Wake Forest University‰'s Top Business Students Inducted into International Honor Society

Wake Forest University congratulates the 43 students who joined an expanding worldwide network of more than 625,000 outstanding business professionals who have earned recognition through lifetime membership in Beta Gamma Sigma. Students ranking in the top 10 percent of the baccalaureate and top 20 percent of graduate programs at schools accredited by AACSB International are eligible for this invitation.

By definition, those who earn honor society membership, especially in the International Honor Society Beta Gamma Sigma, are the very best among their peers. The Society’s membership comprises the brightest and best of the world’s business leaders. Election to lifetime membership in Beta Gamma Sigma is the highest honor a business student anywhere in the world can receive in an undergraduate or master’s program at a school accredited by AACSB International. This year’s Beta Gamma Sigma inductees from Wake Forest University have certainly earned membership.

The following students were inducted into the Wake Forest University Chapter of Beta Gamma Sigma at the Fall 2009 ceremony held on Tuesday, November 17 at Forsyth Country Club in Winston-Salem, NC:

Undergraduate Initiates

Ellen Margaret Abbott
Laura Beth Boysen
Ryan Joseph Campbell
Scott William Case
Michael Thomas Duffy
William Benjamin Keith
John Charters Lent
Kyle Richard Taura

Graduate Initiates

John M. (JM) Baratta
Hunter Joyner Bennett
Zachary Dylan Cary
Matthew Edward Clewis
Emilie Nicole Collins
Nicholas Andrew Coppola
Poonam D’souza
Jessica Ann Dowdy
Nathaniel Asher Ellis
Erik Armands Graudins
Jane Marie Hammond
Raymond Jones Harbert
Robin Herrin Hood
Brian Douglas Kuebert
Heather Ann Lohneiss
Matthew Kent Needham
Jacob Scott Norton
Brian Keith Patterson
Lee Simmons Patterson
Jennifer W. Pearson
Vince Matthew Roche
Nicole Battiste Saniti
Jim Wayne Sellers
Vaishali Shah
Jasmine R. Smith
Ashley Victoria Stafford
Jeffrey A. Steever
Daniel Joseph Summers
Sarah Linn Trotta
Mark Timothy Wells
Emily Allison Willard
Martin Glen Wilson
Brian Smith Witz
Kyle Hardin Woodruff
Jun Hyon Yang

The following students have previously been inducted into Beta Gamma Sigma and have now been elected for additional recognition of high scholastic achievement at the Master’s degree level:

David Stanley Fitzgerald
Sarah S. Koch

During the ceremony, Thomas P. (Todd) Gibbons (’79, P ’10), Chief Financial Officer for The Bank of New York Mellon Corporation, spoke about the principles that have guided him through his career. He provided students with valuable lessons for them to take into their careers and gave them advice that will make them great leaders. Gibbons was also inducted as a Chapter Honoree. He joins a class that includes Steve Reinemund, Dean of Business at Wake Forest University and former Chairman and CEO of PepsiCo; Susan Ivey, Chairman, President and CEO of Reynolds American Inc.; Ellen Glazerman, Executive Director of the Ernst & Young Foundation; and David C. Darnell, President of Global Commercial Banking at Bank of America Merrill Lynch.

“It was an honor to have Mr. Gibbons speak at the Beta Gamma Sigma induction,” said Tommy Hough (MSA ’10), president of the Wake Forest University Chapter of Beta Gamma Sigma. “The Bank of New York Mellon Corporation has clearly differentiated itself on Wall Street through outstanding risk management principles, and Mr. Gibbons has been at the center of that process. His insight regarding the crisis and possible solutions was both engaging and thoughtful. It’s alumni like Mr. Gibbons that make me proud to be a Wake Forest student and future Wake Forest alumnus.”

Beta Gamma Sigma membership provides recognition for a lifetime. This lifelong commitment to its members’ academic and professional success is defined in the Society’s mission: to encourage and honor academic achievement in the study of business, to foster personal and professional excellence, to advance the values of the Society, and to serve its lifelong members.

Beta Gamma Sigma was founded as a national organization on February 19, 1913. This first national honor society in business was a merger of three separate societies established to honor academic achievement in business at the University of Wisconsin, University of Illinois and the University of California. With collegiate chapters now on five continents, Beta Gamma Sigma today is truly an international society that remains dedicated to recognizing the most outstanding students of business and management.