NASHVILLE, Tenn. (December 18, 2017) - The T.J. Martell Foundation for cancer research will honor the following community leaders at the 10th Annual T.J. Martell Foundation Nashville Honors Gala at the Omni Hotel on March 26, 2018.
David Poile - Spirit of Nashville Award
Mike Smardak - Tony Martell Outstanding Entertainment Achievement Award
Frank Bumstead - Frances Preston Outstanding Music Industry Achievement Award
Dr. James Netterville - Medical Research Advancement Award
Janet Ayers - Lifetime Humanitarian Award
The 10th Annual T.J. Martell Nashville Honors Gala is chaired by Danielle Bouharoun, along with Honorary Co-Chairs Sondra and Doug Cruickshanks. The event has netted more than $3 million since its inception in 2009.
Table sponsorships and tickets are available by contacting(615) 256-2002 or emailing tmoffat@tjmartell.org. Visit www.tjmartell.org for more information.
About the T.J. Martell Foundation:
The T.J. Martell Foundation is the music industry’s leading foundation that funds innovative medical research focused on finding treatments and cures for cancer. The Foundation was founded in 1975 by music industry executive Tony Martell and his colleagues in loving memory of his son T.J., who died of leukemia. The Foundation has provided more than $280 million for research at seven flagship hospitals in the United States. For more information, please visitwww.tjmartell.org.
About the Honorees:
David Poile - Spirit of Nashville Award
In his 36th consecutive season as an NHL general manager, Nashville Predators President of Hockey Operations/General Manager David Poile is the longest tenured GM in League history and has been with the Nashville Predators for over 20 years. He is the only general manager in NHL history to lead two different clubs for 1,000 games and 500 victories. Under Poile’s guidance, the Nashville Predators had their longest postseason run in franchise history – their first trip to the Stanley Cup Final – in 2016-17, shattering nearly every Predators postseason record in the process.
Poile received the prestigious Lester Patrick Award in 2001 and was named the 2017 General Manager of the Year at the 2017 NHL Awards in Las Vegas. He is one of the most influential men in the sport, evidenced by his spot on the NHL’s Competition Committee all 12 years of existence, appointment to the Hockey Hall of Fame Selection Committee in 2014, and involvement with USA Hockey, highlighted by his service as General Manager of the United States Olympic Team for the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi.
For the past six seasons, Poile has donated to Operation Homefront (which provides emergency assistance and morale programs to our U.S. troops), USA Hockey and the Peterson for Parkinson’s Foundation for every Predators victory.
Mike Smardak - Tony Martell Outstanding Entertainment Achievement Award
Michael Smardak is President and Founder of Outback Concerts of Tennessee, Inc. In addition to producing hundreds of concerts and events each year ranging from clubs to arenas across the country and Canada, Outback Concerts also produces the Nashville Comedy Festival and several once-in-a-lifetime tribute events to musical icons including Gregg Allman, John Lennon, Jerry Garcia, Mavis Staples, Randy Travis, Dr. John, plus country legend Kenny Rogers’s final performance alongside Dolly Parton at the sold out All In For The Gambler: Kenny Rogers All-Star Concert Celebration. Smardak played an integral role in Zac Brown’s Southern Ground Music and Food Festivals and knocked it out of the park with multi-award winning country duo Florida Georgia Line, presenting the This Is How We Roll tour in 8 minor league baseball parks, selling over 100,000 tickets.
Outback Concerts is promoter and producer of two of the largest comedy tours in history, The Comedy Get Down with Cedric ‘The Entertainer’, Eddie Griffin, D.L. Hughley, George Lopez, and Charlie Murphy, and the Blue Collar Comedy Tour with Jeff Foxworthy and Larry the Cable Guy. Smardak has had over 75 shows recorded for specials across all platforms including Netflix, AMC, AXS TV, HBO, CMT, and more. He has received numerous awards throughout his career, including the ACM Promoter of the Year, 4 time winner of IEBA's Concert Promoter of the Year, Talent Buyer of the Year, Entertainment Buyer of the Year, and Festival Buyer of the Year. He is a 2011 inductee to the IEBA Hall of Fame. Smardak was honored at the National Association of Talent Directors Gala in 2016. Mike hails from Northern Virginia and currently resides in Brentwood, TN with his wife Kathy and two daughters Sasha and Kristina.
Frank Bumstead - Frances Preston Outstanding Music Industry Achievement Award
Few people in Music City can boast a more impressive resume or strike a deal quite like professional financial, investment, valuations, mergers, sales and acquisitions advisor, Frank B. Bumstead. A graduate of both Southern Methodist University and Vanderbilt’s Owen School of Management, Bumstead began his career working for the Governor of Tennessee. He quickly rose in the ranks before becoming Co-CEO of Third National Corporation, founding his own investment firm, serving as CEO of Mallard Enterprises, and eventually becoming the president and later chairman of Flood, Bumstead, McCready & McCarthy, a business and financial management that represents clients in the entertainment industry in all genres of music.
During his time at FBMM, Bumstead has managed to leave a large footprint on Nashville’s country music industry. It was Bumstead who was behind both the 1990 sale of the Country Music Television network to Opryland, and later the 2008 merger of Music Row Magazine with Southcomm. Bumstead served as both the President and Chairman of the Country Music Association Board of Directors. Bumstead currently serves on the boards of Armed Services Mutual Benefits Association (ASMBA), CMA, Nashville Wire Products, Brookdale and the Memorial Foundation. He has also served on the boards of American Retirement Corporation (NYSE – ACR), Dede Wallace Center, The American Red Cross, ECA, Inc., American Constructors, Inc., American Fine Wire, Inc., Junior Achievement of Nashville and Watkins Institute, to name a few. Bumstead has been recognized in both Billboard and the Nashville Post.
Dr. James Netterville - Medical Research Advancement Award
A co-founder of Vanderbilt's Department of Otolaryngology, James L. Netterville, M.D. is also its Executive Vice Chair and Director of Head and Neck Oncologic Services, as well as the Associate Director of the Bill Wilkerson Center for Otolaryngology and Communication Sciences. As Mark C. Smith Professor of Otolaryngology, he promotes education and research in skull base, voice disorders and all aspects of his specialty, head and neck oncologic surgery.
He has been actively involved in improving the healthcare infrastructure in Africa since 1999, leading and participating in surgical educational camps in Nigeria, Kenya, and Uganda. He won the Distinguished Award For Humanitarian Efforts from the American Academy of Otolaryngology–Head and Neck Surgery (AAO-HNS) in 2004, and the Award of Honour for contributions to the growth of the Nigerian Christian Hospital in 2016.
Very active professionally, Dr. Netterville is a Senior Examiner for the American Board of Otolaryngology, is a member of the review boards of six professional journals, and has published over 140 papers in peer-reviewed scientific journals like Cancer, Head & Neck, and The New England Journal of Medicine. He is a Past-President of the AAO-HNS and the Tennessee Academy of Otolaryngology–Head and Neck Surgery. He has received many honors and awards in his career, including a Presidential Citation for pioneering work in laryngeal framework surgery and the deRoaldes Award from the American Laryngological Association.
Janet Ayers - Lifetime Humanitarian Award
Janet Ayers is a recognized business leader and philanthropist throughout Tennessee with more than 20 years of service in health care administration. Since 2007, she has served as president of The Ayers Foundation, which has focused on improving the quality of life for people in Tennessee, with a special emphasis on four counties – Decatur, Henderson, Perry and Unicoi.
She founded the Ayers Leadership Fellows program, which provides opportunities for aspiring school leaders to earn an educational leadership master’s or educational specialist degree with administrative licensure from Lipscomb’s College of Education. To date, The Ayers Foundation has awarded more than 4,200 scholarships to graduating high school seniors. The Foundation is now finding nearly $4 of outside scholarship money for every $1 the Foundation grants. She has also been deeply involved with the State Collaborative on Reforming Education (SCORE), a nonprofit and nonpartisan advocacy and research institution founded by former U.S. Senator Bill Frist.