C. Warren Neel and the Neel Corporate Governance Center
CELEBRATING A HASLAM LUMINARY
When C. Warren Neel passed away in March, he left behind a striking legacy of leadership and service at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville’s Haslam College of Business. Neel brought a wealth of enthusiasm, warmth and real-world experience to both classroom and administrative roles. Terry Neal, Richard L. Townsend Accounting Chair, head of the Department of Accounting and Information Management and director of the Neel Corporate Governance Center (CGC), remembers Neel stopping by his PhD seminar class unannounced. “He loved to interact with students and hear about how they were doing in the program,” Neal says. “He was always a source of motivation and encouragement.”
The Neel CGC honored Neel at a campus event on May 22, where colleagues and students remembered his legacy and celebrated the 20th anniversary of the center.
Leadership During a New Corporate Era
Neel joined Haslam’s Department of Management faculty in 1969. He was named associate dean in 1974 and dean of the college in 1977, a role he filled for the next 25 years. In 1998, Neel took leave from the university to serve as commissioner of finance and administration to then Tennessee Governor Don Sundquist.
Emeritus dean and professor Jan Williams explains that in Neel’s absence, the idea for what would become the Neel CGC was born. “After Warren’s high-level appointment in state government, he was going to come back on our faculty in a completely different capacity than before,” Williams says. “It was a wonderful opportunity to do something new.”
As a member of nine corporate boards, including Saks Fifth Avenue, Clayton Homes and Jewelry Television, Neel had an avid interest in the emerging field of corporate governance. His practical experience with corporations and state government set him up for success when he returned to Haslam in 2003 as director of the new CGC.
When the center was established, corporate governance was quickly becoming an important issue following the failure of Enron and other large organizations in the early 2000s. “We had an emerging interest in corporate governance in different departments within the college and across campus, and the university was interested in interdisciplinary activities,” says Williams. “In Warren Neel, we had someone with more corporate board experience than any other faculty member. With all this in mind, forming a [CGC] made so much sense.”
Neel took on his new role with a vision for the center’s success. Tracie Woidtke, finance department head, David E. Sharp/Home Federal Bank Professor in Banking & Finance and Neel CGC Fellow, was one of three faculty members hired to help create the new center. “When Warren had a vision for something, he was very passionate about it,” she says. “He brought that enthusiasm to the CGC, and I appreciated him very much. He changed the trajectory of my career, and I’ll always be grateful for that.”
Honoring a Legacy
Neel served as director of the CGC from its inception in 2003 until 2013. In 2014, the center was named for him. Over the past two decades, the Neel CGC has hosted more than 100 guest speakers and its research fellows have authored more than 350 articles. The thought leadership generated by the center is regularly cited in governance blogs, business media, books and in industry regulations. Also, CGC research fellows have presented to professional audiences, including the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the PCAOB, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the New York Stock Exchange.
“These regular interactions with both the academy and practice have allowed us to bring Warren’s name to the national and international stage of corporate governance thought leadership,” says Lauren Cunningham, Keith Stanga Professor of Accounting, Cheryl Massingale Business Faculty Scholar and Neel CGC director of research, “Through the work of the Neel CGC, his legacy lives on.”
