Rutland Institute for Ethics names new advisory board members

Published: July 15, 2011

New board members image by: Rutland Institute for Ethics

By Cynthia Ofori-Dwumfuo

CLEMSON — The Rutland Institute for Ethics at Clemson University has named five new members to its advisory board for a three-year term running from July 1, 2011, to June 30, 2014.

“We are excited to welcome five new members to the advisory board. They are well-known, highly respected and committed to ethics in business and their professions. They have a wealth and variety of experience that will be very helpful as we move into the Rutland Institute’s second decade,” said Daniel Wueste, director of the Rutland Institute.

The new board members:

Brice Bay is the chairman and chief executive officer of EnVeritas Group (EVG), a global content marketing company that has created, marketed and/or managed content for more than a million URLs. It has international offices and a network of more than 60 employees in the United States and nearly 1,000 contract employees worldwide. Bay is an active member of the Middle East Leadership Academy and the Society of International Business Fellows, where he also is a board member. He has a degree in marketing from the University of Kentucky.

Ashley Cooper is a 1994 Clemson graduate with a degree in economics and a Juris Doctor from the University of South Carolina School of Law in 1997. He is a partner in Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough’s Charleston and Washington, D.C., offices, practicing energy law, regulatory and administrative law and litigation. Cooper has been an adjunct professor at the University of South Carolina School of Government and International Studies, worked in a national labor and employment law firm and for several federal agencies and served as legislative director and counsel for former U.S. Sen. Ernest F. Hollings. He is a member of both the South Carolina and Charleston County bar associations.

Joe Erwin is a 1979 Clemson graduate with a degree in political science who was named an Alumni Fellow of the university in 2003. He is the co-founder and president of Erwin-Penland, a marketing and communications agency based in Greenville, now part of Interpublic Group’s Hill Holliday. Erwin is the former chairman of the South Carolina Democratic Party and has been on boards for South Carolina Special Olympics, the Governor’s Commission on Teacher Quality and the Partnership for a Drug-Free America. 

Bonnie Drake Loomis is a graduate of the University of South Carolina Honors College with a Juris Doctor from the university’s law school. She is director of strategy and planning for Duke Energy South Carolina, ensuring strategic coordination among the state government affairs, local government and community relations and economic development activities of the Duke Energy South Carolina President’s Organization. In addition to managing Duke Energy’s statewide education and philanthropic activities, she is on the state board of Reach Out and Read and is active in the Junior League of Columbia.

Michael Riordan is a graduate of Columbia University with a degree in liberal arts/English, a master’s degree in education/psychology and a degree in health systems from the Georgia Institute of Technology. He is president and chief executive officer of Greenville Hospital System, where he is responsible for leading the 1,268-bed system, more than 10,000 employees and operating revenues of approximately $1.4 billion. He is a representative in numerous associations and a member of several boards, including the South Carolina Chamber of Commerce, Health Sciences South Carolina and the Urban League of the Upstate Inc.

Three advisory board members’ terms expired June 30. They are: Debra Clements, vice president and senior general counsel, Milliken & Co.; E.L. Mont, vice president of corporate development and CFO, Zipit Wireless; Allan J. “Buddy” Thompson Jr., practicing ophthalmologist and real estate developer.

“We are very grateful to them for their support and their good counsel. I am hopeful that they’ll think of themselves as rather like alumni of the Rutland Institute and remain advocates for our work.,” said Wueste.

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