Staff Report
Published July 18, 2012

Nine local business executives and community leaders have been elected to the 2012-2013 board of trustees at EdVenture.

The new members are:

• Daniel B. “Chip” Amaker, senior vice president and commercial banking relationship manager for BB&T bank;
• Chris Carrington, community volunteer;
• Tyrone Ellis, vice president for quality improvement, Ingersoll Rand, Club Car Division;
• Stacy Hunter, assistant vice president and actuary at Colonial Life;
• Janice Marshall, civic leader and philanthropist;
• Mike Rider, vice president and retail credit and small business manager for the Carolinas at Wells Fargo Bank;
• Seema Shrivastava-Patel, vice president of Carolina Convenience Corp.;
• Karen Smith, regional vice president for TD Bank;
• Gregory Tucker, vice president of operations for LCK Construction Services.

The officers for 2012-2013 are:

• Chris Kopecky, chair, chief accounting officer at Edens;
• Nici Comer, vice chair of external affairs, senior vice president and corporate counsel at SCBT Financial Corp.;
• Jay Swearingen, vice chair of internal affairs, CPA and shareholder at Bauknight Pietras & Stormer P.A.;
• Dave Schweiger, vice chair of governance, president of Schweiger & Associates;
• Sharon Earle, board secretary, president and owner of SIR Consulting Group.

EdVenture is a Columbia-based informal learning institution, featuring 92,000 square feet of indoor and outdoor interactive exhibit space as well as educational outreach programs and after-school programs.