Furman Board of Trustees welcomes four new members

The Furman University Board of Trustees welcomed four new members to the board during its recent fall meeting.

The new trustees are David L. Hauser ’73 of Charlotte, North Carolina; Mary Seawell Metz ’58 of Alameda, California; Brenda J. Thames of Greenville; and Tony R. Thene of Seneca.

David L. Hauser, who previously served a term on the board, was chairman and chief executive officer of FairPoint Communications, Inc.  Prior to that, Hauser was CFO for Duke Energy where he enjoyed a 35-year career and was named CFO of the Year (2009) by Charlotte Business Journal. He retired as a certified purchasing manager and CPA and now serves on boards for corporate and civic concerns.

Hauser is board chairman at EnPro Industries, Inc. and a director of OGE Energy Corporation. Previously, he served as a board member of the North Carolina Blumenthal Performing Arts Center and North Carolina Zoological Society. He is also a retired board member for University of North Carolina at Charlotte (UNCC) and UNCC’s Business Advisory Council.

Hauser earned a bachelor’s in business administration at Furman and an MBA from UNCC. He completed the Executive Program of Professional Management Education at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Mary Seawell Metz, a 1958 Furman graduate, is the former president of Mills College in California. She received a Ph.D. in French from Louisiana State University, and was the recipient of a Fulbright Fellowship to France where she studied at the Sorbonne. She later authored several French textbooks and articles on contemporary French literature and foreign language pedagogy.

Metz began her professional career as assistant professor of French at LSU. In 1974, she was appointed assistant to the chancellor and provided a wide range of administrative support on her way to being elected to the LSU Alumni Hall of Distinction in 1992.

Metz served in executive roles at Hood College (Maryland) and Mills College, where she was president for nine years. In 1987, she was named one of the most effective college presidents in the United States by the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education.

As dean of the University of California Extension, Metz was responsible for one of the largest continuing education programs in the world and received The Berkeley Citation upon her retirement. Later, she stepped in as president of nonprofit S.H. Cowell Foundation (San Francisco), serving seven years.

A champion for equal opportunity for women and minorities, Metz served on a number of corporate boards of directors, including AT&T, Pacific Gas and Electric, and Union Bank.

Brenda J. Thames is executive vice president and provost for the Greenville Health System (GHS) Health Sciences Center. After 31 years in higher education, she joined GHS in 2007 where she provides executive leadership for academics, expanding GHS’s partnership with Clemson, Furman and University of South Carolina.

Thames holds a bachelor’s from Mississippi State University, and master’s and doctorate degrees from Clemson. She is the founder of the GHS Medical Experience (MedEx) Academy program launched in the summer of 2010 to provide high school and college students an opportunity to experience the “real world” of health care. She is on the dean’s cabinet for the USC School of Medicine Greenville where she serves as associate dean for institutional culture and inclusivity.

A member of the senior leadership team, Thames represents GHS on numerous boards such as Community Foundation, Greenville Chamber, Greenville Tech Foundation, United Way and YMCA. In 2017, she served as chair of the Greenville Chamber board, leading efforts to outline the future of the chamber.

Tony R. Thene was appointed president and CEO of Carpenter Technology Corporation in July 2015 and is also a member of the company’s board of directors. Before being named top executive of Carpenter’s $2.2 billion global manufacturing operation which serves the aerospace, energy, transportation, medical and industrial markets, Thene joined the company in January 2013 as senior vice president and CFO.

Prior to joining Carpenter, Thene served as vice president of Alcoa, Inc. and the chief financial officer of the engineered products and solutions group and was a member of Alcoa’s executive council. In his 23 years at Alcoa, Thene held several positions including vice president, controller and chief accounting officer for Alcoa where he was responsible for the company’s worldwide accounting systems and records and corporate fiduciary financial processes among other duties.

A CPA, Thene earned his undergraduate degree in accounting from Indiana State University and his MBA from Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio.

For more information, contact Furman’s News and Media Relations office at 864-294-3107.