The first Terry College Young Alumni Summit is set for January 24, 2025, in Atlanta.
Tailored for recent graduates, the summit provides a valuable opportunity to network, engage in insightful discussions, connect with fellow alumni, and discover exciting ways to stay involved with the Terry College.
Event Details
Date:
Friday, January 24, 2025
Location:
Terry Executive Education Center
3475 Lenox Road NE
Atlanta, GA 30326
Sponsors
A variety of sponsorship levels are available for corporations or individuals.
Please contact Christine Smith for more information.
Agenda
| 8:30 a.m. | Arrival, Registration & Networking |
|---|---|
| 9 a.m. | Opening Remarks Welcome from Terry College Young Alumni Summit Chair, Tyler Jones |
| 9:15 a.m. | Morning Keynote Presentation Julie Saxon — Head of Consumer Sales, X |
| 10:15 a.m. | Break |
| 10:30 a.m. | Fireside Chat Ben Ayers — Dean, Terry College of Business |
| 11:30 a.m. | Networking Lunch |
| 1 p.m. | Summit Breakout Sessions Session #1 — “Cultivating Connections: Developing an Authentic Mentor Relationship” • Brian Nixon — Sr. Vice President, Customer Leadership, The Coca‑Cola Company • Hanna Jon Lewis — Brand Marketing Consultant, Minute Maid at The Coca‑Cola Company Session #2 — “Professional Pivots: Identifying and Navigating Pivot Points in Your Career” • Michael Patrick — Director – External Research & Development, Chick‑fil‑A |
| 2 p.m. | Break |
| 2:15 p.m. | Featured Presentation Colin Rocker — Founder, Career Colin & Content Creator |
| 3:15 p.m. | Conference Close |
Speakers
Benjamin C. Ayers
Dean, Terry College of Business
Ben Ayers is Dean of the University of Georgia Terry College of Business and holds the Earl Davis Chair in Taxation. He came to UGA in 1996 and served as Director of the highly regarded J.M. Tull School of Accounting for nine years prior to his appointment as the college’s 12th Dean in 2014.
Under his leadership, the Terry College completed a successful Commit to Georgia campaign – raising $195 million to support faculty, programs, and facilities – and dedicated the new home of the Terry College of Business on the UGA campus, known as the Business Learning Community.
Terry’s undergraduate and graduate programs are ranked among the nation’s best, with ten of the college’s programs ranking among the top 10 public business schools in 2024. The college also dedicated the naming of the John Munro Godfrey, Sr. Department of Economics and the M. Douglas and V. Kay Ivester Institute for Business Analytics and Insights, following transformational gifts to endow the units.
Over the past 10 years of Dean Ayers’ tenure, the college has launched a new Online MBA, a master’s in business analytics, a campus-wide Entrepreneurship Program, sought-after executive and dual degree programs, an academic minor in business, and market-driven certificates, all while growing enrollment and achieving the highest percentage employment rates for graduating students in the college’s history.
Dean Ayers serves on the Board of Synovus Bank’s Northeast Georgia Division and the CFO Roundtable. He earned his Ph.D. in accounting from the University of Texas at Austin and has received many teaching awards at the school, college, and university levels and national research awards from the American Taxation Association and American Accounting Association. Prior to pursuing his Ph.D., he worked for KPMG in Atlanta and Tampa and Complete Health Inc. in Birmingham.
Hanna Jon Lewis
Brand Marketing Consultant, Minute Maid at The Coca-Cola Company
Hanna Jon Lewis is a Brand Marketing Consultant supporting the Minute Maid team at The Coca-Cola Company. She leads the brand’s relationships with regional and area food service customers, plans and executes experiential marketing activations, and promotes Minute Maid’s brand presence across industry events.
Before joining the Minute Maid team, Hanna Jon supported the company’s Subway account team, where she managed relationships with more than 6,600 open and operating Subway locations in the southeastern United States. She is a proud University of Georgia “Double Dawg,” with a BBA in Marketing from the Terry College of Business and a master’s in Financial Planning from the College of Family and Consumer Sciences.
Hanna Jon is passionate about process improvement and finding ways to make organizations more connected, communicative, and collaborative. In her free time, she serves on the UGA Young Alumni Leadership Council, Terry College of Business Young Alumni Board, UGA Coca-Cola Corporate Chapter Board, Kappa Kappa Gamma Advisory Board, The Women’s Collective Board of Directors, Darlington School Young Alumni Council, and mentors students through the UGA Mentor Program. Her biggest accomplishment in her career thus far has been mentoring fellow Terry College graduates, who have now become fellow Coca-Cola employees.
Brian Nixon
Senior Vice President, Customer Leadership, The Coca-Cola Company
Brian is a Senior Vice President, Customer Leadership at The Coca-Cola Company. In this position, Brian leads a cross-functional team that manages Coke’s partnership with the Roark Capital Restaurant Portfolio, seeking to unlock mutual, sustained growth for Roark’s 16 brands.
Brian joined The Coca-Cola Company in 1999 and has held various positions with increasing responsibilities during those 25+ years. His experience at Coke includes sales and franchise operations, commercial strategy, and marketing.
An Atlanta native, Brian was a marketing major at the University of Georgia and received his MBA from the University of Florida. He serves on the UGA Terry College of Business alumni board and enjoys giving back to his alma mater. Brian lives in Peachtree City, Georgia, with his wife Amy, daughter Carly (21), and son Will (18). He spends his free time cheering on his kids’ sports teams and rooting for his beloved Georgia Bulldogs.
Michael Patrick
Director, External Research & Development, Chick‑fil‑A
Michael leads the External Research & Development team at Chick‑fil‑A. His team is responsible for building relationships across the venture ecosystem to identify start-ups with solutions to address business challenges and accelerate innovation. Michael is the founder of Thanks Geoffrey, a technology-enabled home service company. Previously, Michael was VP of Marketing for the Carroll Organization, a real estate private equity firm. Additionally, Michael worked for Goldman Sachs in the Investment Management Division. He played basketball at the University of Georgia, where he graduated with a marketing degree. He also earned his MBA in Finance from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Michael, his wife Brittany, and their 5-year-old twins live in Chamblee, Georgia.
Colin Rocker
Founder, Career Colin & Content Creator
Colin Rocker is a content creator, speaker, and consultant based in New York City. With a strong social media presence of 385K+ across platforms such as Instagram, TikTok, and LinkedIn, his content resonates widely due to his authenticity and focus on providing tools and strategies for career growth, especially for the workplace challenges faced by first-gen professionals. In addition to his content, he is a keynote speaker and collaborator with brands in B2B influencer marketing and early career success.
Julie Saxon
Head of Consumer Sales, X
As an industry veteran with more than two decades of experience, Julie Saxon has driven growth and revenue at some of the most innovative companies in the advertising ecosystem. Before joining X, Saxon led sales teams at Weather/IBM, Yahoo, Verizon, AOL, Myspace, and now sits as the head of consumer sales at X.
Saxon takes tremendous pride in being a working mother. During her tenure at Verizon, she was honored as “Working Mother of the Year” — an award recognizing leaders who establish the policies, programs and corporate cultures that support working moms.
Saxon also serves on the Advertising/PR Executive board of the University of Georgia Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication and spearheads its mentoring program. She continues to play an active role in advising, supporting, and consulting to ensure the Grady College remains one of the premier producers of advertising talent.
After losing her husband to a six-year battle with cancer in July 2019, Saxon set on a course to not allow her family, or any family, to be defined by cancer. Her commitment to this promise culminated in leading a team of 26 runners with Team Determination, raising close to $200,000 for the American Cancer Society.
Saxon has two daughters who have also made the pledge to not be defined by cancer and plays an active role in Kate’s Club, a bereavement support group for children and family, and Camp Kesem, an institution for children with parents who have, or are fighting, cancer.