Featured Alumni
Sara (Phillips) Nall (’86, international business) is the executive director of Mitchell’s Place, a comprehensive clinic and preschool for children with autism in Birmingham, Alabama. Before taking on this role, she had 30 years of experience as a special educator and has enjoyed the career shift immensely. As a simultaneous healthcare facility, education facility, and nonprofit, Mitchell’s Place is a unique organization. Recently, Sara has been traveling more often in order to visit her growing family. Susan (Cantwell) O’Farrell (’84, finance) has been serving on corporate boards and chairing two audit committees since retir- ing from a CFO position. She is enjoy- ing raising her three teenage children and preparing them for college alongside her husband Hugh. “Having a strong foun- dation from Auburn in Accounting and Finance - as well as business overall — set me on a terrific path to becoming a CFO.” Earl B. Parsons, III (’85, finance) former deputy general counsel with Southern Company and partner at Taylor English Duma LLP’s law firm is now the general counsel for the UtilityInnovation Group. Julie Riganati (’86, accounting) is a senior business analyst at La Salle University in Philadelphia. She began working for La Salle in 2000 and moved from finance and administration to information technology in 2007. She earned a Master of Science in computer information science in 2010 and still uses the skills she developed as an accountant in her daily work. She also takes pride in her creative hobbies, which offer her a hands-on break from analyzing data. “It is energizing working in higher education and contributing to students earning their degrees. I loved my college experience and found some of my dearest friends while at Auburn.”
Managing Spaces for Living Life Fully E rnest Johnson, who earned an accounting degree at Auburn in
percent of the apartments are leased. The return on the clients’ investment is top priority, but Johnson believes the way to accomplish that is by taking care of the residents by creating a place they want to live. ApexOne identifies assets where a combination of cosmetic fixes and focused management will have the sort of positive impact on their communities that helps to “maximize investor returns and mitigate risk.” Johnson said his firm looks for incoming population growth and properties about 12 to 15 years old that can be refreshed with a few, basic cosmetic changes. And he’s learned over the years that people will pay more for good service than for looks. Good service is the crucial part of his business he learned from Auburn. He takes care of his residents the way his professors took care of him. “They made you feel like you mattered,” he said, and trained their students to be successful. “We look at housing as a means to success for our residents. We have people who are running businesses out of these apart- ments. They are raising families. We want to take housing off their list of concerns with good customer service.”
1980, is an Executive Managing Director of ApexOne Investment Partners in Houston, a privately held investment firm and fund manager that specializes in multifamily and student housing all over the U.S. The firm has acquired and invested in about 26,000 apartment units — about $4 billion worth. Ninety-five
ERNEST JOHNSON (’80, accounting)
Executive Managing Director ApexOne Investment Partners
Harbert Magazine, Fall 2024 49
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