Michel “Marty” Turpeau, a business executive and important figure in Atlanta’s economic development ecosystem, died last week following a brief illness.
Turpeau, 55, a lifelong Atlantan and member of various civic boards, was the chairman of the Development Authority of Fulton County.
Turpeau was born into a family plugged into the city’s political class. His father, Aaron Turpeau Sr., served in the cabinets of Mayors Maynard Jackson and Andrew Young. The elder Turpeau was also good friends with baseball legend Hank Aaron, leading them to found The Aaron Group, a parking and transit solutions company that the younger Turpeau would eventually head as president.
Karen Snell, Turpeau’s partner for nearly 13 years, described the man she loved as one with boundless energy and dedication to his hometown. She said Turpeau was always dissecting situations, thinking multiple steps ahead.
“We always had a joke of him being a chess player,” Snell said. “That was the way he looked at things. It was almost like a chess game.”
Fulton Commissioner Marvin Arrington Jr. met Turpeau at Cascade United Methodist Church before they attended Douglas High School. He described his friend as a serial entrepreneur even at a young age, when he would help his parents run a coffee shop out of Peachtree Center.
Credit: Develop Fulton
Credit: Develop Fulton
Arrington said Turpeau’s exposure to some of Atlanta’s most respected minds during his younger years kickstarted his journey into public service.
“I think that drove his love for the city and the county,” Arrington said.
Turpeau received an undergraduate degree from Morehouse College and a master’s in finance from Clark Atlanta University. Arrington appointed Turpeau to the DAFC board in 2017; three years later, Turpeau took on the role of chairman, and for a time, executive director.
Not long into his tenure as chairman, controversy emerged in the wake of an investigation by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Channel 2 Action News that uncovered loose financial controls at the authority. The news outlets found top board officers, including Bob Shaw, Turpeau’s predecessor as chairman, at times paid themselves multiple per diems in a single day, including for each document they signed and for the number of items on meeting agendas.
Shaw also had a salaried job with the authority at the same time he earned per diems for his board service. Shaw and several members of the nine-member board left DAFC in the wake of the reporting.
Turpeau, who after taking on the role as chairman had enacted new board policies, joined with new board leadership to institute additional internal controls in the wake of the investigation. Turpeau also helped update the authority’s bylaws, established committees focused on strategic initiatives and financial reviews, launched the “Attainable Fulton” housing affordability initiative and oversaw the authority’s rebranding as Develop Fulton ahead of its 50th anniversary.
“Chairman Turpeau leaves an enduring legacy that inspires us to uphold the standards of equity and inclusion he set forth,” Develop Fulton Executive Director Sarah-Elizabeth Langford wrote in a statement.
Still, DAFC has taken heat for granting the overwhelming majority of tax breaks in recent years to projects in hot markets like Midtown and the Beltline that critics say likely would have been built without taxpayer support. Turpeau told the AJC in October that the authority is working to move past those controversies, focusing on the corrective measures since put in place.
“We move forward with a positive approach to serve Fulton County and our community members, hoping to leave old controversies in the past,” he wrote at the time.
Credit: Develop Fulton
Credit: Develop Fulton
State Sen. Brandon Beach, R-Alpharetta, the authority’s vice chair, will assume the chair’s responsibilities until Develop Fulton appoints a new leader. Arrington said he will appoint a new member to the board “in the near future.”
Turpeau’s survivors include his parents, his son Mickey Turpeau, his brother Aaron Turpeau Jr. and his sister Dr. Alem Desta Turpeau, along with Snell, her three children and a grandson. A memorial service will be held at 2 p.m. January 5 at the Martin Luther King Jr. International Chapel at Morehouse College.
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