Junior Achievement announces ’09 laureate for Nashville Business Hall of Fame

Nashville, Tenn. Joe Scarlett, retired CEO of Tractor Supply Co. and the founder of the Scarlett Leadership Institute of Belmont University, will be the 2009 inductee into the Nashville Business Hall of Fame to be held Oct. 27 at Loews Vanderbilt Plaza. The event is hosted by Junior Achievement of Middle Tennessee (JA) to recognize the city’s outstanding contributors to business and philanthropy and will draw crowds of Scarlett’s peers to the induction celebration.

Tractor Supply Co. and Mars Pet Care are co-sponsoring the event to recognize Scarlett, who admitted he is “thrilled to be chosen by Junior Achievement to be this year’s inductee into the Nashville Business Hall of Fame.”

Scarlett was selected for this distinctive honor by committee vote. The JA committee, chaired by JA Board Members Mary Cavarra of Ingram Industries and Jim Mallon of American General Life and Accident, selected Scarlett for the 2009 award based on his keen interest in providing quality education to students of all ages in Nashville. His current focus is on building first-class executive education programs with a primary focus on business leadership, ethics and an emphasis on effective communication and measurable behavioral change, according to Scarlett’s Web site.

Scarlett joins a long line of other well-respected Nashvillians, the likes of which include Nashville auto-industry icon Lee Beaman, recording artist Vince Gill, former president and CEO of BMI Frances Preston, healthcare veteran R. Clayton McWhorter, then-Mayor of Nashville Gov. Phil Bredesen, the late Ambassador Joe M. Rodgers and banker and community activist Jimmy Webb, among others.

HCA founder Dr. Tommy Frist, Jr., record-label chairman Mike Curb, executive and philanthropist Martha Rivers Ingram and food and hospital entrepreneur Jack C. Massey have all represented Nashville as inductees in the U.S. Business Hall of Fame, hosted by JA Worldwide and housed in Chicago’s Museum of Science and Industry.

Junior Achievement is the world’s largest and fastest-growing nonprofit organization dedicated to providing K-12 education in financial literacy, entrepreneurship and workforce readiness skills. In Middle Tennessee, JA reaches 30,000 students annually in an 18-county region by placing volunteers directly in the classroom to share their real-world experiences in conjunction with JA’s turnkey curriculum.