Athens, Ga. – Jim Reese, the president and CEO of Atlanta Union Mission, will speak at the University of Georgia on Friday, April 2, as part of the Terry Leadership Speaker Series.
Reese’s lecture, which begins at 10 a.m. in room 116 of the Visual Arts Building, is open to the public. The speaker series is sponsored by the Institute for Leadership Advancement at UGA’s Terry College of Business.
Atlanta Union Mission is a Christian ministry providing emergency food and shelter, recovery programs and transitional housing to homeless and addicted men and women and their children. The mission serves as many as 1,144 men and women at a time at its six facilities.
Reese also oversees Atlanta Union Mission’s thrift ministry, which collects donated goods to sell at its six thrift stores, including locations in Athens, Commerce and Winder.
Before joining Atlanta Union Mission, Reese worked in the private sector. He was the president and chief operating officer of CCCi, an IT staffing company based in Atlanta and previously served as CEO of Randstad North America. Netherlands-based Randstad Holdings is one of the largest temporary staffing and employment services agencies in the world.
As CEO of Randstad North America, Reese had responsibility for more than 500 offices and 2,300 staff members, who together put more than 53,000 people to work each week across the United States and Canada.
Reese also worked extensively in retail as chief operating officer for the Honeybaked Ham Co. and as a division vice president of operations for Frito-Lay. He is a graduate of Western Michigan University and has served as a board member of the Georgia Partnership for Excellence in Education, the Carter Center Board of Councilors, and the American Staffing Association.
Reese is the last of four senior executives who are addressing students this school year through the expanded Terry Leadership Speaker Series. Michele Burns, chairman and CEO of Mercer LLC, and Peter Foss, an executive with GE, spoke last fall. Al Koch, who was General Motor’s chief restructuring officer, spoke Feb. 25.
The Institute for Leadership Advancement is a leadership development unit housed in the Terry College of Business. Its programs stress the importance of principled leadership based on core values and emphasize leadership as a collaborative process and not as a position. The institute’s ultimate aim is to create a new class of leaders who are well trained and ready for responsibility, committed to stewardship and pursuers of excellence, characterized by integrity and defined by purpose.