NC State Engineering Foundation Board of Directors

Scott Stabler retired in 2021 from Huntington Ingalls Industries (HII) as Executive Vice President & Chief Transformation Officer.  HII is America’s largest military shipbuilding company and a global all-domain defense provider.  In this role, he worked directly with HII’s divisions to assess and facilitate implementation of the transformative business model and process changes necessary to meet rapidly evolving customer demands. Stabler joined Newport News Shipbuilding in 1984 and held progressively responsible positions in engineering, purchasing, business development and program management. He was appointed vice president of assembly in 1999 and vice president of aircraft carrier construction in 2000. He was directly responsible for program management and construction of the last Nimitz-class aircraft carrier, USS George H.W. Bush (CVN 77), from the contract award in 2001 until successful builder’s sea trials in 2009. He went on to serve as sector vice president of supply chain management, vice president of corporate operations and corporate vice president of internal audit. 

Stabler graduated from NC State University in 1982 with a B.S. in mechanical engineering. In 1986, he received a master’s degree in business administration from the College of William and Mary. In 2013, he was selected as a member of the inaugural class for the NC State Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Hall of Fame.  In addition to his service at NC State, he serves on the board of directors for Hospice House & Support Care of Williamsburg, the Williamsburg Community Foundation and Williamsburg Landing.  He and his wife Beth, a 1984 Meredith College graduate, reside in Williamsburg, Virginia.

Helene Lollis is the chief executive officer of Pathbuilders, an organization focused on ensuring that ready and capable women influence every table where decisions are made. For nearly 30 years, Pathbuilders has advanced women in leadership through high-impact mentoring, professional development and consulting with senior executives to create cultures where women thrive. Helene guides strategic direction and program development, consults with key clients and represents Pathbuilders in the community. Trained as an engineer, Helene spent 12 years with Amoco and BP Corporations in plastics process design, product development, marketing, strategic planning and company mergers and acquisitions. She received her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in chemical engineering from NC State and Purdue Universities.

Extremely active in the community, Helene is a past chair and on the executive board of Junior Achievement of Georgia. She also serves on both the board of trustees for the Woodruff Arts Center and the board of the Foundation of the Rotary Club of Atlanta, with past board service roles with Leadership Atlanta and the Metro Atlanta Chamber. She is a member of the International Women’s Forum.

Helene is proud to have been recognized as one of Atlanta’s Most Admired CEOs by the Atlanta Business Chronicle and as a two-time honoree in the Georgia Titan 100. She received the Gold Leadership Award from the Junior Achievement USA Board of Directors for her service to JA and is an inductee into the YWCA Academy of Women Achievers. 

Deborah Young earned a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from NC State in 1977, becoming the first Black woman to earn a civil engineering B.S. from the University. She then went on to become the first Black woman to earn a master’s degree in civil engineering-environmental engineering from the University of Pittsburgh. She also earned an MBA through the Weekend Executive Program in the Fuqua School of Business at Duke University.

Young began her career with a consulting firm and in 1980, she joined Honeywell International (Allied Signal, Inc.) in Colonial Heights, Virginia. Over a career of nearly 35 years with Honeywell that ended with her retirement in 2015, she held several leadership roles including director of Health, Safety and Environmental for several divisions. Her roles combined engineering with strategic planning, regulatory oversight and assessment of capital projects, leading teams that oversaw manufacturing around the globe, representing billions of dollars and thousands of employees.

Young has completed two terms as a member of the NC State Engineering Foundation Board of Directors and is the first Black/Black woman to have served as president of the organization. She is a consistent supporter of her home Department of Civil, Construction, and Environmental Engineering; the College of Engineering; and the University.

Dana Harris is the NC State as the associate vice chancellor for finance and university treasurer, leading five departments within the Finance Division responsible for providing financial services and business operations across the university: University Controller’s Office, University Cashier’s Office, Procurement & Business Services, Office of Contracts and Grants, and Foundations Accounting and Investments.

As leader of the 170-person Finance Division, Harris partners with colleges and units to oversee $2 billion in financial services and transactions across the university, including managing $560 million in student billing and the university’s investments and external debt portfolios.

Harris holds a degree in Business Administration with Finance Emphasis from Elon University, is a certified public accountant, certified internal auditor and certified fraud examiner.

John Amein is a seasoned technology executive and entrepreneur whose career spans leadership roles at high-growth startups and global firms in the U.S. and Europe. He was founder and CEO of VoiceReady, the first web-based platform for building voice response and speech recognition applications. Following its acquisition by Voxeo in 2006 — and Voxeo’s subsequent acquisition by Aspect Systems — Amein led worldwide product management until retiring in 2015. Prior roles include leading European sales and worldwide product management for Dialogic, a subsidiary of Intel Corporation, and working as an engineer at AT&T Bell Labs.

In 2018, Amein joined ID R&D, a leading AI startup focused on voice and facial biometrics. As senior vice president of sales, he helped drive rapid growth through its acquisition by Mitek Systems in 2021, where he continued to lead biometric technology sales until retiring again in 2025.

His passion for innovation is matched by a deep commitment to education and his alma mater. He has served multiple terms on the NC State Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering Strategic Advisory Board, providing guidance on the department’s direction and outreach. Together with his wife Catherine, he established the John and Catherine Amein Distinguished Professorship and the John and Catherine Amein Graduate Fellowship in Electrical and Computer Engineering, supporting faculty excellence and graduate research at NC State.

Amein earned his B.S. in electrical engineering from NC State in 1984 and an M.S. in electrical engineering from Stanford University. He and Catherine reside in Orlando, Florida.

Bobby Barnes is head of the Quantitative Index Solutions (QIS) group at Fidelity Investments. Fidelity Investments is a leading provider of investment management, retirement planning, portfolio guidance, brokerage, benefits outsourcing, and other financial products and services to institutions, financial intermediaries and individuals.

QIS designs and manages proprietary indices covering equity, fixed income and multi-asset class investment vehicles. The index solutions created by the QIS group enable shareholders to gain unique market exposures via factor or thematic indices that leverage Fidelity’s proprietary investment insights.

Prior to assuming his current position, Barnes was a quantitative analyst responsible for conducting alpha research to generate stock ideas. He also advised portfolio managers on portfolio construction techniques to manage risk.

Prior to joining Fidelity as a quantitative intern in 2008, Barnes worked as a systems engineer at Freescale Semiconductor and at NASA Ames Research Center. He has been in the financial industry since joining Fidelity full time in 2009.

Barnes earned his Bachelor of Science degree, summa cum laude, in electrical engineering from North Carolina State University and his Master of Science degree, magna cum laude, in electrical engineering from Stanford University. Additionally, he earned his Master of Business Administration degree from Harvard Business School.

Bhavana Bartholf is a renowned thought leader and technologist, celebrated for her innovative contributions across multiple industries. She is an advocate for culture, empathetic leadership, business transformation and data and AI. Bartholf is a prominent voice for women and racial/ethnic minorities, dedicated to creating career opportunities for diverse talent. As a sought-after keynote speaker, she shares her insights on Digital Transformation, Scaling with Culture, empathetic leadership and the critical role of Diversity and Inclusion in driving business growth.

In September 2024, Bartholf joined Compass Group as the EVP for Commercial Sales and Strategy in North America. In this role, she focuses on enhancing sales processes and performance, ensuring operational excellence across the sales organization. She oversees creative services, demand generation, inside sales, data and insights, technology, training and the CRM system to drive revenue growth and improve the customer buying experience.

Prior to Compass Group, Bartholf was Bank of America’s first Chief Analytics and Innovation Officer, revolutionizing the use of client data to create personalized customer experiences. Her 20-year tenure at Microsoft included roles such as Global Head of Digital & Sales Strategy for the Microsoft Commercial Solutions Area, where she led a $101B global industry and cross-product technical sales strategy. During the pandemic, she served as Microsoft US’s Chief Transformation Officer, transforming the $46B business and significantly improving its global performance ranking.

Bartholf has also served as a board director for WEX, Inc. and has been recognized by the National Diversity Council, Success Magazine and Diversity Journal for her leadership and influence. She holds a Master’s in engineering from North Carolina State University and a Bachelor of Science in math, physics and manufacturing engineering from PSG College of Technology in India.

Currently, Bartholf is a board director for the NC State Engineering Foundation and a member of the university’s Board of Visitors. She also serves on the board of the Humane Society of the United States and is involved with several professional organizations. Bhavana resides in Charlotte, North Carolina, with her husband, Matt, and their three children.

Marcus Belvin is a 23-year IT veteran, joining ServiceNow in 2022 as a senior product marketing manager for Low Code Application Platform, and currently operating as a staff outbound product manager for AIOps and Observability. Before ServiceNow, he spent 20+ years at IBM, starting as a software engineer before expanding his expertise through various business roles (marketing, product management and chief of staff), product areas (Cloud, integrated systems and blockchain) and management opportunities. He has a strong track record for growing and scaling emerging technologies and developing novel solutions to overcome challenges. 

Additionally, he is avid about fitness, a published author, has numerous patents, mentors and has served as a director on more than five non-profit boards.

Keisha Bickham has spent nearly 20 years applying her technical and relationship-building skills to improve operational, financial and quality performance in multiple industries. Prior to retiring in 2022, she had a 13-year career with the Nashville-based hospital system, HCA serving as a chief operating officer, vice president of operations, VP of performance improvement and senior director supporting five different HCA divisions across the U.S. 

Additionally, Bickham has served on health system enterprise project teams, filled interim executive leadership roles, and is seen as an all-around expert in hospital operations, labor management expenses and emergency/surgical services operations. Her ability to quickly acclimate and provide value has led her to live out a unique career as she also has prior experience with Atrium Health, UNC Healthcare, General Electric, IBM, HP and Procter & Gamble.

In 2022, Bickham retired from her traditional corporate career to launch WilliRoc Ventures, LLC, where she serves as the C.E.O. (Chief Empowerment Officer). She now leverages her personal and professional experience to serve as a transformational wealth coach and healthcare consultant.

Bickham grew up in Greensboro, North Carolina, and is a proud first-generation college graduate. She earned her B.S. in electrical engineering from North Carolina State University and her master’s in healthcare administration from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She is passionate and bold in pursuit of transformational success, breaking boundaries of career and financial possibilities. She is a wife and mother of two and enjoys coaching and mentoring, traveling, walking the beach, speaking and spending time with family and friends.

Drake Brinkley is a commercial real property attorney at Ward and Smith, P.A. in Greenville, North Carolina. He regularly assists developers in all aspects of the land development process, including acquisition, development, 1031 exchanges, zoning, subdivision and sales. In addition, he regularly assists clients with real property issues associated with mergers, acquisitions, and company divestitures. A substantial portion of his practice is focused on representing both landlords and tenants in commercial lease negotiations for a wide variety of spaces, including office locations, retail centers, industrial facilities and solar farms.

His civil engineering background provides practical assistance to clients throughout real estate transactions. Brinkley received his B.S. in civil engineering from NC State in 2002 and his J.D. from Campbell Law School in 2006.

Ryan Burkett leads strategy and solutions at Stratagon, a marketing and technology agency focused on marketing strategy and digital/ai transformation, while also managing operations at BrandGen.io, a digital advertising startup. His career spans roles as senior vice president at Wells Fargo Bank, NA, where he led strategic initiatives across global services, wealth management and corporate finance, and as an implementation consultant at IBM Global Services serving Fortune 500 companies.

Under his leadership, Stratagon has earned multiple recognitions, including multiple placements on the Inc. 5000 Fastest Growing Companies list and acknowledgment amongst the largest marketing agencies by both Charlotte and Triad Business Journals. The firm is also distinguished as one of Charlotte’s largest area-based Black-owned companies. Burkett’s leadership excellence was recently recognized through his selection for the 2023 Ernst & Young EAN cohort and naming among 2023 Charlotte Business Journal’s Most Admired CEOs.

Educated at North Carolina State University (B.S., computer engineering) and the University of North Carolina at Greensboro (MBA), Ryan’s expertise spans strategic initiatives, marketing and revenue operations, business consulting and program management. His leadership philosophy emphasizes empowerment, diversity and inclusive engagement.

Active in community service, he serves on the boards of NXT | CLT and Johnson C. Smith University’s Dean Executive Board. Beyond his professional accomplishments, Ryan cherishes creating travel memories with his wife, Rashonda, and teenage sons Ethann and Elijah in their home city of Charlotte, North Carolina.

Matthew Coffey is a third-year civil engineering student at North Carolina State University with a strong interest in transportation, particularly roadway design. He currently serves as an intern in AMT’s transportation group, working with both the Towson, Maryland, and Raleigh, North Carolina, offices. At NC State, Coffey is a student team lead (STL) for the Engineering Career Fair, collaborating with five other STLs to plan and execute one of the largest student-run career fairs in the country. Additionally, he serves in student government as the director of athletics, overseeing initiatives related to student engagement, student ticketing and athletic-related policies on campus. Beyond academics and leadership roles, Coffey volunteers with Feed the Pack Food Pantry and actively participates in various campus events. He plans to stay in Raleigh after graduation and pursue a career in roadway design with a civil engineering firm.

Wes Covell retired in September 2017 from Harris Corporation as the vice president of Middle East Business Development, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. Additionally, he served as managing director of Harris Atlas Systems, LLC, a joint venture between Harris Corporation and Atlas Telecom, a UAE-based technology leader. During his 27-year career with Harris, Covell held numerous roles, including corporate vice president of strategy and chief growth officer, president of the Defense Programs business and division vice president of engineering. Before joining Harris in 1990, Covell was a systems engineer with The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, working on communications systems for the U.S. Navy and Army.

Covell received a B.S. in electrical engineering from NC State in 1984 and an M.S. in electrical engineering from The Johns Hopkins University in 1989. He is also a graduate of the Mahler Advanced Management Skills Program. In 2015, Covell was selected as a member of the inaugural class of the NC State Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering Hall of Fame. 

Covell and his wife, Sherry, endowed a scholarship in the NC State College of Engineering for women and minorities in engineering. The Covells split their time between Indian Harbour Beach, Florida, and Incline Village (Lake Tahoe), Nevada, and have one son, Benjamin Covell, MD. They are active in the community and are members of the United Way Tocqueville Society.

Steffanie is a seasoned executive with extensive experience in defense, strategic planning and sustainability. Currently, she leads sustainability efforts at Cobham Advanced Electronics Solutions, focusing on best practices in environmental, social and governance (ESG) standards while fostering strategic engagements with industry peers and customers.

Before her current role, Steffanie served as Vice President, Deputy Army Business Unit, and Vice President, Strategy and Planning, at SAIC. There, she drove the strategic direction and growth of customer accounts in both the defense and civilian sectors, aligning sector strategies with corporate goals.

Her impressive career includes serving in high impact positions within the Department of Defense, including as the first civilian director of Navy staff for the U.S. Navy, where she coordinated enterprise-level efforts for over 400 flag officers and senior executives, directly supporting the Chief of Naval Operations. As acting assistant secretary of the Army for acquisition, logistics and technology, she managed a $30 billion R&D and procurement portfolio and oversaw the Army’s acquisition workforce.

Recognized for her outstanding contributions, Steffanie has received multiple awards, including the Presidential Rank Award, Defense Meritorious Civilian Service Award, Secretary of the Navy Distinguished Civilian Service Award and the Army Exceptional Civilian Service Award. She was honored as the 2010 Back Engineer of the Year for Professional Achievement and received the 2009 National Women of Color Award for Managerial Leadership.

She also serves on the Board of Directors for Fincantieri Marinette Marine, MRIGlobal and the Military Bowl Foundation, a nonprofit that supports our nation’s current and former service members. A proud graduate of North Carolina State University with a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering and a master’s degree from The Catholic University of America, she received the 2019 Distinguished Alumni Award from both universities.

Dr. Hassan is a native of Raleigh, North Carolina. He earned his bachelor’s degree in 1988, his master’s degree in 1990, and his Doctorate in Aerospace Engineering from North Carolina State University in 1993. He is the Director of the Engineering Sciences Center, where he is responsible for leading advances in S&T capabilities by integrating theory, computational simulation and experimental discovery and validation across length and time scales to assess complex physical phenomena and systems supporting Sandia’s national security mission.  Previously, he served as Director of the Chief Research Office and Deputy Chief Research Officer, where he led Sandia’s research strategy development, including the execution of the Laboratory Directed Research and Development program, and oversaw Sandia’s external partnership and technology transfer programs. Since joining Sandia in 1993, Dr. Hassan has worked in and managed all phases of research, development, and applications work, that help fuel Sandia’s national security mission. He supported NASA in determining the cause of the Space Shuttle Columbia accident in 2003 and was part of the team that supported shutdown the Deepwater Horizon oil well after the explosion and spill in 2010.

Dr. Hassan is a Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) and served the Institute President (2020-2022). He served on several national review boards for the National Academies, NASA, DARPA, Air Force Office of Scientific Research and the National Science Foundation, and has been an external member of the NASA Engineering and Safety Center since 2004. Dr. Hassan chairs the Development Committee of the North Carolina State Engineering Foundation Board and serves on the Chancellor’s Board of Visitors.  He was the 2008 recipient of the AIAA Sustained Service Award and a 2017 recipient of NCSU’s Distinguished Engineering Alumni Award.

Jake Hooks received his B.S. in materials science and engineering in 1978. He is the retired president of Automotive North America, Eaton Corporation and a former member of the Nittan Valve Co. Ltd. Board of Directors. Hooks currently serves on the NC State Foundation board and has served on the Park Scholars Selection Committee.

In 2013, he and his wife, Jennifer, established the Jacob T. Hooks, Sr. Scholarship in Materials Science and Engineering in honor of his father. They are Wolfpack Club members, part of the Fitts-Woolard Hall Cornerstone Society, and in 2021 endowed a distinguished professorship in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering (MSE).

Hooks was inducted into the MSE Hall of Fame in 2015, and was named a Distinguished Engineering Alumnus in 2019. Hooks is a lifetime member of the Alumni Association, a member of the R.S. Pullen Society and a member of the W.C. Riddick Society. He and Jennifer live in Wilmington, North Carolina.

Tiffany Chin Moore is a Maryland native. She is the senior director of North America Customer Satisfaction & Quality for Schneider Electric based in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, and the founder and CEO of Moore Of You, LLC.

Driven by operational excellence, Moore has a record of achievement in bottom-line impact. Leading with tenacity, her more-than-20-year career in operations across Fortune 500 multinational firms has provided a platform for demonstrated success. She is a dynamic and inspirational leader with vast experience in continuous improvement methodologies, new product development and product maintenance with an emphasis on design for manufacturability.

Moore built the foundation of her career in industrial engineering and has since led several global teams while steering large change management initiatives. Currently responsible for product management of the Load Management League for North America for Schneider Electric, she leads a team of product owners and marketing leaders to drive new products to the market for load management.

Moore is a wife, mother and dynamic and inspirational leader with vast experience. She graduated from North Carolina State University with a B.S. in industrial engineering and earned an MBA from Marquette University.

Dr. Hakan Ozisik is retired from the Aerospace Corporation, where he worked on various aspects of space and launch in support of National Security Space. He has contributed to a broad range of complex engineering and programmatic challenges to ensure successful launch and reliable mission performance in support of mission critical flightworthiness assessments. In 2006, he was selected as the system director accountable for the successful final test and fly-out of the remaining GPS (Global Positioning System) IIR/IIR-M satellites. In 2008, he became the system director for the GPS III Satellite Bus and was later appointed the GPS III chief engineer. He served as a trusted technical advisor to the government and Air Force during all development phases through delivery for launch.

Hakan was raised in Raleigh, North Carolina, and earned his B.S. in 1982, M.S. in 1986 and Ph.D. in 1989, all in mechanical engineering from North Carolina State University.  He is an inductee in the NC State Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Alumni Hall of Fame, and currently serves on the MAE Advisory Board. In 2022, he endowed the Dr. M. Necati Ozisik Distinguished Lecture Series that is currently active in the MAE department. He and his wife now reside in central Kansas.

Deval “Dev” Parikh is a successful transformation and non-linear business leader with over 20 years of experience in high-growth technology sectors with global and emerging markets experience. His experience spans management consulting, venture capital, telecom and semiconductor industries.

Currently, Parikh is the managing director of Intech Systems, a leading information technology firm using Microsoft Technology where he focuses on giving overall leadership on growth strategies for the firm. Parikh also serves on the boards of several technology and start-ups in ecommerce, software development and electric vehicle space.

His most recent full-time role has responsibilities of the president of international business and chief product officer at NTENT, a U.S.- based artificial intelligence-driven search provider.

Previously Parikh served as the CEO of Brightstar (Softbank subsidiary) India, a $700M+ diversified wireless and telecom distribution and services company globally as well as in India spanning mobile, enterprise and network businesses.

Prior to Brightstar, Parikh spent a few years at the world’s fastest growing telecom operator — Reliance Jio, which grew from zero to over 300 million subscribers in three years using 4G technology. Amongst various roles, Parikh was the senior vice president leading product design and development, where the products lead to a 40x increase in mobile data consumption. He also served as the executive CEO of Gujarat region leading the deployment of over $3 billion in Capex.

In Parikh’s nine-year career with Virgin Mobile, he was one of the founding members of Virgin Mobile India as chief product officer. He successfully set up the India operations where he launched several path-breaking propositions. At Virgin Mobile USA his roles included vice president of mobile devices, and vice president of planning and operations where he managed a $500 million/year mobile device business. He was part of the team that helped the business grow from pre-revenue to over $1.4 billion in revenues leading to a successful IPO.

Parikh also had management consulting roles at PRTM consulting (now PWC) focusing on telecom and technology areas, and spent his formative years as a manufacturing process engineer at VLSI technology (now NXP) looking after semiconductor process technologies in Silicon Valley.

He holds a master’s in engineering management from Northwestern University, and an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management. He has a B.S. in chemical engineering and a B.S. in economics, both with honors from NC State University. His work has been published in global periodicals including the Harvard Business Review.

Parikh is originally from India and would love the opportunity to be the voice of international students as they spend two to four years on campus. He now teaches sessions on product management in emerging markets and has a passion to help students and young professionals find their passion in life.

Andrew F. Pita is a Project Manager with ExxonMobil in Houston. He has over 14 years of project management experience, expanding globally across business units and projects. 

Pita started his full-time career with ExxonMobil in 2010 as a project engineer supporting the LaBarge Gas Plant in Wyoming. He continued as a project engineer for a subsea power cable replacement project for the Santa Ynez Unit near Santa Barbara, California, and managed a project portfolio team supporting the Mont Belvieu Plastics Plant near Houston. He then leveraged his project management experience to be the group head for the Global Projects Cost Engineering and implemented a transformational strategy as their strategy lead. He is currently leading development of upcoming projects in the prolific Stabroek Block in Guyana. Pita interned at ExxonMobil while he was a student at NC State University and also held internships with IBM. 

Pita holds a B.S. in electrical engineering (’08) and an M.S. in electrical engineering (’10), both from NC State. He is a member of the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers (SHPE) and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). He has continued to remain well-engaged with NC State since graduating. He volunteers to support the Women and Minority Engineering Programs (WMEP) through programs and mentorship. He has returned yearly to recruit the best NC State engineering students to join ExxonMobil, focusing on identifying highly qualified WMEP candidates. He has embraced balancing fatherhood to his 2 year old son, Frankie, with his second child coming in December 2024.

Dan Pleasant is a native of North Carolina, growing up on a farm in Caswell County. Graduating from NC State University with a bachelor’s and master’s degree in civil engineering, he worked as a professional engineer for over 50 years, with 45 years working for Dewberry, a national ranked engineering and architectural firm with over 2400 employees and 60 offices across the US. Pleasant held several key positions with Dewberry including southeast division manager, and president of Dewberry Engineers Inc., a Dewberry Company. In 2010, he was named chief operating officer. During his tenure, he helped direct the company through significant market segment growth and expansion into multiple geographies. He also managed the acquisition of seven companies for Dewberry, including the 2021 acquisition of two engineering firms in the Southeast and the 2019 acquisition of an engineering firm based in California. After retiring in 2022, he started a consulting engineering business, DMP Consulting PLLC.

Pleasant has been and remains active in regional and state organizations, including past board member and chair of Virginia Economic Development Partnership; director of Future of Piedmont Foundation, a pro-business organization for southern Virginia; past Board of Director member for the Virginia Chamber of Commerce; past member of the Industry Advisory Board for the North Carolina State University Department of Civil, Construction, and Environmental Engineering Department; and director of a publicly traded regional community bank, American National Bank and Trust Company.

In 2022, Pleasant was elected to the Hall of Fame for the Department of Civil, Construction, and Environmental Engineering, and honored as a Distinguished Alumnus of the College of Engineering. He was elected to the Engineering Foundation Board of Directors in 2025.

Dr. Rhatigan served 25 years with NASA, notably on the early design of the International Space Station (ISS) through the bulk of its construction, and on the start-up of NASA’s Artemis Program, taking the next step in human space exploration with the development of the Orion spacecraft and the Space Launch System (SLS). After her retirement from NASA, she served 10 years on the faculty at the U.S. Naval Postgraduate School (NPS) in Monterey, California, in the Space Systems Academic Group. She currently resides in Denver, Colorado, and serves as trustee on several boards. Dr. Rhatigan is the recipient of many NASA awards, including the Blue Marble, author of more than 40 peer-reviewed publications and holds a professional engineer’s license in the State of Florida. She began her career in a hard hat, designing steam power plant upgrades with an engineering firm in her hometown of Jacksonville, Florida.

Beth Smith is a hands-on senior technology executive and board member with significant experience in scaling and advancing digital transformation including leadership in artificial intelligence and machine learning, data and hybrid cloud.

Smith spent 30+ years with IBM leading global teams across software and cloud businesses. She helped usher in new technologies in the industry ranging from SOA, hybrid cloud, data, analytics and artificial intelligence. As general manager of IBM Watson, Smith was featured in news media and analyst reports discussing the relevance of Artificial Intelligence in today’s business world and the importance of Ethics of AI. Before retiring, she led IBM’s global technical sales team where she defined and scaled a customer success mission.

She is passionate about developing others to achieve their higher potential. She has advocated, mentored and sponsored many women and minorities in engineering to attain higher heights in the technology industry.

Smith serves on the board of managers for the RTP Angel Fund, a member-managed investment fund committed to identifying and nurturing early-stage companies that demonstrate strong potential for growth and innovation. She also serves on the board of Charity Navigator, where she is chair of the Finance and Audit Committee. Charity Navigator is the largest and most-utilized independent nonprofit evaluator. Smith serves as vice-chair for the Computer Science Strategic Advisory Board at NC State University.

She was inducted in the NC State Computer Science Alumni Hall of Fame in 2020 for her impact on transforming IBM’s business through new technology implementation and her support of advancing women in engineering.

Smith holds a B.S. in computer science from NC State University.

Jerry Tillman is an experienced global services leader with a demonstrated history of working in the information technology and services industry. He has developed several skills throughout his career, most notably in cloud, development, storage, customer relationship management (CRM), DevOps, site reliability engineering (SRE) and software-as-a-service (SaaS).

As vice president of IBM’s cloud platform, Tillman is the head of engineering for the platform-as-a-service (PaaS) portfolio. He leads a global team responsible for the revenue generating service offerings on the platform. His responsibilities include the business strategy, development, delivery and service availability of the PaaS offerings across dev & data services worldwide.

In addition to his current responsibilities, he also sits on IBM’s Site Reliability Profession Global Governance Board. “SRE@IBM” is a cross-business unit endeavor to jointly define job roles and certification requirements and to create learning plans and training material for the SRE methodology. The collaborative goal is to share best practices as well as the experiences of practicing site reliability engineers across multiple areas ranging from cloud and cognitive software services to global technical sales.

A proud Wolfpack alumnus, Tillman earned his bachelor’s degree in computer science with a minor in mathematics from North Carolina State University. He was inducted into the NC State Computer Science Alumni Hall of Fame in 2023. In his spare time, he’s run several half and full marathons when he’s not spending time with his family.

Pam earned her B.S. in civil engineering ’84 and her M.S. in civil engineering ’87 from NC State. She is a strong advocate for NC State and has served on the Civil Engineering advisory board, the Engineering Foundation Board and the Board of Visitors and chaired the Paul Zia Lecture committee. She has been recognized as a  College of Engineering Distinguished Alumna and is an inductee to the Civil Engineering Hall of Fame. Pam retired from a multi-decade career as an executive in the consulting engineering industry to pursue her passion of coaching. She is the founder of Townsend Catalyst Coaching, LLC.

Pam’s efforts to support the state of North Carolina include appointments to the Joint Legislative Joining our Business and Schools (JOBS) Commission, the Blue Ribbon Commission to Study the Building and Infrastructure Needs of the State  and the NC Works Commission. She served on the leadership team for the creation of the WAKE/NC State STEM High School developed for students underrepresented in STEM and  focused on project based learning based on the  National Academy of Engineering Grand Challenges. Pam also helped bring the NC Future City Middle School outreach competition to the state. She has served as  President of Professional Engineers of North Carolina and the PENC Educational Foundation, and is a PENC Fellow. She currently serves on the Centennial Authority with the responsibility of the Lenovo Center, the home of the NC State men’s basketball and the Carolina Hurricanes.

Radhika Venkatraman is a highly experienced C-level executive with over 20 years of expertise driving digital transformation within the financial services and telecommunications sectors. Her areas of focus include data strategy, large-scale platforms, cloud strategy, Lean Six Sigma and mergers and acquisitions. In her most recent role as CDO, CIO and CTO for Credit Suisse, she led a global team of 10,000 technologists and data scientists and achieved 25 patents for the groups she managed throughout her career. Currently, Venkatraman serves as a strategic advisor to the CEOs of several innovative startups and has previously held positions on the boards of Pacific Metrics (now part of ACT) and TM Forum, where she chaired the Appointments and Governance committee. She serves on the boards of LiveEarth, Brightspeed and IIT Bombay Heritage Foundation.

Venkatraman guides prominent startup companies specializing in cloud, digital workflow, security, identity, fair AI and ML ops, helping them grow and expand. She advises the CEO and leadership team on strategies, market positioning, sales pitch and go-to-market. Furthermore, she assists the leadership team in ensuring the product’s safe and responsible positioning by implementing a compliance and governance framework.

Venkatraman served as managing director at Credit Suisse from 2017 to June 2022. She oversaw the data and technology functions for the Global Investment Bank Division and the Group Risk and Compliance Office. Under her guidance, the division successfully implemented a comprehensive data strategy and executed various bank-wide regulatory programs. She also led the bank’s innovation initiatives and played a pivotal role in developing and implementing large-scale platforms for trading, client experience and management, compliance and risk management.

Previously, Venkatraman was senior vice president and CIO of Verizon’s network and technology organization. Before being promoted to Verizon’s C-suite, she led the software teams that scaled Verizon’s premiere internet service (Fios) to support 65% year-over-year growth. Her teams’ efforts resulted in 99% on-time customer performance and a 71% reduction in customer complaints.

Venkatraman was named one of American Bankers’ 25 Most Powerful Women in Finance in 2021 and received the Women in Finance Award for Excellence in Leadership from Markets Media in 2020. She was also included in Computerworld’s Premier 100 Technology Leaders in 2016. Venkatraman has been invited to speak at prestigious events such as at Harvard Business School, The Economist Innovation Forum, CIO Symposium NY, Computerworld 100, CIO World, CTO Forum: Rethinking Engineering, Hive Data Summit, TM Forum USA and Broadband InfoVision Amsterdam.

Venkatraman has a master’s degree in computer science and computer-aided engineering from North Carolina State University and a bachelor’s degree from the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay.

David Wagner, IV is the Chief Executive Officer and a board member at SureCost, a high growth private equity-backed software company providing purchasing and inventory management solutions to the pharmacy industry. He is a small and midsized technology business enthusiast, having spent his career leading and advising innovative technology companies as an operator, management consultant and investor.

Prior to leading SureCost, David was the Chief Operating Officer (COO) and Chief Revenue Officer (CRO) at Assembly Software, a PE-back SaaS company providing case management solutions to law firms. At Assembly, David led the integration of two of the leading case management software brands, Needles and Trialworks, and oversaw the company through a period of more than tripling revenue and staffing growth. He also held senior leadership positions running operations, product and sales as a Vice President at Omnitracs, a Vista Equity Partners portfolio company.

David began his career at Civatech Oncology as the first employee of the medical device start-up before moving to management consulting, where he advised numerous technology companies on strategy and operations at both Kalypso and KPMG. He is also a medical device patent holder and published author and is committed to helping cultivate the next generation of technology leaders, advising small business owners and actively working with his alma mater, North Carolina State University, as a Board Member of the NC State Engineering Foundation and guest lecturer for the Minority Engineering Program (MEP).

David resides in Atlanta with his wife, Nailah, and their three young daughters. He received his B.S. in biomedical engineering from North Carolina State University and M.S. in biomedical engineering from the Joint Department of Biomedical Engineering at North Carolina State University and the University of North Carolina.

Hans Warren received his B.S. from the Department of Civil, Construction, and Environmental Engineering from NC State in 1984. He is the president of Warco Construction, Inc., a Charlotte, NC-based construction company specializing in sprayed fireproofing and commercial interior construction. Aside from serving on the Engineering Foundation Board, Warren currently serves on the board of trustees for the NCSU endowment fund and has served as a previous board member on the NC State University Foundation, Inc. Warren has also served on the NC State Civil, Construction, and Environmental Engineering advisory board, and the NC State Student Aid Association board. He is a member of the W.H. Page Society, a lifetime member of the NC State Alumni Association and a charter member of the Lonnie Poole Golf Course.

David H. Whitley is currently the chief technology officer at Bullhorn Inc., the global leader in software for the staffing and recruiting industry, having joined the company in March 2021. Prior to joining Bullhorn Inc., he was the managing director of DHW Ventures LLC, an executive management consulting company specializing in advisory services to software companies. He advised early stage, venture-backed and private equity owned software companies, having spent the past 15 years as head of software engineering in several private equity owned portfolio companies. Prior to establishing DHW Ventures in February 2020, he was most recently the senior vice president of product development for Applied Systems, Inc., the leading global provider of cloud-based insurance software which achieved significant global growth, leading the digital transformation of the insurance industry. Prior to joining Applied Systems in 2011, he was responsible for global product development activities for the security, government and infrastructure division at Huntsville, Alabama based Intergraph Corp., providing mission-critical software for several industries including public safety, defense, intelligence, utilities, transportation and communications.

Whitley is currently the chair of the Engineering Foundation Board Development Committee, in his first term as a board member. He is currently serving in his second term on the Strategic Advisory Board for the Department of Computer Science at NC State. He is an active member of the Wolfpack Investor Network, where he is personally involved in helping other young companies achieve their growth goals, and values the ability to network with other Wolfpack entrepreneurs and investors seeking to strengthen the Wolfpack business community.

Whitley and his wife, Karen, endowed the David & Karen Whitley Engineering Scholarship several years ago, for electrical engineering or computer science students, to assist students with financial hardship, having lost his father due to a heart attack his junior year of college at NC State. Additionally, the Whitleys have contributed to the capital campaign for the Fitts-Woolard Hall building by naming a study lounge in the new building. Whitley received his B.S. in electrical engineering from NC State in 1992.

John Wolf is a native of Hillsborough, North Carolina, and earned a B.S. in chemical engineering with an economics minor in 1995. He joined Cryovac, a division of WR Grace, as a development engineer, earning nine U.S. patents. In his 22 years with Cryovac and Sealed Air, he held numerous R&D and manufacturing positions as well as numerous executive leadership roles including vice president of strategy and execution, vice president for global general packaging, global vice president of marketing and global vice president/general manager for the automated fulfillment solutions business unit. In 2019 he joined Spectrum Plastics Group (SPG) as divisional president, and in late 2021 he was promoted to CEO of SPG. In 2023, he led the sale of SPG to DuPont, and post-acquisition he has maintained his role as CEO and global general manager for DuPont’s Industrial Solutions $700M combined healthcare business unit. In his time as CEO, Spectrum has hired over a dozen NC State engineers into its professional development program.

He has a true Wolfpack family, with wife Deanna, a 1995 graduate in psychology, and three daughters: Isabelle, a 2021 graduate in graphic design; Annalise, a 2023 graduate in physics, and Evelynne who is currently a senior studying biomedical engineering at NC State. His extended family roots run deeper, with a sister, Caroline (Wolf) Berger, a 1984 NC State graduate and a niece, Madeleine Jonson, who is an ROTC Air Force leader and in graduate school at NC State. Additionally, his sister-in-law Tanya Maxon (‘93) and brother-in-law Michael Maxon (‘91) are NC State graduates, and two of his nephews, Shawn and John Maxon, are current NC State engineering students.

Wolf and his wife recently completed a room naming donation in the CBE department. He currently serves on the advisory board for the NC State Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering.

Sam Wurst graduated from NC State in 2015 with a B.S. in industrial and systems engineering. He also spent a year studying abroad at Boğaziçi University in Istanbul from 2012-13. Upon graduating, Wurst started working for a small company in Raleigh, KB Stephens, where he is a sales engineer in the commercial lighting industry. He has served in this role for nearly nine years. The role offers a unique opportunity to be directly involved in much of the new construction development around the Triangle, including the lighting for Fitts-Woolard Hall and the upcoming Integrative Sciences Building. Outside of work, Wurst has served four years on the Young Alumni Advisory Board where he was chair of the college relations committee. He enjoys regularly attending concerts, playing disc golf (and normal golf, albeit poorly) and spending time with friends and family.

Mark Wyatt retired from Duke Energy in 2013 with 34 years of senior management and utility experience. Prior to his retirement from Duke Energy, Wyatt served as vice president of grid modernization as the lead executive for the company’s grid modernization function, which was responsible for delivering enhanced operational efficiencies for the company’s transmission and distribution system, as well as providing a platform for growing the company’s revenue through leveraging grid modernization investments to provide value-added products and services to the company’s retail customer base.

Wyatt started with Duke Power in 1980 in the information management department. He moved to the distribution department several years later, where he was responsible for the deployment of common business processes and supporting technology that enhanced the effectiveness of engineering, construction and operations functions within the department. Following this assignment, he experienced a series of promotions within the company through assignments in the retail customer services, transmission, distribution, generation, unregulated business operations and information technology areas.

Wyatt has been a member of several advisory boards throughout his career, including the Computer Science Strategic Advisory Board at NC State University; the University of North Carolina at Charlotte’s College of Informatics Advisory Board; the North Carolina Technology Association; the Customer Services (CS) Week board of directors; Goodwill of the Southern Piedmont board of directors; and board chair for Envision Charlotte, a nonprofit organization focused on driving energy, waste, water and air efficiency opportunities within the metropolitan area of Charlotte, NC. Wyatt currently serves as board chair for the nonprofit organization Start Over that provides aid to the homeless community in Charlotte and Durham, NC.

Wyatt received his B.S. degree in computer science from NC State University in 1980.