Coker College Elects Five New Members to Its Board of Trustees
Staff Report From Florence CEO
Wednesday, September 26th, 2018
Coker College has elected five new members to its board of trustees––Jerry Cheatham, director of finance for global tubes and cores at Sonoco Products Company; Isaac Cody, Vice President of Corporate Financial Planning and Analysis of Walmart Stores, Inc.; Matt Ray, co-founder and chief operating officer of Integrated Rehab Consultants (IRC); James W. Roquemore, Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer of Patten Seed Company, Inc., in Orangeburg, South Carolina; and Lou Warner (‘95), founder, president and owner of Warner’s Athletic Construction Company in Nashville, Tenn.
The new members’ three year term will begin with the annual meeting of the Board of Trustees on October 25-26, 2018.
Cheatham has worked in Sonoco Products Company’s finance and accounting departments for over three decades. He has served on numerous boards, including Darlington County Education Foundation, Hartsville Boys and Girls Club, Butler Heritage Foundation and South Carolina Independent Colleges and Universities (SCICU). He has served as the director of finance for the North America Industrial Converted Products group, chairman of the board of SPC Credit Union, and chairman of the board for SCICU. Cheatham received his B.S. in accounting from South Carolina State University and his M.B.A. from Vanderbilt University. Cheatham, his wife Carla, and their three children reside in Hartsville.
Cody will move to Tokyo next month and start a new position as Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Walmart Japan. Cody started his career at Walmart as a store operations intern in 2001 and has held various finance roles with the company over the past 17 years. He received his B.A. in international business from Drury University and completed a study abroad program at the Fachhochschule Nordostniedersachsen in Luneburg, Germany. Cody, his husband Jeff Shipley, and their two children, Arley and Jasper, are in the process of relocating to Japan. The couple is actively involved in volunteer leadership positions at the Helen Walton Children’s Enrichment Center and Junior Achievement of Arkansas.
Since co-founding IRC in 2010, Ray’s company has grown to be the largest physical medicine and rehabilitation physician practice in the nation. Prior to IRC, he gained extensive experience in the healthcare industry, from sales and marketing roles to director and leadership roles with the global medical device manufacturer Smith & Nephew (SNN). Ray has served on the boards of the Medical Group Management Association (MGMA) and Vitae Health Systems. Ray earned his B.A. in business administration from Drury University and his M.B.A. from the Breech School of Business at Drury University. Ray, his wife Samantha, and their son live in Chicago, Illinois.
In addition to his duties with Patten Seed Company, Roquemore also serves as general manager of Super Sod-Carolina, a company that produces and markets turf grass, sod and seed. He has been a director of South State Bank, N.A. and South State Corporation since 1994. He has also been a director of SCANA Corporation since 2007, and also serves as chairman of South Carolina Conservation Bank. He has served on the southeast region and national boards of the Boy Scouts of America and as a co-chairman of South Carolina’s Council on Competitiveness. He has also served as the past president of the Palmetto Agribusiness Council. Roquemore has received numerous honors and awards throughout his career, including the Governor’s Order of the Palmetto, the South Carolina Ambassador for Economic Development, Orangeburg Citizen of the Year, and the Silver Beaver by the Boy Scouts of America. In March 2018, Roquemore was inducted into the South Carolina Business Hall of Fame. He served on the Coker College Board of Trustees from 2002-2007, was the commencement speaker at Coker’s December 2017 ceremony, and received an honorary doctor of humane letters degree. His son, Jay Roquemore, is a 2004 Coker College graduate. Roquemore and his family live in Orangeburg, South Carolina.
Warner is founder, president and owner of Warner’s Athletic Construction Company, which provides a wide variety of turf maintenance and construction services in Nashville. With 16 years of experience in the industry, he is considered an expert authority on athletic field maintenance. Warner is a three-time OVC Baseball Conference Tournament head groundskeeper. He was also a member of the MLB All-Star Game grounds crew at Minute Maid Park. As a member of the 1994 Baseball team at Coker College, Warner and his teammates were inducted into the Coker College Athletics Hall of Fame. A 1995 graduate of Coker College, Warner and his family live in Nashville, Tennessee.
The Coker College Board of Trustees meets quarterly and maintains broad responsibility for the mission, long-range direction, policies and financial condition of the institution.