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Bayless to be inducted into Business Hall of Fame

MORGANTOWN — The three inductees for the 2019 West Virginia Business Hall of Fame share a common thread: They all acquired a taste for business in West Virginia, and have found incredible success in the state and far beyond.

The honorees are Bill Bayless, CEO of American Campus Communities Inc. and former Wellsburg resident; Judy K. Sheppard, CEO of Professional Services of America Inc., and Leo A. Vecellio, Jr., chairman, president and CEO of Vecellio Group Inc.

The Hall of Fame will honor the inductees at an evening ceremony and reception Aug. 27 at The Greenbrier in White Sulphur Springs. The public may attend this free event. The event also will kick off the 2019 West Virginia Business Summit and annual meeting.

“Bill Bayless, Judy Sheppard and Leo Vecellio all got their first involvement in business right here in West Virginia,” said W. Marston “Marty” Becker, chairman of the Hall of Fame committee.

“Bill discovered what he wanted to do while he was a student at WVU, Judy founded a business in West Virginia and Leo helped to manage and expand a family business that was founded in this state. They all were remarkably successful and the result is that their businesses reach far beyond our state borders.”

Bayless co-founded American Campus Communities in Austin, Texas, in 1993. The company today is the nation’s largest developer, owner and manager of high-quality student housing with more than 133,000 students calling an American Campus community home.

Known for his contagious enthusiasm and true passion for student success, Bayless is considered one of the nation’s foremost experts on student housing. In 2004, American Campus Communities became the first publicly-traded student housing company in the nation.

Bayless has been featured in Fortune Magazine, NYSE Magazine, the Wall Street Journal and has appeared on CNBC. Over his 30-year career, he has been involved in the development and acquisition of more than $13 billion of student housing assets.

In 2017, he was named the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year in the category of real estate, construction and lodging. Bayless graduated in 1986 from the then-WVU College of Business and Economics. He is married to his college sweetheart, Jamie. They have two children and three grandchildren.

Sheppard leads Professional Services of America, a human resources company she founded in Parkersburg in 1989.

Vecellio’s company is a fourth-generation, family-owned and operated business with substantial highway, mining and petroleum operations throughout the southeastern and mid-Atlantic United States. It was founded in 1938 as a West Virginia road construction company by his father, grandfather and uncle.

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