Alumni Council

Applications open two times a year, Aug. 1 through Sept. 1, and Feb. 1 through Feb. 15.

Once your application is received, it will be considered by the alumni community team and references will be contacted.

If approved, your application will be sent to the Alumni Council executive committee for review.

If approved by the executive committee, you will be offered a position.

The term of membership on the council is three years, with a two-year extension approved by the dean, Advancement Office and chair of the council.

Council members are expected to attend and participate in two in-person meetings each year – fall and spring. These meeting are historically on campus, but virtual access is available as well. These are generally half day meetings. You also will become involved in one of the Alumni Council committees. The committees have different schedules and time commitments. You should expect that outside of the two semi-annual meetings, you will contribute 10-20 hours per year to the council.

Council members are expected to contribute financially to the School, recommended at $2,000 each year (minimum of $1,000).

To learn more about each subcommittee click on https://www.kenan-flagler.unc.edu/alumni/engagement/alumni-council/.

The current committees are executive, chapter and volunteer management, communications, new alumni engagement, student engagement and giving.

The council is comprised of UNC Kenan-Flagler alumni and connections made are valuable. There are social events around each semi-annual meeting to promote community and connection.

Real estate, manufacturing, banking/finance, entrepreneurship and marketing

Yes. The dean is actively involved in sharing the current status of the School and the path forward. council members interact with the dean during these sessions.

No.

Yes. Student representatives share with the council each year. There is an ongoing commitment to enhance the connectivity between alumni and students.

Yes.

During our meetings throughout the year, we have the opportunity to hear from some of the business professors on different topics such as leadership, career development and diveristy.

Chris Mallin leads Siemens Healthineers North American project office in Malvern, Pennsylvania.

His responsibilities include end-to-end customer supply chain, journey mapping and direct consulting with health systems on capital programs. Previously Mallin worked with Adventist HealthCare focusing on strategic capital investments, hospital expansion and campus development/planning.

He has an extensive background in construction, project management, and sustainable development within the healthcare sector from his work at Honeywell International and Turner Construction.

He received his bachelor and MS degree from Virginia Tech and his MBA from UNC Kenan-Flagler. He is a fellow in the American College of Healthcare Executives.

Diana Berry is a supply chain specialist at Harsco Rail, a global supplier for railway track maintenance and engineering leader in the industry. In her current role, she manages the import/export process ensuring compliance with U.S. and international government laws and regulations, and oversees the processes necessary to distribute products in the global supply chain efficiently and with high level of technical complexity.  Prior to joining Harsco Rail, she worked in a variety of logistic roles at United Parcel Service.

Berry received her Bachelor of Science in industrial engineering in her native country of Colombia and her MBA from UNC Kenan-Flagler. During her time as a  MBA@UNC student, she led the Women of MBA@UNC student group and was an active student ambassador for the program.

Berry is a distinguished toastmaster serving the organization in leadership roles for over 10 years and is he annual conference program chair for the Institute of Industrial and Systems Engineers, based in Atlanta. She is president of her local chapter of the Society of Women Engineers and enjoys mentoring aspiring women in business and engineering. She lives in Aiken, South Carolina, and enjoys teaching Zumba in her community.

Mary Moore Hambrick leads Grant Thornton’s public policy initiatives and is directly responsible for external and internal strategy and tactics. She liaises with Members of Congress, accounting professional standard setters, regulators and other influencers.

She and her team are trusted resources to the firm’s partners, clients, and the nation’s legislators – ensuring Grant Thornton’s policy positions are well represented. She is a member of Grant Thornton’s U.S. Extended Leadership Team and a chair of the firm’s Political Action Committee.

Mary Moore has a strong business and legal background with 30 years of experience, working for and then with the U.S. Congress. She most recently served as the Senior Director of External Relations and Strategic Planning for the Center for Audit Quality, where she managed its strategic priorities, stakeholder outreach and communications. She was also a Director of the Office of External Relations for the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, where she established its government relations office and directed its public affairs functions. Mary Moore headed the New York Life Insurance Co.’s Washington, D.C. governmental affairs office, served as counsel to the U.S. House Committee on Energy and Commerce, and was a registered in-vestments representative for Morgan Stanley, having passed investments exams series 3, 7 and 63.

She graduated from Duke University and earned her JD and MBA from UNC-Chapel Hill.

Barry Holloway retired in  2014 from SWD URETHANE of Phoenix, Arizona, where he was responsible for sales development on an international level to exceed $50 million dollars. Other responsibilities in his senior management position included direct responsibility of a national sales force, coordination with the marketing department, and plant operations. His previous industry experience was with the Johns Manville Corporation of Denver, Colorado, in a regional sales capacity for the states of North Carolina and Virginia. During his career Holloway was well known in the building industry actively serving on various committee’s with the National Association of Home Builders particularly in the area of modular building plants.

His first career was with the U.S. Marine Corps where he was on the staff of Lieutenant General F. E. Leek, commander of Fleet Marine Force Atlantic in Norfolk, Virginia. He graduated from UNC Kenan-Flagler and lives in Raleigh with his wife, two children and three grandchildren.

William Keesler is a principal at Paine & Partners, a private equity firm headquartered in New York. He is responsible for leading investments in food and agribusiness companies. Before joining Paine & Partners, Keesler was a member of Sun Capital Partners, a global private equity firm focused on operational and financial turnarounds, corporate carve-outs and special situations.

During his tenure at Sun Capital, Keesler had significant experience investing in companies in food and agribusiness, consumer, retail, restaurant and industrial sectors. He began his career at Macquarie Capital in the restructuring and special situations group, where he executed capital structure solutions for distressed and under-performing companies including financings, debt restructurings, and mergers and acquisitions.

Keesler graduated with a BSBA from UNC Kenan-Flagler . A native of North Carolina, he resides in New York with his wife Mary Ellen (UNC ’08).

Brian McBroom is a budding entrepreneur. As president of Anago of Atlanta (master territory owner of 19 counties surrounding Metro Atlanta) he increased the number of franchisees and developed short-term and long-term growth strategies to increase individual franchisee viability.

He served as director of enterprise risk management and operations excellence at Cummins Inc for five years. At Cummins, he was charged with the consolidation and mitigation of the company’s most critical risks for the Cummins board of directors. In addition, he ensured business continuity and disaster recovery implementations were executed around the globe. He managed a team of talented blackbelts and master blackbelts responsible for problem resolution within the corporate group. His risk insurance group placed global insurance policies (property, general liability, workers compensation, etc.) which protected CMI’s worldwide assets.

In his previous role, McBroom served as director, corporate staffs finance, for nearly three years, and was responsible for providing monthly financial reporting and interpretation of results to both the CFO and COO’s direct reports; preparing board of director, executive committee and operating committee presentations of corporate results; as well as leading the corporate annual operating plan.

Prior to joining Cummins, McBroom worked at Chrysler LLC for 12 years in a variety of financial management roles including: international, treasury, manufacturing, product development, engineering research and development, and corporate financial activities. In addition, he served as a claims adjuster with Allstate Insurance Company for nearly two years.

McBroom serves as chairman of the risk management committee on the board of directors for Centra Credit Union, the third largest credit union in Indiana. Previously, he served as treasurer for the board of directors of the Columbus Parks Foundation.

He holds a BSBA from UNC Kenan-Flagler and an MBA in finance and marketing from Clark Atlanta University.

Taylor Harrington is a director on the private credit team at Guggenheim Partners in New York City. He originates and structures debt investments in mid-market companies. Prior to joining Guggenheim, he was an associate director on Barings’ direct lending team.

Before Barings, Harrington worked for Boston Consulting Group in their New York office, focusing on private investment due diligence and value creation projects.

Before graduating from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth, he was an investment banking analyst at Bank of America Merrill Lynch and an investment associate at Summit Park.

Taylor earned his BSBA from UNC Kenan-Flagler where he graduated cum laude.

Bob Kadlec is a partner in the Los Angeles office of Duane Morris LLP and member of the firm’s M&A, private equity and corporate practices. He has more than 30 years of experience, providing advice in a broad range of mergers and acquisitions, corporate financing transactions and corporate governance matters. He has extensive experience advising both private equity and corporate clients on a variety of matters related to M&A, corporate governance and securities laws matters including leveraged buyouts and recapitalizations, minority investments, joint ventures and public company acquisitions. He also advises a variety of public and private companies in corporate governance, SEC reporting and other matters.

Kadlec has been selected by his peers for inclusion in The Best Lawyers in America for Corporate Law since 2017. He earned his JD from New York University School of Law and his BS from UNC-Chapel Hill. He is a certified public accountant.

Alex Bean is a partner with Plexus Capital, serves on the investment committee and heads the firm’s new deal execution effort. He is active in fundraising, sourcing new investment opportunities and portfolio company oversight.

Bean joined Plexus in 2010 as an associate. He began his career in the investment banking division of BB&T Capital Markets (now BB&T Securities), focusing on sell-side M&A transactions and public equity offerings.

He earned his BSBA from UNC Kenan-Flagler.

Mark Donnolo is managing partner with SalesGlobe, a sales effectiveness consulting and services firm that works with leading companies in the areas of sales innovation, sales strategy, sales team coaching and training, and sales compensation. He is the author of “The Innovative Sale” and “What Your CEO Needs to Know About Sales Compensation.”

Donnolo has worked in leading consulting firms over the past twenty years. He was president of a venture-backed voice-over-IP service provider, co-founder of a point-to-point wireless ISP, and co-founder of a clean coal technology company funded by three major venture capital firms. Before his business career, he worked as a designer in New York for a global branding firm and for a museum design and environmental design firm.

He holds an MBA from UNC Kenan-Flagler  and a BFA from The University of the Arts in Philadelphia. He has served on the board of trustees of The University of the Arts and the board of the Ludwig Symphony Orchestra for six years.

Jordan Larson is a senior financial analyst at LPL Financial, an independent broker-dealer in the wealth management industry. He works on the financial planning and analysis team within the finance organization at LPL while also managing the UNC recruiting effort for LPL’s financial analyst rotation program.

His previous role was an auditor at Deloitte in Charlotte, completing financial statement audits for clients in the financial services sector. HE began at Deloitte after graduating from UNC Kenan-Flagler’s Master of Accounting program in 2016. He also has an undergraduate degree in economics from UNC.

While he was born and raised in Minnesota, Larson now calls Charlotte his home where he lives with his wife Catherine, a fellow UNC graduate.

Kristin is a wealth advisor at Colony Family Offices, working with clients to develop, implement and monitor integrated customized financial planning strategies that meet their short and long-term goals and objectives. She also helps coordinate the firm’s business development efforts.

Lewis has over 18 years providing specialized counseling to affluent clients in a variety of financial planning areas, including cash flow/retirement planning, stock options and employee benefits, insurance, investments, income taxation and transfer taxation. After beginning her career as a tax consultant at Deloitte, she was a vice president and senior financial planner with Wachovia Wealth Management. Prior to joining Colony, she spent 10 years as a partner and director of financial planning at Queens Oak Advisors.

Lewis earned her BSBA from UNC Kenan-Flagler and a master of accounting with an emphasis in taxation from North Carolina State University. She holds the Certified Financial Financial Planner™ designation. For over five years, she coordinated and taught the estate planning module of the CFP^® Financial Planning Education Program for Queens University of Charlotte.

Kristin and her husband Allen (UNC BSBA, MAC) live in Charlotte and actively support several organizations in their community primarily supporting education and the arts.  They have two children – Andrew (UNC class of 2024) and Elizabeth.

With over 35 years of experience in financial services, Margo Shepard is dedicated to helping clients meet their financial needs by developing investment plans around their long-term-goals and risk tolerance. She provides financial advice and value-added service to investors, always striving to build long-term relationships based on mutual trust and respect.

She works closely with families, helping them through major life transitions including the sale of a family business, loss of a loved one, retirement or the birth of a child or grandchild. She provides direct consultation and advice to individuals and not-for-profit associations, including foundations and endowments on strategic asset allocation, investment strategy and wealth planning.

She was named by Barron’s as one of the Top 100 Women Financial Advisors in the country in 2006. In 2015, the Financial Times named her to their FT 400 list of top financial advisers.

She is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate from the University of North Carolina where sbe was inducted into Beta Gamma Sigma, a business honorary fraternity. She earned her MBA degree from the University of Kansas. With an emphasis on continuing education, she earned the Certified Financial Planner (CFP®) certification and the designation of Certified Investment Management Analyst (CIMA®) after successfully completing the courses offered through the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania in 1998.

She was a founding member of the Women’s Capital Connection, a regional network of accredited angel investors dedicated to identifying and funding promising women led start-up businesses in the region. She received the Joan Strewler-Carter Women of Influence Award in 2008 for her role in significantly impacting women entrepreneurship in the community.

She is active in the community, serving on many boards and committees including the University of Kansas Business School Advisory Board, Cristo Rey High School Board, Diocesan Finance Council and William Jewell College board of trustees.

Jason Colgate is best known for being a versatile and dynamic leader and dealmaker in healthcare. He enjoys both getting his hands dirty on the operating side as well as analyzing companies on the investment side. He has a passion for working with entrepreneurs and executives, for improving the state of healthcare, and also with growing teams and value at the enterprise and individual level. His role at Eli Global as managing director of the M&A team is to facilitate the origination and execution of acquisitions across the umbrella of 20 portfolios, which consists of over 150 independent businesses with $26 billion in assets. Eli Global is a holding company that focuses on buying and growing businesses, and in 2017 Eli completed 30 acquisitions.

Before Eli Global, Colgate had experience in private equity, corporate development, investment banking and operating roles across the healthcare spectrum from ventures to Fortune 50 businesses to boutique investment firms, including Bourne Capital Partners, Quintiles, Johnson & Johnson Development Corporation and Boston Scientific.

He earned his MBA from UNC Kenan-Flagler as well as a BM for cello performance at Vanderbilt University under the Dinah Shore Scholarship. He is a FINRA series 63 and 79 investment banking registered advisor and a member of the ACG.

Colgate likes to make a difference on various boards too such as the Charlotte Symphony Orchestra and UNC Kenan-Flagler, and he has been a frequent guest speaker at universities as well as industry conferences on healthcare and M&A.

Mark is a Senior Vice President in BB&T Capital Markets Corporate Banking’s REIT and Financial Services Group. BB&T, headquartered in Winston Salem, NC, is one of the largest financial services holding companies in the United States. Mark’s banking career started in 1983 with BB&T and continued with service as a Director with Wachovia Securities’ CIB Group and as an EVP and Corporate Services Manager for Main Street Bank in Atlanta, GA. Since returning to BB&T, he served as President of BB&T’s SBA Group and as Senior Loan Administrator, before joining the Capital Markets group.

A North Carolina native, Mark was a Johnston Scholar at UNC-CH receiving his B.S. in Business Administration from the University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill and his MBA from the Fuqua School of Business at Duke University. Mark and his wife Jan have three children; Peyton (a Senior at UNC-CH), Alex and Ainsley and live in Winston Salem, NC.

Stuart Friou is Chief Investment Officer of Keen Onyx Fund and Principal of HF Partners, LLC, the general partner of Keen Onyx Fund. Prior to founding HF Partners, he was a Portfolio Manager, primarily for the Consumer/Retail sector, and a Partner of Hunter Global Investors LP. Mr. Friou joined Hunter in 2001 at inception and was a Partner from 2005 to 2011.

Before joining Hunter, Mr. Friou was a Senior Analyst for James M. Myers & Company, a Registered Investment Adviser in Charlotte, North Carolina, from 1994 to 2001.  While at Myers, he co-managed a long/short hedge fund and was responsible for following the consumer, industrial, technology and financial sectors as both a buy-side and sell-side analyst. Prior to Myers, Mr. Friou was the Chief Financial Officer of Ava Industries, a textile company, and an accountant at Touche Ross & Co. in New York and Laventhol & Horwath in Charlotte, where he became a CPA.

Mr. Friou received a BS in Business Administration from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1988 and an MBA from the University of Michigan in 1994.

Indranath (Indra) Lahiri, Senior Financial Advisor for Merrill Lynch, holds Series 7, 63 and 66 FINRA Registrations and is also licensed in life and long-term care insurance. He assists individuals and small business owners in the areas of retirement strategies, cash management, debt management, working capital investment, business succession planning and estate planning services.

Indra Joined Merrill Lynch in 2010. Prior to joining Merrill Lynch, Indra worked at global firms such as Oracle and Cisco in the areas of technical and business solutions.

Indra is committed to the Merrill Lynch core philosophy that the client comes first. He employs Merrill Lynch’s four step Wealth Management Process to establish client objectives, set an individualized strategy, implement a customized recommendation and review progress against objectives.

Indra holds an M.B.A., in Finance, from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Masters in Information Systems from University of Texas. Indra is a member of the Apex Chamber of Commerce.He is a charter member of TiE, an organization for promoting entrepreneurship. He and his wife, Nandini, live in Apex, North Carolina, with their two children

Carl has been employed in the investment management industry since receiving his MBA from UNC KFBS in 1994. He works in Philadelphia at Delaware Investments and is a member of the firm’s large cap value equity team. In his role as investment specialist, Carl works closely with the team’s clients and distribution partners. Prior work affiliations include Merrill Lynch, Brown Brothers Harriman and Prudential Insurance. He is a CFA Charterholder and a member of the New York Society of Security Analysts and CFA Institute. Way back when, Carl graduated from the University of Colorado, Boulder, with a BA in Political Science.

Carl and his wife, Molly (AB, Education), live in Pennington, NJ, and actively support several organizations in their community dealing primarily with disadvantaged youth, domestic violence and mental health counseling. They have three children—Gillian (UNC class of 2019), Demarest and Carly—and are avid devotees of UNC.

Chris is a Partner at Childress Klein with over thirty years of corporate real estate and commercial real estate development experience. He is responsible for new retail and mixed use development activity for Childress Klein in the Southeast, with emphasis in the Carolinas.

He has been a speaker and panelist for a number of programs at the Urban Land Institute, International Council of Shopping Centers, NAIOP, and other industry organizations, and has been a guest columnist for Southeast Real Estate Business.

Chris is past board chair and on the executive committee of NAIOP Charlotte, and leads that organization’s governmental affairs efforts at the local and state levels.

He is past board chair of the James J. Harris YMCA and serves on the boards of the YMCA of Greater Charlotte and The Presbyterian Home of Charlotte. He received his B.S.B.A from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and completed the Young Executives Institute at the Kenan-Flagler Business School. Chris and his family reside in his native city of Charlotte.

Will Pleasants joined Wasserman in 2007 through the acquisition of OnSport and currently serves as Managing Director, US. As part of the Marketing Leadership Team, he oversees all Brand and Property relationships and delivery of work product in the United States.

Prior to returning to help client business, Will was Chief Operating Officer of the company. Working closely with the company’s leadership team, he was responsible for the oversight of the company’s human resources, IT, corporate communications and worked with the business units on overall day-to-day operations for the 900+ employees around the globe.

Formerly, he was COO of the Marketing division, working with the Managing Partners to lead that division’s tremendous geographic growth and diversification of service offerings. In addition, he has helped lead many of the company’s account teams, including American Express, Brand USA, CarMax, and Nationwide Insurance.

Prior to Wasserman, Pleasants served as director of strategic planning with Group CSE in Atlanta, worked at the Orlando Magic, and spent time with NIKE in their Southeast office.

Pleasants holds a degree in Business Administration from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He serves as a guest lecturer at his alma mater, leading the Business of Sport class in the Kenan-Flagler Business School. In addition, he led student organizations in the development of the UNC Sports and Entertainment Summit.

He is a 2014 Sports Business Journal “Forty Under 40” Award winner, who also serves on the Boards of Kenan-Flagler Business School Triangle Chapter, and Teamworks, a leading athlete engagement software platform. He currently resides in Raleigh, North Carolina with his wife Angie and their two sons, Cooper and Beckett.

Genna Zimmer is a Project Manager at Reeds Jewelers. In this role, she is responsible for assisting with an ecommerce re-platform. Before joining Reeds, Genna worked as an Accountant for the accounts payable, advertising, and retail accounting teams at Belk. She also completed a three month Executive Training Program at Belk.

Genna’s work experience primarily resides in the retail and wholesale space. Prior to Belk, she worked as a Sales Associate at Reeds Jewelers and she also completed marketing internships at David Yurman and Vera Wang in New York City. Although she loved working at David Yurman and Vera Wang, she was not ready to bear the cold winters in New York.

Genna graduated with a BSBA from the Kenan-Flagler Business School at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Genna is from Wilmington, NC and she currently resides in Charlotte, NC.