Five distinguished alumni and an industry friend have joined the Stewart School of Industrial & Systems Engineering (ISyE) Advisory Board for the 2013 to 2017 term. Don Greene, IE 1980, Joaquin Gonzalez Varela, Neca Holley, IE 1986, Andrew Ibbotson, IE 1998, Charles Murrah, IE 1984, and Jocelyn Stargel, IE 1982, MS IE 1986, were inducted in during the annual spring meeting on May 17, 2013 in Puerto Rico, which was held in conjunction with the IIE Annual Conference and Expo.  The board serves as a sounding body for the School chair, as well as assists with the School’s strategic initiatives and development goals. 

Current board member Lou Fouts, IE 1990, a partner at Water Street Capital, a large Jacksonville-based hedge fund that manages money for leading endowments, institutions, and family offices, will serve as the board’s new chair.

More on the new advisory board members:

Don Greene is the CEO and Executive Director of the Institute of Industrial Engineers (IIE).  Prior to becoming Executive Director, Greene served as Managing Director of the International Gas Turbine Institute, an Institute within the American Society of Mechanical Engineers.  He has also been the Director of Member Services and Operations for Polaris International, an association of independent public accounting firms. Earlier in his career, Greene worked at IIE for ten years in a variety of positions including staff industrial engineer, product development manager and membership manager.  He gleaned additional experience from his employment at Scientific-Atlanta, where he worked as an industrial engineer. Greene became a registered Professional Engineer in 1988 and is also a Certified Association Executive.  He is a member of the Institute of Industrial Engineers, American Society of Association Executives, Georgia Society of Association Executives, and the Council of Engineering and Scientific Society Executives.

Joaquín Gonzalez Varela is executive vice president of Walmart and president of Walmart Stores, Inc.’s East Business Unit, representing nearly 1,600 stores in four divisions spanning from Maine to Puerto Rico with revenues greater than $95 billion dollars and more than 500,000 associates.  He is responsible for establishing the strategic direction of all growth opportunities including execution of store innovation, supply chain, real estate and people development. Before joining Walmart’s U.S. operations, Gonzalez Varela held a variety of positions with Walmart de México in which he has worked across some of the company’s most important divisions including operations, merchandising, logistics, and finance. His efforts in Mexico led to a handful of important milestones and achievements, including the development of a new store format, Bodega Express, which today is one of the main growing vehicles for Walmart de México. He implemented a cold supply chain network for all fresh merchandise – the first of its class in Latin America – including operations standards, procedures and the grand opening of the first distribution center in Mexico.

Neca Holley is an Area Manager with Outside Plant Engineering and Planning Design where she manages the central and western parts of Georgia for AT&T.  Her group designs and implements facilities to supply high speed data and Ethernet services which allows AT&T to meet bandwidth needs for cellular and U-verse customers. She has been with AT&T/BellSouth/Southern Bell for 27 years and started her career as an Outside Plant Engineer designing copper cable, fiber optic and digital systems.  During her career she has served in various capacities from managing budgets to staffing the Cooperative Education Program for the BellSouth region where she recruited students from diverse schools around the country. Neca has a Professional Engineering License, is a member of the National Society of Professional Engineers, The Institute of Industrial Engineers and attended Dr. W. Edwards Deming’s course in “Quality, Productivity and Competitive Position” which was taught by Dr. Deming himself.

Andrew Ibbotson currently serves as founder and CEO of Digital Assent, a healthcare technology company that helps physicians and brands more effectively engage patients at the point of care.  Under his leadership, Digital Assent has earned significant recognition. Highlights include being selected by Forbes Magazine as a finalist for its “List of America’s Most Promising Companies” and winning the “Cool Technology of the Year” award presented by TechAmerica and the Technology Association of Georgia.  Digital Assent’s rapidly growing PatientPad® Network now spans every major metropolitan market in the country.  Andrew was named 2012 “Business Person of the Year” by the Metro Atlanta Chamber, “Entrepreneur of the Year” at TiECON Southeast, and "Mobile Marketer of the Year" at the 2012 Tech Marketing Awards.  He was also recognized as one of Atlanta’s “40 Under 40″ business leaders by the Atlanta Business Chronicle.  Andrew is an active member of the Atlanta technology community. He sits on the Board of Directors for Venture Atlanta, serves as a mentor to first-time entrepreneurs, and regularly speaks at events throughout the country to promote innovation and entrepreneurship.

Charlie Murrah is executive vice president and president of Southwire’s Energy Division, which serves customers in the electrical utility industry, primarily in the United States.  Murrah began his career with Southwire in 1984 as an industrial engineer in the Carrollton Utility Products Plant. He subsequently held numerous engineering and management positions in Southwire’s energy cable and copper operations, serving most recently as the company’s vice president of supply chain. Murrah is a Georgia registered professional engineer and a certified production and inventory manager. In 1996, he was inducted into the Council of Outstanding Young Engineering Alumni of Georgia Tech.

Jocelyn Stargel is the manager of Business Assurance at Southern Company Services.  With 4.4 million customers and nearly 46,000 megawatts of generating capacity, Atlanta-based Southern Company (NYSE: SO) is the premier energy company serving the Southeast through its subsidiaries - Georgia Power, Alabama Power, Mississippi Power, Gulf Power, Southern Power, Southern Nuclear, Southern Telecom and SouthernLINC Wireless.  In her role, Jocelyn oversees the Southern Company program focused on minimizing or eliminating the impact of events that have the potential to disrupt critical business operations, functions, or services.  Jocelyn currently serves on the board of the Georgia Tech Women’s Alumni Network, and the Finance Committee of CHRIS Kids, Inc.  She has also served on the Board of Directors of CHRIS Kids, Inc, the Marketing Committee of Heating Energy Assistance Team (HEAT), and on the Board of the Directors for the Spruill Center for the Arts.