Charles Taylor Smotherman
(’87, accounting) chain and logistics in the Harbert College this year and finished third in her age group serves as corporate controller for Teradata of Business. His daughter recently gradu- at a race in Auburn. Corporation. ated from Clemson and his youngest child graduated from high school. Steve Talley (’83, industrial operations management) is a quality manager for Commscope in Catawba, North Carolina. He has worked for the company for 15 years. He enjoys making wine and attending daughters Casey’s and Liz’s swim meets and soccer games. His oldest daughter, 23-yearJennifer Day Brown (’97, accounting; ’99, old Jessica, married this summer. MAcc) serves as an endowment account analyst for the Auburn University EnRolanda Wilson Waddell (’84, accounting) is a dowment Investment Office. She married CPA and serves as vice president and chief Stephanie Batt (’91, accounting) is a program Chris Brown in June 2016. accounting officer for Hibbett Sporting analyst for AAR Corp. in Huntsville, AlaGoods, a Birmingham, Alabama-based bama. She is the mother of five children. Robert Dean Brown (’91, marketing) serves as company with 1,053 stores in 33 states. chief executive officer of Alabama Orthopaedic Clinic in Mobile, Alabama. David Winters (’83, MBA) works for the City of Atlanta as civil engineering manager and enjoys photography as a hobby.
1990s
James Zacharias (’87, finance) serves as executive director of MyHealth Network with Columbus Regional Healthcare System in Columbus, Georgia. He enjoys playing golf and tennis, biking, and spending time with his family. His son is studying supply
Karen Keeter Beane (’93, accounting) is the chief financial officer for the Talladega County Commission in Talladega, Ala- James Randy “Bo” Buckner, Jr. (’95, MBA) serves bama. She and her husband of 20 years live as senior vice president for Regions Equipin Sylacauga with their daughter, Sarah ment Finance Corporation and as presiTucker, who began competing in triathlons dent of Regions Capital Advantage.
Knopf leads small agency with large-agency experience in big data Time was, when an advertising agency wanted to sell a product, they had to pretty much guess what might convince a consumer to buy. Now they can leverage science by hiring data-whisperers like LYN KNOPF. “My goal is to let the data tell me what is important and let it inform the marketing,” says Knopf, who believes at least 50 percent of a campaign's success is due to accurate audience targeting. “Without a well-defined strategy and strong analytics, marketing dollars will be wasted when the target audience is missed.” Knopf, who earned her undergraduate degree in finance in 1993 and an MBA in 1995 from Harbert College, digs deep into client customer demographics as co-founder and director of data & analytics at Connexon Partners, a full-service marketing agency in Nashville. She's worked on projects for HSBC,
48 HM, Fall 2016
Knopf, (right), with her family BB&T, eTrade and Morgan Stanley, to name a few, and currently is providing merger communications for several large banks, running a home equity acquisition program for a
credit union, and creating brand awareness focused on new customer acquisition for a child care business. “Database marketing is the process behind organizing data such as age, estimated income, marital status, etc., digging through it to make sense of it, and turning it into something actionable,” says Knopf, whose company’s services include analytical work, web development, print advertisements, and direct mail programs. “Database marketing allows businesses to allocate marketing dollars to the audience that will be the best campaign performers, thus maximizing your ROI.” Knopf’s firm creates a better understanding of prospective and current customers, providing a detailed roadmap for business development by informing acquisition marketing efforts such as ad placement, prospect list purchase, and sponsorships.