Celebrating Years of the NCSSM Foundation ANNUAL REPORT 2018-2019 CONTENTS Letter from the Chair .................................................................................................................... 2 2018-2019 NCSSM Foundation Board of Directors ..................................................... 4 Investing in the west: NCSSM breaks ground in Morganton ............................... 8 NC STEM Hall of Fame Gala 2019 .......................................................................................... 12 Endowments ..................................................................................................................................... 14 2018-2019 NCSSM Foundation Financial Report ......................................................... 18 Foundation Donors ........................................................................................................................ 20 1 NCSSM Residential Class of 2019 LETTER FROM THE CHAIR Dear friends: It was with great excitement from Carolinas HealthCare System Blue Ridge, a gift that I assumed the role supporting NCSSM Morganton construction that of chair of the NCSSM conveys the naming rights to the student wellness Foundation Board of and activity center to be built there. The school held Directors. As I have served on an inspiring groundbreaking ceremony on the new the board, my enthusiasm for campus in June 2019 and celebrated this and other the work of the foundation significant gifts toward the Morganton project, which Phil Breitfeld has grown, and I see the enjoys both regional and statewide support. present moment as uniquely exciting and historic. With We are committed as a board and as a foundation to the Foundation in existence for 40 years raising private keeping our alumni close to the school and inviting philanthropic support to augment the considerable them to give back, and we are also reaching out to public investment in North Carolina School of Science other foundations, corporations, and friends of STEM and Mathematics — and the school itself nearing its education. Our fiscal 2018-2019 fundraising totals 40th anniversary milestone at the beginning of the detailed later in this report are impressive. 2020-21 academic year — we have an abundant legacy of success to celebrate. We also have a formidable Over the next several years, we will do even more to community of more than 11,000 alumni who have support the launch of NCSSM Morganton, to upgrade 2 launched from NCSSM — literally, in the case of Christina the Durham campus, and to fuel a number of signature Hammock Koch ’97, who recently returned to Earth academic programs that provide students with after serving as a NASA astronaut and flight engineer experiences unavailable anywhere else. aboard the International Space Station — and who have come into their own professionally in spectacular ways. Finally and importantly, we thank retiring Foundation President Katie Wagstaff for her 26 years of service to As we have become more intentional as a foundation NCSSM. We are enthusiastic about the opportunity to board and fundraising organization, we have invested welcome a new leader to build on Katie’s legacy and in needed professional staff. As a result, we have been help propel us into another even more exciting year in able to stay in closer touch with more alumni. What the history of NCSSM. they tell is significant: The often emotional stories of personal and academic transformation during their Very best wishes, time at NCSSM inspire me and our Foundation Board. Their willingness and ability to “give back” has become even more evident. This culture of giving is and will be the lifeblood of NCSSM. Phil Breitfeld We are proud to recognize a transformational lead 2019–2021 Chair of the Foundation gift this year. The NCSSM Foundation received the largest single private gift in our history: $5 million North Carolina General Assembly establishes NCSSM to provide 40 Years of the challenging educational opportunities for students with a NCSSM Foundation 1978 special interest and potential in mathematics and the sciences. 3 “The founding of the NCSSM Foundation pre-dated the opening of North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics itself. That shows how our founders viewed private philanthropy as a vital catalyst in the mission and work of this extraordinary public high school. We are thankful for their vision, given that today private support through the NCSSM Foundation makes up nearly ten percent of our annual operating budget. We are so grateful for the many friends and supporters who help us achieve our mission to serve students from across North Carolina and help advance public education in our great state.” — Todd Roberts, Ed.D. NCSSM Chancellor and Interim Foundation President The Fund for the Advancement of Science and Mathematics Education in North Carolina, which would later become the NCSSM Foundation, is created to support the school, and the generosity of donors enhances school 1979 programming, extracurriculars, and professional development. Norton F. Tennille is president of the Fund. 2018-2019 NCSSM FOUNDATION BOARD OF DIRECTORS Murray Abramson '83 U.S.), and was the associate chief medical officer at BioCryst. Prior to his career in the pharmaceutical industry, Phil held Murray Abramson received his M.D. from academic positions at Harvard, University of Massachusetts, Duke University School of Medicine. After Indiana University, and Duke University. He was trained in completing his house staff training, fellowship pediatric hematology/oncology at the Dana-Farber Cancer and chief residency, he was appointed as a Institute and received an M.D. from the University of Rochester faculty member at Duke. In 1999, he transitioned and a bachelor’s in chemistry from Princeton University. to the pharmaceutical industry and spent 12+ years within the divisions of Merck Research Laboratories and U.S./Worldwide Human Health & Medicine. For the past eight years, Dr. Taylor Brockman '99 Abramson has served as the Head of Global Clinical Operations Taylor Brockman likes to invent usable for Biogen where he leads a 170-person team responsible software products and win offshore sailboat for the strategic planning and operational execution of all races. His professional roles include Chief Biogen clinical trials. Throughout his career, Dr. Abramson has Technology Officer at Magic Number, Inc., a authored several publications including articles published in patent informatics firm in Durham, and Brain Power The Lancet and The New England Journal of Medicine. Software, a data exchange firm in Charleston, S.C. With the assistance of NCSSM physics instructors and campus service Brian Bailey '84 students, Taylor maintains Interactive Web Physics, an open- source physics animation software package. Each academic Brian Bailey is a co-founder and managing year, the Bowman-Brockman Endowment at NCSSM awards partner of Carmichael Partners, a Charlotte- student teams direct funding for entrepreneurship and based private investment firm. Prior to forming advanced research projects. Taylor started serving on the Carmichael, he worked in private equity at NCSSM Foundation Board in 2018 and actively gives back to the Carlyle Group, Forstmann Little, and Carousel NCSSM with time and resources. Capital. Additionally, he previously served in government at the Office of the White House Chief of Staff and the U.S. Small Business Administration. Brian holds a bachelor’s from the Kim Donica University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and an M.B.A. from Kim Donica is Vice President of Software 4 the Stanford Graduate School of Business. Quality Assurance for MetLife Insurance. She has over 15 years of information technology Richmond Baker experience including management and technology consulting, as well as an extensive Richmond Baker is a senior consultant/ background leading strategic initiatives for global architect at Microsoft Corporation in Charlotte. organizations. Kim holds a bachelor’s from Emory University He has also held a number of other positions and an M.B.A. from Georgia State University. at Microsoft including program manager, engineer, public sector platforms technology lead, and premier field engineer. Additionally, he has worked as Sean Fahey '89 a network engineer for both US West and the U.S. Air Force Sean Fahey is a founding member and and as a consultant for Credence Automation. He holds a co-chief investment officer of Compass bachelor’s in computer science from Colorado Technical Rose Asset Management. In his role as co- University. CIO, Sean is responsible for oversight of the global investment team. Prior to the founding of Phil Breitfeld Compass Rose in 2018, he was founding member and co- chief investment officer of Claren Road. Sean was previously Chair 2019–2020 a managing director at Citigroup; as head of global emerging Phil Breitfeld is the chief strategy and markets external debt trading, he was responsible for innovation officer at Champions Oncology, sovereign and corporate debt. During his career at Salomon Inc. Prior to joining Champions, Phil was the Brothers/Citigroup, Sean held several roles across global credit global vice president at Quintiles, responsible for trading. He joined Salomon Brothers in 1993 in the Liability the Therapeutic Centers of Excellence. He has also led the Management Group before entering the Salomon Sales & Oncology Center of Excellence at Quintiles, held senior clinical Trading training program in 1995. Sean holds a bachelor’s