Joe Patrick
Joe is a business leader who is passionate about helping companies achieve purpose-driven, sustainable success through improved strategies, market development and operational excellence.
Joe currently leads multiple CEO peer advisory boards in the Upstate and Midlands of SC as a Chair for The C12 Group, the largest network of Christian CEO groups working to increase company performance and integrate faith and business. He is a Board Director of Fortis Riders and a founding partner of Wilderness Capital LLC. Joe has also helped start, fund or advise several other companies with family and friends.
Joe was Vice President of Operations from 2011 to 2017 at OOBE Uniforms & Apparel, Inc., a provider of retail and custom apparel for brands including Chick-fil-A, Hendrick Automotive Group, and BMW Manufacturing.
He developed a broad range of business skills working from 1996-2011 with an international brand & multi billion-dollar private company (VELUX). His time with VELUX included a life-changing year in Copenhagen, Denmark working with a group overseeing companies in Japan, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the US.
At the root of his passion for purpose-driven business was Joe’s involvement in his own family’s brick company (Southern Brick Company) before participating in its sale in 1996. After Joe graduated from Erskine College with a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration, he earned his MBA from Clemson University with concentrations in marketing and finance. His post-graduate business education also includes completion of The Moore School of Business at USC Mid-Level Management Program, as well as a customized International Management Program from MANNAZ conducted outside Paris, France by leading international business school professors.
Joe enjoys serving others in his community as Chairman of the Board for the American Red Cross Palmetto Region in the Upstate of South Carolina. He lives in Greenville with his wife, Emily, and three children. He is an ordained ruling elder at Greenville Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church and serves as Session Vice Moderator. He has previously been a member of the Erskine College & Seminary Board of Trustees, where he also served as its Chairman.
Chip Smith
Chip Smith has over 25 years of experience leading strategic change, finance and operations. He served as President and board director of Athene USA and its subsidiaries from 2011 to 2017. While President, he also served in interim officer roles for Athene Holding Company, including Chief Financial Officer, Controller and Principal Accounting Officer, and Chief Information Officer. Chip is a founding partner at Wilderness Capital LLC.
Chip was a key member of the Athene management team growing assets from $5 billion to over $80 billion and growing sales to over $5 billion. The disciplined growth and returns led Athene to complete a successful Initial Public Offering in December 2016 with a market cap over $9 billion.
Chip is a versatile senior executive with extensive experience in strategy, finance, risk management, and operations. He has expertise in highly complex transformations, acquisitions and divestitures and a proven track record managing teams through significant changes including acquisitions and consolidations. He is skilled in system implementations and conversions, outsourcing, process improvements, and managing multiple locations.
Prior to Athene’s acquisition of Liberty Life Insurance Company, his roles there included Chief Executive Officer, President and board director, Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer, and other finance roles. Liberty Life was the US insurance subsidiary for the Royal Bank of Canada from 2000 until 2011. Before joining Liberty Life in 1992, he worked at Ernst & Young, serving clients in the insurance, manufacturing, and utility industries.
Chip has served as a member of the Erskine College Board of Trustees including as its chairman. He currently serves as chairman of the Erskine College Investment Committee, as treasurer and investment committee member for several church organizations, and as an elder in his church.
Chip graduated from Erskine College with a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration. He is a Certified Public Accountant. He and his wife, Wendy, have two children.