November 3, 2022
Business Leadership Conference welcomes alumni back to Greenville
More than 1,200 students, alumni and presenters attended the seventh annual Business Leadership Conference (BLC), held Oct. 20, 2022, on the campus of East Carolina University. During the one-day event, ECU College of Business (COB) sophomores, juniors, seniors and graduate students heard from more than 20 local and national business leaders, entrepreneurs and alumni.
Traditionally, the BLC is kicked off with a keynote presentation. This year, event organizers introduced a new feature of the BLC to replace the presentation: a fireside chat. For the inaugural chat, Mike Harris, interim dean of the College of Business, welcomed John May (BSBA ’93) back home to Greenville and to his alma mater. May is the founder and managing partner of CORE Industrial Partners, a Chicago-based private equity firm focused on North American lower middle market manufacturing, industrial technology and industrial service businesses. He is responsible for all of CORE’s activities, including sourcing new investment opportunities, valuation, transaction structuring, acquisition financing and fundraising. He currently serves on the boards of all CORE’s portfolio companies. May also is an at-large member of the East Carolina University Foundation, Inc. board of directors and chairs its Investment Committee.
“The Business Leadership Conference is a wonderful time where our alumni and speakers can connect with the College’s No. 1 resource: our students,” said Harris. “There’s always a chance a student will hear something that will set them on a path to success.”
May’s participation in the BLC marks the first time an ECU COB alumnus has been the featured speaker at the event.
Words of advice
On a fall morning in October, COB students heard from May, who has formerly been the president & CEO of seven companies prior to founding CORE Industrial Partners. CORE has bought (and sold several) 40 companies in the past five years, and the firm currently has $1 billion of assets under management. Many listened intently as May answered one of Harris’ many questions: “What is the secret sauce to success?”
“Be prepared,” said May. “Always present yourself in a way that you’re going to be what you want to be.” To illustrate the point, May spoke about how he once worked at a chicken factory and every day, he went to work wearing a tie. “I thought to myself, ‘I’m going be a CEO one day.'”
For tomorrow’s leaders, May recommended a lot of reading to ensure they are prepared for any processes they may need to know in their line of work.
“I taught myself how to do merger and acquisition transactions,” May told the crowd. “I didn’t go to an Ivy League school, and I didn’t work for a financial services firm … I spent a lot of time reading books and learning in real time early in my career.”
Other lessons learned that May shared were “make hard work your passion, always find ways to give back and there is no destination; it’s all about the journey.”
Finally, surround yourself with good people, one extra ingredient to May’s secret sauce that came from lessons learned over the years.
“If you don’t know what you want to do, experiment a little bit and try a couple of different things,” said May. “Find the thing that you can be the best at, and then put all your energy and effort into it. Surround yourself with the right group of people who are aligned with your passion.”
A sort of Homecoming
The Business Leadership Conference afforded Raj Kannan (MBA ’90) a homecoming of sorts since he first stepped on ECU’s grounds in 1987. Looking back, Kannan tells us, “ECU was not just a place of learning for me. It was a place where I reinvented myself.”
Kannan, current CEO of Aerie Pharmaceuticals, said, “It (ECU) … took a bet on a young Indian man back in the late ’80s who was intent on following the bright beacon on the hill called the U.S. of A.”
Part of the reinvention that Kannan describes included taking advantage of ECU’s MBA program. This program would complement his undergraduate degree in chemistry from the University of Madras in Chennai, India.
“It (the MBA program) was where I met up-and-coming professionals working full time in local companies who came to class to debate, test, experiment, unlearn and relearn,” said Kannan.
“ECU was not just a university for me,” added Kannan. “It was a place where I could ‘touch’ and ‘feel’ the ‘Pirate grit’ and walk away with horizons expanded and stretched in a manner that never returned to its original proportion.”
And, on Oct. 20, 2022, Kannan attended the Business Leadership Conference and saw firsthand the opportunities attendees had to have their horizons expanded as well.
“This Business Leadership Conference was aimed at inspiring, developing and connecting future leaders at the College of Business,” said Kannan, “And with John May and the panel speakers, they (COB) achieved that goal.”
After the fireside chat, COB students participated in 12 breakout sessions that featured numerous alumni presenters who focused on how to succeed in a career and what makes for good leadership. One presenter was Sequoya Borgman (MSA ’98).
Borgman never passes up a chance to visit ECU.
“I have fond memories of my time as a student, and I owe much of my success to the education I received at ECU,” he said.
Borgman, founder and CEO of Borgman Capital, returned to ECU this year to present at the Business Leadership Conference. He led an accounting breakout session titled, “What Now? How to enter the job market with confidence.”
The presentation marked the first time Borgman participated in the conference.
“It was great to see the campus and catch up with some of my professors and those who helped me while I was a student,” said Borgman.
The event closed with a session where the students networked with the presenters and practiced everything they learned from the COB’s professional development and ethical leadership course. Etiquette and networking skills were on full display.
During the session, they remembered the challenge Harris put forth to them at the event kick-off.
“At this conference, I challenge you to get a minimum of three new LinkedIn connections,” said Harris. “Honestly, you may meet someone that changes your life.”
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