In other news: July 2024

Welcome aboard

Shawn Gavin, a fundraising and development professional with 25 years of experience working within top academic institutions and nonprofit organizations, is UNC Kenan-Flagler’s new associate dean for advancement, effective July 22, 2024.

Gavin had served as Cornell Law School’s associate dean of alumni affairs and development since 2017, overseeing five of the school’s top fundraising years in its history. He previously held director of development positions at Northwestern University’s Pritzker School of Law and its School of Education and Social Policy, and for Voices for Illinois Children.

He began his career as a fundraising and management consultant for Chicago-based Alford Group, working with more than 60 nonprofit organizations. He earned an MBA from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management and a bachelor’s degree in political science from Kalamazoo College.

“His broad and deep fundraising experience at top professional schools is wonderful preparation for his role here,” Dean Mary Margaret Frank (BSBA ’92, MAC ’92, PhD ’99) said in an email announcing Gavin’s appointment. “His collaborative approach to building meaningful relationships across the School and University and with key stakeholders makes him the right person for this role.

“He looks forward to working with our talented and successful advancement team to set a shared vision and strategy, and to contributing to our mission to develop leaders who make the world a better place.”

Professor Mike Christian

More leadership news

• Professor Mike Christian is the new associate dean of the PhD Program. He succeeds Professor Paige Ouimet, who served as associate dean since July 2022 before being named executive director of the Kenan Institute of Private Enterprise. Christian has long worked closely with PhD students as the area chair for organizational behavior.
•  Tammy Samuels was named associate dean of talent and administration. She had served as executive director of career and leadership for MBA and Alumni programs since 2019.
• Lauren Willets was named director of the Kenan Institute’s Family Enterprise Center. She joined the Family Enterprise Center in 2016 and served as its associate director since 2022.

Thought leaders

• Professor Anusha Chari was selected to serve as a senior economist on the President’s Council of Economic Advisers. She will provide analyses of economic trends and on a range of policy issues.
• Professor Christian Lundblad talked to Institutional Investor about his research on flawed data dictating investor understanding of hedge funds.
• Professor Jeff Hoopes was among the panelists discussing domestic corporate tax policy at the Tax Foundation’s annual conference on Capitol Hill.
• Roy O. Rodwell Distinguished Professor of Marketing Barry Bayus and his co-authors received the Christer Karlsson Best Paper Award at the 2024 Innovation and Product Development Management Conference. “Creative Revision: Self-Elaborate or Delegate Your Idea?” was among 140 papers presented at the conference.
• Joseph Barrett, associate director of the UNC Center for the Business of Health, and Jonathan Lee (BSBA ’24) explore the impact of AI integration on the healthcare workforce.
• Professor Marie Mitchell was named chair-elect of the Academy of Management organizational behavior division program.
• Professor Kimberley Williams received a UNC Center for Faculty Excellence CFE/Lenovo Instructional Innovation Grant.
• Professor Alison Fragale was featured on an episode of Esade Careers’ podcast Career Beats, discussing the transformational power of negotiation skills.

Standout students and alumni

• Hillary Salo (BSBA ’02, MAC ’03) is serving as vice chair of the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB), its board of trustees the Financial Accounting Foundation’s board of trustees announced. “The board of trustees is pleased to have Hillary bring her deep knowledge of accounting and her leadership skills to the FASB as the vice chair, and we are confident she will continue to represent the very best of our organization in the years ahead,” Financial Accounting Foundation Chair Edward C. Bernard said.
• Flash-frozen produce company Seal the Seasons, co-founded by COO Alex Piasecki (BSBA ’15), was named the No. 1 locally grown food brand in the U.S., with products available at 6,000 retailers across 36 states.
• Jessica Fraser (MBA ’13) was named senior vice president of industrial development at Trammell Crow Company. She will lead real estate developer’s industrial projects throughout the New York City metro area.
• Alan Brandon (MAC ’22) was one of 40 out of more than 86,000 candidates honored with the prestigious Elijah Warr Sells Award from the American Institute of CPAs (AICPA). The award is given annually to CPA candidates with exceptional Uniform CPA Exam scores.
• Four undergraduates were among 19 UNC students chosen as Phillips Ambassadors, earning scholarships for study-abroad programs in Asia in the summer and fall. This year’s class includes Makayla Dawson (BSBA ’25), Matthew Klein (BSBA ‘25), Ava Moss (BSBA ’26) and Gavin Scott (BSBA ’26).
  

  The affordable housing project student team with Professor Eric Maribojoc (far right)

• Teams of students in Professor Eric Maribojoc’s Affordable Housing Practicum class worked as consultants for affordable housing organizations and developers. The group took on a project to transform a property owned by UNC into affordable housing.
• Oliver Cross (MBA ’10) was named Registered Investment Advisor (RIA) of the Year at Verum Partners. The RIA Intel Awards honors excellence in the asset management industry.
• Selden Baldwin (BSBA ’25), Spencer Sabatino (BSBA ’25), Christina Steiner (BSBA ’26) and Peyton Youth (BSBA ’26) won first place at the International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC) and UNC Retail Real Estate Case Competition at the ICSC’s annual conference in Las Vegas. The team topped 14 other university teams from across the U.S. in the second year of the competition, a partnership between the ICSC and the UNC Wood Center for Real Estate Studies.
• Four alumni were among the Charlotte Business Journal’s 40 Under 40 Awards Class of 2024: Zachary Huneycutt (BSBA ’06), Faisal Lakhany (BSBA ’11), Ben Lassiter (BSBA ’07, MAC ’08) and David Nelson (MBA ’25).
• Oliver Pau (BSBA ’92, MPH ’98, MBA ’06) talked with 97.9 The Hill about the business journey of  Dojo Fresh, the plant-based food business he founded in 2020 with support from an Orange County Economic Development grant.
• Erik Severinghaus (BSBA ’04), co-CEO and co-founder of Bloomfilter, was featured on an episode of the Conscious Entrepreneur podcast discussing the “dangers of quick success and the pitfalls of overconfidence” glorified by toxic hustle culture.
• Dan August (MBA ’14), executive vice president of consumer revenue and strategy for the Los Angeles Rams, was honored as a member of Sports Business Journal’s annual Forty Under 40 list.
• George Felix (MBA ’09), chief marketing officer of Chili’s Grill and Bar, was named to Nation’s Restaurant News 2024 Power List.

Alice Clifford

Spotted on social

• Sometimes, the bravest people come in the smallest packages. In a LinkedIn post, Landon Clifford (MBA ’25) shared how proud his family is of his daughter, Alice (right), a cancer survivor, for leading the family’s annual lemonade stands to raise money for Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation for Childhood Cancer. “Alice’s resilience and determination inspire us every day, and her commitment to giving back to the community is truly heartwarming,” he wrote.
• The Wood Center for Real Estate Studies shared a behind-the-scenes video from April’s annual UNC Real Estate Conference and its value for students and alums.
• UNC Football Coach Mack Brown thanked Professor Margot Howard for leading a tax seminar for the team.
• Risa Mori (MBA ’23) reconnected with fellow alums at the Forté Foundation’s inaugural MBA Women’s Leadership Conference — Alumni Track.
• Speaking of reconnections, Kane Nakamura (MBA ’08) shared a photo of his reunion with classmate Hirohisa Onome (MBA ’08) in Nagoya, Japan. “We shared with each other what we learned at UNC Kenan-Flagler and how it has impacted our life and work.”
• PMC Commercial Interiors provided insight into the design of the Charlotte Executive MBA Program’s home at Legacy Union.
• The MAC Program shared photos from its orientation and leadership immersion week, welcoming its new classes of online and on-campus students.