Sue Culpepper.Sue Culpepper, the former Chattanooga city president and managing director of SunTrust Bank's Wealth Management Group in Chattanooga, is joining the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga as the new director of the business college's Galtere Institute: Finance for the Future Initiative.
Culpepper succeeds Lauren Templeton, the niece of famed investor Sir John Templeton who previously headed the UTC program before leaving UTC earlier this year.
Culpepper is a career investment professional who spent 23 years of her 30 years in banking with Suntrust. She joins UTC to lead the Galtere Institute, with the specific mission to support and encourage more women to pursue the "art and science of trading and investing."
"To me, one of the responsibilities of successful professionals should be to give back to motivated, promising individuals and I have always found great satisfaction in being able to assist in someone's career achievement," she said. "Reflecting on the great people who provided mentoring guidance to me, I am committed to 'giving back' to the students, to enable them to navigate the complexities of the financial world."
The Galtere Institute at UTC - founded by New York City hedge fund managers Renee Haugerud and husband John Murphy in 2009 - is focused on teaching students, especially women, about opportunities in the world of global-macro finance.
At the UTC College of Business, women comprise more than half of 1,900 undergraduates, yet less than 30 percent major in finance.