John Crosslin serves as co-managing principal of regional accounting and consulting firm, Crosslin. With more than 20 years of public accounting experience, John’s audit, tax, and company leadership have led to record growth and numerous local/national awards, including an Inc. 500 honor.

Assuming the company’s top executive role in 2017, John has continued to build on Crosslin’s well-respected reputation as an accounting leader in the Middle Tennessee business community. In addition to overseeing the management of the company, strategic development, and business development, he has remained as a key member of the audit leadership team.

John is a leader in the community, serving as vice chair on the United Way of Metropolitan Nashville’s Executive Committee and as a leader in the Alexis de Tocqueville Society. He has been actively involved with the Girl Scouts of Middle Tennessee and is past board president of the Music City Youth Orchestra.

John has also received many well-deserved accolades for both his work and his commitment to community service. John has been named to the CPA and NSA Practice Advisor’s 40 Under 40 and is a recipient of both the Nashville Emerging Leader Awards (NELAs) in the business services category and the Nashville Business Journal’s 40 under 40 honor. He was named a Power Leader in Accounting in 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, and 2019 by the Nashville Business Journal.

He received his bachelor’s degree from the Goizueta Business School of Emory University and his master’s degree from the Owen Graduate School of Business, Vanderbilt University. He is a certified public accountant licensed in Tennessee, Kentucky, Florida and Washington, D.C., and a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) and Tennessee Society of Certified Public Accountants (TSCPA). He also is a graduate of the BDO Seidman two-year Leadership Institute training.

Eleanor Yoakum is a lifelong community activist and serves as Chairman of First Century Bank in Tazewell. She is a graduate of East Tennessee State University with a degree in Speech and Hearing Therapy. Throughout her career, she has been involved with her family business; first managing Yoakum’s Banner Warehouse and later as President and then Chairman of First Century Bank.

Ms. Yoakum was the first woman to serve on the eight-state Burley Auction Tobacco Board and was appointed by President George H. Bush to the United States Federal Advisory Board on Tobacco. She was elected President of First Century Bank in 1990, serving as one of the only female bank Presidents in the state. She also served as Commissioner of Personnel for the State of Tennessee from 1996-1999, and then as Chief Administrative Officer to the Governor from 1999-2002.

Ms. Yoakum has served on numerous Boards and Commissions, including two terms on the Tennessee Arts Commission, Chairman, 1990; the Tennessee Higher Education Commission; two terms on the Board of Professional Responsibility, Vice Chairman, 2015; East Tennessee State Foundation Board and Alumni Boards; Walters State Foundation Board, President, 2010-11; 2006 Graduate of Leadership Knoxville; St. Mary’s Hospital Board, Secretary 2008-2011; and was East Tennessee State University Alumni of the Year 1999.

She is presently serving her second term on the Tennessee State Museum Commission and is on the Board of Directors of the East Tennessee Historical Society, Omni Vision, Heritage Christian Academy, and The Lincoln Institute Board. She and her husband, Former Economic and Community Development Commissioner Bill Dunavant, reside in Tazewell. Ms. Yoakum is the mother of two children: Stephanie Barger Conner of Nashville and Robert Glenn Barger of Knoxville, and is the proud grandmother of five grandchildren.

In 1987, Tyrone Burroughs founded the global consumer products management firm First Choice Sales & Marketing Company with a vision to create an innovative sales and marketing approach for the personal care industry. As President & CEO, he continues to provide strategic solutions delivering growth to some of the world's largest consumer packaged goods manufacturers, retailers, and distributors.

As a driving force behind the $1.7 trillion of buying power multi-cultural personal care category, First Choice Sales & Marketing has received numerous industry awards and recognitions for developing unique programs that connect their clients to a target market. Through Burroughs' leadership, First Choice creates profitable and growth-oriented sales, marketing, and proprietary merchandising solutions. Headquartered in Memphis, Tennessee, the company is home to over 100 employees and professional contributors.

Burroughs also serves as chairman of First Choice Global Inc. (parent to First Choice Sales & Marketing Group) and other holdings that include First Choice Opportunity Fund, South City LP.; Beau Ventures, LLC; MG Capital Holdings Inc.; 115 Union Avenue, LLC.; The Burroughs Foundation Inc.; Rizzo's Diner; The Pocket Bistro; and R.S. Lewis & Sons Funeral Home (the funeral home that prepared the remains for public viewing of the late Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.).

Often lauded for his ability to create business opportunities, Burroughs has been described as a catalyst for breakthrough results and accelerating progress while fostering positive business relationships. In 2019, he launched Burroughs Restaurant Group Inc., which now owns the US mid-south franchise rights of Guthrie's Chicken Restaurants.

As a business advisor, Burroughs serves as a member of the Benedict College Board of Trustees, Board of Directors at Guaranty Bank and Trust Company, Chairman of The Burroughs Foundation Inc., Chairman of the Trustee Board for the historic Metropolitan Baptist Church, Memphis NAACP Branch Board of Directors, and Global Beauty Alliance Board. He also serves as a board member for the St. Jude Memphis African American Engagement Council, WKNO Board of Trustees, Faith-Based & Community Initiative Foundation, Tennessee Lottery Commission, and Memphis Theological Seminary. Also notably, he was the 2021 Inductee in The Society of Entrepreneurs.

Past board memberships include Ronald McDonald Charity House, Regional One Health Hospital Board of Directors, Memphis, and the Shelby County Convention Center Board.

Burroughs holds an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from Benedict College in Columbia, SC. He also earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in History and Political Science and adds graduate studies from the University of South Carolina.

In 2017 in recognition of Mr. Burroughs's philanthropic achievements in the education of America's youth, Benedict College School of Business & Economics was renamed to the Tyrone Adam Burroughs School of Business and Entrepreneurship.

AT&T Tennessee’s president, Joelle Phillips, has traveled a career path with many turns. A professionally trained actress, she left behind an acting career, became a litigator specializing in business bankruptcy, and is now a recognized Tennessee business leader, navigating AT&T though dynamic changes in technology, the marketplace and policy at the local, state and federal levels.

Under nearly 10 years of Phillips’ leadership, the company successfully sought sweeping changes to outdated law and policy, leading to substantial investment in expanded areas of business in the rapidly evolving tech marketplace.

During her tenure, AT&T Tennessee has invested more than $5 billion in network infrastructure across the state to deliver the latest broadband and next generation wireless connectivity, an investment tally that Phillips credits to both sound state public policy and the company’s commitment to customer service.

Phillips grew up in Auburn, Alabama, where her father was a professor of electrical engineering, whose own career path included turns with NASA, the US Air Force, and nuclear power generators. Phillips says while her father loved Auburn, he insisted his daughters go to college at least two hours from home. Phillips graduated magna cum laude from Birmingham-Southern College, where she now serves on its board and was recently named a distinguished alumnus of the college.

After a stint in the theater world, Phillips was drawn to the law, graduating summa cum laude from Washington & Lee University School of Law. She began her law practice as a clerk for United States Court of Appeals Judge Rhesa Hawkins Barksdale, and she went on to practice with firms in Atlanta and Nashville before joining the in-house legal team at BellSouth in 2001.

Phillips particularly values her recent experience as Executive in Residence at the University of Tennessee’s Haslam College of Business, the University of the South’s Babson Center’s Graham Executive-in-Residence and serving on the 2019 and 2021 Prize Juries for the Aspen Prize for Community College Excellence’s $1 million award.

She represented the business community on the search committee to identify the Chancellor for the Tennessee Board of Regents and has received the Tennessee Board of Regents Award for Philanthropy.

As President of AT&T Tennessee, Phillips oversees AT&T’s philanthropic work in the state.
She has served on the boards of numerous non-profit organizations, including the State Collaborative on Reforming Education (SCORE), The Nashville Repertory Theater, the Nashville Convention and Visitors Corporation, the Tennessee Business Leadership Council, Leadership Nashville and Cheekwood Botanical Garden and Museum of Art.

Phillips also serves on the Board of CapStar Bank, based in Nashville.

Phillips is married to fellow Birmingham Southern and Washington & Lee alumni Brant Phillips, who practices law and chairs the litigation department of the Nashville-based Bass Berry & Sims law firm.

Trey joined the member group of Watkins Uiberall, PLLC in 2009. As a member, he provides comprehensive audit preparation, compliance and consulting services. Trey’s responsibilities include administration of the firm’s audit department which includes scheduling staff members to projects and project follow-up to ensure deadlines and goals are being met. He focuses his efforts within the construction industry, but also serves clients within the manufacturing, not-for-profit, government and brokerage industries.

Trey has made Watkins Uiberall his home since 1996. His dedication to the firm shines through in his interactions with coworkers and clients, and being a second-generation Watkins professional, he literally bears the firm’s family atmosphere in his name.

Trey pursued a career in accounting because of his passion of being a trusted business advisor to clients and learning all aspects of their business, including opportunities and challenges that lead to success.

Trey is a Memphis native, where he currently resides with his wife, Sarah, and sons William, Henry and James. When away from the office, he enjoys spending time with his wife and children, golfing and hunting.