Hyperion Bank Director Jim McAlpin is a Partner at Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner LLP in Atlanta, where he leads the firm's Financial Services Client Group, and is a nationally respected expert on board governance. For its March/April 2021 DIRECTORS BRIEFING, the American Banking Association (ABA) asked Jim about the value of adding younger adults to bank boards.

Board diversity brings enhanced perspective and can

result in more contact with a broader segment of the business

community.

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When he was a kid in the early 1990s, Jason Kay was a camper at Josh Powell Summer Camp, a day camp founded by former lawyer Josh Powell in 1972. As Jason tells us, Powell quit his law job and built the camp from scratch over many years, felling and milling all the lumber on the property to build the cabins. Eventually the camp built up quite a following, and Jason was among the camp community for four years in his youth.

For Jason, camp was a family affair: his aunt, Suzanne Quinlan, was a counselor there for a decade (and an elementary school teacher for 30 years). In 2014, when Josh's widow, Karen Powell, reached out to Suzanne to help keep the camp going, she and Jason turned to Alisha Nasse, who now serves as Senior Vice President of Business Development for Hyperion Bank's Atlanta office. Jason says, "With Alisha's help we were able to figure out how to buy the camp in December 2015 and keep the camp alive."

Jason and Suzanne are now Hyperion Bank customers and business partners who employ 20 people, including elementary school teachers and college students who work as summer camp counselors. But as any camp director knows, running a quality camp is a full-year job. It takes a lot of intention, diligence, and effort to create memorable and meaningful--and most importantly FUN--experiences for children, while ensuring their physical and emotional safety. Independent research conducted over many years by the nonprofit American Camp Association and educators has shown that summer camp experiences help kids develop critical life skills that help them succeed in school and beyond. Camp also helps kids disconnect from technology and reconnect with nature.

The camp's beautiful setting is one of the things that keeps families returning year after, along with the great staff and diverse activities that include arts and crafts, canoeing, fort building, tether ball, archery, kickball, wiffle ball, nature walks, jewelry making, ga-ga ball, swimming, and more.

Jason says preserving the environment amidst the growth that has sprung up around the camp is one of the things he likes most about his business. "I went to the same camp back in the early '90s, and back then, the camp was on a single lane road largely surrounded by farmland. Seeing the Atlanta sprawl creep up around the camp, while maintaining the camp’s charm and its feel of being remote has been super cool," he says. "It’s also great to have more of a community surrounding the camp, especially considering I went to high school about 15 minutes away. I have teachers that I’m sure I drove crazy back in the day now sending their kids to camp."

He also enjoys welcoming second generation campers to Josh Powell Camp. "The return of multiple generations to camp is one of the coolest things, for sure," Jason adds. "We have parents who went to camp themselves bringing their children for their own experience, and it is always hilarious to see the parents’ reaction to what surely feels like stepping back in time. The camp has largely remained the same, so it is a super nostalgic place."

Jason enjoys his long relationship with Alisha and appreciates banking with Hyperion because: "Their willingness to support entrepreneurial endeavors through finding creative ways to fund projects and businesses is hands-down the most valuable asset a bank can bring to a small business owner. They also have an uncanny ability to connect with you on a personal level, so it feels less like a chore dealing with financing and banking than it otherwise might!"

Josh Powell Camp is now enrolling campers for summer 2021. Learn more and sign up your children at JoshPowellCamp.com, and follow them Facebook and Instagram.