TONY TENNARO

Tony Tennaro founded Cornerstone Initiatives in 2004 in order to bring C12 Group programs to the business community of Greater Charlotte. He sees his mission as helping business leaders align their work with God’s agenda, releasing the transforming power of Jesus Christ into all they touch. Tony enjoyed a successful career in sales, marketing, and general management, both in large corporations, such as the Quaker State Corporation and Black & Decker, and in smaller entrepreneurial companies. He now brings the benefit of his experience to others, across a range of consumer and industrial markets, products, and services. As C12 Chair, he enthusiastically serves marketplace leaders, sharing his love of business strategy and performance, integrated with his foundation of faith. Tony is also available to speak at conferences on the topics of “Your Next Right Move: How to Make Wise Decisions and Advance Careers,” and “Recalculating Route: a GPS for Getting Back on Course and Staying There.” The love of his wife, daughters, sons-in-law, and grandchildren gives Tony daily opportunities to “rejoice and be glad” from their home in Waxhaw, NC. “For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus so that we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.” (Ephesians 2:10).

DEAN WILLIAMS

With over 40 years of experience in project engineering, general management, and process improvement consulting, with a variety of organizations from Fortune 500 companies to smaller firms, Dean has consistently sought to add value through a focus on continuous improvement. Prior to becoming an Associate Chair with the C12Group Greater Charlotte, Dean was a manager with Duke Energy, a Senior LEAN Consultant with Invistics, founder and president of Effective Focus Insights, a published author, and a regular speaker and workshop leader nationally and internationally. Dean is a graduate of the United States Merchant Marine Academy at Kings Point with a Bachelor of Science degree in Marine Engineering. Dean has been married to his wonderful bride, best friend, and talented professional artist, Leigh, since 1977. They have three married children, and six amazing grandchildren (and counting). As a family, the Williams’ have sought, by God’s grace, to live out the words of Joshua when he said, “…. but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord,” as they integrate their lives and their work with their faith. To that end Dean and Leigh have been actively involved in the church, community, and mission outreach including Dean serving as a Deacon, Elder, and Sunday School teacher, volunteering with Habitat for Humanity, Samaritans Purse, Charlotte Serve, Charlotte Rescue Mission, Wings of Eagles Ranch, and others, as well as participating in and leading numerous short term missions trips to eastern Europe.

DEREK ROGERS

Derek has been in Charlotte for 25 years and has loved seeing the city transform. After graduating from Wake Forest University, Derek came to Charlotte in 1994 to join NationsBank. Since then, the city’s marketplace – and skyline – changed in significant ways; as part of that, Derek worked for NationsBank/Bank of America for 23 years, building business and internal-consulting experience through enterprise-wide projects and strategic programs. In 2017 he left financial services to spend intentional time at home (focused on his wife Anne and three teenaged sons) and in the community (sinking more time into church and various volunteer efforts). Over the past two decades, he has been involved in the city through the Charlotte Leadership Forum, the Foundation for the Carolinas Impact Fund, Halftime Carolinas, partnering with Reformed Theological Seminary, and chairing the Board of The Barnabas Center, a counseling/teaching/training non-profit in town. Derek led the Diaconate at his local church for many years and now serves as an elder there. He loves the way God is leveraging C12 to use the gospel to address concrete marketplace challenges of local business owners: better-defined (and purposeful) strategies; clear execution of goals; and operational excellence, just to name a few. And how He does that within, across and through the discipleship of our Peer Advisory Boards.

BRADEN RUCH

Braden is excited to be leading Peer Advisory Groups with C12 in the Greater Charlotte Marketplace. He is keenly aware that the only successes he experienced in business were a direct result of efforts rooted in Biblical principles. His hope is to leverage C12 Peer Advisory Offerings to help and challenge Christian business owners to build great businesses for a greater purpose (i.e. drive revenue and profit, all the while incorporating Kingdom Building initiatives in the “how”). …..not just for God, but WITH God (Genesis 28:15). His goal is that when customers and employees interact with C12 businesses they will see Jesus in the mission and vision as well as in the way in which they conduct their businesses. As an accomplished business leader, Braden has nearly 20 years of experience working to unlock revenue, profit, and other Desired Business Outcomes for his Customer’s C-level Executives, primarily, leveraging Document Management and Data & Analytics software.  During this season Braden led a matrixed team to deliver, implement and service contracts valued at upwards of $20M, some with $100M+ Business Outcomes.  He enjoys being the glue to great teams and ensuring no one is left behind (Matthew 18:12).  His previous work spanned numerous industries (healthcare, retail, construction, State & local govt, legal, finance, energy, banking) and from small-to-medium sized companies to Fortune-500 organizations. He and his wife, Mandy, have been in Charlotte since attending UNCC in 1999. They have been married for 15 years and have three wonderful, rowdy, boys. After having both spent several years in Charlotte as volunteer leaders with Young Life in their 20s,  Braden and Mandy now serve Young Life Union County as Committee Members.  They currently attend Forest Hill-Waxhaw, and are partnering with the church to create a young families ministry similar to the communities they’ve benefited from over the last 15 years at Church at Charlotte and Carmel Baptist. Braden has also benefited from investments from Search Ministries, Charlotte Leadership Forum, Halftime of the Carolinas, Campus Outreach, and came to Christ at Camp Lurecrest in the early 90s.  He loves golf, full-court basketball, and biking.

BRIAN SCOTT

Brian brings over 33 years’ experience in Executive Leadership roles in national manufacturing and construction for fortune 500 energy companies. Brian’s business strengths include corporate strategy, organizational structuring, Sr. leadership team development, EOS implementation, Lean manufacturing, and business development. Brian is passionate about developing the next generation of leaders as he clearly understands the benefit to families, the church and society that great Christian Leadership can bring. His education from the Master’s University is in business management along with a minor in biblical studies. Brian has a passion for helping CEO’s and business leaders grow in leadership, their relationship with the Lord and growing their businesses.  Brian resides in Charlotte, NC since 1995 along with his beautiful wife Mary Lou of 31 years. Together they have raised three beautiful daughters (Tiffany, Melissa & Jenifer) and have two great sons-in-law’s (Jared & Mike) and one “very spoiled” granddaughter (Haylie). Brian has nine years’ experience serving in ministry development as an Elder involved in church planting and he is actively involved in small groups and one on one discipleship at Oakhurst Baptist Church in Charlotte.

JAYSON BERG

Jayson Berg serves as an Associate Chair with C12 Business Forums in Charlotte, NC. C12 is the world’s largest peer-learning organization for Christian CEOs, business owners, and executives, serving 4,000 members throughout the United States and internationally. Jayson joined the C12 team in Charlotte in 2024. Prior to C12, Jayson has had a wide range of experiences as a senior executive, developed during a career spanning over 30 years. With a varied background covering sales, marketing, and general management, Jayson has worked for multiple world class consumer packaged goods & payments companies.  In these companies, he has held progressively broader leadership roles and effectively managed complex businesses that drove profitable growth. He has also been instrumental in helping to shape high-performance cultures and fostering collaboration within cross-functional teams. Together with his wife Kari, they have celebrated 21 years of marriage and have made Charlotte their home since 2015. Their family includes three wonderful children – Emma, Colin and Eli.  In their spiritual journey, the entire family actively participates in their community at Southbrook Church in Weddington, NC were Jayson serves there as an elder along with leading a small group and premarital class with Kari. Two verses that have been meaningful to Jayson are: John 15:5 “I am the vine; and you are the branches, if a man remains in me and I in him. he will bear much fruit. Apart from me you can do nothing.” Mark 8:36 “For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul?”

NEAL MILLSAPS

Neal Millsaps serves as an Associate Chair with C12 Business Forums in the Greater Charlotte, NC market. Prior to joining C12, Neal spent 40+ years in the volume photography/publishing marketplace. For almost 20 years he worked in his family’s 3rd generation business. After purchasing the business from the family, he then led the organization for 10 more years, before selling it to LifeTouch National Studios. After joining LifeTouch, Neal held several leadership positions in Learning & Development, Sales Leadership and general Field management, before exiting the business as a Senior Director managing 85M in sales, along with a team of 400+ associates. While both managing his own business, Neal developed a passion for developing people. This led him to adopt a leadership style that “grew people” in order to grow the business. In order to foster this approach, Neal volunteered to coach entrepreneurs just starting out through the SCORE organization. In addition, he volunteered to facilitate discussion groups with the Wake Forest University Family Business Center. In order to make a greater impact on those he served  he got his coaching certification with the Coach Training Alliance. Neal is blessed with a beautiful and supportive wife, Pam. They are also blessed with 5 grown children, and 4 “really cute” grandchildren. In addition, Pam and Neal have a golden retriever puppy named Annie, who either is keeping them young, or aging them quicker, depending on the day. Neal and Pam are very active in their church (Calvary Baptist Church), and have served on various committees throughout the years. Neal’s life verse is 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18…”Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances, for this is god’s will for you through Christ Jesus.”