Alex Seropian is an American game developer. His first game, Gnop!, was self-published, selling around 2,500 copies. He then formed a partnership with former classmate, Jason Jones, to publish Jones’s nearly complete Minotaur: The Labyrinths of Crete. In 1991, the two formed a partnership and founded their own video game company, Bungie, publishing Jones’s nearly complete Minotaur: The Labyrinths of Crete. Seropian served as CEO as Bungie continued to be successful and published the titles Pathways into Darkness, Marathon, and Halo, which sold over 4 million copies.

In 2002, Seropian left Bungie and two years later founded his own studio called Wide load Games. Wide load produced two games, 2005’s Stubbs the Zombie in Rebel Without a Pulse and 2008’s Hail to the Chimp. On September 8, 2009 Disney acquired Wide load. Seropian joined Disney to head its in-house game development team, Disney Interactive Studios. Yet again in 2012, Seropian left Disney and founded a studio named Industrial Toys. The company specializes in mobile games and released its first title, Midnight Star, in February 2015.

Cecil J. “Pete” Silas retired in 1994 as chairman and chief executive officer of Phillips Petroleum Company which is involved in petroleum exploration and production, refining and marketing, and in the manufacture, distribution, and export of a wide variety of chemicals. He was elected chairman and chief executive officer in 1985 after serving for three years as president and chief operating officer. He began his Phillips career in 1953 as a plastics engineer in the chemicals department and progressed through the company’s ranks during his long and distinguished career.

Mr. Silas served as a member of the Board of Trustees of the Phi Delta Theta Educational Foundation from 1995 through 2003 and was named a Trustee Emeritus in 2004. He served as chairman of “The Living Bond” campaign, the Foundation’s comprehensive $5 million capital fund-raising campaign. Silas also served as chairman of a $400 million capital campaign for his alma mater, Georgia Tech.

Silas is past chairman of the board of the American Petroleum Institute and the U. S. Chamber of Commerce. He served on the board of The Atlantic Council; the Frank Phillips Foundation; and the Reader’s Digest Lila Wallace and DeWitt Wallace Foundations. He also served as a member of the board of trustees of the Georgia Tech Foundation.

Pete and his wife, Theo, were instrumental in the creation of the the Price Tower Arts Center in Bartlesville, Oklahoma.

Silas served as chairman of the board of National Junior Achievement and is past chairman and a current member of the board of the National Boys & Girls Clubs of America. He also served on the board of directors of The Reader’s Digest Association, Inc., and Halliburton Company. In addition, Silas was a member of The Council on Foreign Relations and The Business Council.

A former member of the Phillips 66ers basketball team, Silas played on the U.S. team that won the Pan-American games at Mexico City in 1955.

In 1976, the Norwegian government awarded Mr. Silas the Royal Norwegian St. Olav’s Order in the degree of Commander, recognizing his contribution to the development of Norway’s energy and allied industries. It is one of the highest awards bestowed by Norway.

Silas was a member of the Oklahoma Hall of Fame and the State of Georgia Sports Hall of Fame. He was awarded the American Petroleum Institute Gold Medal Award in 1995. Silas held an Honorary Doctor of Laws degree from Phillips University in Enid, Oklahoma.

John Smale graduated from Miami University in 1949 and joined Proctor & Gamble in 1952. Initially working for what was then called the toilet goods division, he quickly rose through the company. He became the president in charge of all US operations in 1974 and chief executive in 1981. He added the chairmanship in 1986. Under his leadership over his 43 year career, P&G entered 23 new countries, added 15 business categories, and doubled annual sales. He enjoyed his work at P&G and the company will reap the benefits of his leadership for years.

In 1982, while he was the president and chief executive officer of P&G, Smale joined the General Motors board of directors. In 1986 he was names chairman of the board of that company and held the post until his retirement in 1990. During his time at GM, Smale made remarkable changes in leadership, in management structure, and fiscally. He served on the GM board until 2002.

Clint Smith is the co-founder and CEO of Emma®, the digital marketing service that helps nearly 50,000 organizations around the world manage their email and social marketing in style – with best-in-class products, hands-on services and advice from Emma’s team of experts.

Emma employs 100 exceptionally talented employees in its Nashville, Portland and New York offices. The company made the Inc. 5,000 list three consecutive years and was recently enshrined in the “Future 50” Hall of Fame after making the list of Nashville’s fastest growing private companies five consecutive years. Emma has also been named an Inc. Magazine “Winning Workplace” and a Nashville Business Journal “Best Place to Work.”

Prior to founding Emma, Clint worked as an editor with CitySearch.com and in product development with Smallbusiness.com.

Smith was the Chairman and CEO of General Motors Corporation from 1981 to 1990, and is widely known as the main subject of Michael Moore’s 1989 documentary film Roger & Me. Propelled by industry and market conditions, Smith oversaw some of the most fundamental changes in GM’s history.

When Smith took over GM, it was reeling from its first annual loss since the early 1920s. Its reputation had been tarnished by lawsuits, persistent quality problems, bad labor relations, public protests over the installation of Chevrolet engines in Oldsmobile’s, and by a poorly designed diesel engine. GM was also losing market share to foreign automakers for the first time. Brother Smith passed away in 2007.

Charles A. Smithgall, III was born in Atlanta, Georgia on July 19, 1942. When Charles was six years old, his family moved from Atlanta to Gainesville, Georgia where his dad started a radio station and newspaper. In 1961 Charles graduated from The Baylor School located in Chattanooga, Tennessee. After graduating from high school, Charles attended Georgia Institute of Technology, which was also his father’s alma mater. In 1965, Charles graduated from Georgia Tech with a B.S. in Industrial Management.

Before Charles’s life in franchising began, he worked in the construction business for Holder Construction until 1975, at which time he left the company to complete the program for Management Development at Harvard Business School. Charles also spent a few years in the media industry, ultimately overseeing cable TV and radio companies. In the mid-1990s, a college buddy who had become an investment banker approached him with a different kind of proposition; one in the franchise world. In 1995, Charles kick started his franchising career with one store in Louisville, KY.  Today, Charles is Chairman and CEO of SEI/Aaron’s, Inc., the largest Aaron’s multi-unit franchisee with 93 stores and annual revenue topping $135 million.

Ralph Washington Sockman was the senior pastor of Christ Church in New York City from 1916 to 1961. He gained national prominence as the featured speaker on the weekly NBC radio program, National Radio Pulpit, which aired from 1928 to 1962.

In 1961, Time reported that Sockman was generally acknowledged as the best Protestant preacher in the U.S.” He was also an esteemed author. Some of his titles include : The Paradoxes of Jesus (1936), Live for Tomorrow (1943), Date With Destiny; A Preamble To Christian Culture (1944), The Lord’s Prayer (1947), and How to Believe, Answering the Questions that Challenge Man’s Faith (1953).

David Steiner is president and chief executive officer for Waste Management. Prior to being elected president and CEO in March 2004, Mr. Steiner was Waste Management’s chief financial officer. Mr. Steiner joined Waste Management in November 2000 as vice president and deputy general counsel and was appointed senior vice president, general counsel and corporate secretary in July 2001. In April 2003, he was elected CFO. He joined WM from Phelps Dunbar, a law firm in New Orleans, Louisiana. Prior to that, he was an associate at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher in San Jose, California. Steiner currently serves as a director of Tyco Electronics Corporation and FedEx Corporation.

Waste Management is the largest environmental solutions provider in North America, serving more than 20 million customers in the U.S. and Canada. As part of their strategy, Waste Management is committed to developing new waste solutions that can help communities and organizations achieve their green goals, including zero waste. Waste Management is also a renewable energy provider, producing more than twice the amount of renewable electricity than the entire US solar industry.

Eugene W. Stetson served as vice president and member of the executive committee of the Guaranty Trust Company of New York. He was educated at Gordon Military Institute, Barnesville, Georgia, and at Mercer University, Macon, Georgia. Upon completion of his education he began his banking career with the American National Bank of Macon, Georgia then became cashier of the Exchange National Bank of Fitzgerald, Georgia, then organized the Citizens National Bank at Macon, serving first as its cashier and later as president, when he was only twenty-eight years old. He served as president of the Macon Chamber of Commerce and helped organize the Georgia State Chamber of Commerce. He also served as arbitrator for the city of Macon when the city took over the water system from a private corporation.

Stetson was appointed to numbers of corporate boards, spanning a diverse set of industries including banking, insurance, manufacturing, petroleum, soft drinks, carbonation, sugar, textiles, machinery, automobiles, railroads, tobacco, drugs, baking and alcohol. Stetson was appointed to a mind-boggling number of corporate boards, spanning a diverse set of industries including banking, insurance, manufacturing, petroleum, soft drinks, carbonation, sugar, textiles, machinery, automobiles, railroads, tobacco, drugs, baking, and alcohol.

Established in 1984, Mercer University’s Eugene W. Stetson School of Business and Economics is named for Eugene W. Stetson, a 1901 Mercer graduate and business pioneer who helped negotiate the first major leveraged buyout in corporate history.

Mark Suster is an American entrepreneur, angel investor and investment partner at Upfront Ventures (until June 2013 known as GRP Partners). He is a prominent blogger in the startup venture capital world and mentor at Techstars, a mentorship-driven seed stage investment fund.

Suster grew up in Northern California and is a dual citizen of both the United Kingdom and the United States. He graduated from University of California, San Diego with a Bachelor of Arts in Economics. He started his career as a programmer at Accenture, which later paid for a postgraduate Master of Business Administration from the University of Chicago.

In 1999, with Ireland-based property entrepreneur Brian Moran, he founded his first company, a construction collaboration technology business called BuildOnline, where he was also chief executive officer. BuildOnline merged with US-based rival Citadon in December 2006 and the combined business, CTSpace, was acquired by the French Sword Group corporation a year later in December 2007. By this stage, Suster had already left the business, having founded a second company, a content collaboration software business, Koral. In April 2007, Koral was acquired by Salesforce.com where Suster took the role of Vice President, Product Management. He joined Upfront Ventures, an investment firm, later in 2007.

As an investor, Suster focuses on early-stage technology companies. They include: Affordit, DataSift, EagleCrest Energy, EcoMom, ExpenseCloud, Gendai Games, Osmo, MyTime, and LaughStub.