They were honored May 2 at the school's 13th annual Business Leadership Dinner, which was held at The Zone at the University of South Carolina’s Williams-Brice Stadium.  This was the 23rd anniversary of the awards themselves.

The Distinguished Alumni honorees are William M. Ginn (MBA ’72), executive officer of Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation and chairman and CEO of SMBC Leasing and Financing, Inc.; David B. Holl (MBA ’84), president and CEO of Mary Kay Inc.; and Gary M. Parsons (MBA ’77), chairman of XM Satellite Radio.  The Distinguished Young Alumni are K. Susan Billiot (BS ’93; MHR '94), vice president, human resources, SYSCO Corporation, and  R. Jason Caskey (BS ’90), shareholder, Elliott Davis, LLC.  The Distinguished Service Award was presented in honor of the late Buck Mickel, who was chairman of Fluor Daniel Corporation.

The Leadership Dinner is the Moore School’s most prestigious event and is usually attended by more than 400 business leaders, alumni, and friends of the school.  This year’s dinner began with cocktails at 6:30 p.m., dinner at 7:30 p.m.  Individual seats were $50 each, and corporate or individually sponsored tables of eight cost $800.

David B. Holl

Mr. Holl joined Mary Kay Inc. in June 1993 and has served in senior executive leadership roles, including Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer. In October 2001, Mr. Holl was named President and Chief Operating Officer. In April 2006, he was promoted to Chief Executive Officer.

He is a member of the Mary Kay Inc. Board of Directors and also serves on the board of the Personal Care Products Council. At the World Federation of Direct Selling Association, Mr. Holl is a member of the CEO Council. He also serves on various civic boards, including the Greater Dallas Chamber of Commerce, The Nature Conservancy, and the YWCA.

Prior to joining Mary Kay, Mr. Holl was a Vice President at Citibank, based in New York City. Preceding Citibank, he was a Financial Analyst for Union Texas Petroleum, based in Houston.

Mr. Holl is a 1982 graduate of Clemson University, where he earned a Bachelor of Science degree in finance. In 1984, he earned a Master of Business Administration degree from the Moore School of Business, University of South Carolina.

Mr. Holl has been married to Texas native Suzanne Janak Holl for 21 years. They are the parents of three daughters: Brittany, 18; Sara, 15; and Rachel, 11. Mr. Holl is an avid golfer and outdoorsman, and he enjoys traveling with his family as well as spending time at their Texas lake home.

William M. Ginn

Mr. Ginn began his career in 1972 with Bankers Trust of South Carolina with assignments throughout the Palmetto State as a corporate lending officer, credit officer, workout officer, and head of trade finance.

In 1979, Mr. Ginn relocated to New York City and was a principal of a boutique NASD Broker Dealer specializing in project finance and real estate finance. The firm also operated a venture fund specializing in energy project development. In 1985, he joined Kidder Peabody & Company's Project and Lease Finance Group, and was a Managing Director and Head of the Group at the time of his departure.

In 1991, Mr. Ginn was recruited to join The Sumitomo Bank, Limited in connection with the establishment of Sumitomo Bank Leasing and Finance. He continues to serve as Chairman and Chief Executive of the successor company (SMBC Leasing and Finance, Inc.) with offices in New York and London.

In April 2005, Mr. Ginn was named General Manager and Head of Corporate Finance for the Americas Division of Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation, where he was responsible for all business with non-Japanese customers in North and South America. He continues to coordinate the activities among these various units. In April 2007, Mr. Ginn was one of two National Hires, first designated as an Executive Officer of SMBC.

Mr. Ginn holds a bachelor's degree in international studies from the University of South Carolina. He earned a Master of Business Administration degree from the Moore School, USC, in 1972.

He serves on the Advisory Board of the Moore School of Business and is Chairman of the Board of Trustees of The Calhoun School, an independent school in New York City.

Mr. Ginn is married to Marilyn Bell of Great Falls, South Carolina. He has three sons: William Scott, William Russell, and William Dixon. His wife and youngest son live in Charleston, and Mr. Ginn commutes weekly to New York City. His interests include horseback riding, photography, deep sea fishing, and gardening.

Gary M. Parsons

XM Satellite Radio is now available in more than 140 models of new cars and features 170 channels of nationwide programming, including commercial-free music, premier sports, news, talk radio, comedy, and children's programming, as well as advanced data, traffic, and weather information.

Mr. Parsons also serves as Chairman of Mobile Satellite Ventures, LLP, a private partnership providing satellite-delivered voice and data services throughout North America. He serves on the board of Devas Multimedia, an early-stage Indian satellite company preparing to provide broadband and rich multimedia services to the Indian subcontinent. A patent holder for many of these innovative technologies, Mr. Parsons's leadership has been recognized over the years by many industry and entrepreneurial organizations and publications. In the nonprofit arena, Mr. Parsons serves as Vice Chairman of the National Alliance to End Homelessness, a national bipartisan effort to end homelessness in America.

Gary Parsons grew up in Columbia and Newberry, South Carolina. He graduated with honors in 1972 from Clemson University with a bachelor's degree in computer and electrical engineering, and earned his Master of Business Administration degree from the Moore School of Business, University of South Carolina, in 1977.

Following graduation and a brief tour in the Army, Mr. Parsons spent 10 years in Southern Bell’s engineering and technology group prior, then struck out on the first of several entrepreneurial ventures, including senior executive positions with the fiber-optic start-up Telecom USA, the long-distance carrier MCI Communications, and the first mobile satellite telephony provider in the country, American Mobile Satellite Corporation.

Mr. Parsons lives in Potomac, Maryland, and is married to Kathleen Robbins Parsons, a 1976 graduate of the College of Charleston. Their son Kenneth and daughter-in-law Elizabeth graduated from Catholic University in 2005, and son Michael is a graduating senior at Davidson College.

R. Jason Caskey

In 2007, Mr. Caskey was named Chairman of the firm’s Strategic Recruiting Committee, which develops plans for the firm's recruiting efforts at colleges and universities across the Southeast. He leads Elliott Davis's recruiting efforts at the School of Accounting at the Moore School of Business, which provides the largest number of accounting graduates for the firm. He also has served on the Board of Directors for Moore's Friends of Accounting (FAD), and is a member of the school's Board of Advisors.

Mr. Caskey was born in Lancaster, South Carolina. He graduated from the Moore School of Business, University of South Carolina, in 1990 with a Bachelor of Science degree in business administration, majoring in accounting. While at USC, he was a member of Delta Sigma Pi, the professional business fraternity, and Beta Alpha Psi, the accounting fraternity. He served as treasurer of both organizations.

After graduation, Mr. Caskey went to work in Charlotte for Laventhol and Horwath, a national accounting firm. He then worked his way through the ranks at the accounting firm of Tourville, Simpson & Henderson, LLP in Columbia for nine years, becoming a partner in October 1999. At that point, the name of the firm became Tourville, Simpson & Caskey, LLP. In January 2003, Tourville, Simpson & Caskey merged with Elliott Davis, LLC where Mr. Caskey became a shareholder.

Mr. Caskey is actively involved in community and church activities and served on the Board of Directors of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation Board. In that capacity, he served as treasurer and as a member of the Board's executive committee. He currently serves as a deacon, chairman of the finance committee, and member of the budget planning committee at First Baptist Church in Columbia.

Mr. Caskey was named one of the area's rising stars in the 2007 class of "20 Under 40" by The State newspaper in Columbia. He resides in the city's Shandon neighborhood. His hobbies include golfing and spending time at the beach.

Susan Billiot (BS '93; MHR '94)

SYSCO is the global leader in selling, marketing, and distributing food products to restaurants, health care and educational facilities, lodging establishments, and other customers that prepare meals away from home.

Ms. Billiot joined SYSCO in 1999 as Director of Human Resources and Compensation. She was named a corporate officer of the corporation in 2001, and has been Vice President, Human Resources, since January 2006. Prior to joining SYSCO, Ms. Billiot served in director-level HR leadership positions for both Continental Airlines and Darden Restaurants.

Ms. Billiot is a member of the Women in Foodservice Forum and serves on the steering committee for the Houston Human Resources Leadership Network. She is also an advisory board member for the University of South Carolina’s Master of Human Resources program, from which she graduated in 1993.

A native of Clover, South Carolina, Ms. Billiot resides in Houston with her husband, Harry Billiot, a 1992 graduate of the Moore School of Business with a bachelor of science degree in business administration.

Ms. Billiot says she continues to be very career focused, but has spent the past five years recovering from a near-fatal stroke in 2002. She hopes to send a message to stroke survivors everywhere that they can not only regain much of they have lost, but can also "continue to excel and contribute in meaningful ways."

Buck Mickel

Inducted into the South Carolina Business Hall of Fame in 1986, Mr. Mickel played a major role in Greenville's development for 40 years, prodding for the construction of the Hyatt Regency Hotel, the Bi-Lo Center, and the South Carolina Governor's School for the Arts in downtown Greenville. In addition to his numerous civic projects, Mr. Mickel was a champion of education at all levels.

An engineer and builder, Buck Mickel began his career with Daniel Construction Company (later renamed Daniel International Corporation) in 1948. He was named vice president in 1960, president and general manager in 1965, and chairman in 1972, providing the guidance that led to Daniel's phenomenal growth in both domestic and foreign markets.

In 1977, Fluor Corporation acquired Daniel, and Mr. Mickel was named to an expanded Fluor board of directors. Later, he was named a Fluor group vice president. In 1987, he retired from executive positions at both Fluor and Daniel. He retired from the Fluor Board of Directors in January 1998.

Through the years, Mr. Mickel served as a director of nearly 40 businesses, including Duke Power Company, The Liberty Corporation, Monsanto Company, J.P. Stevens & Company, Delta Woodside Industries, Insignia Financial Group, NationsBank, Cox Cable Communications, CSX Corporation, Graniteville Company, Seaboard Coast Line Railroad, Dunlop Tire & Rubber Company, and National Intergroup. He was also the founder of several South Carolina businesses, among them U.S. Shelter Corporation and RSI Holdings, Inc.

The South Carolina Chamber of Commerce named him its Businessman of the Year in 1983, and Governors James B. Edwards and David M. Beasley awarded him the Order of the Palmetto, the highest civilian honor given by the state of South Carolina.

In 1969, Buck Mickel became a founding member of the USC-Business Partnership Foundation, the business school's liaison with the business community. The Moore School's executive education center was recently renamed the Daniel-Mickel Center for Executive Education in recognition of the many generous contributions that Mr. Mickel and his family, along with the Charles Daniel family and the Daniel-Mickel Foundation, have made to the Moore School of Business over the past four-and-a half decades. Buck Mickel died on July 23, 1998.

Jan Collins  
May 2008 

View photo and sponsor gallery of the event.    
View photos and details of the 2007 event.