Birmingham Rotaract

Please join us for our February 16thLuncheon with Tim Ritchie

Lunch begins at 11:45 am and the meeting will begin promptly at noon at McWane Science Center.

Tim Ritchie is the president and CEO of McWane Science Center. He has served in that position since June, 2004. During his time at McWane, general attendance has grown from 250,000 visitors per year to 350,000, and memberships have grown from 3400 member families to 8000. Earned revenue has grown from 55% to 70% of operating revenue. The endowment has grown from a few thousand dollars to $3.5 million (with $2.0 million additionally pledged). Prior to working at McWane, Tim served for six years as the president of Louisville Diversified Services, a non-profit organization in Louisville, Kentucky that runs businesses to provide jobs for adults with mental retardation. Tim lived in Birmingham from 1988 until 1997. He practiced law in the firm now known as Wallace, Jordan, Ratliff and Brandt. He left his firm to serve as the program developer for an inner-city ministry, The Center for Urban Missions. He then worked for the James Rushton Foundation, helping it buy a block in inner-city Birmingham and develop it as a community garden. It is now the principal site of Jones Valley Farm. Tim’s other work experiences have included clerking for the Chief Justice of the North Carolina Supreme Court, clerking in a poverty law clinic in Mendenhall, Mississippi, and representing defendants on North Carolina’s death row. Tim also spent a year in Southeastern Kentucky selling equipment for handling coal, crushed rock, corn and the like. Tim received his B.A. from Davidson College, his J.D. from Duke Law School, and his M.P.A. from Harvard University. He has completed eight marathons and will run in the 2009 Boston Marathon (having finally qualified!). One of Tim’s happiest moments was giving the commencement address for Duke Law School (having been chosen to do so by his class). He is a member of Leadership Alabama (class of 2008), Leadership Birmingham (class of 1998), the Birmingham Downtown Rotary Club, and Altadena Valley Presbyterian Church. He plays the trumpet and leads a brass quintet where he is the only old guy among the five (everyone else is in college or high school). His wife Christine is the director of the Center for Palliative Care at U.A.B. They have two children, Ivy (16) and Ramsay (13).

NEW GUEST POLICY REMINDER:  Effective February 2, 2010, there will be a $10 charge for all guests coming to Rotaract meetings.  Please bring cash or check with you to the meeting to pay at the sign-in table.  If you have a potential recruit you would like to bring as a guest, please contact Recruiting Director Jon Macklem at jwm@csattorneys.com to reserve a recruit spot and to obtain a guest fee waiver.