News Release

Local angle: Arlington, Va.; Atlanta; Carnation, Wash.; Charlotte;
Darien, Conn.; Hillsborough; Raleigh; and Winston-Salem.

CHAPEL HILL -- The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s Kenan-Flagler Business School recently recognized the achievements of eight distinguished alumni with its sixth annual Alumni Association Awards.

Since its inception in 1999, the alumni awards program has honored those who have made outstanding contributions to UNC Kenan-Flagler, the business community and society.

The 2004 honorees include:

• Van L. Weatherspoon of Charlotte, who received the Business School Leadership Award, which recognizes an alumnus who demonstrates exceptional achievement in a career field, personal endeavor and-or service to UNC Kenan-Flagler.
  
• John G. Medlin Jr. of Winston-Salem, who received the Global Leadership Award, which honors an alumnus or friend of the school whose global participation and initiative advance the school’s education, research and public service mission.
  
• Kayrn A. Withers of Arlington, Va., who received the Outstanding Young Alumni Award, which honors an alumnus or alumna of the last decade who demonstrates leadership in career accomplishments and exceptional commitment to the school.

Five distinguished alumni received Alumni Merit Awards, given from UNC Kenan-Flagler’s degree programs to alumni who personify the school’s tradition of excellence.

• Sanford A. Cockrell III of Darien, Conn., received the Master of Accounting Alumni Merit Award.
  
• Dr. Phail Wynn Jr. of Hillsborough received the Executive Master’s in Business Administration Alumni Merit Award.
  
•  Brent Callinicos of Carnation, Wash., received the Master’s of Business Administration Alumni Merit Award.
  
• Charles S. Ackerman of Atlanta received the Bachelor of Science in Business Administration Alumni Merit Award.
  
• Dr. Richard J. Rendleman of Raleigh received the Ph.D. Alumni Merit Award.

Weatherspoon, who received his bachelor’s degree in business administration in 1954, is president of The Weatherspoon Group Inc., a Charlotte-based commercial real estate brokerage and development firm.

Following graduation, Weatherspoon served in the U.S. Navy as an officer aboard minesweeper vessels. From 1956 to 1958, he worked in the Birmingham, Ala., office of Procter & Gamble and then spent five years at WBTV in Charlotte. In 1966, he became a partner in the real estate development firm of Masten, Faison and Weatherspoon.

Along with his wife, Kay, Weatherspoon has actively supported many UNC and UNC Kenan-Flagler programs. Weatherspoon is a member of the UNC Kenan-Flagler board of visitors and has established an endowment that annually supports outstanding faculty and staff at the school.

Medlin, who received his bachelor’s degree in business administration in 1956, is chairman emeritus of Wachovia Corp. He retired in 1993 after 17 years as chief executive officer and 34 years of active service with Wachovia.

During his tenure as chief executive, Wachovia embarked on interstate expansion by acquiring leading banks in Georgia and South Carolina, with assets growing from $3.6 billion to $36.5 billion.

Medlin received the Distinguished Citizenship Award of North Carolina Citizens for Business and Industry in 1998 and was inducted into the N.C. Business Hall of Fame in 1995. Financial World magazine selected him as the best bank chief executive officer in the nation for 1993 and as the top bank chief executive officer in the South for the 1980s. In 2002, he received American Banker’s Lifetime Achievement Award.

Withers, who received her bachelor’s degree in business administration in 1996, is director of program development for the International Justice Mission. The human rights organization investigates individual cases of abuse and oppression, primarily focusing on the issues of sex trafficking, bonded labor, unprosecuted rape, illegal land seizure and police misconduct.

Withers helps develop strategic growth plans for new and existing offices and is responsible for developing and nurturing both private and government donor relationships.

Before joining IJM in 2002, Withers was a program officer for International Relief and Development. She also previously assisted in the launch of the Girls on the Run of the Triangle, a program that uses running to teach girls ages 8 through 12 values and a sense of self.

Cockrell, who received his bachelor’s degree in business administration in 1982, is a tax partner in the New York national office of Deloitte. He is a lead partner of the firm’s Special Acquisition Services (SAS) group, made up of tax and accounting professionals in New York, San Francisco, London and Frankfurt.

The SAS group primarily serves one of the world’s leading merchant banking firms in various acquisition, disposition and restructuring transactions. Cockrell is vice chairman of the firm’s U.S. board of directors. He also serves on the board of directors of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu, the firm’s global organization. He has made numerous presentations to internal and external groups on technical tax matters related to merger and acquisition transactions.

He has been active in various community and civic activities, including serving on the council and executive committee of the University Club and as the New York area representative and second vice chairman of UNC’s General Alumni Association.

Wynn, who received his executive MBA from UNC in 1989, is the president of Durham Technical Community College. He was the first African-American community college president in the N.C. system. He has enhanced access at Durham Tech and has led the school in providing training and instruction in various high-technology areas. He was named one of the country’s outstanding community college presidents in a University of Texas national study of transformational presidents in American community colleges.

Wynn received his bachelor’s degree from the University of Oklahoma in 1969. From that time until August 1975, he was an officer in the U.S. Army, serving with the 82nd Airborne Division and U.S. Army Special Forces (Green Berets), including a one-year combat tour in Vietnam.

He received his master’s degree in educational psychology from N.C. State University in 1974 and his doctorate in 1977 from N.C. State. He has received numerous awards for his business and community achievements.

Callinicos, who received his bachelor’s degree in business administration in 1987 and his MBA in 1989, is corporate vice president of the Worldwide Licensing and Pricing group at Microsoft. He oversees the development and support of Microsoft’s licensing programs, product licensing and pricing policies.

Callinicos, a certified public accountant, previously was Microsoft’s corporate vice president and treasurer, overseeing Microsoft’s corporate assets along with the full range of its financial responsibilities and activities. He led the transformation of Microsoft’s financial risk management practices to provide a more systematic and consistent approach to risk measurement and management.

He is a member of Washington Gov. Gary Locke’s Council of Economic Advisors, a group of 12 financial officers from the state’s top employers. He was named Ernst & Young Global Risk Manager of the Year in 1998. During his tenure, Microsoft’s treasury has won numerous awards.

Ackerman, who received his bachelor’s degree in business administration in 1955, is the chairman of the board and founder of Ackerman & Co., a full-service commercial real estate company in the southeastern United States. Founded in 1967, Ackerman & Co. specializes in real estate development, project leasing and management, commercial brokerage and construction services. Ackerman also is chairman of the board and founder of Ackerman Security Systems Inc., a residential and commercial security company.

Ackerman serves on numerous boards, including the national board of governors of the American Jewish Committee, the UNC Kenan-Flagler board of visitors and the board of trustees of the Jewish Federation of Greater Atlanta. He also founded the Atlanta Real Estate Apprenticeship Program for African Americans.

He has a law degree from Emory University and a master’s degree in anthropology from Georgia State University.

Rendleman, who received his doctorate in 1976, is a finance professor at UNC Kenan-Flagler. His first published paper, co-written with his UNC mentor, Dr. Henry Latané, was the first to show that estimates of stock volatility could be implied from the prices of exchange-traded options.

During the early to mid-1980s, Rendleman, along with co-authors Latané and Charles Jones, published four papers on stock price reactions to corporate earnings surprises. These papers created the foundation for a new literature in finance and accounting now known as "post-earnings announcement drift" and also were quoted by the Wall Street Journal in an article announcing the Journal’s daily reporting of quarterly earnings surprises. The four papers and related works led to Wall Street’s sensitivity to earnings announcements over the past decade.

In another paper, Rendleman and UNC Kenan-Flagler professors Dr. Carl Ackermann and Dr. Bob Connolly are examining the statistical properties of golf scores on the PGA Tour and the extent to which luck plays a role in determining outcomes in PGA Tour events.

Rendleman also is a composer. The N.C. Symphony and S.C. Philharmonic Orchestra, as well other groups, have performed his works.

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UNC Kenan-Flagler contact: Kim Weaver Spurr, (919) 962-8951 or spurrk@unc.edu