Deidre Malone Brings Home the Minority Marketing and Communications Firm of the Year Award

 

Deidre Malone, president/CEO of The Carter Malone Group, LLC., is
joined by U.S. Department of Commerce Deputy Secretary Don Graves   
(left) and Under Secretary for Minority Business Development Donald
Cravins Jr. after winning The Minority Marketing and Communications
Firm of the Year award. (Courtesy photo)

MEMPHIS, TN – In 2003, Deidre Malone stepped out of her comfort zone as a successful marketing executive and with one client launched The Carter Malone Group, LLC, or CMG, a communications and public relations firm. 

The combination of hard work and client satisfaction over the years has earned the firm several honors and awards including a recent national award: The Minority Marketing and Communications Firm of the Year. 

CMG was nominated for the national award by the Mid-South Minority Business Council (MMBC) Continuum, an economic accelerator for stage II Minority and Women-owned Business Enterprises that partners with municipalities, agencies, corporations, and various levels of government.

“I was excited that we were nominated with firms across the country, specifically minority firms: African American, Hispanic, and Asian. It was a true honor for us,” said Malone, president/CEO of CMG. “And then to find out that we won, we just couldn’t believe it.”

Malone accepted the prestigious award on Sept. 21 at the Hilton Washington DC National Mall The Wharf during the National Minority Enterprise Development (MED) Week Conference, Sept. 18-24.

“When I told my husband Patrick that I was going to leave my good corporate-paying job to start The Carter Malone Group, he said, ‘Honey, do what you do.’ And I’ve been doing it now for almost 20 years,” said Malone during her acceptance speech. 

Hosted by the Minority Business Development Agency (MBDA), “the MED Week Awards are the highest level of national recognition that a U.S. minority-owned firm can receive from the Department of Commerce.”

“We are proud to have one of our MBDA Business Center clients acknowledged amongst the elite firms being recognized nationally for the quality work that they provide on a local, regional and national scale,” said Jozelle Booker, operator of the Tennessee MBDA Business Center and president/CEO of The MMBC Continuum.

The MMBC Continuum operates the only MBDA Business Center in the state of Tennessee under the U.S. Department of Commerce.

“I’m excited for the firm, but I’m excited for MMBCC as well,” Malone said. “This is their first national award. I’m really excited for Jozelle (Booker) and her team and just excited to be a part of that history.”

Malone is in good company with other minority “firms of the year”: Tecma, Minority Export Firm of the Year; Piping Technology & Products, Inc., Minority Manufacturing Firm of the Year; Onyx Enterprises, Inc., Minority Construction Firm of the Year; LilliiRNB, Minority Emerging Technology and Industries Firm of the Year; Curacubby, Minority E-Commerce Firm of the Year; GC Green Consulting, Minority Veteran Owned Firm of the Year; and H.J. Russell & Company, Robert J. Brown Minority Business Enterprise of the Year. 

Also, Champions of Minority Business Development honors went to Erica Y. Miles of Wells Fargo, Access to Capital; Ralph Sagaille with The Walt Disney Company, Distinguished Supplier Diversity; John F. Robinson with NMBC, Inc., Ronald H. Brown Leadership Award; Tom Espinoza with Raza Development Fund, Access to Capital; Jason Trimiew with Meta, Advocate of the Year; and Robert F. Smith with Vista Equity Partners, Abe Venable Legacy Award for Lifetime Achievement.

Since its founding, CMG has served 342 clients, according to the firm’s website, and provides services like branding, community engagement, government relations, video production, creative services, social media development and media training.

CMG also has been tapped and received at least 40 awards. The Minority Marketing and Communications Firm of the Year award is CMG’s crowning achievement to date.

“We’re doing all right,” Malone said.

Senate candidates vying for the Dist. 30 seat answer questions about women issues

National Political Caucus board member Deidre Malone moderate the Memphis
Women's Political Caucus Town Hall on July 12. (Photos by Wiley Henry)

Two political stalwarts vying for the opportunity to represent the constituents in Senate Dist. 30 touted their experience and answered a volley of questions lobbed by National Political Caucus board member Deidre Malone, who moderated the Memphis Women's Political Caucus Town Hall Meeting on July 12.

Women’s issues took center-stage in this town hall and drew a roomful of spectators and public office seekers to Amurica Studios in the Crosstown community, as state Sen. Sara Kyle and former senator Beverly Marrero discussed relevant issues pertaining to women.

“In this current season, it’s important to empower women, to inform them, and to encourage them to be a part of the political process,” said Latrivia Welch, president of the Memphis Women's Political Caucus (MWPC), a non-profit promoting full and equal participation of women in government and political parties.

State Sen. Sara Kyle (right) and former senator Beverly
Marrero discussed issues relevant to women.

The purpose of the town hall was to highlight two leaders in the community, said Welch, and the work they are doing for Dist. 30. “We applaud them for their willingness to be featured in our first town hall,” she said.

Kyle and Marrero, pitted against each other for the Senate seat that Kyle currently holds, are on the campaign trail leading up to the Aug. 4 Democratic and Republican state and federal primary elections and the Shelby County general election. The general election for this seat is in November.

Both Kyle and Marrero, who are familiar with the political landscape, sat adjacent to each other and espoused legislation that they had a hand in fashioning and discussed germane issues that would uplift women. 

Kyle, an attorney, was elected in 2014 to fill the seat that her husband, former Senate minority leader Jim Kyle, left vacant after he was elected to Chancery Court. She is the second woman to be elected statewide. No other woman has been elected statewide since.

Marrero spent nine years in Nashville and lost the seat in 2012 to Jim Kyle, then the highest-ranking Democrat. Kyle opted to run against Marrero rather than face Republican Brian Kelsey when districts were redrawn that year.

Explaining why she’s seeking re-election, Kyle said, “We’re 51 percent of the population. Only 22 women are running statewide in House and Senate races.”

“It’s important for women to have a voice and to speak their mind,” Marrero added. “We don’t have representation that can represent us.”

Priorities? Marrero said if she were elected, she’d work on pay equity for women. Kyle would do the same, she said, to bridge the wage gap that separates men and women.

“The gap is larger for women of color,” said Kyle, adding that women finishing college “face a 7 percent wage gap.”

  The health care debate continues to rage, with both sides of the aisle in the Tennessee General Assembly digging in their heals and refusing to budge one iota on a plan to insure the state’s uninsured adults.

“Viagra is covered by insurance and birth control is not. That’s an abomination,” said Marrero. “We have people dying because they can’t afford medical care. What kind of sick people who don’t want people to have health care?”

President Obama’s Affordable Care Act, which he signed into law in 2010, has been widely eschewed and denounced by Republicans. Gov. Bill Haslam, however, offered an alternative in 2015 to expand Medicaid. Insure Tennessee failed by a vote of 7-4.

“It’s a no-brainer to vote yes on the governor’s health care bill,” said Kyle. “Tennessee should have gotten $1.4 billion dollars. It would have created two million jobs.”

The candidates fielded a number of Malone’s questions, from funding education to economic development to fixing the schools. Since questions came from the audience, someone wanted to know the candidates’ feelings about the Black Lives Matter movement.

“I think it’s necessary,” Kyle said.

Can Memphis do what Nashville has done and elect a woman mayor?

     

Dr. Sharon A. Webb, the only woman in the 2015 Memphis mayoral race,
faces an uphill battle against formidable opponents. (Photo by Wiley Henry)

       Dr. Sharon A. Webb’s campaign for mayor could end up dead on arrival in the Memphis municipal election on Oct. 8 after failing to resuscitate a poor debate performance at First Congregational Church on July 28.  

Webb is the only woman on the ballot in the mayor’s race and made that point explicitly clear throughout the debate and from that point forward on the campaign trail. “I am the only woman in this race,” she said. “And we need a woman in that office.”

Webb’s point is well taken. But women have not been successful in their bid for the mayor’s job, said attorney Carol Chumney, who ran unsuccessfully for Shelby County mayor in 2002, city mayor in 2007 and again for city mayor in the 2009 special election.

 “I would hope people during some point will give a woman a chance,” said Chumney, a former state legislator and city council member. “We’ve got a lot of qualified women in this city and state. It’s time to break the glass ceiling. All people want is a level playing field.”

The glass ceiling was broken just recently in Nashville when Megan Barry became the first Metro Council member to be elected mayor. She beat David Fox 55 percent to 45 percent after a five-week run-off to become the first female mayor to head the metropolitan government.

But is it pure conjecture or wishful thinking on Webb’s part to believe that she could become the first female mayor of Memphis? Her performance in July, however, just didn’t jell with some voters and drew harsh criticism. To put it kindly, Webb is in a league of her own, one she believes is undergirded by divine intervention.

 “I do believe in miracles,” said Webb, the founder and senior pastor of Life Changing Word Ministries World Center. “I do believe in divine intervention. I feel good about the race. I feel I have just as good a chance as the other candidates.”

So what drives Webb to hedge her bets against four well-financed, politically astute front-runners – Mayor A C Wharton Jr., Councilman Jim Strickland, Councilman Harold Collins, and Mike Williams, president of the Memphis Police Association?

 “The city is going down,” she said. “The city needs to be nurtured back to health. I’m a nurturer. I know how to love the city back to life. Right now, a man doesn’t know how to fix it – and I do. I’m in the trenches every single day. I see what the people need.”

Like Chumney and a field of other contenders, Webb ran for mayor in the 2009 special election. Wharton ultimately won after ending his seven-year tenure as Shelby County mayor. But Webb loss more than she’d bargained for in that race when she drew a blank during a televised forum after she was asked about two actions she would take as mayor.

Webb admits being intimidated by her well-known opponents: Wharton, Councilman Myron Lowery, attorney Charles Carpenter, WWE standout Jerry “The King” Lawler, former school board member Dr. Kenneth T. Whalum Jr., Robert “Mongo” Hodges, former City Council member Wanda Halbert, to name a few.

“During that time I was so afraid,” said Webb. “Fear gripped me and my mind just went blank. It wasn’t that I couldn’t think of an answer, or didn’t know the answer, I just went blank.”

Webb is facing Wharton again and others who are just as formidable and well known. But is she intimidated this time on the campaign trail? Or has she learned to craft her answers to avoid being subjected to mockery and unflattering remarks?   

 “If I didn’t love the people, do you think I would put myself through this again? I care about people, so I can look pass that. The need is greater than what they write or say about me. That’s why I keep moving in spite of the ridicule.”

Despite Webb’s perceived shortcomings – and she admits not being a great debater – Chumney acknowledges Webb’s affability “and a person of faith whose heart is right.” But will these attributes translate into votes and bring her within striking distance of City Hall?

“We’ve had an African-American county mayor, an African-American city mayor, African-American county commissioners and African-American city councilmen and women, but we haven’t had a woman in the mayor’s office,” said Chumney, noting the degree of difficulty for a woman to become the chief executive officer.

There is an exception: Former Shelby County Commissioner Joyce Avery served 45 days as the interim county mayor after Wharton took office at City Hall. Avery made history, but the Commission appointed Joe Ford to fill the remaining nine months of Wharton’s term.  

Former commissioner and businesswoman Deidre Malone, the Democratic nominee for mayor of Shelby County in 2014, tried to wrest the seat from incumbent Republican Mayor Mark H. Luttrell Jr., but she suffered a disappointing loss in the general election.

There are 10 mayoral candidates on the Memphis ballot altogether. But the spotlight hasn’t landed squarely on the so-called lower-tier candidates, which could elevate their profile significantly like the profiles of the big four: Wharton, Strickland, Collins and Williams.

“The media selected four candidates. It’s not fair and it’s not right when there are 10 people in the race,” lamented Webb, who was invited to participate in just a couple of forums or debates although there have been several.

“They didn’t invite me to the forums and debates because they don’t think I’m qualified,” she said. “That’s their choice, but it isn’t right.”

Webb has some political experience. She was elected to the school board of legacy Memphis City Schools and the Memphis Charter Commission, a body that reviewed and suggested changes to the city’s charter.

“It didn’t say you have to have 15 years of government experience,” said Webb, noting that her qualifications to run for mayor put her on the ballot. “When you work in a job or an administration you learn on the job.”

It’s a huge challenge for any woman, Chumney maintains. “Are we holding women to too high standards? Are we sexist? These are questions I grapple with. So how do you break the glass ceiling? You can’t break the glass ceiling unless you run.”

Webb says she’s not discouraged even though huge barriers are blocking her path to City Hall. “I refuse to allow anybody to put me in a box and say what I can’t do. It takes courage to stand up there, to put your name on the list. It takes Jesus.”

It also takes a lot of money to run a successful campaign. “Having $400,000 in your war-chest doesn’t make you a winner. It’s the voters,” said Webb, referencing the huge war chests amassed by the top two contenders, Wharton and Strickland.

“You don’t have to have billboards to win an election,” said Webb, running a grass root campaign instead. “Sometimes it gets hard, but you just get out your Kleenex and keep running. You have to encourage yourself. And I’m going to run to the end.”

Luttrell gets another four years

The crowd erupted in applause at Owen Brennan’s restaurant on Poplar Avenue Thursday night after Shelby County Mayor Mark Luttrell Jr. made his way upfront to address his supporters and campaign staffers. 

       “I am so very, very appreciative of the opportunities that you’ve given me. Eight years as your sheriff, now going into eight years as your county mayor,” said Luttrell, who’d just beat Democratic challenger Deidre Malone in a hotly contested mayoral race in the county general election.

With 100 percent of precincts reporting, Luttrell’s vote total came to 90,470 (62 percent). Malone trailed with 53,376 (36 percent) votes. The decisive victory is a mandate from voters Luttrell alluded to going forward. 

       “I hope more than anything else…what we’re able to do tonight is not only celebrate this victory on election night, but also resolve to go forward with those things that we emphasized throughout the campaign that were so vital to this community,” he said.

Shelby County Mayor Mark Luttrell addresses his supporters
following an impressive win over Democrat Deidre Malone. 

       Economic development, providing a world-class education, improving the economy, protecting Shelby Countians, and managing a fiscally sound budget were some of the issues that Luttrell focused on during the campaign.

       Malone fought hard to wrest the seat from Luttrell, but came up short. She was a mayoral candidate in the Democratic primary in 2010, but lost to then-interim Shelby County mayor Joe Ford, whom Luttrell beat that year in the general. 

       Malone called to thank Luttrell on winning reelection. Later she shared part of the conversation with supporters who gathered at the Withers Collection Museum & Gallery on Beale Street.

       “I said to him that my hope is that for the next four years that you will do something great for Memphis and Shelby County. And I think it is our responsibility to make sure that he does.”

       Luttrell, she said, thanked her for “having a campaign that was honest” and one run with integrity.

       “We (during the campaign) talked about the issues because I felt that that’s what the people wanted to hear from us.”

       Malone pointed out the new ground her campaign was able to break during the primary.

       “We were able to do something in the primary that no other woman had done. We won the primary for the Democrats. And no female has won it for Republicans – so excited about that opportunity, about breaking that glass ceiling in the primary.”

       Noting that women are the majority of voters in Memphis and Shelby County, Malone said, “And we need to step up and realize that we can lead as well. So I look forward to supporting a very qualified woman, whoever comes behind me to take this on. And I am sure that someone real soon will make it happen.”

The mayor and his family. (Photos: Wiley Henry)

       Malone assured supporters that she would continue to be a voice for the working folks in the community.

       Luttrell campaign staffer Bryan Edmiston, a Cordova high school teacher, said Luttrell didn’t take anything for granted. “He made phone calls himself. I was impressed with his work ethic.” 

       Grassroots campaigning, Luttrell said, is his key to winning elections. 

       “We made 40,000 phone calls over the last six weeks. We hit the 40,000 mark yesterday (Aug. 6th). We knocked on hundreds of doors, reached out to people one-on-one and stood on street corners.”

       Dr. Melvin D. Wade said he predicted Luttrell would beat Malone based on the mayor’s record in office and the reaction from those he’d introduced the mayor to while campaigning one day in North Memphis.

      “I didn’t find a single person who said anything negative about the mayor, which, to me, was an indication they were pleased with the mayor and his administration,” said Wade, pastor of Christian Chapel Baptist Church in North Memphis. 

      “I personally felt like he’d done an excellent job in leading the county in the last four years,” he said.

       Luttrell noted the challenges that Shelby County faces, but added, “What progressively moved us forward is that we have evolved in this community to solve problems…. We’re charitable. We get involved. We step out when we’re needed. We do the things that have to be done to move us forward.”

       That includes praying, he said. “I think it’s important for those of us in public office that every night when we lay our head on that pillow we say our prayers.”

       He said he did not want to disappoint those people who trusted him, those who believed he has the skillset to make a different.

       “I want you to always feel comfortable with me, have confidence in me, and have faith in my ability to represent you as best as I can. I will continue to do that,” he said.

       (This story includes a report by Nina Allen-Johnson.)