JMU - Executive Advisory Council
Executive Advisory Council
Mission, Goals and Functions
The College of Business Executive Advisory Council was formed in 1985 to enhance the liaison between the JMU College of Business and the business community. The council provides advice to the dean and faculty and assists the college in advancing its overall commitment to excellence.
The objectives of the council are:
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provide advice and counsel to the dean, faculty and students to assist the college in relating its programs and curriculum to the changing needs of business and society;
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participate in the strategic planning process and development of programs to ensure the accomplishment of objectives;
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provide advice and assistance to the dean and faculty on matters related to faculty development;
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support such programs as the Executive Speakers Forum, Executive-in-Residence, and seminars/conferences sponsored by the Center for Professional Development;
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assist the college and the career services office at JMU to create internships and employment opportunities for students;
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assist the college and JMU in identifying and cultivating potential financial supporters;
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make a personal/corporate financial commitment to JMU; and
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engage in other activities proposed and approved by the council.
The council consists of high-level executives, selected for their exceptional stature in the business community and their commitment to JMU. The group meets twice each year, fall and spring. A number of JMU faculty and staff members work with the executives in council functions.
The contributions provided by this talented group of business leaders have been crucial to the development of the College of Business. The council has played a significant role in formulating the college's strategic plans. Council members took the leadership role in planning, conducting and successfully implementing the College of Business Corporate Recruiters Chamber. The council has also supported faculty development through financial support of summer research grants and faculty excellence awards.
Members of the Executive Advisory Council
Jarl Bliss, EAC Vice Chair, Senior Vice President & Partner, Lincoln Military Housing
Steven Boehm, EAC Treasurer, Director, Global Product Management & Innovation, First Data Corporation
Kimberly Bram, Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary, Southern States Cooperative
Courtney Bromley, Vice President, Homeland Security and Law Enforcement, IBM
Michael A. Brown, Managing Director, Senior Relationship Management, Morgan Stanley
Kathryn Byrne, Partner, International Services, WeiserMazars LLP
Jeff Carlton, Senior Vice President, Investments, UBS Financial Services
Tom Carr, Vice President of Sales, SyCom Technologies
Lynne Chamberlain-O'Neill, Vice President of Business Development, RedHat
Bill Corey, Office Managing Partner, PricewaterhouseCoopers
Nora Crouch, Chief Accounting Officer & Controller, Markel Corporation
Enrico S. Gaglioti, Partner, GoldmanSachs & Company
Jason Glass, Principal, Summit Partners
G. J. Hart, Executive Chairman, CEO and President, California Pizza Kitchen
Maribeth Herod, EAC Chair, SVP, Quality Control, Legacy Asset Services, Bank of America
Brian Hogan, President, Equity and High Yield Div., Fidelity Management & Research
Paul Holland, General Partner, Foundation Capital
David Kay, Chief Investment Officer & Chief Financial Officer, Capital Automotive Real Estate Service, Inc.
Eric Major, President & CEO, K2M
Amy Michtich, Vice President Brewery Operations, MillerCoors LLC
Jennifer Morgan, President, SAP Public Services, Inc.
Michael Rebibo, President, CEO & Founder, 1st Portfolio Inc.
Michael Ross, Global Head of Human Resources, Visa, Inc.
Phil Salopek, Senior Vice President & Chief Financial Officer, Notable Solutions, Inc.
Sean Tobin, Managing Director, Institutional Client Group, Deutsche Bank Securities Inc.
Lewis Waters, Founder, CFO & COO, Celerity IT LLC.
Executive Advisory Council Member Biographies
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Senior Vice President and Partner, Lincoln Military Housing
Since joining Lincoln Property Company in 1987, Jarl has been involved in many facets of Lincoln's business. Mr. Bliss has worked in a variety of positions for Lincoln in his twenty plus years - including development, construction, finance and now military housing. He has been personally involved in the development of over $3 billion of commercial real estate.
In his finance role, Mr. Bliss oversaw all interim and permanent financing for the Mid-Atlantic / Northeast region. During the course of Jarl's Lincoln career he has also had the responsibility of heading up Lincoln's property management operations for the East Coast (Boston to Miami). In this role he supervised a team that managed over 25,000 units for over 40 different institutional clients. Mr. Bliss then supervised all development activities for the Mid-Atlantic / Northeast region where his duties included all aspects of development supervision from land acquisition, design, construction.
Jarl now oversees the Lincoln Military Housing operations. LMH comprises almost 30,000 military homes in bases from coast-to-coast for the Army, Navy and the Marines.
Prior to joining Lincoln, Jarl was a senior auditor for Arthur Andersen & Co. specializing in Real Estate and Financial Services. Jarl is a graduate of James Madison University, where he earned a Bachelor of Business Administration with a concentration in Accounting and is a Certified Public Accountant in the Commonwealth of Virginia.
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Steve Boehm
Senior Vice President, Global Customer Services, eBay
Steve Boehm serves as Senior Vice President of Global Customer Services for eBay. In this capacity, he is responsible for worldwide buyer and seller service management, continuous improvement, and billing and payment services. He has worked in payments, contact centers, technology and financial services for more than 25 years. He came to eBay from First Data Corporation, where he led a global team responsible for product management, product development and product innovation. He is a member of eBay’s executive leadership team.
Previously, Boehm served in a variety of senior leadership positions at Wachovia Corporation, including President of Card and Payment Solutions, and General Manager for Wachovia Direct Access, where he helped lead a dramatic turnaround of that company’s customer service capability and reputation. Wachovia became widely recognized for consistently providing the best customer service offered in the industry, consistently ranking as the top service company for eight years running. He also held various senior leadership roles at Visa Inc.
Boehm is married and has three sons. He has a BBA in Management from James Madison University and an MBA in Information Systems from George Mason University.
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Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary, Southern States Cooperative
Kimberly G. Bram serves as Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary of Southern States Cooperative, Incorporated, one of the leading suppliers of agricultural products and services east of the Mississippi River. Ms. Bram first joined Southern States in 1987 as Legal Counsel.
She served for 14 years in various roles, including Assistant General Counsel and Vice President of Environmental Compliance and Real Estate before returning in 2007 as Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary. Ms. Bram earned a BBA in Marketing and Management from James Madison University and a J.D. from the University of Richmond School of Law. Prior to rejoining Southern States, she served as General Counsel of FirstSTREET, a direct marketing/catalog company.
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Courtney Bromley
Vice President, Homeland Security and Law Enforcement, IBM
Courtney has been with IBM for 22 years serving federal, state, and local government agencies. In her current role, she manages a team dedicated to serving the US Federal Departments of Homeland Security, Justice, State, US Courts, and USAID. Her business unit is responsible for IBM’s cross brand execution with DHS and Federal Law Enforcement community, including all IBM lines of business — hardware, software, and services. She was promoted to IBM vice president in June 2005 and to her current position in 2008.
One of Courtney’s prior IBM positions was the client executive for the U.S. Departments of Transportation and Agriculture. In this capacity, she was IBM’s lead executive for the Department of Transportation during and after the tragedy of September 11, 2001. During that time, she was involved in working with the Transportation Security Administration as that agency was started under DOT in reaction to the 9/11 events.
Courtney has held multiple positions during her IBM career. She was previously responsible for IBM’s hardware sales to all U.S. Federal civilian agencies. She managed the merger and acquisition of Sequent Federal into the IBM Federal line of business. During the mid-90s Courtney managed the IBM Public Sector Organization’s State and Local Software team, responsible for all IBM software sales and delivery to IBM’s state and local customer set nationwide.
Courtney is a graduate of James Madison University, holding a B.B.A. degree in finance. She is one of the two IBM principal members of the Homeland Security and Defense Business Council. She is active in community activities, including work with the National Kidney Foundation and the NFL Players Association and serves on the Board of Directors of Special Olympics D.C. She has served on the executive committee and as the auction chair for the NKF’s Annual Kidney Ball. She has been on the Executive Host Committee for the NFL Players Gala featuring the J.B. Awards, and was the chair for the event for the last three years.
She, her husband and two sons live in Potomac, Maryland.
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Managing Director, Senior Relationship Management, Morgan Stanley
Mike is a member of Morgan Stanley's Senior Relationship Management team. The team covers executives of the firm's largest clients for Equities, Fixed Income and Investment Banking. Mike's 18-year career at Morgan Stanley has included several leadership and management roles within trading, sales and capital markets. In these roles, he has transacted in a total of over $500 billion of securitized products, which include residential/commercial mortgages and asset-backed securities.
Mike received a B.B.A. in C.I.S. at James Madison University in 1989 and an M.B.A. in finance at the Fuqua School of Business at Duke University in 1994.
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Kathryn Byrne
Partner, International Services, WeiserMazars LLP
Kathryn has more than 20 years of experience in providing accounting, auditing, tax, and consulting services to domestic and foreign corporations in various industries. Her expertise includes specializing in the audit of public companies, operational reviews of company processes, inventory management, and forecasting and strategic planning. She has extensive industry-specific experience providing accounting services to companies in the software/technology, distribution, manufacturing, telecommunication, import/export, automotive, paper, and cosmetic industries, as well as service companies.
Kathryn completed her undergraduate studies at James Madison University, earning a B.B.A. in accounting and finance. Kathryn is the North American Chair of Praxity, which is a unique global alliance of independent accounting firms with offices in 65 countries, and a member of its membership committee.
Kathryn is a member of the New York State Society of Certified Public Accountants, the Pennsylvania Institute of Certified Public Accountants and the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants. Kathryn is a member of the Board of Directors of Signature Bank and Chair of the Examination Committee. Kathryn is the chairperson of the 2011 AICPA International Business Conference. She is also a member of the Women’s Corporate Directors group and the James Madison University College of Business Executive Advisory Council. In addition, Kathryn is a board member of IFAC Compliance Advisory Panel. She is a former member of the Quality Peer Review Subcommittee of the IFAC Forum of Firms.
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W. Jeffrey Carlton
Senior Vice President, Investments, UBS Financial Services
Occupation: Senior Vice President — Investments
UBS Institutional Consultant
UBS Financial Services, Inc., Vienna, Va.
Education: B.S., Management and Marketing, James Madison University
Certified Investment Management Analyst (CIMA®), The
Wharton School of Business, University of Pennsylvania
Current Affiliations:
- Co-Founder, James Madison University, College of Business NOVA Alumni Group
- Board Member, James Madison University College of Business's Executive Advisor Council
- Trustee, George Mason University Foundation, Inc.
- Chairperson, Investment Committee, George Mason University Foundation, Inc.
- Member, Investment Management Consultant’s Association
- Member, International Council of Shopping Centers
Previous Affiliations:
- Board Member, The Langley School Board of Trustees
- Chairperson, Finance Committee, The Langley School
- Member, Association of Professional Investment Consultants
- Member, The Optimist Club of Tysons Corner/McLean
- Member, Fairfax County Chamber of Commerce
- Member, National Association of Stock Plan Professionals
- Limited Partner, JK III Inc., and JK III LLC
- Board Member, Medical Care for Children Partnership/Fairfax County Office of Public/Private Partnerships
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Tom Carr
Vice President of Sales, SyCom Technologies
Tom Carr is vice president of emerging markets at SyCom Technologies. He is focused on solution development and sales for vertical markets, data center solutions, managed services and customer briefings. Tom also serves as a partner and member of the executive team.
During his 20-year career, Tom’s primary focus has involved vertical markets including healthcare, assisted living, legal, retail and public sector. Tom held a number of sales and sales management positions at Gambro Healthcare and then spent nine years at Cisco Systems, where he was a Major Account Manager of the Year and Business Development Manager for the Healthcare Vertical Sector. In 1998, as Cisco’s second healthcare sales manager, he worked solely with the hospital environment and his efforts led to several healthcare best practices being published by Cisco.
In 2007, Tom joined Packet360 as Director of Sales and developed the sales consulting group specializing in vertical markets and advanced technologies. Packet360 was recognized as the 164th fastest growing company in the United States by Inc. Magazine during his tenure.
Tom received the James Madison University Inez Graybeal Roop Distinguished Alumni Service Award in 2003.
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Vice President of Business Development, Red Hat
As Vice President of Business Development, Public Sector, Lynne Chamberlain-O’Neill brings to Red Hat more than 20 years of diverse technical experience as a Sales Executive in companies such as UNISYS, Network Appliance, Inc., Silicon Graphics, Inc., and Digital Equipment Corporation. Lynne leads a team of Business Development Directors, System Architects, and Consultants to win Government System Integrator Contracts, Awards, and Infrastructure business.
Prior to joining Red Hat, Lynne held the position of Vice President and General Manager, Federal Systems and Technology Business Unit, at UNISYS Corporation . She led the growth, margin and profitability of high performance enterprise solutions and services to the Federal Government with responsibility for $280M annually and 500 personnel in her Sector. Prior to UNISYS, Lynne was Director, Federal Division, and Homeland Security at Network Appliance where she grew Federal business sector 100% year over year for 4 consecutive years. Lynne also led teams of Sales and Business Development leaders both at SGI, and Digital Equipment Corporation where she was named as Executive of the Year during her tenures.
Lynne holds a Masters Degree in Marketing and Finance from James Madison University. She has taught and lectured extensively at George Washington University, Montgomery College, and James Madison University. Lynne is a Board member of TechAmerica.
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Nora Crouch
Chief Accounting Officer & Controller, Markel Corporation
Nora N. Crouch serves as Controller and Chief Accounting Officer for Markel Corporation, a diverse financial holding company that markets and underwrites specialty insurance products on a global basis. She joined the company in 2000 having held various roles in accounting and finance for publicly-held companies in the Richmond, VA area since her graduation with a B.B.A. in Accounting from James Madison University in 1982.
In her current role, Nora has responsibility for SEC and regulatory reporting, tax compliance and planning and operational accounting and reporting for the company’s insurance and non-insurance businesses. Nora is a certified public accountant as well as a chartered property and casualty underwriter. She is married to Stephen G. Crouch, James Madison University College of Business Class of 1980, and they have one son.
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Managing Director, Securities Division, GoldmanSachs & Company
Enrico is a partner of Goldman Sachs and is the head of equity sales in North America for the firm. He serves on the Firmwide Suitability Committee and the Securities Division US Operating Committee. Enrico joined Goldman Sachs in 1998 in New York. He was named managing director in 2001 and partner in 2002.
Enrico is a member of the Board of Trustees of Don Bosco Prep and the Foundation for Newark’s Future, the Board of Directors of the U.S. Soccer Foundation and the Advisory Council of James Madison University’s College of Business. Prior to joining the firm, Enrico worked at Salomon Smith Barney.
Enrico earned his B.B.A. from James Madison University College of Business in 1994.
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Principal, Summit Partners
Jason Glass is a Principal in the Boston office of Summit Partners where he focuses on private equity investments in growing, profitable companies, with a special emphasis on technology and software opportunities. Previously, Jason was an investment professional at General Catalyst Partners. Prior to that, he worked in marketing and the Office of the Chairman on corporate development and strategy at America Online and in investment banking at Deutsche Banc Alex Brown where he focused on energy.
His board directorships and investments include Focus Financial Partners, Nomacorc, PeopleAdmin and Zenith RMM.
Jason received a B.B.A, summa cum laude, at James Madison University and an M.B.A., with distinction, from the Harvard Business School. Jason is a Chartered Financial Analyst.
Summit Partners is a growth equity investor for exceptional companies. In the 25 years since the firm was founded, Summit has raised more than $11 billion in capital and has provided growth equity, recapitalization, and management buyout financing to more than 300 growing companies across a range of industries. These companies have completed nearly 125 public offerings, and more than 110 have been acquired through strategic mergers and sales. Summit Partners has offices in Boston, Palo Alto and London
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Executive Chairman, CEO and President, California Pizza Kitchen
G.J. Hart is Executive Chairman, CEO and President of California Pizza Kitchen, which was founded in 1985 and currently has 235 restaurants in 11 countries. G.J. is the former President and CEO of the Louisville-based Texas Roadhouse restaurants. Founded in 1993, Texas Roadhouse has grown to more than 350 restaurants in 46 states and two countries.
Under G.J.’s leadership, revenues have increased from approximately $63 million in 1999 to more than $1 billion in 2010. In 2004, G.J. led the $600-million initial-public-offering of the company’s stock, which trades on the NASDAQ under the symbol TXRH.
In 2006, readers of Consumer Reports magazine voted Texas Roadhouse as the top concept in the Pub/Grill category, and the company was given the prestigious Golden Chain Award in 2006 by Nation’s Restaurant News. Forbes magazine ranked the company as one of the 200 Best Small Companies in 2007 and 2008, and the magazine named Texas Roadhouse one of the Top 10 Fastest Growing Retailers in 2010.
Under G.J.’s guidance, Texas Roadhouse has also won numerous awards for its unique culture. In 2011, the company was named Top Workplace by the Louisville Courier-Journal. The company was also recognized by Business First in 2010 as the Large Business of the Year. In addition, O.C. Tanner presented Texas Roadhouse the prestigious Carrot Culture Award for 2009 for its culture of employee recognition and engagement. Texas Roadhouse was selected from more than 5,000 entries.
In 2009, G.J. appeared on CNBC to defend incentive meetings and employee recognition programs utilized by Texas roadhouse and other companies. The appearance was in the wake of the revelation that AIG spent government money on lavish meetings. G.J.'s appearance helped stem the tide of negative publicity for the industry and led to a host of awards from the travel industry, including the President’s Award from the Incentive Marketing Association and an award from the Professional Convention Management Association.
Additional awards for G.J. include being named 2010 Restaurateur of the Year by Kentucky Restaurant Association, and the 2009 Person of Vision by Prevent Blindness Kentucky. G.J. was also recognized as one of the best CEOs for investor relations by IR Magazine in 2011.
In 2000, G.J. created Andy’s Outreach, which is an internal outreach fund that assists Texas Roadhouse employees. In 2009, Texas Roadhouse opened a restaurant in Logan, Utah, that donates 100% of the profits to Andy’s Outreach. To date, Andy’s Outreach has assisted more than 2,500 Texas Roadhouse employees and their families.
The son of a retired police officer, G.J. is passionate about supporting police officers across the nation. In 2006, G.J. and other community leaders, created the Louisville Metro Police Foundation, which is non-partisan partnership between the men and women of the Louisville Metro Police Department and the community. As a result, G.J. was recognized by the Kentucky Women’s Law Enforcement Network recently for his support of police officers in the Commonwealth.
Prior to joining Texas Roadhouse in 2000, G.J. was President of Al Copeland Investments, a multi-faceted organization comprised of three food processing plants, four restaurant concepts, hotels, gaming, entertainment, and comedy clubs. As President of ACI, G.J. increased the restaurant division from nine stores to 60, spearheaded the acquisition of the Improv Comedy Club, and increased the annual earnings sevenfold and revenue by 100%.
G.J. began his career at Shenandoah Valley Poultry Company, where he climbed from trainee to general manager and minority owner of the company in just eight years. In his next position, as President of New Zealand Lamb Company, he increased revenue by 60% while decreasing operating expenses 65%. After New Zealand Lamb Company, G.J. took over as President of Trifoods International, a start-up company that created, produced, and marketed innovative, prepared food products. In just four years, the company’s revenue increased to more than $60 million.
G.J. is active in many charities, including, Special Olympics Kentucky, Habitat for Humanity, United Way, American Red Cross, Voluteers of America, the Louisville Metro Police foundation and Kids Kicking Cancer. He is also is a Regional Director for Make-A-Wish Foundation.
G.J.’s advisory board memberships include: Bellarmine University- Trustee, Advisory Board at James Madison University Business School, Kosair Children's Hospital Foundation Board of Trustees Old National Bank — Louisville Region, Louisville Metro Police foundation, Thornton Oil, and University of Louisville’s College of Business and Public Administration. G.J. is also an active member of the Young Presidents Organization.
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Maribeth Herod
EAC Chair, SVP, Quality Control, Legacy Asset Services, Bank of America
Maribeth joined Bank of America in June of 2011. She is responsible for the Quality Control Reporting and Analytics function for the Legacy Asset Servicing division.
Prior to joining the bank, Maribeth served as Vice President of Enterprise Programs at Freddie Mac in McLean, VA. In this role, she operated as COO establishing Freddie Mac’s unique response to President Obama’s Making Home Affordable Program. Her responsibilities included, but not limited to, the design and implementation of the Quality Assurance Program over the IT system development lifecycle; the development, implementation, and maintenance of the comprehensive information architecture for Freddie Mac’s finance division; in addition to the responsibilities of high priority deliverables through project management, business engineering, and data and rules management for transformation initiatives. Just a few of Maribeth’s accomplishments at Freddie Mac included resolution of material weaknesses and rationalization of the controls framework for the IT organization as well as designing and implementing the Portfolio Management function and governance for an annual $300 million investment portfolio.
Prior to joining Freddie Mac, Maribeth was a partner with Andersen in their Business Consulting practice where she served a host of communication and financial service clients providing solutions to billing, procurement, and back office challenges. Some of her major accomplishments included: defining shared service opportunities for a multi-billion dollar media company; supporting a five year advertising and marketing strategy and roadmap for the development of a technology solution to achieve the company’s strategic vision; and defining an OSS/BSS strategy in support of several emerging communication service providers.
The remainder of Maribeth’s career has been spent operating between internal management and technology related roles for Fortune 500 companies as well as global consulting firms, both high end and start up. Maribeth’s professional experience has led her to an experienced knowledge base in both the Financial Services and Communication industries.
Maribeth graduated from James Madison University with a B.B.A., double majoring in management and MIS.
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General Partner, Foundation Capital, Menlo Park, Calif.
Paul's primary focus is on helping early-stage start-ups go from zero to $100M in revenue. He helped take public two venture-funded software start-ups, Kana Communications, and Pure Software. Paul currently serves on the board of directors for CalStar Products, Chegg, Coverity, Inside View, MobileIron, and Serious Materials ; and previously for Talking Blocks (acquired by Hewlett-Packard), RouteScience (acquired by Avaya), TuVox (acquired by West) and Ketera (acquired by Rearden Commerce).
Prior to joining Foundation Capital, was senior vice president of worldwide sales at Kana Communications, a leading supplier of Enterprise Relationship Management solutions to strategic e-businesses. Paul went on to build a team of over 350 people that secured more than 900 customers worldwide, helping Kana become one of the top ten IPOs of 1999. Before Kana, Paul was a vice president and general manager for another highly successful start-up, Pure Software, helping raise their market value from $2 million to over $1 billion in his five-year tenure there. He began his professional career at SRI International (formerly the Stanford Research Institute).
Paul enjoys spending time with his wife Linda Yates, and their three daughters, Kylie, Devon, and Piper. In his spare time he enjoys golf, volleyball, poker, traveling (he has visited over 50 countries to date), and is building a LEED Platinum home in Portola Valley. Paul has been guest lecturer on entrepreneurship at Dartmouth's Amos Tuck School of Business, Harvard Business School, James Madison University, and the Stanford Graduate School of Engineering. He is an active advisor and supporter of Project BUILD in East Palo Alto, the Bing School at Stanford and Sustainable Silicon Valley. He is the executive producer of a critically acclaimed documentary on the origins of the venture capital industry called Something Ventured, and is the past president of the Western Association of Venture Capital.
Paul received an M.B.A. from the University of California at Berkeley; an M.A. in Foreign Affairs from the University of Virginia; and a B.S. from James Madison University.
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David Kay
Chief Investment Officer & Chief Financial Officer, Capital Automotive Real Estate Service, Inc.
David is one of the founders of Capital Automotive and is the company's chief investment officer and chief financial officer. Capital Automotive is the nation’s leading specialty finance company for automotive retail real estate. Under David's direction, Capital Automotive completed its initial public offering in 1998 raising $370 million and completed nearly $3 billion of real estate acquisitions in the following seven years. During 2004, David completed a restructuring of the company’s balance sheet in excess of $1 billion and received investment grade ratings from Moody’s Investor Service and Standard & Poor’s. In December 2005, David led the Company through the largest REIT privatization totaling nearly $4 billion. In 2009 and 2011, he oversaw two restructurings totaling approximately $3.7 billion of the company’s debt. Capital Automotive continues to flourish as a private entity under the same management. David was named the Greater Washington Entrepreneur of the Year® by Ernst and Young, and was also named a National Finalist from over 400 regional award recipients in the 2003 competition.
Prior to forming Capital Automotive in 1997, David was employed by the public accounting firm of Arthur Andersen LLP in Washington, D.C. for approximately 10 years. While at Arthur Andersen LLP, David provided clients with consultation regarding mergers and acquisitions, business planning and strategy, and equity financing. He also has many years of experience in capital formation projects, roll-up transactions, and initial public offerings for companies across the nation. David is a member of the Board of Summit Hotel Properties, Inc., a premium-branded limited-service and select-service hotel investment company. He is also a member of the Executive Advisory Board for the College of Business at James Madison University. David is also very active in many charitable foundations and organizations.
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President, CEO, Co-Founder, K2M, Inc.
Eric Major is the President, CEO and Co-Founder of K2M, Inc., a fast growing global medical device company focused on developing innovative surgical solutions for the most complex spinal pathologies. Eric was previously the President and CEO of American OsteoMedix, Inc., a minimally invasive spinal device company that was acquired by Interpore International in 2001. Eric served as President of the Minimally Invasive Division of Interpore International until 2002. In 2009 Eric received the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year® Award for Emerging Technologies in the Greater Washington region.
Eric has 15 years of experience in the spine industry. Prior to founding American OsteoMedix he served in several sales/marketing, strategic and product development capacities with various spinal companies including Acromed Spine (now a Johnson & Johnson company) and Synthes Spine, Inc. Eric holds a B.S. degree from James Madison University. He lives in Purcellville, Va. with his wife and 2 daughters.
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Amy Michtich
Brewery Vice President, MillerCoors
Amy J. Michtich is the Brewery Vice President and Plant Manager of the MillerCoors – Shenandoah Brewery located in Rockingham County, Virginia. In this role she is responsible for managing the strategic operations of an 8.2 million barrel capacity facility, anchored by the most modern and highly automated large-scale brewery in North America. Amy resources 500+ employees on-site, along with network distributors across the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic regions of the US.
Prior to joining MillerCoors in 2007, Amy held executive and operations leadership positions across various consumer packaged goods companies such as Pepsi Bottling Group, Clorox and Lipton.
Michtich earned a bachelor of science degree from Purdue University’s School of Technology located in West Lafayette, IN.
As a working mother of two sons, Amy values education and cooperative work experience development, along with community volunteerism. As such, Amy serves on the United Way of Harrisonburg-Rockingham and Rockingham Educational Foundation, Inc. (REFI) boards of directors.
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Jennifer Morgan
President, SAP Public Services, Inc.
Jennifer is president of SAP Public Services, Inc. with responsibility for SAP’s Federal Civilian, Defense, Aerospace & Defense, State & Local and Higher Education customers.
Prior to this role, Jennifer served as vice president for the Federal Civilian division of SAP Public Services. Jennifer has more than 18 years of experience in helping to develop, sell and implement enterprise-wide solutions and has worked with most federal agencies including the United States Department of Agriculture, the Department of Homeland Security, and the U.S. Postal Service.
Prior to joining SAP, Jennifer served as Director for Siebel Systems, Federal and Homeland Security, where she helped establish the company’s Case Management solution for enforcement and benefits focused government agencies. Before that, Jennifer served as a client manager at Accenture where she primarily oversaw large ERP system modernizations. During her time at Accenture, she worked with both consumer products companies including Marriott International and National Geographic Society, as well as several government agencies.
Jennifer is a graduate of James Madison University and currently resides in Potomac Falls, Va.
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Global Head of Human Resources, Visa Inc.
Michael P. Ross is Global Head of Human Resources for Visa Inc. In this role he is responsible for managing all human resources functions in the organization, including talent management, staffing, compensation and employee relations, as well as developing effective retention, diversity and performance management strategies. Before joining Visa in January 2013, Ross was the Chief Talent and Rewards Officer for HP.
Prior to joining HP, Ross worked in Merrill Lynch’s Human Resources Division in New York and London. Additional experience includes working at Morgan Stanley as Managing Director of Compensation & Benefits and as senior consultant at The Segal Company. Ross began his career with NationsBank in Richmond, Virginia.
Ross earned a BBA in Finance from James Madison University and has an MS in International Employment Relations and Human Resource Management from the London School of Economics and Political Science.
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Senior Vice President & Chief Financial Officer, Notable Solutions, Inc.
Phil is a veteran of several Washington-area technology company successes, having previously served as the CFO at companies such as AXENT Technologies, BroadSoft and Approva. As an operationally focused CFO, during his career he has helped guide companies from startup through times of hyper-growth, including scaling revenues to over $125 million. Phil participated in AXENT’s IPO and was the CFO when the company was sold to Symantec for approximately $1 billion. He has extensive buy-side and sell-side M&A experience and has completed numerous equity and debt financings totaling tens of millions of dollars. Phil has been instrumental in driving international growth, having setup operations in more than 15 different countries and negotiating OEM agreements with two of the largest telecommunications equipment manufacturers in Europe and the largest in China.
Phil is committed to the development of youth and serves on the Board of Directors of the Maryland Chapter of Future Business Leaders of America-Phi Beta Lambda, an education association of students preparing for careers in business and business-related fields. He won the 2009 Maryland Business Person of the Year for his efforts in supporting local students
Phil previously served on the Board of Directors of Netria Systems and was a 2006 Nominee for the KPMG Greater Washington Technology Private Company CFO of the Year.
He earned a B.B.A. in finance from the James Madison University College of Business in 1992. Phil and his wife, Cindy, met as students at JMU and have two children, Scott and Caroline.
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Managing Director, Cross Rates Sales, Deutsche Bank Securities Inc.
Sean is the Director of Cross Rates Sales for Deutsche Bank's San Francisco office. In this role, he identifies and evaluates investment opportunities for large institutional clients who invest in fixed income securities. His clientele includes large money managers, corporations, insurance companies, hedge funds, and government pension and budget funds. In aggregate, his customers manage almost $2 trillion across various investment disciplines.
Sean is a specialist in sovereign and agency debt, swaps, swaptions and exotic derivatives of G-7 countries; and sometimes trades currencies as hedges to those products. He advises clients on market direction, yield curve shape, and relative value opportunities within and between markets.
Prior to joining Deutsche Bank, Sean spent 11 years at Lehman Brothers, which he joined a month after graduating from JMU. He spent three years in Lehman's New York office in the Fixed Income Department. Advancing from traders assistant to junior salesperson, Sean then moved to Lehman's San Francisco office in 1995 as a salesperson covering large institutional clients.
After 8 years of building his client base for Lehman (during which time he grew annual revenues from $2 million to $25 million), Deutsche Bank hired Sean in 2003 to grow their west coast business through those client relationships.
Outside of work, Sean is involved in various philanthropic ventures, and is on the fundraising committee of Autism Speaks, the national organization seeking a cure for autism. In addition, he serves on the James Madison University College of Business Executive Advisory Board. In 2005, Sean established the Tobin Family Endowment for JMU's College of Business in honor of his parents. Sean and his wife Michele have two young children, Delaney and David.
Sean graduated from JMU with a B.B.A. in finance with an economics minor in 1992, and is a Chartered Financial Analyst.
Lewis Waters
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Founder, CFO & COO, Celerity IT LLC.
Lewis has more than 20 years of experience providing financial, operational and management expertise to entrepreneurial companies. He has participated in the founding of two separate companies where he’s served as Chief Financial and Operating Officer.
In his current role as the C0O/CFO for Celerity—a business acceleration consultancy focused on technology, efficiency, strategy and talent—Lewis oversees the finance and accounting, human resources, marketing and IT departments. His strong commitment to the fundamentals of healthy profit margins and sound investment decisions has been a key factor in Celerity’s financial growth and stability.
An original founding partner, Lewis has guided Celerity from its formation in 2002 through growth curves to its current stature as a 600-employee, $83M company―without the aid of equity infusions. Lewis holds a similar role in Xcelerate Solutions, a spin-off of Celerity serving the Federal Government market. He continues to make critical strategic decisions for Celerity’s long-term viability and market competitiveness.
Prior to founding Celerity with his partners in 2002, Lewis was the CFO for Acuity Technology Services. He was instrumental in adding layers of increasing sophistication, responsiveness and productive capacity to Acuity’s financial and operational needs during its rapid growth and highly successful sale.
Lewis holds a B.S. in Accounting from James Madison University (’91) and an M.B.A. from Virginia Tech. He lives with his wife and three daughters in Northern Virginia.
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