Appalachian’s Foundation Board elects new officers, board members

Posted Dec. 17, 2015 at 2:09 p.m.

BOONE—Four officers and five new members have been elected to the Appalachian State University Foundation Board of Directors.

Officers elected to a one-year term are Rocky Proffit of Davidson, chairman; Thomas E. “Ted” Chandler Jr. of Burlington, vice chairman; James K. Reaves of Kernersville, secretary; and Joe Piacentino of Charlotte, treasurer.

New board members elected to three-year terms are Talana J. Bell of Dothan, Alabama, Michael K. Brown of Banner Elk, James W. Covington of Blowing Rock, Avery Hall Sr. of Kernersville and Bixby O. Stewart of Atlanta.

About the officers

Rocky Proffit: Proffit has served for 13 years on the foundation board. A 1977 graduate of Appalachian, Proffit is president and CEO of NAPCO, a specialty packaging design and manufacturing company in Sparta.
Ted Chandler: Chandler has served on the board for six years. He is president of Chandler Concrete Company. He graduated from Appalachian in 1982 with a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration degree in finance and management.
James K. Reaves: Reaves has been a member of the foundation board for three years. He is a senior vice president of BB&T’s Life and Financial Planning Department in Winston-Salem. A 1993 graduate of Appalachian, he is former president of the Appalachian Alumni Association and a former president of the Yosef Advisory Board.
Joe Piacentino: Piacentino has served on the foundation board for two years. He is senior vice president/chief financial officer for Balfour Beatty Construction in Charlotte. He graduated from Appalachian in 1991 with a bachelor’s degree in accounting.

About the board members

Talana J. Bell: Bell is a retired chief financial officer of Flowers Hospital in Dothan, Alabama. She graduated from Appalachian in 1986 with a BSBA in accounting and earned CPA designation following graduation. While a student, she worked in the Appalachian State University Foundation office.
Michael K. Brown: Brown is retired from Lowe’s Companies Inc. He is the owner, majority owner or a managing member of property management, residential land development and real estate companies. He also owns an automotive dealership in Spruce Pine, North Carolina. He is a graduate of Wilkes Community College.
James W. Covington: Covington is a retired market president of Capital One Bank in Manhattan, New York. A graduate of the University of Alabama, Covington has more than 20 years of banking and management experience, including leading banks in Florida. He was active in civic and business organizations in New York and Florida before making North Carolina home. He holds an undergraduate degree from the University of Alabama.
Avery Hall Sr.: Hall is a senior vice president with Wells Fargo in Greensboro. He served two terms on Appalachian’s Board of Trustees and was a member of the steering committee for the Campaign for Appalachian. Hall earned a Bachelor of Science degree in communications and public relations from Appalachian in 1993 and an MBA from Pfeiffer University in 2002.
Bixby O. Stewart: Stewart graduated from Appalachian in 2009 with a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration degree with a concentration in finance and banking. He graduated from The Fuqua School of Business at Duke University in 2014 with an MBA with a dual concentration in corporate and investment finance. He is a fixed income research analyst with Invesco Ltd.

About the Appalachian State University Foundation

The Appalachian State University Foundation exists solely to help create the best possible learning environment for Appalachian State University students. The foundation provided more than $106.18 million in support of university activities in the past 10 years. It operates as a nonprofit Internal Revenue Code Sec. 501(c)(3) organization.

About Appalachian State University

As the premier public undergraduate institution in the state of North Carolina, Appalachian State University prepares students to lead purposeful lives as global citizens who understand and engage their responsibilities in creating a sustainable future for all. The Appalachian Experience promotes a spirit of inclusion that brings people together in inspiring ways to acquire and create knowledge, to grow holistically, to act with passion and determination, and to embrace diversity and difference. Located in the Blue Ridge Mountains, Appalachian is one of 17 campuses in the University of North Carolina System. Appalachian enrolls more than 19,000 students, has a low student-to-faculty ratio and offers more than 150 undergraduate and graduate majors.