Partner, IBM
Carlos Banks is a partner in strategic transformation for IBM, working with senior client executives across a wide range of industries to shape critical enterprise transformation initiatives at the intersection of technology and business. Previously, he was managing director at Accenture, a multinational professional services firm, where he focused on the operations business.
Prior to his time with Accenture, Carlos was an assistant vice president and global relationship manager for Genpact Corporation – a specialty consulting and execution firm focusing on enterprise process transformation, business analytics and information technology. He began his career in professional financial services spending time at both Goldman Sachs and Deloitte. Carlos received his MBA from the Kellogg School of Management and his Master of Engineering Management (MEM) from the McCormick School of Engineering – both at Northwestern University, in 2014.
Carlos was a member of the 2004 class of the Business Opportunity Program and received his BS in Accounting and Finance from Purdue’s Daniels School of Business in 2008. He received numerous awards and honors including The Dr. Cornell A. Bell Award, The Purdue Black Caucus Academic & Leadership Awards, The Krannert Outstanding Senior Award, Dean’s List and Semester Honors, among others.
Today, Carlos is committed to remaining active in organizations that have had a major impact on his life and serves on the boards of the Purdue Black Alumni Organization and Daniels School Alumni Association, is a member of the BOP leadership council, and serves as an alumni Admissions volunteer for the Kellogg School of Management. He also serves as a volunteer for the Management Leadership for Tomorrow (MLT) and Sponsors for Educational Opportunity (SEO) organizations and their respective professional development programs.
President, IDEX Energy
Law Burks was born and raised in the Chicago area. He holds a BS in Industrial Management from Purdue University and an MBA from Northwestern University. Law also completed executive education at Harvard Business School and holds the CPIM designation from the American Production and Inventory Control Society.
Law’s work experience includes service as an officer in the U.S. Air Force and increasingly responsible positions in manufacturing and business to business strategy, sales and marketing, and general management at Avon Products, Alcan Packaging, Cardinal Health, Illinois Tool Works and Brand Safway, a Clayton Dubilier & Rice PE portfolio company.
Law joined IDEX Energy in 2020 where he served as president of Banjo Corporation. In 2022, he was promoted to President of Agriculture Technology. In 2023, Law was promoted to president of the IDEX Energy Platform. He has full P&L responsibility for growing five global business units where he leads a team of general managers, sales, marketing, engineering, operations, and staff functions.
Law is active in the community including service as a member of the Executive Leadership Council, an IDEX Foundation board member, and president of The Josh Burks Foundation.
Retired Accenture Executive/Independent Consultant
Jim Hayes is retired from Accenture and currently working as an independent consultant. Mr. Hayes held several leadership roles during his Accenture tenure, including: managing director of alliances; managing director for platform capability in India, China and the Philippines; managing director of the Global Oracle Practice; and managing director of the North America SAP Practice. In these roles, he oversaw the development of critical selling and delivery assets across the SAP, Oracle, Microsoft, SaaS vendors, and custom advanced technology capability. Mr. Hayes and his team played a key role in selling and delivering high-value enterprise software applications to Accenture's clients around the world. He was charged with expanding Accenture's thought leadership related to the application software landscape and with building delivery capabilities.
Mr. Hayes earned a bachelor’s degree in Industrial Management/Economic Honors from Purdue’s Daniels School of Business in 1984. He has been involved in several community service efforts, including Global Volunteers, Daybreak Transitional Housing, St. Patrick's Residence for the Aged and the Alive Teen Center in Naperville.
Chairman, Director and former CEO of Harris Corporation and Maxar Technologies
Howard L. Lance has a distinguished career serving public and private technology and industrial companies as chief executive officer, board chairman, and director. He founded Lance Advisors LLC in 2019, where he advises institutional investors and private equity clients regarding investments in aerospace, defense, and industrial markets. Previously, he was president and chief executive officer of Maxar Technologies, a leading provider of space technology solutions including satellites, robotics, and geospatial imagery to Government and Commercial clients from 2016-2019.
Lance was executive advisor-private equity at the Blackstone Group from 2012-16. He served as board chairman, president, and chief executive officer of Harris Corporation, a leading global provider of communications and technology solutions to government, defense, and commercial markets from 2003-2011. He was co-president of NCR Corporation and chief operating officer of its retail and financial group from 2001-2002. Previously, he spent 17 years at Emerson Electric Company as executive vice president of its electronics and telecom businesses, chief executive officer of its Astec PLC subsidiary, group president of its climate technologies businesses, and president of its Copeland Refrigeration business.
His board service currently includes non-executive chairman at Summit Materials, a leading provider of aggregates and cement; non-executive chairman at Covanta Energy, a leading provider of sustainable waste and environmental solutions; and member of the Board of Directors at Mercury Systems, a leading defense electronics systems supplier.
Lance earned his Bachelor of Science in Industrial Engineering at Bradley University and his Master of Science in Management at Purdue University. He received an honorary Doctor of Science from the University of Florida, an honorary Doctor of Science from the University of Central Florida, and an honorary Doctor of Letters from Bradley University.
President, Samford University
Dr. Beck A. Taylor began his tenure as the 19th president of Samford University, in Birmingham, Ala., in July 2021. He returned to Samford after serving as the 18th president of Whitworth University in Spokane, Wash., from 2010-2021. Prior to that appointment, Dr. Taylor served as dean and professor of economics for Samford’s Brock School of Business (2005-2010), and associate dean for research and faculty development and the W.H. Smith Professor of Economics for Baylor University’s Hankamer School of Business, in Waco, Tex. (1997-2005).
During Dr. Taylor’s first three years as Samford’s president, he led the development of the university’s strategic plan, which sets a bold and aspirational vision to reinforce and strengthen Samford as a leading national, comprehensive, Christ-centered institution of higher learning. A $100 million gift from alumnus Marvin Mann in 2022, nearly $300 million of campus improvements, and record enrollments are fueling Samford’s growth and impact.
After earning his undergraduate degree from Baylor with majors in economics and finance, Dr. Taylor was employed as an analyst for Andersen Consulting (now Accenture) in Houston, Texas. He went on to earn his M.S. and Ph.D. in economics from Purdue University. After returning to the Baylor faculty, Dr. Taylor was named the first holder of the W.H. Smith Professorship in Economics. In 2002, he was appointed as a visiting scholar by Harvard University where he spent one year in residence at the Harvard Graduate School of Education.
As a scholar, Dr. Taylor has published dozens of studies in economics journals such as Review of Economics and Statistics, Journal of Labor Economics, Journal of Human Resources and Journal of Money, Credit, and Banking. Illustrating his diverse research interests and his connections to the social sciences, he has also published groundbreaking research in public health and child developmental psychology. His research has been cited in testimony given before the U.S. Congress, the Federal Trade Commission, and the California State Assembly, and also has been referenced in publications such as The New York Times, The Boston Globe, and The Christian Science Monitor.
President & CEO, TechServ Corporation
TechServ is a consulting and project management firm focused on public health, public safety and higher education sectors supporting strategic planning, grants and program management, training and technical assistance, and technology enabled data collection and outcomes measurement.
Sunny earned a Bachelor of Liberal Arts from Purdue University, was a Hansard Scholar at the London School of Economics, and received an MBA from Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business. Sunny has spent 15 years in business management, new venture formation and program sustainability.
Sunny’s expertise is on strategic alliance partnerships — identifying the how with the who to move programs forward and scale with technology. Her passion is in improving community and public health through education and access facilitated by a healthcare driven workforce (community health workers, EMTs/paramedics, certified recovery coaches, peer recovery specialists, prenatal care coordinators, doula-birth coaches, and peer navigators). Her core areas of programming are cultural competency and racial equity, maternal and child health, social determinants of health, community health management of chronic diseases, immediate interventions in opioid prevention, treatment and recovery, and telehealth infrastructure design and deployment.
Sunny was awarded Indiana Business Journal’s 40 under 40 in 2015 and the Indiana Minority Health Coalition's William “Bill” Mays Community Titan Award in 2019. Her current philanthropic board positions include Emeritus Board International School of Indiana, the Emeritus Board Central Indiana Community Foundation Women's Fund, the Susan G. Komen of Central Indiana Executive Committee, and the StartED Up Foundation, and the Indiana University Kelley School of Business Dean’s Council.
