CUF welcomes three to board, announces chair and vice chair for 2024

The Clemson University Foundation (CUF) has recently announced the addition of three new directors to its board: Kimberly “Kim” O. Dennis, Ashley Johnson and Edmund Reese. Their appointments, each holding voting positions, commenced on July 1, 2024, marking the beginning of their 4-year terms. The selection process for these directors involved nomination by alumni and friends, followed by a thorough review from the board’s nominations committee.

With a wealth of expertise and a commitment to excellence, these new members are poised to contribute significantly to CUF’s mission to support Clemson University by promoting the growth and stewardship of resources entrusted to it, fulfilling its covenants with donors.

Additionally, Cheryl Holland, who previously served as vice chair of the board in 2022 and 2023, moves into the role of chair, with Dan Garrison stepping into the position of vice chair.

Meet the new CUF directors:

Kim Dennis, an alumnus parent, is president and CEO of the Searle Freedom Trust (SFT), a grantmaking foundation established by the late Daniel C. Searle to support public policy research and reform. She has served in this capacity since 1996, also having served as executive director of SFT’s predecessor, the D & D Foundation. She first began working in the grantmaking arena in 1980 as a staffer for the John M. Olin Foundation and later became the first executive director of the Philanthropy Roundtable.

Dennis co-founded and serves as chairman of the board of Donors Trust, a donor-advised fund dedicated to advancing liberty. She also serves on the boards of the Arthur N. Rupe Foundation, the Beth and Ravenel Curry Foundation, the Philanthropy Roundtable, the American Enterprise Institute and PERC — the Property and Environmental Research Center. In the past, she has also served on the boards of the Earhart Foundation, the W.H. Brady Foundation and George Mason University.

SFT has shown interest in the Hayek Center for the Business of Prosperity and has also created the Searle Economics Fellowship, which was established to pay students who have already graduated from Clemson University to pursue their studies at Stanford and Chicago. Dennis has supported the Clemson Capitalism Initiative and the Lyceum Annual Scholars Program.

Dennis graduated from Bowdoin College. Her daughter, Jesse Dennis, is a 2020 Wilbur O. and Ann Powers College of Business graduate with a B.S. in economics and minors in marketing and political and legal theory. The younger Dennis was one of nine students accepted into the Clemson Institute for the Study of Capitalism’s Lyceum Scholars Program for the 2016-17 school year.

Ashley Johnson ’89 is the co-founder, chief administrative officer and board member of Credigy, a global business-to-business specialty finance company headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia. Founded in 2001, Credigy has invested over $27 billion life-to-date and currently has over $8 billion under management. In 2020, Credigy became a wholly owned subsidiary of National Bank of Canada. Johnson directly oversees most corporate functions at Credigy, including GC, COO and CFO.

Prior to joining Credigy, Johnson served as the treasurer and then CFO of a marketer and servicer of general-purpose credit cards and related fee based products and services. As one of the original founding partners, Johnson coordinated its successful IPO. Johnson’s professional career began as a senior accountant at Deloitte & Touche focusing on emerging market clients.  

Johnson graduated magna cum laude from Clemson University in 1989 with a B.S. in accounting. Currently, she is a member of the President’s Advisory Board at Clemson. 

Johnson has taken her success since graduation and used it to contribute to meaningful Clemson philanthropies, including the Mary Ann Prater Endowment in honor of her accounting professor “Ma” Prater, the second pillar donor for the Samuel J. Cadden Chapel and named Johnson Family Memorial and Reflection Garden on the chapel grounds and the Johnson Study Lounge in the Wilbur O. and Ann Powers College of Business.

Edmund Reese ’96 has been appointed executive vice president and chief financial officer of Aon, a leading global professional services firm, beginning July 29, 2024. Reese has more than 25 years of leadership experience at large public companies in the financial services, payments and technology sectors. He has served since 2020 as CFO of Broadridge Financial Solutions, a global fintech leader with technology solutions that power trading and investor communications. Reese joined Broadridge from American Express, where he last served as senior vice president and CFO of its largest business unit, Global Consumer Services Group. Prior to joining American Express in 2009, Reese was CFO of the U.S. Advisory Group at Merrill Lynch and before that, CFO of the Corporate Client Group and Stock Plan Services at Citigroup Smith Barney.

Reese served on The Hartford’s board of directors, including as member of the board’s Finance, Investment and Risk Management Committee as well as the Audit Committee.

Reese earned a B.S. in accounting from Clemson University and an MBA from The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania. During his time as a Clemson undergraduate, he was a member of the Omega Psi Phi fraternity.

Reese serves on the Clemson President’s Advisory Board and is a former member of the Wilbur O. and Ann Powers College of Business’ Trevillian Cabinet (now the Senior Advisory Board). He continues to support the Wilbur O. and Ann Powers College of Business.

Clemson University Foundation

The Clemson University Foundation is an independent, not-for-profit 501(c)(3) entity organized to promote the welfare and future development of Clemson University. It was chartered in 1933 to support the University’s educational and scientific goals. It is the responsibility of the board of directors to manage and disburse assets prudently within a policy that encourages the enhancement of the resources of the foundation.