Board of Directors

Robert Inman Ragsdale, III (Trey)

Trey Ragsdale serves as vice-chair for the Gwinnett Place CID Board of Directors. He manages external relations for Kaiser Permanente in Georgia. In this role, Trey is responsible for securing government and community support for Kaiser Permanente’s healthcare initiatives throughout Georgia. Prior to his role at Kaiser Permanente, Trey held leadership positions at MARTA, the United States Senate and The White House, King & Spalding law firm and The Coca-Coca Company.

Trey is also a part of other organizations, including the Atlanta Regional Commission Workforce Development Board, HINRI, Partnership Gwinnett Board, Gwinnett Chamber of Commerce, Cherokee Chamber of Commerce, Cherokee Focus, Communities in Schools Georgia, Young Life, Chattahoochee Technical College, Reinhardt University and several more organizations.

He is the former chairman of the DeKalb Housing Authority, former president and Lieutenant Governor of Georgia Kiwanis, the former chair-elect of the Sandy Springs-Perimeter Chamber of Commerce, a 2005 graduate of the Georgia Academy of Economic Development, 2006 Leadership North Fulton graduate and a 2008 Leadership Atlanta graduate.

In addition, Trey has been extremely involved in the arena of politics having served in advisory and leadership roles to dozens of presidential, state and local campaigns. Trey is the chairman of Pure Politics, the world’s largest political education portal and rated by Forbes.com as “Best of the Web” for political sites.

Trey was honored when Georgia Trend Magazine named him as one of the Top 40 rising Business Leaders under the Age of 40 in the State of Georgia and the Atlanta Business Chronicle selected him as one of the top 50 rising Business Leaders under the Age of 40 in the metropolitan Atlanta region. In 2008, Jezebel Magazine named him as one of the Top 25 Most Beautiful Citizens in Atlanta. Trey holds a bachelor’s degree from Auburn University and a MBA from Georgia State University.

 

Mark Williams

Mark Williams is secretary/treasurer of the Gwinnett Place CID board of directors. He is the owner of Printing Trade Company – a full-service print company his family started 39 years ago. He has served in appointed and volunteer roles with numerous civic efforts countywide and in the cities of Norcross and Duluth. Mark lives in Cardinal Lake, one of Gwinnett’s oldest and largest neighborhoods.

Brett DeLoach

Brett DeLoach is the general manager for Sonesta Gwinnett Place Atlanta and Sonesta ES Suites Gwinnett Place. He handles all hotel operations, financial management, revenue generation and overall team structure for both properties. DeLoach is no stranger to the hotel industry and brings more than 20 years of industry experience to Sonesta in Gwinnett Place. His management career started at Embassy Suites Hotel in Jacksonville, FL, where he was the assistant manager and responsible for improving quality assurance, increasing loss prevention and overseeing operations for 277 suites. From there, DeLoach became the general manager for Hotel Indigo in Jacksonville and then moved to Atlanta, GA to become the general manager for DoubleTree by Hilton. There, his role focused on providing day-to-day leadership and operational management and spearheading the hiring and supervising of his executive team.

Jill Edwards

Jill Edwards is the Commercial Lending Division Manager for United Community Bank. Jill received a a BS in finance and minor in management from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville and has more than 30 years of business banking experience in Atlanta, the majority of which has been spent focusing on the Gwinnett market. Prior to joining United, she served as the Gwinnett Business Banking Manager for Wells Fargo where she was consistently recognized as a top performer in revenue production, sales and service. She has also served in commercial banking leadership roles at Wachovia, Washington Mutual and SunTrust.

She is heavily involved in Gwinnett County and serves as the vice-chair of economic development for the Gwinnett Chamber of Commerce board of directors. Jill previously served on the strategy committee of Partnership Gwinnett, the Gwinnett Chamber’s economic development arm, formulating the most recent five-year plan, PG 3.0, and driving membership at the Atlanta Chamber of Commerce from 1990-2014. She is also the treasurer of the Gwinnett Coalition for Health and Human Services and recently joined the Rainbow Village and Across the Bridge boards. Jill has 15 years of active membership in Kiwanis and leadership on Wachovia’s United Way Employee Campaign for Metro Atlanta.

Jill’s 30 years of managing Gwinnett County’s team of business bankers makes her aware of the issues challenging the Gwinnett Place area, and she wants to be a part of the solution to continue to drive economic viability in the Gwinnett market.

Tim Hur

Tim Hur is the national director of inclusion and philanthropy at Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate, LLC. In this role, Tim is in charge of growing the brand presence focusing on the diversity markets, which includes maintaining strong relationships with The Asian Real Estate Association of America, National Association of Hispanic Real Estate Professionals, National Association of Gay and Lesbian Real Estate Professionals and National Association of Real Estate Brokers.

Tim Hur is a graduate of the Georgia Institute of Technology with a Bachelor of Science in Industrial and Systems Engineering. For the past 10 years since graduation, Tim has been operating a boutique real estate firm in Metro Atlanta.

Tim is also a charter member and past-President for the Gwinnett Mosaic Rotary Club, and serves many other nonprofit organizations within the Metro Atlanta area. He is a member of the Atlanta Realtors, Atlanta Commercial Board and Northeast Atlanta Metro Association of REALTORS®, having multiple designations obtained through the REALTOR® network, including the prestigious CRS, CIPS, ABR and GREEN designations.

Tim was also elected as the 2013 and 2014 President of the Atlanta Chapter of the Asian Real Estate Association of America, was the past National Policy Chairman and the currently elected National Treasurer and Secretary of the Asian Real Estate Association of America. He was also appointed by both the 2013 President, 2014 President and 2015 President of the National Association of REALTORS® to be their President Liaison for South Korea, on behalf of the National Association of REALTORS®. He is currently the Chair for the Diversity Committee, on behalf of the National Association of REALTORS®, and is also spearheading the work to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the National Fair Housing Act.

Tim considers Gwinnett County one of the most populous and diverse areas in the Atlanta metro area, and wants to provide insight and input into the future of Gwinnett Place.

June (Jeong-Hwa) Lee

June Lee is a partner with the Atlanta law firm, Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough LLP. A graduate of the University of Georgia Law School, June is also the founding president of the Korean Bar Association of Georgia, the regional governor for International Association of Korean Lawyers, and is a member of the American Bar Association, Georgia Bar Association, Atlanta Bar Association and Council of Korean Americans. June specializes in corporate law, foreign investment, immigration, and international law where she works to promote business relationships between U.S. companies and Korean companies. June is also a frequent speaker on women’s issues, mentoring, and economic development issues.

June is dedicated to being part of the process of the Gwinnett Place transformation. She intends to represent the concerns and interests of Korean-owned businesses in the district, along with people of all origins, and will work to make Gwinnett Place the location in Atlanta to enjoy the diversity of culture, food, activities and music.

Chris McGahee

Chris McGahee is an economic development manager for the City of Duluth where he specializes in assisting individuals and companies interested in doing business in the City of Duluth. He joined the Gwinnett Place CID to help promote economic development and hopes the board will help bring redevelopment and growth to the Gwinnett Place area.

Prior to working for the City of Duluth, Chris was the economic development director for Northeast Georgia Regional Commission (NEGRDC) and has more than 30 years of experience in the economic development field. He’s also a member of Georgia Economic Developers Association (GEDA) and is a graduate from the University of Georgia.

Ben Yorker

Ben Yorker is Director of Development for Northwood Ravin’s Charlotte office. In this capacity, he is responsible for leading multifamily development for Northwood Ravin’s deep-south markets, including Charlotte and Atlanta. Yorker’s professional real estate experience spans over 14 years. In this time, he has held leadership roles on a variety of noteworthy projects including Manor at Six Forks, a 298-unit, mixed-use, deck-wrapped apartment community in Raleigh, North Carolina, and High Street, an upscale 55-acre mixed-use community located in the heart of Williamsburg, VA. He also led development for Landing at Southpoint, a 54-unit condominium that is North Carolina’s first multifamily community to earn certification under the US Green Building Council’s LEED for Homes program. Yorker joined Northwood Ravin in 2012. Just prior, Yorker worked for CBRE’s Global Corporate Services platform, where he served as an imbedded Strategist on the BB&T Account. He was a developer with Boylan Development Company from 2007-2010 and Roseland Property Company from 2005-2007.