On June 29th, the East Lake Foundation’s Board of Directors elected four new board members: Derek Bottoms, Phil Jacobs, Erika James and Rodney K. Sanders. These four leaders in the community bring important legal, accounting, finance, fundraising and human resources skills that will be beneficial to the Foundation’s work and contribute to the diversity of the Foundation’s Board.

“As we begin to implement our newly adopted five-year strategic plan at the East Lake Foundation, we are thrilled to add these four extraordinary leaders to our board,” said Danny J. Shoy, Jr, President of the East Lake Foundation. “Their valuable and diverse experience and expertise will help guide our work and strengthen our ability to increase our impact in the East Lake community as we work to eliminate the cycle of poverty for residents in The Villages of East Lake and families at Charles R. Drew Charter School.”

Derek Bottoms
Vice President Employment Practices & Associate Relations, The Home Depot

Derek Bottoms is currently the Vice President of Employment Practices and Associate Relations at The Home Depot in Greater Atlanta. Prior to that, he was Senior Counsel for The Home Depot for 11 years. In that role, he developed and managed a multi-million dollar budget to resolve all categories of high exposure employment, contract and regulatory agency disputes for 350K+ associate enterprise. Before that, Derek served as Associate Relations Manager for The Home Depot coordinating field Human Resources for six-state divisions. Prior to joining The Home Depot, Derek served as an Associate for Atlanta law firm, Powell Goldstein.

Phil Jacobs
Partner, The Pendleton Consulting Group

Phil Jacobs is a founding Partner in The Pendleton Consulting Group and a Senior Consultant with Coxe Curry & Associates. Prior to the formation of The Pendleton Consulting Group, an economic development and strategy firm, Phil spent 34 years with BellSouth and AT&T where he held numerous positions in operations, sales and marketing. He retired from AT&T on December 31, 2007 as the President of Business Communications Services of AT&T-Southeast.  For the past 20 years, Phil has been active in the Georgia community serving on numerous boards, focusing his efforts in the areas of Economic Development, Healthcare and Education.

Erika James
John H. Harland Dean of Goizueta Business School

Erika James became the John H. Harland Dean of Goizueta Business School in July 2014. A published researcher and award-winning educator with a passion for consulting and speaking, she places an emphasis on what higher education can do to be of service to industry. Before arriving at Goizueta, James served as the Senior Associate Dean for Executive Education at the Darden Graduate School of Business. She also served as an assistant professor at Tulane University’s Freeman School of Business, and a visiting professor at Harvard Business School. Her academic career includes involvement in diversity initiatives and membership on multiple university councils and committees.
James sits on the board of the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business, the foremost accrediting body in business education. She is a member of the Leadership Atlanta Class of 2016 and, shortly after becoming dean, was named to the “Power 100” list of Ebony Magazine

Rodney K. Sanders
Senior Vice President, PNC Bank

Rodney leads the Credit Risk Management effort for PNC Bank’s corporate and commercial lending platform in Georgia. Rodney began his twenty-plus year banking and finance career with Bank of America. He spent three years in Bank of America’s investment banking group, and in 1994, joined the investment banking team at Wells Fargo Bank (then First Union Bank and eventually Wachovia Bank). At Wachovia, he led bond underwriting transactions and became a Director within the group. In 2003, Rodney moved to Atlanta, where he worked on Wachovia’s Asset Securitization team and later in the Asset Based Lending group as a Credit Specialist and Senior Lender.

In 2009, Rodney founded a business advisory and real estate firm that focused on identifying, assessing, purchasing and financing distressed businesses and residential and commercial properties.  Rodney's community involvement includes ten years of experience as a board member of community development organizations in Charlotte and Atlanta.

He is also a member of the 2016 Class of Leadership Atlanta. Rodney is a member of the board of directors for the Metro-Atlanta YMCA and volunteers at the Andrew and Walter Young Family YMCA in southwest Atlanta. Rodney has also been involved with mentoring activities throughout his career. In 2012, he led the launch of a mentoring program for boys at an Atlanta Public Schools middle school.