Sarah Rubenstein
October 1, 2003
Atlanta Business Chronicle

Massey leaving SciTrek for lobbying firm

Lewis Massey is leaving the top post at SciTrek to return to the fray of
state politics as a new partner in the lobbying firm Watson & Bowers LLC.

A Democrat who was Georgia's secretary of state from 1996 to 1999,
Massey will provide ideological balance at a firm that has been
dominated by Republicans since it was founded earlier this year.

Massey, 41, leaves behind a science and technology museum he's
credited with bringing from near financial ruin to much sounder footing in
the three years since he became SciTrek's president and CEO.

He's scheduled to leave SciTrek Nov. 1 and start working full-time at the
firm -- which will become Watson, Massey & Bowers LLC -- by the end of
the year.

The other partners are all Republicans: John Watson, who was Gov.
Sonny Perdue's political consultant during his campaign last year; former
Attorney General Mike Bowers; and Bruce Bowers, Mike's son, who
served on Perdue's transition team.

"It's a unique opportunity for me to work with a successful firm, to help
them build on that success, and to represent businesses in a rapidly
changing political environment," Massey said. "I'm very, very excited about
it. The timing was right."

Massey said he hadn't been looking to leave SciTrek when Watson &
Bowers' leaders approached him about joining them, but he also felt
three years at the museum was an appropriate amount of time.

And Watson and the two Bowerses thought their firm, which primarily
lobbies for corporations that do business with the state or want to win
state contracts, would be more successful over the long term if its
leadership's background was bipartisan. The firm's clients include
Oracle Corp., Motorola Inc. and Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Georgia
Inc.

"Every long-term, successful business model dictates bipartisan strategy
and bipartisan reach," Watson said. "This state is going to be a
bipartisan state for the foreseeable future."

SciTrek board chairman Alan Neely said a committee of five board
members is being appointed to search for a replacement for Massey.
Korn/Ferry International, where Neely is a senior client partner, is helping
with the search.

"I'm really confident this thing is going to go really quickly," Neely said.
"We already have some people in mind."

Those people are from the Atlanta area, have backgrounds related to
technology and typically have children, Neely said.

Whoever wins the post will have a tough act to follow.


When Massey first replaced Gwen Crider as SciTrek's leader, the
museum was swamped with overdue bills, and only about two-thirds of
its exhibits even worked, Neely said. Massey's first task was to decide
whether or not to shut SciTrek down altogether rather than try to improve it.

But he chose the latter, and Massey has brought SciTrek to a much more
stable position. Now 95 percent of the exhibits work well, and revenue
from museum operations, contributions and grants have increased from
$2.9 million in the 2001 fiscal year to $4.2 million in fiscal 2003. SciTrek's
debts also have been cleared.

Massey improved SciTrek's situation by negotiating some of those debts
downward, drawing more public and private funding, bringing in a new
leadership team, improving the museum's exhibits and store, and
creating a business plan for every aspect of SciTrek's operations.

"He's brought unprecedented leadership and goodwill to SciTrek," Neely
said.

Massey's SciTrek experiences haven't kept him too far from the Gold
Dome.

Since he left his post as secretary of state, Massey kept in touch with
Georgia government by lobbying on behalf of the museum. In the
beginning of his tenure there, he helped convince state leaders to
increase SciTrek's state funding from $175,000 a year to $425,000 a
year, and he has kept the museum from falling out of the state budget in
tough economic times since then.

Still, Georgia politics have changed quite a bit in recent years.

Massey, who has no immediate plans to run for office again but is leaving
that option open, said his strongest relationships at this point are with the
state's corporate officers, especially Democrats such as Secretary of
State Cathy Cox and Labor Commissioner Michael Thurmond, as well as
Lt. Gov. Mark Taylor.

"It will be different, but I also think it will be a very good opportunity for all
of us," Massey said.


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