Syan Rhodes - Anchor
NBC Affiliate WESH 2

Syan Rhodes joined the WESH 2 News team in November 2007. Before coming to Orlando, Rhodes spent two years as weekend anchor at WMC-TV, the NBC affiliate in Memphis, Tenn., and three years as a reporter and weekend morning anchor at WBIR-TV, the NBC affiliate in Knoxville, Tenn. She also worked as an investigative reporter and weekend anchor for KETK-TV the NBC affiliate in Tyler, Texas.

Rhodes is a graduate of the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University. During her time at Northwestern, Syan was a part of a team of journalism students that freed an innocent man from Illinois death row.

Panelists:

Margarita Anderson and her family made history and dominated headlines as national media covered their real-life case study in self-help economics in the Black community. The Anderson family lived exclusively off Black business and talent, and bought only Black-made products for an entire year. Their experiment resulted in a landmark study conducted by Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Business. Since the completion of their landmark experiment, Margarita has become the leader of a new “smart and sophisticated” movement which identifies and uplifts quality Black businesses, and urges consumers, especially other middle and upper class African Americans, to proactively and publicly support them in order to infuse much needed wealth into economically starved neighborhoods.

Maggie is the author of the upcoming and highly anticipated book about The Empowerment Experiment (EE), “Our Black Year”, presented by William Morris Entertainment and Public Affairs Books. Maggie is a first-generation Cuban-American, the only American born member of her family. Maggie has a BA in Political Science from Emory University and earned a JD and MBA from the University of Chicago.

Kimberly Corbin, on January 3, 2011, was appointed as President and CEO of the National Black MBA Association (NBMBAA), an organization committed to the development of educational and economic growth for African-American professionals.

Corbin holds an MBA from the Harvard Graduate School of Business Administration and an undergraduate degree from Florida A&M University. She has an impressive record of accomplishment in Corporate America where she started and led a corporate operations group charged with driving performance management. Most recently, Corbin was involved in an entrepreneurial venture that provided educational services. Prior to this, she served in various executive-level positions at American Capital, LTD; General Electric Commercial Finance, Inc.; Fieldstone Private Capital Group; and Bankers Trust Company.

Gilmer joined heritage Mellon Financial Corporation in September of 2003. In his initial role, Gilmer worked as Chief Financial Officer for Mellon’s Asset Servicing Sector. Prior to and immediately following Mellon’s merger with the Bank of New York, Gilmer assumed the role of Chief Administrative Officer for Asset Servicing. In May, 2008, Gilmer again joined the finance team as CFO for the Asset Servicing business and has since added additional responsibility as CFO for Global Markets as well as CFO for Global Client Management.

Prior to joining Mellon, Gilmer worked at JP Morgan Chase as CFO for the Securities Processing and Fund Servicing line of business. Gilmer received a Masters in Business Administration from the University of Rhode Island and a Bachelors degree in Accounting from Westfield State University, where he is currently a member of the Board of Trustees.

Entrepreneur.  Lawyer.  Professor.  Legislator.  Mayor.  President, U.S. Conference of Mayors.  CEO of the National Urban League, the nation’s largest civil rights organization.  As an Entrepreneur, Morial started several successful small businesses -- an apparel wholesale company, a special events company, and a janitorial company, his first venture at age 15 with two childhood friends.

As a Lawyer, Morial was also one of the youngest lawyers, at age 26, to argue and win a major case before the Louisiana Supreme Court. As a Professor, Morial served on the adjunct faculty of Xavier University in Louisiana, where he taught Constitutional Law, and Business Law. As a Louisiana State Senator, Morial was named Legislative Rookie of the Year, Education Senator of the Year, and Environmental Senator of the Year.  As Mayor of New Orleans, Morial was a popular chief executive with a broad multi-racial coalition who led New Orleans’ 1990’s renaissance, and left office with a 70% approval rating. 

Miguel C. Thames, CFA,
Managing Director and the Head of Institutional Sales and Client Relations Prudential Fixed Income Management (PFIM)

Broderick Young, CFP, CLU, ChFC, CASL, CLF
Director of Development Greater Washington General Office, New York Life Insurance Company

John C. (“Chris”) Kelly is Vice President and Controller of The Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company, located in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. In this capacity, Chris is responsible for the financial accounting and reporting, expense management and tax planning and compliance functions for Northwestern Mutual and affiliated companies, including separate accounts, sponsored mutual funds, broker/dealer and trust subsidiaries. Chris joined Northwestern Mutual in 1997 as Associate Controller and was promoted to his current position in 2004.

Prior to joining Northwestern Mutual, Chris served as Assistant Controller of the Horace Mann Companies, a publicly-traded multi-line insurer located in Springfield, Illinois. He has also served as Controller of Lemont Holding Company, a financial institution holding company located in Northbrook, Illinois, and as an Audit Manager for Ernst & Young in Chicago, Illinois.

Kelly earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration from the University of Notre Dame. He is a Certified Public Accountant.

Kelly also serves on the Board of Directors of the National Organization of Life & Health Insurance Guaranty Associations (NOLHGA). He resides in Whitefish Bay, Wisconsin.

Reginald Butler is a highly recognized Corporate Consultant /Educator with over 26 years experience in education and learning solutions within the private and corporate sectors. Butler is a dynamic executive facilitator, motivational speaker training designer, educator, former school Principal, and Inclusion champion with an established record of trainer development and delivering high-energy motivational messages for both personal and team improvement. He has worked with organizations to improve the ability of executives to achieve results, foster change, engage staff, and leverage relationships.

In addition, he is a specialist in addressing cultural differences and has led multiple programs addressing diversity and inclusion. A former professor at Miami University, Oxford Ohio, Butler helped develop and teach the course ‘Strength through Cultural Diversity’. Reginald not only delivers sessions, he trains others in presentation and facilitation techniques.

Reginald holds a Masters in Education (M.Ed.) from Xavier University, Cincinnati, Ohio and a Bachelor of Arts (BA.Ed) Music and Theatre Washington University, St. Louis, Missouri. In addition, Butler has done graduate work with emphasis on Mass Communication Television/Radio Production from Southern Illinois University, Edwardsville, Illinois.

Panelists:

Ray Bennett is Area Vice President, Midwest Region. He currently oversees Marriott’s Full Service hotels in Michigan, Ohio, Kentucky, Missouri and Kansas.

Bennett’s most recent position was Senior Vice President, Lodging Development. In 2001, Bennett joined Marriott International from Pepsi Bottling Group as Vice President of Operations for Marriott Distribution Services.  Bennett spent 11 years with Pepsi in various capacities involving sales, logistics, operations, manufacturing and information technology. He holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration from Grand Valley State University in Allendale, MI.

Tom Johnson leads Global Business Services, a shared service unit which provides financial reporting, forecasting and budgeting, procure-to-pay, real estate and corporate services to the Company’s business units and functions.

Tom has held a number of roles in Finance, Business Development and Marketing in his 23 years with The Clorox Company. Prior to this role, he was the Chief Accounting Officer and Corporate Controller where he was responsible for the Company’s financial reporting and internal control processes. Tom also served as Vice-President of Finance for the Company’s Specialty Products Division where he partnered with the leadership team to develop the strategy and plans to profitably grow its Food, Charcoal, Pet Products and Automotive Products businesses. Tom began his career as a CPA with Grant Thornton.

Tom serves as Treasurer on the Board of Directors of Out & Equal Workplace Advocates. A native of Rochester, Michigan, Tom holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Accounting from Michigan State University. He and his partner, Bruce Genaro, reside in San Rafael, California.

Racquel Oden is a Managing Director and Head of Global Product Strategy and Business Development for Merrill Lynch Bank of America’s Global Investment Solutions (GIS). Oden spent more than a decade at UBS Financial Services Inc. serving as Managing Director and Head of Product & Services Internal Sales. Oden began her financial services career at Morgan Stanley.
Oden serves on the Board of Directors for the Thurgood Marshall College Fund, where she is Co-Chair of the Strategic Implementation Committee; Executive Board Member and Treasurer for the National Visionary Leadership Project (NVLP); Member of Executive Leadership Council(ELC); Member of the Financial Women’s Association (FWA); Member of New York Women’s Agenda (NYWA); Member of Jack and Jill of America; Member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc.

In 2006, Oden received the Rising Star Award from NYWA and in 2008 she was inducted as a member of the YWCA NY Salute to Women and 2010 she was named “Most Powerful Women in Finance” by Women of Color (STEAM); she received Alpha Foundation Wall Street Tycoon award. Racquel was named by Essence magazine as one of top 21 leaders under 40 she was also recognized as a Top 100 under 50 by Diversity MBA Magazine & Top 100 Black Executives by SAVOY Magazine.

Oden holds a BA in Political Science from James Madison University and an MBA from Hampton University.

Doreen Rigby is executive vice president of State Street’s Global Operations, responsible for managing the implementation of the operations business transformation efforts. She is also responsible for the service delivery of operations performed at the Syntel Joint Venture in India.  Previously, she was senior vice president and managing director of State Street Trust Company Canada. In that role, Ms. Rigby was responsible for all of the investment servicing operations across Canada. Ms. Rigby has more than 30 years of experience in the financial services industry.

Ms. Rigby holds a Bachelor of Business Management from Ryerson University and is a Certified Management Accountant (CMA). She is also a graduate of the Executive Master of Business Administration program from the Richard Ivey School of Business at the University of Western Ontario.

Remarks By:

Bob Qutub was recently named the chief financial officer (CFO) for Bank of America’s Consumer and Small Business Banking unit. Previously, Qutub was the CFO for the bank’s Global Banking and Markets unit, based in New York. Qutub joined Bank of America in 1994 from what was then Price Waterhouse and began his career supporting capital markets. Qutub is executive advisor to the bank’s Finance Diversity Council and vice chairman of the Corporate Diversity and Inclusion Council.