The Rutherford County Chamber of Commerce has named Andrea Loughry as the 2012 Business Legend of the Year, and will honor her at the Chamber’s annual Business at its Best celebration on Friday, Feb. 1, at the Embassy Suites Murfreesboro Hotel and Conference Center.

 

Loughry is president emeritus of Miller Loughry Beach Insurance Services, Inc., a member of Pinnacle National Financial Partners, and holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees from The University of Tennessee. She has taught on the high school level and served as a tenured assistant professor at Middle Tennessee State University.

 

A writer and speaker on the unique American higher education structure of citizen governance, she is a former vice-chair of the University of Tennessee Board of Trustees and immediate past chair of the UT Foundation Board. The Association of Governing Boards currently lists Loughry on their national board of directors.

 

Loughry was the first female chair of the Rutherford County Chamber of Commerce, and in 1990, was honored by the Chamber as the Business Person of the Year. She was a charter member of Leadership Rutherford and a member of its original board of directors. Instrumental in the organization of the Mind to Marketplace consortium, she served as the first chairman of this Middle Tennessee initiative to connect people with ideas to the marketplace. She was awarded the Joe M. Rodgers Spirit of America Award from the MTSU College of Business in 2005.

 

A woman who launches, Loughry helped organize Rutherford Books from Birth, a gourmet club, a book club, the first Rutherford County Circle of Red for Heart Association, first Women as Keepers of the Culture for United Way, and her most recent development is a monthly salon.

 

Andrea and Ed Loughry have a son, Cannon and his wife, Beth; a daughter, Lady, and her husband, Bart Hamilton and seven grandchildren proudly living in our community.

 

The Business at its Best reception will begin at 5:30 p.m., followed by a dinner at 6:30 p.m. Reservations are $70 for Chamber members and $90 for non-members. To reserve your seat, please contact the Chamber at 615-893-6565 or visit www.rutherfordchamber.org