Chauncy Barnhill, MBA
Chairman
Senior Vice President, Operations Area Manager- Wells Fargo
Chauncy Barnhill is Senior Vice President and Leader of the Document Capture Center of Excellence Team within the Payments Virtual Solutions and Innovations Group at Wells Fargo. With over 25 years of management experience, Chauncy leads a diverse organization of approximately 450 employees who are accountable for the image capture, scanning, indexing, and research of documents in support of various lines of business across the Wells Fargo footprint. Born with limited hearing in his left ear; Chauncy has a passion for working with and hiring people with disabilities. In addition to representing Wells Fargo on the Disability:IN North Carolina board; he is an active member of Wells Fargo’s People with Disabilities Community of Practice, who’s goal it is to provide a forum to build and exchange knowledge of talent acquisition practices and retention of people with disabilities in the workplace. Since 2010, teams under his leadership have hired over 100 people with disabilities as contractors and received multiple national awards and recognition for their efforts.
Robert Rusch
Vice Chairman
Tax Director-PWC
Robert Rusch is a PwC Tax Manager in Charlotte, NC. Rob has more than 8 years of experience serving a wide range of clients in the Financial Services industry. As a professional with a severe neuromuscular disability, Robert is an avid advocate for disability inclusion and innovation in the workplace. Robert, who earned his BA at Davidson College and his master’s from Wake Forest University, uses a power wheelchair due to a diagnosed muscular condition. As a team manager, Robert has embraced the role of leader in an organization that values his contributions to the leadership team.
Justin, Francis, C. P. A.
Treasurer
CFO Protection Solutions, Equitable
Justin Francis is the CFO for the Protection Solutions segment at Equitable. He manages the Life and Employee Benefits sub-segments to identify and prioritize growth and expense opportunities, evaluate product and organizational opportunities while providing financial modeling and business intelligence. Prior to this current role, Justin was the Finance Business Partner for the Chief Transformation Organization for AXA US where he was responsible for coordinating all aspects of the strategic plan for the operations, procurement, data & analytic, and real estate teams. In addition, Justin managed the Treasury Operation and Corporate Expense Allocation teams overseeing 20 banks and more than 30 entities from expense perspective. He has a broad range of accounting, auditing, and operational finance experience obtained in his roles within the public accounting, manufacturing, and the finance industries. He is a CPA and graduate of Le Moyne College. He is the employee co-chair of the True Abilities ERG, trained Make-A-Wish volunteer and helps coordinate the company’s annual food drive supporting the local food bank in the Charlotte area.
Helen M. Calloway
Managing Director, Calloway & Associates
Helen M. Calloway is the founder of Calloway Associates, a financial accounting and information technology firm established over 39 years ago. Prior to starting her business, Ms. Calloway served eight (8) years in the United States Air Force/ where she managed payroll, performed audits, reviewed budgeting proposals, analyzed financial reports, allocated funds/ approved payments, and established financial systems. She obtained her Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Phoenix. Helen Calloway is an established member of the Raleigh community and is highly active in several community activities, including but not limited to preservation of historic landmarks. She serves as a Board Member for Mechanics & Farmers bank, which is committed to economic growth in the urban landscape. Ms. Calloway has two adult children, Charles Jr. and Ashley, a beautiful grandson and a precocious 14- month old boxer.
Saima Cardwell
Supplier Diversity Specialist – SAS institute, Inc., Cary, North Carolina
Saima Cardwell is the Supplier Diversity Specialist at SAS Institute Inc in Cary NC. She joined SAS in 1999 and has held various positions over the last 20 years. She has worked in Finance, Contracts, Proposals and Spend. Her experience in these customer facing roles has given her an in-depth knowledge of business development and strategic sourcing and procurement. Saima has always had a lifelong passion for helping others. Her current role allows her to use this passion and energy by engaging with diverse business owners, and SAS to Diversify its supply chain with minority, women, veteran and disability-owned businesses. She has a bachelor’s from Campbell University and currently serves as the Board of Institute for Supply Chain Management Carolina Virginia-Triangle Chapter- Membership Chair.
Jenny Clemente
Global Director for Diversity, Equity & Inclusion – Ingersoll Rand
Jenny Clemente was appointed to this role in 2020 to accelerate Ingersoll Rand’s global diversity and inclusion plans through the design, development and implementation of the DE&I strategy, creating meaningful alignment with business objectives. Leveraging her strong business background, partnership, and global acumen she has successfully executed on critical initiatives to promote mentoring and leadership programs, supporting efforts for hiring and development of diversity talent.
For the past twelve years, she has been a core contributor to the company’s DE&I culture, volunteering her time to lead initiatives for employee resource groups, women mentoring circles and community outreach earning various President Awards. She is an active advocate for external organizations within the disability community, working closely with Hanger Clinic and acting as an aid for USAC Paraclimbing events and is an active member of the Women in Manufacturing, North Carolina chapter.
Jenny joined Ingersoll Rand in 2010 as a customer account manager and rapidly expanded responsibilities as a Customer Experience leader for Latin America. In 2017, joined the Latin America Marketing team as the Aftermarket Portfolio Leader. Ms. Clemente received her Bachelor of Science degree in International Business from University of Humboldt in Caracas, Venezuela and a Master of Business Administration from Wake Forest University.
George Howe III
Partner – Banking Capital Markets Advisory, EY
George is a Partner within EY’s Financial Services Organization (FSO) in the America’s based in Charlotte, N. C., George Howe, III, has been with EY since 2004. He works closely with EY’s Banking and Capital Markets clients in New York, Charlotte and the Southeast Area of the US to understand their needs for advisory consulting. George spent four years working with EY’s clients in EMEIA and was based in London from 2012-2016. Prior to joining EY, he held multiple finance and product control positions with several investment banks in New York and Charlotte. A graduate of Hampden-Sydney College in Virginia in 1992, George holds degrees in Managerial Economics and Classical Studies.
Yvette Pittman
Global Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Manager – Biogen
Yvette Pittman serves as the DE&I site leader at the Biogen RTP manufacturing campus. She has over 15 years of managerial experience and transitioned to her DE&I role within Biogen about 4 years ago. In her global DE&I role, she is responsible for managing external partnerships, delivering global workforce initiatives that embed diversity, equity, and inclusion practices into workplace culture, overseeing leadership development programs for employees of color and supporting Biogen’s seven employee resource networks. Pittman earned a bachelor’s degree from UNC-Chapel Hill and continued her diversity and inclusion studies at Cornell University ILR School.
Shannon Swiger, MBA
Internal communications and disability inclusion leader – Novant Health
Shannon Swiger is a director of internal communications at Novant Health. In this role she drives the organization’s strategy and approach to clinical communications, including physician, nursing, medical staff and safety/quality communication. She is also deeply embedded in diversity, inclusion and health equity work at Novant Health. Shannon serves as co-leader of Novant Health’s persons with disabilities business resource group (BRG) and has been a member of the group since 2018. Novant Health’s persons with disabilities BRG has received several awards for their work, including a Diversity Impact Award by the Association of ERGs & Councils in 2020 and 2021, Helping Hand Award from the Winston-Salem Mayor’s Council for Persons with Disabilities. The BRG played a key role in Novant Health receiving recognition by Disability:IN as a “Best Place to Work for Disability Inclusion” in 2020 and 2021.
Prior to joining Novant Health, Shannon served as a senior communication specialist at Johns Hopkins Medicine where she acted as a spokeswoman and secured coverage in top national and local media outlets such as The Atlantic, The Wall Street Journal, “60 Minutes,” NPR and The Baltimore Sun. Shannon also ghostwrote blog posts and articles for Peter Pronovost, one of America’s most influential physician executives, that appeared in The Wall Street Journal, The Huffington Post and Robb Report. She has developed and implemented communications plans for national thought leadership in such areas as diversity and inclusion, patient safety, quality and technology.
Shannon received a Master of Business Administration and a Bachelor of Arts in Journalism and Mass Communication from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. In 2020, Shannon was named a “40 Under 40” honoree by Wilmington StarNews and Wilmington Chamber of Commerce. In 2017, she was recognized as one of the “Top 50 Emerging Leaders in Diversity” by DiversityMBA. Additionally, Shannon was recognized as one of the top 50 team members at Novant Health through the inaugural Mark recognition program in 2017
Blake Tinsley
Founder CEO, Prosyntix
Blake Tinsley is the founder and CEO of Prosyntix located in Charlotte, NC. Since 2017, his team at Prosyntix have been helping clients around the region fill the talent gap by identifying IT professionals specializing in analyzing and safeguarding data. Prior to that, Blake was in an advisory role for 9 years helping companies bridge the gap between business and technology through various IT solution offerings. He is a 2008 graduate from The Citadel, Military College of South Carolina holding a bachelor’s degree in business administration.
As an experienced sales director and entrepreneur, Blake has acquired significant expertise in budgeting, data center, contact centers, cloud computing, and virtualization. He has worked in several executive roles with a variety of high-profile IT companies, including Enterprise IT Security, High Performance Technologies, and Robert Half Technology.
Blake has received praise from various colleagues at his previous companies, who have cited his superb work ethic, his expertise as a team member, and his attention to detail and quality results. A member of DI-NC since 2017, Blake’s company, Prosyntix is a certified disability-owned business enterprise.
Greg Young, C.P.M., CPSM
Senior Category Manager-Indirect, Global Business Services, Trane Technologies
Greg Young has been with Trane Technologies since 2004 in various roles across Procurement and currently holds a role as Indirect Category Manager, Global Business Services. Greg is a co-chair for VisAbility, Trane Technologies Employee Resource Group for individuals with disabilities and has been instrumental in developing information programs for employees of Trane Technologies on disability inclusion strategies. Greg is a graduate of NC State University, College of Management where he earned an MBA in Operations and Supply Chain Management.