Joe Beverly (BBA 1963, MBA 1964)

Joe E. Beverly was born in Thomasville, Georgia. He lived in South Florida where his family was in the produce business until he was 14. The family then returned to Georgia, and he attended Ochlocknee High School until it merged with Thomas County Central High School in 1958. He was in the first graduating class at Thomas County Central and was selected "Mr. Central High School" in 1959.

Beverly received his bachelor's degree in finance from the Terry College in 1963 and his MBA from Terry in 1964. He was a member and officer of Sigma Chi fraternity.

Beverly's civic involvement includes serving as president of the Thomasville-Thomas County Chamber of Commerce, president of the Brookwood School Board of Trustees, president of the John D. Archbold Memorial Hospital board of trustees, president of W. R. Milton Y.M.C.A. and chairman of the Thomasville Payroll Development Authority.

He is a past board member the University of Georgia Alumni Association and the Terry College Alumni Board. He was a member of the Leadership Georgia Class of 1973 and is a former director of the Georgia Chamber of Commerce and the Georgia Bankers Association. He is an elder and deacon of the First Presbyterian Church in Thomasville and a member of the Williams Family Foundation Board.

Beverly began his banking career with the First National Bank of Atlanta in 1964 and was elected vice president in 1970. In 1972, he resigned from First National and moved back to Thomasville to assume the duties of president and CEO of Commercial Bank. In 1977, Commercial Bank merged with Synovus Financial Corp. Beverly was elected chairman of Commercial Bank and vice chairman of Synovus in 1990. He retired from Synovus in 1996, though he remains on the board. He has served on the boards of four New York Stock Exchange-listed companies, including Synovus and Flowers Foods.

Beverly is a noted conservationist, having served as chairman of the board of the Georgia Department of Natural Resources. In 2005, he was appointed to the Governor's Land Conservation Council and has served as a director of the Nature Conservancy. He was named Conservationist of the Year by the Georgia Wildlife Federation in 1998 and, in 2004, received the Rock Howard Award from the Department of Natural Resources.

J. Paul Holmes (BBA 1963)

J. Paul Holmes Jr. was born in North Carolina and lived there until his family moved to Georgia in 1955. He attended Northside High School in Atlanta, where he was a star football player for the 1957 state championship team. At the University of Georgia, he was a three-year letterman from 1960-62, receiving the Outstanding Lineman Award and playing in the North-South All-Star Game. He was a member of Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity and graduated with a bachelor's degree in marketing.

After a brief professional football career with the Dallas Cowboys following his 1963 graduation, Holmes moved to Monticello, Ga., to run a dairy farm and work as a Farm Bureau insurance agent. Holmes entered politics and won a seat on the Jasper County Board of Commissioners, becoming the first Republican elected to office in Jasper County since Reconstruction. He was a member of the first Leadership Georgia class in 1972. He became state director of the Agricultural Stabilization and Conservation Service, then in 1975 took over as state director of the Farmers Home Administration.

In 1976, Holmes became an executive at Fulton National Bank. In 1979, he and his partners founded Life of the South Insurance Co., which has grown to be one of the top 10 providers and administrators of credit insurance in the United States. He currently serves as vice chairman of Life of the South and is a board member of McIntosh Bancshares. Holmes is also co-owner of Century 21 HeartLand Realty in Monticello.

Holmes' civic involvement includes serving as a board member and chairman of the Georgia Chamber of Commerce, chairman of the Jasper County Economic Development Authority, and membership on the boards of both Griffin Technical College and the Georgia College and State University Foundation. Holmes is a former officer of the UGA Alumni Association and remains an active member of the UGA Football Letterman's Club and the UGA Presidents Club. He is a deacon of Monticello Baptist Church.

Leo Wells (BBA 1967)

Leo F. Wells III, founder, president and sole director of Wells Real Estate Funds and its subsidiaries, earned his bachelor's degree in economics in 1967. Under his leadership, Wells Real Estate Funds has grown to be one of the largest real estate investment companies in the United States since its founding in 1984, with more than 200,000 investors and $7 billion in assets.

Wells is a member of the Financial Planning Association and a registered principal with NASD Series 7, 24 and 63 registrations. He is a life member of the Atlanta Board of Realtors Million Dollar Club. In 2003, he was selected as a national winner of the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award in the financial services category.

Wells' involvement with the University of Georgia includes his contribution of time and financial support to benefit the Terry College's Institute for Leadership Advancement and its students. Wells is also a major supporter of UGA's athletic programs and has funded several team chaplain positions at UGA and other schools. He is an active member of Fellowship Bible Church of Roswell, Ga., and participates in the church's international mission trips.

Richard Courts, IV (BBA 1995)

Richard W. Courts IV earned his bachelor's degree in finance from the Terry College in 1995. Courts joined Carter, an Atlanta-based commercial real estate firm, immediately after graduation. He now serves as a vice president in Carter's transaction services group as an office tenant representative for corporate clients, where he is consistently one of the firm's top five producers. Courts is a life member and Phoenix award recipient of the Atlanta Commercial Board of Realtors Million Dollar Club and is a past chairman of the ACBR Young Council of Realtors.

Courts' civic involvement includes Children's Healthcare of Atlanta, the Woodruff Arts Center, the Technology Association of Georgia, the Georgia Biomedical Partnership and Christ Church of Atlanta. Courts is a past board member of the Buckhead YMCA. He currently serves on the board of directors for the Fox Theater and The East Lake Foundation, and he chairs the board of Odyssey. As a member of the Terry College Alumni Board, Courts chairs the alumni task force for the college's Terry Third Thursday speaker series in Atlanta.