The Perimeter Center Community Improvement Districts have named a new staff leader, eight months after longtime president and CEO Yvonne Williams’ surprise resignation.
Ann Hanlon, currently the executive director of the Alpharetta-based North Fulton Community Improvement District, has been chosen to take the PCIDs reins. Hanlon also serves on the board of two organizations important to Perimeter Center: the Georgia Regional Transportation Authority, which runs the GRTA Xpress commuter buses, and the Council for Quality Growth, a Sandy Springs-based advocacy group for real estate developers, where she is the treasurer.
Hanlon, a Dunwoody resident, would have the “executive director” title at the PCIDs. While the PCIDs have announced Hanlon’s hiring and said she likely will start work in June, her appointment still needs to be formally approved by the group’s boards of directors
“We have been very favorably impressed with the depth, experience and caliber of the talent pool interested in leading our two CIDs,” said a joint statement from PCIDs board chairs Diane Calloway and John Heagy. “We believe it takes a rather broad set of skills to succeed in this business, and we are thrilled to have Ms. Hanlon joining us after such an impressive run at the North Fulton CID.”
The PCIDs are two separate but jointly operated self-taxing business districts in Perimeter Center, with one CID on the DeKalb County side and one on the Fulton County side. The PCIDs’ work includes planning and funding major roadway and streetscape projects. It provided some of the political leverage for Gov. Nathan Deal to fast-track the I-285/Ga. 400 interchange reconstruction project that is just getting started.
The North Fulton CID is a similar organization operating in the cities of Alpharetta, Milton and Roswell.
Hanlon has worked at the North Fulton CID since 2005, also serving as chief operating officer. She previously worked at the PCIDs as a project manager from 2003 to 2005.
Hanlon previously worked at the Atlanta Regional Commission as a senior program analyst; on the staff of former U.S. Sen. Max Cleland; and at the Georgia Department of Labor. She also serves on the North Fulton Poverty Task Force and chaired the DeKalb County Charter Commission in 2016. She has a B.A. from the University of Notre Dame and a master’s in public administration from Georgia State University. She is a native of Waycross, Ga.
Williams resigned from leading the PCIDs in September 2016 after 17 years at the helm, citing a desire to spend more time with her family. Hanlon was hired via an executive search firm, the PCIDs said.