Terry College of Business - Fall 2008 - (Page 35) tisan politics to forge coalitions for the common good. Shay also attributes the GPA’s success in part to the fact that “it’s run as an enterprise, not a bureaucratic program.” First Chatham Chairman Arnold Tenenbaum cites Green’s unselfishness, (above) Green developed his with Green suggesting Tenenbaum for board chair when business savvy working alongside his father, who ran a Fritohe might have been in line for the position himself. “He’s Lay distributorship. Credited a caring and sympathetic person, loyal and supportive,” with getting a wide range of stakeholders to agree on comsays Tenenbaum. “He’s got a soft underside, with a strong plicated issues, Green (botsense of humanity. But he’s also complex — he can be tom row/left in group photo) strong, determined, forthright. You can’t run over him.” learned the value of diplomacy as chief of staff for former con“He’s more than a cheerleader,” says Marchand. “He gressman Lindsay Thomas. wants to be intimately involved.” Former U.S. Sen. Mack Mattingly lauds Green’s apparently templated running for Congress, with the enthusiastic support of effortless ability to merge the personal and professional: “Steve many influential friends, but at the last moment he withdrew his brings a lot to the table,” says Mattingly. “Sometimes the good guys name, citing family reasons. Trip Tollison thinks Green should run for state office or Congress, but Green frowns at the public scrutiny really do finish first.” Green describes his UGA career with typical self-effacement: “I that political life has come to require. “I just don’t think my medical records and financial statements are anyone else’s business,” he says. did graduate,” he says, “but I didn’t rush into it.” Green’s devotion to the public good is the hallmark of his tenure Even as a student, he found a way to make unorthodox methods pay off. To avoid the fall registration agonies of early wake-ups and as GPA chairman. “The value Steve brings to the table is getting all the various long lines, Green signed up for whatever sections were available, often ending up with undesirable first period classes. He would later stakeholders to agree,” says the GPA’s COO Curtis Folz, “and to seek out instructors of sections held during more appealing time insure the process is as transparent as it possibly can be.” The key to being a success, says Green, is maintaining balance. slots, unfailingly persuading them to add him to their course ros“You’re not there to oversee day-to-day operations. Managers ters. Ironically, one of the former student deans who had observed his registration end run later enlisted him to become registrar at might do things differently from the way you’d do them. You have Brenau. “I didn’t have to pay him much,” says Green with a grin, to allow them leeway to do their jobs. You have to look at their results, not their process. We have to ask, ‘Are we being fair about recalling his first job out of school. Beneath his warm and breezy exterior, another story emerges, how we award projects? Are there enough women and minorities? one tinged with near-tragedy and shaped by raw experience at a Are salaries where they should be?’ We can’t say, ‘You need to pay young age. While Green was working at Brenau in the early ’70s, so-and-so X dollars.’ But at a board level, we can set ranges based his father was shot in the course of a botched robbery at the family’s on a variety of criteria.” Green’s political savvy came in handy during the recent visit of Savannah office. Then in his 60s, the elder Green turned over much of the day-to-day business operations to son Steve, still in his 20s. Commerce Secretary Gutierrez, who must be persuaded that deepOver time, he became head of the family business and, eventually, ening the port is crucial to its continued economic vitality. Over a lunch of fried chicken, green beans, and Georgia peach the family. His parents remain, by far, his strongest influences; years cobbler, Green engaged Gutierrez in a conversation about his native after their passing, he still refers to them often. “I had so much love and support . . . I had parents who never Cuba and how the future cabinet member emigrated to the U.S. at talked at me, but with me,” says Green. “I had peers who worked age 6. But Green also drove home some key points about the ports for their parents who never had any authority. Initially, I ran the sales having a direct effect on both the state’s and the country’s economy. force. Dad never second-guessed me. We had a great relationship, Before he left, Gutierrez promised to put in a good word about the but one day, we had a disagreement — nothing serious, we just channel-deepening project to his fellow cabinet members. Lobbying an emissary of the president is an example of what didn’t see eye to eye. When we finally talked about it, he told me, ‘I don’t expect that we’ll always agree. You’re going to think like a Green means when he says, “We [the board] are the nexus where 25-year-old man. I think like a 65-year-old man. I’d be even more day-to-day policy and long-term strategy connect.” Asked how he’d like to be remembered — community leader, surprised if we always agreed.’ He allowed me to be my own man. consensus builder, businessman, politico? — Green answers, characIt was an extraordinarily generous thing to do.” Rock-solid self-confidence built from those experiences has allowed teristically, with a favorite quote, paraphrased from Einstein: “Seek to be a man of value,” he says, “not success.” ■ Green to venture just about anywhere he wants to go. He once conTerry College oF Business Fall 2008 • 35 cOUrteSy: Steve Green
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