POWERGRAMS

12 Games chairman of the board found international accolades Jonathan Porter is the kind of guy who mows his own yard, not out of frugality but more because he appreciates the accomplishment and ability to get it done right. Porter has spent the past six years with a similar do-it-yourself zeal for The World Games, helping ensure the scene of the 2022 international event was attractive to all who dropped in or drove past. His work ethic pushed Porter through many long meetings, extensive travel, tough decisions and frequent worry over details he'd faced since 2016. Porter, 49, handled the dual jobs of being chairman of the World Games board of directors and Alabama Power's senior vice president of Customer Operations. He expects to still be doing both through June 2023, long after most of the World Games' staff moves on or back to other jobs. "During the Games, at most every venue, talking to athletes, talking to the heads of international sports associations, the nucleus of the conversation was always the hospitality of Birmingham, Jefferson County and the state of Alabama," Porter said. "I was at the Hoover Met talking to the parents of a player on the Australian softball team and they said, 'We've been all over the world following our daughter and we've never felt the hospitality we've felt here.' It was quite a testament to the reception all around our community." Weeks after the Closing Ceremonies, Porter was still squeezing in strategic World Games meetings between his company responsibilities. He is proud of the events that saw nearly 3,700 athletes compete in a safe showcase to the world, watched by sell-out crowds at venues across Birmingham. Nearly 400,000 people attended the Games, including 30,000 international visitors and a television audience of up to 100 million worldwide. "As a result, there are two or three international sports federations that have Birmingham on their short list for major events," Porter said. "When they saw the success of the Games in Alabama, how we supported the events, they were impressed." In July 2016, Porter took a call from CEO Mark Crosswhite, who asked what Porter knew about the World Games. The quick answer was "not much." Soon afterward, Crosswhite told Birmingham Mayor William Bell, "I've got an ex-running back that can get the ball across the goal." Porter began what would be much more a marathon than a short carry for the former Tuskegee University football standout. And his chairmanship would be extended by a year because of the pandemic that forced postponement of the Tokyo Olympics until 2021 and bumped The World Games to 2022. World Games CEO took on biggest role of his career So much for 8-hour days and 40-hour weeks. And forget about that silver wedding anniversary celebration. Nick Sellers didn't have those expectations for nearly three years. But now that he's had a chance to catch his breath and reflect on being CEO of The World Games, the sacrifice and sleepless nights were well worth the outcome. "I think I underestimated just how much had to be done to deliver an event of this size when I first joined the team," said Sellers, who left his role as vice president of Mobile Division to pilot the Games on Dec. 4, 2019. "To put it into perspective, the Summer Olympics has 34 sports that compete in over 20 venues over two weeks just like The World Games. Now, the Summer Olympics has more athletes competing, but they also have over 1,000 staff members and a budget in the billions of dollars. We delivered the Games, with the same number of sports and approximate venues, with a staff of 75 and a budget of $65 million, which is $10 million less than the original bid budget. It's just a massive project. And I'm really proud of the team." Sellers, 49, said his biggest worry when he accepted the CEO job was if Birmingham and Alabama would be able to supply the money and the people needed to pull off such a gargantuan task. He'd previously worked for the Alabama Sports Foundation, handling big events like the SEC Baseball Tournament and Magic City Classic, but this was an undertaking that dwarfed those major competitions. "I've never worked on a project or on a project team that had more moving parts than this one," said Sellers. "And there wasn't a 'best practices' manual from the International World Games Association. We just had to do our best to understand how previous World Games Organizing Committees worked, define success for this event, build our team around that vision and hold each other accountable for delivering it. As you can imagine, the days got longer as the Games approached. For the better part of the past year, the Organizing Committee staff worked into the evening most days and on the weekends." Sellers in 1995 quarterbacked an undermanned University of Pacific football team on the road against No. 1 Nebraska, where he out-passed the Cornhuskers' Heisman Trophy runner-up QB. In 2003, Sellers began taking on a series of roles within Southern Company that produced frequent promotions. He might not have had a TWG playbook, but he knew what it takes to lead a winning team. And it didn't hurt that his teammate was Jonathan Porter, the Alabama Power senior vice president who drafted Sellers for the Games. In the months, weeks, days and hours leading up to the Opening Ceremonies, Sellers was a familiar sight on television and heard on

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