Officers & Executive Committee

Pat Emery (Co-Chairman) is the President of Spectrum Properties/Emery. Spectrum Properties is a family of real estate services companies providing development, leasing, management, construction management, project maintenance, investment sales, tenant representation and corporate services for institutional and private clients.

Pat attended the University of Oklahoma majoring in business.

He started in Commercial Real Estate with Cushman & Wakefield after leaving the Army in 1975. He is the former Senior Vice President of Crescent Resources, where he developed ten new Class A office buildings in Corporate Centre at Cool Springs. He was deeply involved in the Nissan relocation, whose headquarters sits on 50 acres that he sold them. He also developed CentrePointe in LaVergne; a warehouse development, where four buildings have been completed.

He is currently:

  • A board member of Avenue Bank
  • Co-Chair of Cumberland Region Tomorrow
  • A board member of the Transportation Management Associatio
He is a graduate of both Leadership Nashville and Leadership Franklin.

Julius Thomas Johnson (Co-Chairman) is the Chief Administrative Officer of the Tennessee Farm Bureau Federation (TFBF). During his thirty-three years of professional service to the TFBF, Johnson has served as a regional field service director, Director of Research and Director of Public Affairs (the lobbying arm of the Farm Bureau). He reports to the Board and leads a staff of twenty-three professionals and fifty-eight support staff. The organization has traditionally been recognized as one of the most influential organizations working in the Tennessee Legislature.
 
Johnson has served on a Legislative Tax Structure Study Committee, the Governor’s Council on Agriculture and Forestry, the Governor’s Interagency Task Force on Wetlands and other agricultural committees relating to his work. In a civic role, Johnson has served on the University of Tennessee Agriculture Development Board, the Maury County Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors, the Maury County United Way Board of Directors, the Maury County Vision 2020 Board of Directors, various leadership roles with the Boy Scouts and President of the Maury County University of Tennessee Alumni Board.  

He received the Future Farmers of America Honorary State Farmer Award, the Distinguished Achievement in Agriculture Award from the University of Tennessee Gamma Sigma Delta Honorary Society and was made an honorary brother of the Alpha Kappa Chapter of the Alpha Gamma Rho Fraternity.  

Johnson received his Bachelors of Science Degree in Animal Science from the University of Tennessee and also has completed post graduate work. He is a Kiwanian and a member of the Columbia First United Methodist Church.

Marian Ott (Vice-Chairman) has been a community volunteer for more than twenty years.  Currently she serves on the boards of the Metropolitan Transit Authority, St. Luke’s Community House, League of Women Voters of Nashville, Christ Church Cathedral, Cumberland Region Tomorrow and the Tennessee Coalition for Open Government.  In addition to her board service, Ms. Ott is an active volunteer with the Nashville Adult Literacy Council where she tutors adult literacy and English as a learned language and with the Nashville Wealth Building Alliance where she is a volunteer income tax preparer for low-income tax-payers.

 From 1991 to 1998 Ms. Ott was the Executive Director of the Regional Transportation Authority in Nashville, Tennessee.  She has previously held positions with the Metropolitan Transit Authority, the New Jersey Department of Transportation, the US Department of Transportation and a national consulting firm.  She has a Bachelors degree from Princeton University and a master degree in transportation planning from M.I.T.

John McDearman III (Treasurer) is Vice-President of Wilson Bank & Trust in Lebanon, Tennessee since 1998. Before coming to Lebanon, he served as Assistant Vice-President at Bank of America in Chattanooga from 1994 to 1998.

He currently sits on the Board of Directors of the Lebanon/Wilson County Chamber of Commerce and the Lebanon Rotary Club. He is President of Empower Me Day Camp and a graduate of Leadership Wilson. He is active in fundraising for Boy Scouts of America, American Heart Association and United Way and is a member of Lebanon First Methodist Church. He received the 2001 Community Service Award from the Lebanon Jaycees and the 2000 Sales Person of the Year from Wilson Bank & Trust.

He holds graduate degree in banking from Louisiana State University and a B.S. in Biology from Tennessee Technological University.

Brenda Payne (Executive Committee) is the Executive Director of the Hendersonville Chamber of Commerce.  She served as the Vice President of Resource Development at Volunteer State Community College for nine years.

Payne spent a significant amount of her professional career working in the insurance industry.  She was employed by National Life & Accident, which later became American General Life & Accident, from 1968-1989.  She achieved significant corporate responsibility during her 21 years with the company, starting as a mail clerk and rising to the position of AVP of group claims before leaving the company to join CNA.  Payne spent four years with CNA as a group claims manager. 

In addition to her professional role in the community, Payne has been activiely involvd in numerous leadership, civic and service organizations.  She served as the Board Chair for the Sumner County United Way in 1989 and again in 1996 as well as Campaign Co-Chair in 1986.  Payne was Board Chair for Leadership Sumner in 1999.  Also in 1999, Payne held the position of President for the Hendersonville Chamber of Commerce and completed her two year term as Regional Chair for the United Way Middle Tennessee Partner Counties. 

She is a 2000 graduate from Leadership Middle Tennessee and served as President of the Hendersonville Rotary Club from 2005 to 2006, an organization for which she has been a member for thirteen years.  She currently serves as Treasurer of Cumberland Region Tomorrow; Treasurer of Greenways of Sumner County; Chair of the Gallatin Shalom Zone Board and a member of the Board of Rock Castle. 

Brenda has been recognized as Volunteer of the Year by United Way of Sumner County as well as a Distinguished Alumni by Leadership Sumner and Business Woman of the Year by the Hendersonville Business and Professional Women’s Organization.  Payne resides in Gallatin with her husband Jim.  She has one daughter, Gayle, and two grandchildren, Andy and Savannah. 

Bob Fisher (Executive Committee) is in his eighth year as President of Belmont University.  He serves on a number boards for non-profit organizations here in Nashville, is currently co-chairing Mayor Karl Dean’s Task Force on Student Engagement, and is immediate past Chairman of the Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce.   Prior to coming to Belmont Dr. Fisher served as Vice President for Academic Affairs at Arkansas State University and Dean of the School of Business at Henderson State University.  He is a Fulbright Scholar, having lectured and conducted research at the National Institute for Public Administration in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.  Dr. Fisher has published numerous articles on management topics and is the co-author of “Real Dream Teams”, a book on team leadership.  He has made numerous national and international conference presentations including three different presentations to the National Society for Human Resource Management and was a keynote speaker to the Arabian Society for Human Resource Management in Bahrain.

Jeff Carr (Executive Committee) took the issues and suggestions raised in the 1999 Peirce Report, found funding and recruited a board of directors that brought people together from 10 counties in Middle Tennessee to discuss current and potential growth problems and find possible solutions. 

Jeff Carr is the Founding Vice-Chairman of Cumberland Region Tomorrow and played a very pivotal role in the formation and direction of CRT. 

Jeff Carr served as Vice Chancellor for University Relations, Emeritus and General Counsel, Emeritus at Vanderbilt University from 1976 until 2000 when he retired.  Jeff received the 2001 Bridge Award from the Vanderbilt Institute for Public Policy Studies for creating Cumberland Region Tomorrow. 

Jack Turner (Executive Committee) was born in Clarksville, TN on October 25, 1936 and entered the life insurance business upon graduation from Vanderbilt University in 1958.  He is a Life and Qualifying member of the Million Dollar Round Table who has qualified for the MDRT every year since 1962 (46 years) and is the current Top of the Table member for the past 21 years.  He was the recipient of the Huebner Gold Medal Award by The American College in 2006 and a recipient of the John Newton Russell Award in 2000 (life insurance industry awards). 
 
 Jack has served on numerous boards.  He was the President of the Million Dollar Round Table in 1983, the youngest President ever for the Tennessee Association of Life Underwriters in 1963, Past President of the Million Dollar Round Table Foundation, past Board member of The American College and The American College Foundation, Charter Member of the Tennessee Insurance Hall of Fame and GenAmerica Financial Hall of Fame. 

He currently sits on the boards of the Civilian Aide to the Secretary of the Army (CASA), the Middle Tennessee Council – Boy Scouts of America, the Foundation Board of Austin Peay State University, the Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee, Blue Ribbon Panel of the Clarksville Montgomery County School System, the Clarksville/Montgomery County Foundation.  In addition to these boards, he is also the Chairman for Leadership Middle Tennessee and Leadership Clarksville. 

John L. Batey Jr. (Executive Committee) is a sixth generation farmer in Rutherford County and currently presides as President of Rutherford County Consolidated Utility District.  He is a Board Member and Past President of the Rutherford County Farm Bureau; a Committee Member of the Tennessee State Committee for USDA Farm Service Agency; a member of Blackman United Methodist Church; a member and Past President of the Blackman Community Club; and a Committee Member of the Citizen Advisory Committee for Blackman Community Land Use Plan. 

John received B.S. in Agriculture Business in 1974 from Middle Tennessee State University.  He is married to Melissa Weatherford Batey and has three children. 

Kay Gaston (Executive Committee) of Adams, Tennessee is a Tennessee historian and writer, Kay lives on a two-century farm in Robertson County with her husband Joe where they continue to raise cattle.  Kay has taught American and Tennessee history at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. Her publications include a biography of Emma Bell Miles (1879-1919), and articles on Robertson County distilleries and other subjects in the Tennessee Historical Quarterly.

Charles W. Bone (Executive Committee) is the founder and chairman of Bone McAllester Norton PLLC. Mr. Bone concentrates his law practice in the areas of media, banking, mergers and acquisitions, commercial litigation and government relations. He has extensive experience in advising business organizations with regard to combination alternatives and the consolidation of industries.
 
Mr. Bone has written articles for legal publications and lectured at numerous educational seminars on legal ethics, business law, and financial institution topics. In October 2006, Mr. Bone was invited to speak on a panel of the Tennessee Bar Association's annual Diversity Summit, which focused on recruitment, hiring and retention solutions for minorities at Tennessee law firms. Following that presentation, Mr. Bone spoke in January 2007 at an event sponsored by the Association of the Bar of the City of New York, "Finding a Voice for Women of Color at Law Firms: Unique Challenges and Collaborative Solutions". In February 2007, Mr. Bone was invited to participate in the Second Annual Leadership Academy for Women of Color Attorneys in Atlanta. In 2003 and 2004, Mr. Bone's peers in the Nashville legal community named him to the Nashville Business Journal's "Best of the Bar".
 
Mr. Bone has served as a member of the Board of Directors of both public and private companies and banking institutions. He is a frequent advisor to boards and committees on corporate governance matters.

Mr. Bone served as County Attorney for Sumner County, Tennessee, for over 20 years. He has also served as Counsel to the Independent Bankers of Tennessee, and he has personally represented more than 100 banks throughout the Southeast during his career.
 
Mr. Bone has worked in Democratic political activities for many years. He was active in every campaign for former Vice President Al Gore since 1976, and worked extensively in the efforts of Gore/Lieberman 2000.
 
Mr. Bone has been very active in civic, community and church organizations throughout his career. He currently serves on the Board of Directors of the Nashville Youth Life Learning Centers, Cumberland Region Tomorrow and Salvus, Inc., an initiative that provides quality healthcare to uninsured patients.
 
He received his Bachelor of Arts from Vanderbilt University in 1967 and his Juris Doctor from the University Of Tennessee College Of Law in 1970. He is married to the former Baylor Anne McKay of Columbia, Tennessee, owner of Baylor Bone Interiors, with locations in Nashville and Hendersonville. He has two children, Charles Robert Bone, who is married and is a member of the firm, and Baylor Bone Swindell who is a 2004 graduate of the University of Tennessee College of Law. He has three grandchildren, Margaret McKay Bone, Anne Carlen Bone and Simmons Louise Bone. Together, Mr. Bone and his two children completed the first Country Music Marathon in Nashville in April 2000. Mr. Bone has also completed many half marathons over the last 6 years.

Eleanor Lawson Willis (Executive Committee) is a native of Nashville, a graduate of Vanderbilt University, and a well known civic leader. She is a former member of the Nashville Symphony Board and Chair of the Symphony Ball. She is founding member of the Rochelle Center, the Heads Up Child Development Center, the Nashville Tree Foundation, Cumberland Region Tomorrow, and the Metropolitan Nashville Educational Access Corporation. She has served as President of Leadership Nashville Alumni, Exchange Club of Nashville, and the W.O.Smith Nashville Community Music School. She presently serves as the Executive Director of Friends of Warner Parks.