posted August 22, 2008
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Two other business leaders, Travis McDonough, an attorney with Miller and Martin PLLC, and Glenn Morris, Jr., president of M & M Industries, have been serving as Education Emissaries since the spring of 2007.
Launched in 2006, the Chamber's Education Initiative is designed to promote business and education partnerships that will strengthen public schools and prepare students for 21st Century jobs.
Mr. Sterling will join Mr. McDonough and Mr. Morris in serving as community representatives of the Education Initiative, which is directed by Dr. Kay Andrews, a Chamber vice president.
"We are grateful to these business executives for supporting our program," Andrews said. "They are knowledgeable about education trends and economic development and can articulate the goals of our Education Initiative at local, state and national meetings. The emissaries also make public presentations to describe the initiative to professional and civic organizations.
"Through their service, these businessmen are helping generate understanding and effective action that will help to prepare a highly skilled labor force for our regional economy."
Other business decision-makers will join Mr. Sterling, Mr. McDonough and Mr. Morris as education emissaries, established as a small group of respected business leaders who have expressed a keen interest in working with education and workforce development interests for the Chamber.
After receiving a B.S. degree in electrical engineering at Purdue University, Mr. Sterling joined Procter & Gamble Manufacturing in Cincinnati. He spent 15 years with P&G progressing through numerous manufacturing, marketing, logistics and supply chain assignments.
In an entrepreneurial move, Mr. Sterling next purchased a Chicago-based manufacturing company with many automotive suppliers as customers. He sold the company to employees in 2000.
In 1999 he moved to Chattanooga as vice president of manufacturing for Game Time, the Fort Payne, Ala. commercial playground division of PlayCore. Projects with PlayCore included moving corporate headquarters to Chattanooga in 2001, leading the integration of an acquisition and championing the Lean management processes.
Mr. Sterling left PlayCore in December of 2005 to begin Sterling Business Solutions, LLC, a management advisory practice focusing on supporting businesses in growing their top line and improving cash flows. Sterling relies on his extensive business knowledge and decades of experience to advise, coach and support his clients.
Mr. Sterling's involvement with the Chamber includes serving as an Ambassador, vice president of membership for the North Chattanooga Council and as a member of the Education Initiative Committee. He leads the Chattanooga Manufacturing Association's monthly Lean Leadership Network meetings that highlight real-world processes, successes and challenges of many local manufacturing companies.
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