The Georgia Tech Alumni Association’s Gold & White Honors Gala is an evening to celebrate Georgia Tech’s leadership and serves as a fundraiser in support of Alumni Association Student Programs. The evening includes a cocktail reception and silent auction featuring mobile bidding technology, followed by an elegant dinner and awards ceremony.

At the gala held on January 25, 2018, two alumni from the Stewart School of Industrial & Systems Engineering received awards: Carey Brown and Annie Walker.

Few alumni have given so much of themselves to Georgia Tech – both as a student and alumnus – as Carey Brown 9BIE 69). While at Tech, he served as president of the Student Government Association (SGA), the Ramblin’ Reck Club, ANAK Society, and Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity, as well as chair of the Alexander-Tharpe Fund. After graduating, Brown participated on the ISyE Advisory and Georgia Tech Athletic Association boards, and served three, three-year terms as a board member of the Alumni Association.

He’s given back plenty to his community, too, by serving on the boards of the Tommy Nobis Center, Buckhead Rotary Club, Literacy Action, Georgia State Golf Association, and the Cherokee Art Endowment Trust, among others.

Brown and his wife, Sally, had three children: Natalie, who graduated from the College of Charleston, as well as Brent (IM 96), and Tyler (IM 01, HTS 01). During his service as a first lieutenant with the U.S. Army Airborne Rangers, Tyler was killed in action in Iraq in 2004. Like his father, Tyler was a student president of the SGA and they both received the Outstanding Young Alumni Award from the Alumni Association. Carey, Sally, and numerous Tech friends created an endowed scholarship in Tyler’s name, which is given each year to an outstanding graduate of the Woodward Academy who will attend Tech the succeeding fall.

Brown was honored with the Joseph Mayo Pettit Distinguished Service Award. This is the highest award conferred by the Alumni Association and honors alumni who have provided outstanding support of the Institute and the Alumni Association throughout a lifetime, while also providing leadership in their chosen professions and local communities.

Annie Walker is nothing less than a star at the world’s largest retailer. She joined Walmart in 2002 after “getting out” of Tech with a degree in industrial and systems engineering. She advanced rapidly within the company, graduating from the Walmart Leadership Academy and becoming a vice president at Walmart Stores in 2012. Since 2015, Walker has served as vice president of the retailer’s over-the-counter pharmaceutical and sales merchandising operations. In 2016 and 2017, she was named one of Mass Market Retailing’s “Most Influential Women.”

Despite moving a few states away, she’s remained actively involved with Georgia Tech and is a past president and treasurer of the Northwest Arkansas Alumni Club. Walker has also been a member of Tech’s ISyE Advisory Board and received Tech's Council of Outstanding Young Engineering Alumni Award in 2017. Walker lives with her husband, Jacob, and two young children in Fayetteville, Arkansas.

She was honored with the Outstanding Young Alumni Award. This award is given to young Georgia Tech alumni – those who have not reached their 40th birthday by the date of the awards gala – who have demonstrated outstanding leadership and service to Tech, the Alumni Association, the community, and their profession.