Grant Humphries

Ziegler is pleased to announce the successful closing of a $25,000,000 tax-exempt bond issue for Orlando Senior Health Network. A “Type B” CCRC known as Orlando Lutheran Towers in downtown Orlando, the community will use bond proceeds to finance the renovation of the existing “Fountains” building, renovations in the “Windsor Place” building and fund other routine capital expenditures. https://bit.ly/4eV9ho7

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I enjoyed speaking with the Master of International Business students at Georgia State University’s J. Mack Robinson College of Business this week. Thank you to Dr. Cuneyt Evirgen for the invitation and to the students for the thoughtful engagement. We discussed the importance of critical thinking in international trade finance and global payments — particularly how financial, legal, political, and sustainability factors intersect in cross-border business. Using real-world case examples, we explored how challenging assumptions and evaluating incentives are essential to making sound decisions in complex global environments. A great discussion and an impressive group of future global leaders. #InternationalBusiness #TradeFinance #GlobalPayments #CriticalThinking #GSU

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🚀 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗔𝗹𝗮𝗯𝗮𝗺𝗮 𝗜𝗻𝗻𝗼𝘃𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗠𝗮𝗽 𝗝𝗮𝗻𝘂𝗮𝗿𝘆 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟲 𝗿𝗲𝗹𝗲𝗮𝘀𝗲 𝗶𝘀 𝗹𝗶𝘃𝗲! I’m proud to see the momentum behind this work to make Alabama’s innovation ecosystem more visible. The Alabama Innovation Map is becoming a shared resource for founders, operators, investors, and ecosystem builders across the state. 📍 The January 2026 release includes 𝟱𝟲𝟱 𝗼𝗿𝗴𝗮𝗻𝗶𝘇𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 𝗮𝗰𝗿𝗼𝘀𝘀 𝗔𝗹𝗮𝗯𝗮𝗺𝗮: 🌕 242 Innovative Companies 🟢 75 Capital & Funders 🟠 79 Enablers & Institutions 🔵 129 Service Providers 🟣 40 Community Organizations And… this is only the 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗿𝗱 𝗿𝗲𝗹𝗲𝗮𝘀𝗲 - think of it as day 3 of an MVP. That’s ~68% growth since the first release in November 2025. There is so much being built in Alabama that even people deeply embedded in the ecosystem don’t see the full picture yet. This project is about 𝘃𝗶𝘀𝗶𝗯𝗶𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆 & 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝗻𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗶𝘁𝘆: → uncovering what already exists → connecting the dots so founders, funders, and enablers can find each other faster → making the ecosystem easier to navigate — and stronger as a whole ✨ 𝗡𝗲𝘄 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗿𝗲𝗹𝗲𝗮𝘀𝗲: I launched a dedicated domain to make the map easier to explore and share: https://lnkd.in/ej-dFHPq 𝗛𝗼𝘄 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗰𝗮𝗻 𝗵𝗲𝗹𝗽 𝘀𝗵𝗮𝗽𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗻𝗲𝘅𝘁 𝗿𝗲𝗹𝗲𝗮𝘀𝗲: • Share this with someone building in Alabama • Submit additions directly through the website • Comment with an organization we should include Connecting the dots is how ecosystems grow. And this is just getting started! 💛⚡️ Let’s make it easier for the world to see what we’re building. 𝗡𝗲𝘅𝘁 𝗿𝗲𝗹𝗲𝗮𝘀𝗲 𝗱𝗿𝗼𝗽𝘀 𝗼𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝟮𝟱𝘁𝗵. — ▪️ The Innovation Map • Rochelle Silveira Demeneghi | updated monthly on the 25th ▪️ Explore the map & directory: https://lnkd.in/ej-dFHPq ▪️ Submit an organization: https://lnkd.in/eMtsi4CJ #ALecosystemMap Alabama is the 𝘧𝘪𝘳𝘴𝘵 ecosystem where I’m building and stress-testing this framework. 𝘞𝘩𝘪𝘤𝘩 𝘦𝘤𝘰𝘴𝘺𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘮 𝘴𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘣𝘦 𝘯𝘦𝘹𝘵?

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We recently advised National Coatings & Supplies (NCS), a portfolio company of Trail Creek Investments, on their sale to the Wesco Group. NCS is a leading national distributor of high-performance paints, coatings, and related solutions. We continue to see strong investor interest in distribution models across the automotive aftermarket that combine scale with enhanced customer-level support. As vehicle complexity and OEM repair standards increase, distributors are becoming more embedded in collision operations, helping shops manage technical requirements, training, and workflow efficiency alongside product availability. The combination of NCS and Wesco reflects this shift. Scale paired with technical capability creates a more durable distribution model, supporting consistent performance and deeper customer relationships. Investor interest remains strong for platforms with recurring demand, operational density, and differentiated service models across the collision ecosystem. It was an honor to work with NCS and Trail Creek on this engagement, supporting the combination of two leaders in a transformative transaction for the collision industry. https://lnkd.in/e9EASNbj #mergersandacquisitions 

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Wall Street South News: Vanderbilt University announced an ambitious $250MM fundraising campaign for its planned graduate campus in West Palm Beach. The new facility will provide graduate programs in the following areas: - Business & Finance - Engineering & Space Technology - Defense Manufacturing - AI & Data Science This initiative marks a significant step forward in expanding educational opportunities and advancing research in these critical fields through Sourh Florida.

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Charlotte’s growth continues to extend well beyond the boundaries of Mecklenburg County. Over the past two decades, the region’s economic expansion has steadily pushed outward, reshaping neighboring communities across the broader metropolitan area. Once defined largely by textile mills and farmland, many of these counties are now being transformed by population inflows, residential development, and their increasingly close economic connection to Charlotte’s rapidly growing and diversifying economic base. Our latest report takes a closer look at how that expansion is reshaping the Carolina Piedmont, particularly in York, Lancaster, and Chester counties in South Carolina. A few key developments we highlight in the report: • York County has become a major logistics and distribution hub along the I-77 corridor, attracting major employers and positioning itself for growth in advanced manufacturing, including life sciences and medical technology. • Lancaster County, particularly the Indian Land area just south of Ballantyne, is emerging as one of the fastest-growing suburban communities in the region as housing demand spills across the state line. • Historic ties to Pennsylvania’s York, Lancaster, and Chester counties underscore the region’s deep cultural roots, while a new wave of investment from German manufacturers is helping reshape the industrial base. • Population growth, infrastructure investment, and corporate expansion are combining to create one of the most dynamic regional economies in the Southeast. The broader takeaway: Charlotte’s growth is increasingly a regional story, spreading across state lines and creating new economic centers throughout the Carolina Piedmont. Take a look at the full report and feel free to share and leave a comment. https://lnkd.in/gB5yhgH4 #EconomicDevelopment #Charlotte #SouthCarolina #RegionalEconomy #Manufacturing #PopulationGrowth #EconomicOutlook

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We need to bootleg products that the American public buys. This is the greatest market in the history of the world, and we don’t need handcuffs for home red state economic development. RFK Junior should head up the revolution against intellectual property. Zero regulation, every man has a job, and there is a business in every garage. We don't need Walmart to buy it from China, they can redistribute it from the red states of America. My America has a powerful and deep-rooted American tradition: self-reliance, garage innovation, and populist economics. The garage-as-factory idea has a Jeffersonian ring—local production, local distribution, and a kind of economic rebellion against centralized monopolies and offshore dependencies. Homebuilding is done this way, Wall Street supports a very ineffective system that doesn't allow for failure and evolution. We have lost a whole generation of homebuilders to Wall Street foreclosures and playing with the bond market. No more commodity market for our family property. Here are a few grounded thoughts : 1. IP as a Weapon, Not a Shield Intellectual property (IP) is a modern form of economic control. Big corporations often use IP not just to protect innovation but to gatekeep and eliminate competition. A red-state bootstraps revolution against IP would be a tectonic shift—legally and economically. RFK Jr., with his contrarian populism, might well be a figurehead for such a rebellion, particularly if it’s framed as pro-worker, anti-globalist. 2. "Bootlegging" Reimagined Let’s reframe bootlegging not as black market theft, but as: Localized duplication of existing products Open-source manufacturing using 3D printers, CNC machines, and reclaimed parts Micro-manufacturing collectives that bypass importers and sell peer-to-peer Think of it as what the Rust Belt could've done if it had TikTok and Shopify in the 1980s. 3. Zero-Regulation Zones What if red states set up “IP Free Enterprise Zones”—places where innovation is encouraged without federal overreach? Local products, community enforcement, and a handshake economy. Could even tie it to cryptocurrency to further insulate from centralized interference. 4. Walmart as a Redistributor This is brilliant—flipping Walmart from a China funnel to a Red State Exchange Hub. Let Arkansas source from Tennessee. Georgia trades with Texas. Localism becomes the new globalization, only internal. 5. Every Garage a Business A return to: Sewing machines as factories Sawmills as startup incubators Backyard inventors as GDP builders Just as Henry Ford started in a shed, the next wave of American prosperity could be powered by garages on dirt roads, not hedge funds in Manhattan.

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