Generations of Excellence: Celebrating 50 Years

GENERATIONS OF EXCELLENCE

AN INTRODUCTION

Since coming to Belmont University in June 2021 to serve as president, I have been increasingly impressed with, and grateful for, the entrepreneurial mindset that is apparent across this campus. Belmont attracts people who are self-starters, who think outside the box and who embrace risk-taking as a means to achieve innovation.

All of these qualities and more have been heavily influenced by Jack C. Massey’s impact on this institution. From Belmont’s earliest days and Jack’s connections with then President Dr. R. Kelly White to plans surrounding our newest construction project, the Jack C. Massey Center, this legendary entrepreneur’s fingerprints are evident throughout our history.

Nowhere is that influence more visible than in Belmont’s Jack C. Massey College of Business, which celebrates its 50th year of existence in the 2022-23 academic year. A co-founder of what we now know as HCA Healthcare and the first man to take three companies public, Jack saw opportunities where others saw only obstacles, saw potential where many could only find problems. What’s more, he believed deeply in Nashville and the future generations of men and women who would be integral to this city’s success. While he—and later his daughter Barbara Massey Rogers and the Massey Family Foundation—invested time, energy and finances in many areas of Belmont, the business programs that bear his name were his primary focus, and the results speak for themselves.

Massey graduates are imbued with a strong business acumen, a stalwart ethical compass, the aforementioned entrepreneurial spirit and a sense of philanthropy for doing good in their communities, all characteristics that can be traced to the influence of the college’s namesake and align beautifully with Belmont’s mission. Massey students are taught by faculty who embrace and model these traits in undergraduate and graduate programs as well as in a variety of co-curricular efforts. From alumni leading the way as C-suite executives in healthcare, business, entertainment and finance to students who win international championships with work on social enterprises to faculty who inspire endowed funds to serve tomorrow’s new ventures, the Massey College continues to demonstrate the distinctive quality and impact Jack C. Massey first envisioned all those years ago.

As we celebrate our first five decades, we know we’re reflecting on just the beginning of the Generations of Excellence that will forever be tied to the Massey legacy.

Cheers,

Dr. Greg Jones President, Belmont University

SETTING THE STANDARD FOR EXCELLENCE

The year 1968 made big waves in American history. Protests were raging across the country as people rallied against the Vietnam War and for Civil Rights. Closer to home in Nashville, Minnie Pearl (Sarah Cannon) led a singalong with her fellow Ward-Belmont alumnae during the school’s first-ever reunion. And on the campus of what was then Belmont College, a building dedication celebrated the Massey Performing Arts Centery. Benefactor and businessman Jack C. Massey shocked the administration that day by announcing a multi-million dollar gift for a state-of-the-art business program.

“Talk about a game changer,” said Dr. Bill Troutt, former Belmont president and Massey mentee. “He was the game changer for Belmont University.” As we celebrate 50 years of the Jack C. Massey College of Business, we also celebrate the man whose legacy provided a guiding light—not just in financial contributions, which have been extraordinarily significant, but also the influence he provided that guided the college’s focus on ethics and entrepreneurship.

Jack C. Massey not only changed Belmont, he changed Nashville, the backdrop to our Belmont story. He’s best known perhaps as the first man to take three companies to the New York Stock Exchange. He revolutionized two very different industries by purchasing and growing Kentucky Fried Chicken as well as co-founding Hospital Corporation of America (HCA). A look into his life further provides insight on his philanthropy, commitment to education, commitment to a local business school and Belmont University.

“I think he never forgot where he came from,” said Beth Poe, Massey’s granddaughter.

Growing up in Sandersville, Georgia, Jack C. Massey’s youngest brother died as an infant and three months later his father died. Massey’s mother was left to raise three boys, and when Massey turned 12, he took a job at his uncle’s drug store as a delivery boy. After graduating high school, he stayed in the pharmacy business by working at Beeson Drug Company in northeastern Florida. The owner urged him beyond the life of a clerk or soda jerk by encouraging him to go to pharmacy school. Massey saved the money to pay his tuition at the University of Florida.

DR. BILL TROUTT Former Belmont President

“HE WAS THE GAME CHANGER FOR BELMONT UNIVERSITY.”

“He really could only afford one year of college, which is why he really stressed education,” his granddaughter said. “His freshman year in college, the bank failed that he had his money in. He had $100 in the bank and $40 in his pocket.” Poe remembers seeing in a letter Massey wrote to family at the time that he also needed $20 for a coat.

The lean time led to Massey taking the Georgia State Board of Examinations for Pharmacists early at the age of 19 and before he had finished school. He passed with flying colors. A life in the pharmacy business ensued, which led him to Nashville in the 1920s as district manager of a pharmacy store. Massey eventually bought his own pharmacy store. And yet, the week Massey Drug Company reopened after a cleaning and remodel, the Great Depression hit town. Massey had to let employees go as the bills piled up, and he worked long hours to keep the business afloat. He eventually began to sell surgical supplies to doctors to move higher value product, and in the 1930s, he started a company called Massey Surgical Supply.

“One of those early doctor friends was cardiologist Dr. Thomas Frist, Sr., who met Massey when he was a junior at Vanderbilt medical school in 1931,” Bill Carey wrote in his book, “Master of the Big Board: The Life, Times, and Businesses of Jack Massey”. The friendship would prove meaningful for years to come.

As time went on, Massey’s surgical supply business grew, and he expanded its reach. Massey became a founder of Baptist Hospital (now Ascension St. Thomas Hospital), which would later play an important role in his formation of HCA and helped lead to his support of Belmont University, which had been connected with the Tennessee Baptist Convention for a time. Then in 1960, when he was nearly 55 years old and had worked long and hard since his teenage years, he sold his business. He planned to move to Florida where he could play golf and his beloved gin rummy.

“He retired,” Carey said, “and it just didn’t take.”

Remarkably, Massey is probably most noted for his accomplish ments post—retirement—partic ularly his purchase of Kentucky Fried Chicken in 1964, his co-founding of HCA in 1968, and his holding company for one of the largest Wendy’s franchises, all of which he took public.

Carey sees the connection in all these businesses.

“If it hadn’t been for his wildly successful experience at Kentucky Fried Chicken, I don’t think HCA would have hap pened.” Carey said. “First of all he had the wherewithal, the con nections. While the Frists are household names now, they were not widely known outside the state at that time. Massey was though.” Carey noted that the first national headline on the formation of HCA proclaimed: “Southern-Fried Hospitals.”

Meanwhile, times in the earlier days at Belmont College had been challenging.

“HE REALLY BELIEVED IN THIS COMMUNITY AND WANTED TO MAKE IT BETTER”

DR. BILL TROUTT

Former Belmont President

MASSEY HELPS SHAPE BELMONT

Dr. Bill Troutt had been working in Washington D.C. when he visited his home state of Tennessee to see about a role as president at Belmont in the early 1980s. His mother, despite the opportunity to have him closer, didn’t want him to take the job based on the looks of campus at the time. But Troutt saw promise. “I was 32 when I took over,” he said, “and probably looked every bit of it.”

Times, though, were changing.

Mr. Massey had already taken an interest in Belmont. A former member of Belmont Heights Baptist Church, his pastor Dr. R. Kelly White had served as president of Belmont from 1952 to 1959. White had praised Massey for his role in running Baptist hospital, and Massey began making contributions to Belmont, starting with a $25 gift in 1952 with consistent, and much larger, donations to follow. Then at the 1968 dedication for Massey Performing Arts Center, he announced he would give more than $1 million to start a business school.

“My predecessor, Dr. [Herbert C.] Gabhart, did a very fine job of cultivating his friendship,” Troutt said.

Still in those days, Belmont had a long way to go.

“We were financially strapped,” Dr. Troutt said. “When June came around, we were out of tuition money. We would borrow money from Mr. Massey’s bank and pay it back when the students paid their fees.”

And yet as Mr. Massey continued to take an interest in Belmont, others in his orbit followed such as Clayton McWhorter, a Massey protegee. As more folks invested, enrollment went up. Standards for students went up. And Troutt took on the early task of establishing approval through the political world of the Tennessee Baptist Convention to offer graduate programs.

Troutt recalls his first meeting with Massey early in his presidency arranged by Dr. Gabhart. “It was a little intimidating. He was a larger than life figure… and the big test was coming. How would he relate to a new president, especially a very young president.”

Many of Massey’s associates, family and friends have noted that he had a gift for sizing folks up with efficiency regarding their integ rity and honesty, or as Troutt put it “adjudicating your worthiness pretty quickly,” he said. “We hit it off, and that was one of many, many wonderful visits with him. He really made my presidency possible in terms of his investment here and what we could do to strengthen our business school, which was very important to him.”

A few meetings later Troutt said Massey made a “wonderful institutional shaping multi-year commitment to lift up the business school and really become the modern Belmont if you will.”

“He really believed in this community and wanted to make it better,” Dr. Troutt said. “The thickest chapter of all in my memory book would be Jack Massey. His kindness to me, his insight, his belief in our community and Belmont. I cherish every visit I had with him.”

It’s a commonly held belief that Massey wanted to invest in Belmont in part to keep talent in Nashville. He had watched too many smart minds travel out of state for business school and never return. But it wasn’t his only motivation.

“In addition to a brilliant mind, he had a great heart,” Dr. Troutt added. He donated to many causes such as the arts, but local education—from Belmont to Montgomery Bell Academy— remained a constant. “Hearing students speak gave him immense joy and satisfaction,” Dr. Troutt said. Indeed, Massey’s daughter Barbara Massey Rogers said, “he really loved the young people… He loved to do for them. He would go in and hear their stories of what they sacrificed to get to Belmont. I literally saw tears come down his cheeks because of what they had sacrificed to get to Belmont. He had a vision that it was going to be the greatest school around.”

Townes Duncan, a Nashville venture capitalist and former lawyer, worked with Massey at Massey Burch Capital Corp. Through his lens he sees Massey’s investment in Belmont in some ways as an entrepreneurial activity. “Venture capitalists really like to find problems that money can solve, because money’s what they’ve got,” he said. “With resources, it could really be something. It set a lot of things in motion and others have followed along.”

In terms of entrepreneurship, a pillar of Belmont education, Duncan also sees Massey’s success with Kentucky Fried Chicken and HCA as having a big role in turning Nashville into an entrepreneurial city. In the mid 1960s, he explains, Nashville had been known for insurance, Vanderbilt and the Grand Ole Opry. It had banks and equitable securities and Methodist publishing. But he says those businesses were not necessarily entrepreneurial, and they were not especially high growth businesses. Centers of entrepreneurship happen only because someone starts something, he said, and a big something in our city was HCA. “It attracted lots of talented managers to Nashville,” he said.

Jack C. Massey with Dr. Thomas Frist, Jr.

Massey Business Center Under Construction

MASSEY THE MAN

Though much has been made of Mr. Massey’s business savvy, granddaughter Beth Poe also recalls his sense of humor. “He was always laughing and joking and had a smile on his face,” she said.

His daughter Barbara remembers that he came to her basketball games despite his busy schedule. And when it came to games and life—everything was a competition. The two would race home in separate cars (though they had to stick to the speed limit, she says) from his office downtown. Whether racing or playing gin rummy, Massey always seemed to win.

“Everything was a challenge in life,” she said. “A lot of people thought everything he touched turned to gold, but that was not true. He did have losses along the way and he learned from them.”

Beth remembers reading in one of his letters that he just didn’t view anything as a problem—only opportunities.

A visionary able to adapt in many situations, Barbara says he was persistent with a positive mental attitude. “He never complained,” she said. “He had a creative mindset. He was a risk taker.”

For associates like Duncan and others, many remember Massey as egalitarian. “He never came off as ‘I’m a big deal and you’re not,’” Duncan said. “Caddies, gas station attendants, whoever he was dealing with he dealt with them as an equal. He didn’t have an inflated sense of self. He treated everyone with dignity and respect.”

And for Beth, it’s her grandfather’s generous spirit, sense of hard work and ethics that she will cherish “and hopefully pass on to my family,” she said.

To summarize his thoughts, Troutt calls him a great pillar of Nashville and Belmont. “If you think about the people who really shaped the modern Nashville—from revolutionizing a couple of industries from the fast food businesses to for-profit healthcare. It’s just amazing to pioneer two very different sectors,” he said. “He helped reshape not only the modern Belmont but also Nashville. We’re forever grateful that he came back from Florida.”

And even today the Massey family legacy continues.

On a recent June day with record-breaking temperature, a crowd gathered on Belmont’s campus sipping ice water. Against a backdrop of a still growing Nashville—a city also on fire with entrepreneurship—Jack Massey’s granddaughter Beth Poe stepped to the podium. Barbara Massey Rogers also attended, and the pair helped commemorate a topping out ceremony for the new Jack C. Massey Center. (Meanwhile, the former Jack C. Massey Business Center will be renamed in honor of Barbara—the Barbara Massey Rogers Center—in honor of her and the family’s ongoing belief in and support of Belmont.)

The new building, which will open next fall, will host the Belmont Data Collaborative, the Transformational Innovation Hub and the Cone Center for Entrepreneurship, as well as collaborative workshop areas for students, faculty, staff and community members. The Massey Center will also be Belmont’s new “front door”—a welcome center and the new home for the university’s admissions team.

“He was an outstanding leader and philanthropist, but he was so much more to me,” Poe said. “He was a loving, caring Southern gentleman. His desire was to make the world a better place. He would be very excited about the prospect of this great, new building and the future opportunities it would bring to Belmont.”

Belmont President Greg Jones also weighed in on the moment’s significance. “There is no person who has been more important over the years to Belmont University than Jack C. Massey,” he said. “The university has been blessed by Jack’s vision and the support he provided.”

And then, a crane whisked a beam into the hot Nashville sky as the crowd gathered below it cheered.

Dr. Jones and Barbara Massey Rogers at the topping out ceremony for the Jack C. Massey Center

“HE WOULD BE VERY EXCITED ABOUT THE PROSPECT OF THIS GREAT NEW BUILDING AND THE FUTURE OPPORTUNITIES IT WOULD BRING TO BELMONT.”

BETH POE Jack Massey’s Granddaughter

A HISTORY OF EXCELLENCE

A timeline of the Massey College of Business and its namesake and inspiration, Jack C. Massey

1900s

September 7, 1904

Jack Carroll Massey born in Sandersville, Georgia

1916

Begins working at his uncle’s drugstore as a delivery boy

1970s

1971

Sells KFC for $239 million

1972

Formal dedication ceremony for Belmont’s new Center for Business Administration

1977

Belmont Board of Trustees recommends changing the Belmont School of Management to the Jack C. Massey School of Business

Raises millions of dollars to create the Tennessee Performing Arts Center (TPAC)

1979

Acquires Granny’s of Atlanta restaurant chain and renames it Mrs. Winner’s Chicken & Biscuits

1923

Earns a pharmacy license from the State of Georgia Moves to Nashville and works at Liggett Drug Store on Church Street

1930s 1990s

Buys his first drugstore which he builds into a chain Works 80 hours a week during the Great Depression to stay in business

Founds Massey Surgical Supply Gives Dr. Thomas Frist, Sr. his first stethoscope

Becomes the first person to take 3 separate companies to the New York Stock Exchange

1986

12 1920s 1980s

Massey Graduate School of Business is formed

Establishes the Jack C. Massey Leadership Award with Mental Health America of the MidSouth to honor individuals who demonstrate exemplary leadership

February 15, 1990

Jack C. Massey dies in Palm Beach, Florida at age 85

May 1990

Ribbon cutting for the Jack C. Massey Business Center at Belmont

1940s 2000s

Appointed to the board of Third National Bank—youngest director in bank’s history

Co-founds and serves as trustee of Baptist Hospital

Makes first venture capital investment in Rigo Chemical Company

2002

Massey College of Business earns first AACSB Accreditation

2003

Entrepreneurship major introduced at Belmont

2004

Graduate School of Business awards its 1,000th MBA degree

2005

Massey biography, “Master of the Big Board,” published

Barbara Massey Rogers endows Belmont’s Financial Trading Room operations with $1 million investment

December 1952

Makes his first donation to what was then Belmont College

Massey Surgical Supply expands to seven states

1950s 2010s

Opens early drug “superstore” including pharmacy, camera department and florist

2012

SIFE team (Students in Free Enterprise) wins World Cup Championship

Entrepreneurship program named top in the nation

October 2014

Massey Foundation and Barbara Massey Rogers invest $6.75 million in renovation project and secure name for Jack C. Massey College of Business

April 2016

Ribbon cutting ceremony for newly renovated Massey Business Center

October 2019 Massey College hosts first 100 Top Alumni Entrepreneur Awards

Brunswick Corporation purchases Massey Surgical Supply

Massey trys to retire but gets bored

1964

Purchases Kentucky Fried Chicken for $2 million from its founder “Colonel” Harland Sanders

1967

Purchases shares and joins the board of publishing company that would become Thomas Nelson Inc.

1968

Co-founds Hospital Corporation of America, now known as HCA Healthcare, one of the largest owners and operators of hospitals in the U.S.

Founds Capital Investment Services, one of the South’s earliest venture capital firms, later became MasseyBurch Investment Group

Announces a $1.2 million investment to Belmont to build “a business school of national reputation”

December 2021

Barbara Massey Rogers & Massey Foundation provide Belmont $15 million investment

Fall 2022

Massey Business Center is renamed the Barbara Massey Rogers Center

Fall 2023

Scheduled opening for the new Jack C. Massey Center

13 1960s 2020s

Massey faculty provide the expertise, the rigor and the caring commitment that combine for a business education second-to-none.

For a business school to be successful, it needs faculty who possess both academic knowledge and practical experience, individuals who can walk the talk and are fully committed to developing their students into future industry leaders. From its earliest days, the Massey College of Business has been blessed with faculty who excel on all fronts. While this commemorative magazine only provides space to recognize a few, every faculty and staff member from the Massey College’s first 50 years deserves to be honored for a job very well done.

DR. JOHN GONAS

Catalyzing Social Change Through Sustainable Businesses

A national champion and state-wide professor of the year with an alumni-led endowed scholarship in his name? It’s easy to see why finance professor Dr. John Gonas exemplifies the Massey way.

Prior to joining Belmont’s faculty in 1998, Gonas worked in the financial planning industry for eight years, primarily in retail brokerage, investment consulting and fee-based asset management. At Belmont, Gonas serves as a Sam Walton Fellow, and in 2008 he was selected as Tennessee’s Professor of the Year by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and the Council for Advancement and Support of Education.

His most widely known recognition, though, comes from his work advising Belmont’s Enactus students, formerly known as SIFE. Enactus, a worldwide organization with more than 2,000 campus organizations, seeks to engage the next generation of entrepreneurial leaders to use innovation and business princi ples to improve the world. Under Gonas’ leadership, Belmont’s program has won numerous regional and national awards for its service projects related to Enactus/SIFE including being named USA National Champions in 2010 and 2012 and securing the worldwide championship in 2012.

Gonas, who leads the team with several other faculty including fellow Massey College professor Dr. Cate Loes, said of the 2012 win, “Belmont students continue to demonstrate that they have the ability to create and apply complex business models to lasting social change. These models are not only sustainable, but are also economically profitable and even scalable.

I am honored and blessed to help steward these young men and women who tirelessly take what they’re learning in the classroom and give it away.”

Of course, the very thing Gonas celebrates in his students is what they acknowledge that he models for them. In 2015, graduating senior Brennon Mobley reflected in his baccalaureate speech about the impact Gonas had made on his life and the astounding success of the Spring Back Recycling social enterprise that they and others had been able to launch through SIFE. To conclude his speech, Mobley announced the creation of the Dr. John Gonas Endowed Scholarship.

“For me, this is my personal vessel to give back to Belmont, because that’s how I was impacted most, through him,” Mobley said. “He does things out of the goodness of his heart without looking for something in return. There were a lot of people that wanted to do something to thank him.”

Destiny Leads The Way In The ‘Family Business’

Dr. Lee Warren comes from a family of educators. In fact, she refers to education as the “family business.” No wonder she feels that way as she has spent time on Belmont’s campus since childhood because her father, Dr. Jerry Warren, was chair of the Music Department. He also served as provost and interim president for Belmont, making Lee’s destiny to join the Belmont faculty seem inevitable.

Like most Massey faculty members, Dr. Warren has both industry experience and an academic pedigree. In addition to earning degrees in economics, finance and accounting, Dr. Warren has served in corporate controller positions and continues to consult with a wide variety of organizations and industries. From the beginning, as a part of Jack C. Massey’s vision for the college, faculty members have focused on real-world experiential learning and the practical application of theory. Further, Massey faculty members’ significant industry experience allows them to connect with the larger business community in more meaningful ways.

Dr. Warren joined the Massey College of Business in 1998 and has since served as associate dean and head of the accounting department. A faculty member favorite of students and alums, she was also the recipient of the 2019-2020 Chaney Distinguished Professor Award, the university-wide annual accolade to recognize a faculty member for superior teaching.

As Dr. Warren has seen Massey grow over the years, she is most proud of the Association for the Advancement of Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) accreditation for both business and accounting. Massey’s relationship with AACSB over the years has helped the college grow and develop into the nationally recognized institution that Mr. Massey envisioned back in 1968 when he announced plans for a College of Business at Belmont. Thank you, Dr. Warren, for your continued service and commit ment to the mission, vision and values of the Massey College of Business.

Creating a Legacy of New Ventures

Recently retired, there are few faculty names as well known or as well admired at Belmont as Dr. Jeff Cornwall. In fact, the longtime Jack C. Massey Chair in Entrepre neurship was named in 2013 as the Entrepreneurship Educator of the Year by the United States Association of Small Business and Entrepreneurship.

“To be named the most outstanding educator in one’s field in higher education is the highest compliment a professor can receive,” said then College of Business Dean Dr. Pat Raines. “Jeff’s professional accom plishments and the prestige that he has brought to Belmont’s entrepreneurship program make him an extraordinarily worthwhile recipient of this award.”

Cornwall’s commitment as an entrepreneurship educator was acknowledged by more than his peers and the business community – his students and countless successful alumni recently honored Cornwall with the creation of a fund that again builds on the Massey spirit of entrepreneurship. Announced at the third annual Top 100 Alumni Entrepreneur Awards, held in December 2021, the Jeffrey R. Cornwall Legacy Launch Fund will support a student or students whose entrepreneurial vision and spirit holds the potential to leave a legacy through the launch and growth of a venture.

Ranked again as a top entrepreneurship program for 2022 by the Princeton Review and Entrepreneur Magazine, Belmont alumni entrepreneurs represent more than 724 businesses in 87 cities and six countries. Dr. C, as he is affectionately known, played a role in many.

Professor of Entrepreneurship Dr. Mark Schenkel said, “Dr. Cornwall has had an incredible impact on students through his own teaching and mentorship, as well as on me and many of his colleagues here and throughout the entrepreneurship discipline. His legacy leaves an indelible mark on the DNA of how we teach and how students experience entrepreneurship at Belmont.”

“[DR. CORNWALL’S] LEGACY LEAVES AN INDELIBLE MARK ON THE DNA OF HOW WE TEACH, AND HOW STUDENTS EXPERIENCE, ENTREPRENEURSHIP AT BELMONT.”

Teaching Business Students to Make the World a Better Place

A widely recognized social entrepreneurship pioneer and expert, Dr. Bernard Turner paves the way for new generations of social entrepreneurs who are actively involved in using business skills to improve the effectiveness of nonprofits and other social enterprises. In essence, he helps aspiring entrepreneurs learn to make the world a better place for everyone through good business practices.

Belmont University’s interdisciplinary Center for Social Entrepreneurship was conceptualized by faculty members in business, English and theology. Dr. Turner was brought in to lead the Center in 2008 because of his extensive experience with nonprofits in the fields of human services, minority and women-owned business development, higher education and healthcare. Dr. Turner previously held leadership positions with Meharry Medical College and Vanderbilt University.

As he developed and grew the Center for Social Entrepreneurship, creating an undergraduate degree in Social Entrepreneurship was a top priority. In fall 2008, Dr. Turner launched Belmont University’s Social Entrepreneurship major (SET), the nation’s first according to Fortune Magazine. He began to attract students by asking the question, “Can you imagine a world without any social problems?” After incubating for several years in Belmont’s Interdisciplinary Studies area, in 2015, the program found a permanent home in the Massey College of Business.

To date, the Social Entrepreneurship major has 162 graduates, and the program has become a feeder for the Nashville nonprofit community and beyond. Dr. Turner commented, “The SET major is very experiential, very practical and hands-on like all programs at Massey. Majors complete an extensive capstone project with a nonprofit that includes consulting and recommendations to senior leadership. Our graduates are highly valued in the nonprofit community because they can come in and contribute on day one.”

Turner’s work has attracted plenty of attention beyond Belmont’s campus as well, with the popular faculty member awarded the Center for Nonprofit Management’s Lewis Lavine President’s Award in 2019. Even more recently, Turner was recognized by the Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. with the Nashville Alumnae Chapter’s first International Awareness and Involvement Heritage Award. The chapter took note of Dr. Turner’s commitment to and continued support of outreach ministry both at home and abroad via numerous mission trips to Haiti and Belize where health needs and other services are provided to local and international communities that may not receive medical attention otherwise.

DR. BERNARD TURNER

GONZALEZ

JOSE

Making Connections That Build Communities

Both a Massey alumnus and faculty member, Dr. José González first began teaching in the Massey College of Business in 2007.

Prior to joining Massey as a professor, Dr. González co-founded Conexión Américas, a Nashville-based nonprofit organization dedicated to building a welcoming community and creating opportunities where Latino families can belong, contribute and succeed. He was also instrumental in building Casa Azafrán, the nonprofit collaborative in Nashville’s International District that houses Conexión Américas and nine other partners. In addition, he is actively involved in numerous local civic initiatives, including The Nashville Entrepreneur Center, The Healing Trust, Leadership Nashville and Nashville Mayor’s Allocation Committee for the American Rescue Plan.

In 2014, President Obama visited the Conexión Américas Community Center, and Conexión Américas was recognized for best practices, which gave the Center the opportunity to highlight its work on local and national platforms. Recently, Dr. González was honored with a state proclamation for his outstand ing work. “I’ve often said an impetus for Conexión was creating a place of belonging, of integration,” he remarked at the ceremony. “No one has benefited more from that feeling of what Conexión has given than myself.”

Dr. González is passionate about helping students make their entrepreneurial dreams come true. Whether it’s assessing the opportunity to launch a new business or building a financial forecast for a social enterprise, Dr. González is always working with students to help them reach their entrepreneurial goals. He has also led many international programs to study the intersection of economic development and entrepreneurship.

When Dr. González began his own entrepreneurial journey, he was a Massey MBA student. While earning his degree, he realized that entrepreneurship is a process that includes recognizing opportunities in the marketplace, and building the resources required to develop those opportunities. At Massey, it’s not just about supporting students who want to start a business venture; it’s also supporting students’ overall development and entrepreneurial mindsets regard less of their career paths.

“At the end of the day one of the things I enjoy the most is being an educator,” he said. “Being a mentor and working with people young and old who have an idea and want to develop it and grow it.”

“AT THE END OF THE DAY ONE OF THE THINGS I ENJOY THE MOST IS BEING AN EDUCATOR.”

Playing a Pivotal Role in Massey’s Original AACSB Accreditation

In addition to the 50th anniversary of the Massey College of Business, 2022 also marks the 20th anniversary of Massey’s original Association for the Advancement of Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) accreditation. This accreditation is a major, if not the most important, milestone for any for business school who achieves this designation.

Professor Emerita of Marketing Dr. Susan Taylor was an instrumental part of the Jack C. Massey College of Business’ growth and development from 2000 to 2017, perhaps most importantly contributing to the AACSB accreditation process. In addition to bringing her extensive academic and industry experience to Massey, Dr. Taylor also brought in-depth knowledge of the AACSB accreditation process because she had successfully completed the process at her previous institution. Her expertise and hard work played a pivotal role in Massey’s attainment of the prestigious accreditation.

From its inception, the Massey College of Business has had strong female presence in terms of faculty, students and staff, particularly in a highly male dominated field of study. (Fun fact: the incoming fall 2022 Massey undergraduate class is over 60% female!) Dr. Taylor continued this tradition when she joined Massey. Under her leadership as an associate dean from 2005 to 2012, enrollment at the Massey College of Business more than doubled while senior business students consistently scored at or above the top 10% level on the Major Field Test in Business.

Noting how Massey students were performing as well or better than their peers, Dr. Taylor remarked on the keys that make a Massey education so special: “Their performance is a direct reflection of our focus on delivering a high-quality program and the individual attention our students receive from our highly qualified faculty.”

“OUR [STUDENTS] PERFORMANCE IS A DIRECT REFLECTION OF OUR FOCUS ON DELIVERING A HIGH-QUALITY PROGRAM AND THE INDIVIDUAL ATTENTION OUR STUDENTS RECEIVE FROM OUR HIGHLY QUALIFIED FACULTY.”

Across generations, the best examples of the Jack C. Massey College of Business’ influence can be seen in the dynamic impact of our alumni.

Innovators. Entrepreneurs. C-suite executives. Community leaders. Role models. For the past 50 years, Massey College of Business alumni—from both undergraduate and graduate programs, as well as many double alums—have demonstrated time and time again the value and impact of a Massey education. What’s more, through their professional and personal lives, they have consistently lived out the values Jack Massey dreamed would be emphasized when the Belmont business programs first launched five decades ago.

HARRY ALLEN

Connecting Service And Leadership To Transform Communities

When Harry Allen signed up to study management as an undergraduate in the Jack C. Massey College of Business, he had no idea what he wanted to do when he graduated. He says he chose business because it seemed general enough that he’d “figure it out at some point.”

Then later, when a professor urged him to study abroad in Germany for a year, he let her know that he’d never even been on an airplane. He decided, though, to spread his wings. During his second semester in the country, he interviewed for two hours—in German—and landed an internship not just with any German company, but with the Change Management Group at BMW.

“I came back my senior year confident that I could do anything,” he said.

And sure enough, at just 40 years old, he certainly has accomplished a lot.

After a few years in banking at Suntrust, now named Truist, he returned to Massey for his MBA. He never considered another college. He had maintained contact with his professors, a hallmark of the Massey College of Business, and they promised—correctly—that the advanced degree would offer a totally different experience after being in the workforce and among peers who had done the same.

“The relationship with professors was really meaningful then, and I think we’ve maintained that culture of hiring professors who are passionate about teaching and being in relationships with students,” he said. “And they’ve had real world experience. It was important for me not just to learn theory, but how theory is applied in a practical sense.”

Allen went on to co-found Studio Bank in 2018, which grew from 47 employees before the pandemic to more than 80 today with assets of more than $750 million and deposits more than $650 million. Earlier this year, the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta chose Allen as one of three new council members of its Community Depository Institutions Advisory Council, a prestigious appointment.

Beyond his professional accomplishments, he’s known across the city for his heart of service. A member of the Belmont Board of Trustees, he also helped former Mayor David Briley improve performance at Metro Nashville Public Schools and has served on many boards from the arts to healthcare and education.

Allen says he came to Belmont with a passion for service, but the Massey approach enforced it. Belmont asks, he said: “How does and can my vocation impact and change the world for the better? How can I as a leader in business contribute to the community that I call home?”

A lifelong Nashvillian, Allen says the town has grown on him literally. “Nashville isn’t what it was 40 years ago. Belmont is not what it was 50 years ago as we’re celebrating the 50th anniversary.” And yet he says the prosperity that we celebrate along with the problems that emerge with growth, such as the gaps it creates, calls for a different level of leadership to surface. Reflecting on his proudest accomplishment, though, Allen chose a recent moment when the eldest of his three children, a fifth grader, won the Spirit Award.

“It’s basically a citizenship award asking how have you shown up as a friend and a peer?” he added, “I’ve tried to lead a life that’s exemplary of the life I want my kids to lead. It wasn’t necessarily about the award but what the award was for—a person of character and a good friend. The glimpses of character I see in my kids, that’s what makes me proud.”

“[MY MASSEY FACULTY] HAD REAL WORLD EXPERIENCE IT WAS IMPORTANT TO ME NOT JUST TO LEARN THEORY BUT HOW THEORY IS APPLIED IN PRACTICAL TERMS.”

HARRY ALLEN

CHRISTI BETH ADAMS

Running Toward Unexpected Business Opportunities

Massey alumna Christi Beth Adams never planned on becoming a business owner—in fact, after graduating in 2002, she began working her way up the corporate ladder in advertising. But her real passions weren’t ignited in her high heels and blazers. She’s always felt most alive in her running shoes.

Running has always been a way of life for Adams: she ran track and cross country at Belmont along with being a member of Fel lowship of Christian Athletes and other campus organizations. She knew she’d incorporate this passion into her career, but she didn’t realize just how important it would become.

After traveling the country for jobs in the fitness industry, Adams moved back to Nashville in 2006 and got a job at Fleet Feet, a retail store specializing in running shoes and apparel. Taking advantage of the organization’s employee-to-ownership program, Adams was able to acquire the store in 2011. Business has significantly grown since then: Adams opened her second location in 2013, her third in 2017 and is currently narrowing in on a location for her fourth store in the Nashville-area.

“While I was at Belmont, I learned how important relationships are and the benefit of being a lifelong learner. Those things helped prepare me for the entrepreneurial venture that I didn’t even know was ahead of me,” Adams said. “‘Put people first’ and ‘Do the right thing’ are two of our Core Values at Fleet Feet. That’s consistent with how our students and faculty lived out each day from the moment I stepped foot on campus. Of course, I sharpened my business skills through coursework, but my biggest takeaway from Belmont was how to live in community and how you choose to show up for others.”

In 2015, Adams received Nike’s “Just Do It Award” in recognition of her hard work to further the fitness industry. The award celebrates female leaders who create a positive impact on the running sport through business savvy, community involvement and team leader ship built on honesty and integrity.

As a Fleet Feet owner, Adams has continued the legacy of giving back to the community. In the last decade, Fleet Feet Nashville has donated more than $100,000 to Middle Tennessee charities and more than 4,000 pairs of shoes to Nashville area organizations.

Fleet Feet President and CEO Joey Pointer said, “Christi Beth’s career reflects what happens when you have a passion to help people, a relentless commitment to push yourself and a belief in running together with a team. She set the pace early on in her career at Fleet Feet as someone with a tremendous capacity to grow, learn and lead.”

DREW HANLEN Coaching and Consulting To Bring Out His Clients’ Best

Belmont alumnus and former basketball player Drew Hanlen grew up idolizing Michael Jordan and sharing the dreams of many other children: to play in the NBA. Today he can call several NBA players “teammate”—not on the court, but in the training room. CEO of Pure Sweat Basketball, a nationally recognized basketball training program, Hanlen is one of the most respected and acclaimed NBA skills trainers and consultants in the world. His growing roster of NBA players include Jayson Tatum (Boston Celtics), Bradley Beal (Washington Wizards), Joel Embiid (Philadelphia 76ers) and Zach LaVine (Chicago Bulls).

Hanlen knows basketball. As a senior point guard for Belmont in 2011-12, he averaged 10.8 points and 3.9 assists a game, ranked second nationally in 3-point field goal percentage as a senior (.482) and was part of three consecutive NCAA Tournament teams at Belmont (2010, 2011, 2012).

Hanlen graduated from Belmont’s Entrepreneurship program in 2012. “Outside of the successful basketball program, the Massey College of Business was a huge reason why I chose Belmont,” said Hanlen. “They blend detailed teaching with real world experience to equip you with the education and tools you need to stand out and excel in the business world. To this day, I use skills that I acquired during my four years at Belmont to help grow all of my businesses.”

Hanlen’s job as an NBA Skills Coach is to analyze film and analytics to provide strategic step-by-step action plans to help players improve their games. He works with clients long-term as well as on shorter consulting arrangements. His unique approach is a crowd favorite as he relates his personal experiences in sports to the needs of his audience. Ever interested in growth opportunities, he has franchised the Pure Sweat experience with trainers who use the curriculum he developed to train other clients.

Hanlen is also a much-in-demand keynote speaker, available to speak on topics such as “Mastering the Unseen Hours” or “Becoming a Star by Impacting Team Success.” He was recognized on Real Leaders’ published list of the “Top 50 Keynote Speakers in the World” in 2020, joining the ranks with world renown speakers such as Brené Brown and Malcolm Gladwell. He also appears in Netflix’s recent basketball film “Hustle,” starring Adam Sandler, Queen Latifah and Utah Jazz forward Juancho Hernangomez.

Photo by Jake Matthews

R. MILTON JOHNSON Making Transformational Change Through Education

There are few people who better embody Belmont’s core values than R. Milton Johnson. A 1979 accounting graduate who currently serves as chair of Belmont’s Board of Trustees, Johnson is a 37-year veteran of Fortune 100 company HCA Healthcare. He retired in 2018 as CEO after serving in various financial and senior management positions for the company.

While his resume would certainly be remarkable for anyone, the Milton Johnson story truly reads as a blockbuster tale. Johnson attended Nashville’s Stratford High School, working multiple jobs to help his single mom support their family. Then as a student at Nashville State Community College, he balanced the weight of a fulltime job with the stresses of completing college courses, believing education could someday catapult him into a different situation. Johnson’s hard work paid off when he was offered an academic scholarship to what was then Belmont College, paving the way to an accounting degree and rapid career advancement.

From his earliest days as an alum, Johnson has remained a dedicated supporter of the University’s mission. The couple donated $10 million in 2019 to create a fund to support what is now known as the Bell Tower Scholars program, an initiative that helps to provide full scholarships to Belmont for qualified, high potential students from Metro Nashville Public Schools, including his own alma mater of Stratford High. In addition to their financial support, the Johnsons spend substantial time each year with the Scholars.

Committed to “paying it forward,” giving potentially hundreds of young people an opportunity to better their situations and follow in Milton’s footsteps. “My Belmont scholarship was a life-changing ex perience for me,” Johnson said, “and we want other Nashville public high school graduates to have the same opportunities at Belmont. We want these students to know that Belmont believes in them—we believe in them—and there are no limits to what they can achieve in life.”

More recently, the Johnsons donated an additional $10 million to Belmont, this time to benefit the University’s Thomas F. Frist, Jr. College of Medicine. Johnson said, “I’m eager to watch as the next generation of healthcare providers are trained at Belmont with a [drive like Tommy’s] to serve and care for patients, families and communities.”

Retired Belmont President Dr. Bob Fisher noted, “As an alum, [Milton] represents what Belmont is all about, truly using his education to make transformational change in the world.”

E.J. REED

Representing The Intersection Of Doing Well And Doing Good

Massey MBA alumni, serial entrepreneur and committed community member, E.J. Reed is a co-founder of Slim and Husky’s Pizza Beeria, a fast casual, artisan pizza shop chain with a love for hip-hop and R&B culture. Slim & Husky’s was founded on a shared dream inside of a garage in 2015. Reed and two friends started the gourmet pizza joint to serve unique pies and provide jobs and culture to their neighborhood in North Nashville. Since then, Slim and Husky’s has grown to 10 locations in Tennessee, Georgia and California.

Massey faculty member Dr. Mark Schenkel helped with Reed’s first business, back in 2009. At that time, Reed was working full time as a financial analyst, pursuing an MBA and starting a business. Dr. Schenkel was Reed’s entrepreneurship professor, and Reed found it extremely rewarding to work on his real-life business projects in that class. According to him, it was like having access to a consulting group, and it really impacted the success of his business at that time and continues to help with the success of his businesses today. Reed also loved that the instructors all had industry experience in addition to academic credentials.

For Reed, giving back is the most important thing. He wants to have a legacy of positive impact, of empowerment, of creating something meaningful. Slim and Husky’s purposefully opened the first location in the heart of Nashville’s 37208 zip code, known for having the highest incarceration rate in the U.S. He would like to bring a light of hope and a positive influence everywhere the business goes. The company is now building a national brand and helping uplift communities as they grow, providing jobs and positive attention.

Reed commented, “It feels awesome to create jobs that pay livable wages in communities that really need those jobs. It has also been incredibly rewarding to open the first African American-owned restaurant on Broadway. We’re excited to expand into the heart of Nashville, representing Nashville the right way, by breaking down barriers and helping lift up others.”

“IT FEELS AWESOME TO CREATE JOBS THAT PAY LIVABLE WAGES IN COMMUNITIES THAT REALLY NEED THOSE JOBS.”

E.J. REED

MAKENZIE STOKEL

Starting A Successful Business While Still In School

Like many students, Makenzie Stokel came to Belmont with a love for live music. In fact, during her freshman year she started planning house parties and small festivals with her friend, fellow Belmont student Channing Moreland. Stokel loved the music part of the business, but not the paperwork and uncertainty of booking live entertainment. She determined that there must be a more efficient way to manage the administrative side. In 2015, Stokel and Moreland formed a new business, EVA, to build an online platform to automate the process of booking entertainment.

After starting the new venture, Stokel quickly realized she needed to take business classes. She added an entrepreneurship major and began to develop her business in class with the help of faculty members and other student entrepreneurs.

Stokel commented, “All the Massey faculty members are so helpful, especially in the early days, Dr. Jeff Cornwall and Dr. Jose González in particular. We benefited so much from their teaching, ideas, experiences and connections. They are really open and always willing to talk and help. Massey’s small class sizes also facilitate relationships with faculty.”

Further, Stokel started using Massey resources outside the classroom, particularly with the Cone Center for Entrepreneurship. In 2013, she placed third in the Massey Entrepreneur Pitch Competition. In 2014, she won the Belmont Business Plan Competition, which led to even bigger opportunities. The Business Plan judges were so impressed, they encouraged Stokel and Moreland to participate in the Nashville Entrepreneur Center’s Project Music in 2015.

Stokel was offered funding for EVA in her junior year with the caveat that she and Moreland quit school. The pair decided to stay in school, wait a year to graduate and grow the business. After graduation, they raised $150,000 that they used that to invest in the EVA platform.

Symbolic of EVA’s growth and development, the company’s first customers were college students. Today, EVA has only corporate clients. The business has grown in Nashville and expanded into markets around the country.

KNIGHT LANCASTER

Melding Business and Legal Education For A Game-Changing Career

In 2019, alumnus Knight Lancaster became the first student to graduate from Belmont’s joint JD/MBA program. The program enables students to complete requirements for both demanding yet high-potential degrees in just three years. Today, Lancaster spends most of his time working on mergers, acquisitions, dispositions and security law matters.

Impressed by the bar passage and employment rates of Belmont Law students, Lancaster chose to enroll in the college. In his first year, Belmont announced the joint JD/MBA program, which had always been of interest to him. “Being a CPA, most attorneys I met with put me solely in a tax attorney ‘bucket,’ but I was mainly interested in focusing my taxation and accounting knowledge in the mergers & acquisitions and securities law areas.”

“My hope was that Belmont’s MBA program would broaden the op portunity to put my accounting and tax knowledge to use in the mergers & acquisitions and securities law areas. Ultimately, my education helped me break through in finding the career opportunity I wanted.”

He explained, “Legal advice and business advice have opposite fundamental purposes. At its core, an attorney’s primary role is to protect a business from unnecessary risk or make the business aware of risk and mitigate the same. The role of businesses is to generate a return to its shareholders, which inherently involves risk. This is the fundamental friction between business and legal objectives. The benefit of understanding both business and legal ‘languages’ at a fundamental level is that you can understand where your client is coming from and what is driving their decisions.”

He also found community in the College of Business thanks to the group nature of his MBA classes. Lancaster says he is immensely grateful for his time at Belmont and the opportunities that have come with it.

Currently, Lancaster is a member of the Tennessee Bar Association, Nashville Bar Association, American Institute of Certified Public Accountants and Tennessee Society of Certified Public Accountants, and sits on the board of the Young Leaders Council.

“My Belmont education was a difference-maker in my career,” he noted. “My ability to see through both the accounting and legal lenses at a high level allows me to give clients balanced guidance and provide creative solutions that correspond with their financial goals and, ultimately, enable them to help a wider range of people.”

THE PROMISE OF EXCELLENCE

The experiences of current students and the impact seen from the Massey College Centers provide a telling glimpse of ongoing excellence in action.

The future is now. For the “Generations of Excellence” for which the Massey College has become known to continue, the college must provide today’s students with an outstanding educational experience and offer opportunities and connections that deliver exceptional value for those students, as well as for faculty, staff, corporate partners and the community at large. A business school—particularly one bearing both the Belmont and Massey names—must demonstrate its ability to impart competence and character, inspiration and innovation. From the testimonies of current students to the activities and networking fostered by our centers, it is clear that future generations are, truly, in excellent hands.

PROMISE

RACHEL GRESHAM

Exploring the Business of Architecture

Rachel Gresham is a graduating Professional MBA student who brought her unique background of architecture with her to the Massey College. Prior to joining the Massey family, Rachel graduated from Virginia Tech with a Professional Bachelor of Architecture in 2013. She worked for several firms in Virginia, then moved to Nashville to be a part of the booming construction industry in late 2016. She has been a licensed architect since 2018.

Rachel’s interest in exploring work cultures is what originally brought her to the College of Business. She discovered that the concepts she loved had more to do with firm operations, work culture and education, and wanted to learn more about their integration with architecture to take her career to the next level. Attending Massey has allowed direct application of learned concepts and ideas to Rachel’s work where she can implement this knowledge to improve the workplace.

Since living in Nashville, she has worked with TMPartners, an architectural design firm and has been promoted several times in the last six years. She now has prominent contributions on the business side beyond the responsibilities of an architect. While working at TMPartners, she was influential in creating a Mentorship and Advocacy Program, and she also co-founded a Women in Architecture Committee for the American Institute of Architects Middle Tennessee Chapter that ultimately transi tioned into the Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) Committee. Recently, she took a position as lead of the Education Committee, which is responsible for helping TMPartners become an educational community where growth and learning are at the center of its practice. She also sat on the Board of Directors of The American Institute of Architects Middle Tennessee Chapter for four years.

Rachel attributes much of the growth in the workplace to her Professional MBA courses at Massey. One of her favorite classes was Organizational Behavior with Dr. Amy Crook where they discussed burnout and stress management. This was especially useful during the pandemic in 2020 when Rachel began classes at Massey. She was able to implement these tactics at work as well as teach her co-workers about the concepts so they could work through it together.

Massey has inspired Rachel to approach situations with a 360-degree view in a professional and per sonal sense. Rachel is proud of the edge that a Massey Professional MBA has added to her career and is ready to attack the next part of her life with a sense of strategy and that same 360-degree view.

AVERY McCONKEY

Leaning Into the Family Business

Entrepreneurship and finance double major Avery McConkey hails from Danville, Illinois and comes from a family of entrepreneurs whose ventures include Dawson Logistics, Turtle Run Golf & Banquet Center and Snapper’s Bar & Grill. Avery, an entrepreneur at heart himself with literally hundreds of business ideas, has already begun his entrepreneurial journey by founding Street Supply Jewelry & Apparel in 2020.

A high school quarterback, Avery has a leadership mentality and always strives to help bring others up. He also has a love of numbers, investments and securities. His favorite classes so far have been Investment Portfolio Management with Dr. John Gonas and Foundation in Entrepreneurship with Dr. Mark Schenkel. Avery is also grateful for the relationship he has with his advisor, Dr. Jose González, and appreciates what he has learned about business law from Dr. Haskell Murray.

Taking advantage of Massey resources outside of class, Avery participated in the Cone Center for Entrepreneurship Business Plan Competition and received an Excellence in Entrepreneurship Grant. During his remaining time at Belmont, Avery plans to study abroad and participate in more competitions.

According to Avery, the Massey College of Business is special because faculty members really care about students and genuinely enjoy helping them be successful, both while they are here on campus and as alumni. Professors push students out of their comfort zones and help them approach problem solving from different perspectives.

“At Massey, you’re in for a treat with your professors, and those are relationships I will take with me for life. And down the road, I’ll give back in any way I can,” commented Avery.

THOMAS F. CONE SR. CENTER FOR ENTREPRENEURSHIP

Entrepreneurship at Belmont began in 2003 by Dr. Jeff Cornwall with the launch of the major, minor and Center for Entrepreneurship concurrently. The Center empowers student entrepreneurs and promotes a spirit of entrepreneurship by providing resources and opportunities to create innovative, ethical and globally minded businesses.

With a generous $2 million gift in 2019, the Center was named the Thomas F. Cone Sr. Center for Entrepreneurship allowing the Center to expand resources and reach with students and alumni. Consistently ranked in the Top 25 Entrepreneur Programs by Princeton Review and Entrepreneur Magazine, the Cone Center is at the forefront of entrepreneurial education.

“We work with students from all majors across campus to support their entrepreneurial journey—from ideation, to launch and scaling the business” said Cone Center Executive Director, Elizabeth Gortmaker. “Our alumni have started over 800 businesses in six countries around the world.”

Massey College curriculum offers a hands-on, co-curricular approach that encourages an entrepreneurial mindset in all students as they learn ethics, finance, business models, market opportunity and growth management. Recent years have seen the launch of an annual Entrepreneurship Village, to celebrate student and alumni businesses, as well as an event garnering significant attention and enthusiasm, the Top 100 Alumni Entrepreneurs Honors.

EDWARD C. KENNEDY CENTER FOR BUSINESS ETHICS

The Center for Business Ethics was founded in 1994 by Professor of Management Dr. Harry N. Hollis to further ethical practice in business. In November 2012, the Massey College of Business celebrated a generous endowment from civic leader and Belmont Trustee Helen Kennedy who named the Center of Business Ethics in honor of her late husband Edward C. Kennedy. Mr. Kennedy, also a Belmont Trustee, was widely known for his unwavering commitment to fair, honest and ethical business practices.

“The Edward C. Kennedy Center for Business Ethics is an integral part of the cocurricular ethics programs offered to both Massey students and others across campus,” said Boyd Smith, Kennedy Center director. “The Center supports students’ development of moral clarity grounded in sound critical thinking and reasoning to be ethically prepared to confront the complex ethical challenges in today’s business world.”

Through the Kennedy’s generous endowment, the Center continues to support business ethics endeavors outside of the classroom including hosting subject matter expert speakers, case study and essay competitions, community service projects and the Student Chapter of the Center for Public Trust (CPT). Today, the Center continues its mission to nurture conversations around business ethics, empower leaders to face current crises in business ethics and educate ethical business leaders for flourishing communities.

NASCAR’s Dave Alpern speaks with students

Entrepreneurship Village

CENTER FOR INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS

The Center for International Business was established in 2009 after Belmont’s Massey College was awarded the first-ever Business and International Education grant from the U.S. Department of Education. The two-year grant supported the growth of international business education at Belmont and sponsored international business teaching programs for the Nashville community. Since that time, the center has continued to expand its program of offerings, with a goal to prepare students and the Nashville-area business community to make the world a better place through purpose, character and a transformational mindset.

“Our most essential role is to cultivate global mindsets across the Belmont community,” said Director Dr. Marieta Velikova. “Year after year, national survey data reveals both students and employers rank cross-cultural sensitivity and global awareness as their lowest competency. While curriculum and extra-curriculum activities including study abroad are important, global mindset is not just a skill set, it is truly a lifelong human curiosity, openness, empathy, humility and ability to walk in the shoes of the other.”

BEASLEY CENTER FOR FREE ENTERPRISE

Founded in 2018, Belmont’s Thomas W. Beasley Center for Free Enterprise is committed to exploring and providing education and programming about the impact of free enterprise in American society. The Center communicates the relationships between free enterprise, growth and economic prosperity, fosters the ideals of ethical and moral behavior in a system of free enterprise and highlights the roles therein of rule of law, democratic governance and competitive markets. The Center’s $2 million dollar endowment in the Massey College supports the study of the free enterprise system, provides support for an Institute director and sponsorship of business-minded student organizations.

“The Thomas W. Beasley Center for Free Enterprise aspires to become a global thought leader in free enterprise education and scholarship with a strong emphasis on student and commu- nity engagement in order to cultivate flourishing commu nities,” said Beasley Center Director Dr. Howard Cochran. “Our steadfast defense of the free enterprise system is founded on competition and free markets, better life and opportunities, individual and social responsibility, character with purpose and economic freedom with abundance for all.”

EXECUTIVE LEARNING NETWORK

The Executive Learning Network (ELN) is an innovative program created as an avenue for Nashville’s best-run companies to learn from each other as well as from world class speakers through an annual leadership development series. In 1990, Clayton McWhorter, then Chairman and President of HealthTrust, and Bill Trout, then President of Belmont University, started the planning for shared experiences through learning networks and the Peer Learning Network (PLN) was born.

With a grant from HealthTrust, the Peer Learning Network was initially projected for a two-year run, with 12 company members. Now 32 years later their initial plans have turned into a legacy of learning that continues to flourish wth over 40 corporate and nonprofit members, and over 450 executive learners in 2022. It’s been said that “the most powerful factors in the world are clear ideas in the minds of energetic men of good will.” Executive Learning Network reflects this sentiment with educating over 4,000 executives and presenting over 250 sessions throughout its history on campus.

Global Town Hall conversation on “War in Europe”

EXCELLENCE ON THE HORIZON

Massey Dean Dr. Sarah Gardial Looks To The Future

While we take legitimate pride in celebrating Massey’s past 50 years, it is also important to imagine the coming decades and take stock of how we are poised for the future. While much is unknown, we can agree that the velocity of change will require agility, innovation and courage. What prevailing themes will characterize our future? And what are the signs that Massey is preparing for them? Here are a few thoughts.

TECHNOLOGY AND DATA UBIQUITY

We are living the marvels—and perils—of increasing technological sophistication every day. Future business success will require data literacy and fluency, and Massey is already pursuing the following initiatives:

• Expanding content in business systems and analytics, including data manipulation and visualization, predictive analytics and cyber security.

• Increasing data proficiency across all majors, e.g., digital marketing strategies, quantitative financial and economic modeling and supply chain analytics.

• Engaging co-curricular opportunities, such as hackathons in collaboration with the Belmont Data Collaborative, so students can apply data-driven problem solving in relevant, realistic contexts.

LIFE-LONG LEARNING

The speed of change will also require true life-long learning. It is impossible for college graduates to know everything they will need throughout their careers, and organizations to increase knowledge acquisition and upskilling. Educational institutions must disregard “graduation” as the endgame. We must engage and retain our students throughout their careers with refreshed content, including degree and non-degree options. Just-in-time and targeted learning options will be “stacked” over a lifetime and more conveniently delivered to working professionals. Massey is already going there, collaborating on a Belmont infrastructure to support non-degree learning in the form of certificates, competencies and badges while also partnering with Metro Nashville organizations to assess needs and strategically determine opportunities in continuing education.

MIXED MODALITIES AND THE REDEFINED CLASSROOM

Belmont has built its reputation on classroom environments where student-to-student and student-to-faculty interactions flourish. However, the future includes an explosion of educational modalities that will further enhance and complement in-person learning. Our faculty will need to be proficient in a variety of multi-modal delivery models, where the classroom is unbound by time and space and each student will have his/her own customized learning pathway. Yet, the need for teachers to guide, mentor, encourage, debate and provide nuance and context will be more important than ever. Information will be the commodity, but students’ journeys from knowledge to skill mastery to wisdom is a far higher bar that will benefit from social interactions. Massey is moving toward that future in a number of concrete ways:

• Investing in faculty development and training for the use of technology in the classroom and technology as the classroom and creating digital learning environments that mirror the business environment.

• Diving into the challenges of multi-modal learning, exploring student engagement in virtual environments and matching student needs with emerging learning tools.

• Discerning how to expand the classroom experience while maintaining the rich faculty-student relationships that are core to learning and to Massey’s DNA.

MORE PLAYLISTS, FEWER SILOS

We are already seeing the “deconstruction” of graduate degrees into stackable certificates and the just-in-time needs of working professionals. The natural extension of that trend into undergraduate programs seems likely, resulting in more flexible scheduling for students (coursework “playlists” rather than the more rigid “vinyl” of degree plans) and “sampling” classes or certificates across the disciplinary silos. The future will require more interdisciplinary studies, including educational pathways that are customized to solving societal problems.

To that end, Massey is already experimenting with joint graduate and compressed (3+1) undergraduate/graduate degrees. In addition, early-stage discussions have targeted the intersection of the arts, digital design and communication, marketing and entrepreneurship. This emerging skill set increasingly appears in industry demand, and it would benefit from the partnership of multiple colleges at Belmont.

In sum, Massey has begun to address many emerging educational challenges, even as we double-down on what we have traditionally done well—empowering students with an entrepreneurial mindset and a strong sense of purpose. To be sure, our next 50 years are full of change, promise and opportunity. Join us on the journey!

Dr. Sarah Gardial Dean, Massey College of Business

SUPPORTING EXCELLENCE

You Are Invited To Be A Part Of The Massey College’s Next 50 Years

Achieving this vision for the Massey College in our next 50 years will require support, and our alumni and friends’ gifts of time, talent and treasure are the “plus factors” that will allow us to make a God-sized impact on students, the Nashville community and the world. This is an invitation to join us in pursuit of that vision. We encourage you to consider the following opportunities.

ALUMNI ENGAGEMENT

It all starts with connectivity—Massey to our alumni and our alumni to each other. We need to track, engage and com municate with alums who will walk with and support us. Massey has launched Alumni Fire, an opt-in, intuitive website for this purpose. In addition to connecting the alumni community, participants can specify the exact type and level of Massey engagement they desire, as well as create unique sub-communities.

To get started, visit belmontmassey.alumnifire.com

COMMUNITY PARTNERS

Our students and faculty are actively engaged with the for-profit and non profit communities in Nashville: creating meaningful internships and student employment; bringing leaders into our classrooms; developing “live cases” for real world, hands-on student applications; and collaborating on social entrepreneurship to build stronger, flourishing communities in the Metro area.

If your organization would like to engage in ways that are win-win-win for students, your firm and the community, please contact Jill Robinson, Assistant Dean for External Relations and Strategic Partnerships, at jill.robinson@belmont.edu

THE $50 FOR THE 50TH CHALLENGE

Did you know that the average percentage of alumni giving to private universities is a mere 8%, though top universities have a giving rate of more than 40%? Would it surprise you that the percentage of Belmont alumni annual giving is at that 8% average? We can do so much better. Here is a challenge: each Massey alumnus will donate $50 to our annual giving fund in this anniversary year and commit to the habit of annual giving. Thousands of smaller gifts truly make a difference.

To make your donation, visit give.belmont.edu

THE 50TH ANNIVERSARY CAMPAIGN

In planning for the next 50 years, we have established priorities for fundraising in three key areas (see below).

We invite you to direct a special 50th anniversary campaign gift to one or more of these and help us reach our $5 million campaign goal.

We can get there with your support: give.belmont.edu/massey50 Please RSVP to one or more of these invitations. Together we can carve a pathway for success in Massey’s next 50-year journey.

50TH ANNIVERSARY CAMPAIGN PRIORITIES

ENTREPRENEURSHIP

President Jones has made developing an entrepreneurial mindset a priority for all Belmont students, regardless of major.

Your gift will help Massey enhance campus-wide programming and activities through our nationally ranked Cone Center for Entrepreneurship.

FACULTY INNOVATION

Alumni know that Massey faculty are second-to-none. Still, we must support their needs for enhanced, life-long professional training and development— in the classroom, in their scholarship and in community outreach activities. We cannot overlook the needs of our top-notch faculty. Make a donation in honor of your favorite Belmont mentors.

STUDENT DIVERSITY SCHOLARSHIP

Student financial support is critical to recruiting and retaining top students, and especially so with underrepresented student groups. If we are to have classrooms that better mirror the diverse workplace and address the hiring concerns of our employers, we must raise addi tional scholarship dollars for this purpose.