Featured Alumni
Mary Martha DeFoor (’14, entrepreneur and family business) and her husband Briggs (‘14, AU) welcomed baby Scott in July 2024, making Davis a proud big brother. Joe Fetsch (’14, accounting, ’15, MBA) retired from the Air Force in 2012 and became a full-time student and part-time instructor at Auburn teaching aviation, accounting, and management classes. Since 2019, however, he has been a full- time lecturer and part-time student working on a Ph.D. in adult education. In fall of 2024, he was promoted to senior lecturer and plans to continue teaching management and leadership classes for the foreseeable future. Buddy Foster (’18, entrepreneurship and family business) just completed his MBA graduate degree. He also started a job at Mudita Venture Partners, a venture capi- tal firm based in Detroit that invests in early-stage business-to-business software, taking on an operational role within the company. Buddy operates locally from St. Louis, where he sources deals and invest- ment decisions and takes on select opera- tional roles once companies become part of their portfolio. He is on the partner track, and his wife is also getting her MBA. Brandon Green (’12, accounting) was recently promoted from corporate control- ler to supply chain director for Jay Industrial Repair, Inc. Sonja Greene (’11, executive MBA) is now responsible for program management at The Catalyst Center for Entrepreneurship and Small Business as a professional development consultant for Greene Development Company Inc. This proj- ect covers multiple regions, including 18 states and territories, readying small busi- nesses to do business with the govern- ment. She has been a speaker at major companies and universities and is the president of the Huntsville Madison County Auburn Club, providing need- based scholarship support to ensure that students can attend and finish college at Auburn.
Furnishing the Needs of an Excellent Clientiele E llen Turner graduated from Auburn in 1996 with a marketing degree and wound up working at a
“Two Girls and a Car.” Their desire was to “create a company where communi- ty, respect, and collaboration were priorities.” Turner says the company strives to remain “boutique,” where one-on-one relationships with clients are paramount. The special sauce is a “never-ending pursuit of an exemplary client experience.” Their sales-to-service ratio is 1:7. “It’s more important that our customers interact with asso- ciates where client needs are priority, not ... closing the next big deal,” she said. Turnerboone conceptualizes, procures, installs, and maintains furniture and modular building products for a variety of com- mercial interiors markets. After years of growth, they became a distributor for Haworth, a family-owned global furniture manufacturer. Turner attributes the success of the Haworth part- nership to shared values.
commercial furniture dealership in Atlanta. There she met Laura Boone, an account manager for one of Ellen’s manufacturers. In 2004, they started their own dealership, ignoring dire predictions from past associates and derision from their competitors, who called them
ELLEN TURNER (’96, marketing)
Co-Founder Turnerboone
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