Moore School to honor distinguished alumni, friends at annual Business Leadership Dinner

Alumni and friends of the Moore School of Business at the University of South Carolina are invited to attend the school’s 2008 Business Leadership Dinner and Awards Program Friday, May 2, when five alumni and one longtime friend of the school will be honored.

The event begins at 6:30 p.m. in The Zone of the university’s Williams-Brice Stadium. Tickets are $50 each, with sponsorship of corporate tables of eight available for $800. Tickets can be purchased online at mooreschool.sc.edu (click on Business Leadership Dinner and Award Program), via e-mail at business.relations@moore.sc.edu, via fax at 803-777-4427 or by calling 803-777-2910 or toll free at 800-277-0105.

The 2008 Moore School of Business Distinguished Alumni honorees are William M. Ginn (MBA, 1972), executive officer of Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp; David B. Holl (MBA, 1984), president and chief executive officer of Mary Kay Inc; and Gary M. Parsons (MBA, 1977), chairman of XM Satellite Radio.

The Distinguished Young Alumni are K. Susan Billiott (bachelor’s 1993 and master of human resources 1994), vice president of human resources for SYSCO Corp; and R. Jason Caskey (bachelor’s 1990), shareholder with Elliott Davis, LLC.

The Distinguished Service Award will honor the late Buck Mickel, who was chairman of Daniel International Corp. and vice chairman and president of Fluor Corp.

William M. Ginn -- Distinguished Alumni Award
Ginn is executive officer of Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp., formed in April 2001 through the merger of The Sumitomo Bank Ltd; and the Sakura Bank Ltd. He began his career in 1972 with Bankers Trust of South Carolina. In 1979, he relocated to New York City, where he specialized in project finance and real-estate finance. He earned a bachelor’s degree in international business and an MBA from the Moore School of Business. He serves on the advisory board of the Moore School.

David B. Holl – Distinguished Alumni Award
Holl is president and chief executive officer of Mary Kay Inc., one of the world’s largest direct sellers of cosmetics with sales in excess of $2.3 billion annually. Holl joined Dallas-based Mary Kay Inc. in June 1993 and later served as chief financial officer and treasurer. In 2001, he was named president and chief operating officer, and in April 2006, he was promoted to CEO. Previously he was a vice president of Citibank, based in New York City, and was a financial analyst for Union Texas Petroleum, based in Houston. He is a 1982 graduate of Clemson University and earned his MBA from the Moore School of Business in 1984.

Gary Parsons – Distinguished Alumni Award
Parsons is chairman of XM Satellite Radio Holdings Inc., the nation’s first and largest satellite-radio provider, which had more than $1 billion in revenue and 9 million subscribers in 2007. He also serves as chairman of Mobile Satellite Ventures LLP, a private partnership providing satellite-delivered voice and data services throughout North America. He serves on the board of Devas Multimedia, an early-stage Indian satellite company preparing to provide broadband and multimedia services to the Indian subcontinent. Parsons grew up in Columbia and Newberry. He is a 1972 graduate of Clemson and earned his MBA from the Moore School of Business in 1977.

K. Susan Billiot – Distinguished Young Alumni Award
Billiot is vice president of human resources for SYSCO Corp., a global leader in selling, marketing and distributing food products to restaurants, healthcare and educational facilities and lodging establishments. Prior to joining SYSCO in 1999, she served in director-level human-resources-leadership positions for Continental Airlines and Darden Restaurants. A native of Clover, she earned her bachelor’s and master of human resources degrees from the Moore School of Business in 1993 and 1994, respectively.

R. Jason Caskey – Distinguished Young Alumni Award
Caskey is a shareholder with Elliott Davis LLC, one of the 50 largest accounting firms in the United States. In 2006, he became chairman of the firm’s Financial Institutions Group, which develops plans for the firm’s recruiting efforts at colleges and universities across the Southeast. A native of Lancaster, he earned a bachelor’s degree in accounting in 1990 from the Moore School. Previously, Caskey worked for Laventhol and Horwath, a national accounting firm in Charlotte, and for Tourville, Simpson & Caskey in Columbia.

Buck Mickel – Distinguished Service Award
Mickel, who died in 1998, was chairman of Daniel International Corp. and vice chairman and president of Fluor Corp. A respected community and business leader in Greenville, he was named to the S.C. Business Hall of Fame in 1986. The S.C. Chamber of Commerce named him Businessman of the Year in 1983, and he twice received the Order of the Palmetto, South Carolina’s highest civilian award. He was a founding member of the USC-Business Partnership Foundation, the Moore School’s liaison with the business community.