U.S. senator, corporate CFO, global financier share leadership tips with Harbert students

FMA Leadership Summit 2025 inspires next generation of leaders

A former Auburn football coach-turned-U.S. senator, a global financier, and The Home Depot’s chief financial officer all took the stage to share insight on successful leadership experience, speaking to hundreds of Harbert College of Business students in a standing-room-only audience.

Among their advice: pursue a career driven by purpose, not just pay; don’t be afraid to take a step back to move forward; and build a strong team.

Sen. Tommy Tuberville, the leading candidate to become Alabama’s next governor; Richard McPhail, executive vice president and CFO of The Home Depot; and Erwin Van Der Voort, a vice chairman in the Global Investment Bank at RBC Capital Markets based in New York, spoke Friday at Auburn University’s Lowder Hall.

The student-led Financial Management Association hosted its 2025 Leadership Summit, which featured the three panel speakers during a gathering attended by more than 500 students, faculty and professionals, organizers said.

“What makes this year’s panelists so special is that each one represents a different path to leadership: government, corporate and global finance, yet they all emphasized the same themes of humility, teamwork and purpose,” said Tracy Richard, executive director of the Harbert Investment Center and the event’s faculty organizer. “That consistency across such different worlds is what made the event so powerful for our students.”

Take it from coach...

Tuberville joined the panel having deep roots in Auburn that include his current residence and six consecutive Iron Bowl wins over archrival Alabama during his tenure as head football coach.

“A lot of people ask me, ‘How the hell did you get elected in Alabama when you beat Alabama six times in a row?” Tuberville said. “I tell them, listen, the reason I won this race and got Alabama fans to vote for me is because, I got Nick Saban hired at Alabama -- because I got the rest of them fired.”

The secret to being a good head coach or company CEO, or a United States senator, is to understand, “You’re going to get the blame, and you’re going to get the credit,” he said. “You’ve got to put good people around you. You can’t do it by yourself.”

He used the analogy of coaching football and the need for a good offensive coordinator and good defensive coordinator; and likewise, when he became senator the importance of having qualified people to help advise him while facing a wide range of issues beyond his work experience.

“I didn’t know enough about the ag committee, or the health committee, or the armed forces committee. I had to put good people around me. To me, it’s like being a good CEO, and learning from the people around you,” he said. “If you think you’re going to do it by yourself, you’ve got a long career in front of you. Always lean on people. 

“One thing I learned, the best advice I ever got: Talk one-third of the time, listen two-thirds of the time,” Tuberville said, “because when you’re talking, you’re not learning.”

The ones who make it happen

The Home Depot employs almost a half-million people nationwide, including 15,000 in Alabama. It is the world’s largest home improvement retailer with more than 2,300 stores.

“The most important thing you can do, in any job that you take, is to learn the business from the ground up. That’s the most important thing that you can do,” McPhail said when asked what best prepared him for his leadership role. “If you don’t understand how the business creates value for the customer, then you actually don’t know how you’re contributing to the success of that company.

“So, I don’t care if you’re at Home Depot, or if you’re a banker, you’re an artist, whatever, understand when you’re with a company why you exist, why the customer should care that you’re there,” he said. “That’s a lesson that I learned, that if you learn from the ground up, that is absolutely the best training.”

Doing so, McPhail said, helps teach every aspect of the business, such as manufacturing, marketing, customer relations, “and just the nuts and bolts of how a business operates. Never underestimate the power of the person on the front line. They’re the ones who make the company happen.”

Work hard, and be tenacious

Van Der Voort began a conversation about passion for the job when he was asked about the differences across his roles in finance, and he replied, “love what you do.”

“It’s not more difficult than that. It’s hard work... Investment banking is a hostile environment,” he said. It is extremely important “to come to the office and like what you do. If you don’t like it, find something else. If you love it, there are opportunities out there.

“I’ve had a great career in investment banking, and it’s a great place to be,” Van Der Voort said. “But it’s not for everybody. If investment banking is not the best thing for you to do, that’s OK. There are other things to do.”

Despite the challenges that finance leaders and managers find in any job role, he told the students to be determined, set goals, work hard to find success and stay at it. “As long as you’re invested in what you do, you work hard and be tenacious, you’ll be fine.”

Tuberville and McPhail both have family connections to Auburn. Van Der Voort, however, became familiar in a different fashion. He was impressed enough with Harbert’s students in an earlier meeting on another campus that he said yes to an invitation for FMA’s panel, event organizer Richard said.

“Here’s an RBC Global Banking vice chairman with no prior ties to Auburn University,” she said. “In a time when so many people are focused on personal accomplishments, Erwin met a few of our students at a competition, received an invitation to support our program, said yes, and followed through on his word.

“That’s real leadership, and it meant a lot to us.”

She also praised McPhail for making his point with students “about success coming from simple habits, like writing with pen and paper every day, really stuck with them. It showed that great leadership often starts with small, intentional actions.”

Special thanks to Steve Aldridge, an Auburn alumnus working as the global co-head of Healthcare Investment Banking with Cantor Fitzgerald, for moderating the session.

The annual leadership summit hosted by Auburn’s FMA chapter continues to grow and lure impressive speakers, including Tuberville this year while still serving in his capacity as a U.S. senator.

“We start looking for next year’s panel almost as soon as the current year’s summit wraps up, and it never follows the same path,” Richard said.

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Learn more about the Auburn University Financial Management Association.