Board of Advisors

George Alexander is executive director of Muthoot Finance, the largest gold finance company in India. He takes care of operations in the States of Karnataka, Goa and south of Telangana. He also has the responsibility of the global operations of The Muthoot Group in U.S. He serves on the board of other group companies namely Muthoot Insurance Brokers, Belstar Finance & Investments, Asia Asset Finance and Muthoot Securities. Muthoot Finance is the flagship institution of The Muthoot Group. It was listed in 2011 and is traded in BSE & NSE. Apart from Muthoot Finance, The Muthoot Group has 16 other divisions, including hospitality, healthcare, education and insurance broking. Prior to joining his family business, Alexander worked for ING & Kotak Mahindra Bank in India

He was the chapter chair of Confederation of Indian Industries – Young Indians Bangalore Chapter in 2015. He also served on the board of Entrepreneur’s Organisation Bangalore as finance chair from 2016 to 2018. He was one among 10 Indians chosen to represent India for AIYD (Australia India Youth Dialogue) at Sydney and Melbourne in 2013.

Alexander earned his bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from University of Kerala TKM College of Engineering and his MBA from UNC Kenan-Flagler.

Ritch Allison serves as president of Domino’s International, overseeing over 8,000 Domino’s stores and all franchise relationships outside the U.S. Domino’s is the world’s second largest pizza company, with more than 13,000 stores in more than 80 countries.

Since Allison joined Domino’s to lead the international business in March 2011, the division has grown by more than 3,500 stores. Domino’s International has achieved 90 consecutive quarters of same stores sales growth and accounts for more than one-half of the company’s global retail sales – over $5.0 billion in fiscal 2015.

Allison joined Domino’s after more than 13 years at Bain & Company Inc., a leading business consulting firm, where he was a partner and co-leader of Bain’s global restaurant practice, working with some of the world’s most well-known restaurant brands. His work covered strategy and solution development, including market segmentation and growth strategies, marketing and advertising effectiveness measures, menu development and pricing strategy, organizational design, driving operational efficiency and improving supply chain performance.

In addition to his experience at Bain, Allison worked for BellSouth Corporation in strategic development and online services.

Allison received his BSBA and MBA from UNC Kenan-Flagler, where he was named a Dean’s Scholar and received the Norman Block Award. He also serves on the UNC Kenan-Flagler Board of Advisors.

He resides in Ann Arbor, Michigan, with his wife, Susan. Their two children, Jake and Emily, are students at Carolina.

Jeff Allred, a native of High Point, North Carolina, is president and CEO of Griffeon Group, LLC, a strategic advisory and merchant banking firm, managing partner of Kidder Properties, LLC, an affordable housing developer, and a senior partner in Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough LLP, a full service AmLaw 200 law firm.

Allred earned his BA, JD and MBA from UNC-Chapel Hill. Outside of work, he serves on the boards of various community and educational organizations and enjoys spending time with his family.

Dwight Anderson is the CEO of Ospraie Management, LLC, an investment firm that focuses on basic industries and commodities.

He earned his MBA from UNC Kenan-Flagler. He is a member of the board of trustees of the NYU Langone Medical Center.

Nathan Andrews is a partner with Deloitte. He is the U.S. and global practice leader for Deloitte’s Tax Management Consulting practice and serves as lead client service partner for UNC-Chapel Hill.

Andrews received both his BSBA and MAC from UNC Kenan-Flagler. He and his wife, Karrie, live in Hillsborough.

Durant Bell is a partner and executive vice president with Bell Partners. He is responsible for developing new fee-managed business, overseeing the corporate communications efforts and cultivating high net-worth client relationships for the company. He also serves on the executive committee.

He joined Bell Partners in 2006. Previously he was responsible for the oversight and strategic direction of key operations departments, including construction services, information technology, marketing, purchasing, risk management and utilities.

Prior to joining Bell Partners, he worked as a developer with Wood Partners, one of the largest multifamily developers in the U.S. He received his MBA from Wake Forest University and his undergraduate degree from UNC-Chapel Hill. He holds a Certified Property Management (CPM) designation.

Bell serves on the board of advisors for UNC Kenan-Flagler’s Family Enterprise Center. He is a member of the board of directors at Greensboro Day School and is chair of the Search Ministries Local Leadership Board.

With over 25 years of financial services experience, Black has held a variety of roles at financial institutions. She leads a number of Charlotte economic and civic efforts, working with 30 corporate CEOs across multiple industry sectors. Prior to her current role, Black was the mid-Atlantic region executive for the bank’s Local Market President organization. These teams manage local grants and sponsorships and work to drive collaboration across eight lines of business to deliver the full resources and expertise of Bank of America.

Black has led a national marketing analytics team that developed customer-centric strategies for online and offline sales.  In addition, her experience includes the management of consumer deposit products and pricing, product development, product marketing and brand strategy. She has led a national small business sales force for Merchant Services and managed a sales territory for Group Banking and Corporate Relocation services.

Black received a BA from Queens University of Charlotte and her MBA from UNC Kenan-Flagler.

Black resides in Charlotte with her husband and three sons. She serves on the boards of Queens University of Charlotte and Communities in Schools. Prior boards on which she served include Safe Alliance, supporting victims of domestic violence, and the Arts & Science Council. She is a seven-year volunteer veteran teaching Junior Achievement curriculum at the elementary level.

Sam Bowles is a managing director at New Republic Capital and a member of the board of directors of New Republic Partners. Sam brings extensive expertise and experience in the areas of private equity, investment management, capital markets, and mergers and acquisitions.

His prior experience includes roles as a managing director of Threadridge Investment Partners, a fully integrated single family office and holding company, and as a principal at Carousel Capital where he sourced and executed private equity transactions and monitored portfolio companies. Bowles also worked at Morgan Stanley in the mergers & acquisitions group in New York.

He earned BSBA from UNC Kenan-Flagler and his MBA from Harvard Business School.

Bowles serves on the boards of the UNC Healthcare System where he serves as chairman of the finance committee, Greater Charlotte Cultural Trust, Endowment for the Mint Museum where he serves as chairman, endowment of St. Peter’s Episcopal Church where he serves as chairman of the investment committee and UNC Kenan-Flagler.

Kit Fisher Bredrup is a founding member of the 100 Women Initiative,  a group of UNC Kenan-Flagler alumnae focused on enhancing the enrollment and our culture with strong, ambitious and collaborative female students. Their initial goal is to increase the number of full-time female MBA students through focused engagement.

Bedrup has been a Tar Heel from the very beginning. She was born in Chapel Hill while her father was a resident at UNC Medical School. She grew up in Greensboro, North Carolina, and graduated from UNC-Chapel Hill with a BA in economics. After graduating from UNC, she joined First Citizens Bank where she worked in the credit analysis department and later joined their private banking group. She returned to UNC Kenan-Flagler for her MBA. Upon graduation she joined Mercer Management Consulting where she specialized in strategy and operational consulting. In 1997, she changed careers and moved to New York to joined the Highland Search Group where she specialized in financial service recruiting.

Soon after moving to New York, she met her husband, Turner Bredrup. They live in Richmond, Virginia, and are the proud parents of Turner ’23 and Fisher.

Adam began as a frontline emergency physician and progressed to clinical and executive roles throughout the mid-Atlantic and Midwest before becoming president of Envision Healthcare’s emergency medicine practice, the nation’s largest EM practice. During the COVID19 pandemic, he served as president of emergency medicine and was named chair of the COVID Task Force. Envision’s CEO appointed him to the role of executive sponsor of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI). In 2021, Brown became Envision’s chief impact officer while continuing his pandemic response and DEI roles.

In 2022, he left Envision to start ABIG, a healthcare advisory and media engagement firm.

Brown frequently serves as a medical contributor in print media and on national television. He has been featured on CBS News, CNN, BBC, Newsy, BNC News and Yahoo Finance.

A native North Carolinian, he went to medical school at East Carolina University and earned his MBA at UNC Kenan-Flagler. In 2019, he received the UNC Kenan-Flagler Young Alumni Award.

As an emergency physician, communicator and healthcare executive, Brown has a driving passion to empower people to make the best decisions for their health. Using the skills and influence he’s gained as a healthcare business leader, media contributor and physician, with ABIG he hopes to expand his reach, impacting the health of millions of lives. His abilities as an outstanding communicator, visionary and strategist position him as a recognized thought leader in the industry and beyond.

Kim Brunson is a partner in Deloitte’s strategy and business transformation group, helping to drive Deloitte’s national tax strategy and planning. She has been with Deloitte for more than 30 years serving clients in the private wealth and banking sector with extensive experience leading key business development pursuits, transitioning and serving large-scale wealth management outsourcing engagements and managing relationships with key stakeholders.

Brunson has held numerous leadership positions within Deloitte, including National Women’s Initiative Leader, National Tax Chief of Staff and East Sector Global Employment Solutions Leader. Additionally, she has served on various Deloitte advisory committees and boards, including National Tax Risk Management Committee, Deloitte Foundation Board, Senior Tax Advisory Committee and Managing Partner’s Advisory Committee.

Throughout the years, Brunson has been an avid supporter of UNC serving as Deloitte’s first Partner in Charge of UNC Strategic School Recruiting, leading both Deloitte’s national recruiting and fundraising efforts for many years. During her tenure, she led the fundraising initiatives for The Kenan Flagler Center for Accounting and Research, The John L. Brantley/Deloitte Fellowship and The Thomas W. Hudson Jr./Deloitte Distinguished Professorship.  She also served on the UNC Kenan Flagler MAC Advisory Board and received the 2003 UNC Kenan-Flagler Alumni Merit Award.

Brunson and her husband, Phillip, live in Atlanta. They have five children.

Brent Callinicos is an experienced financial and technology executive. He was most recently COO and CFO at Virgin Hyperloop One and prior to that: CFO at Uber Technologies. Callinicos also served as VP, treasurer and chief accountant at Google, where he was also responsible for tax, internal audit and M&A finance. He also ran Google’s Green Energy investing and Google Financial Services.

From 1992–2007, Callinicos served in a variety of increasingly senior roles at Microsoft, where he was corporate vice president and divisional CFO for Microsoft’s Platforms and Services Division. He also ran worldwide licensing and pricing and Microsoft financing. He was Microsoft’s treasurer from 2000–2004. While at Microsoft, he sat on the Council of Economic Advisors for two Washington State Governors.

Callinicos is on the board of PVH (member of the corporate responsibility committee), Baidu (chair of the audit committee) and Rubicon (chair of the audit committee). He earned his BSBA and MBA from UNC Kenan-Flagler, which awarded him the MBA Alumni Merit Award in 2004. He is a CPA.

Allison Carroll is SVP of customer success at Avalara, a $1 billion global tax-compliance software company whose mission is to make customers’ lives easier by simplifying and automating taxes.  Specifically, Carroll leads all post-sales functions including onboarding, professional services, technical support, customer account management and renewals. She manages an $800 million P&L with 700+ technical and sales experts in five countries supporting 30,000 customers globally. She joined Avalara 2020 after 20 years with IBM where she was vice president of customer success for IBM Cloud.

Carroll earned her MBA from UNC Kenan-Flagler in the Weekend Executive MBA program.  She earned her undergraduate degree from Meredith College. She is a North Carolina native and lives in Raleigh.

David Carroll led wealth and investment management (WIM) at Wells Fargo. Approximately 36,000 team members in this unit provide a full range of personalized wealth management, investment, and retirement products and services to clients across U.S.-based businesses. Through its sub-brands — Wells Fargo Advisors, The Private Bank, Abbot Downing, Wells Fargo Institutional Retirement & Trust, and Wells Fargo Asset Management — WIM delivers financial planning, private banking, credit, investment management, and fiduciary services to high-net-worth and ultra-high-net-worth individuals and families. It also serves customers’ brokerage needs, supplies retirement and trust services to institutional clients, and provides investment management capabilities to global institutional clients through separate accounts and the Wells Fargo Advantage Funds. WIM manages and administers $2.2 trillion in client assets, including $188 billion in deposits, and holds $69 billion in loans.

A financial services veteran with more than 37 years in the industry, Carroll joined Wachovia Bank & Trust Company in 1979 and then First Union National Bank (Wachovia’s predecessor) in 1981. From 2005 until the merger with Wells Fargo, Carroll served as senior executive vice president and head of Wachovia’s Capital Management Group, which included retail brokerage (Wachovia Securities), asset management (Evergreen Investments) and retirement and investment products. He also led corporate services and merger integration, chief of eCommerce and technology and head of First Union’s General Banking Group region in Florida and earlier in Georgia.

Carroll earned his BSBA from UNC Kenan-Flagler. He is a board member of Trees Charlotte, the UNC-Chapel Hill Foundation and the Chapel Hill Investment Fund.

Susan Cates is the managing partner of Leeds Illuminate, a growth equity firm that invests in the education and workforce development sectors.  She brings 23 years of experience in the sector, across operating executive roles and investing and advisory roles.

Cates previously served as CEO of ACUE, COO of 2U, president of UNC Executive Development and founding executive director of MBA@UNC.

Prior to her operating roles, Cates was a partner and led global acquisitions at Best Associates, a private equity firm with investments primarily in the education sector.  She was part of the founding team and principal of ThinkEquity Partners, an investment banking boutique, where she led the education investment banking practice.  She previously worked in investment banking at Merrill Lynch and corporate banking at Wachovia Bank.

Cates earned her MBA from UNC Kenan-Flagler, where she received a Tiger Fellowship and was a Dean’s Scholar.  She earned her BA from Duke University where she was a B.N. Duke Scholar.

She serves on the boards of Primo Water Corporation (NYSE: PRMW), Eruditus, Mursion, Product School and ACUE.  She lives in Chapel Hill with her husband, Scott Warren, and their child Cade.

James Clark is a managing director in Harris Williams & Co.’s healthcare and life sciences group. Over his 20-year career, which includes experience in investment banking, venture capital and consulting, Clark has advised public and private companies in merger, acquisition, divestiture, financial reporting, tax strategy, and valuation engagements. His healthcare experience includes sell-side engagements across a wide range of healthcare services, products and technology market segments. Prior to joining Harris Williams & Co., he was an investment manager in Ericsson AB’s strategic venture capital group and a manager in Arthur Andersen’s strategy, finance and economics practice.

Clark earned his MBA from UNC Kenan-Flagler, where he was inducted into Beta Gamma Sigma for academic honors. He also earned a BA in economics and a Master of Accounting from UNC Kenan-Flagler. He is a Chartered Financial Analyst and a Certified Public Accountant. He lives in Richmond with his wife and two children.

Kathy Crow is a civic volunteer in Dallas, Texas, predominantly focused on volunteer leadership support in her family’s real estate business and in volunteer support in the education arena.  She serves on the Advisory Board and leads the Family Council of Crow Holdings, a privately owned real estate investment management and development firm.

With a focus on education, she serves on the board of trustees at Southern Methodist University, the executive advisory boards of SMU’s Cox School of Business and SMU’s Simmons School of Education. Kathy is chair of the board of the St. Mark’s School of Texas, a private, independent school for boys and on the board of trustees of the independent, all-girls Hockaday School, where she chairs the finance committee. She is also a member of the executive advisory Boards of Teach for America North Texas and sits on the president’s advisory board at Princeton University, UT Southwestern Medical Center and the James Madison Program of American Ideals at Princeton University, among others.

Crow earned her MBA from Southern Methodist University and her BA at Princeton University, where she majored in politics. She enjoys time with her family, international travel and political discourse and debate. Shey has two sons who graduated from the McCombs School at University of Texas and her daughter is a member of the UNC Class of 2025.

Jan Davis is a retired CEO and active board member and advisor of companies in software, analytics, direct and interactive marketing, and technology-enabled services. She provides strategic and marketing expertise, corporate financial oversight, CEO coaching and introductions to potential partners, customers, suppliers and investors. She is a member of the boards of directors of Couplet Care, Epifany and Sellry. She also serves on the boards of advisors for multiple start-up companies in North Carolina and the Midwest, including Market Vue Partners and Scanalytics. She is vice chair of Triangle Angel Partners. She serves on on the Board of advisors at UNC Kenan-Flagler and has been active on the Alumni Council.

Davis previously served as vice chair and chair of the audit committee of Showingtime prior to its September 2021 acquisition by Zillow. Her experience with other private company boards of directors includes Megalytics, Chicago-based provider of commercial real estate risk assessment solutions; GSP Retail, a leading provider of software and printing to the convenience store industry; ShopperTrak RCT, the global leader in pedestrian traffic counting; RCT Analytics Ltd., ShopperTrak’s minority-owned European subsidiary; and Truelink, majority-owned TransUnion subsidiary providing personal information to consumers.  She was previously an Entrepreneur in Residence for the Blackstone Entrepreneurs Network and the Shuford Program in Entrepreneurship at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill as well as on the Screening Committee for the Carolina Angel Fund. Davis has also been active on the boards of directors of the Chicago Finance Exchange and the Illinois Technology Association.

Davis brings more than 25 years of business leadership to a company’s Board of Directors. Her most recent operational role was as president and CEO of ShopperTrak. During her four years there, revenues doubled and the company became profitable. ShopperTrak expanded its international footprint significantly, including forming a wholly foreign-owned subsidiary in China. Before joining ShopperTrak, she spent more than 15 years in direct and interactive marketing, including eight years with TransUnion, the international credit reporting giant, where she rose to be an executive vice president and business unit president.

Davis holds BA and MBA degrees from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She relocated from the Chicago area to Cary, North Carolina, in 2010.

Ajit Dayal graduated from UNC Kenan-Flagler in 1983. He earned his BA in economics from Bombay University in 1981. He has over 25 years of experience in the investment management industry.

In 1990 Dayal founded Quantum Advisors; an India-focused investment manager and advisor. Between 1992 and 1995, Quantum had a partnership with Jardine Fleming which was one of Asia’s largest financial firms before its eventual purchase by J.P. Morgan. From 1997 and 2003, Quantum had a partnership with Hansberger Global Investors working with the late Tom Hansberger, co-founder of Templeton, Galbraith, & Hansberger, now known as Franklin Templeton. In 2006, Toronto-based Fairfax Financial Holdings – via its affiliates and associates – took a significant minority equity stake and became a long-term strategic investor in Quantum. Dayal is a board member of Pacific Pension Institute.

Dayal and his partners helped create two charity efforts: Natural Streets for Performing Arts – to get music and the arts back in public spaces in urban India, and HelpYourNGO, a database that allows donors to better evaluate charities before making donations; HYNGO also provides the listed charities with tools and assistance to help them improve their efficiency and increase their capacity for doing more good. In addition to www.NSPA.in and www.HelpYourNGO.com Dayal was instrumental in the creation of the Pay It Forward India Fellowship in 2013 in honor of Professor Jack Behrman, who influenced Dayal with his discourses on ethics in business. Though Professor Behrman passed on on August 19, 2016, Dayal hopes his legacy and teachings will continue to inspire future generations of business leaders.

Scott DeRue is president of Equinox, the global leader in luxury fitness and high-performance living. He oversees a global portfolio of 105 Equinox Fitness Clubs, Equinox Media’s digital products, studio content, and distribution platforms, and a talented team of more than 10,000 professionals.

Prior to joining Equinox, DeRue served as dean of the University of Michigan’s Stephen M. Ross School of Business, where he was recognized among the 50 most influential business school professors in the world for his work on leadership, team performance, talent management, and organizational transformation. During his tenure as dean, the Ross School achieved some of its highest rankings in school history, raised over $200 million for strategic initiatives, increased annual revenue by 27%, achieved new records for diversity, increased research productivity by 18% and launched innovative digital education programs that reached over 3 million people globally.

Beyond his leadership in business and education, DeRue is also an accomplished adventurer and mountaineer, with successful summits of mountains such as Everest, Denali, Aconcagua and Vinson Massif in Antarctica. He has also explored the South Pole and led expeditions to the highest point in Africa, Mt. Kilimanjaro.

DeRue serves as a trustee of the Conference Board, and previously served as chairman of the William Davidson Institute, a nonprofit focused on economic and business development in emerging economies. He served as an independent director on the Equinox board of directors before joining as president. In addition to his board service, he has consulted for organizations around the world including Fortune 100 companies, startups, championship-winning sports teams, and government agencies. He is a managing partner at Rabun Group, a private equity investment group, and Chibor Angels, a venture capital investment group that supports entrepreneurs in the Midwestern U.S.

Earlier in his career, DeRue worked in private equity and management consulting. He received his PhD in management from Michigan State University, where he was awarded a University Distinguished Fellowship.

He earned his BSBA with honors from UNC Kenan-Flagler, where he currently serves on the Board of Advisors.

Alex Dickey is a professor of the practice of strategy and entrepreneurship and leads the consulting curriculum at UNC Kenan-Flagler after a 28-year career in financial services consulting. He began his career at Andersen Consulting/Accenture after graduating from UNC Kenan-Flagler in 1987. He spent 21 years defining, developing and implementing innovative solutions for the world’s leading financial institutions. In 2009, Dickey joined Carlisle and Gallagher Consulting Group as the COO and chief strategy officer. He was charged with significantly expanding the firm’s offerings and defining a strategy to grow the firm into and industry leader. The firm grew to over 1,200 consultants and $150 million in revenue while winning many industry awards and was acquired by NTT Data in 2015.

In addition to his Board of Advisors role at UNC Kenan-Flagler, Dickey is very passionate about the Big Brothers and Big Sisters program. His passion for the program began as a BIG at UNC. He serves on the Board of Advisors of BBBS of Greater Charlotte after being on the board for 13 years. He also serves as a Big Brother in the program.

Dickey and his wife Christa (BSBA ’89) have a son who is a Graduate Student in Chiropractic School in Atlanta and a daughter, a December 2021 UNC-Chapel Hill graduate with a degree in psychology and member of the Tar Heel Women’s soccer team, who was drafted to drafted to play in the NWSL for the OL Reign in Seattle.

Rob Edwards co-founded Ridgemont Equity Partners (“Ridgemont”), a middle market private equity firm based in Charlotte. Prior to Ridgemont, he was a managing director at Banc of America Capital Investors (predecessor to Ridgemont) from 1997-2010, a management consultant at McKinsey & Co., Inc., a vice president at Allied Capital, and an investment banker at Bowles Hollowell Conner & Co, Inc.

Edwards received a BA in economics with highest distinction from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill  and a MBA from Harvard Business School in 1995.

He has served on UNC’s Board of Visitors (2014-2018) where he was chair of the Student Recruitment Committee, the Chancellor’s Global Leadership Council (2018-2020) and the Chancellor’s Private Asset Gift Strategy Committee.  He serves on UNC’s Art and Sciences Foundation Board of Directors (2021-present), UNC Kenan-Flagler Board of Advisors (2019-present) and the Shuford Program in Entrepreneurship Advisory Board (2019-present).

Edwards is married to Leigh Barnhill Edwards (BA ’90) and together they have four children,

Edward James (Jamie) Foley IV is CEO of Foley, Incorporated, a Caterpillar dealer that covers New Jersey, Eastern Pennsylvania, Delaware, Staten Island and Bermuda.

Foley graduated from Colgate University and earned his MBA from UNC Kenan-Flagler.

He has been CEO of Foley Inc. since 2009. During his time as CEO, the company has gone from $160 million in sales and 280 employees to over $725 million in sales and 700 employees. The highlight of his tenure was the acquisition of Ransome CAT in 2018. The company manages over $500 million in assets on its balance sheet and serves over 25,000 Caterpillar customers in the territory.

Foley served on the board of trustees at the Peck School, a K-8 school in Morristown New Jersey from 2011-20. He served as president of the board for five years. He oversaw strategic and master plans and launched a capital campaign.

He serves on the board of Somerset Hills Country Club. He is co-chair of the membership committee and serves on the nominating and executive committees. He lives in Madison, New Jersey, with his wife Carolyn and their three children.

Since December 2018, Tamla Oates-Forney has served as senior vice president and chief people officer of Waste Management Inc. (WM). She drives an innovative, people-first strategy focused on making the company of nearly 50,000 employees an employer of choice and a great place to work.

Reporting directly to the CEO, Oates-Forney uses her significant human resources expertise to oversee people operations, employee relations, labor relations, HR technology and information systems, total rewards, culture, leadership development and total talent management. She also actively works with WM’s board of directors, specifically on the management development and compensation committee. Additionally, she is the innovator and operational architect behind some of WM’s award-winning signature programs like Share the Green℠, a diversity supplier program; Innovative Employment Pathways, a purpose-driven employment program for the overlooked and underserved populations; and Your Tomorrow, a debt-free education benefit for employees and their dependents.

Oates-Forney is an independent director for Summit Materials and a member of its human capital and compensation committee. She also served on the advisory board of the University of Houston Master’s in Human Resources Development Program. She is a member of i4CP’s CHRO board and a founding advisory board member of Black Women on Boards.

Prior to WM, Oates-Forney was a 20-year veteran of General Electric where she progressed through a series of human resources leadership roles of increasing levels of responsibility and impact in organization and talent development, diversity and inclusion, organizational transformation and emerging markets. She received the Chairman Award for her efforts as the HR leader for GE Africa.

Oates Forney is a highly influential and accomplished businesswoman and has been awarded numerous honors including: The Network Journal’s 25 Influential Black Women in Business, named to Savoy’s Most Influential Black Corporate Directors (2021) and Top 100 Most Influential Black Executives in Corporate America (2020), the Larry V. Green Advocate of the Year Award by the Greater Houston Black Chamber of Commerce, and the Corporate Achievement Awardee from the Houston Chapter of NBMBAA.

She is a recognized thought leader and has been featured by the New York Times, CNBC, Fox News, Bloomberg, Harvard Business Review, Time Magazine and HR Magazine.

Oates-Forney holds a BSBA from UNC Kenan-Flagler and is a member of the Delta Sigma Theta.

Paul Fulton was born in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, on September 8, 1934. He was raised in Walnut Cove, North Carolina, where he attended public school through the eleventh grade.

After two years in the U.S. Navy, Fulton began his business career as a trainee at Hanes Hosiery in 1959 and served as vice president and general manager of L’eggs Products during the development and introduction of the revolutionary pantyhose in an egg-shaped container. He was named president of L’eggs Products in 1972 and later promoted to executive vice president of Hanes Corporation with responsibility for L’eggs Products and Hanes Hosiery. Hanes Corporation was acquired by Sara Lee Corporation in 1979, and Fulton was elected president of the Hanes Group and senior vice president of Sara Lee Corporation in 1981. In 1987, he was elected executive vice president and a member of the board. He served as president of Sara Lee Corporation from July 1, 1988, through June 30, 1993, when he retired to assume the position of dean of UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School.  He served as dean until July 1997.

Fulton assumed the position of chairman and CEO of Bassett Furniture Industries, Inc. on July 7, 1997. He served as CEO of Bassett until April 2000, when he became non-executive chairman of the board. He currently serves on the board at Bassett, and is chairman emeritus.

Fulton serves on the board of directors of the Wm. Carter Company, and is a former member of the  board of directors of Bank of America Corporation, Charlotte, Sonoco Products and Lowe’s Companies.

He served on the University of North Carolina Board of Governors from 2009-2013.  Fulton is founder and co-chairman of Citizens for Higher Education, a grass roots organization advocating for higher education. From 2000-2010 he was co-chairman of the North Carolina Higher Education Bond Oversight Committee.

Until June of 1993, he served on the Board of Trustees at Winston-Salem State University and was national chairman of the Leadership Campaign for their $25 million Centennial Campaign. He was also campaign chairman of the 1984 United Way of Forsyth County Campaign, founding chairman of the local Tocqueville Society in 1987 and co-chair, once again, in 1998.

Fulton received 1992 Maya Angelou Tribute to Achievement Award, presented by the North Carolina United Negro College Fund. He also received the Alexis de Tocqueville Award presented in 1988 by the United Way of Winston-Salem and Forsyth County to recognize outstanding volunteer leadership in the community. In 1999, the United Way award was renamed the Paul Fulton Alexis de Tocqueville Award, in recognition of Fulton’s contribution to the community.

Fulton is a 1953 graduate of Virginia Episcopal School in Lynchburg, Virginia, where he chaired the Board of Trustees from 1973 to 1979. In October 2011, he became the first recipient of the Robert Carter Jeff award for life time achievement.

He graduated in 1957 from UNC-Chapel Hill with a BSBA degree.  He served on the Board of Trustees from 2001-2009. He also co-chaired the $2.3 Billion Carolina First Capital Campaign.

Allen Gant is president, CEO and chairman of the board of directors of Glen Raven, Inc., a global provider of performance fabric solutions. He attended UNC-Chapel Hill and was a member of the UNC Board of Visitors and Educational Foundation Board. Gant serves on many boards and as a Trustee for Elon University and Alamance Regional Medical Center.

Meredith Garwood is group vice president of strategic tax for Charter Communications. She leads Charter’s federal and state tax policy for income, property and transaction taxes. She also leads the company’s tax controversy and property tax groups. Garwood represents the company in national state tax organizations and projects. She has been proactively involved in numerous tax policy initiatives including state tax reform efforts and federal legislation.

Garwood serves on the Board of the Council on State Taxation, Board of University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Business School and is president for North Carolina Cable and Telecommunication Association. She is past president of the Business Advisory Council to the Streamlined Sales Tax Governing Board and former VP of Women in Cable and Telecommunications-Carolinas. She is a frequent speaker at tax and industry forums.

Garwood has over 25 years of tax experience in all areas of tax, including income, property, and transaction taxes. Prior to joining Charter, she was group VP for Time Warner Cable and aenior director of tax with AT&T Wireless.

She worked with a leading public accounting firm for over eight years; her practice focused on various aspects of corporate tax. She graduated from UNC-Kenan-Flagler with a BSBA and a Master of Accounting with a concentration in taxation. Garwood her husband, John, live in Charlotte. They have a daughter at UNC-Chapel Hill and a son at Clemson University

Tom Gawronski is retired having spent the bulk of his career in wireless telecommunications and IoT internationally and domestically. Today, Tom is very busy helping families who live in hotels to find more suitable housing and is training soon-to-be-released incarcerated men with the life skills necessary to thrive once they are released.

Tom and his wife Alice have raised four boys, two of whom (so far) have attended UNC. His oldest is 2013 graduate and his second son is a 2017 MAC graduate.

Barry Gonder has over 35 years of experience building and managing investment companies and programs. He advises several private equity, venture capital and hedge fund groups.

He retired from GroveStreet, a venture capital and private equity investment firm, where he was a founder and managing partner for 20 years. He was previously head of alternative investments at CalPERS where he founded the program and built the portfolio to $19 billion. Earlier in his career Gonder was vice president at Travelers Insurance where he invested in private equity and mezzanine debt deals and was director of research for the common stock portfolio.

Gonder started his career working as an assistant economist for Paul Volker at the Federal Reserve. He earned his MBA at UNC Kenan-Flagler and and his AB from Vassar College where he majored in economics and minored in science, technology and society.

He is an advisor to UNC’s Entrepreneurship Center and Innovation Advisory Committee and has served as a judge for 18 years at UNC Kenan-Flagler’s Venture Capital Investment Competition. He also serves on the President’s Advisory Council at Vassar College and is a founding member of the Pacific Pension Institute.

Mike Griffin is a partner with Griffin Brothers Companies (GBC), which was founded in 1961 by his father, Larry Griffin Sr. GBC has grown into a $80 million enterprise that includes a diversified portfolio of businesses. GBC owns or has partnerships in waste management (Greenway Waste Solutions), property development and management (Griffin Brothers Acquisitions), Evergreen Private Equity (ZoomUp Investments) and hospitality management (Pine Island Country Club, Chillfire Bar & Grill, Charlotte Skyline Terrace, Royal Bliss Brewing Company).

Griffin’s duties include corporate treasurer, managing partner of Greenway Waste Solutions, managing partner of ZoomUp Investments, managing partner in urban and mixed-use real estate development, and director of civic and government relations. The newest GBC division is ZoomUp Investments, which invest in next generation leaders known as Zoomers.  Zoomers affiliate with GBC to acquire, partner or start businesses that have high growth potential due to generational declines in talent going into these industries.

Griffin earned his BSBA from UNC Kenan-Flagler and is a mentor to many as he serves on numerous non-profit boards including UNC’s Kenan-Flagler Business School Board of Advisors, UNC Family Enterprise Center Board of Advisors and UNC Entrepreneurship Leadership Council. He was awarded the 2018 Lake Norman Chamber Businessperson of the Year and UNC’s Adams Apprenticeship 2020 Pioneer Award. If you don’t see Griffin in the professional setting, he’s most likely in Chapel Hill with his family, playing golf or hanging out on Lake Norman zooming around on a fly board. He lives in Cornelius, North Carolina, with his wife and their two teenage children.

Joseph High is a retired senior executive with extensive experience in business leadership and operations for global Fortune 500 Companies in diverse industries. He has a record of rapid achievement and ability to create a motivating, results-oriented culture at plant, group and corporate levels in both non-union and union environments to meet customer expectations and increase shareholder value. His four decades of leadership in business includes officer roles at W.W. Grainger, Owens Corning, Conoco-Phillips, Rockwell Automation and Cummins Engine Company.

He serves on the executive committee and is co-chair of the nominations and governance committee for the UNC Kenan-Flagler Board of Advisors and UNC’s Education Foundation/The Rams Club Board of Advisors. He has also been elected to UNC’s General Alumni Light on the Hill Society Scholarship Advisory Board.

High has been recognized by the UNC Kenan-Flagler with an Alumni Merit Award. He received the Mayor’s Key to the City of Toledo, Ohio, in recognition of his leadership. He also received the Mayor’s Key to the City of Columbus, Indiana and Columbus Police Department’s Citizen Service Award and the Dr. William Laws Human Rights Award. He o received a Distinguished Service Award for his work with the United Way.

High graduated from UNC Kenan-Flagler with a BSBA. He also earned a master’s degree in administration from Central Michigan University. He and his wife, Kathleen Cullins High, who is a social worker and leader with several non-profits, have three children and four grandchildren.

Jeff Hoffman is a senior managing director focused on medical technology at Guggenheim Partners. He has more than 30 years experience in the full range of investment banking activities including financial advisory services, mergers and acquisitions, equity and debt financings, and venture capital investments. His execution focus is on life sciences and medical technology clients.

Hoffman received a BS in psychology and an MBA from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Rolf Hoffmann is one of the most respected operations executives in big pharma and biotech, having achieved  remarkable results in significant countries around the world.

Hoffmann headed Eli Lilly operations in Germany, Sub-Sahara and South Africa as well as Latin America, before moving to Amgen to take on international operations in Europe and subsequently the U.S. operations out of U.S. headquarters.

Since retiring from Amgen in July 2016, he has served on the board of STADA (Germany’s largest independent Generics/OTC enterprise), Danish Genmab (Europe’s largest Biotech company), Trigemina Inc. (a U.S. biopharmaceutical company focused on the discovery and development of targeted neurological drug therapies), EUSA Pharma (a European specialty pharmaceutical company focused on oncology and oncology supportive care), Shield Therapeutics (a European pharmaceutical company focused on the development and commercialization of late-stage, hospital-focused pharmaceuticals), Paratek (a U.S. based biopharmaceutical company focused on drugs that target infectious disease and other difficult to treat conditions) and WADA (World Anti-Doping Association), and is chairman of the board of directors at Biotest (a German-based global provider of plasma proteins and biological drugs). He consults with U.S. and European biotech companies.

Hoffmann also acts as a member and VP of external affairs for the German-American Heritage Foundation and serves as an adjunct professor of strategy and entrepreneurship at UNC Kenan-Flagler.

In his leadership roles, he has created large new businesses, grown or turned around existing businesses, and managed them through all kinds of crisis to deliver hyper-growth. He is a master of the entire instrumentarium of growth levers, including organic growth, acquisition, partnerships and licensing.

In addition, he has been successful on both sides of the table in analyzing, buying and selling biotech products and company opportunities.

Leo Horey is the executive vice president of operations of AvalonBay Communities Inc. He has held this tile since 2004 and was senior VP of property operations from 2001 to 2003. Prior to assuming that office, Horey served since the merger as regional VP of property operations. Prior to the merger, he had served since 1994 as VP of property operations for Avalon Properties. Previously, Horey worked for TCR since 1990.

Horey received his MBA from UNC Kenan-Flagler, where he was a Richard H. Jenrette Fellow. He also holds a BS in computer science and economics from Duke University.

James Jackson is a former senior financial services executive with extensive experience in several aspects of banking, including distribution, strategic planning, sales management, process improvement, corporate integrations and customer experience.

Jackson began his career as a credit analyst and held progressively responsible roles in two of the nation’s top financial institutions, Bank of America and Capital One. At Capital One, he was  the EVP for North America Branch Distribution (1,000 bank network) and the Mid-Atlantic Market President (Washington, D.C. MSA).

Prior to Capital One, Jackson served in EVP leadership roles at Bank of America in several businesses, including premier banking and investments, home lending and retail and business banking. Also, he served as president of the Virginia Bank, where he led the state-wide transition from NationsBank to Bank of America.

Most recently, Jackson was the sales EVP for credit services and decision analytics  at Experian North America. He led the largest business-to-business sales organization, representing ~50% of revenue in North America. He also was responsible for leading sales transformation and  implementing new go-to-market client coverage models.

He earned a bachelor’s degree in accounting from the University of Georgia and an MBA from UNC Kenan-Flagler. He is a CPA and has a Six Sigma Green Belt Certification.

Harry Jones is the managing partner of Edge Capital and serves on the portfolio management team of the Blue Current dividend equity strategies.  Before co-founding Edge, Jones spent his entire professional career in the investment advisory business at Credit Suisse in Atlanta, Morgan Stanley in Atlanta and New York, and as an analyst for the Excelsior Value & Restructuring Fund in New York.

Jones earned a BA in history and economics with distinction (Omicron Delta Epsilon) from Hampden-Sydney College, where he was a captain of the lacrosse team. He also graduated with an MBA from UNC Kenan-Flagler, which presented him with its Young Alumni Award in 2009.

He is active with his community endeavors, including his time as a youth lacrosse coach and being awarded the 2011 Man of the Year for Leukemia & Lymphoma Society’s Georgia chapter. He is also a member of YPO and serves on the Advisory Council of Pershing Advisory Solutions and the Board of Visitors of UNC Kenan-Flagler. He is married with three children and lives in Atlanta.

Bob Jones is senior vice president and financial advisor at CAPTRUST. Prior to joining CAPTRUST, Jones was co-founder of the Jones-Blair Group of Wells Fargo Advisors. He earned an AB in chemistry and philosophy with honors as well as an MBA from UNC-Chapel Hill.

His wife, Mindy, also graduated from UNC in ’82, along with their sons Robert (BSBA ’14) and Chris (BSBA ’16), who was a Wayland Cato Scholar, and daughter Anna (MA in education ‘20).

They live in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Peter Keane is president and chief investment officer of Keane Capital Management, Inc. He began his investment career with T. Rowe Price and in 1987 joined Interstate/Johnson Lane (IJL) as an equity analyst and was later promoted to director of the firm’s equity strategy group.  In 1997 he was named director of IJL Capital Management, a wholly owned subsidiary of Interstate/Johnson Lane. In 1999, Peter Keane founded Keane Capital Management, where he manages an investment partnership. He is a member of the North Carolina Society of Financial Analysts and is a Chartered Financial Analyst.  He was also previously employed with the American Friends Service Committee in Philadelphia – this prior to earning his MBA.

He graduated from Guilford College with a BA in accounting and his MBA from UNC Kenan-Flagler.

He has two daughters and a son.

Keane is on the Board of Visitors for the University of North Carolina, the Board of Visitors for UNC Kenan-Flagler, a member of the board of the ClearPath Foundation and president of the Alpha Omega Foundation.

Christopher Keber joined Hines in 2012. He serves as senior managing director in Hines’ New York office where he has global responsibilities within the capital markets group for structuring and capitalizing the firm’s investment vehicles.

Prior to Hines, Keber was a partner and director of global capital raising at Starwood Capital Group, a private equity firm based in Greenwich, Connecticut. Previously, Keber worked in the New York office of Credit Suisse in the real estate private funds group, a leading adviser to private equity firms dedicated to real estate.

He is a member of the Urban Land Institute and the Pension Real Estate Association.

He holds a BA from Georgetown University and an MBA in real estate from UNC Kenan-Flagler, where he served as chair of the business school’s Alumni Council.

Frank Kenan is the co-founder and portfolio manager of KD Capital Management, LLC, an investment partnership which he launched in 2014. Prior to founding KD Capital, he was an analyst for Boulderado Group, a concentrated value-oriented investment fund based in Boston from 2011-2014. Prior to the work with Boulderado, he was a development associate at Edens & Avant. While at Edens & Avant, Kenan focused on managing every stage of ground-up retail developments from site selection and financial underwriting through final completion. Before joining Edens & Avant, he was an underwriting analyst for the Vivum Group, a private equity firm.

Kenan serves as a member of the board of directors of Boston Omaha Corporation, a NASDAQ listed company, and the Cougar Club of the College of Charleston, which serves as the fundraising arm for the College of Charleston Athletic Department.

He earned a BS in Anthropology from the College of Charleston in 2005 and an MBA from UNC Kenan-Flagler.

Donald J. Kilbride is a senior managing director, partner and equity portfolio manager at Wellington Management Company LLC.

As an equity portfolio manager, he manages Wellington’s dividend growth approaches including the Vanguard Dividend Growth Fund.

Prior to joining Wellington Management in 2002, Kilbride was a senior investment analyst and director of non-technology research at Greenberg-Summit Partners. He was previously the director of U.S. equity research at The Boston Company Asset Management.

Don received his MBA from UNC Kenan-Flagler and his BA from the College of the Holy Cross.

Steve Krichmar is an independent trustee of the Goldman Sachs Trust II Funds.  He is also the founder of Krichmar & Associates, a virtual advisory firm in the financial services domain. He previously served as chief of operations for Putnam Investments in Boston (2001-2016) and as an audit partner with PricewaterhouseCoopers (1981-2001) where he was the investment management industry leader (assurance) for the Northeast U.S.

He received a BSBA from UNC Kenan-Flagler in 1980, and lives in the Boston area with his wife Karen.

Steve is a member of the board of trustees of Boston Children’s Hospital; a member of the board of directors of Combined Jewish Philanthropies; a member of the board of trustees of Boys and Girls Clubs of Boston; former chairman of the board of directors of United Way of Massachusetts Bay and Merrimack Valley; and a member of the Board of Advisors at UNC Kenan-Flagler.

Stuart Kronauge received her BA from UNC in 1991. She is president of USA Operations and senior vice president of marketing for Coca-Cola USA. She leads the strategic management of The Coca-Cola Company’s largest brands and oversees its national retail sales, franchise and commercial leadership organizations. In addition, she is on the board of directors of the American Beverage Association. She and her husband, Kurt, live in Atlanta with their two daughters.

Matt Laycock is a partner at Aurora Capital Partners, a leading Los Angeles-based private equity firm focused principally on control investments in middle-market companies with leading market positions, stable industry dynamics and attractive business model characteristics. He joined Aurora in 2004 and then rejoined the firm after earning an MBA from Harvard Business School.

Previously, Laycock was in the investment banking division at J.P. Morgan where he was a member of the industrials group in New York. He also served as a senior associate at Castle Harlan, a middle-market private equity firm based in New York.

Laycock received his BSBA with distinction from UNC Kenan-Flagler. In addition to serving on the Board of Advisors at UNC Kenan-Flagler, he serves on  the board of advisors for The Rams Club at UNC. He previously served on the UNC-Chapel Hill Board of Visitors from 2015-19.

He serves on the board of directors of Curtis Bay, Premier Roofing, PSC Group and VLS Environmental Solutions.

Lynn Lewis is chief commercial officer for Emmes, a leading clinical contract research organization supporting both private and public clinical research. In this role, she is responsible for directing all commercial activities globally including sales, marketing, communications and customer engagement. Lewis brings extensive knowledge in both science and business to the company through her successful career in pharmaceuticals, and leadership roles within sales and operations in the contract research organization (CRO) industry.

Prior to joining Emmes, Lewis was CCO for Envigo, a large non-clinical CRO. And before that, she was group vice president of business development for Covance. During her 15-year career with Covance, she also led the global sales organizations for Covance’s nonclinical and central laboratory businesses, and also served as the general manager of Covance’s drug discovery and development campus in Greenfield, Indiana.

Lewis worked for Eli Lilly and Company for 16 years before Covance, leading cross-functional development teams to bring new medicines to market. She held various positions in sales, marketing, strategic planning and general management. Her last position was product team leader for two of Lilly’s osteoporosis compounds. In this position, she led a team of scientific and commercial professionals through submission and approval of Forteo in the U.S. and Europe. She spent two years abroad as general manager for its Danish affiliate.

Lewis’ background includes a MBA from UNC Kenna-Flagler and a BS in biology from Bucknell University. She has served on several community boards, including BioCrossroads’ external advisory aoard, Healthcare Businesswomen’s Association external advisory committee, Bucknell University’s alumni board of directors, and UNC Kenan-Flagler’s Board of Advisors and the Center for the Business of Health Board of Advisors.

Jason Liberty is chief financial officer for Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd., responsible for overseeing the company’s treasury, accounting, corporate and strategic planning and development, revenue planning and systems, deployment, internal audit and investor relations operations.

Since joining the company in 2005, Liberty held several senior management positions. He was appointed senior vice president of finance and strategy, responsible for treasury, strategic and corporate planning, investor relations and deployment and before that served as vice president of corporate and strategic planning, in charge of corporate, capital and strategic planning, energy management, revenue planning and systems and insurance.

Liberty was a senior manager with the accounting firm KPMG LLP before he joined Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd.

He is an accounting graduate of the University of Miami School of Business and has an MBA from UNC Kenan-Flagler.

Liberty lives in Weston, Florida, with his wife Erica and their four children.

Eric Livingston is Americas Financial Services Business Consulting co-lead principal with EY in Charlotte. With over 30 years of experience, he has demonstrated ability collaborating with global financial services companies to develop strategy and provide large-scale, globally diverse programs in technology and business.

His experience spans strategy development to drive customer experience and efficiency, executive level portfolio planning, outcome-based business capability prioritization, complex and global program/project management, post-merger integration leadership, and management and enterprise change management leadership.

Livingston received an MBA and a BA in Economics from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He also attended Yale University’s Chief Executive Officer Institute.  He is married with two daughters.

Charles McNairy is CEO of International Farming Corporation, an agricultural investment manager. He has overseen farmland acquisitions, mid-stream assets and agtech investments across a multitude of geographies and crop types. He grew up working for his family’s farming businesses, including Harvey Farms.

McNairy was a Morehead Scholar, Phi Beta Kappa and Academic-All ACC at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill where he played for Coach Dean Smith. He received his MBA from Harvard University.

Jenn Mill graduated from the University of California at Los Angeles in 1991. She began her career in graphic design at Williams-Sonoma Inc., then transitioned to advertising where she worked on creative teams at Leo Burnett in Chicago and J. Walter Thompson in New York. After moving back to San Francisco in 1996, she continued her creative career at DMNA Design and 1185 Design in Palo Alto where she worked with many technology companies.

More recently, Miller has served in leadership roles with several non-profit organizations. She was a board member of the Menlo Park/Atherton Education Foundation. Additionally, she chaired the Menlo School annual fund for two years, served as president of the Menlo School Parents Association and served on the board of trustees at Menlo School. She is also very active in the Ravenswood Education Foundation serving as a literacy tutor for first-grade students. Most recently she, along with her husband Steve, chaired the UNC Kenan-Flagler Parents Council.

She and her husband Steve live in the San Francisco Bay Area and are parents to four children including a 2021 UNC graduate and two more Tar Heels, ’23 and ‘24.

Steve Miller is a partner in investment banking with Centerview Partners. With offices in New York, London, Paris, San Francisco, Palo Alto and Los Angeles, Centerview is a leading independent investment banking and advisory firm. The firm provides advice on mergers and acquisitions, financial restructurings, valuation, and capital structure to companies, institutions and governments.

Miller began his career with Merrill Lynch in 1995 and was one of the first bankers in the firm’s technology practice. He most recently served as executive vice chairman of BofA Merrill Lynch before joining Centerview in August 2021. Miller has advised clients across a range of technology sectors including software, enterprise solutions, semiconductor and internet.

He grew up on the San Francisco Peninsula and attended the University of Southern California. He received his MBA from the University of Chicago in 1995. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.

He and his wife have four children, three of whom attend or attended UNC-Chapel Hill.

Nancy Millet leads Deloitte’s U.S. inbound services group and globally leads Deloitte’s consumer business industry. She  served as the manufacturing industry leader for nearly five years. With clients across North America, Europe and Asia, she leads projects involving complex tax matters, as well as other business issues.

A longtime supporter of UNC Kenan-Flagler, Millett actively recruits students and  serves on the Board of Advisors.  She and her husband created a fund that enables the dean to direct money to areas of the School’s greatest need or importance each year. In 2012 they also designated a planned gift to the Business School.

Before founding XM Capital Partners, Alexander Moore acted as portfolio manager at Carlson Capital (2010-2020) in equity relative value and event-driven strategies. Within equity relative value, he specialized in the basic materials sector with a particular focus on agriculture, chemicals, bioenergy/renewables, and sustainability. In the event-driven strategy, he analyzed publicly announced mergers and special situations such as spin-offs, carve-outs and reverse morris rrusts.

Prior to joining Carlson Capital, Moore was an analyst at Brookline Avenue Partners (2006-2009), a multi-strategy hedge fund specializing in merger arbitrage. He began his career in institutional equity sales in the global emerging markets research group at JP Morgan (1999-2003).

Moore graduated with a BA in economics and Spanish from the University of the South and received an MBA from UNC Kenan-Flagler.

Bill Moore served as a professor of the practice of finance at UNC Kenan-Flagler, CEO of Anchor Asset Management, a family investment company, and a director of Vietri, Inc.

He created the Business School’s investment banking course, taught it from 1999-2011 and continues to advise both MBA and Undergraduate Business students.

He founded Trident Financial Corp., an investment bank that specialized in serving financial institutions throughout the United States, in 1975, and served as its CEO until its sale to KeyCorp in 1999. Trident was a national leader in financial institution IPO, M&A and restructuring transactions.

In 2002, he served as the volunteer CEO of the MCNC Research & Development Institute and led its successful restructuring.

Moore is Distinguished Chairman Emeritus of RTI International, one of the world’s leading research institutes, and a former partner at Franklin Street Partners, an investment management company.

He is an emeritus trustee of the National Humanities Center, a former president of the Kenan-Flagler Foundation, and a former chairman of the Rams Club. He was the initial chair of the advisory boards of the UNC-Chapel Hill Programs in the Humanities, UNC Press and the North Carolina Humanities Council.

He received his MBA in 1967 from UNC-Chapel Hill (where he was the student association president and assistant coach of the men’s varsity tennis team) and his BS in 1961 from the U.S. Naval Academy.

Mike Norona is an experienced corporate board member and a retired Fortune 500 company CFO with nearly 30 years of experience in retail, commercial, on-line, and multi-unit global businesses. He is accomplished in business turnarounds and leading transformational change in high-growth environments, with a proven track record of creating shareholder value. Norona has deep corporate governance and regulatory experience through his finance, legal, board and board committee roles. He was executive vice president and chief financial officer for Advance Auto Parts from 2008 to 2016. In addition to his finance responsibilities, he also oversaw legal from 2008 to 2014, IT in 2013 and human resources in 2012. Prior to Advance, he spent almost 20 years with Best Buy. He started his career in Best Buy’s Canadian subsidiary and had escalating financial leadership roles in Canada, ultimately serving as head of finance. In the U.S., he held several finance officer roles with the last role being president of financial services.

Norona is on the board of directors and audit committee chair of Clarios, the world leader in automotive batteries with revenues exceeding $8.5B. He is a director emeritus and audit committee member of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF) and a former international board of directors member and finance committee member of the JDRF. He and his family have been actively involved in the JDRF for 13 years. He also is on the Ravenscroft School board of trustees and chairs the investment committee and sits on the finance committee.

Norona has a Bachelor of Commerce degree in accounting from the University of British Columbia, Canada, and is a Chartered Professional Accountant, CPA, CGA, Canada.

He and his wife Helen  have two sons. Dylan is a senior in high school, and Jordan, a 2021 UNC Kenan-Flagler graduate, is an investment banker in New York.

Tom Newby is a partner of Lexington Partners primarily engaged in the origination and evaluation of secondary purchases of buyout, mezzanine, alternative and venture capital interests.

Prior to joining Lexington in 2007, Newby was a managing director and the head of principal investing at Montgomery & Co., an investment bank, and a general partner of Technology Crossover Ventures.

Newby graduated from UNC Kenan-Flagler with a BSBA (Honors)  and from the Stanford Graduate School of Business with an MBA.

Michael Peterson is retired from a 25-year career in financial services with Bank of America/Merrill Lynch and Wells Fargo. He received his BSBA in 1981 and MBA in 1987 from UNC Kenan-Flagler, where he has established a scholarship fund to provide funding for students to obtain international study opportunities.  He is a former member of the UNC Kenan-Flagler Alumni Council.

He lives in Charlotte and currently serves as a volunteer construction supervisor for Habitat for Humanity. He has served on the boards of Friendship Trays, Friendship Gardens and Slow Food.

James Pirouz joined SunTrust Robinson Humphrey in March 2009 as a managing director in Healthcare Investment Banking. He was responsible for coverage of the benefits management, for-profit acute care and distribution sectors where he originated and executed mergers and acquisitions, equity and debt transactions. He was promoted and assumed responsibilities as head of healthcare investment banking in January 2014 where he has successfully grown the group to a leading practice on Wall Street, serving both corporate and financial sponsor clients in strategic advisory and acquisition financing. He maintains his FINRA Series 7, 63 and 24 licenses.

Pirouz was previously a principal in Banc of America Securities’ global corporate and investment banking leveraged finance group focused on healthcare mergers and acquisitions, LBO and other capital markets transactions. He has completed over 250 transactions valued in excess of $100 billion. Prior to Banc of America Securities, he was an assistant vice president at both Shearson Lehman Brothers and Smith Barney.

Pirouz serves on the boards of directors for United Way of Greater Atlanta and the Center for the Business of Health at UNC Kenan-Flagler.

James earned his MBA from UNC Kenan-Flagler and BS in mechanical and aerospace engineering from Cornell University. Residing in Atlanta, he is married with three children.

Cami Rice is a managing director of Morgan Stanley, chief administrative officer of the Institutional Securities Group (ISG) and head of ISG business unit risk management for the Americas.

Rice joined the firm in 2003 as an associate in the institutional equity division, and held numerous positions during her 11 years in IED. Most recently, she served as global chief operating officer of the research department and was a member of the research operating committee before assuming her current role in July 2018.

Prior to joining Morgan Stanley, Rice worked from 1997-2001 as a trader at Bramwell Capital. She received her Bachelor’s degree from the University of Delaware, where she was a member of the Division I Women’s Basketball team for four years.  She earned her MBA from UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School.

She resides in New York with her husband Tim and their twins, Charlie and Eloise.

Lansdon Robbins graduated from UNC in 1987 with a BSBA.  He began his career at General Electric where he completed the financial management program in 1989 and served in several marketing, business development and management roles.

In 1992 he graduated from Northwestern University’s JL Kellogg Graduate School of Management and in 1994 he left GE to start his first of many entrepreneurial ventures, including ACCENT Marketing, Service Net Solutions and Azalea Stables. Lansdon’s companies include PetFirst Healthcare, which markets and administers pet insurance for cats and dogs, and Simply Waste, a commercial waste brokerage entity.

A native of Nashville, Lansdon resides in Louisville, with his wife Diana and three children,  Lansdon IV, Westin and Kendall.  His hobbies include reading, fitness, travel and thoroughbred horses.

Bill Rogers is the founder of TexWest,LLC, his principal investment vehicle, which focuses on investments in Asia, alternative energy and agriculture. He is a founder of International Farming Corporation, Halifax Group and Colony Capital.

Rogers is a native of eastern North Carolina and lives today principally in Dallas and part-time in Santa Barbara.

Rogers received a BSBA degree from UNC Kenan-Flagler and an MBA from the University of Chicago. He serves as a board member of the Kenan Institute for Private Enterprise and a board member for Duke’s Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy.

Mary Shelton Rose leads the PwC Trust Leadership Institute which is a strategic initiative to provide immersive experiences to apply trust to businesses and societies biggest challenges.

Rose previously served as the client service for east eegion of the United States at PwC, where she was responsible for the development of committed relationships between clients and our firm for a broad range of assurance, tax, and advisory services.  She also served as the leader of the PwC US Brexit response office. In this role, she led a team of professionals focused on helping U.S.-based clients navigate the risks and opportunities around Brexit. Rose also serves on the global priority account leadership team and the global key talent advisory board. She is a recurring faculty member of PwC Reinvent the Future program.

In her more than 30 years of professional experience at PwC, Rose has served key clients across a variety of industries in the areas of  technology, consumer markets, entertainment, media and telecommunications industries. Over the course of her career, she has led consulting engagements involving financial and operational due diligence, design and implementation of governance structures and target operating models, human capital organizational design and deployment, profitability analyses, industry/market research, financial modeling and forecasting, statistical analyses, valuations, contract management and forensic investigations.

She holds a BS.and a Master of Accounting from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and is a licensed CPA in California and North Carolina.

As a proud graduate, Rose was the keynote speaker for the 2017 MAC commencement and the 2018 Carolina Women in Business Conference.

William Seymour is chairman and CEO of Primax Properties, LLC, a Charlotte-based real estate investment company building retail/commercial and office/service facilities for tenants and clients throughout the United States.

Seymour has BSBA from UNC Kenan-Flagler.

Dwight Smith grew up in Sparta, Georgia, and attended Morehouse College. After graduating from Morehouse with degrees in finance, accounting and a minor in economics, he went to Chapel Hill with his wife who is a nurse and  his childhood sweetheart.

He went directly into the UNC Kenan-Flagler MBA program and received a consortium fellowship. After graduating from UNC, he joined the team at Procter & Gamble where he has remained for the past 37 years.

Smith is P&G’s senior vice president of finance and accounting, global supply chain and leads financial initiatives for 100-plus plants, 200-plus distribution centers, over $50 billion in purchasing spending, global supply chain reinvention and transformation. Smith previously served as the CFO for P&G’s North America business and was CFO of P&G’s global personal beauty and feminine care and family care businesses.

Dwight has been a loyal supporter of UNC-Chapel Hill and UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School and Consortium. He was a founding member of the UNC Kenan-Flagler Alumni Council and served on the council for several years.

Bill Starling is CEO of Synecor, LLC, a business generator of new medical device companies based in the Research Triangle Park, Santa Rosa, California, and Silicon Valley, California and managing director of Synergy Life Science Partners, a venture capital partnership investing in medical device companies primarily in the RTP and Silicon Valley. He received his BSBA from UNC Kenan-Flagler and an MBA from the University of Southern California. He formerly served as chairman of UNC Kenan-Flagler’s Board of Visitors and serves as chairman of the industry advisory board of the UNC/NCSU School of Biomedical Engineering.

Duke Steinemann is CEO of Steinemann & Company, a full service real estate company primarily focused on development. Steinemann & Company formed in Atlanta, Georgia, in 1979 and relocated to Jacksonville, Florida, in 2000.

Steinemann is active in numerous professional and philanthropic organizations including the Mayo Clinic and serves on the board of trustees of Flagler College in St. Augustine, Florida.

He holds a BSBA and a BA in History from UNC-Chapel Hill.

He resides in Jacksonville, Florida, and Newport, Rhode Island.

Beth Struckell recently earned her PhD in Management (Strategy & Entrepreneurship) from the University of North Texas where she is now employed as a Clinical Assistant Professor. Fulfilling her personal strategic plan, she retired from a successful and diverse 25-year career with PepsiCo in 2008. Always considered an entrepreneur within corporate walls (corporate entrepreneur), she has become a true entrepreneur with real estate and business ventures including a successful weight loss and longevity business she started. Her attention is now focused on teaching, various board positions, research projects, small business and non-profit consulting.

Her final and most senior roles within PepsiCo included leading the PepsiCo Vend/Foodservice as SVP/GM for 6 years.   She was instrumental in the successful merger of Quaker Oats Company with PepsiCo in 2001.  Beth started her PepsiCo career at Frito-Lay in 1983 as an Assistant Product Manager.  At Frito-Lay, her career included Brand Management Positions over Ruffles, Tostitos, Doritos and Channel Marketing.  In 1989 she joined the sister company of Pepsi-Cola, first as Area Vice President then as Vice President of Re-engineering reporting to the PepsiCo Treasurer.  She returned to Frito-Lay in 1994 to lead merger and acquisition efforts for the Division.

She holds a BA and MBA from the University of North Carolina.

Frank Sutton is a born and bred Tar Heel from Salisbury, North Carolina. He graduated from UNC Kenan-Flagler with his BSBA in 1982. He is the founder and CEO of Positive Distribution LLC, which owns the patent and trademark for Lock Laces, the original no-tie elastic shoelaces. He and his wife, Shelayne, have five children, two of whom graduated from UNC Kenan-Flagler.

Brent Tollison is a North Carolina native, and a proud alumnus of UNC at Chapel Hill – earning undergraduate degrees in both chemistry and industrial relations. He attended UNC as a Pogue Scholar and was selected as a Leadership Fellow. He currently is the senior vice president at Coca-Cola Consolidated, the nation’s largest Coca-Cola bottler, based in Charlotte.

Tollison began his career at Coca-Cola Consolidated, later moving to Coca-Cola Enterprises and then Coca-Cola Refreshments in roles of increasing responsibility. He is an accomplished sales, marketing and operations executive who has held several roles, including director of sales, VP of convenience retail and market unit vice president, region sales for New York and Virginia. He also served as vice president, sales operations Northeast, where he focused on developing, engaging,= and empowering an organization of 2,200 sales associates.

In 2014, Tollison left the Coke System for Grainger Industrial Supply as the VP of commercial sales, managing a $1.5 billion portfolio. He returned to the Coke System in 2021 as senior VP at Coca-Cola Consolidated, the largest Coca-Cola franchise bottler in the U.S.

Tollison is a highly engaged community leader, with a passion for developing the next generation of civic leaders. Starting in Atlanta, he served on the workforce development board for Fulton County. While in the New York area, he served on the boards of the Harlem YMCA and the Kips Bay Boys and Girls Club. In Chicago, he served on the board for the One Million Degrees organization, which helped community college students pursue career pathways to greater economic mobility. He currently serves on the board of the National Sales Network, an organization focused on professional and career development for sales and sales management professionals. He also is an active brother of the Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Inc.

He is most proud of his titles as husband to Swanda (BA ’98) and father to daughter Jordan and son Ian.

Patrick Trask is president of Wood Partners, currently responsible for overseeing the company’s development and construction divisions and for developing new equity and debt capital relationships. Prior to his role as president, he served as regional development director for Wood Partners’ Central Region, which consists of Texas, Colorado, Arizona, Nevada and Chicago. He serves on Wood’s board of directors and heads its investment committee. Trask joined Wood Partners in 2001 and opened the Texas offices for Wood Partners. Before joining Wood Partners, he served as a development associate in Trammell Crow Residential’s North Florida division, where he was active in their developments in Orlando and Tampa. Prior to graduate school, he worked as a foreign exchange interest rate trader with CS First Boston and Morgan Stanley in their New York and London offices.

Trask received his MBA from UNC Kenan‐Flagler. He also earned a bachelor’s degree in history from Davidson College in 1993. He grew up in Beaufort, South Carolina, and lives in Houston with his wife, Cathy, and three children.

Jeff Tucker is a managing director and chief operating officer of Century Bridge Capital, a Dallas and Beijing based private equity firm focused on investments in China.  He is responsible for the overall management of the firm, including operations in the U.S. and China, as well as global institutional capital raising.  Since it’s founding, Century Bridge has invested in real estate developments in China totaling over $1.2 billion in value.  Jeff spends much of his time traveling in China, as well as in Europe and the U.S., where the firm’s institutional investors are based.

After graduating with a BBA degree in finance from Southern Methodist University in 1994, Tucker began his career in the Washington, D.C. office of Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, where he was engaged in federal government relations for the City of New York. In 1995 he began working in the U.S. House of Representatives as a professional staff  member with the House Committee on Small Business, where he led Congressional oversight activities, hearings, and legislative initiatives focused on banking, federal contracting and taxation issues.

In 1997 Tucker moved to North Carolina and joined Franklin Street/Fairview Capital, a Raleigh-based private equity investment firm, before starting in the MBA program at the UNC Kenan-Flagler.  After business school, Tucker joined a North Carolina-based internet incubator and venture capital firm called Interactive Marketplace Group, where he served as a director. In 2002 hemoved back to Washington, D.C., where he became a vice president with The Halifax Group, a middle-market private equity investment firm.

Tucker serves as a member of the Board of Visitors and was chair of the International Board of Advisors at UNC Kenan-Flagler. He received the School’s Outstanding Young Alumni Award in 2001 and its Global Leadership Award in 2015.

In 2001 he created a charitable endowment that was recently expanded and renamed the Rollie Tillman, Jr. Development Fund, which is aimed at growing UNC Kenan-Flagler’s development capacity. He also serves on the UNC Chancellor’s Global Leadership Taskforce.

Tucker is a member of the Board of Councilors of the EastWest Institute (EWI), an independent NGO focused on global conflict resolution. He also is an active member of Business Executives for National Security (BENS), a Washington, D.C.-based non-profit comprised of over 450 American business executives who volunteer their time and expertise to address the national security community’s most pressing challenges.

Steve Vetter is CEO and chairman of the Board of Ennis-Flint, Inc., the world’s largest manufacturer and distributor of road marking materials for the highway safety industry. Vetter also is founder and  managing member of Tarheel Properties, LLC, a family-owned real estate investment company specializing in developing and owning multi-family properties currently totaling over 14,000 unites located primarily in southeastern U.S. He lives in Greensboro, North Carolina, is married to Debbie, and has two children and three grandchildren. He earned a BSBA from UNC Kenan-Flagler.

Vanessa Wittman serves as the CFO of Oath. Previously, she served as CFO of Dropbox and SVP and CFO of Motorola Mobility, following its acquisition by Google in 2012.

Before Motorola, Wittman was CFO and EVP of Marsh & McLennan Companies. Prior to joining Marsh & McLennan, she served as CFO and EVP of Adelphia Communications, navigating a multi-year bankruptcy proceeding.  She has also held senior roles at Microsoft, Morgan Stanley, Metricom, and Sterling Payot Company, a venture capital firm.

A Raleigh native, Smedes York has spent many years serving in various capacities in his community. He is part of a family business that began in Raleigh in 1910. He is chairman of York Properties, Inc., McDonald York Building Company and Berkshire Hathaway York Simpson Underwood.

He earned his BS in civil engineering from North Carolina State University in 1963 where he played basketball for the legendary Everett Case. He earned a Master of Business Administration degree from the UNC-Chapel Hill in 1968.  He received an Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters Degree from North Carolina State University in 2009.

He served as a Lieutenant in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (1964-1966), receiving an Army Commendation Medal for his service in South Korea. He served on the Raleigh City Council (1977-1979) and two terms as mayor (1979-1983).

He is past chair of the North Carolina Chamber, N.C. State University Board of Trustees and the YMCA of the Triangle. He served as chairman of the Urban Land Institute from 1989-1991 and continues to serve as a Trustee. As a ULI member, he has chaired many advisory service panel assignments including New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. Current positions include Board of Directors of the Research Triangle Foundation, North Carolina Amateur Sports, CAM (Contemporary Art Museum) and emeritus member of the RTP Foundation Board.

He was inducted into the Raleigh Hall of Fame, Needham Broughton Athletics Hall of Fame and the North Carolina Business Hall of Fame.

He received the Watauga Medal from North Carolina State University and the Distinguished Citizenship Award from the North Carolina Chamber. York and his wife, Rosemary, have two sons, George and William, and three grandsons, Smedes, Bowen and Crawford.

Kevin Adams is a managing director at J.P. Morgan Private Bank, joining the firm in 2018. He serves as a trusted advisor and solutions provider to ultra-high net worth executives, entrepreneurs, family offices, foundations, athletes and entertainers focusing on all aspects of asset and wealth management.

Prior to J.P. Morgan, Adams spent five years at Alliance Bernstein as a managing director in both private wealth management and equity trading. He spent the first 15 years of his career at Goldman Sachs, where he was a managing director and co-head of relative value trading focused on merger arbitrage and various event-driven strategies.

Adams earned an MBA in finance from UNC Kenan-Flagler and a BS in finance from Florida State University, where he was also a scholarship football player. He serves on the boards of Elites Optimization Services, I Am Acceptance Inc., the Lee Thompson Young Foundation and The Florida State University National Alumni Association. He’s also a member of the Association for Corporate Growth. He has two children and lives in New Jersey.

David Bookhout serves as Senior Vice President of Development & Investments for Greenberg Gibbons, a premier developer, investor, and owner of mixed-use, retail, and flex/R&D properties in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeast. He plays a lead role in the company’s mixed-use development division, with responsibility for sourcing, evaluating, underwriting, acquiring, and executing projects in the Mid-Atlantic region and the Carolinas.

Prior to joining Greenberg Gibbons, he was Vice President of the Mid-Atlantic & Carolinas Regions for AvalonBay Communities, where he specialized in mixed-use projects that feature multifamily housing over retail and led teams that delivered more than 2,300 units, while also helping to establish and execute AvalonBay’s regional strategic objectives.  Before joining AvalonBay, David held positions in Finance/Accounting and General Management.

Candice Wooten Brown is vice president, HR business partner for the organization’s corporate functions as well as its scientific research and development function. In this role,  Brown is responsible for leading the people agenda across functions, to include the design and implementation of programs and initiatives to address the talent needs of each unique function. Prior to assuming this role, she served as vice president, talent and organizational effectiveness, where she was responsible for talent acquisition, talent development, talent management and diversity & inclusion practices for the U.S.

Prior to joining the Reynolds organization, Brown was an attorney with Constangy, Brooks & Smith, LLC, where she practiced in the areas of workers’ compensation and employment litigation. she began her legal career with Womble, Carlyle, Sandridge & Rice, PLLC, where she practiced in the areas of general civil litigation, workers’ compensation, insurance coverage and defense.

Brown served as an adjunct professor in the School of Business and Economics at Winston-Salem State University for seven years, and has served as an instructor at the Babcock Graduate School of Management at Wake Forest University. Brown is a certified mediator.

Brown is a member of the board of trustees of Novant Health (Triad Region), a member of the board of directors of Goodwill of Northwest North Carolina and the advisory board for the North Carolina Pro Bono Resource Center. She is a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated, The Links, Incorporated, Winston-Salem Chapter, Jack & Jill of America, Incorporated and The Moles, Inc.

The eternal Tar Heel, Brown earned her undergraduate degree in history, law degree and MBA from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She is married to Ivey L. Brown Jr. and they have two sons, Ivey Lee, III and Ian Victor.

Allison Lentz Bubar joined Advance Auto Parts in 2010 and has served in her current position as GM, senior vice President, DieHard since January 2020.

Prior to her current role, Bubar served as senior vice president, store operations support and real estate as well as various leadership roles, including strategy and transformation. In these positions, she helped develop the company’s strategic business plan and established the company’s transformation management office. Before joining Advance, she worked for Stanley Black and Decker.

Bubar earned her BS in business, BA in political science, and ran on the track team at UNC-Chapel Hill. She also received her MBA from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management. She serves on the corporate board of directors for the YMCA of Virginia’s Blue Ridge. She resides in Roanoke, Virginia, with her husband, Dan; their two boys, Jackson and Caleb; and two rescue hound dogs, Guinness and Wrigley.

Eric Campbell is the managing partner at Value Investment Group, a private family office focused on influencer-backed private equity and value investing. He has deployed over $50 million in capital and invested in over 30 companies with seven exits to date including Draftkings, Coinbase, Airbnb and others. Campbell was recognized by Forbes as a 2020 30 Under 30 recipient in venture capital. Prior to VC, he worked at Google and then Uber. At Uber, he was responsible for regional operations and strategy for the Middle East and Africa.

Campbell is a 2012 BSBA graduate at UNC Kenan-Flagler and  resides in Atlanta. He is a board member of Eustress Inc. as well as a Shuford Innovator in Residence in UNC’s Entrepreneurship Center.

Brandt Carr is a director in the Industrials Group at Harris Williams, an investment bank specializing in M&A advisory services. During his time at Harris Williams Brandt has advised a diverse group of publicly-traded and privately-held companies on mergers and acquisitions and strategic advisory assignments across a variety of industries, including packaging, specialty distribution, and advanced manufacturing, among others.

Prior to joining Harris Williams, Brandt was an investment banking analyst in the Equity Capital Markets Group at Citigroup, where he coordinated efforts across teams and banks in the structuring, marketing, and pricing of common equity and convertible debt offerings.

Brandt joined Harris Williams following the completion of his M.B.A. from the Kenan-Flagler Business School at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he was inducted into the Beta Gamma Sigma Honorary Business Society. He earned his B.A. in Political Economy from the College of Arts and Sciences at Georgetown University.

Brandt lives in Richmond with his wife, Elizabeth, his son, Thomas, and his English Bulldog, Chunk.

Michael Chen serves as Managing Director – Head of Capital Markets and Investor Relations, with primary responsibility for developing and executing Madison’s fundraising strategy and serving as liaison with the investor community. Chen has over 15 years of experience in real estate finance and maintains an extensive network of global investors. During his tenure at Madison, He has been responsible for over $6 billion of equity raised for Madison’s sponsored vehicles. Prior to joining Madison in 2014, He spent four years at Paramount Group, Inc., a vertically integrated, class A office owner/ operator, focused on New York City, San Francisco and Washington, D.C. As co-head of the Capital Markets department, he was responsible for developing and executing Paramount’s global fundraising strategy.

Prior to that, Chen was an Executive Director in J.P. Morgan’s Real Estate and Lodging Investments Banking Group and worked in both the New York and London offices from 2003 to 2010. He also held various financial positions with Marriott International and Crestline Capital prior to 2003.

In addition to being an active member of various global private real estate organizations including the Association for International Real Estate Investors (AFIRE), Pension Real Estate Association (PREA), European Association for Investors in Non-Listed Real estate Vehicles (INREV), Asian Association for Investors in Non-Listed Real Estate Vehicles (ANREV) and Institutional Real Estate, Inc. (IREI), he is a current Editorial Board Member of IREI Americas, a former due diligence committee member of INREV and a member of the International Affinity Group of PREA. He graduated with a BA from University of Michigan and received an MBA from the University of North Carolina.

Schwin Chiaravanont is co-founder and managing partner of Blueprint Forest and a director of Ngern Tid Lor.

In the capacity of Managing Director of his direct family office, 2W Group, and an independent fund manager at Blueprint Forest, Schwin has vast direct and fund investment experience over a variety of industries and asset classes, especially in the private markets in the Asia Pacific.

In Schwin’s various capacities, he has been responsible for deal sourcing, evaluation, structuring, execution, and adding value to portfolio companies.

Schwin previously had a career in investment banking in addition to co-founding a couple startups.

He holds a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration and Economics from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and has completed emphases in Corporate Finance and Entrepreneurship at the Kenan-Flagler Business School.

Kevin Clark is director of strategic growth initiatives for marketing, communications and partnerships at Intuit. Previously he served as head of talent transformation for marketing and communications at LinkedIn; head of marketing operations at Facebook; and held executive/leadership roles at EY (strategy consulting), Home Depot (finance), Sears Holdings (operational restructuring) and IBM (sales).

Clark, who earned his MBA from Wharton, has remained steadfast in his commitment to both UNC Kenan-Flagler and UNC-Chapel Hill since graduating with his BSBA in 1999.  He has served on the School’s Alumni Council, is a member of the UNC-Chapel Hill General Alumni Association, and is a regular financial donor.

He and his wife, Udana Clark (BA ’99, MAC ’00), committed to fund The Udanda and Kevin Clark Fellowship in Accounting at UNC Kenan-Flagler, and are excited about helping deserving MAC students reach their full potentials.

Originally from North Potomac, Maryland, the Clarks live in the Bay Area with their two children.

Tarik Dalton manages leveraged finance research. He joined Goldman Sachs in 2021 as managing director.

Prior to joining the firm, he was a managing director at Silverback Asset Management. Previously, he was a director for the North Carolina Department of the Treasurer’s $110 billion defined benefit plan for six years. Before that, Dalton was a director at Credit Suisse from 2005-12. Earlier in his career, he was a consultant for PricewaterhouseCoopers.

He serves on the board of Big Brothers Big Sisters of the Triangle and the board of Underwood Gifted and Talented School Foundation.

Tarik earned a BA from Columbia University and an MBA from UNC Kenan-Flagler.

Jatin Desai’s primary responsibilities include sourcing, negotiating and financing hotel acquisition and development projects.

Previously, he was with Wachovia Securities, where he focused on asset underwriting and private equity transactions ranging from $100 million to more than $5 billion. He also formed Stonehill Property Group, a family-funded investment venture targeting select- and full-service hotel investments throughout the southeast.

Desai received his BSBA from UNC Kenan-Flagler. He also attended The University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia, and The London School of Economics and Political Science. He is an advisory board member for the Wood Center for Real Estate Studies at UNC Kenan-Flagler. He also sits on the board for the UNC Center for Public Services at Carolina and the Atlanta Hospitality Alliance.

Katherine Dunlevie leads the family office at Synovus, which provides family office services to 75+ ultra-high net worth families and administers more than $10 billion in assets. She directs all aspects of the family office with a focus on client service, new business development, long-term business strategy and financial performance. She also leads collaborative efforts to plan, develop and implement strategies that deliver exceptional services in support of family enterprises.

Dunlevie’s entire career in financial services has been with Synovus. Prior to joining the Synovus family in 2002, she served with Cru, formerly known as Campus Crusade for Christ, at the University of Georgia.

As a double Tar Heel, Dunlevie earned a bachelor’s degree in exercise and sports science from UNC-Chapel Hill, where she graduated with highest distinction, and an MBA from UNC Kenan-Flagler. In addition, she is an Honors Graduate of the Cannon Trust School. Her certifications include Certified Financial Planner™ (CFP®), Certified Trust and Financial Advisor (CTFA) and Chartered Financial Consultant® (ChFC®). She is a member of the Financial Planning Association.

Dunlevie is a highly regarded thought leader in the family office industry, often speaking at conferences around the country. She has been recognized by Georgia Trend magazine’s Top 40 Under 40, and is a recipient of the Jim Blanchard Leadership Award at Synovus. Additionally, she was shortlisted for Family Wealth Alliance’s Boutique Multi-Family Office Executive Award.

She formerly served on the UNC-Chapel Hill board of visitors and currently serves on UNC’s exercise science board of advisors and the UNC Kenan-Flagler Next Generation Board of Advisors.

Meredith Friga is a partner with Ernst & Young LLP in the assurance practice and is based in Raleigh, North Carolia. She has over 20 years of experience serving clients primarily in the life science and not-for-profit industries and has extensive experience leading audit teams and providing assurance services to clients across various transactions.

Outside of client service, Friga is the executive sponsor for the diversity and inclusion networks in the Raleigh office and is a member of the firm’s audit quality review team. Additionally, she leads the firm’s recruiting efforts at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Friga graduated from UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School with a
Bachelor of Science in Business Administration and a Master;s in Accounting. She is a member of the AICPA and North Carolina Association of Certified Public Accountants. Additionally, she serves as vice chair, audit committee chair and treasurer for the NC Biotechnology Center and is a member of the board of directors for Council for Entrepreneurial Development.

Meredith lives in Durham with her husband, Paul, and their son Nick.

RD Gauss is a principal at Global Infrastructure Partners, an independent fund manager that makes equity investments in high quality infrastructure assets in the energy, transportation and water/waste sectors. Previously, he served as a managing director in Morgan Stanley’s investment banking division providing advisory and capital raising service to clients in the utility, power and renewable energy sectors.

Gauss received a BA in economics and history from UNC-Chapel Hill and an MBA from UNC Kenan-Flagler.

Carlos  Gonzalez has over 12 years of experience in the energy industry as a finance leader. He joined Chevron in 2008 and has worked in a variety of domestic and international positions of increasing responsibility in Texas, California, Angola and Australia. His experience includes roles across the corporate finance spectrum such as accounting, audit, compliance, decision support, financial planning, internal controls, reporting and treasury.

Gonzalez leads the finance and planning functions of the Chevron Technical Center (CTC). The CTC is the technology development and technical service company that partners with Chevron’s portfolio businesses worldwide to solve the technical challenges of finding and producing energy in a safe, efficient, and environmentally responsible manner.

He received his BA from the University of California at Davis and his MBA from UNC Kenan-Flagler. He lives in the Houston area with his wife and two children. He is a Los Angeles native. He enjoys cycling and traveling, and is an avid tennis player.

Stephanie Headley is the vice president of Global OLAY Skin Care with in for Procter & Gamble’s skin and personal care business, a position she has held since July 2019.  In this role, she leads product and commercial innovation planning for Olay_® Skin Care.

Her responsibilities include translating consumer trends, breakthrough technology and industry insight into long range planning to grow OLAY globally empowering women to be fearless to face anything.

Prior to her current role, Headley spent 17 years at P&G working in a range of brand management and retail facing assignments in Cincinnati, Ohio, and Charlotte, North Carolina, on iconic brands including Febreze, Herbal Essences and OLAY.  She was recognized as a Top Woman in Beauty, Wellness and Health in 2019.

She is most proud of her work that reflects a more inclusive definition of leadership and beauty. OLAY launched a brand new platform behind Face Anything in September 2019 featuring nine fearless women who represented the broad definition of empowerment and beauty in September Vogue.

Diversity and inclusion is also a passion area for Headley, who is a leader of P&G’s African ancestry affinity organization for brand builders supporting diverse talent to deliver breakthrough results.  She also serves on the board of the Cincinnati YWCA and was appointed to the UNC Kenan-Flagler Next Gen Board of Advisors in 2020. She is an active member of her Crossroads Community Church.

Erik Johnson is co-founder and partner at White Point, a Charlotte-based private real estate firm specializing in the acquisition and development of office, retail, mixed-use and multifamily properties throughout the southeastern U.S. He is responsible for asset management, underwriting and capital markets strategies.

Johnson previously served as SVP of finance for a publicly-traded student housing REIT. Prior to his tenure at the REIT, he worked in J.P. Morgan’s real estate and lodging investment banking group where he advised clients on M&A transactions and raised over $6.5 billion of debt and equity capital. He began his career at Wells Fargo as a commercial real estate lender.

He received his MBA from The University of Texas at Austin and his BSBA from UNC Kenna-Flagler.

He is a member of the Urban Land Institute and serves on the Advisory Board of the McCombs School of Business Real Estate Investment Fund.

As a member of JLL’s tenant representation team, Torrey Littlejohn is responsible for representing both local and national corporate office clients in facility and site acquisition and disposition. She focuses on strategic real estate planning and works closely with each client and the JLL team to identify optimal financial and operational solutions. Torrey has a full understanding of the real estate, financial accounting, tax and market conditions that surround client objectives and decisions. As a dedicated team member, she delivers an unprecedented level of service and support to her clients. Her goal is to save the JLL clients’ time and money.

Littlejohn has 17 years of experience in the Dallas/Fort Worth market. In addition to her MBA in finance and real estate knowledge, she brings significant experience in strategy and analytics from her tenure in corporate finance at a Fortune 500 company. Her corporate experience and background brings a skill set to the table that is always beneficial in complex real estate transactions.

She earned her BSBA from UNC Kenan-Flagler and an MBA from Southern Methodist University. She has been recognized numerous times in her professional career including: Dallas Business Journal’s 2017 40 under 40, 2014-16 D CEO Power Broker, Eclipse Magazine’s “Women Who Mean Business”, JLL Club Award, JLL Top Gun and JLL Wolf Pack Award.

Littlejohn is passionate about providing all students access to a quality education. She serves on the inaugural board of Step Up Dallas, a non profit that propels girls from under-resourced communities to fufil their personal and educational potential. She is also an advisory board member for UNCF, a national non-profit which enhances the quality of education by providing financial assistance to students, colleges and universities. In her spare time, Torrey enjoys reading, traveling, and spending quality time with her husband and two children.

Ben Matthews is vice president of mergers and acquisitions at Leonard USA, a leading full-service retailer of truck accessories and outdoor products across the Southeast. Prior to joining Leonard, Matthews served as a vice president in Jefferies investment banking division advising consumer and retail companies and at First Horizon in their Mid-Atlantic corporate banking broup. Matthews received a BA and MBA from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He and his wife Melanie live in Charlotte with their son.

Raj Merchant is a technology executive with more than 20 years of experience working with Fortune 500 enterprises to implement digital transformation and intelligent automation solutions. He is a director at Perficient, a global information technology and management consulting firm.  Prior to Perficient, Merchant spent 12 years at a boutique technology consultancy.

He holds a BS in economics degree from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and an MBA from UNC Kenan-Flagler.

Outside of work, Merchant is passionate about supporting the Charlotte community and especially its nonprofit ecosystem. As a partner at Social Venture Partners Charlotte, he has served on SVP’s investment committee, revenue diversification committee, and SEED20 steering committee. He serves on several non-profit boards, including HELPS Education Fund, Families Forward Charlotte and Feeding Charlotte.

Merchant lives in Charlotte with his wife, Leigh Ann, and their son, Thomas.

Shermon McMillan is a purpose led, global executive with success in building and shaping teams, identifying winning strategies, and driving growth faster than the market. He serves at Sanofi Consumer Healthcare as global vice president and category head, responsible for allergy and cough-and-cold businesses worldwide. His chief accountabilities include the development of category strategy, global brand leadership and innovation, resulting in market share and sales growth. He also is a member of Sanofi’s global marketing leadership team where he collaborates to set and model marketing standards and practices.

McMillan has nearly 20 years of marketing experience combined in consumer healthcare, consumer goods, and banking. During this time Shermon has developed significant capabilities in insight generation, strategy development, innovation discovery, communication development, commercialization, and brand activation. He has also held positions with increasing levels of P&L responsibility from that of junior brand manager to vice president and head of marketing, with a remit of over $1 billion in revenue.

McMillan has been with Sanofi for more than 10 years and has been instrumental in the growth of the consumer healthcare business, particularly in the U.S. market. He has helped to drive that growth with leadership roles in the Rx-OTC switches of Allegra® and Nasacort®, launch development for OTC Cialis® as well as work in digestive health and pain care. Prior to Sanofi, he worked at Pfizer Consumer Healthcare with increasing levels of responsibility on Robitussin® and in the nutritionals category on Centrum®.  Pepsico-Frito Lay and Wells Fargo were key stops as McMillan built his marketing background.

Frances Nahas is an independent strategy and M&A consultant focused on mid-tier healthcare technology companies. She developed a passion for strategy at Bain & Company, where she worked across a range of industries. She began her focus on healthcare after leaving Bain to join McKesson as part of their corporate strategy group.

After several years working across multiple business units, Nahas joined the McKesson automation business unit to lead strategy and M&A and was part of the leadership team that took the business private with Francisco Partners, turned it around, and ultimately sold it to Omnicell. After leaving Omnicell, she began consulting independently, working with companies such as Availity and Connecture. She is passionate about the ability of healthcare technology to reduce costs, improve patient care and still deliver a profit for shareholders.

She earned her bachelor’s degree from the University of Notre Dame and her MBA from UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School, where she was a Forté Scholar and a Dean’s Scholar.

Louise Woltz Smith is a managing director at PA Capital, a Richmond-based alternative investment management firm specializing in private and public markets strategies across the U.S. low mid-market. She focuses on the firm’s private equity strategies, and is responsible for sourcing, evaluating, and monitoring fund commitments and equity co-investments across the firm’s multi-manager product and separately managed accounts. She serves as a member of PA’s private equity investment committee and is an active advisory board member for various underlying private equity funds.  She also co-manages the firm’s diversity, equity and inclusion focused private equity program.

Smith was a financial analyst at Harris Williams & Co., where she executed sell-side mergers and acquisitions across a variety of industries. She was responsible for all aspects of process execution including financial analysis, marketing, industry research, and client and process management.

A North Carolina native, Louise earned her BSBA and MBA from UNC Kenan-Flagler.  She lives in Richmond, Virginia, with her husband, Charles, and three sons, Reddin, Webb and Elliott.

Lindsay Tillie is a retail enthusiast with a keen eye for capturing emergent trends, introducing revolutionary products to market, and driving impressive sales and profitability performance for her chosen categories. She leads the decorative tile, wall tile and adjacent growth categories businesses for Floor & Decor, the No. 6 fastest growing retailer in the world. With an entrepreneurial approach to corporate retail management, Tillie is changing how customers experience the hard surface flooring and home improvement industries – delivering category-killing sales in the process.

Before Floor & Decor, Tillie worked as director of co-branded stores at Carter’s OshKosh b’Gosh, spearheading new store concept deployment. She worked for 12 years at The Home Depot as a merchant of various categories, including doors, irrigation and plumbing. She prides herself on having launched many products, most notably Barn Door Kits, b-Hyve Smart Watering technologies, the Arctic Cove “Bucket Top Misting Fan” and Iron Force duct tape, all top performers in their segments.

Tillie earned her MBA from UNC Kenan-Flagler and her BS in management from Georgia Tech where she was a President’s Scholar.

Lindsay and her husband, Josh, live in Atlanta, where they enjoy raising their son and daughter and their dog, Charles Barkley.

Matt White co-heads the Energy, Owner and Infrastructure Group. He has worked on mergers, acquisitions and capital raising transactions for companies providing products and services to a variety of segments within the energy, power and infrastructure industry including industrial and infrastructure; electric power, natural gas and water utilities; telecom; and environmental.

Prior to joining Harris Williams, White worked in the equity capital markets group at SunTrust Robinson Humphrey. Previous experience also includes work in the capital finance group at Wachovia Securities (now Wells Fargo) where he focused on providing acquisition and growth capital to middle market companies as well as workout situations.

White earned an MBA from Emory University and a BSBA from UNC Kenan-Flagler. He lives in Richmond with his wife and their four children.

Velocity tapped Jamie Harper Wilkerson to take the reins of financial operations in 2019 because of her deep experience in both finance and the research/clinical trials arena. After four years as an auditor at Deloitte and 10 years in finance at The Hamner Institutes for Health Sciences, she moved into the clinical trials space as chief financial officer at Clintrax Global and director of financial planning at PRA Health Services. She holds her MBA and BSBA from UNC Kenan-Flagler.

In a fast-growing company, Wilkersons’s challenge is doing more than keeping the books, she said. “As a finance professional, it’s not only making sure the numbers are accurate, but also making sure as a finance team we’re providing decision makers with the information they need to make the best strategic decisions.”

When not crunching numbers she spends her time watching Carolina sports with her family and going to the beach, activities shared by most card-carrying North Carolinians.

Parker Wilson had an upbringing in retail and manufacturing followed by an early career in operational efficiency inside a global sports apparel brand. She has utilized both her personal and professional background to elevate small businesses as a growth strategist and brand developer. More recently, she coupled her consulting background with her passion for innovation to serve as the SVP of product at BLDG25, a Raleigh-based experience design firm.

Her career is one of a commitment to the practice areas of operational efficiency, brand alignment and forward-thinking business value. She believes in solving problems and driving consensus through a team-oriented approach to all projects.

She earned her BA from Baylor University and her MBA from UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School with a focus on sustainable enterprise and marketing.

She is a member of the UNC Kenan-Flagler Board of Advisors “Next Gen Committee” and 100 Women, and a board member for the Wilmington Chamber of Commerce.

With an entrepreneurial background in healthcare, media and technology, Stephanie Winans has 14 years of experience in business strategy and marketing and has led two successful healthcare exits. As chief growth officer at BioDigital, a biomedical visualization company, she is responsible for commercialization strategy and partnerships.

Previously as president of Point of Care and Consumer Health at The Wellness Network, Winans was responsible for the company’s hospital point of care marketing and consumer health business models, instrumental to the company’s 2021 acquisition to WebMD. Before joining The Wellness Network through acquisition in 2016, she was CEO of Bundoo, a prenatal and pediatric health startup. With experience in both B2C and B2B healthcare, commercialization strategy has been core to every role, often requiring a creative approach to go-to-market strategy and a passion for problem solving.

Winans earned her MBA from UNC Kenan-Flagler and her BS in marketing and psychology from Spring Hill College.

She is a strategic advisor at WebMD, an advisory board member for UNC Kenan Flagler’s Center for Business of Health and a member of the 100 Women initiative at UNC Kenan-Flagler.

As vice president of spend management services and delivery and a prior leader in the transformation management office responsible for Vizient’s enterprise wide strategic transformation, Molly Zmuda is redesigning the expense management delivery model in partnership with cross functional teams representing business units, sales, account management and corporate strategy with accountability to senior executives, the CEO, his direct reports and, ultimately Vizient’s provider-members.

As associate vice president for supply chain member connections, she was responsible for Vizient’s national senior supply chain member networks connecting more than 320 provider organizations, nationally, including system-level executives and medical/clinical leaders in supply chain and the Large IDN Supply Network (LISN), representing 20-25 of the nation’s largest health systems and more than 500 acute care facilities to share leading practices and data, influence the industry, and develop high-value differentiating solutions. With Zmuda’s support through COVID-19, Vizient and LISN established a direct voice for the healthcare supply chain with the FEMA/HHS Supply Chain Task Force.

Prior to member connections, as a leader in Vizient member business ventures, she was responsible for strategy and operations, including board of directors and finance committee activities, of the MNS Supply Chain Network, LLC. She built and led a team in program development, sourcing, pharmacy and third-party analytics to deliver an average of $27 million recognized annual value to MedStar Health, Novant Health and Sentara Healthcare. During her tenure, she established the MNS Clinical Leadership Council comprised of CMOs and supply chain executives, enabling collaboration by nearly 40 physician leaders in clinical variation reduction.

Before joining Vizient, Zmuda was responsible for the clinical program development of Carolinas Trauma Network, a clinically integrated, enterprise-wide service line advancing full-continuum trauma/injury care across 900+ locations. In her leadership role at Atrium Health, she served as a co-investigator on an mTBI participatory action clinical research study in partnership with the CTN Research Center of Excellence and launched an original cross-continuum program evaluation strategy in partnership with Advanced Analytics and Information Services to demonstrate a positive impact on clinical process and outcome metrics through CTN guidelines. Her efforts inspired a NCOEMS research initiative. She also developed CTN outreach strategy including a CTN mTBI feature during the 2013 Super Bowl XLVII.

She completed her administrative residency at the corporate office of MedStar Health under the president and CEO, then held leadership positions in system operations, performance improvement and orthopedics/surgery service line administration.

As a two-time graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Molly minored in English, attended UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School for her BSBA and the Gillings School of Global Public Health for her Master of Healthcare Administration. During grad school, she was an AUPHA/McGaw scholar and selected by faculty to serve as a commencement marshal.

She serves on the Next Generation Committee of the Board of Advisors to UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School and contributes as a member of the 100 Women initiative.