BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Chair
Bernard Taylor, Sr
Arbitrator and Mediator, Judicial Arbitration Mediation Services (JAMS) and Retired Partner,
Alston & Bird
Robert Abernathy
Retired Chairman & CEO
Halyard Health
David P. Abney (Director Emeritus)
Chairman & CEO
United Parcel Service
Paige Alexander
Chief Executive Officer
The Carter Center
Joseph Bankoff
Professor of Practice
Sam Nunn School of International Affairs
Georgia Institute of Technology
M. Brian Blake, Ph.D.
President
Georgia State University
W. Frank Blount
Chairman & CEO
JI Ventures
John Hope Bryant
Founder, Chairman & CEO
Operation HOPE, Inc.
Asma Farid
Vice President and Managing Partner
Farids & Co. LLC
Steve Gundlach
President, Global Logistics & Distribution
UPS Supply Chain Solutions
Arlette Guthrie
Vice President, Human Resources
The Home Depot
Eric J. Joiner
Vice Chairman
AJC International
Dennis Lockhart
Retired President and CEO
Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta
Samuel S. Olens
Partner,
Dentons
Allison Padilla-Goodman
Vice President, Southern Division
The Anti-Defamation League (ADL)
Richard Phillips, Ph.D.
Dean
Robinson College of Business
Georgia State University
Jim Reed
President, YKK Corporation of America, and
YKK Corporation Group Officer
Jonathan “Rocky” Rief
Senior Director for Economic Policy and Fiscal Policy
The Coca-Cola Company
Jeffrey M. Salvatore
Partner
Deloitte LLP
Jagdish Sheth, Ph.D.
Charles H. Kellstadt Professor of Marketing, Goizueta Business School, Emory University;
Founder and chairman of India, China, America Institute; Director, Wipro Ltd.
Clyde C. Tuggle
Co-Founder
Pine Island Capital Partners
Former Senior Adviser to the CEO of The Coca-Cola Company
Rohit Verma
Chief Executive Officer
Crawford & Company
Kathleen Walters
Retired EVP and Group President, Consumer Products
Georgia-Pacific Consumer Products LP
Chris Wood
Managing Director and Head of Syndicated & Leveraged Finance
Truist Securities
Meet the Chair
Bernard Taylor, Sr.
Arbitrator and Mediator at Judicial Arbitration Mediation Services (JAMS) and Retired Partner, Alston & Bird, LLP.
On June 24, 2020, Bernard Taylor, Sr. was elected to serve as the fifth chair of the World Affairs Council of Atlanta’s board of directors.
Bernard Taylor was a partner at Alston & Bird LLP and co-chair of the firm’s Product Liability Group and former chair of the firm's Management Committee. With over 30 years of trial experience, Mr. Taylor is a fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers, and concentrated his practice on complex commercial litigation, products liability, and pharmaceutical and toxic tort lawsuits. Mr. Taylor has led national trial teams for several Fortune 500 corporations. He was the lead trial lawyer representing Flexible Products Company in the isocyanate toxic tort litigation involving 1,600 plaintiffs in Alabama State Court, 20,000 plaintiffs in Federal Court and a putative class action in West Virginia. He was also the lead trial lawyer representing Louisiana Pacific Corporation in mass tort litigation involving 1,400 plaintiffs in Alabama Federal Court. Mr. Taylor also co-led the National Coordinating Counsel Team for Charter Medical Corporation wherein he coordinated the defense of litigation pending in over 30 states.
Mr. Taylor is a regular participant in CLE programs relating to commercial litigation, mass tort, products liability and trial practice techniques. He is a graduate of Vanderbilt University (JD, 1982) and Wayne State University (BA, 1979).
