Wednesday, January 12, 2005

By MARIAN ACCARDI
Times Business Writer accardi@htimes.com

Even though Howard Thrailkill is president and chief operating officer of telecommunications equipment maker Adtran Inc., he has made time to promote the community.

His efforts through the Huntsville/Madison County Chamber of Commerce and other local, state and national endeavors earned him the chamber's Distinguished Service Award, which was presented Tuesday at its annual membership meeting.

"He has a strong love for our community," Madison County Commission Chairman Mike Gillespie said in introducing Thrailkill. "He has great vision and leadership skills. In all that he does, he is insistent upon excellence. He is admired and respected by all of us who know him and have had the good fortune to work alongside him."

Thrailkill, 66, reflected on moving here 13 years ago to join Adtran. He and his wife, Donna, were staying at a motel, waiting for their furniture to arrive. Even then, he said, he believed "this place was something special."

Thrailkill said Adtran co-founder Mark Smith, now its chairman and chief executive, "had a vision that we could make Adtran something special in this special city."

Thrailkill served as chamber chairman in 2003. He was the principal visionary behind the chamber's Huntsville Regional Economic Growth Initiative and the funding plan to sustain it.

He serves on the board of two Huntsville-based companies, Analytical Services Inc. and Mobular Technologies Inc., and remains active with committees that he helped establish - the Tennessee Valley BRAC (Base Realignment and Closure) Committee and the Governor's Homeland Security Task Force.

At Tuesday's chamber meeting, 2004 Chairman Tommy Beason said 5,461 aerospace, manufacturing and defense jobs were created in Madison County last year through new companies or expansions of existing firms. "That was the largest annual number ever" for Huntsville and Madison County, Beason said. "This is a great milestone for all of us."

The chamber also unveiled its executive committee for 2005:

• Jim Link of Teledyne Brown Engineering Inc., chair;
  
• Dave Hargrove of BellSouth, chair-elect;
  
• Beason of Beason & Nalley PC, past chair;
  
• Peri Widener of Boeing Co., secretary;
  
• Jan Hess of Teledyne Brown, treasurer;
  
• Brad Jones of Crestwood Medical Center, vice chair/economic development;
  
• Joe Ritch of Sirote & Permutt PC, vice chair/governmental affairs;
  
• Joel Daves of AmSouth Bank, vice chair/investor relations;
  
• Bill Watson of SouthTrust Bank, vice chair/research and information services;
  
• Gerald Toland of Redstone Federal Credit Union, vice chair/small business;
  
• Joe Austin of Huntsville Hospital, vice chair/work force development; and
  
• Brian Hilson, chamber president and CEO.
  

The following were named chair appointed: Gillespie; Bill Gurley of SAIC; Huntsville Mayor Loretta Spencer; and Karen Stanley of Stanley Construction.

The chamber's 2005 board is Joe Alexander of Camber Corp.; Pete Apple of CSC; Austin; Scott Averbuch of Averbuch Realty Co. Inc.; Clayton Bass of the Huntsville Museum of Art; Frank Caprio of Lanier Ford Shaver & Payne; John Cooper of Avocent Corp.; Dick Fountain of Fountain, Parker, Harbarger & Associates; Dr. Frank Franz of the University of Alabama in Huntsville; Dr. John Gibson of Alabama A&M University; Dr. Greg Gum of Radiology Associates; Bill Gurley of SAIC; Tharon Honeycutt of WHNT-TV Channel 19; Dr. Eric Janssen of SportsMed; Jerre Penney of Bill Penney Toyota; Ritch; Scott Seeley of Regions Bank; Remigius Shatas of RHR Ventures; Stanley; Sandra Steele of Enfinger Steele Development Inc.; Paula Steigerwald of the Huntsville Botanical Garden; Herman Stubbs of Colonial Bank; Toland; Irma Tuder of Analytical Services Inc.; Gail Wall of Beason & Nalley; Watson; Widener; Keith Wilson of Wyle Laboratories; and Tom Young of Intergraph Corp.