Consultants

At NewSouth AssociatesNS, our consultants have an unparalleled depth and breadth of knowledge about and experience with eleemosynary institutions. We hold degrees, often advanced, in our areas of expertise and have practical, executive- and administrative-level experience. Through our educations and professional lives, we have built an exhaustive and, we believe, unrivaled list of sources with whom we have close relationships.

Since our consultants are all active professionals in their fields, they are acutely attuned to both the constants and the changes of eleemosynary institutions and are well-prepared to help our clients handle with finesse any situation or challenge that may arise.

Chris Perry

Chris left a highly successful career on Wall Street to join NewSouth AssociatesNS as its CEO/Chairman in early 2004. In addition to his overarching responsibilities managing the ongoing operations of the company, Chris also leads engagements in the areas of management, marketing, and resource development. With an undergraduate degree in history from Vanderbilt University and an MBA from Northwestern University (where he majored in finance and accounting), Chris held management positions as Managing Director and Head of E-Commerce at HSBC, USA, and Senior Vice President for Taxed Fixable Income at Prudential Securities in both New York and London.

As a volunteer and an investment banker, Chris has been actively involved in raising money for eleemosynary institutions such as his college alma mater, Vanderbilt, and he has presided over two senior pastor search committees. Included among his more notable professional accomplishments have been pioneering the use of the Internet to sell new issue corporate bonds while at HSBC, designing a multi-currency multiple time zone fixed income application for HSBC’s global website, selecting the firm’s technology partners, obtaining all the internal approvals and negotiating the contracts with several E-commerce B2B platforms, building the emerging markets debt business for Prudential in London, developing a market for stripped 100-year corporate bonds, and leading the “Dare to Dream” stewardship campaign for his church in London. In particular, Chris brings a business-oriented perspective to schools and other eleemosynary clients for NewSouth AssociatesNS, especially as those clients move into a digital age. Chris’s professional history includes taking several organizations through the transition to a digital enterprise. In so doing, Chris has had extensive contact with vendors in the technology field, and has been able to translate technological innovation into reforming and improving Wall Street practices that had defied change for many years.

In the past year, Chris has made serving NewSouth and the Forsyth Country Day School community his life’s pursuit. In addition to his work as NewSouth’s CEO, Chris teaches economics, serves as an academic coach, and coaches basketball for Rusty LaRue’s AAU Titans organization.

Hank Battle

Hank is the headmaster of Forsyth Country Day School and President of NewSouth AssociatesNS. He assists a select group of clients in executive search, school assessment/management, strategic planning, board effectiveness, enrollment management, and fundraising consulting. A Columbia Teachers’ College Klingenstein Fellow, Hank has more than 26 years of experience in independent schools, where he has worked as a headmaster, development director, admissions director, teacher, and coach. In addition to his lengthy career in independent school administration, Hank spent several years as an executive search consultant, handling retained searches for independent school heads and administrators, college administrators, corporate CEOs and CFOs, and other senior management positions.

Norris Baker

Norris Baker has 27 years of educational experience in both public and private schools as a teacher, counselor, coach, athletic director, assistant principal, principal, and school head. In addition, Norris is a published author, and has consulted and presented nationally for schools and school systems in the areas of school team decision making, strategic planning, leadership, morale building, and implementing change. With a B.A. in Education and an M.A. in Educational Administration and Supervision, he also graduated from the Principals’ Executive Program at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

David Bowman

David oversees the Retained Executive Search end of NewSouth AssociatesNS. He received a bachelor’s degree in education from UNC-Greensboro and a master’s degree in education from North Carolina A & T State University. David taught and coached for seven years at Durham Academy (Durham, N.C.), Greensboro Day School (Greensboro, N.C.) and Guilford College (Greensboro, N.C.). He then spent 15 years in sales with Dillard Paper Company, where he received the National Sales Award in 1998. In addition to work with NewSouth AssociatesNS, David is employed by Forsyth Country Day School in Lewisville, N.C., where he serves as director of faculty recruiting and a development officer.

Chuck Jones

Chuck Jones specializes in Board Relations, working with clients on new trustee orientation, recruitment and school management. Chuck has worked in boarding schools and parochial schools as a teacher, coach, dean and dormitory head. He has a master’s degree in private school leadership and is completing his dissertation on independent school trusteeship and board training. He also works with clients in the areas of strategic planning, school marketing and technology consulting.

Rusty LaRue

Rusty is a graduate of Wake Forest University who distinguished himself in basketball, football, and baseball while maintaining a 3.5 GPA and making the Dean’s List all but two semesters. He set numerous records both individually and with his teams and is the only 12-time varsity letter winner in ACC history. In his junior year, he became only the second athlete in ACC history (and the first since 1952) to play football, basketball, and baseball in the same year.
Rusty finished his career at Wake Forest as the all-time 3-point percentage leader and second overall in 3-point goals (151) made.
As a senior, he was named GTE Academic All-American, and his 46.4 percent shooting from the 3-point line ranked him second in the ACC and fifteenth in the NCAA.

After college, Rusty played professional basketball both in the United States and internationally. In the NBA, he played with the Chicago Bulls and the Utah Jazz; in the CBA, he played for the Connecticut Pride and the Idaho Stampede; and in the NBDL he played with the Asheville Altitude. In Europe, he played in Moscow with Russia’s championship team and in Varese, Italy. In addition to hosting the Rusty LaRue Basketball Camps, Rusty recently served as a development officer and head men’s basketball coach at Greensboro College. He currently holds those same positions at Forsyth Country Day School, and is a fundraising consultant for NewSouth AssociatesNS.