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Leadership at Birmingham-Southern

Leadership at Birmingham-Southern

President Daniel Coleman

President Coleman HeadshotDaniel B. Coleman, a Birmingham resident with more than three decades of experience in finance and strong ties to BSC, took office as Birmingham-Southern College’s 16th president on Dec. 3, 2018.

Since then, he has worked to stabilize the College’s finances through the establishment of the Birmingham-Southern College Foundation and brought the College through the global pandemic with a plan that allowed in-person instruction in a residential setting at the height of the shutdown. 

He has engineered the addition of a master’s in data science program that will help address a well-documented shortage of highly skilled data analysts in Birmingham, Alabama, and beyond.

Coleman, who was CEO of the global financial services firm KCG Holdings until its 2017 sale, was previously a member of the College’s Board of Trustees and an adjunct professor of finance. He and his wife, Brooke, returned to their hometown with their three children in 2009 after more than a decade in the New York area. 

Upon completion of the 2017 sale, Coleman returned to Birmingham full-time; he had been commuting to New York and Chicago. He joined the BSC Business Administration Department as an adjunct professor, teaching three courses in finance, and took courses at BSC in the computer programming language Python and calculus, working alongside some of his students. He has continued to teach seminars in finance, most recently a course during BSC’s 2023 E-Term focused on the 2008 crash of the financial markets.

An English Major

Coleman entered the world of finance as an option clerk after earning a BA in English at Yale University – a degree that cemented his appreciation for and commitment to the liberal arts.

He earned his MBA at the University of Chicago while trading convertible bonds. After moving to New York in 1996, he moved into management positions for a predecessor of UBS. He rose to head of global equities there; from 2005 through 2010, he oversaw a business that remained profitable through the recession, included the world’s leading cash equities execution business and equity research department, and handled global equity derivatives, global prime brokerage, and more.

From there, he moved on to Chicago-based market maker GETCO, first as global head of client services and equity trading and then as CEO, replacing the retiring founders in 2012. In that role, he expanded the business beyond its core of automated market making and led a merger with competitor Knight Capital Group.

Coleman played a leading role in the evolution of automated trading in global financial markets. Until its 2017 sale to Virtu Financial, New York-based KCG was a leader in the securities and financial services industry, Before KCG, Coleman was CEO of GETCO, a privately held automated trading firm based in Chicago. Before that, he worked for 24 years for UBS and its predecessor firms, ending up as global head of equities for UBS Investment Bank.

In addition to the boards of KCG and GETCO, Coleman’s past corporate board memberships include NASDAQ Inc., the Options Clearing Corporation, and the Boston Options Exchange.

Back to Birmingham

Upon his return to Birmingham, Coleman served on Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin’s transition team and financial advisory team, working to improve the city’s management of its finances. He has also served on the boards of the Alabama Symphony Endowment and of Build Up, an innovative early-college workforce development program centered in the Ensley neighborhood. 

A member of the 2021 class of Leadership Birmingham, he serves on that organization’s board, and was a member of the 2019 class of Leadership Alabama. He also serves on the board of the Community Foundation of Greater Birmingham.

Email: [email protected]

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    Board of Trustees

    George B. Salem '75
    Founder and President
    Proxsys, LLC
    Birmingham

    Rev. Dr. David Saliba '03
    Pastor
    Perdido Bay United Methodist Church
    Pensacola, Florida

    Scott Selman
    Chief Financial Officer
    North Alabama Conference, The United Methodist Church
    Birmingham

    David M. Smith '79
    Shareholder
    Maynard, Cooper & Gale, P.C.
    Birmingham

    Bryson Stephens 
    Chairman of the Board
    EBSCO Industries Inc.
    Birmingham

    Kevin R. Stump Jr. '80
    Chairman and CEO
    Interconn Resources Inc
    Birmingham

    Rev. Keith Thompson
    Senior Pastor
    Canterbury United Methodist Church
    Birmingham

    Sandra Barker Thurmond '84 
    Vice President of Primary Care Services
    Children's of Alabama
    Birmingham

    Dr. J. Kevin Tucker '86 
    Medical Director of DCI Brigham/Faulkner Hospital, Director of the BWH/MGH Joint Nephrology Fellowship Program, and Assistant Professor of Medicine
    Harvard Medical School
    Boston, Massachusetts

    Victoria Lee VanValkenburgh '88
    Realtor
    VanValkenburgh and Wilkinson Properties, Inc.
    Huntsville

    Bishop Debra Wallace-Padgett
    North Alabama Conference, The United Methodist Church
    Birmingham

    Thomas Waters '86
    Owner and Agent
    State Farm Insurance Company
    Birmingham

    Richard B. Yeilding '73
    Founder
    RBY Retail
    Birmingham

    DeLynn M. Zell '86
    Managing Principal
    Bridgeworth Financial
    Birmingham

    Brooke Tanner Battle '96
    Founder and CEO
    Swell Fundraising
    Birmingham

    Derry Brice Bunting '69
    Community Volunteer
    Birmingham

    Ragan Dillon Cain '99
    Chief Administrative Officer 
    Tacala, LLC
    Birmingham

    Susan Dominick Doughton '74
    Shareholder
    Dominick, Feld, Hyde
    Birmingham

    Elizabeth McDonald Dunn 
    Realtor Sales Associate
    LAH Real Estate
    Birmingham

    Denson N. Franklin III '85
    Senior Vice President and General Counsel
    Vulcan Materials Co.
    Birmingham

    G. Courtney French '96
    Founding Partner
    Fuston, Petway & French, LLP
    Birmingham

    Bishop David Graves
    Alabama-West Florida Conference, The United Methodist Church
    Montgomery

    Joab Mauldin Lesesne III '87
    Senior Vice President, Public Policy and Government Affairs
    Cox Enterprises, Inc.
    Washington, D.C.

    John James McMahon III '99
    Principal
    ALG Labels & Graphics   
    Birmingham

    Ashlyn Hines Meneguzzi '85
    Founding Principal
    Bristol Development Group
    Nashville

    Carl Dalton NeSmith III '07
    Principal
    Ares Management LLC
    New York City, New York

    Andy M. Newton '94
    President
    Uniti Fiber
    Mobile

    Denzel Okinedo '16
    Attorney
    Burr and Forman
    Birmingham

    Albert Pearson III '69
    Retired Attorney
    Atlanta, Georgia

    Joelle James Phillips '89
    President
    AT&T Tennessee
    Nashville

    Rev. R. Steven Reneau '08
    Pastor
    Elba United Methodist Church
    Elba, Alabama

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    Senior Team


    Virginia Gilbert Loftin
    VP of Advancement and Communications
    [email protected]

    Trent Gilbert
    VP of Enrollment Management
    [email protected]

    Marvelouse Guerrier
    Chief of Staff to the President
    [email protected]

    Kyndall Waters
    Athletic Director
    [email protected]

    Vanessa D. Crawford Jones
    Assistant Director of Human Resources
    [email protected]


    Dr. David Eberhardt
    VP of Student Development
    [email protected]

    Lane Estes
    VP for Administration and Chief Operating Officer/Interim VP for Finance
    [email protected]

    Anthony Hambey
    VP of Information Technology
    [email protected]

    Dr. Laura Stultz
    Interim Provost
    [email protected]

    Kent Anderson
    Interim Associate Provost
    [email protected]