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Jule Smith knows the other side of the deal
His family’s paving business joined Construction Partners in 2011. A decade later, Jule Smith became CEO of the company buying businesses like his own.
Howard Coker’s education in leaving home
An assignment in Singapore widened Howard Coker’s world. Decades later, Sonoco’s CEO is reshaping the company his family helped build - and helping students get an earlier start abroad.
David Dupree and the phone call that kept paying dividends
A tuition offer helped David Dupree leave a roadside counting job for business school. His career would take him through Carlyle, the founding of Halifax, and back to the university that gave him a chance.
Heather Gruccio
Heather Salvatore Gruccio is Executive Vice President and Chief Merchandising Officer for Ann Taylor and Ann Taylor Factory, the KnitWell Group brands headquartered at 7 Times Square in New York. A Wake Forest communications graduate, she built her merchandising career over nine years at Coach, sharpened it in mid-luxury at Tory Burch, and joined Ann Taylor in 2016 as Senior Director of Merchandising for non-apparel. She moved up to Vice President of Merchandising in 2017, SVP and GMM in 2020, and was elevated to EVP and Chief Merchandising Officer in 2025 after leading a product-and-perception reset that turned a 70-year-old mall brand into a name fashion press started writing about again. Her thesis is unfussy: women still want to look pulled together, they just want to be comfortable while doing it, and heritage is an asset rather than a liability if you actually know how to cut a jacket.