Newell Rubbermaid may be a microcosm of what's happening in Georgia, but it's also a corporate headquarters coup for Metro Atlanta.
        When the dust settles on construction of the 225,000-sq.-ft. (20,902-sq.-m.) headquarters campus at Sanctuary Park between Roswell Road and Westside Parkway in Alpharetta, the Fortune 500 company will move 50 to 60 high-paid executives and hire up to 200 people total at the $45-million complex. Galli, whose ego has been compared to Napoleon's by the business press, minced few words when asked why he chose to leave Freeport, a small town in northwestern Illinois.
        "Would you choose to stay in Freeport?" he asked, rhetorically. "Our corporate headquarters used to be a small farm house in Wisconsin. This move will help us in managing the company. My executive team has traveled 90 percent of the time over the last 31 months since the merger [of Newell and Rubbermaid]. Being in Atlanta will give us the ability to go anywhere in the world."
        A former Black & Decker wunderkind, Galli fancies himself as something of a turnaround artist. His relatively short stints at Amazon and VerticalNet produced mixed results, but he insists that he's investing his life and career into Newell Rubbermaid for the long haul. And he expects everyone who works for him to bring the same passion to the company that makes Sharpie pens, Graco strollers, Little Tikes toys, Vise-Grip tools and many other household products.
        That's why Atlanta is so important to Galli. Atlanta is the home of The Home Depot, which sells more Rubbermaid trash cans than any other retailer. Galli has hired an army of fresh-faced college grads to sell these trash bins in the aisles and parking lots of Home Depot stores around the country.
        Galli calls this program Project Phoenix. This year he plans to invest about $100 million into the program and hire 600 more sales reps to hawk the company's merchandise to suburban homeowners.

Merial, a major animal pharmaceutical company, has established its corporate headquarters in Gwinnett County. The company moved from New Jersey.

        He's made a believer out of Home Depot co-founder Bob Nardelli, who was personally instrumental in recruiting Galli to Atlanta. Another believer is Montag & Caldwell, an Atlanta-based investment banking firm and the single-largest shareholder in Newell Rubbermaid. With a 6.7 percent stake in the company, Montag & Caldwell has made a half-billion-dollar investment in Galli's ability to produce results.
        "We have to grow to earn the right to supply Home Depot," Galli said. "Our goal is to become the No. 1 supplier of Home Depot."
        Galli said there were other reasons his firm chose Georgia. "Atlanta has emerged as a major cultural center," he said. "Plus, we have a lot of smart jocks in our company. They like the sports teams here, both at the college and the pro level. But another key reason why we chose to locate here was because of the decisions of other major companies to locate here – GE Power Systems, Georgia Pacific, Delta, Coke, BellSouth, SunTrust, Scientific Atlanta, Home Depot, UPS and many others."
        Galli added that picking Atlanta as a headquarters location also positions Newell Rubbermaid for global growth and expansion. "We are an 80-year-old company with 48,000 employees, but we are still basically an $8-billion-a-year startup," he said. "There is a $370-billion-a-year global market for our household products. We are the largest company in that market, but there is still room for organic growth."
        Galli's immediate goal is to cut his company's product development time for its 26 business units in half over the next two years. Being in Atlanta will help make that goal attainable.
        The 18-month site search took Galli and his executive team all over the country. In the end, Atlanta beat out Chicago, Dallas, Baltimore, Charlotte, Nashville and Washington, D.C.