Washington Business Journal's Executive Profile on AAMU Alum, Henry Gilford, CEO of Gilford Corp.

The basics

Background: Gilford, 66, capped a childhood in civil rights-era Alabama with a 2007 contract to help construct D.C.’s first tribute to that era’s most famous face, Martin Luther King Jr. With that memorial to be unveiled in August, the Beltsville civil engineer is now vying for his fourth project on the National Mall. Gilford has faced plenty of life’s darkest moments — he lost daughter, Kesi, to fatal lupus complications — and yet says he still wakes up each day “tickled” to be alive.

Education: Bachelor’s in civil engineering, Alabama A&M University

First job: I worked all my life on my dad’s farm, starting from 6 years old.

Family: Wife Ollie, son Louis, in Silver Spring

Business strategy

Biggest current challenge: The same one I’ve had all along: access to working capital and surety bonding.

On client care: I’m a believer in customer satisfaction as the first step to customer loyalty. Do whatever it takes to keep them coming back. Satisfaction does not always equate to customer loyalty. There are certain clients, no matter how hard you work for them, they’ll turn around and make you bid the next job against the world. So there are certain clients we don’t do business with because of that. We look for clients that realize a good quality firm and take that into consideration when they have their next project.

How do you keep a competitive edge? Once you get the job, give it everything you’ve got. As contractors, we allowed ourselves to become a commodity, and we’re not. We’re a service provider. Everyone’s not going to give you the same type of service. Oftentimes, we have clients who look for the lowest bidder, and you usually get what you pay for. We have a saying in the construction industry: You pay with peanuts, you get monkeys.

Judgment calls

Best business decision: Trying to accumulate as much working capital as I possibly could from the very beginning. The key was to accumulate it faster than our growth.

Hardest lesson learned: Putting people in responsible positions who were not 100 percent trustworthy. Sometimes you know in the back of your mind, but you’ve got so many things going on and you’ve gone through so many people that you finally say everybody has some flaws and you try to trust them. And I don’t know how you guard against that.

How do you recover from failure? A lot of prayer. If you focus on not turning bitter towards people and towards society, you come through it. By far the hardest thing I’ve ever had to contend with was the loss of my daughter. Anything else shy of that, I almost grin at it. Other things come and go.

True confessions

Most people don’t know about engineers: We are very precise people. We rarely see gray areas. Everything’s black and white.
Guilty pleasure: I’m really into photography lately, the restoration of older images.
Personality in high school: Very into sports. Basketball, baseball, football. I could play ball all day, every day.

Car: Ford Fusion hybrid. I am totally green. We recycle everything. I’ve even had energy audits and LEED improvements to my house.
Where were you when Martin Luther King Jr. was shot? I had just left work. I was working for IBM and hadn’t even graduated from college. That day, I had just bought a used MG from one of my co-workers. That night, we had a rally that led from the campus to downtown Huntsville, and a reporter was trying to get through the crowd to the person speaking. He sat on the front fender of my brand-new car, and I worked him all the way through to the front of the crowd.

Favorite book: John Henry Johnson, “Against All Odds”

Favorite restaurant: TJ’s in Beltsville

Favorite place outside of the office: Taking pictures in Ocean City. We have a place there that we go to at least once a month.
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Source: Washington Business Journal, Friday, July 8, 2011, Commercial Real Estate Section

Alabama A&M Alum, Michelle Gilliam Jordan is Huntsville's New Director of Economic Development

Mayor Tommy Battle announced Friday the appointment of Michelle Gilliam Jordan as the City's new Director of Economic Development and Legislative Affairs. Jordan has served as Huntsville's Director of Community Development since February 2009, and previously served for ten years as the Director of Planning and Development in Decatur.



Jordan will be responsible for promoting the City's economic development plan and will become Huntsville's chief federal strategist in Montgomery and Washington, D.C.
A native of Detroit, Mich., Jordan earned her Master of Urban and Regional Planning degree at Alabama A & M in 1992. She began her career in Washington, D.C., working for the Forest Service in environmental compliance, and later returned to Huntsville to serve as an environmental specialist for Earth Tech. The City of Madison hired Jordan away in 1995 to work as a planner and capital improvements program manager for their burgeoning community. She managed Madison's $30 million capital improvement program and implemented the city's award winning Comprehension Plan. From Madison, Jordan moved to Decatur where she assumed the role as Director of Planning and Development. In Decatur, Jordan coordinated city-wide development, managed block grants, code enforcement programs, Planning Commission, and the Decatur Business Incubator.

When Jordan assumed the role of Community Development Director in Huntsville, she managed multi-million dollar grants and urban development projects. Her negotiating, leadership and teambuilding skills quickly earned her recognition as a rising star. Jordan succeeds Joe Vallely, who joined UAHuntsville earlier this month.

Alum, Adrienne Pope-Kelly Washington was the First African-American Director of the Security Directorate at Army Aviation & Missile Command

Alabmaa A&M University's Motto, "Service is Sovereignty" is a legacy Alumnus Mrs. Adrienne Pope-Kelly Washington has displayed in her personal and professional life. Adrienne Pope-Kelly Washington spent 20 of her 36 years of a distinguished government service career in top leadership roles.

She is the first African-American woman to be promoted to the highest position possible at Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, director of the Security Assistance Management Directorate (SAMD), U.S. Army and Missile Command (AMCOM).

Now retired, Washington attended public schools in Sylacauga and later received her bachelor’s degree in business administration with a minor in economics and her master’s degree in business administration from Alabama A&M University. She is also a 1973 graduate of the U.S. Army Intern Training Center-Depot Operations Program, Industrial College of the Armed Forces and a 1987 graduate of the Naval Post Graduate School in Monterey, Calif.

During the years of 1990 through 2007, Washington attended more than 30 Department of Defense and Army Leadership courses.

Known to those close to her as “P K,” Washington has been highly recognized for her multi-tasking skills as she worked in high profile positions. She managed Weapon Systems (Missile Systems and Rotary Wing Aircrafts) programs for more than 70 foreign nations and organizations with inventory values of $25.2 billion.

During high peak times in her career, Washington supervised more than 1,000 government and contract personnel, both within and outside the United States.

Host nations she visited included Denmark, Egypt, France, Germany, Great Britain, Israel, Japan, Korea, Kuwait, Netherlands, Norway, Saudi Arabia, Switzerland, Taiwan and the United Arab Emirates.

She currently serves as a part-time senior international program analyst at WYLE-CAS Company, supporting the U.S. Government in the development and execution of programs that transfer missile systems to foreign allies.

She has been active in Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority since she was initiated into the Gamma Mu Chapter at Alabama A&M University in 1970.

Her very first position was vice president of the 1970 Ivy Leaf Pledge Club.

The last chapter position she held before being elected the 24th South Eastern Regional Director in March, 2010, was president of the 300-plus member Epsilon Gamma Omega Chapter in Huntsville.

Under Washington’s leadership, the chapter sponsored two undergraduate chapters.

During her 40-year membership in Alpha Kappa Alpha, she has held the offices of dean of pledges, president, vice president and treasurer.

She was twice elected Soror of the Year and is a certified graduate advisor.

She worked as logistics chairman for the 1996 South Eastern Regional Conference and served as chairman of the 72nd conference in 2002.

She is a member of the South Eastern Heritage Team and is a Life Member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc.

Washington is a founding member of the Alabama Sickle Cell Foundation and The Ivy Center of Huntsville/Madison County for which she served as the first treasurer.

She is a 30-year member of St. John A.M.E. Church in Huntsville and was the first woman appointed there to serve on the board of stewards.

She has also chaired numerous committees, including Women’s Day for two consecutive years. Additional affiliations include the Alabama A&M University Alumni Association and the National Society of Security Professionals.

Commendations and awards made to Washington have been from American government sources as well as from foreign governments, including Saudi Arabia, Japan, Israel and Kuwait.

These include a 1991 U.S. Army Material Command Service Medal for Operation Desert Shield and Desert Storm, a 1992 Presidential Citation from the National Association for Equal opportunity in Higher Education and a 2007 Department of Defense Superior Civilian Service Award.

Washington is married to U.S. Army Lt. Col. (Ret.) Darwin O. Washington of Hampton, Va. The couple married in June 2010. The Washingtons reside in Huntsville.

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Source:
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