OUR FLAGSHIP PROGRAMCURRENT CLASS
Greg Ashley
Stowers Machinery Corporation
Chief Financial Officer
Hometown: Broadford, VA
What is your vision for Knoxville 10 years from now?
To continually enhance our bigger city experiences and opportunities while maintaining a smaller town feel. Growth with a focus on preserving our key values of innovation and teamwork will enable Knoxville to remain one of the top places to live.
What is Knoxville's Best Kept Secret?
Ijams Nature Center and the surrounding trails/quarries
What would you do to strengthen Knoxville?
Continued investments in our infrastructure and public school systems, increased retention in the area of trade/undergraduate/graduate school students, and fully optimizing the numerous non-profit entities we have in East Tennessee.
What is your favorite Knoxville memory?
My wife and I were married in Knoxville (she lived here & I lived in Dallas at the time). We were surrounded by the best family members and friends anyone could ever ask for that day.
What is your favorite book or what book is currently on your nightstand?
The Richest Man in Babylon
What is the best advice you have received from a mentor, and who was that mentor?
To get more experience in capital markets & investor relations roles as those were gaps he noted in my readiness to step into a CFO role - Jim Bradford, Former Dean of Vanderbilt's Owen Graduate School of Management
What advice would you give to your 16 year old self?
Don't be afraid to stretch yourself beyond what you think you can do, even if it means "failing small" several times in your younger years. It will benefit you greatly in the future.