UofSC Moore School announces 2016 distinguished award winners
April 4, 2016
The University of South Carolina’s Darla Moore School of Business will honor the 2016 Distinguished Award Winners at its 32nd annual Business Leadership Dinner and Awards Ceremony on April 19. The honorees include three alumni and one distinguished former dean.
The 2016 award winners include:
Distinguished Alumnus Award
James McCauley (Mac) Bennett (BSBA ’80)
President and chief executive officer
United Way of the Midlands
Distinguished Young Alumni Awards
William E. (Trey) Ackerman III (BSBA ’97, MTAX ’98)
Market managing partner
Dixon Hughes Goodman LLP
Kim Buckner Land (USC ’98, MBA ’02)
Instructor of marketing
Johnson College of Business and Economics, USC Upstate
Distinguished Service Award
Joel A. Smith III
Dean emeritus
Darla Moore School of Business
The annual gala honors the Moore School community’s most distinguished leaders and celebrates the school’s academic success and the achievements of its students, faculty and alumni and business partnerships. The event draws hundreds of alumni and prominent business leaders each year. The dinner and awards ceremony will take place Tuesday, April 19, at the Columbia Marriott in downtown Columbia.
This year it is sponsored by Dixon Hughes Goodman LLP (garnet level). Additional sponsorship opportunities at various levels are available for the event, with net proceeds benefitting student scholarships.
For more information about the honorees, sponsorship opportunities and ticket information, call 803-777-2144 or [email protected], or visit the Moore School website.
About the Moore School Distinguished Award Winners
James McCauley (Mac) Bennett
Mac Bennett has served as president and chief executive officer of United Way of the Midlands (UWM) in Columbia, S.C., since 2005. Under his leadership, UWM has initiated several significant projects. In 2007, the 260-bed Transitions Homeless Center was launched with a $5 million grant from the Knight Foundation. Bennett also has encouraged greater leadership and affinity group campaigns resulting in a 90 percent growth in Tocqueville Society membership ($10,000 and above annual gifts) and the creation of the Young Leaders Society (YLS) that now boasts more than 450 members. Bennett earned a bachelor’s degree in finance and management from the University of South Carolina. He is a Certified Fund Raising Executive (CFRE) with the Association of Fund-Raising Professionals.
William E. (Trey) Ackerman
III
Trey Ackerman has more than 16 years of experience working with large private and public companies in the financial services, utility/energy and manufacturing industries. In his role as client service partner for Dixon Hughes Goodman LLP., Ackerman is responsible for coordinating all services that the firm delivers to its clients. Ackerman earned a bachelor’s degree in accounting and a master’s degree of taxation from the Darla Moore School of Business at the University of South Carolina. He has studied at the Harvard Kennedy School Executive Education and the Harvard Business School Executive Education.
Kim Buckner Land
Kim Buckner Land is an accomplished marketing professional well known for leading people and organizations through process change, branding initiatives, new product launches, research projects and successful multi-media sales efforts. For 15 years, Land served as marketing director for a group of New York Times newspapers in the North and South Carolina markets, including her home paper, the Spartanburg Herald-Journal. In August 2015, she began putting her experience in the marketing field to work in the classroom as a full-time instructor at the Johnson College of Business and Economics at USC Upstate. Land graduated in 1998 with an undergraduate degree in journalism and mass communications from the University of South Carolina’s South Carolina Honors College. She went on to complete her MBA at the Darla Moore School of Business, earning a 4.0 GPA.
Joel A. Smith III
Joel A. Smith III retired as dean emeritus of the Darla Moore School of Business in January 2008 following a distinguished career in banking. Smith was named dean in October 2000 and became the first businessperson to lead the school. During his seven year tenure, the Moore School reached record levels in international rankings, enrollment and academic achievements. Smith serves on the board of Spoleto USA as well as the Columbia Museum of Art Commission and was recently appointed to the board of the SC Institute of Medicine and Public Health.
More information about the 2016 Distinguished Award Winners is available on the Moore School website.
About the Darla Moore School of Business
The Darla Moore School of Business is among the highest-ranked business schools in the world for international business education and research. Founded in 1919, the school has a history of innovative educational leadership, blending academic preparation with real-world experience through internships, consulting projects, study-abroad programs and entrepreneurial opportunities. The Moore School offers undergraduate, master’s and doctoral degrees, as well as distinctive executive education programs. In 1998, the school was named for South Carolina native and New York financier Darla Moore, making the University of South Carolina the first major university to name its business school after a woman.
