JOHN GRIFFIN, FOUNDER, PRESIDENT & CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER
The term "Entrepreneur" is synonymous to John Griffin. Throughout his professional career he has been a pioneer and an innovator. He grew up in a family owned business and upon graduation from college in 1976 he began to carve his own niche. In the fall of 1976 he received his Real Estate License and began the first chapter in his professional life. Over the next 15 years his firm had constructed, built and developed over $65 million in residential and commercial properties. In 1989 his firm, Griffin Contractors, was listed as the 18th most active builder in the Greater Nashville, TN area as ranked in the "Nashville Book of Lists".
As a child Mr. Griffins' father was an active baseball card collector and operated a small baseball card business in addition to other business interests. In 1992, combining his passion for NASCAR and Motorsports and his foresight that the Motorsports fan was as dedicated to their sport as fans were to the other sports, Griffin founded, Music City Motorsports in Nashville TN as a collectable and souvenir business. As the popularity of NASCAR grew over the decade that followed, Music City Motorsports became a force in the distribution of licensed sports and Motorsports apparel, souvenirs and memorabilia becoming one of the largest distributors in the US, successfully marketing and distributing over $80 million in merchandise from their 46,000 square foot distribution facility in Nashville.
While still in the Motorsports distribution business the entrepreneurial spirit hit again! Griffin recognized that NASCAR had proven, the most eye-catching spot on the race car is the hood and advertisers pay millions for this coveted placement of their brand message. Griffin also recognized the race fan identified their favorite team by the branding message their driver displayed on the hood of their race car and the AutoGlove Hood Cover idea was born. Griffin believed that there was a market for a product that would, unlike the vinyl wraps in NASCAR and traditional vehicle advertising, allowed a sports fan or an advertiser to cover the hood of their vehicle with their favorite team or branding message, be safe at highway speeds, have the look of painted on high quality graphics and could be simply installed over and over in a few minutes and removed with ease. Now after several years of research and development the patent for the AutoGlove Hood Cover has been granted by the US Patent Office and the dream has become reality.
To take advantage of the new and innovative AutoGlove Hood Cover and the belief that sports fans and automotive enthusiasts would display their favorite team or automotive theme on the hood of their vehicle X-Treme Sports Group was formed. Focusing on Griffins' expertise in the Motorsports and licensed sports marketing and distribution business, X-Treme was formed to license, manufacture and distribute the AutoGlove Hood Cover to the automotive accessory market, sports and other licensed products markets.
Never loosing sight of his passion for Motorsports and the branding message brought to the consumer on the hood of a race car, Griffins' flagship company, AutoHood Media, was launched. AutoHood Media is now one of the fastest growing outdoor media firms in the U.S delivering a unique brand message for advertisers to the consumer using the innovative outdoor advertising medium that was once just an idea, the AutoGlove Hood Cover!
John Griffin is married and has 3 children and is a member of First Presbyterian Church.
DEVIN S. JAMES, SR., CO-OWNER AND CHIEF MARKETING OFFICER
The foundation of his business and reputation are integrity and creativity. His clients are small businesses and large corporations and he is commonly referred to as "the Genius" having received many recommendations from his clients, peers, corporate and community civic leaders. Brand Strategist and Entrepreneur, DEVIN S. JAMES, SR., is the Founder of the DEVIN JAMES GROUP, a strategic group that leverages a brand with unique media assets and relationships that incorporate PR, marketing and advertising.
A serial entrepreneur, James is also the founder of Native Graphix, a Memphis based graphic design firm; Exhale with Style, FL-based exclusive distributor of Adan y Eva premium cigars and Co-Founder of AutoHood Media, the Nashville-based mobile media firm that invented the "AutoGlove Hoodcover", the Institute of Health Careers, a VA-based healthcare education curriculum development and consulting firm and the National Post Graduate Athletic Association, a non-profit organization that collaborates with corporations to invest in the educational advancement of the post graduate and student athletes.
Actively involved in the community in which he serves, James has sat on various advisory boards and sponsors many charitable causes including events with many celebrities from actors to recording artist, major sports figures and TV personalities to business moguls.
James has been covered by almost all the local media in his hometown of Memphis, TN having been featured in the Memphis Regional Chambers' Crossroads magazine, the Memphis Flyer, the cover story of the Commercial Appeal Business section, numerous features in the Memphis Business Journal, appearing on WREG News Channel 3 "Live at 9" with Marybeth Conley, WHBQ MyFox Memphis "Money Matters" with Mearl Purvis and Scott Maddus and this year's July/Aug issue of the Memphis Business Quarterly.
As his began to expand his personal brand he developed more of a national presence when he was featured in the Who's Who of Black St. Louis, the Dallas Weekly, the Atanta Post, the African American Golfer's Digest magazine, Hotel & Motel Management Magazine, Yahoo News, Clutch Magazine's "Black Men to Watch" annual feature, AOL's BlackVoices "Powerlist", Blacknews.com and this year's June issue of Black Enterprise Magazine.
Prior to his position as the National Sales Manager for AutoHood Media, LLC, Doug Snead was the managing Broker for One Beale, a two hundred million dollar mixed use development. He has fifteen years of experience in new construction management, new construction on site sales, general brokerage and REO sales. Snead has worked in multiple areas of Real Estate including new homes with Pulte Homes, luxury condos up to five million dollars and REO properties for multiple banks in depressed areas of Charlotte, NC and Memphis, TN. Snead is a licensed Broker in Tennessee, North and South Carolina, a member of NAR, holds a CSP designation and still manages a team of REO specialists. He has been involved in over 120 million dollars of closed transactions in home sales. Snead earned the prestigious Top Gun designation while employed by Pulte Homes which is renowned as one of the best training programs among the nation's top builders. He has worked with one of the top sales trainers in the country and also trained multiple new agents.
