Newsmakers: Area leaders named to university boards

Patrick Sanders

BANKING/FINANCE

Fifth Third Bank N.A. on April 6 announced that Ron Harrison has joined Fifth Third as senior vice president and North Texas market executive .He will report to Scott Silvas, Texas market president for Fifth Third Bank.

The DEC Network has announced the appointment of Tim Hill as Fiduciary Board Chairman. The role was previously held by Co-Founder of The DEC Network, Trey Bowles, and Bowles will still serve as a board member and Chairman Emeritus. 

Christian Corts will serve as Truist Bank North Texas regional president, the bank announced. Corts previously served as Eastern Tennessee regional president for Truist, a role he has held since 2019, following the merger of equals between BB&T and SunTrust Bank.

Vortus Investment Advisors LLC, a Fort Worth-based private equity firm,  announced that Luke Brandenberg joined the company as Managing Director. Brandenberg will be a key member of the Investment Team responsible for various stages of the investment cycle including sourcing, structuring, transactional due diligence, monitoring and management.

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D.R. Horton Inc. announced April 21 that its Board of Directors has appointed former Secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Dr. Benjamin S. Carson Sr. as an independent director. Carson was also named as a member of the Nominating and Governance, Audit and Compensation Committees.

EDUCATION

Texas Woman’s University has selected Rama Yelkur, a longtime faculty leader, professor, accomplished marketing and international business expert and board member — with a strong background in long-range planning, community outreach and fundraising — to head the College of Business. She begins her duties as dean on June 1.

She has Texas ties, serving as an assistant professor of marketing at Texas A&M International University in Laredo earlier in her career.

Yelkur has served as dean at two other institutions, most recently in the School of Business at St. John Fisher College in New York. Prior to that, she was dean of the Carmona College of Business and Management at Saginaw Valley State University in Michigan.

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Gov. Greg Abbott has appointed James R. “Randy” Brooks and reappointed William “Bill” Mahomes Jr. and Robert L. “Bob” Albritton to the Texas A&M University System Board of Regents for terms set to expire on Feb. 1, 2027.

Albritton of Fort Worth is the Chairman and CEO of Mayfair Investments LLC. He is chairman of the Committee on Finance, member of the Committee on Academic and Student Affairs, and a liaison to the Development Foundations of A&M System Members. He is a former member of the Committee on Audit, Committee on Buildings and Physical Plant, and former liaison to the Texas A&M University Corps of Cadets and System Military Training Programs.

Albritton received a Bachelor of Business Administration from Texas A&M University, and served as a 2nd Lieutenant in the United States Air Force.

These appointments are subject to Senate confirmation

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Abbott has appointed Arcilia Acosta, Cody Campbell, and Pat Gordon to the Texas Tech University System Board of Regents for terms set to expire on January 31, 2027.

Campbell of Fort Worth is Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Double Eagle Energy Holdings and Double Eagle Development. He is a member of the board of directors of the Texas Public Policy Foundation, the board of trustees of All Saints Episcopal School of Fort Worth, and is president and board member of Double Eagle Charities. Campbell received a Bachelor of Business Administration in Finance and Economics and a Master of Science in Finance from Texas Tech University.

These appointments are subject to Senate confirmation.

GOVERNMENT

Fort Worth Library director Manya Shorr has been selected as Librarian of the Year by the Texas Library Association. While she has proven herself to be a stellar librarian and director over the years, Shorr truly shined in 2020, the organization said.

In February she traveled to Austin to advocate for libraries to legislators. In August 2020, the new Golden Triangle branch of the Fort Worth Public Library opened. She also oversaw a large-scale project called “Amplify 817” that launched in 2020.

The Distinguished Service Award went to Ana Cleveland, Ph.D., Regents Professor in the Department of Information Science at the University of North Texas.

Cleveland has been a leader in library and information sciences education for more than 40 years, the association said.

Gov. Greg Abbott has reappointed Manny Ramirez to the Board of the Texas Department of Motor Vehicles for a term that will expire on Feb. 1, 2027. The Texas Department of Motor Vehicles provides customer services that include vehicle registration, regulation of vehicle dealers, and grants to reduce vehicle burglaries and thefts, among others.

Abbott has reappointed Katie McClure and Rona Stratton Gouyton to the Governing Board Texas Civil Commitment Office for terms set to expire on Feb. 1, 2027. The office is responsible for the provision of treatment and supervision to civilly committed sex offenders.

McClure of Kingwood is an attorney at the Peterson Law Group. Previously, she served as an assistant district attorney for Tarrant County, where she was a felony prosecutor in the Crimes Against Children Unit, lead juvenile division sex crimes prosecutor and the point of contact for families of abuse victims.

She is a former member of the Ellis County District Attorney’s Child Abuse Multidisciplinary Team and a former member of the Scotty’s House Brazos Valley Child Advocacy Center Board of Directors. She is a member of the State Bar of Texas and a former legal writing instructor for The University of Texas at Arlington Paralegal Program. McClure received a Bachelor of Arts from Texas A&M University and a Juris Doctor degree from the University of Texas School Of Law.

Gouyton of Fort Worth is retired from Complex Printing after 25 years of service to the company. She frequently speaks to victim services groups and panels and law enforcement agencies regarding victim awareness within the criminal justice field.

She is a founding member of Victims of Violence and Families of Murder Victims and served as a member of the Board of Pardons and Paroles Victim Advisory Board and also assists in an advisory capacity for The Foundation for Child Impact Projects which provides services to help children survive various traumas. Gouyton has received the Courage Award from the Council on Sex Offender Treatment and the Mitch Poe Public Service Award from the Tarrant County Sexual Abuse Advisory Council. These appointments are subject to Senate confirmation.

NONPROFITS

Child Care Associates (CCA) has hired early childhood development leader Patrick Sanders as its deputy director for the Head Start program to  oversee Family Engagement Department, Home-Visiting Program, and Nutrition and Health Services while supporting CCA’s Head Start director guide program policy and operations.

Sanders attended Stephen F. Austin State University where he earned a bachelor’s degree in social work and a master’s degree in public administration. Before joining CCA, Sanders served as program director of Child Inc. in Austin, overseeing the Early Head Start, Head Start, Home Base, Summer Learning and After School Care Programs.

SALES

Denton-based SPERE Corp, an energy management company servicing the business community, has announced the appointment of Timmy Monico – PHOTO – as national sales manager.

SUPPLY CHAIN

Kevin Erickson has been appointed chief people and diversity officer at Incora.  Erickson leads the company’s global human resources (HR) function, with responsibility for Incora’s people strategy including driving diversity, equity and inclusion while fostering a “one-Incora” culture that inspires and motivates employees around a shared set of values and goals.