Conference Chair

Robert F. Sharpe Jr.
President
The Sharpe Group

Robert F. Sharpe, Jr. is president of The Sharpe Group and has more than 30 years of charitable gift planning experience. The Sharpe Group consults nationwide with a number of leading educational, health, social service, and religious organizations and institutions in implementing their major and planned gift development efforts. With offices in Memphis, Tenn., and Washington, D.C., The Sharpe Group has worked with more than 10,000 nonprofits nationwide during its 50 year history.

He has authored many articles and other publications covering numerous gift planning topics. His remarks on this subject have been featured in the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, Newsweek, Forbes, Smart Money, CBS Market Watch, the Chronicle of Higher Education, Trusts & Estates, Kiplinger's and other national publications. He is chairman of the philanthropy editorial board of Trusts & Estates magazine and a co-author of the Model Standards of Gift Valuation adopted by the National Committee on Planned Giving (NCPG). 

Sharpe is a recipient of the CASE Crystal Apple Award for teaching excellence and the Donaldson Distinguished Service Award from the Planned Giving Group of New England. He is an honors graduate of Vanderbilt University and Cornell Law School.

Faculty

Phillip B. Adcock
Assistant Vice President for Advancement
University of Alabama

A veteran of planned giving for more than 20 years, Phillip Adcock is the assistant vice president for advancement with the University of Alabama. He also serves as faculty and senior consultant with The Sharpe Group, Memphis, Tenn.

Adcock spent the majority of his career with the American Cancer Society, serving the Alabama and Virginia divisions, ultimately managing the major and planned gift program nationwide--considered one of the largest and most successful gift planning programs in the country. He pioneered market research in its planned giving program and is credited with organizing and implementing its first comprehensive national marketing strategy.

He is active in a number of civic and community service organizations.

Winton C. Smith, Jr.
Legal Counsel, Planned Giving

Winton C. Smith Jr., an attorney representing many charitable institutions in the planned giving area, combines his comprehensive legal experience with more than 20 years of practical experience in the marketing of planned gifts. In his more than 15 years as a CASE speaker, this nationally recognized educator has taught at more than 100 CASE conferences, and conference participants consistently shower him with "excellent" teaching ratings. In fact, he was the first CASE speaker to receive an overall rating of 100 percent. In recognition of his outstanding teaching, CASE awarded him the Crystal Apple Award in 1984.

Previously, he served nine years as a director for planned gifts for Southwestern in Memphis where he raised over $30 million in planned gifts. Most recently, Smith has served as legal counsel for development at Rhodes College. His travels take him across the nation, conducting the CASE Introduction to Planned Giving conferences and the CASE conferences on Marketing and Soliciting Major Planned Gifts. He has also been on the faculty for CASE's Advanced Planned Giving Conferences. Smith lectures for programs sponsored by bar associations; estate planning councils; colleges and universities; law schools; hospitals; and religious, health, social welfare, and other charitable institutions. He has the unique ability to present the many complex subjects involved in charitable giving in a down-to-earth, easy-to-understand manner. His publications are widely read and are written in basic, non-legal language.

CASE Crystal Apple award winner for excellence in teaching.