Marketing names five to new Emeritus Advisory Board

The Emeritus Advisory Board for the Marketing Department was established in fall 2023 for members to serve as trusted stewards of institutional knowledge and experience. Their mission is to offer guidance, mentorship, and unwavering support to the Marketing Advisory Board and leadership, drawing upon their collective wisdom to ensure the continued success, sustainability, and relevance of the organization. The board aims to preserve the organization's heritage while embracing innovation, fostering leadership continuity, and upholding the highest standards of governance and ethical conduct.

All emeritus members bring unique business and industry experiences to the group. The Pamplin College of Business is thrilled to announce Angela Lorinchak ’91, Chris Mullenaux ’04, Chris Shumaker ’82, Allison Stirrup ’98, and Scott Tidey ’87 as founding members of the Emeritus Advisory Board. Each member was chosen to become a part of this elite organization based on their passion for the business world, their past work on the Marketing Advisory Board, and their strong relationship with Virginia Tech.

Angela Lorinchak ’91

Angela Lorinchak began her market research career over 30 years ago working part-time for a full-service company performing telephone interviews and analyzing data. She quickly realized her passion for exploring people’s thoughts and feelings and was fascinated with the impact it had on the decisions that companies make. Lorinchak went on to manage the field operations of Metro Research. When the opportunity arose for her to acquire Metro Research, she accepted the challenge of fulfilling her dream of business ownership. Lorinchak quickly took Metro Research to the next level by expanding its main office in Fairfax, Virginia, and redesigning its second office in Alexandria, Virginia, resulting in its sales volume doubling in her first year of ownership. In January 2012, Shugoll Research acquired Metro Research and asked Lorinchak to join the Shugoll senior leadership team.

She now serves as president for the Jackson Adept team in Los Angeles, and is responsible for creating efficiencies, systems, establishing and maintaining corporate culture, client development and retention, and overseeing operations. Lorinchak has long been an industry leader in the market research profession. She has been involved with the Insights Association (formerly the MRA) for the past 15 years as past president of the Mid-Atlantic Chapter, and she served on the Board of Directors at the national level in many different capacities. She helped develop the industry’s Recruiting and Qualitative Research handbook, a leading best practice guide for the profession, as well as the Contracts and Agreements guidelines for the industry. More recently, she developed the Virtual Business Guide for the association’s website allowing small business owners a place to visit when they need Human Resources guidance and assistance.

Outside of the office, Lorinchak dedicates her time to her family and her boxer. Her husband, Wayne, is her strongest supporter, and their children, Kaitlyn and Drew, keep her focused on what is important in life. She enjoys attending the theater and sporting events, traveling, jewelry, hanging out with her boxer, Carlyn, and spoiling her granddaughter, Savannah. She is an avid supporter of her alma mater, Virginia Tech, as well as the Washington Capitals hockey team.

Chris Mullenaux ’04

Chris Mullenaux serves as senior manager of product innovation at Altria. In this role, he is focused on leveraging consumer insights and jobs to be done to identify product innovation opportunities that satisfy unmet consumer needs. Mullenaux is also the Finance Committee Chair of Altria’s employee resource group, Rise, which serves employees impacted by disabilities. Throughout his 19-year career, he has held numerous marketing roles at Altria across categories, brands, and channels and has also led Altria’s Brand Management Leadership Development System. He fostered the long-standing relationship between Altria, Pamplin’s Marketing Department, and student organizations, including PRISM, and has since hired many talented Hokies. Chris is a 2004 graduate of the Pamplin College of Business and earned an MBA from the University of Richmond. In his spare time, he stays busy coaching his kids’ sports teams and cheering them on at their swim meets. 

Chris Shumaker ’82

Chris Shumaker has spent his entire 40-year career in marketing and advertising. After graduating from Virginia Tech in marketing, Shumaker launched his career as an assistant account executive in a Richmond, Virginia, advertising agency. From there, he moved up the ranks and moved to the client-side where he ran the marketing communications department for the manufacturer Hamilton Beach for seven years. In 1995, he rejoined the agency world to build the business development department at The Martin Agency. After nearly 10 years at Martin, Shumaker was named North American chief marketing officer at Grey Worldwide. From there he moved to Publicis Worldwide as U.S. chief marketing officer. After seven years with Publicis, Shumaker was named global chief marketing officer at FCB Worldwide. After four years, he returned to The Martin Agency as chief marketing officer before leaving the agency world in 2018.

Currently, Shumaker is president of Hasan + Shumaker Consulting where he advises clients on how to secure the appropriate agency partner and agencies on how to go to market. When he is not consulting, he enjoys playing golf with his wife Carol and his five children, the youngest being a sophomore at Virginia Tech.

Allison Stirrup ’98

Also joining the Marketing Department’s Emeritus Advisory Board is Allison Stirrup. Stirrup graduated from Virginia Tech in 1998 with a Marketing Degree from Pamplin. After graduation, she joined Ferguson and has been with the company for 25 years. She started in sales, moving to Fort Myers, Florida, spending about five years in sales and sales management roles before moving to the corporate office. The move to the corporate office brought Stirrup into human resources, taking a role in talent acquisition as a recruiter. Over the last 20 years, she has held various responsibilities within HR. She spent about 15 years on the talent side of human resources, from managing the recruiting team to running the recruiting, career development, and training teams as the senior director of talent. In 2018, Stirrup transitioned over to the business partner side of human resources and has spent the last six years in varying roles in the HRBP organization.

Currently, Stirrup holds the role of vice president of human resources, with oversight for human resources business partners, organizational design, and change management teams. The team partners with and supports 32,000 leaders and associates across Ferguson’s 1,400 locations nationwide.

Originally from Hampton Roads, Stirrup currently lives in Norfolk and works out of Ferguson’s headquarters location in Newport News, Virginia. She and her husband are avid Hokie fans and are season ticket holders for football. They have two children and try to get to as many Hokie football games as possible. Her hope is that her two children will attend Virginia Tech one day, so they are working hard to cultivate the Hokie spirit in them.

Scott Tidey ’87

The last founding member of the Emeritus Marketing Advisory Board is Scott Tidey. Currently, Tidey is senior vice president, global sales, with Hamilton Beach Brands in Richmond, Virginia. Previously, he was senior vice president, consumer sales and marketing, from 2021 to 2023. Tidey is responsible for managing U.S., Canada, Mexico, and Latin American retail businesses, as well as the global commercial and Hamilton Beach Health businesses.

Previously, he was senior vice president, North America sales and marketing, from 2010 to 2021 and vice president, North America sales and marketing. Tidey joined Hamilton Beach Brands in 1993 as channel manager. He has held positions of increasing responsibility, including vice president, North America sales; vice president, U.S. consumer sales; and vice president, national accounts and international sales. Before joining Hamilton Beach, Tidey was with Wyeth Consumer Healthcare for six years. He received a degree in Business Management from Virginia Tech.   

Outside of work, Tidey enjoys traveling, spending time on the Chesapeake Bay with his family, fishing, and playing volleyball. He has three children; the two boys are undergrads at Virginia Tech while his daughter is at that other school in Charlottesville.

Pamplin is more than excited to welcome these five founding members of the Emeritus Advisory Board and invite them to join the community of advisory boards here on campus. There is a lot to do, and a large space in the college and the community to grow, and these marketing mavens are sure to bring incredible things to the table.

If you have any questions, comments, and/or suggestions, please contact Donna Wertalik, professor of practice, Marketing Department, or Rajesh Bagchi, department head, Marketing Department.