November 2009 Conference

Speakers

• Rajeev Dhawan, Economic Forecasting Center, Georgia State University
• Dave Altig, Atlanta FRB
• Bill Custer, Robinson College of Business
  Georgia State University
• Frank Norton, Norton Commercial

Conference Program

Industry Speakers

Dr. David E. Altig is senior vice president and director of research at the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta. In addition to advising the Bank president on monetary policy and related matters, Dr. Altig oversees the Bank's regional executives and the Bank's research department. He also serves as a member of the Bank's management and discount committees.Dr. Altig also serves as an adjunct professor of economics in the graduate school of business at the University of Chicago.

Prior to joining the Atlanta Fed, Dr. Altig served as vice president and associate director of research at the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland.He joined the Cleveland Fed in 1991 as an economist before being promoted in 1997. Before joining the Cleveland Fed, Dr. Altig was a faculty member in the department of business economics and public policy at Indiana University.He also has lectured at Ohio State University,Brown University, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland State University, Duke University, John Carroll University,Kent State University, the University of Iowa, and the Chinese Executive MBA program sponsored by the University of Minnesota and Lingnan College of Sun Yat-Sen University.

Dr. Altig's research is primarily focused on monetary and fiscal policy issues. His articles have appeared in a variety of journals and he has served as editor for several conference volumes on a wide range of macroeconomic and monetary-economic topics.

Dr. Altig was born in Springfield, Ill., Aug. 10, 1956. He graduated from the University of Iowa with a bachelor's degree in business administration. He earned his master's and doctoral degrees in economics from Brown University.He and his wife Pam have four children and three grandchildren.

Gainesville native, Frank K. Norton, Jr. joined his family's business, The Norton Agency, in 1986 as manager of both Commercial and Residential Real Estate Divisions. He was promoted to President of the holding company in 1997 and today manages a network of 48 associated businesses and managed assets in excess of 220 million dollars.Well recognized for his excellent marketing skills and keen business intuition, Frank has presented, for the past 25 years, an economic forecast outlining growth and business trends for the Northeast Georgia region. The report, based on a wealth of data collected by The Norton Agency's Native Intelligence™ Division, is a resource that guides many area companies and organizations in making their business decisions.Frank serves as a strategic growth consultant to a number of communities, governments, investors and private wealth funds.

His clients include The Atlanta Falcons, Hall County School System, Northeast Georgia Medical Center, The Longstreet Clinic and 31 regional and national banks, the FDIC, Fanny Mae and Freddie Mac.

Frank is also partner in Southern Capital Funds, a private group of closed end funds geared toward long-term raw land and developed lot investments in North Georgia. That fund has made over 20 million dollars in stressed asset acquisitions since 2007.Professionally, Frank holds Broker's licenses in the states of Georgia, Tennessee, Alabama, South Carolina and North Carolina. He is a member of the Georgia Association of Realtors and the Council of Commercial Investment Managers.  He is also on the Board of Directors of First Multiple Listing Service and the Atlanta Commercial Board of Realtors.

Besides his obvious commitment to the business, Frank is also involved with a number of community organizations. He is for the last 10 years, Assistant Scout Master to Boy Scout Troop 16, acting as the Eagle Scout Advisor, having achieved the Eagle Scout level at the age of 13 and the designation of Boy Scout of the Year for the State of Georgia at 15. He regularly donates his "Birds", whimsical drawings he has hanging in 16 Southeastern galleries, to charitable groups for their fundraising.

He graduated from Georgia Tech with a Bachelor of Science in Building Construction, College of Architecture and became, at 25, the youngest manager in the history of Coldwell Banker Richard Ellis Commercial Real Estate. Frank and his wife of 26 years, Nancy, have two daughters, Teddie 25, and Emilie 18, and a son, Tripp 21.