National Football Foundation

A stalwart in the Atlanta community for several decades, A.J. Robinson was named chairman of Atlanta Hall Management, the nonprofit tasked with overseeing the College Football Hall of Fame, in 2019. He played a key role in the development of the Hall of Fame since its inception, including the announcement of the project in 2009 and through its opening in August 2014 and now as the chairman.
 
Originally costing $68.5 million in private funding, plus another $15 million in state funding for infrastructure improvements, the 95,000-square-foot Hall of Fame has become a major hub for college football and one of the main attractions in Downtown Atlanta. Robinson's involvement has played a critical role in the venue's success, including steering the operations during the challenging COVID period and maintaining the critical support from founding sponsors/partners: Chick-fil-A, Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl, Coca-Cola, Kia and Microsoft.
 
Attracting hundreds of thousands of visitors every year, the Hall serves as one of the most unique and popular events spaces in Atlanta. The venue has hosted nationally televised awards shows, media days for multiple college football conferences and countless parties during major sporting events, including the College Football Playoff, the Super Bowl and the Final Four.
 
Robinson is the president of the Central Atlanta Progress (CAP) as well as the head of the Atlanta Downtown Improvement District (ADID), and both organizations are charged with creating a robust economic environment in Downtown Atlanta. Robinson became CAP president in 2003, bookended by the renovation of the 3.9-million-square-foot Georgia World Congress Center in 2002 and the opening of the $290 million Georga Aquarium in 2005.
 
Those milestones opened the door to numerous major projects around Centennial Olympic Park in the coming years, including the World of Coca-Cola, the CNN Tour, the SkyView Atlanta Ferris Wheel, the National Center for Civil and Human Rights, the nearby Mercedes-Benz Stadium, the recently renovated State Farm Arena and of course the opening of the College Football Hall of Fame.
 
Before becoming president of CAP, Robinson was president of Portman Holdings, supervising an international portfolio of real estate projects in the United States, India, Europe and China. After graduating from Emory University in 1977, he earned an MBA from the Harvard School of Business in 1980. He has consistently been recognized as one of Georgia Trend's 100 Most Influential Georgians as well as one of the Atlanta Business Chronicle's 100 Most Influential Atlantans.