Executive Advisory Board
A new COB executive advisory board began its work in August 2023 and approved the new bylaws at the first board meeting. The advisory board provides engaged support and counsel a) to function as an advocacy group for the College, including developing greater interaction of faculty with Board members, the business community, and alumni, expanding opportunities for students to find employment with organizations and promoting and encouraging the recruitment of outstanding students, b) to provide advice to the dean on matters such as strategic thought leadership, opportunities to capitalize on in the higher education industry, and emerging trends in business, and c) to assist the College in the cultivation and solicitation of philanthropic resources.
The Board meets four times a year and boasts four highly engaged committees: nominating committee, fundraising committee, engagement committee, and young professionals committee. The Board has welcomed eight new members this academic year bringing the size to 24 including five members on the new Young Professionals Committee (YPC) who all graduated in the last five years. The Board had its second and third meeting in November 23 and February 24, respectively, engaging in a SWOT analysis to contribute to the COB strategic planning process. The final meeting of the Board will take place in May 2024.
Meet the Advisory Board
Andrew Blate
Andrew Blate, CPA (’04) is the Co-Owner/Founder and President of Sales and Finance for Beautiful Home Services. Andrew graduated with a Bachelors in History in 2004 from Mary Washington College. After graduation, he achieved his CPA license working as an auditor in Fairfax, VA. Following his entrepreneurial spirit, he started a successful, highly regarded home renovation company with his best friend in 2006 specializing in kitchen, bathroom, and high end renovations in the DMV area. Andrew maintains his CPA certification and is a resident of Alexandria, VA with his beautiful wife and two sons. Andrew is highly involved in the UMW College of Business, has been a COB advisory board member since inception, and along with his business partner, has led the endowment of Case Competition.
Dan Clendenin
As a senior advisor to high-achieving families for over sixteen years, Dan specializes in simplifying the complex. He has counseled families residing in the U.S. and overseas on a comprehensive range of sensitive and significant life events, such as: retirement and cash flow analysis, company purchases and sales, real estate acquisition/divestment, estate and legacy planning, as well as sophisticated charitable solutions. Dan’s team of 9 professionals has developed a unique financial planning process, paired with cutting-edge technology, which they use to drive value for the clients they serve. The team currently manages in excess of $1 Billion*, on behalf of their clients.
In addition to serving as Managing Director of Cary Street Partners, Dan is also an investor in CSP’s parent company, Cary Street Partners Financial. Dan is a Trustee of the University of Virginia’s Physicians Group Investment Committee, a Trustee of the Mary Washington Hospital Foundation, and a Board Member for the Fairy Godmother Project.
Dan graduated from the University of Mary Washington, where he studied Business and Accounting, while serving as President of his class. He remains very active with his alma mater where he is currently a Trustee of the UMW Foundation (and Investment Committee), a member of the UMW College of Business Executive Advisory Board, and a former two-term member of the Alumni Association Board of Directors. Dan has served as a Guest Lecturer for the University on topics including Business Ethics and Financial Services.
Dan Curran
Dan Curran is a founding partner, Sr. Vice President, and board member at ZP Group, headquartered in McLean, VA.
ZP Group owns and operates a portfolio of wholly owned companies that provide niche services and solutions across cyber strategy, consulting, technology, and compliance. The company’s mission is to guide clients through this ever-shifting landscape to deliver solutions resulting in quantifiable value.
ZP Group is the parent company of Zachary Piper Solutions and Piper Companies. Zachary Piper Solutions is a technical and professional services firm supporting the United States government. Piper Companies is a niche human capital management and consulting firm specializing in technology and scientific solutions. Previously, ZP Group founded and scaled cyber security consultancy The Crypsis Group, a leading incident response, risk management, and digital forensics firm. The Crypsis Group was acquired by global cybersecurity leader Palo Alto Networks in 2020.
Prior to founding ZP Group, Dan held multiple leadership roles during his 9-year tenure at Allegis Group, a global leader in talent solutions. He holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration from the University of Mary Washington where he graduated Magna Cum Laude. Dan is a member of UMW’s College of Business Advisory Board. In his free time, he enjoys traveling and being outdoors, whether hiking, golfing, fishing, or gardening. Dan lives with his wife Nicole and dachshund Oliver in Vienna, VA.
Bryan Eckle
Bryan Eckle is a visionary leader in the field of technology and business optimization. As the co-founder of Summit2Sea Consulting, he demonstrated exceptional skill in leveraging data analytics, system integration, artificial intelligence, and automation to address complex financial challenges for clients. Under his astute guidance, Summit2Sea evolved from a nascent startup to a formidable entity, boasting $30 million in revenue. This impressive growth trajectory led to its successful acquisition by cBEYONData in February 2023.
In his current role as Chief Solutions Officer at cBEYONData, Mr. Eckle continues to be a trailblazer, focusing on the exploration and adoption of cutting-edge technologies in data and AI. His work is pivotal in developing solutions that meet and exceed the evolving challenges faced by clients.
Bryan’s academic background includes a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from Mary Washington College, complemented by a certification in ICAgile. His commitment to the community and ongoing professional development is evident through his active participation on the boards of the University of Mary Washington Business School, Arlington Lacrosse, and the Arlington County Virginia Sports Commission.
Justin Gerbereux
Justin Gerbereux is the head of Global FI Research in the Fixed Income Division. He is a vice president and an Investment Advisory Committee member of the Floating Rate and High Yield Funds. He also is a vice president of the Institutional Income Funds, Multi-Sector Account Portfolios, and International Funds. He is chairman of the Fixed Income Research Advisory Council and Fixed Income Steering Committee. Justin is a vice president of T. Rowe Price Group, Inc., T. Rowe Price Associates, Inc., and T. Rowe Price Trust Company.
Justin’s investment experience began in 1999, and he has been with T. Rowe Price since 2003, beginning as a credit research analyst in the Fixed Income Division. After that, he worked as an associate portfolio manager, a high yield credit research team leader, a portfolio manager, and a director of credit research. He also was the head of credit research before assuming his current role in 2023. Prior to T. Rowe Price, Justin was employed by Mellon Growth Advisors, LLC, as an equity research intern in Boston. He also was employed by Cambridge Associates LLC as a senior investment associate and investment performance analyst in Arlington, Virginia.
Justin earned a B.S. in business administration from the University of Mary Washington and an M.B.A. from the University of Virginia, Darden School of Business. He also has earned the Chartered Financial Analyst® designation.
Christine Goodwin
Christine is the founder and CEO of banduri, a woman-owned technology company specializing in agile digital transformation that helps customers turn change into value. A pioneering force, Christine leveraged a non-traditional education pathway to launch a career as a software engineer spanning over two decades working in many sectors from startups, education, finance, and military and national intelligence. Over time, Christine recognized a growing need for large organizations to be able to continuously implement and sustain digital transformation. She founded Banduri to provide an execution framework that enables organizations to quickly modernize and scale business and IT operations; increase efficiencies; identify new opportunities; and stay ahead of pacing market, cyber, and strategic threats. Under her leadership, Banduri has grown into a highly respected company that has carved out a niche at the intersection of innovation, technology, and strategic development, making substantial contributions to startups, large corporations, and government agencies in military and intelligence communities.
Born in Washington D.C. and raised in Virginia, Christine has always been fascinated by the ability of design and technology to transform lives and has an unwavering belief in the power of change. She began her education as a student in Engineering at Virginia Tech, graduated with a Bachelor’s in Liberal Studies from the University of Mary Washington, and continued her education with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Design, Artificial Intelligence, and Machine Learning.
Named one of Virginia’s Top 50 Entrepreneurs, Christine is passionate about entrepreneurship and pushing the boundaries of design and technology to implement new and improved ways of creating opportunity, responding to change, and driving the future of human-computer interaction. A vocal advocate for diversity and inclusion in Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math (STEAM), Christine regularly mentors young people from a wide range of backgrounds, demographics, and lived experiences aspiring to careers in technology and design. As co-founder of FredXchange—the Fredericksburg Region’s first startup community—Christine was responsible for establishing and growing the regional startup ecosystem from a group of 10 people to a community of students, entrepreneurs, and investors that resulted in Fredericksburg being ranked 9th out of the top 50 Best Cities in the United States to be an entrepreneur by Entrepreneur Magazine.
In her spare time, she can be found hanging out with her kids, searching for graffiti alleys in nearby cities, reading, and going to her favorite art museums in New York, Baltimore, Washington D.C., and Richmond.
Kevin Hughes
Kevin Hughes, Vice President of Public Affairs for STACK Infrastructure
As Vice President of Public Affairs Kevin Hughes manages the Public Affairs organization for STACK and leverages his experience in tech and infrastructure policy, infrastructure strategy, operations, and program management, to create a more favorable environment for data center development and highlight the benefits of the industry to government stakeholders at the state, local, and federal levels.
Prior to his current role, Kevin spent over 10 years at Meta advising their global policy and product leadership on how to develop policy strategies for future product development, leading a team comprised of policy, legal, and product professionals to establish global organizational strategies to adapt to new regulatory structures, working within the technical infrastructure space on data center and network infrastructure policy issues, and deploying data centers and networks as a technical program manager.
Kevin was awarded a BA in Political Science from The University of Mary Washington.
Benjamin Josiah Huff
B-J joined Walmart in 2020 and serves as a Senior Director focused on building and operationalizing strategic risk programs across Walmart Global Tech and Information Security footprints that make risk-informed decision making and holistic risk management a competitive advantage for Walmart US, Walmart International, and Sam’s Club. B-J’s experience includes 15+ years of strategy, transformation, and risk experience in financial services, national security programs, and management consulting.
Prior to joining Walmart, B-J served as a Vice President in Wells Fargo’s Payments, Virtual Solutions and Innovation (PVSI) business, focused on making risk management a competitive advantage and enabling risk management within Agile delivery. B-J began his career in management consulting specializing in national security strategy and operations where he held roles with Deloitte Consulting, Accenture and Scitor before transitioning to lead strategic transformations within Capital One Bank’s Retail & Direct Technology group.
B-J resides in Richmond, VA with his wife and twin daughters. B-J graduated from University of Mary Washington with a B.S. in Business Administration and History and received his Chief Risk Officer Certificate from Carnegie Mellon Heinz College.
Lou Marmo
Lou Marmo was most recently COO at TemperPack before retiring in March of 2022. He was responsible for Manufacturing, Supply Chain and Customer Service for this high growth, venture capital-backed company. During his time in the role the company’s valuation increased 4x over 3 years.
Previously, Mr. Marmo spent 13 years with Precision Partners, a PE-backed rollup of industrial CNC machining companies where he had extensive experience in buy-side and sell-side M&A, lender relationships and treasury functions, and became CFO in 2010 after Cerberus took ownership. In this role he worked with a new CEO to roll out an operating strategy and cadence driven by six strategic initiatives focused on growth, price, integration, Lean, talent development and cash flow. This culminated in the successful sale of the business. He then went on to become CFO of Liqui-Box where once again he worked with the CEO to turn around this PE-backed flexible packaging company that led to the successful sale of the company to Olympus Partners. Immediately before joining TemperPack, Mr. Marmo was an investor, and CFO, at Wayforth, where he helped this start-up reorganize and grow through acquisition to become the largest senior move management company in the country. He graduated from Mary Washington in 1994 and remains very active with the school serving on the College of Business Advisory Board, and as a Board member of the UMW Foundation. He lives in Richmond with his wife and two daughters.
Brittany McBride — Young Professionals Committee
Brittany A. McBride, CFP® Financial Advisor, Assistant Vice President With a passion for spreading financial well-being, Brittany focuses on developing detailed financial plans that are tailored to clients’ goals and unique circumstances. Brittany joined the team in Fredericksburg at Cary Street Partners in 2018 as a Client Service Associate before becoming a Financial Advisor in 2020. She obtained the CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ designation in 2021.
Brittany graduated from University of Mary Washington with a B.S. in Business Administration and a minor in Economics. She serves on the board/advisory council for various organizations including the University of Mary Washington’s Women’s Leadership Colloquium Advisory Board, the Rappahannock Rotary Satellite Club Board, the Financial Planning Association of Central Virginia Board, and most recently the Young Professional Committee of the UMW College of Business Executive Advisory Board.
Joey Opiekun — Young Professionals Committee
Joey Opiekun graduated in 2020 and is an analyst at The Capital Management Corporation in Richmond, Virginia specializing in equity research. He is currently studying for his CFA.
At UMW, he special majored in Finance and double majored in English with a concentration in Creative Writing. He founded UMW’s Investment Club and led a select group of students to Omaha, Nebraska to see Berkshire Hathaway’s Annual Meeting and Markel’s Sunday Brunch. He was the President of UMW’s Breakdancing Club, Vice President of UMW’s Songwriting Club and an Orientation Coordinator for the University.
In his free time, he reads books, write songs on his guitar, and goes on hikes with his wife.
Sara Radford — Young Professionals Committee
Sara Radford is a 2023 graduate of the University of Mary Washington where she earned her B.S. in Business Administration within three years. In continuation of her Honors Capstone Project, Women In Business (WIB): Growth and Expansion Plan, she has continued partnering with UMW’s College of Business (COB) as an WIB Alumni Mentor to further support the professional development of undergraduate and graduate students in Fredericksburg, Virginia. She is extremely passionate about supporting young women professionals within their career and furthering UMW’s COB DEIB efforts.
Upon graduation she joined a boutique consulting firm. She successfully leads large-enterprise clients across various industries, including healthcare, manufacturing, and not-for-profit, implementing Workday’s Human Capital Management solutions. There she is also a member of their DEIB Committee.
As a consultant she is well versed within the human resources and technology industries, bringing a unique perspective to the Young Professional’s Committee, and supporting the University achieve its strategic goals.
Emma Rolf — Young Professionals Committee
Emma is a 2023 International Business graduate who has been working as a subcontractor for the Department of Defense, and will be starting a position with the Department of the Navy as a Contract Specialist in April 2024. She was able to leverage UMW’s connections with Dahlgren and the NSWCDD for her new position. Her passion for the College of Business started as a Junior in 2021 and she has been active in enacting positive changes in the College, both as a student and now as an alumni. Emma’s favorite UMW tradition is Devil Goat Day, and she enjoyed the speed networking events sponsored by the COB. She has made Fredericksburg her home since graduation, and plans to stay in the area for several more years, enjoying the vibrant downtown community and giving back to her alma mater.
Jamie Scully
Jamie Scully is a Senior Vice President with Cushman & Wakefield | Thalhimer, a commercial real estate brokerage in Fredericksburg, VA, where he specializes in Office, Industrial, and Investment Sales. Jamie has been practicing commercial real estate since 2004 and has extensive experience with Government and Government Contractor Tenants. Prior to starting his career, Jamie graduated from The University of Mary Washington (UMW) with degrees in both Business Administration and Historic Preservation. Jamie is a member of UMW’s College of Business Advisory Board. In Jamie’s free time he enjoys everything outdoors, especially skiing, mountain biking and soccer. Jamie lives in Downtown Fredericksburg with his wife Jess Kujala and their three young children.
Chris Sicuranza
Chris Sicuranza has over 25 years of experience advising consumer finance, technology, and banking organizations, providing solutions that help clients optimize the use of technology, personnel, and data to improve profitability, to minimize risk capital, and to address regulatory challenges. A proven leader with the ability to manage large complex corporate-wide. Chris has led global project teams focused on the Financial Service industry’s most critical issues including the implementation of the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), the largest U.S. financial restatement, and issues stemming from the foreclosure crisis.
Chris is currently the Head of the Commercial Financial Services practice at Guidehouse, which seeks to solve our client’s most complex business challenges. He has published thought leadership and spoken about banking related topics including small business lending, regulatory compliance, risk management, third party risk management, and change management for the American Banker, the Mortgage Bankers Association, and other industry publications and conferences.
Chris graduated from Mary Washington College in 1998 with a degree in Economics He currently resides in Arlington, Virginia with his wife Daniela (MWC class of 2000) and two daughters. He served on the Advisory Council to the Board of Trustees for the National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS) from 2016 – 2022.
Megan Shepherd
Chief Operating Officer Megan Shepherd leads SimVentions’ Operations team. Based out of the Fredericksburg, VA office, she is a key member of the firm’s Executive Leadership Team and leads the day-to-day operations. She manages the firm’s Group Vice Presidents (GVPs), the Chief Engineer, and the Human Resources Department. Prior to SimVentions, Megan built and led Booz Allen Hamilton’s team and contracts at the Naval Surface Warfare Center (NSWC) Dahlgren. She provided leadership to build the market and business for Booz Allen as well as opened a new office. Prior to Booz Allen, Megan provided technical leadership to multiple software and information technology programs and customers. Megan was named one of the top Women in Leadership for 2021 by Virginia Business Magazine and was recognized as a Distinguished Alumni honoree from the University of Mary Washington’s College of Business in 2022. She has two Bachelor of Science (B.S.) degrees, one in Mathematics and one in Computer Science from Mary Washington.
Evan M. Stepanick
Mr. Stepanick graduated from the UMW College of Business in 2007. In college, Mr. Stepanick was active in numerous clubs on campus, and was elected the Class of 2007 Vice President. After graduating from UMW, Mr. Stepanick earned his juris doctor form the William & Mary School of Law. Mr. Stepanick has been a practicing attorney since 2010. Mr. Stepanick is a partner and shareholder with the private firm of Walton & Adams, P.C., where he represents small, mid-sized, and regional businesses and regularly handles litigation matters in the state and federal courts in both Virginia and Maryland. Outsite of work, Mr. Stepanick is a husband and father, and volunteers time, serving as a member of the Board of Directors of the Fairfax Law Foundation, as the coordinator of the Fairfax County Model Judiciary Program, and as a member of the UMW College of Business Executive Advisory Board.
John Thompson
John is Co-Founding Partner at Thompson Capital, LLC, investing in private companies, as well as advising CEOs and Boards on organizational issues facing growth companies. The current portfolio includes 7 companies, 2 of which are public companies via IPO.
Previously, John served as Vice Chairman of Heidrick & Struggles. He was recognized as one of the most respected CEO and board advisers in the nation having completed more than 200 CEO searches and more than 400 board searches.
John was the first recipient of Heidrick & Struggles’ Global Lifetime Achievement Award. He currently serves on the Advisory Board of the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research. In addition, he serves on the Board of the VA Tech Foundation and on the Advisory Board of the College of Business at The University of Mary Washington.
John received his MBA and BS Economics from VA Tech. John and his wife Phyllis, a 1969 UMW alumni, live in Atherton, CA.