Turner College Alumni Provide Vital, History-Setting Leadership for Columbus State’s Top Volunteer Boards

For the first time in Columbus State University’s near 65-year history, all of its signature volunteer boards are under the leadership of CSU alumni, with three-fourths of these being under the leadership of graduates of CSU’s Turner College of Business.  Together, these boards oversee alumni engagement and philanthropic programs in CSU’s Office of University Advancement and Department of Intercollegiate Athletics. These Turner College alumni leaders include Rick Gordy, chair of CSU Properties Foundation, Tim Money, chair of the CSU Foundation, and Cortney Laughlin Wilson, president of the CSU Athletic Association.  “Our association and foundation boards have for decades benefited from the combined leadership of alumni, community leaders and friends of the university,” said Dr. Rocky Kettering, CFRE, who as CSU’s vice president for advancement, holds ex-officio positions on the CSU Foundation and CSU Athletic Association boards. “Our alumni are among our greatest ambassadors.  All four of our boards benefiting from their passion and leadership at the same time holds tremendous promise for Columbus State in the year ahead.”  Board members also provide leadership to events like homecoming and its signature activities that include the Alumni Awards Program and CougarFest.  They also help host local “First Thursdays” alumni events, regional events outside of Columbus, and the Senior Toast for CSU graduates each fall and spring.

You might expect someone with the last name of Money to become chair of the CSU Foundation by default.  However, for more than 20 years, the 1986 Turner College of Business graduate has worked in the financial and investing world as president and chief investment officer of The Money Advisory Group LLC in Columbus.  While he continues chairing the board’s Investment Committee, he is now expanding his leadership to include all the foundation’s efforts.  Money and his 30-member board partner with the foundation’s professional staff in CSU’s Office of University Advancement to guide and direct the university’s fundraising program, as well as steward philanthropic gifts to Columbus State.  This includes managing the investment of the university’s endowment, which is currently valued at more than $80 million.  Out of the University System of Georgia’s 26 institutions, Columbus State ranks first among state universities and fifth among all institutions in regard to the value of its endowment.  “As we start a new, historic chapter for our boards and look at the composition of [the CSU Foundation Board], the right folks are in the right place at the right time to start a new chapter for the good of Columbus State,” Money told his fellow trustees at the CSU Foundation Board’s recent meeting.  “I’ve never been prouder to be part of this university as we move onward and upward with a renewed focus.”

Property forms a large part of Columbus State’s asset portfolio, and oversight of that is the responsibility of CSU Properties Foundation.  As board chair, Gordy, who earned a bachelor’s in business from the Turner College in 1990, brings his experience as Synovus’ senior vice president for corporate banking to bear in his work.  The CSU Properties Foundation manages real estate it owns for use by the university or leased as a source of foundation revenue.  Wilson, a CSU cheerleader in the late 2000s and early 2010s, has continued sharing her passion for her alma mater as both director of the William B. Turner Center for Servant Leadership at Columbus State and as a long-serving alumni volunteer.  Fresh off her multi-year board service on the CSU Alumni Association Board, including a term as its most recent president, the 2011 graduate of the Turner College’s master’s degree program in organizational leadership is now leading the CSU Athletic Association board.  “Being a student-athlete at CSU gave me so many opportunities that I would never have had otherwise. I can directly attribute most of the success I have experienced in the last 10 years to my involvement with CSU Athletics,” said Wilson, who is also a 2020 inductee into the CSU Athletics Hall of Fame.  “As such, I feel that it is very important to give what I can to the department that gave so much to me.”  Under her leadership, the board will continue to guide and support the Athletic Department and Columbus State leaders in their efforts to raise private support for the university’s 13 NCAA Division II teams.  CSU’s six men’s and seven women’s teams provide opportunities for its 280-plus student-athletes to excel on the courts and fields where they compete, and in the classrooms where they learn.

Kettering noted that the university benefits from many who serve on multiple boards throughout their volunteer “career.”  “As our alumni move from one board service opportunity to another, they acquire and carry with them some incredible institutional knowledge,” Kettering said.  “Furthermore, those who serve our fundraising activities with their previous alumni engagement points of view, and vice versa, become incredibly well-rounded partners with the university’s professional staff as we work together to serve students, our alumni and friends, and our community.”