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Sigma Nu Fraternity recently announced that long-time Lexington residents James Owens and Brad Beacham were inducted into the Sigma Nu Fraternity Hall of Honor during the fraternity’s national convention in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., June 28-July 1.
The Hall of Honor is Sigma Nu’s highest distinction. To be selected, a brother must have distinguished himself in his field in a manner to bring credit to the fraternity and must have rendered distinctive service of vital consequence to the progress and well-being of the fraternity.
Owens moved to Lexington in 1987 after graduating from the College of Charleston. He was hired by then-Executive Director Mo Littlefield and joined the Sigma Nu Fraternity staff as assistant executive director. For the next 10 years, he served in various staff positions until he was appointed in 1997 as co-executive director and chief administrative officer.
Owens served in that role until 2001, when he was tapped to serve as the executive vice president of the Sigma Nu Educational Foundation.
In 2006, he left the Sigma Nu Staff team to join Pursuant Ketchum as senior vice president of client solutions, where he led the national sales and consultant strategy team across higher education and more than 70 national fraternity and sorority organizations.
In 2015, he joined the Boy Scouts of America National Foundation as the senior philanthropic manager, leading a team of professional fundraisers on the solicitation of ultrahigh- net-worth prospects. Outside of his professional service to the fraternity, Owens also dedicated time as a volunteer to the organization, including time on the fraternity’s board of directors from 2010 to 2014.
- Beacham moved to Lexington in 1990 when he was hired by then-Executive Director Mo Littlefield and Associate Executive Director David Sturgeon to serve as an educational field consultant.
In 1997, he was appointed co-executive director and chief operating officer of the fraternity, becoming sole executive director in 2001. He became CEO of the newly created Fifth Point Properties in 2009 and president of the Educational Foundation in 2018.
Beacham has built a legacy within the interfraternal community, serving as the president of the Fraternity Executives Association, president of FIPG, on the board of directors of the Fraternity and Sorority Political Action Committee, on the board of directors of Hazing Prevention Network, and a founding member of the Fraternal Government Relations Coalition.
His involvement, counsel, and leadership within the North American Interfraternity Conference, better known as the NIC, have been invaluable to the modern-day fraternity movement, said a spokesman.
The NIC is the trade association representing 56 national and international men’s fraternities on campuses across the United States and Canada.
On behalf of Sigma Nu, Beacham has served as a member of the NIC Governing Council since 2016, a member of the Executive Committee since 2017, chairman of the Government Relations Committee, a member of the Research and Audit Committees, a member of the Alcohol Commission, Nominating Committee, Assessment Coalition Committee, and chairman of the Committee to review options for use of investment earnings. Beacham was a founding member of the Raphael Group, which led to the reimagining and recreation of the NIC in 2015.
He has received accolades for his interfraternal service, recognizing his outstanding service to and leadership of Sigma Nu and the Greek-letter movement and community.
For the past 25 years, Beacham has cultivated, developed, and retained the best fraternity staff in the business – a staff that today boasts a collective 243 years of service, said a spokesman.
Beacham’s years of service to Sigma Nu Fraternity make him the longest-tenured executive director in the history of Sigma Nu Fraternity.
Headquartered in Lexington, Sigma Nu Fraternity was founded in 1869 at Virginia Military Institute.
