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.

John H. Tyson was born on September 5, 1953 in Springdale, Arkansas. He is the son on Don and Jean Tyson and the grandson of John W. Tyson, the founder of Tyson Foods, Inc.

Tyson Foods Inc., founded in 1935 with headquarters in Springdale, Arkansas, is the world’s largest processor and marketer of chicken, beef, and pork and the second-largest food company in the Fortune 500. The company produces a wide variety of protein-based and prepared food products, which are marketed under the “Powered by Tyson” strategy. Tyson is the recognized market leader in the retail and food service markets it serves, providing products and service to customers throughout the United States and more than 80 countries. Tyson has approximately 114,000 team members employed at more than 300 facilities and offices in the United States and around the world.

After graduating from Springdale High School in 1971, John attended the University of Arkansas where in 1972 he was initiated into the Arkansas Alpha chapter. John later transferred to SMU where he received a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration. John has worked in the family business since his early teens and became a member of the board in 1984.

Today he is chairman of the board of Tyson Foods and has served in that capacity since 1998. Under John’s direction, Tyson Foods has emerged as the world’s largest protein-processing company largely on the strength of the 2001 acquisition of IBP, a giant processor of beef and pork.

That acquisition, engineered by John, accomplished a long time family goal – namely, to successfully diversify the company beyond the confines of the poultry business. By early 2003 Tyson Foods was producing roughly 25% of all the meat products consumed in the United States. Brother Tyson has been honored with the Woodrow Wilson Award for Corporate Citizenship. He has been named Man of the Year by the Arkansas Poultry Industry, by the Arkansas Easter Seals and by the Art Center of the Ozarks. He was also named Humanitarian of the Year by the National Conference for Community and Justice.

John serves on numerous boards and committees including: Walden Woods Project, the Advisory Board for the Yale Center for Faith and Culure, University of Arkansas, and as Committee Chairman of the University of Arkansas Capital Campaign for the 21st Century.

Jeff Weiner is the CEO of LinkedIn, the world’s largest and most powerful network of professionals. Jeff joined the company in December 2008, and under his leadership, LinkedIn has rapidly expanded its global platform to 19 languages and 26 offices around the world, grown its membership base from 33 million to more than 225 million members and increased its revenue more than tenfold to $972 million in 2012.

Before LinkedIn, Weiner was an executive in residence at Accel Partners and Greylock Partners, where he advised the firms– consumer technology portfolio companies and evaluated new investment opportunities. Previously, Weiner served as executive vice president of Yahoo!’s Network Division, a business that generated $3 billion in annual revenue with more than 3,000 employees and responsibility for many of the company’s consumer-facing and industry-leading products.

Prior to joining Yahoo! in 2001, Weiner spent more than six years at Warner Bros., where he helped oversee the company’s online efforts and developed the initial business plan for Warner Bros. Online in 1994.

In addition to LinkedIn, Weiner serves on the board of directors for Intuit Inc., DonorsChoose.org and Malaria No More.

Alan B. White is a visionary entrepreneur and tireless community leader. He founded PlainsCapital Corporation in 1987 and acquired Plains National Bank (later renamed PlainsCapital Bank) in 1988. White expanded PlainsCapital Corporation into a fully diversified financial institution offering banking, investment banking, public finance advisory, asset management, trust and residential mortgages with approximately 400 locations in 45 states and more than 4,000 employees nationwide. He is a champion of PlainsCapital’s relationship-focused approach to delivering financial services.

White has been recognized as one of the Most Powerful Dallas 500 Business Leaders in Banking, received the Robert H. Dedman Lifetime Achievement Award in Philanthropy by the Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Dallas, was named one of the Top 100 Most Influential Citizens of the Past 100 Years by the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal and received the Distinguished Alumnus Award from the Texas Tech Alumni Association.

Joseph D. Williams has been chairman of the executive committee of Warner-Lambert’s board of directors since his retirement as the company’s chairman and chief executive officer in 1991. He has also worked as a management consultant for the company since his retirement.

Mr. Williams joined Parke-Davis out of college as a sales representative. He was named group vice president of sales and marketing in 1970. A year later he was named chief operating officer and was appointed president of the company in 1971, a year after Warner-Lambert had acquired it. He moved over to Warner-Lambert in 1975 and was appointed chairman and CEO in 1984.

In 1996, Mr. Williams received Phi Delta Theta’s Nance-Millett Award which recognizes an individual who has made an outstanding contribution to the American Free Enterprise System. He is Trustee Emeritus of the Phi Delta Theta Foundation since 1997.

Williams chaired a $250 million campaign for the United Negro College Fund. He served as Chairman of the Commission on Higher Education for the State of New Jersey. He has served on the Board of Directors for many firms including AT&T, the Exxon Corporation, J.C. Penney, Inc., Thrift Drug, Inc., Therapeutic Antibodies, Inc., The Wyatt Company, and Rockefeller Financial Services. He has served as a Trustee for the Liberty Science Center and Columbia University.

In 1980, Mr. Williams received the pharmacy profession’s most distinguished award, the Remington Honor Medal from the American Pharmaceutical Association. He has received many honorary degrees including ones from the University of Maryland, Seton Hall University, Long Island University, Rutgers University, the University of Nebraska, and Philadelphia College of Pharmacy and Science.

Ronald Woodard is Chairman of the board and Co-Founder of MagnaDrive Corporation, a designer and manufacturer of industrial power transmission devices. He served as President and CEO of MagnaDrive from 1999 to 2002.

From 1994 to 1998, Mr. Woodard served as President of the Boeing Commercial Airplane Group of The Boeing Company with responsibility for marketing and launching Boeing’s 777-300, 757-300, 767-400 and 737-900 aircraft. He retired as Senior Vice President from The Boeing Company in 1999. He served as President of Boeing de Havilland and Executive Vice President of Boeing Commercial Airplane Group from 1987 to 1991.

Mr. Woodard served as Vice President and General Manager of the Renton Division from 1991 to 1994. He was responsible for the design, development and production of all Boeing narrow-bodied aircraft. He began as a Structural Engineer with Boeing in 1966. His career included assignments in Engineering, Program Management, Sales, Marketing, Procurement and General Management.

Charles Kingsley Woodbridge was chairman of the board of the Dictaphone Corp., which he helped to organize in 1922. Mr. Woodbridge had served as president of Kelvinator, Inc., and vice president of Remington Rand, Inc.

He began his career in advertising and sales work with Adriance Platt and Co, after his graduation from Dartmouth and was successively with Preston and Keith, Loose-Wiles Biscuit Co, and Kellogg Products Co. After the organization of the Dictaphone Corp., in 1922, he later became chairman of the board and chief executive officer of the Dictaphone Corp. and its subsidiaries, Dictaphone Co., Ltd., of England, and Dictaphone Corp., Limited, of Canada.

Mr. Woodbridge had also been a vice president of Audubon Realty Co., a trustee of the West Side Savings bank, and a trustee and chairman of Bennett college; was a member of the advisory committee of the New York University Graduate School of Business Administration and of the School of Commerce Accountants and Finance. He was a former president of Advertising association, a former vice president of the American Management association, was a former president of the National Association of Office Appliance Manufacturers, was a former chairman of the American Society of Sales Executives and was also a member of the executive committee and treasurer of the group. He was also a member of Political and Social Sciences and Casque and Gauntlet. He had been decorated with the Chevalier Legion of Honor.

Frank Lloyd Wright was an American architect, interior designer, writer, and educator, who designed more than 1,000 structures, 532 of which were completed. Wright believed in designing structures that were in harmony with humanity and its environment, a philosophy he called organic architecture. This philosophy was best exemplified by Fallingwater (1935), which has been called “the best all-time work of American architecture.” Wright was a leader of the Prairie School movement of architecture and developed the concept of the Usonian home, his unique vision for urban planning in the United States. His creative period spanned more than 70 years.

His work includes original and innovative examples of many building types, including offices, churches, schools, skyscrapers, hotels, and museums. Wright also designed many of the interior elements of his buildings, such as the furniture and stained glass. Wright wrote 20 books and many articles and was a popular lecturer in the United States and in Europe. His colorful personal life often made headlines, most notably for the 1914 fire and murders at his Taliesin studio. Already well known during his lifetime, Wright was recognized in 1991 by the American Institute of Architects as “the greatest American architect of all time.”