The College of Charleston Board of Trustees has some new faces joining its ranks.
The South Carolina General Assembly recently named five new members to the board. The new members assumed their seats on July 1, 2018. Earlier this year August G. Swarat, II ’89 joined the board as the governor’s designee.
The new board members are:
Henry A. Futch, Jr.
Henry A. Futch, Jr. ’88 (5th Congressional District)
Henry “Hank” Futch, Jr. graduated from the College of Charleston in 1988 with a bachelor of arts in philosophy. While at CofC he was a member of the Kappa Alpha Order. He is a founding member of the bands The Futch Brothers, Blue Dogs and The Occasional Milkshake. He is also a certified commercial investment member and has been a commercial real estate broker for 13 years, serving several development and brokerage companies. He is currently broker in charge of Hank Futch Real Estate, LLC and KEY Investment Advisors of South Carolina, LLC. Hank resides in Rock Hill, South Carolina, and represents the 5th Congressional District of South Carolina on the Board of Trustees at the College of Charleston. He and his wife, Nolie, have two children, Spencer and Henry.
Shawn M. Holland
Shawn M. Holland ’02 (3rd Congressional District)
Shawn M. Holland is a resident of Anderson, South Carolina, and president/owner of City Glass, LLC. He graduated from the College of Charleston with a bachelor of science in business administration in 2002 and was a student-athlete on the baseball team. Currently, he is serving as an executive committee board member of the Anderson Area YMCA and as a board member for the First Presbyterian Church Dayschool Board. Holland is married to Emily Ballenger Holland, and they have a son, Beckett, and a baby on the way.
Steven Swanson
Steve Swanson ’89 (At-Large)
Steve Swanson co-founded Automated Trading Desk (ATD), a pioneer in high frequency trading, in 1989. In 2001, Swanson was named president and CEO of the company where he was responsible for growing ATD to seven percent of U.S. daily equity trading volume. In 2007, ATD was sold to Citigroup for $680 million. At Citigroup, Swanson was global co-head of electronic trading for equities. Since leaving Citi/ATD in 2010, he has been involved with several startups in New York and South Carolina. Most recently he was the inside director of operations and strategy at SnapCap, an alternative small business loan originator which was sold to Lending Tree in 2017 for $21 million. He currently serves on the board of directors at the Bank of South Carolina as well as chairs the executive committee of Charleston Angel Partners. Swanson also serves on the boards of directors of Trident United Way and YesCarolina, as well as several boards at the College of Charleston. From 2015 to 2018, he was a member of the Board of Trustees at South Carolina State University tasked with turning around the ailing HBCU. That board successfully balanced the budget, increased admissions, and reaffirmed its Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges accreditation.
Swanson, a mathematics major and a member of the Honors College, graduated from the College in 1989. His wife, Emily, also graduated from the College in 1989.
Charles J. Baker, III
Charles J. Baker, III ’80 (Alumni Association)
Charles “Chuck” J. Baker III is a resident of Mount Pleasant, South Carolina, and practices law in Charleston with Womble Bond Dickinson (US) LLP. Baker is a past president of the Cougar Club and of the College of Charleston Alumni Association. Additionally, he previously served on the Charleston County Board of Zoning Appeals and has been active in several community and professional organizations. Baker was a member of the men’s tennis team and graduated in 1980 with a bachelor of arts in biology. He then earned his Juris Doctor in 1984 from the University of South Carolina School of Law. Baker is married to Elizabeth Bramlett Baker, also a graduate of the College of Charleston and a senior instructor at the College, and they have three children, Emma, Charlie and Camilla.
Elizabeth Middleton Burke
Elizabeth Middleton Burke ’94 (1st Congressional District)
Elizabeth Middleton Burke is a resident of Mt. Pleasant, South Carolina, and is a partner with Richardson Patrick Westbrook & Brickman, LLC. Burke is a graduate of the Honors College, earning a Bachelor of Arts in English with Departmental Honors and is a member of Alpha Delta Pi. She practices civil litigation with an emphasis on products liability. Burke received her Juris Doctorate degree from the University of South Carolina School of Law in 1997. She clerked for the Hon. Paula H. Thomas before beginning her career in litigation at Suggs & Kelly, P.A. in Columbia, South Carolina. She next served as a prosecutor in the Fifteenth Circuit Solicitor’s office in Horry County. She joined Richardson Patrick Westbrook & Brickman in 2003.
Prior to serving on the Board of Trustees, Burke served on the Alumni Association Board of Directors from 2003 to 2012, and as its president from 2010-2011. She is the 2011 recipient of the Honors College Distinguished Alumni Award, and has served on the Honors College Advisory Board, the Friends of the Library Board, and as an ex officio member of the Foundation Board. She is an active member of the South Carolina Association for Justice and the Southern Trial Lawyers Association. In 2016, Burke was awarded the Gold Compleat Lawyer Award, presented by the USC Law School Alumni Counsel.
Burke is married to Richard Cobb Burke, a law school classmate, who proposed to her on the Portico of Randolph Hall. They have a daughter, Katherine.
August G. Swarat, II
August G. Swarat, II ’89 (Governor’s Designee)
August G. Swarat, II joined the board in February 2018. Swarat is a resident of Columbia, South Carolina, and an attorney focused on civil litigation and criminal defense. Swarat is a former county and state prosecutor and has served as a municipal court judge for the City of Columbia. Additionally, Swarat has served on the advisory board for the First Tee of Columbia and is involved in many social and philanthropic organizations.
Swarat graduated from the College of Charleston with a bachelor of arts in political science in 1989. During his years at CofC, Swarat served as student body president and held several leadership positions in his fraternity, Sigma Alpha Epsilon. Swarat then went on to earn his Juris Doctorate degree from the University of South Carolina in Columbia. Swarat is married to Eleanor Foster Swarat, and they have three children, August, Lindsay and Preston.
