Turney Stevens, Nashville business leader, to serve as executive-in-residence
Janel Shoun |
Stevens, an alumnus of Lipscomb, has spent 35 years as a leader in Nashville business, primarily in the investment banking field, but also as founder of PlusMedia Inc., which published Nashville! Magazine, and as founder of a commercial printing company with $240 million in revenues.
“We are excited to have such a seasoned and successful professional to put his skills to work enhancing our university and our students,” said Lipscomb President L. Randolph Lowry. “Turney Stevens has proven his expertise over a long, successful career, and, as a Nashville native, he is an invaluable resource to ensure that Lipscomb continues to grow and maximize our strengths in the Nashville market.”
In October, Stevens retired from the Harpeth Companies, where he served as CEO, chairman and co-founder. The company included Harpeth Capital and Harpeth Consulting.
At Lipscomb, Stevens will teach courses in strategy and entrepreneurship at the graduate and undergraduate level. As executive-in-residence, he will research and implement strategic plans as directed by Lowry to enhance growth at the university.
“From the first time I met Randy (Lowry), I could tell he had a vision that was truly exciting and invigorating,” said Stevens. “Retirement means doing things I really want to do, such as writing and teaching. So drawing on my experience to help the school at this exciting time, would be a great bookend to my life.”
Stevens grew up literally two blocks from the Lipscomb campus in Green Hills. He is what the Lipscomb community calls “a Lipscomb lifer,” having attended the K-12 school and then graduating from Lipscomb with his bachelor’s in political science in 1972. He went on to earn an Executive MBA from Vanderbilt University in 1981.
“I have had a unique opportunity during my career to work on many different types of transactions in a wide variety of industries,” Stevens said. “I’m thrilled to bring some of that experience back to benefit the students and help the university.”
The Harpeth Companies was co-founded by Stevens in 2001 and over the years has included various veteran professionals as advisory directors such as Winfield Dunn, former governor of Tennessee, and Jack Faris, former president of the National Federation of Independent Businesses.
Stevens' career as an investment banker began in 1972 at Tennessee Securities here in Nashville. In addition to the various businesses he has founded or managed, he also served for a number of years as president of Rodgers Capital Corporation, a Nashville-based investment banking firm founded by the Hon. Joe M. Rodgers, former United States Ambassador to France.
Stevens lives in Franklin with his wife Ann, a residential real estate broker at Bob Park Realty. They have two sons, C.T., who is a certified public accountant with Ernst and Young, and Mark, 19, who is a sophomore at Auburn University.