Speaker: Mr. C. Meade Sutterfield

Speaker's Title and Affiliation: Private Equity Investor

Seminar Title: Purpose

Speaker Bio:
C. Meade Sutterfield is a private equity investor primarily in emerging telecommunications and wireless communications entities. He currently serves as a member of advisory boards to Council Ventures and Antares Capital, as well as a director on the board of two companies among the 30 in which he is or has been an angel investor. He is director of the Atlanta Technology Angels.

He was formerly a founder and president of PowerFone, Inc., the largest Specialized Mobile Radio (SMR) carrier in the major markets in Michigan and Ohio, which was merged into the rollup which created Nextel Communications as a nationwide company. Meade's experience with the SMR industry began in 1986, when he purchased Johnson Communications Corporation (JCC). As president, he built JCC into one of the nation's largest SMR carriers and this company too was sold into Nextel.

In 1984, Meade became president of AllianceWall Corporation, the world's largest provider of porcelain enameled steel, which was subsequently purchased by a buyout group within a year.  Meade had come from Kimberly-Clark, where from 1980-1984 he had held several positions leading to vice president and general manager of the Service and Industrial Division. His initial employer was Scientific-Atlanta, where he held a number of sales, marketing, operations, and general management positions in Europe and America during his tenure from 1974-1980.

Meade's education includes a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology in 1972 and an MBA from Harvard University in 1974, both with honors. In 1986 he was president of the Harvard Business School Club of Atlanta.  Meade is a director of the Radio Club of America. For the Georgia Institute of Technology he is a past chair of the Alumni Association and currently serves on the Foundation Board, the Research Corporation Board and Capital Campaign Steering Committee, as well as the Advisory Board for the College of Engineering.  He is a past chair of the Society of International Business Fellows (SIBF) and is currently chair of the Global Network Foundation (GNF) of SIBF. 

In 2002, he was one of the founders of the Central Eurasian Leadership Academy (CELA), which is brings together young leaders from Central Asia and the Caucasus to develop their skills through training courses and builds them into networks across the region with mentors from the USA and Europe with the goal of building peace and prosperity into the region.  Through his chairmanship of GNF he also helped start the Middle East Leadership Academy (MELA) for young leaders from the 13 Arabic states in the Levant, Arabian Peninsula and Egypt in beginning a parallel organization to CELA and SIBF.

He is married to Susan; they have four married children and six grandchildren.