Wes served on the Love School Board of Advisors for five years before becoming an Elon trustee in 2005. He serves as chair of the board’s audit committee and also serves on the finance and investment committees.
After earning his undergraduate degree in business and accounting at Western Carolina University, Wes, a certified public accountant, worked at the national accounting firm KPMG and later Laboratory Corporation of America (LabCorp). In 2005, following a successful 25-year career at LabCorp, Wes retired as chief financial officer, a position he held at the company for nine years.
Currently, he is a managing partner of the Greensboro Grasshoppers minor league baseball team. He serves as vice chair of the board of Hospice of Alamance and Caswell counties and will serve as chair next year. He also serves on the board of trustees of Greensboro Day School and on its finance committee. The couple’s son, who is an Elon freshman, attended Greensboro Day.
Cathy Elingburg, an Alamance County native, earned a degree in English from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1975.
While at LabCorp, Wes worked with the Love School to establish a summer internship program for business students. He also was involved in early planning for Elon’s executive education program, which has attracted many LabCorp executives. The program is housed in the LabCorp Suite for Executive Education in Elon’s Ernest A. Koury, Sr. Business Center.
“I’ve been so impressed with everyone I’ve come in contact with at Elon,” says Wes, who praised the partnership between the university and LabCorp. “With Elon being the institution it is in Alamance County and LabCorp being by far the biggest employer, it’s important for those institutions to work together. There are so many good things that can happen there that can benefit Elon, LabCorp and Alamance County.”
Mary Gowan, dean of the Love School, says the couple’s gift will enhance business education at Elon by bringing talented faculty scholars to the university.
“The gift of this professorship by Wes and Cathy Elingburg is a critical milestone for us as we continue to build the strong and growing reputation of the Martha and Spencer Love School of Business,” Gowan says. “Our students will benefit from this gift because of our increased ability to attract and retain highly qualified faculty who value student engagement in the best Elon tradition.”