Parker Petit

December 29, 2008 – (ATLANTA) – Parker H. "Pete" Petit has been named chairman of the Board of Advisors of Georgia State University's J. Mack Robinson College of Business. Petit will serve a two-year term as head of the 37-member board, which provides advice, counsel and support to the college.

Petit succeeds Thomas D. Body III, whose two-year term expires December 31.

According to H. Fenwick Huss, Dean of the Robinson College, "Pete Petit is one of the nation's foremost entrepreneurs and business executives. His knowledge of the College, history of support to higher education and strong leadership style will play a significant role in advancing the College into the ranks of the world's premier business schools."

Huss also commended Body for his work with the board. Said the Dean, "Tom totally revamped the board structure, added new committees, increased membership and, in general, gave the organization an entirely new energy and vision for the future. We are extremely pleased Tom will remain with us as a board member."

Petit, who holds an MBA degree from Georgia State, is the founder of Healthdyne, an internationally based healthcare company that manufactured high technology healthcare devices and provided healthcare information systems and technology, as well as healthcare services and disease management. The company grew to annual revenues in excess of $1 billion.

In order to increase shareholder value, Healthdyne was split into several publicly traded companies through public offerings and spinouts to shareholders in 1995. At that point, Petit relinquished the CEO role and remained Chairman of the Board of all the companies. In 1995, Healthdyne Maternity Management was merged with Tokos Medical to form Matria Healthcare. In October 2000, Petit resumed the duties of President and CEO of Matria Healthcare, which was acquired by Inverness Medical Innovations in May 2008. He now serves as President of The Petit Group, an investment management organization.

Petit has served on the Board of Directors of Atlantic Southeast Airlines, Inc., which was acquired by Delta Airlines, and Norrell Corporation, which was acquired by Spherion Corporation, and he currently serves on the Board of Directors of Intelligent Systems Corporation and Logility, Inc. He is a 1994 inductee into the Technology Hall of Fame of Georgia. Petit funded a professorial chair for "Engineering in Medicine" at Georgia Tech in 1986 and endowed the Institute for Bioengineering and Bioscience at Georgia Tech. He continues to be a major benefactor of higher education. In 2004 he endowed Georgia State's Science Teaching Laboratory building, which bears his name. In 2007, he was inducted into the Georgia State Robinson College Business Hall of Fame.