almost $3,000 to the Turkish earthquake relief effort. Byron Billiard introduced Rotary's newest member, Dr. Thomas Lewis Ezzard Charles Moore, civic leader, teacher and musician extraordinaire. Byron also commented that our newest member's father really liked boxing before continuing with a rather lengthy, in fact really lengthy, introduction that some members thought was the day's program. Catherine Browning was called on to introduce two visiting recipients of Charlotte Rotary Scholarships. They were Shacobi McCorkle, a nursing student at UNCC, and David Fitch, an accounting graduate from UNCC. Both did a great job in expressing their appreciation for Rotary's financial help. President Worth introduced the head table, which included Rusty Brink, Ed Ellis, Ron Bryson, Lee Morris, Bob Barber and Ed Kiser, who introduced the speaker. The speaker was Bill Holland, Chairman and CEO of United Dominion Industries. Bill is a native of Oklahoma, educated in Colorado, practiced law in Arkansas. He later held several positions with a Canadian firm headquartered in New Hanover, New Hampshire, eventually becoming Chairman and CEO. Bill then changed the name of the company and moved the headquarters to Charlotte in 1989. United Dominion Industries is a $2.2 billion diversified manufacturer of industrial equipment such as pumps, valves and heat exchangers for customers worldwide. There is great variety in the products manufactured by United Dominion—from the dock levelers, metal doors and air conditioning cooling towers at Ericsson Stadium to the ice cream freezers at Cabarrus Creamery to the gasoline pumps at many service stations. Bill serves on three area corporate boards — Lance, J. A. Jones and B. F. Goodrich, as well as Carolina Health Care Systems. Mr. Holland has spent the last few years traveling the world over scouting for manufacturing sites, searching for acquisition candidates and seeking new markets for United Dominion-Bill Holland congratulated the worldwide Rotary organization for all the outstanding work it does. He also commented on the wonderful friendships that exist in the organization and the social commaraderie among Rotarians. He stated that the humorous H. L. Mencken once said that the first Rotarian was the first man to call John the Baptist "Jack." Bill stated the United is growing at the rate of 15% per year. It's a publicly held company and is traded on all major stock exchanges. They have 13,000 employees worldwide and eighty-six manufacturing plants in twenty countries, and the products are marketed in over 140 countries. The company began in Canada in 1882 and was known as Dominion Bridge Company. Dominion Bridge built much of Canada's infrastructure including bridges, dams, skyscrapers and landmarks such as the Parliament Buildings and the retractable roof on Toronto's Sky-dome Stadium. Dominion was a well-known construction company, but does not do any of that kind of work today. Bill spent some time telling how great the move to Charlotte was for the company and how its employees enjoy living in the Queen City. He also stated that it's a great location for an international organization. Bill has been a major contributor in encouraging and helping other major companies relocate their headquarters to Charlotte. After turning from construction to manufacturing the company is currently selling 70% of its product lines in this country, but the foreign markets are growing. The company is extremely active in product acquisition for the many different manufacturing companies it has. They acquired eleven in 1998 and that was just an average acquisition year for Dominion. Last month the company bought a $130 million German manufacturer of metering pumps and laboratory analyzers. Dominion is currently divided into four segments: flow technology, machinery, specialty engineering, and test instrumentation. Many of the manufacturing units are located in the Carolinas and most all of the hundreds of products are used in this area. The company is extremely strong financially and its goal is to be a world-class industrial enterprise consisting of market leader businesses that manufacture engineered products for customers worldwide. He also stated that much of that has been accomplished since moving the company to Charlotte. The one remaining goal is to make sure Dominion is a world-class operation, and they are working on that now. Holland's definition of "world-class" is having the manufacturing facilities, expertise and products to compete with anyone anywhere in the world. Bill Holland also expects his company to achieve double digit growth annually. He wants Dominion to be the best company of its type in the world and the company's leadership is working very hard to insure it reaches its lofty goal. We think Bill and Dominion will reach their goals. Great program. * * * |
New Member
JEANNIE S. FALKNOR Publishing, Business Newspapers THE BUSINESS JOURNAL Many of those years she worked in newsrooms in Tennessee, Kentucky and North Carolina as a reporter, editorial page editor, assistant city editor, city editor, assistant metro editor, investigative projects editor, features editor and assistant managing editor. She helped lead the Charlotte Observer team, which won the 1988 Pulitzer Prize for Meritorious Public Service for its years of coverage of Jim Bakker and PTL-. In addition to her work in newsrooms, Jeannie has been a newspaper and management consultant and a newspaper human resources trainer. She spent two years as part of a general executive training program at the Charlotte Observer where she learned about the entire newspaper business by working on special projects with the general manager and publisher and working in all divisions including advertising, production and circulation. After about 25 years of working for Knight-Ridder newspapers, Jeannie took her training and experience to The Business Journal in 1997, where she was named Associate Publisher. A year later, she was named Publisher of The Business Journal. Jeannie is a member of or supports many community organizations, but her most important commitment is to her husband of 29 years and their 18-year-old son. Welcome to Charlotte Rotary, Jeannie. * * * HABITAT HOUSE PROJECTOur Club has committed to join forces with the Dilworth and Charlotte East Clubs in a Spring 2000 Habitat House effort. Ed Montague will be chief organizer for Charlotte Rotary. This is a terrific and fun way for us to work together on behalf of our community. If you are interested in being an active part of this vital project, please contact Ed at 542-9282. * * * NORTH CAROLINA FLOOD RELIEF Those members desiring to contribute through the Rotary Foundation should send all checks to Claire. The checks should be noted for N.C. Disaster Relief/ District 7720. Any money donated will be sent by the Foundation to a fund administered by 7720 District Governor Charles Williford and a committee of Rotarians he has appointed. Paul Harris credit will be awarded. * * * Attendance Results for August Charlotte Rotary turned in an 86% attendance record for August, placing our club 9th among 32 clubs in the District. * * * |
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