Alumna’s Lifelong Leadership Keeps Her “in the Arena”

Dana Alligood (MBA ’97), Executive Director, WFU Center for Private Business

Alumna’s Lifelong Leadership Keeps Her “in the Arena”

You have a unique connection to Wake Forest. Can you please provide a brief overview of your ties to Wake? 

My family connections to Wake Forest run deep. I attended Wake Forest for my MBA, and my husband, Jeff, is an alumnus. But my connection to Wake goes far beyond just my graduate degree and my husband’s undergrad experience. My mother and grandfather both went to Wake, and Samuel Wait, the first president of Wake Forest, is actually my grandfather’s great grandfather; we have had generations of Wake Foresters in our family! In fact, my family has several very special memories that occurred at Wake, including the wedding of my parents in Davis Chapel and my own wedding in Wait Chapel. Given my intimate connections to Wake Forest, it was a natural fit for me to attend for my MBA. I played volleyball at the University of Virginia as an undergraduate and was excited to get the chance to attend WFU for graduate school. 

My experiences in graduate school helped form the foundation for my career in banking, spending many years in both Charlotte and Southern California with Bank of America. Now, I’m thrilled to reconnect back to my Wake Forest roots, proudly serving as the Executive Director for the WFU Center for Private Business.

Can you give us an overview of your banking career and how it prepared you for this opportunity with the Center for Private Business?

In my 30+ years with Bank of America, I was fortunate to have had a number of meaningful opportunities to serve customers, team members and the community; I was also able to benefit from some amazing mentors. In fact, soon after graduating with my MBA, I was chosen out of my cohort of new hires to shadow the then-CEO, Hugh McColl – this experience is just one of many amazing opportunities that Bank of America afforded me during my career. Given I had two years of investment banking experience, I initially went into middle market investment banking but ultimately switched to Bank of America’s commercial banking business. I successfully served as an executive leader for that business during my career. 

Through those experiences at Bank of America, I learned how to serve clients and help them succeed. Importantly, in addition to my time serving as a leader at Bank of America, I was also able to serve my community in different capacities, volunteering with Big Brothers Big Sisters, the San Diego Food Bank and other philanthropic organizations. During this time, I was able to cultivate a deep passion for helping my community, and it is precisely my passion for service that helped open the door for this new opportunity with the Center for Private Business. 

Leading the Center for Private Business allows me to both serve Wake Forest and the surrounding community while also enabling me to continue to help companies grow and succeed  – in ways that extend beyond banking. 

What is the Center for Private Business (CPB) and what attracted you to this opportunity?

The Center for Private Business exists to enable privately-held businesses to thrive by helping them to achieve dreams for their business, family, employees, community and stakeholders by providing access to industry leaders, resources, networks and education. It is our hope that the Center for Private Business continues to be a catalyst for economic growth and deeply embedded in the social prosperity of our region and beyond. Importantly the Center is accessible to all companies and offers a range of services, such as leadership development, strategic planning, succession planning and much more. Put simply, the Center is designed to help private companies – and by extension, people and communities – reach their full potential. 

For me personally, it is precisely this mission that attracted me to this opportunity with the Center. I am energized at the prospect of helping businesses reach their full potential, and given my leadership experience at Bank of America, my passion for community service, and my intimate knowledge of various companies and industries, I am confident that I can significantly contribute to the mission at the Center. 

How can alumni plug into the CPB, particularly if they are not a business owner? Can you tell us more about the programming offered?

Alumni can engage with the Center for Private Business in a few ways. Of course, if they own a business, they can speak with us about membership; but, if they do not own a business, they can also become a sponsor of the Center. We have alumni that are interested in personally supporting Wake Forest as well as the business community in North Carolina and have contributed to the Center as a sponsor.

The programming that we offer is centered on our six core focus areas: leadership development, succession planning, strategic planning, family harmony, governance and culture. Members learn how to be more effective leaders and business owners by attending these workshops and seminars that address our key focus areas. Alumni are also encouraged to participate. 

What advice do you have for Wake Forest students and alumni?

One of the best pieces of advice I ever received was from a dean at the University of Virginia. He shared Theodore Roosevelt’s famous “Man in the Arena” quote*, which resonated deeply with me at the time I was a student-athlete and has continued to inform and guide the direction of my career and life more generally. The upshot of Roosevelt’s saying is that one should not be afraid of criticism but should instead focus on taking action – or being “in the arena”. Be willing to take risks; be curious and don’t be afraid to make mistakes. This fundamental precept also leads me to another key piece of advice: be curious. Always be learning and pushing yourself out of your comfort zone. 

Finally, my advice is to lift while you climb. As you grow in your personal and professional life, remember to bring people along with you. Share your insights and wisdom, and find time to serve and give back to your community. 

*“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.” – Theodore Roosevelt. Goodreads, https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/7-it-is-not-the-critic-who-counts-not-the-man.