Voices of Experience 2023

Meet Our Speakers

• Julie Godshall Brown
  

  Julie Godshall Brown is the President and Owner of Godshall Professional Recruiting and Staffing, a locally-owned recruiting and contract staffing firm established in 1968. Godshall is a certified Woman Owned Business through WBENC. She has been with the second-generation family business since 1995 and has been President and owner since 2004. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Marketing from Clemson University and a Master of Personnel and Employee Relations from the University of South Carolina.

  She has been married to Drew Brown, also a Clemson graduate, for 26 years, and they have two sons. The youngest is a senior at Clemson University, and the older lives and works for Upland Wings Preserve in Blair, SC.

  Current related board service:

  • Bon Secours St. Francis Greenville Foundation Board, Stewardship Board Chair
  • Bank of Travelers Rest, Board of Directors, Personnel Committee Chair
  • C12 (Christian CEO's) 2021-Present

  Previous related board service:

  • Chair, Greenville Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors
  • South Carolina Commission on Higher Education, Commissioner 2019-2022
  • Chair, Board of Trustees University Center Greenville
  • Chair, Clemson Board of Visitors 2008-present, Chair 2015
  • Board Member, Clemson University Foundation Board 2015-2016
  • Chair, Better Business Bureau of the Upstate Board of Directors
  • President, Greenville Society for Human Resource Management
  • Women's Leadership Board, United Way of Greenville County
  • Greenville Workforce Investment Board

  Personal involvement:

  • First Presbyterian Church, Member since 1996, Girls Youth Leader 2011-2017
  • Poinsett Club: Board of Directors, Membership Committee Chair 2020-2023

  Previous Employment:
  1993-1995

  • NCR/Division of AT&T, Columbia, SC, and Liberty, SC
  • Human Resources, Technical Recruiter
• Anthony Perdrix
  

  Through the last 25 years, Anthony Perdrix has led large operations (up to 700 employees) in competitive environments such as Automobile and Aerospace industries.

  He has worked for most of his career for the Toyota group in Europe and in the US as Plant Manager and multi-sites Director.

  His expertise resides in leadership, operations management, strategy & finance planning, business plan execution and international business.

  Perdrix has graduated with a Master of Engineering and has received a Toyota Production System training certification, multiple Franklin Covey leadership certifications and several business certifications acquired at Harvard University.

  He is a dual citizen (French & American), a board member of United Way of Oconee County and an avid triathlete (Perdrix completed his first Ironman in 2022).

  Perdrix's favorite leadership quote:

  "If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader." -John Quincy Adams

• José A. Sagarnaga
  

  José A. Sagarnaga, Ph.D., is a Clinical Assistant Professor in the Department of Management at the Wilbur O. and Ann Powers College of Business at Clemson University, specializing in global management and corporate social responsibility.

  Before assuming this position in August 2021, Sagarnaga served in multiple roles at Oklahoma State University (OSU) for fifteen years. Sagarnaga was an Associate Professor of Professional Practice of Management and led the global operations of the Spears School of Business as their first Director of the Center for Advanced Global Leadership and Engagement (CAGLE). He was also the first Assistant Director of OSU's Ph.D. in Business for Executives Program. In addition, he served as Program Coordinator at the Center for Executive and Professional Development at the Spears School of Business. Finally, he was the first OSU Mexico Liaison Offices Manager at Stillwater, Okla., UDLAP and UPAEP University in Puebla, Mexico.

  Sagarnaga has been awarded numerous teaching and outreach awards, such as the Steve Miller Outstanding International Excellence Award by the OSU Spears School of Business, the Stillwater Faculty Teaching Excellence Award by the OSU Watson Graduate School of Management and the OSU Excellence in Online Teaching Award. Sagarnaga received his doctorate in Economic Development from UPAEP University in Mexico, his Master of Science in International Studies from OSU and his Bachelor of Arts in Financial Administration from Monterrey Tech in Mexico. He has also completed executive programs at Harvard Business School in Corporate Social Responsibility and CIMBA Italy, the Leadership Initiative for Excellence Program. Sagarnaga conducts research and lectures on various cross-cultural and global management topics. He is primarily interested in business sustainability, corporate social responsibility and cross-cultural leadership.

  Sagarnaga has developed academic and professional programs in seventeen (17) countries and has traveled to over fifty (50) countries on five continents. Sagarnaga was appointed as a member of the Oklahoma Governor's International Team in 2017 and vice chair and chair in 2021. He currently serves on Upstate International's World Affairs Council Upstate Advisory Committee.

• Vaughan Vernon
  

  After high school, Vaughan Vernon started working as a Project Manager Intern at Gabriel Builders. In this role, she began developing methodical problem-solving skills that have stayed with her throughout her career. While studying at Clemson University, she began working as a Receptionist/Office Intern at Conservus Realty. She began understanding how organization, scheduling and process go hand in hand with business success. Vaughan then progressed to an Administrative Intern position at Dillard-Jones Builders. This role provided much-needed knowledge in Client Relations, Business Planning and furthered her self-starter mindset. After graduation, Vaughan began working for Tribus Interior Design as an Operations Manager. This role allowed her to build contracts, institute new processes and procedures, initiate sales, and gain hands-on experience with all the workings behind running a multi-million-dollar company. After working for Tribus for two years, Vaughan was offered the opportunity to head a Renovation and Home Maintenance start-up called ResEasy Service. In this new role, she is digging deeper into business development's inner workings learning to develop forecasts, budgets, and marketing strategies, build client relations and create processes to run a profitable business. Vaughan's critical takeaways from her roles are: saying yes and speaking up for what you want, being a self-starter and honing in on your problem-solving skills to accomplish goals without help and staying organized to keep up with tasks that others may drop through the cracks.

• Emily Watrous
  

  The success of human resources begins with strengthening an organization's ability to attract, engage, develop, reward and retain its best assets - its people - and this is her passion. Emily Watrous has over 27 years of experience at Fortune 150 companies in various leadership roles and has worked across multiple industries in both public and privately-run organizations. Watrous has a broad range of expertise across the human resources spectrum, from change management and compensation to succession planning and talent development and has served as the VP of HR/ Chief Human Resources Officer (CHRO) at several organizations. Whether working at the production level or with the C-Suite for strategic HR decisions, Watrous is comfortable delivering results and consistently exceeds expectations. She has a passion for continuous learning and an open mind in the pursuit of maximizing the potential of people through talent identification, gap assessments and creating opportunities for both people and organizations to capitalize on their collective strength and succeed in handling the challenges of tomorrow.
  
  Watrous has worked in higher education, professional services, banking, construction, distribution & transportation, manufacturing, e-commerce and equipment rental. She has an undergraduate degree in psychology, a master's degree in human resource development and her certified senior HR designation. Her career background, experience living abroad for 8+ years and global perspective make her well-rounded, culturally aware and adaptable in driving results and building strong teams for the success of any organization.