Carpinella, Ron

Class of '05
Veoh Networks, Director

Ron Carpinella joined the alumni council in 2007. Carpinella has worked in the marketing and advertising industry for over seventeen years, including a decade in the online media world. An authority on internet marketing, he is a veteran of Google, CMGI, J. Walter Thompson, Foote Cone & Belding. In his current position, Carpinella is building the advertising sales operations at Allconnect, in Atlanta. In his spare time, he serves as an officer in the U.S. Navy Reserve and in municipal government. He is passionate about flying, Porsches, and shows his 1959 convertible at shows around the south.

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Chappell, Scott

Class of '94
BIA Digital Partners, Partner - Private Equity Investor

Scott Chappell is a partner with BIA Digital Partners, a private investment firm with over $280 million of capital under management. BIA provides subordinated debt and equity capital to middle-market companies operating in the media, communications, information services, and business services industries. Scott joined BIA Digital Partners in 2001 and has served as a board member on ten of BIA’s portfolio companies. Prior to BIA, Scott was an investment banker with Thomas Weisel Partners in New York and with First Union Securities (now Wachovia Securities) in Charlotte. Scott received a B.S. in Business Administration with Honors from the University of Georgia and an MBA from the Fuqua School of Business at Duke University, where he was a Fuqua Scholar. Prior to Fuqua, Scott was a Senior Consultant with Andersen Consulting (now Accenture) in Atlanta. Scott is married with three children and lives in Charlotte, NC. He enjoys participating in and coaching sports including lacrosse, basketball, and soccer. He and his wife teach a 5th grade Sunday School class. He remains involved with both Fuqua and the University of Georgia.

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Childre, Jimmy

Class of '01
Childre Ford-Mercury, Inc., President

Jimmy Childre opened his full-service Ford dealership, Childre Ford-Mercury, after working for three years as General Manager in his father’s General Motors dealership. Childre is past Chairman of the Atlanta District Ford Dealers Advertising Association and the past Vice Chairman of Ford’s National Dealer Council, a group that works directly with senior management at Ford Motor Company on behalf of all Ford dealers in the country. Childre’s dealership has won numerous awards including Ford’s prestigious Chairman’s Award. In 2007 Childre received a master of studies degree in community enterprise from the Judge Business School, University of Cambridge, and a Health Sector Management certificate from The Fuqua School of Business. His research interest at Cambridge University was focused on strategic decision making in U.S. community hospitals. Past academic pursuits include graduation from Harvard Business School’s Owner/President Management Program and a BBA in accounting from Georgia Southern University. Childre is a fellow of the Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures, and Commerce. He is Chairman of the Washington County Regional Medical Center and a Trustee and past Chairman of the Georgia Southern University Foundation. Childre also serves on the boards for the Citizens Bank of Washington County and the Buckley School of Public Speaking and Disciplined Thinking. He is a past board member of the Georgia Southern University College of Business Administration, of which he was named “Alumnus of the Year” in 1993. Childre is active in Rotary International where he is a Paul Harris Fellow and past President of the Sandersville Rotary Club.

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Conkling, Lori

Class of '99
Lifetime Networks, Executive Vice President, Distribution

Lori Conkling was named Executive Vice President, Distribution, of Lifetime Networks, in March 2008. In her role, Conkling is responsible for overseeing Lifetime Network's overall distribution strategy across multiple platforms, from linear, VOD, HD and interactive to mobile, including Lifetime Television and Lifetime Movie Network, the #1 and #2 networks for women, as well as Lifetime Real Women. She also supervises the expansion of new and existing product platforms, including Lifetime On Demand, Lifetime HD and Lifetime Movie Network HD, and oversees such areas as field sales, national accounts, affiliate marketing, affiliate ad sales, affiliate strategy and distribution legal.

Conkling joined Lifetime from Disney and ESPN Media Networks, where, since 2004, she served as Vice President, National Accounts. While there, she was responsible for executing complex, multi-product national distribution deals for linear channels, VOD and pay-per-view services, broadband products and interactive TV applications. In her role, Conkling negotiated on behalf of Disney, ESPN, ABC and ABC News, among others. She rose to this position after having served as Director, National Accounts, for the ABC Cable Networks Group.

Prior to joining Disney and ESPN Media Networks, Conkling worked in the Media & Entertainment practice at Accenture (formerly Andersen Consulting), specializing in analyzing and developing corporate strategies for publishing, film and telecommunications companies.

Conkling received a B.S. in Business Administration from the University of Southern California and a MBA from the Fuqua School of Business at Duke University. She also is a member of Class 12 of the Betsy Magness Leadership Institute, WICT's prestigious training program for executive women in the telecommunications industry.

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Creech, Todd

Class of '03
Sirion Therapeutics, Chief Financial Officer

Todd Creech is the CFO of Sirion Therapeutics, a private pharmaceutical company that develops and markets ophthalmic pharmaceuticals. He is responsible for financing strategy, accounting, capital structure, treasury, compensation structure, and information technology activities of the company. To date, Sirion has raised over $105 million in debt and equity to finance operations, including the launch of their first product in 2008 and the ongoing development of four additional late-stage clinical programs. Prior to Sirion, Todd worked with NovaQuest, the investment group within Quintiles, Inc, where he structured, placed and managed capital investments into U.S. emerging biotechs, including the investment that launched Sirion Therapeutics. Prior to NovaQuest, Todd co-founded Centice, an optical sensor spin-out of Duke University. He has over 10 years of experience investing in and consulting to pharmaceutical and biotech companies, including consulting for startups and Fortune 100 companies while at SRI International and Andersen Consulting. Todd holds bachelor's degrees in Finance and Accounting from Miami (Ohio) University and a MBA from Duke University (Daytime 2003; Health Sector Management). He and his wife, Heather, live in Tampa, Florida, and have two children: Ty (four) and Caden (2).

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Crew, Jason

Class of '05
GE Energy, Gasification, Product Line Manager, 50Hz IGCC

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