The Business Council of Alabama has recognized two distinguished leaders of the BCA and a long-time staffer for his years of service.
The BCA honored Birmingham attorney Eason Balch Jr. and former BCA Chairman and ProgressPAC Chairman T. Keith King with Distinguished Leader Awards. Retired BCA Vice President for Public Policy, Victor Vernon, was given a Distinguished Service Award.
The awards were bestowed at the BCA’s Governmental Affairs Conference at Point Clear on Aug. 14 by BCA First Vice Chairman and ProgressPAC Chairman Tommy Lee, president and CEO of Vulcan Inc.
Balch is the general counsel emeritus for ProgressPAC, the BCA’s political arm. He is a partner in the Balch & Bingham law firm’s Governmental Relations Practice Group, the firm’s Energy Practice Group, and is leader of the State Governmental Relations Practice.
The award reads: “In recognition for years of committed service, counsel, dedication, and leadership to the Business Council of Alabama.”
“You served for many years and we appreciate you,” Lee told Balch.
King was BCA chairman in 2000-2001 and ProgressPAC Chairman in 2000. He is the retired president and CEO of Volkert Inc., a leading Alabama engineering firm. King, recruited by Volkert founder David G. Volkert as a project engineer in 1960, served as president from 1983 to 2007, and chairman until 2011.
He retired in 2012. King was inducted into the Alabama Engineering Hall of Fame in 2002.
As BCA chairman, King was heavily involved in tort reform and served on the ProgressPAC board of directors. “Keith King has been a tremendous advocate for the business community,” BCA Chairman Marty Abroms of Abroms & Associates in Florence, said.
King’s award reads: “In recognition for years of committed service, dedication and leadership to the Business Council of Alabama.”
Vernon retired this summer after a decade and a half of helping level the playing field for business and for improving all segments of public education. After retiring from state service in 1998, Vernon embarked on a second career making significant contributions in the areas of public finance and public policy through the BCA’s volunteer committee structure.
His award reads: “In recognition and appreciation for nearly seventeen years of committed service, dedication and leadership to the Business Council of Alabama.”
-Dana Beyerle