MCV Foundation Expands Board Leadership With Four New Members, Honors Three as Lifetime Honorary Trustees

By Caitlin Hanbury 

The MCV Foundation in July welcomed four new trustees to its board and named three lifetime honorary trustees. The new board members bring extensive leadership experience spanning healthcare, finance and organizational strategy.  

Turner Bredrup, a senior advisor in the Healthcare & Life Sciences Group at Harris Williams, brings more than 35 years of investment banking experience to the board. Having founded and led the firm’s healthcare practice for more than two decades, he has guided clients through complex mergers and acquisitions across the healthcare sector. His background in healthcare advisory work strengthens the board’s mission-focused leadership. 

J. Abbott Byrd III, M.D., a retired orthopaedic surgeon and VCU School of Medicine alumnus, brings more than three decades of experience to the board from his career with Atlantic Orthopaedic Specialists, where he became one of Coastal Virginia’s most respected physicians while practicing in Norfolk, Chesapeake and Virginia Beach. He is a recipient of the Virginia Orthopaedic Society’s Career Award, Dr. Byrd carries forward a three-generation MCV legacy. He and his wife, Allison Byrd, M.D., also a VCU School of Medicine alumna, endowed the Allison D. and J. Abbott Byrd III Chair in Orthopaedic Surgery at VCU to support future innovation in the field. 

Also joining the board is Diana F. Cantor, an accomplished investment and governance leader whose career spans investment management and financial services. She currently serves as a member of the Investment Committee and Board of Managers of Alternative Investment Management LLC and sits on several public and nonprofit boards. She served for more than a decade as the founding chief executive officer of the Virginia College Savings Plan, the state agency that administers Virginia’s Section 529 college savings plans, and is a past chairman of the board and longtime trustee of the Virginia Retirement System. A certified public accountant and member of the State Bar in Virginia, Florida and New York, she now serves as the elected chair of the VCU Health System Authority board, where she focuses on ensuring effective governance and supporting VCU Health’s statutory purposes. 

Rounding out the new class is Clay Miller Coleman, a seasoned operations and technology executive who joins the board with more than three decades of leadership across healthcare, insurance and consulting organizations. As chief operating officer of Harris, Hardy & Johnstone P.C., he leads firmwide operations, financial management, technology, human resources and marketing initiatives – expertise that will support the foundation’s long-term strategic planning. 

In addition to welcoming new trustees, the foundation has named B. Ellen Byrne, D.D.S., Ph.D.; Tracy Kemp Stallings; and Richard P. “Dick” Wenzel, M.D., M.Sc., as lifetime honorary trustees. This distinction is reserved for individuals whose longstanding leadership, service and advocacy have made a transformative impact on the MCV Campus.  

“Our board is strengthened by leaders who bring wisdom, integrity and a deep commitment to the mission of VCU Health and VCU Health Sciences,” said Steve Gaidos, chair of the MCV Foundation Board of Trustees. “We are grateful to our new trustees for joining us in this work and to our honorary trustees for their remarkable service and lasting impact on our community.”