Great City is a group of non-profit and business leaders, philanthropists, urban planners, architects, and engineers joining together to create a lasting and positive impact in the City of Jackson and the State of Mississippi.
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Taylor serves as Executive Director of the Great City Mississippi Foundation. Before leading Great City, Taylor served in Washington, DC since 2006 as a policy professional managing policy analysis, agency operations, and negotiations in the executive and legislative branches of the federal government. Specific experience spans direct support to the U.S. Trade Representative as well as to key leaders in both the U.S. Senate and the House of Representatives in the areas of finance, appropriations, agriculture, and economic development.A native of the Jackson area, Taylor returned to Mississippi with his wife and three young sons. He holds an M.B.A. from the University of Maryland and B.A.s from the International Business Program of Mississippi State University.
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Susan Garrard is a co-founder of the Great City Mississippi Foundation and currently serves as chair. In her professional life, she is the President and CEO of the Mississippi Children’s Museum (MCM) , serving since 2008. She was responsible for successfully completing and administering a $26.6 million capital campaign that realized the dream of an award-winning children’s museum in Jackson, Mississippi. In 2021, a $17.0 million satellite location of the Mississippi Children’s Museum was opened in Meridian, MS. Under her leadership, the museum has received many accolades including the Institute of Museum and Library Services National Medal 2021, the nation’s highest honor for museums; Mississippi Travel Attraction of the Year for both campuses, and in 2024, MCM was named the number 3 children’s museum in the country by USA Today in their 10Best edition. She has been instrumental in forming the Lefleur’s Museum District and led a multi-year master planning process which has executed $8.0 M infrastructure improvements in the Lefleur’s Bluff Education and Tourism Complex.
Susan currently serves in professional leadership on the boards of First Commercial Bank, Visit Jackson, and the Nissan advisory board. She was appointed to the Mississippi Volunteer Commission by Governor Tate Reeves in 2022. She previously served on the Association of Children’s Museums (ACM) board of directors and executive committee, and the Mississippi Tourism Association board of directors.
Susan has been involved civically in the Jackson community since 1984 serving on the boards of the Jackson Preparatory School, and the Junior League of Jackson, including a term as league president in 2002-2003. She currently serves on the board of the Greater Belhaven Neighborhood Foundation, serving as chair.
In 2017, Susan was named one of the 50 Leading Business women of the Year by the Mississippi Business Journal. Susan was awarded the Goodwill Community Volunteer of the Year in 2009, received the Tribute of Excellence in 2013 from Youth Villages, the Hands of Providence award in 2014, and the Junior League of Jackson Sustainer of the Year in 2018.
Susan, a native of Sebastopol, MS, is a graduate of Mississippi State University and the Fashion Institute of Technology, State University of New York in New York City.
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Chip Pickering has been CEO of INCOMPAS since January 2014. During that time, INCOMPAS has achieved significant growth with leading internet, backbone, business broadband, wireless, and international companies. Under his leadership, INCOMPAS has led numerous public policy campaigns promoting competition through an open internet and in the business broadband market.
Pickering was a six-term Congressman representing Mississippi’s Third District. During his time in the House, he served on the Energy & Commerce Committee, where he was vice chairman from 2002 to 2006 and a member of the Telecommunications Subcommittee. He also was co-chairman and founder of the Congressional Wireless Caucus and an assistant minority whip of the House. Previously, Chip worked for Sen. Trent Lott (R-Miss.) and served as a staff member on the Senate Commerce Committee, where he helped shape the Telecommunications Act of 1996. Because of his role in drafting the 1996 Act, he became well known as a Congressional leader on telecommunications issues. While in Congress, Chip served as chair of the subcommittee overseeing the transition to the commercial internet, the establishment of domain names, registries, and internet governance. He also successfully led a bipartisan legislative effort to codify net neutrality principles through the House in 2006.
Prior to joining INCOMPAS, Chip was a partner with Capitol Resources LLC, a public affairs and government relations firm, where he represented an array of telecom clients, including wireless, cable and competitive broadband providers, as well as non-profits and companies specializing in education, energy, technology and defense.
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Dr. LeMia Jenkins Thompson is an executive leader with a vast history of building and overseeing strategic communications, marketing, business development and operations functions at high-profile organizations. Her expertise spans the corporate, technology, government and entertainment sectors.
Thompson is currently Chief Communications Officer at Pinterest, setting the communications vision and strategy as the platform, which currently reaches hundreds of millions of Pinners around the world, continues to evolve and grow. She oversees all aspects of corporate, internal, international, consumer and product communications as well as public affairs and strategic planning.
Thompson was previously the Director of Global Communications and Media Relations for Walmart and the Director of External Affairs for Caesars Entertainment. Preceding these roles, she served as Communications Director for the Hillary for America campaign. She also returned home earlier in her career to serve as the first Director of Federal Relations for Jackson State University after working for several members of the United States House of Representatives.
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Emily Hoff, a Jackson native, graduated from the University of Mississippi and began her career in Washington, DC. After six years on Capitol Hill, she returned to Jackson in 2015 to assume the role of Director of Development at the Mississippi Children’s Museum (MCM), where she oversaw all aspects of the museum’s fundraising. In 2021, Emily transitioned to the role of Executive Director at MCM's Jackson location. She has been actively involved in the master planning process for the LeFleur’s Bluff Complex and oversaw the planning and execution for the LeFleur’s Bluff playground.
In addition to serving as a founding member and Secretary of the Great City Mississippi Foundation, Emily currently serves on the Board of Trustees for First Presbyterian Day School. She has served on the Board of Directors for the Junior League of Jackson and been recognized by the Mississippi Business Journal as a recipient of the Top 50 Under 40 award.
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Robert Lampton is President of Supply & Distribution and a member of Ergon’s Board of Directors. He began his career with Ergon Marine & Industrial Supply.
Robert has had oversight of a number of companies within the Supply & Distribution operations over the years, including Ergon Trucking and Ergon Oil Purchasing.
Robert has also led Ergon’s Real Estate Division. He majored in Business and Business Psychology at the University of Mississippi.
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Candie L. Simmons is a marketing veteran with over 20+ years of demonstrated experience. Having prepared and delivered countless presentations and speeches, she is a highly sought out public speaker who not only focuses on content, but also delivery and engaging her audiences. As a Gallup Certified StrengthsFinder® Coach, she’s coached numerous managers and their teams on how to work together more effectively by focusing on each individual team members’ strengths in order to achieve overall goals.
A native of Ocean Springs, Mississippi, received a Bachelor of Business Administration degree in marketing and Master of Business Administration from the University of Mississippi. As a longtime supporter of the University, she became a member of the Ole Miss Women’s Council for Philanthropy in 2018, and serves on the council’s executive committee. Candie was selected by the Mississippi Business Journal as a ‘Top 40 Under 40’, and in 2013, ‘Top 50 Leading Business Women’ where she placed in the top ten. She was selected as the 2017 ‘Outstanding Young Alumna of the Year’ by The University of Mississippi and ‘A Woman Making a Difference in Madison County’ by Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Madison County Alumnae Chapter. She was also honored as a Woman of Excellence for the Diabetes Foundation of Mississippi.
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Ray Neilsen was appointed Chairman of the Board of the Craig H. Neilsen Foundation in 2006. During his tenure, the foundation has grown to North America’s largest private funder in the world of spinal cord injury. The foundation supports scientific research, community programming, and fellowships along with educational scholarships for individuals living with spinal cord injury. Ray is actively involved in directing the foundation’s long-range vision and overseeing the investment portfolios while also keeping his dad’s legacy alive—where the accident was the beginning. Where the impossible becomes possible!
In addition to his work with the Foundation, Ray is President of Neilsen and Company, a real estate development company responsible for a number of major commercial, residential, educational and municipal buildings. Originally founded and operated by his grandfather in the 1960s and led by his dad for the next three decades, Ray continues the Neilsen family legacy of creating exceptional real estate projects.
Ray’s professional career began as a busboy at Ameristar Casinos, Inc., the company founded by Craig H. Neilsen. His father insisted Ray immerse himself and learn all levels of the organization, so he worked through the ranks and was with the company for 20 years. Ultimately, Ray served as Chairman of the Board of Directors.
Ray earned a Bachelor of Science in history from the College of Idaho and a Master of Business Administration from the Monterey Institute of International Studies.
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David Pharr has more than twenty-five years of experience with commercial litigation and business counseling. He was an equity partner with an AmLaw 200 firm, where he spent ten years representing small and large businesses in litigation and transactional matters. He served on the firm’s Litigation and Intellectual Property practice groups, focusing on insurance coverage disputes, financial services, and trademarks, and he worked with the firm’s regional Emerging Growth Companies Team.
In solo practice, David has focused on business representation and counseling. His lifelong enthusiasm for economic development and emerging technology has led him to devote significant time and energy toward efforts to grow the local entrepreneurial ecosystem. He served on a tech transfer advisory panel and represented the Research and Development Foundation at the University of Mississippi Medical Center, was appointed by the Mississippi Secretary of State to a task force that drafted equity crowdfunding regulation and he has frequently served as a mentor and judge at Startup Weekend and New Venture Challenge events organized by Innovate Mississippi. David founded and organized the first TEDx event in Mississippi (TEDxJackson). As an adjunct professor, he taught Contract Drafting and Negotiation to first-year students at the University of Mississippi School of Law.
David has also devoted time to his own commercial real estate projects and worked as a consultant on successful adaptive reuse projects involving incentives and complex financing. At Pix Company, David and his partner Jason Watkins are redeveloping a large commercial site in the Fondren Historic District with retail, hospitality, and entertainment businesses, structured parking, and housing.
He has used his diverse experience and passion for his hometown as a civic volunteer, serving terms on the Boards of Directors of the I.S. Sanders (Farish Street) YMCA, the Central Mississippi Planning and Development District and the Central Mississippi Development Corporation, as well as the Greater Jackson Chamber Partnership, where he also served a one-year term as Chairman of the Jackson Chamber. He served on the board and as Grants Committee Chair at the Community Foundation for Mississippi and is currently on the boards of the Mississippi Symphony Orchestra and the Jackson Heart Foundation. He also served as Chair of the St. Andrew’s Episcopal School Board of Trustees. In 2009, he co-founded a volunteer effort to develop the Museum Trail, Jackson’s first rails-to-trails project, the first phase of which opened in 2021.
A lifelong Jacksonian, David believes whole-heartedly in his hometown and its people, and he is grateful to be a part of the Great City MS movement.
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Dr. Hays graduated cum laude with an undergraduate degree in psychology from the University of Mississippi in Oxford. He then earned his medical degree from the University of Mississippi School of Medicine. During his medical school years, he also completed clerkships at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Harvard Medical School, and the Mayo Medical School. After finishing his internal medicine residency at the Mayo Graduate School of Medicine, Dr. Hays completed his cardiology fellowship at the University of Mississippi Medical Center. He is board certified in cardiology and interventional cardiology.
He is a fellow of the American College of Cardiology, the American Heart Association, and the Society of Coronary Angiography and Interventions. He is also a member of the American Society of Nuclear Cardiology and the Society of Cardiovascular Computed Tomography. He serves as a delegate to the American Medical Association, secretary to the Mississippi State Medical Association, and past president of the Central Medical Society. He is a past recipient of the Dr. James Waites leadership award.
Dr. Hays currently serves as the Chairman of the Governor's Task Force on Heart Disease and Stroke Prevention, the Governor's Appointee to the Mississippi Tobacco Control Advisory Council, and the Lt. Governor's Appointee to the board of directors of the Healthcare Trust Fund. He is a past recipient of the Pat Yarbrough Outstanding Individual Volunteer award from the Greater Jackson Chamber Partnership and immediate past chair of the Greater Jackson Chamber.
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As Colonel, Chris served as the Assistant Public Safety Commissioner and Director of the Mississippi Highway Patrol, the largest statewide law enforcement agency in Mississippi, from January 2016 to June 2020. Prior to this role, Chris held the position of Bureau Director for the Mississippi Highway Patrol Driver Services Division, where he played a key role in modernizing the state’s outdated driver’s license system through a comprehensive overhaul of services.
Throughout his career, Chris has contributed to numerous areas within the Mississippi Highway Patrol, including serving as Director of Training, Executive Officer to the Commissioner of Public Safety, member of the Governor’s Executive Protection Detail, Drug Trafficking Interdiction Officer, and former Highway Safety Patrol Recruiter. His distinguished career in law enforcement is marked by notable achievements, such as being a former member of the DUI 100 Club, earning the title of 1997 Trooper of the Year, and graduating from the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s National Executive Institute Academy.
Chris’s impact extends beyond law enforcement, with recognition as one of Mississippi’s 21 Most Influential African Americans in 2019, receiving the Mississippi Trailblazer of the Year Award in 2019, and the U.S. Attorney George Phillips Award in 2020. These honors highlight his 27 years of service and dedication to both his field and his community.
Reflecting on his journey, Chris states: “As I look back on my years of service with the Mississippi Highway Patrol, I am filled with gratitude. I honor all those before me who demonstrated, strength, courage, and commitment, paving the way for me to become Colonel. It is on their shoulders that I stand.”
Since retiring, Chris has taken on a role with Pinelake Church, where he serves in city missions. He is also an active board member for Hartfield Academy, Unite Mississippi, the Great City Foundation, and the National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence (NCADD).
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John Fletcher is a partner at Jones Walker LLP in its new Fondren offices in Jackson, Mississippi. His practice focuses primarily on state and local tax audits and appeals, encompassing multi-state income, franchise, sales, use and local ad valorem taxes. He also has assisted his clients on a broad range of non-profit and federal income tax issues and appeals, and his practice also encompasses a wide variety of non-tax legal services, including legal entity formation and maintenance, business mergers and acquisitions, commercial real estate leasing, and general business contractual issues.
Prior to joining Jones Walker, John worked for five years as State Tax Counsel at General
Electric Company (GE) in Albany, New York, where he oversaw many of GE's state income and franchise tax audits and appeals across the country. These appeals covered a wide range of complex statutory and constitutional issues applicable to large multi-state and multi-national companies, and encompassed GE's traditional industrial manufacturing operations, as well as the financial and media/entertainment industries related to the GE Capital and NBC/Universal businesses.
A native of Cleveland, Mississippi, John is active in the Jackson community and especially with the Mississippi Children’s Museum, Great City MS Foundation, Mississippi Economic Council, Community Foundation of Mississippi, and several other community organizations. He earned his Bachelor of Business Administration in Accounting from Delta State University, where he recently served as President of the National Alumni Association, and his law degree at The University of Mississippi School of Law where he also has served on the Ole Miss Alumni Association Board of Directors. He also earned his LL.M. in Taxation at New York University.
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