Our Directors are champions of this worthwhile endeavor.

Tom G. Charlesworth currently serves on the Board of Directors of Purpose Built Communities and the CF Foundation. Beginning in 1992 and until his retirement at the end of 2006, he had served in various capacities with Cousins Properties Incorporated, including Executive Vice President, Chief Investment Officer, Chief Financial Officer, General Counsel and Senior Vice President and as a member of the board of directors. For a dozen years prior to that, he had served as chief financial officer and general counsel for the private companies of Thomas G. Cousins. Mr. Charlesworth started his career in Atlanta with Arthur Andersen.

Before retirement, he was both a licensed attorney and a certified public accountant, having attended the University of Georgia School of Law and the University of Michigan Business School. He currently splits his time between Maine and Atlanta, where his three children and their families live.

Thomas G. Cousins is a real estate developer, sports supporter and philanthropist, primarily based in Atlanta, Georgia. Mr. Cousins was a leader in shaping the skyline in Atlanta.

In 1995, Mr. Cousins founded the East Lake Foundation in Atlanta. The Foundation partnered with the Atlanta Housing Authority to build a mixed income apartment block in a local low income area with a high crime rate and put additional resources into education options and job provision for the tenants. Based on the results of the East Lake Foundation project, Mr. Cousins, with partner Warren Buffett, created Purpose Built Communities. Purpose Built Communities currently partners with 13 other communities in the United States.

In April 1968, Cousins purchased the Hawks basketball team and moved them from St. Louis to Atlanta, renaming them the Atlanta Hawks. At the time Atlanta did not have pro ball facilities, but Mr. Cousins was building a local arena complex.

In 1993, Tom Cousins was the recipient of the Bill Hartman Award which recognizes former varsity athletes from the University of Georgia who have demonstrated excellence in their profession. On March 8, 2010 Mr. Cousins was awarded with the Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2010 Atlanta Sports Awards for his role in promoting sports in Atlanta.

In 1995, Cousins purchased East Lake Golf Club and restored it to its former glory. He also helped to establish East Lake as the permanent home of the TOUR Championship which is the season ending tournament for the PGA TOUR. Profits from East Lake Golf Club go to the East Lake Foundation which in turn goes to help the East Lake Community.

Mr. Cousins graduated with a BBA from the Terry College of Business at The University of Georgia. He has also received an honorary degree in Doctor of Humane Letters from Oglethorpe University.

Mr. Cousins was named the Philanthropist of the Year by the Association of Fundraising Professionals Greater Atlanta Chapter in 2015 as well as a 2012 Georgia Trustee by the Georgia Historical Society.

Lynette Bell is president of the Truist Foundation. In this role, she is responsible for the philanthropy strategy, deepening strong partnerships with nonprofits and leading corporate foundation donations to strengthen local communities.

Prior to the merger of equals between BB&T Corporation and SunTrust Banks, Inc., Bell served as enterprise community reinvestment officer for SunTrust, leading the community development program to help underserved communities receive economic support to grow. In her more than 30-year career with SunTrust, she has held positions in operations, regulatory affairs, bank examinations and compliance.

Bell has served as a board member of the Atlanta Neighborhood Development Partnership and National Church Residences.

Bell received her bachelor’s degree from Florida State University and certification as a compliance manager from the University of Georgia and the Georgia Bankers Association.

Lillian Giornelli serves as President of the Cousins Foundations and Nonami, LLC. In these positions, Mrs. Giornelli has the responsibility of overseeing and leading the foundation’s and their investment ventures. Lillian also serves on the board of directors for the East Lake Foundation, Cousins Properties, Inc., Drew Charter School, J.M. Tull Foundation, and Penland School of Craft.

Prior to assuming her responsibilities in the family business, Lillian practiced law in Atlanta, Georgia. A native of Atlanta, Lillian earned a B.A. degree in History from Dartmouth College in 1982 and a Juris Doctor Summa cum laude degree from University of Georgia in 1988. Lillian Giornelli is married and has four children.

Stephen E. Macadam is the retired Vice Chairman of EnPro Industries, Inc., a manufacturer and provider of precision industrial components, solutions, and services. He served as President and Chief Executive Officer of EnPro from 2008 to 2019.

Previously, Mr. Macadam served as Chief Executive Officer of BlueLinx Holdings, Inc., a wholesale distributor of building and industrial products in the United States. Prior to joining BlueLinx in 2005, Mr. Macadam was President and CEO of Consolidated Container Company, the second largest blow molder of rigid plastic containers in North American at the time. Earlier, Mr. Macadam served with Georgia-Pacific Corporation where he held positions of Executive Vice President, Pulp & Paperboard, and Senior Vice President, Containerboard & Packaging. He served as consultant and then as Partner at McKinsey & Company, where he led the successful opening of the Charlotte, NC office.

Mr. Macadam brings to the board of directors 30+ years of extensive leadership and operations experience growing and transforming businesses in the U.S. and globally. Mr. Macadam currently serves as a director of Valvoline Corporation (NYSE: VVV), Louisiana-Pacific Corporation (NYSE: LPX), Veritiv Corporation (NYSE: VRTV) and formerly served on the board of directors of EnPro Industries, Inc. (NYSE: NPO). Mr. Macadam also serves on the University of Kentucky, College of Engineering, Dean’s Advisory Board.

Mr. Macadam holds a bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Kentucky, a master’s degree in Finance from Boston College, and an MBA from Harvard Business School, where he was a Baker Scholar.

Mr. Macadam resides in Atlanta, Georgia with his wife Marie. They have four grown children and two sons-in-law.

Othello provides strategic and executional leadership on critical business priorities and leads innovation efforts which will expand Blue Meridian’s work as it evolves. He explores new philanthropic investment opportunities, leads due diligence on potential Blue Meridian investees and manages relationships with current investees.

In his previous role as President and CEO of Seventy Five North Revitalization Corp., a community revitalization and development organization based in Omaha, Nebraska, Othello oversaw the implementation of a $90 million community redevelopment initiative in addition to managing the direction and daily operations of the organization. Before this, Othello was Executive Director of the Omaha Workforce Collaborative, a non-profit housed at the Omaha Chamber of Commerce, designed to restructure the workforce development efforts of the Omaha metropolitan area. His responsibilities included designing and implementing improved workforce delivery systems for low-income and low-skilled workers in the greater Omaha area and building strategic relationships with the foundations, community-based institutions, and social services agencies.

In addition to his work with Blue Meridian, Othello owns and operates The Meadows Group, a neighborhood redevelopment consulting firm, and he also serves on several boards in the Omaha area.

Othello earned his BA in Psychology from East Carolina University and his JD from North Carolina Central University School of Law. He and his wife Tulani are the proud parents of two sons, Garvey and Gibran.

Paul Reville is the Francis Keppel Professor of Practice of Educational Policy and Administration at the Harvard Graduate School of Education (HGSE). He is the founding director of HGSE’s Education Redesign Lab (EdRedesign). In 2013, he completed nearly five years of service as the Secretary of Education for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.  As Governor Patrick’s top education adviser, Reville established a new Executive Office of Education and had oversight of higher education, K-12, and early education in the nation’s leading student achievement state. He served in the Governor’s Cabinet and played a leading education reform role on matters ranging from the Achievement Gap Act of 2010 and Common Core State Standards to the Commonwealth’s highly successful Race to the Top proposal.

At HGSE, Reville teaches courses on leadership, policy and collaborative action. His work at EdRedesign focuses on locally-based collaborative action aimed at building cradle to career child development and education pipelines to create equitable opportunities for all children to succeed. The Lab engages in advocacy, policy development, field work and research in service of broadening the concept of education to include a holistic view of children’s needs and a set of strategies for mitigating the adverse effects of poverty.

Prior to joining the Patrick Administration, Reville chaired the Massachusetts State Board of Education, founded the Rennie Center for Education Research and Policy, co-founded the Massachusetts Business Alliance for Education (MBAE), chaired the Massachusetts Reform Review Commission, chaired the Massachusetts Commission on Time and Learning, and served as executive director of the Pew Forum on Standards-Based Reform, a national think tank which convened the U.S.’s leading researchers, practitioners, and policymakers to set the national standards agenda. Reville played a central role in MBAE’s development of and advocacy for Massachusetts historic Education Reform Act of 1993. Reville has been a member of the HGSE faculty since 1997 and has served as director of the Education Policy and Management Program.

Reville’s career, which combines research, policy, and practice, began with service as a VISTA volunteer/youth worker. He served as a teacher and principal of two urban, alternative high schools. Some years later, he founded a local education foundation which was part of the Public Education Network. He is a board member and adviser to a host of organizations, including Match Education, Boston After School and Beyond, Bellwether, BellXcel, City Year Boston, Harvard Medical School’s MEDscience and others. He is a frequent writer and speaker on education redesign, equity, the pandemic, and policy issues.

Reville is the education commentator for WGBH’s Boston Public Radio. He frequently comments and contributes to Education Week and the Boston Globe and has recently written for the Hechinger Report, The 74 Million, Stanford Social Innovation Review, Times Education Supplement, Nature Human Behaviour, and the publication of Federal Reserve Bank of Boston. He is often a guest on programs like Innovation Hub, on various podcasts and news programs. He has done a number of published interviews with publications such as the Harvard Gazette, MIT Teach Lab (podcast), Brookings, the Advanced Leadership Institute, and Harvard Magazine. He edited the book “A Decade of Urban School Reform Persistence and Progress in the Boston Public Schools” and recently authored two books, one with Elaine Weiss, entitled “Broader, Bolder, Better: How Schools and Communities Help Students Overcome the Disadvantages of Poverty” and the other written with Lynne Sacks, entitled, “Collaborative Action for Equity and Opportunity”.

He holds a B.A. from Colorado College, an M.A. from Stanford University and five honorary doctorate degrees. He has four children, two step children and three grandchildren.

Alex Robertson is president and chief operating officer of Tiger Management LLC, where he manages the operations of a firm committed to sourcing and developing future leaders in the investment management industry. Prior to joining Tiger in 2008, Alex served as legislative assistant to U S Senator Elizabeth Dole.

Alex serves as a trustee and board member of the Robertson Foundation, Tiger Foundation, Boys’ Club of New York, Memorial Sloan Kettering Board of Overseers, Stanford Graduate School of Business Advisory Council, East Lake Foundation, and Purpose Built Communities. He is a graduate of University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Stanford GSB.

Billy Wren is the Chief Executive Officer of The Cousins Family Office. As CEO, Billy is responsible for overseeing all operations managed out of the Cousins Family Office. This encompasses all financial, accounting and tax matters, as well as the supervision of all its risk management, legal and investment activities. The operations include Nonami, LLC and all family related entities, CF Foundation, Inc., Purpose Built Communities and its affiliated entities, Cousins Foundation, East Lake Golf Club.

The focus of this position is to oversee the strategy, systems, and personnel to achieve the mission of the family office enterprises, maximize the value of family holdings and support the long-term philanthropic work of the charitable foundations.

Billy has almost 45 years experience in the financial services industry before joining Nonami, LLC almost 17 years ago. He received a BSBA/Accounting degree from the University of Georgia, Terry School of Business.

Billy is a member of The Downtown Rotary Club of Atlanta, The Breakfast Club, The Investment Club, The Capital City Club and Congressional Country Club. He enjoys golf, snow skiing, hunting and traveling.