business briefs
• Weichert, Realtors – Advantage Plus recently named Christie Sox, Adam Hatmaker and Missy Hall as top agents in the Knoxville office for October. Sox was named the overall Top Agent of the Month while Hatmaker and Hall were named the Top Selling and Top Listing agents, respectively.
• Local EXIT Realty affiliated offices welcomes the following new team members: Chris Nolan, Jessica Killebrew, Chatty Cannon, Jonna Pye, Fatima Abbasi and Angela Vineyard at EXIT Realty Momentum, 127 W. Jackson Ave.; Tonia Mostella, Chad Weeks and Nicole Ticel at EXIT Real Estate Professionals Network, 9821 Cogdill Road, all in Knoxville; and Jaime Leblanc at EXIT TLC Realty, 149 Kelsey Lane, Lenoir City.
• Alan Joyce recently joined the team at Ensign Financial Partners as a registered sales agent. He brings 34 years of insurance expertise and will be responsible for growing Ensign FP’s book of business as it relates exclusively to term life insurance and whole life insurance with a long-term care component.
• The University of Tennessee Institute of Agriculture researchers recently were awarded a $250,000 grant from the Federal Aviation Administration to evaluate regional biomass supply chains with regard to their potential for supplying feedstock for domestic fuel production, as well as rural economic development — a potential game changer for farming communities.
“This one-year grant project will accelerate the adoption of sustainable aviation fuels by generating strategic information and educating stakeholders on production pathways that can increase economic efficiency, enhance sustainability awareness, leverage economics of scope and scale and reduce renewable fuel costs,” UTIA professor and lead researcher Burton C. English stated in a press release.
• The Tennessee Chapter of Gamma Sigma Delta, the International Honor Society of Agriculture, recently honored Charlie Hatcher, DVM, Tennessee Commissioner of Agriculture, with its 2020 Alumni Award. Hatcher is a 1984 graduate of the University of Tennessee College of Veterinary Medicine. The award was conveyed in-person at a physically-distanced gathering Thursday, Nov. 19, by Rob Holland, director of the UT Center for Profitable Agriculture and interim assistant dean of UT Extension.
A virtual celebration for all 2020 award winners and student initiates was conducted online Friday, Nov. 20. Hatcher was appointed by Gov. Bill Lee to serve as commissioner of the Tennessee Department of Agriculture and sworn in as the 38th commissioner Thursday, Jan, 19, 2019. He is a 10th-generation farmer and the fifth generation of his family to farm in
Tennessee.
