Carol Sawdye, chief operating officer of PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) Network, presented the 2019 Norman Fries Lecture, the first event in the inaugural Parker Talks speaker series, hosted by Georgia Southern University’s Parker College of Business.
Sawdye shared the positive impacts that the advancement of technology has had on society during her presentation, “Flourishing in a Digital World: How to Proactively Engage in New Technologies to Ensure You Don’t Get Left Behind,” was held on Monday, Sept. 30 at the Performing Arts Center on the Statesboro Campus.
Sawdye discussed the importance of providing access to information and communication to previously isolated communities, improving the efficiency of organizations and extending average human life spans across the world. She also talked about the opportunity to use technology for the betterment of society despite how quickly the speed and scope of technology are changing.
Sawdye, who leads the Network Leadership Team Chief Operating Officer Group, drives budgeting, financial planning and investment processes throughout the PwC Network and collaborates with the global leadership team. Previously the executive vice president and CFO of the National Basketball Association, Sawdye received a B.S. in accounting from the University of Virginia and an MBA, with a specialization in international business and corporate finance, from Columbia Business School. She is a CPA, licensed to practice in New York. She and her husband live in New York City and Savannah, Georgia.
The Parker Talks speaker series will host speakers throughout the year in Statesboro and Savannah.
The annual Norman Fries Distinguished Lectureship series began in 2001. It is funded by an endowment in honor of Norman Fries, founder of Claxton Poultry. In his more than 50 years of business, Fries built the company from a one-man operation into one of the largest poultry production plants in the United States. Past Fries lecturers include David Oreck of Oreck Vacuums, South African apartheid author and lecturer Mark Mathabane, NASA director James W. Kennedy, author and historian Gordon S. Wood, Nobel Prize-winner William D. Phillips, Ph.D., bestselling author Susan Orlean, concussion expert Dr. Russell Gore, and, most recently, Regents professor and Nobel Peace Prize co-recipient Marilyn Brown, Ph.D. For more information, visit GeorgiaSouthern.edu/Fries2019.
