Coleman “Cole” J. Braun has joined Adams and Reese as special counsel in the financial services practice group.

Braun joins Adams and Reese from Maurice Wutscher, where he practiced in its Chicago and Nashville offices for 10 years. He represents business clients in commercial litigation, consumer credit litigation, financial services and insurance recovery and advisory services.

Practicing since 2008, Braun has experience in a variety of litigation areas and across a number of state and federal jurisdictions. He is licensed to practice in Tennessee, Missouri and Illinois, numerous federal district courts, and the United States Courts of Appeals for the Seventh and Eleventh Circuit.

Braun earned his J.D. from Florida State University College of Law. He holds degrees in political science and economics from the University of Tennessee.

McCabe joins Burr & Forman

Burr & Forman LLP has added Savannah D. McCabe as a Nashville-based associated in its labor and employment practice group.

Forman advises clients on labor and employment matters and compliance with state, federal and local employment laws. She is a graduate of the University of Tennessee College of Law. She holds a degree in political science from the University of Tennessee.

Diversified Trust’s Carson recognized by TBF

Jeffrey (Jeff) Carson has recently been elected a fellow of the Tennessee Bar Foundation, an association of 840 attorneys across the state. Invitations were extended to 27 attorneys by the board of trustees.

Carson has nearly 23 years of experience in financial and legal services and serves as principal and senior fiduciary officer at Diversified Trust, an independent comprehensive wealth management firm with offices throughout the Southeast. He is responsible for the oversight and administration of the firm’s fiduciary services and leads the planning team in Nashville.

Carson earned a degree from the University of Mississippi, his J.D. from Mississippi College School of Law and his LL.M. degree in estate planning from the University of Miami Law School.

Buffkin / Baker names Yates newest partner

Buffkin / Baker, a partner-led executive search firm, has added Ann Yates as a partner in the firm’s higher-education practice area.

Yates most recently served as a managing director in ZRG’s nonprofit and education practice. Before that, she served as a senior partner with Witt/Kieffer.

Yates has completed more than 300 executive-level searches throughout her career, including engagements for presidents, provosts, deans and vice presidents at leading public and private colleges and universities.

Yates has contributed articles to the Chronicle of Higher Education and Inside Higher Education. Additionally, she has been an invited presenter at ACE Women’s Network and AACSB’s ICAM conference.

She earned her master’s degree in industrial psychology from the University of New Haven and her bachelor’s degree in psychology from Bethany College.

Brown Advisory hires Curtis as strategic adviser

Brown Advisory, a global, private and independent investment management and strategic advisory firm, has added Tom Curtis as a partner, strategic adviser and head of the firm’s newest office in Nashville.

Curtis joined Brown Advisory after serving as a managing director with the private wealth division of Truist Financial. Previously, Curtis served on the board of directors of Diversified Trust, where he also founded the Nashville office, was a managing principal for 20 years and started the firm’s institutional advisory group.

Previously, he served as treasurer and chief financial officer of Therapeutics Antibodies. In addition, he started and served as the partner in charge of J.C. Bradford & Co.’s public finance group.

He earned his MBA from The University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business and holds a degree from Vanderbilt University. Curtis serves as a board member for the Metropolitan Government of Nashville and Davidson County Employee Benefit System, the National Museum for African American Music and Montgomery Bell Academy. He also is a member of Leadership Nashville and a founding member of Meharry Medical College’s Circle of Friends.

He has served as chairman of the Metro Nashville Arts Commission and on the boards of The Healing Trust, Nashville Public Radio, the Maddox Foundation, Cheekwood Botanical Garden and Museum of Art, and Friends of Warner Parks.

Belmont names dean for pharmacy, health sciences

Belmont University has appointed Dr. Sharrel Pinto as dean of the College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, effective July 1.

Pinto, a pharmacist by training, has dedicated her career to transdisciplinary practice by bringing together health care and non-health care practitioners to solve complex community-based problems, positively impacting patient care and well-being.

Pinto currently works at South Dakota State University’s College of Pharmacy and Allied Health Professions, where she serves as founding center director of the Community Practice Innovation Center and Founding Department Head of the Department of Allied and Population Health, as well as the inaugural Hoch Endowed Professor for Community Pharmacy Practice.

Pinto will lead more than 100 faculty and staff and approximately 850 students at Belmont’s College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences. Pinto will provide programmatic leadership to prepare students to be future health care leaders, build relationships with organizations for partnerships, oversee growth and strategic development, and lead the expansion of the College’s research and outreach arm.

Born in a small town in India, Pinto earned her degree in pharmacy from the University of Bombay in India, as well as a postgraduate degree in marketing management. She went on to attend the University of Toledo for her master’s in pharmacy health care administration and the University of Florida for her Ph.D. in pharmacy health care administration.

Pinto’s work seeking solutions to community-based problems earned her the honor of the Harvard Scholar for Leading Innovations in Healthcare and Education in 2019. She was inducted as a Fellow in the APhA Academy of Pharmaceutical Research and Science in 2020 and earned the Community Pharmacy Innovation in Quality (CPIQ) Award, bestowed by The Pharmacy Quality Alliance (PQA) and the Community Pharmacy Foundation (CPF) in 2021. In November 2022 she received the Patriot Award from the Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve, under the Department of Defense, recognizing her efforts to support citizen soldiers.

VU’s Owen School taps Steenburgh for dean

Vanderbilt University has selected Thomas J. Steenburgh, a senior associate dean at the University of Virginia Darden School of Business, as the next dean of the Owen Graduate School of Management succeeding M. Eric Johnson.

Steenburgh earned his Ph.D. in marketing from Yale University. He is the Richard S. Reynolds Professor of Business Administration and senior associate dean for the residential MBA program at the Darden School. There, he is the course head for the first-year marketing course and the faculty chair for the strategic sales management program in executive education.

He is a co-founder of the Thought Leadership on the Sales Profession Conference, which serves as a forum for discussion on contemporary issues in sales among leading academics and senior business leaders.

Steenburgh’s scholarship involves analyzing sales and marketing strategies and their effectiveness. He is the author of many case studies and has addressed issues ranging from lump-sum bonuses as a motivating factor for salespeople to how businesses manage their earnings. His Harvard Business Review article “Motivating Salespeople: What Really Works,” cowrote with Michael Ahearne, won the Wachovia Award for Research Aimed at the Practicing Manager, and the broad impact of his sales research was recognized with a Neil Rackham Research Dissemination Award.

Steenburgh’s published research and case studies are featured in the curriculum of many of the world’s best business schools, including Harvard Business School, where he once served as a faculty member.

Steenburgh is a member of the senior advisory board of the Journal of Personal Selling and Sales Management and an associate editor of the Journal of Business-to-Business Marketing. He sat on the editorial board of Marketing Science and is an ad hoc reviewer of academic articles published in other high-impact sales and marketing journals.

Steenburgh earned his undergraduate degree from Boston University, followed by his master’s degree in statistics from the University of Michigan. After graduating from Michigan in 1992, Steenburgh joined the Xerox Corp. He returned to the academy and earned his doctorate at Yale University.

FBMM promotes Yoanidis to CFO, COO

Entertainment business management firm FBMM has promoted Dorian Yoanidis from vice president of operations to chief financial officer and chief operating officer.

Yoanidis, who has more than 30 years of experience as a music industry finance and operations leader, holds a degree in accounting from Penn State University and has been a CPA since 1994.