Several hundred business and civic leaders gathered this week at the Jackson Country Club for MCEDA & the Madison County Business League’s 2014 Vision Celebration. This year’s theme was health care, and 2 awards were presented at the event.
Jan Collins, executive director of the Madison County Business League, opened the ceremony with a brief overview of the opportunities for Madison County in terms of health care and its impact on the county, and the region.
The Visionary Leadership Award went to Dr. David Powe (pictured above) for his efforts and contributions to the growth and progress of Mississippi health care, and specifically for his work in helping to create the new Biomedical Business Collaboratory in Madison County. A man who has had not one, but several highly successful careers (including most recently serving as chief administrative officer for UMMC and helping to engineer the addition of thousands of jobs at the facility), Dr. Powe is now embarking on a new venture as CEO of TeleHealth One, which aims to serve the needs of patients and medical professionals throughout Mississippi.
“I’m truly honored to have my efforts recognized today,” he said. “I’m expecting so many great things in the coming years in helping to develop advanced health care options in Madison County, and throughout Mississippi. I do want to say that it’s not just about me, though…making great things is the result of a lot of hard work by dedicated people at all levels.”
The Vision Award was presented to St. Dominic Health Services, in recognition for their commitment to Madison County health care. To date, St. Dom’s has invested more than $88 million in the county, and provides over 300 jobs in the county. Claude Harbarger accepted the award for St. Dominic’s.
The keynote speaker at the event was Gov. Phil Bryant, who talked about his vision for creating many new, quality jobs in the health care field, and bringing many new opportunities for economic development in Mississippi from both direct and indirect perspectives.
He lauded Dr. Powe as “the type of individual with the vision and commitment to help drive the effective growth of health care.” He expressed his enthusiasm for the new Collaboratory, saying that he considers Madison County to be a great environment for creating a productive health care zone, especially in view of the fact that Madison County boasts “twice the number of health care professionals as the national average.”
“But it’s a team effort,” he said. “What we do here will benefit our entire state and its people.”
MCEDA Executive Director Tim Coursey, in his remarks, praised Dr. Powe as a “man with a mission to help people, and a lot of that is to help create great jobs and improve the quality of life in Mississippi.”
Jasmine Murray, Miss Mississippi, sang the national anthem and God Bless America to round out the event.
It was also announced at the event that the boards of the Madison County Business League and Madison County Foundation have agreed to merge into a single new entity to be called the “Madison County Business League & Foundation”, subject to ratification by the membership of both organizations.
Contact Mississippi Business Journal publisher Alan Turner at alan.turner@msbusiness.com or (601) 364-1021.
by Alan Turner for the Mississippi Business Journal
http://msbusiness.com/blog/2014/11/20/vision-future-mississippi-health-care/
Published: November 20, 2014
