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Speakers| Opening Luncheon | Friday, June 29 - 12:00 PM |  Cynthia Cooper is most well-known for her role in uncovering the corporate fraud at WorldCom - to date the largest corporate fraud in history. She was named one of Time Magazine’s 2002 Persons of the Year after detecting and reporting the fraud.
Ms. Cooper was inducted to the 2004 AICPA Hall of Fame, and is the first woman to receive this distinction. Along with Senator Sarbanes, Representative Oxley and Sherron Watkins, Ms. Cooper was awarded the 2003 Maria & Sidney E. Rolfe Award by the Women’s Economic Round Table. This award was presented to Ms. Cooper due to her contributions to educating the public about economics, business and finance.
Ms. Cooper is also the 2003 recipient of the Accounting Exemplar Award, which is awarded annually to an individual who has made notable contributions to professionalism and ethics in accounting practice or education. The American Accounting Association’s Public Interest Section recognized Ms. Cooper for her efforts to promote professionalism and ethics in the accounting profession. Ms. Cooper is the tenth recipient of the Accounting Exemplar Award and the first woman to receive the award.
Ms. Cooper previously served as the Chief Audit Executive for MCI until July 2004. Prior to joining MCI, she worked in public accounting in Atlanta, Georgia for PricewaterhouseCoopers and Deloitte & Touche. Ms. Cooper received her undergraduate degree in Accounting from Mississippi State University and her Masters of Accountancy from the University of Alabama.
Ms. Cooper speaks to both students and professionals across the country to share some of the lessons she has learned and to emphasize the importance of strong ethical and moral leadership. She resides in Mississippi with her husband Lance Cooper and their two daughters.
 The participation by Ms. Cooper is made possible by the generous support of the Kauffman Foundation.
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| | Closing General Session | Monday, July 2 - 8:00 AM |  Marie Artim is the Assistant Vice President, Recruiting for Enterprise Rent-A-Car. She is responsible for company-wide strategies and directives that involve advertising, marketing, interactive media, training and tools for the 200+ Enterprise Recruiters hiring over 8,000 college graduates each year.
Marie is a 1991 graduate of Purdue University with a BS in Industrial Management and has been employed with Enterprise since January 1992. She began her career in Chicago as a Management Trainee and within one year was promoted to Assistant Branch Manager. Marie became a part of the Chicago Human Resources department in November 1993 and, over the next 7 years, held several positions in Human Resources and Recruiting. In August 2000, she obtained the position of Corporate HR Manager, Recruiting. Marie was named Assistant Vice President, Recruiting in June 2004.
Marie has conducted class presentations and career related workshops at many universities and student conferences. She also serves on advisory boards for Monster, SIFE (Students In Free Enterprise), Pi Sigma Epsilon (a national sales and marketing fraternity) and Bradley University.
|  Tom Bell is currently Vice-President of Sales and Business Development for Bonded Service Warehouse, Inc., and President of Team Logistics, LLC in Atlanta, GA. Both of these companies are in third party logistics providing a variety of domestic and international transportation services. These services include warehousing, distribution, customs brokerage, and international freight forwarding.
Additionally, Tom is the Territory Director for Zero’s Subs for the states of North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia. Zero’s Subs, based in Virginia Beach, VA, operates 70 restaurants nationally. He is also a Zero’s Subs store owner.
Tom has been active in Gardner-Webb University since his graduation in 1971. He is currently on the Board of Trustees at Gardner-Webb and also the Chairman of the Board of Advisors for the School of Business. He was named the Alumnus of the Year in 1999 for Gardner-Webb and Alumnus of the Year in 2006 for the School of Business.
He and his wife Glenda live in Marietta, GA, where he has been active in the local community by serving on the board of Habitat for Humanity and the Board of Trustees for the Southern Polytechnic University Foundation. Additionally, he was Chairman for the Cobb County Relay for Life for the American Cancer Society in 1999 and 2000.
| Jerad Boyd (not pictured) serves SIFE as Regional Vice President, SIFE USA. Boyd joined the Students in Free Enterprise World Headquarters staff in June 1998 as Director of Marketing. He later transitioned to the position of Director, University Relations in which he was responsible for the training, developing, and motivating of more than 100 SIFE Teams spread over 13 states, primarily in the Pacific Region.
In June 2002, Boyd accepted the challenge of launching the SIFE Alumni Network and was named Director, Alumni Relations. From January 2004 through March 2005, Boyd served as Director, Development Operations and Donor Support. In his current role, he is responsible for oversight of SIFE USA Program, Alumni Network, Career Connections and USA Opertaions.
Boyd has a Bachelors of Science in Business Administration from Lubbock Christian University where he was a member of the International Award Winning SIFE Team.
|  Anthony Negbenebor is the Dean and Broyhill Chair of Business, School of Business, at Gardner-Webb University. He has held this position since 2002. Prior to taking this position, Dr. Negenebor served as Associate Dean and Director. He remains a Professor of Economics and International Business.
Dr. Negbenebor received a Ph.D. in Applied Economics and Development from Mississippi State University and has conducted additional studies at Universite De Paris and the London School of Economics. He is a member of American Economics Association, Association for Global Business, Southwestern Economics Association, Phi Beta Lambda, Gamma Sigma Delta, Chi Alpha and National Fellowship of Christian Athletes.
| Kent Phillips is responsible for coordinating Educator Relationships and New Market Development for the Disney Theme Parks & Resorts College Programs. Kent has worked for the Walt Disney Company for 36  years and in the Human Resources arena since 1975. He was Manager of College Relations for 15 years before moving into a Human Resources Field Management role in 1995.
Kent is a past President of the Florida Cooperative Education and Placement Association, Vice President of Employer Affairs for the Cooperative Education Association of America, VP Finance-Southeastern Association of College & Employers, SACE Director to NACE-2005.
Currently Kent serves on the CEIA Board of Directors as Vice President Region 3 and the NACE Board as an Employer Director.
He is married to Kitty Phillips and the father of two children, Kyle Anne and Kent Jr. He is a graduate of the University of Alabama.
| Rachel W. Plaksa is Professor of Business and Business Division Coordinator at Lehigh Carbon Community College in Schnecksville, Pennsylvania. Rachel holds B.A. and M.A. degrees in Economics  from the University of Delaware. She has over 25 years experience teaching at a variety of academic institutions.
At LCCC, Rachel teaches Principles of Economics, Business Statistics and an experiential course called The Global Business Practice Firm. Rachel is also a member of LCCC’s Honors Scholars Steering Committee and is currently Co-Chair of LCCC’s Middle States Self-Study Steering Committee. For the past two years, she has served as the Ombudsman, facilitating conflict resolution for the college community.
Rachel is active in ACBSP and served as President of Region 2 in 2002-2003. She is currently the Treasurer for Region 2 and is also the faculty advisor for LCCC’s chapter of the Kappa Beta Delta Honor Society. Rachel lives in Sellersville, Pennsylvania with her husband and two sons.
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