Furman University Welcomes Seven New Trustees at Fall Board Meeting
November 1, 2008
GREENVILLE, SC – November 1, 2008 – The Furman University Board of Trustees welcomed seven new members at its fall meeting Saturday.
The new trustees are Robert H. Buckman of Memphis, Tenn., C. Jordan Clark of Atlanta, Ga., W. Randy Eaddy of Winston-Salem, N.C., David G. Ellison of Greenville, R. Todd Ruppert of Owings Mills, Md., and Peace Sterling Sullivan of Miami, Fla. The Rev. Hardy S. Clemons of San Antonio, Tex., also joined the board as a trustee emeritus.
Buckman, Eaddy, Ellison and Clemons have all served previous terms on the board.
Buckman served as chairman of the board and chief executive officer of Bulab Holdings, Inc., the holding company of Buckman Laboratories, from 1978 until his retirement in December 2000. He is chairman of the board of Applied Knowledge Group, Inc., and chairman of Tioga Holdings, Inc. He holds degrees from Purdue University, the University of Chicago and an honorary doctorate from North Carolina State University and Asbury Theological Seminary. In 2001, he received Purdue University’s Distinguished Engineering Alumnus Award.
Clark is owner of Jordan Clark Ventures, a private equity firm which invests in and operates rental communities in Atlanta, Ga. Prior to that, he worked with Crow Residential in Atlanta and was chief investment officer of Gables Residential Trust. He also spent four years as curator of the 3M Corporate Art Collection in Minnesota. A graduate of Davidson College, he earned a masters degree in art history at the University of Virginia and a MBA from the University of North Carolina.
Eaddy, a senior partner in the Corporate Department of Kilpatrick Stockton LLP, is a 1976 graduate of Furman. He received his J. D. degree from Harvard Law School, where he was an editor of the Harvard Law Review. He received the 1999 President’s Award from the Association of Social and Behavioral Scientists in recognition of his contributions to the African American community. In 2005, he received the Team Hope Award from the Huntington’s Disease Society of America for Corporate Management and Diversity Leadership.
Ellison graduated from Furman in 1972 and earned a MBA degree from the Clemson-Furman program. He is managing director for Northwestern Mutual Financial Network for the Upstate of South Carolina and co-owns an employee benefits firm, Group Benefit Strategies, LLC. He is past chair of the Furman board and has been president of the Alumni Association and the Paladin Club. In 1992, he was elected to the Furman Athletic Hall of Fame. He is currently a director of Southern First Bank.
Ruppert is president and chief executive officer of T. Rowe Price Global Investment Services, the organization responsible for the firm’s institutional business worldwide, and T. Rowe Price Global Asset Management. He serves on the Board of Directors of Daiwa SB Investments, a Tokyo-based Japanese asset management firm, and the London-based Halcyon Fine Art Group. He’s also a board member of the World Trade Center Institute and the Maryland Academy of Sciences. He is a graduate of Kenyon College.
Sullivan graduated from Greenville High School and the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, and received her master’s degree in Social Work from Fordham University. She practiced as a psychoanalyst in New York City, serving as director of development of the Training Institute for Mental Health, before moving to Miami Beach in 2005. She has served on the Board of Visitors of the University of North Carolina and currently serves on the board of the Fine Arts League of Asheville, N.C.
Clemons served as senior pastor of First Baptist Church of Greenville from 1988 to 2000. A graduate of Texas Tech University, he earned bachelor of divinity and doctor of theology degrees from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. He has also held pastorates at First Baptist Church of Georgetown, Tex., and Second Baptist Church of Lubbock. He most recently served as executive pastor of Trinity Baptist Church, from which he retired in August 2008. He received an honorary doctor of divinity degree from Furman in 1994.
