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The resumes in this year's class run from home kitchens to chicken plants to hospital boardrooms. The common thread is that these leaders built companies, led their industries and kept returning to make the Ole Miss stronger, said Rick Gentry, the school's dean.

"Among them, they led the marketing behind one of Fortune's top two brands and helped run the third-largest poultry producer in America and one of the nation's largest healthcare providers," he said. "They built an investment firm, grew a convention business across the Gulf South and served insurance clients in 25 states.

"They also chaired our advisory boards, led our Alumni Association and the , and opened doors for our students in their industries."

The 2026 honorees are:

• Bill Andrews, of Oxford – Andrews built what he calls "bottom-line magic" by pairing branding with marketing programs that prove their return. The finance graduate led marketing at Viking Range, the Greenwood company that brought professional-style ranges into home kitchens. During his tenure, consumers preferred Viking 4-to-1 over its closest competitor, and Fortune ranked it the country's second-best breakaway brand, behind only Apple's iPod. He later chaired the Business School Advisory Board.
• Lampkin Butts, of Laurel – Butts spent 48 years at Sanderson Farms, rising to president and chief operating officer before retiring in 2022. In that time, the company became the nation's third-largest poultry producer, processing more than 13 million chickens a week. When Cargill and Continental Grain bought it in 2022, they valued the company at $4.5 billion. He also led the National Chicken Council and the Mississippi Poultry Association, and in 2021 and '22 he served as president of the Ole Miss Alumni Association.
• Jack Geary, of Jackson – Inducted posthumously, Geary was a Vicksburg native who arrived at Ole Miss in 1948 as a banking and finance major. He was president of both Kappa Alpha fraternity and the student body. He built the first Paine Webber office in the South, founded Geary & Patterson and sold it to Memphis-based Morgan Keegan in 1990. He stayed at Morgan Keegan until 2006. He was an early president of the UM Foundation and co-chaired the university's first major gifts campaign in 1984.
• Bruce Moore, of Nashville, Tennessee – Moore, a 1982 finance graduate, spent 40 years at HCA Healthcare, moving from staff auditor to president of its Service Line and Operations Integration Group. He launched service lines in oncology, cardiovascular care, behavioral health and more, and then led the company's telehealth program to more than 600 sites. He also helped the Sarah Cannon Research Institute grow as a national leader in oncology research. He previously served on the UM Foundation board as well as three planning and steering committees for Ole Miss capital campaigns.
• Beau Whittington, of Oxford – A Natchez native and marketing graduate, Whittington spent his career bringing people and companies to Mississippi. He started in state economic development, then bought Convention Display Service in 1982, when it worked in a single state. Under his leadership, the firm grew into a regional company serving the Gulf South from Florida to Texas. He also led the Mississippi Tourism Association and chaired the UM Business Advisory Council.
• Bill Gates, of Oxford – Gates spent 44 years as a corporate property and casualty insurance broker. He served 40 years on the business school's advisory board, leading the push to create a giving society, which became the 1917 Order. He also helped secure funding to establish the Business Connect program, a networking program that connects new graduates with alumni engaged in their professional field. He received the 2026 Outstanding Service Award.

The business school's alumni are its most valuable asset, Gentry said. He noted that the school's graduates judge competitions, mentor students, hire new graduates and fund programs when they are still in the idea stage.

"It is people like these recognized today that help us continue to educate and support our young people to be tomorrow's leaders," he said. "We thank you all for being here and doing all that you do."

Top: The 2026 Hall of Fame honorees for the School of Business Administration are (from left) Bruce Moore; Bill Gates; Bill Geary and John H. Geary Jr., representing their father, the late Jack Geary; Beau Whittington, Lampkin Butts and Bill Andrews. The Ole Miss business school honored the group during a ceremony Thursday (Oct. 29) at the Duff Center for Science and Technology Innovation. Photo by Bill Dabney