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NEWS SERVICES |
| For immediate use |
Nov. 7, 2003 -- No. 591 |
Local angles: Atlanta, Chapel Hill, Durham, Raleigh
Alumni awards program honors Kenan-Flagler Business School’s finest
CHAPEL HILL -- The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s Kenan-Flagler Business School will recognize the achievements of seven distinguished alumni today (Nov. 7) with its fifth annual Alumni Association Awards.
Since it began in 1999, the alumni awards program has honored those who have made outstanding contributions to Kenan-Flagler, the business community and society.
The 2003 honorees include:
Four distinguished alumni will receive Alumni Merit Awards, given from Kenan-Flagler’s degree programs to alumni who personify the school’s tradition of excellence and bring distinction to themselves and the school. They are:
"The award recipients, through their actions, are honoring the devotion of our faculty and staff, showing the way forward to our students and elevating the value of all our programs for past and future generations," said Steve Jones, school dean.
Tillman will be presented with the prestigious Kenan-Flagler Business School Leadership Award. A 1955 graduate of the BSBA program, Tillman received his MBA from Harvard in 1957 and his doctoral in 1960, after which he returned to Chapel Hill. Until his retirement last June, Tillman was the H. Allen Andrew distinguished professor of entrepreneurship.
Tillman has served the UNC-Chapel Hill as General College adviser, director of the MBA program, director of executive education, vice chancellor for university relations and founding director of the Frank Hawkins Kenan Institute of Private Enterprise. The Kenan-Flagler Business School Leadership Award is not the first time that Tillman was recognized for his devotion to UNC. In 1996, the General Alumni Association awarded him the Faculty Service Award.
Tillman has served the larger community as president of the North Carolina Museum of Art Society, president of the museum’s foundation, president of the Food Bank of North Carolina and trustee for Saint Mary’s College.
Gardner, Global Leadership Award winner, is the founder and principal in Fulcrum Ventures LLC, a venture development firm focused on early-stage information technology, biotechnology and health-care companies in the Southeast United States. Previously, he founded and was Chief Executive Office of OnTarget Inc., which grew from a start-up to more than $75 million in revenue before being acquired by Siebel Systems in 2000.
As a recognized leader on sales force issues, Gardner has written articles in industry publications, co-written research papers and developed several training programs, including "Target Account Selling," "Selling to Senior Executives" and "Managing Strategic Relationships."
Gardner is a founding board member of Chatham Capital and current advisory board member of Bandwidth.com and Marketing Central, among others. A 1977 UNC graduate, Gardner serves on UNC-Chapel Hill advisory boards including the Kenan Institute Asia, the Office of Technology Development and International Affairs, which he chairs. Gardner is also on the steering committee for the Carolina First Capital Campaign.
Jernigan will be presented with the Outstanding Young Alumni Award. At age 25, he is the founding principal of KIPP WAYS (West Atlanta Young Scholars) Academy, a college preparatory public charter middle school.
A native of Elizabeth City, N.C., Jernigan was a Morehead Scholar at UNC and participated in the Summerbridge Houston program, through which he taught and mentored inner-city youth. As a student in the BSBA program, his senior honors thesis on corporate America’s role in urban education reform earned the 2000 Wachovia Award for the Best Business Honors Thesis.
After graduating in 2000, Jernigan joined the Teach for America program and taught third grade in Atlanta. Although his two years of teaching were so outstanding that he and his students were honored with a visit from First Lady Laura Bush, Jernigan felt compelled to do more. KIPP WAYS is now up and running with 82 fifth-graders and eight staff members.
Ellis, who received her BSBA in 1983, will be honored with the MAC Alumni Merit Award. Ellis leads Deloitte & Touche’s Global Employment and Individual Solutions practice for the Southeast and is lead tax partner on many multi-national clients. She has been named one of the Top 25 Women in Business and received the 40 Under 40 award for her professional and community accomplishments.
As one of only two female partners among the Big Four professional services firms in the Triangle, Ellis is committed to helping advance the careers of other female professionals. She serves as national tax partner in charge of Deloitte’s highly successful Women’s Initiative Program and was founding chair of the Triangle Executive Women’s Forum.
Speh, a 1991 graduate of the EMBA program, is this year’s EMBA Alumni Merit Award winner. A year after completing his EMBA, Speh co-founded Resource Solutions Inc. (RSI), a specialty clinical research organization providing services to pharmaceutical and device companies throughout North America. Since selling RSI to the Constella Group in 2003, he is acting president of Constella Clinical Informatics.
Speh began his career as a foreign service officer with the Department of State in Washington, D.C., where he helped automate embassies and consulates around the world. He then served as senior manager and marketing manager for the Washington, D.C., consulting practice of Deloitte Haskins & Sells (currently, Deloitte & Touche), and later as vice president and chief financial officer of Clintrials Research Inc.
York, a 1968 MBA graduate will receive the MBA Alumni Merit Award to honor his achievements in real estate and construction. York is president of York Properties Inc. and board chairman of the related companies, York Simpson Underwood and McDonald-York Construction. He serves on the board of directors and executive committee of the Research Triangle Park Foundation, the Triangle United Way (campaign chairman) and the YMCA of the Triangle. He also is on the board of SCANA, a major public corporation.
York received an Army commendation medal in 1966 for his three years as a lieutenant in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. He was Raleigh city councilman for District E from 1977-1979 and Raleigh’s mayor from 1979-1983.
Woodbury will be honored as the BSBA Alumni Merit Award winner. Woodbury held increasingly responsible positions with Avon Products Inc. over her 20 years with the company. In 1977, she began as a general ledger accountant; when she retired in 1988, she was executive vice president for Global Business Process Redesign. She also served as Avon’s executive vice president, chief financial and administrative officer. When elected to that position in 1993, she was one of only 10 female Chief Financial Officers in the Fortune 500.
Woodbury, who earned her BSBA in 1973, returned to Chapel Hill in 1999. She is now CEO and president of The Chapel Hill Press Inc., a custom book publishing company. Woodbury also serves on the boards of directors of Radio Shack Corp., Click Commerce Inc. and Students In Free Enterprise.
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Kenan-Flagler contacts: Amy Scerba, (919) 962-3111, Amy_Scerba@unc.edu, Kim Weaver Spurr, (919) 962-8951, spurrk@unc.edu