Campbell Business School honored and celebrated alumni while past graduates returned to engage with students during its 2017 Alumni Celebration Day on Oct. 27. The event was in concert with the university homecoming festivities. Ken Swayze received the 2017 Outstanding Alumnus Award, while Cassie Wallace was named the 2017 Outstanding Young Alumna. More than 120 students from all majors within the college attended the awards ceremony.
In addition to Swayze and Wallace being recognized, seven alums spoke with students in various classes and presented information and experiences relevant to the course material. The returning graduates included Bob Bucy ’94 (Freudenberg IT LP, SAP Service Delivery Manager), Ashley Daughtridge ‘08 (IRS, Criminal Investigation Division Agent), Tom Jacobs ’93 (Activent Marketing, Founder & Partner), Robby Braxton ’07 (IRS, Office of the Chief Counsel Attorney), Ryan Newkirk ’01 (Wells Fargo, Senior Vice President), Tara Wilson ’89 (Lulu Max Jewelry, Artist/Owner), and Bill Whitley ’84 (The Bill Whitley Company, Speaker/Author/Coach).
“Alumni weekend is always an exciting event on a college campus,” said Campbell Business Dean Dr. Kevin O’Mara. “Alumni return to reconnect with fellow alums and their university. They reminisce, reconnect, and remember special times. Thanks to the efforts of Jill Williamson and Maurissa Miller, we had a great day where alums connected with our current students in classes and over lunch. A hallmark of strong business schools is their solid alumni relations, so we are grateful for our Campbell Business alumni.
“We were also very excited to have had the opportunity to honor two of our alumni. It is fitting that on the 50th anniversary of the Trust & Wealth Management program that its first graduate, Ken Swayze, received the Outstanding Alumnus Award. Ken set the tone for this outstanding program.
“We could not have found a better recipient than Cassie Wallace for Outstanding Young Alumna. Cassie is in the midst of a very successful career, raising a wonderful family of small children, and giving back to her community with her service efforts. What a great role model for our students.”
Swayze was born at Ft. Liberty in Fayetteville and graduated from Lillington High School in 1967. He attended NC State University for two years before transferring to Campbell in the fall of 1969. Swayze entered the business curriculum and graduated from Campbell in December 1971 with a Bachelors of Business Administration, having completed the course study in trust education.
He was recruited on campus by BB&T and hired prior to graduation. He joined the trust department at BB&T in Wilson in January 1972. In 1978, he obtained his degree from the National Graduate Trust School at Northwestern University.
While at BB&T, Swayze was recruited to start a trust department for First Federal Savings Bank of Hendersonville in the fall of 1986. In July 1991, First Federal was acquired and Swayze joined the personal trust group of First Citizens as Regional Manager of the Hendersonville office. He continued in that role until his retirement in October 2014, with nearly 44 years in the trust business.
Swayze has served on the Trust Education Foundation Board at Campbell for much of his working career. He was dean of the Southeastern Trust School in 1998 and chaired the Trust Education Foundation in 1999. Since retirement, he has remained active on the foundation board and has taught the Trust Administration class at SETS each summer. He maintains his CTFA while serving on numerous civic boards and his church.
Wallace is a Principal at Echo Health Ventures, the investment company for Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina and Cambia Health Solutions located in Durham. In this role, she focuses on diversifying earning for the health plan parent organizations through healthcare investments and market development. Prior to joining Echo, she was a Principal at Mosaic Health Solutions, the investment arm of Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina. For the past decade, she has worked within multiple areas of BCBSNC focusing on marketing, strategy, healthcare consulting and business development. Before joining BCBSNC, she was Vice President of Marketing at Fidelity Bank in Fuquay-Varina, a $1B regional financial institution. Wallace is also owner of Fieldstone Perspectives, LLC, a strategy consulting company working with clients in various industries, including healthcare.
Wallace, along with her husband Travis, serves on the board of directors of A Hand of Hope pregnancy resource center and is a member of Campbell Business Advisory Council, in which she serves as vice-chair. She has also served on for-profit boards related to her work in the healthcare space.
Wallace earned her MBA degree from Campbell in 2002 and her BBA in Finance and Economics in 2000 from Valdosta State University.