A 35-year-old alumnus of Eastern Mennonite University started 2015 as a new bank president. Brian Plum became president and chief executive officer of Blue Ridge Bank of Luray, Va., on Dec. 17. Blue Ridge, founded in 1893, is a locally owned and community-based bank with 46 employees and branches in Charlottesville, Harrisonburg, Luray, McGaheysville and She ...More
After spending the summer thousands of miles from her native Liberia and watching nervously from afar as Ebola swept through her country, sophomore Winifred Gray-Johnson wanted to take action when she returned to the Eastern Mennonite University campus.
She never imagined that desire, born from hours of long-distance conversation with her family members and prayer over the sufferings of ...More
When it came time to recognize high-achieving students at James Madison University’s College of Business this spring, JMU named Jonathan Leaman and Darian Harnish – both 2013 graduates of Eastern Mennonite University – as two of four award recipients from a class of 80 students earning a master of science in accounting.
Leaman was one of three ...More
The average junior in college is better known for ridiculous behavior or pulling all-nighters to finish a paper put off until the last minute, not running a successful business that employs fellow students. Everett Brubaker, though, is getting ready for the third summer of operating “BruCrew,” a self-proclaimed “community-driven workf ...More
You’re probably familiar with the rich subgenre of editorial cartoon art lampooning “fat-cat” bankers, whose status as public punching bags has only grown over the past several years as “mortgage-backed securities” entered the national vocabulary and the economy sputtered.
But bankers come in all shapes and sizes, and the fat-catting that goes on at a multinational bank ...More
Everence is a rarity in the financial world. It is the only full-service financial institution founded by one of the historic peace churches, and it continues to be a ministry of Mennonite Church USA and kindred churches.
Founded nearly 70 years ago as Mennonite Mutual Aid, the company initially offered loans to conscientious objectors who worked as Civilian Publi ...More
After Hurricane Sandy tore along the East Coast in the fall of 2012, employees at Lacher & Associates in Souderton, Pennsylvania, went into overdrive to assist clients whose homes and property were damaged by the destructive storm.
“People want to feel heard and valued, especially navigating insurance in times of loss,” says Erin Price ’05, a personal insuranc ...More
A century or more ago, “insurance” was something of a bad word for Mennonites. Buying an insurance policy implied value on worldly treasure and represented departure from the traditional practice of “mutual aid,” by which the church used its pooled resources to rebuild and restore losses suffered by individual members through accident or other misfortune.
Attitudes and circumstan ...More
You know how Americans picture the CIA combing the world to collect data, keeping careful tabs on which political faction is rising or falling in what country, and which dealer is funneling arms to what rebel movement?
Now shift to the private sector and picture a corporation that combs the world as intensively, or more, than the CIA. Its mission: to collect and sell financial and ...More
They all have last names that flag them as possibly having Swiss-German-Mennonite roots – Buckwalter, Kauffman and Yoder – and they all majored in business administration. What else do John Buckwalter ’88 in Phoenix, Arizona, Kermit Kauffman ’79 in Tampa, Florida, and Keith Yoder ’77 ...More
