Jeffrey L. Portman is President and Chief Operating Officer of AMC, Inc., the world’s largest trade mart/trade show organization and parent company of AmericasMart Atlanta, the nation’s largest wholesale home/gift/apparel marketplace.

Portman leads the daily operation of these Atlanta-based businesses, which annually bring tens of thousands of visitors to the city, generating more than $478 million in direct economic impact, and making Atlanta the wholesale/retail trading capital of the United States.  

Portman’s career spans more than 35 years in commercial real estate development and management, including his leadership of the Atlanta Decorative Arts Center (ADAC) as general manager from June 1986 through July 1994, at which point he was appointed Executive Vice President of AMC, Inc.  His election as AMC president and chief operating officer followed in February 2001.

He subsequently has led AMC and AmericasMart Atlanta through a period of growth unprecedented in the companies’ 53-year history, commencing with the rebranding of the former Atlanta Market Center as AmericasMart Atlanta in 1996, and continuing with expansion of its global business base, most recently advanced in the opening of the celebrated Building 2 WestWing in January 2009.

A native Atlantan, Portman is consistently named among the Top 100 most influential people in the U.S. home furnishings industry, and comments regularly in national and international home, gift and apparel trade media.  Portman was named Atlanta Citizen of the Year by the Atlanta Police Foundation, with Mayor Franklin bestowing the honor.  He serves on the Executive Committee of the Atlanta Convention and Visitors Bureau and on the Board of The Lovett School, his alma mater.

Portman did undergraduate work at Mercer University and Georgia State University and post-graduate study at Harvard in Cambridge.