Welcome to the Triad Minority & Women's Business Expo

Carlvena is the Executive Director of the Carl Chavis YMCA in High Point, NC.   She is also a former member of the Guilford County Board of Education. Once a recipient of social services, Foster later worked for the county’s Department of Social Services and then served on the department’s board.  She has a bachelor’s degree in business management from Shaw University; a master’s in public administration from High Point University; and a certificate in child care administration from Guilford Technical Community College.

Throughout his tenure as CEO of Goodwill Industries of Northwest North Carolina, Inc., Art Gibel has had a tremendous impact on the success of an organization that has been transforming donated items into employment and training programs for 90 years. His focus toward organizational excellence has helped his company of 1,100 employees almost double its revenue from $36.4 million in 2007 to $66.6 million in 2015.

Gibel joined Goodwill in 1996, where he served on the Board of Directors for eight years. He became president in 2005 and one year later was named CEO.  Since the recession of 2009, Gibel has led a restructuring of the organization’s mission services portfolio. He has has focused the organization’s mission on two key areas: assisting those disrupted by the economy to obtain training that enables them to compete for available jobs, and preparing youth with the education and life skills needed to effectively enter the modern workforce.

 Yvonne Johnson was the mayor of Greensboro, NC from 2007 until 2009.  She was previously a member of the Greensboro City Council for 14 years, beginning in 1993 and Mayor Pro-Tem for 6 years.  Johnson was the first African-American to serve as Greensboro's mayor.   She is the Executive Director of One Step Further, a non-profit United Way Agency in Greensboro that provides mediation and court alternative programs to Greensboro's Youth.