‘Go Forth - magazine.whartontest.commagazine.whartontest.com/files/summer10-magazine(1).pdf ·...

EDITION THREE | SUMMER 2010

M A G A Z I N EM A G A Z I N EWHARTONWHARTON

THE FUTURE OF BOOKSExperts and insiders debate what comes

next for the publishing industry.

A PLASTIC DISASTERDoug Woodring, WG’95,

is working to clean up a massive

oceanic trash heap.

Wharton’s newest graduates get their degrees—and prepare to change the

world economy for the better.

and Do Great Things’‘Go Forth

MOMENT OF TRUTHWhat’s it take to win at the Wharton Business Plan Competition?

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Jeremy J. Siegel, Russell E. Palmer Professor of Finance, giving a presentation about the future of our economy to alumni at Reunion Weekend.

Gain a Competitive EdgeThe relationship between each Partner firm and the School represents a customized and multi-faceted alliance, offering its members powerful advantages for exceptional visibility and dynamic exchanges of knowledge within the Wharton community.

Possible Partnership OpportunitiesKnowledge@Wharton

Contact us to learn more about the Wharton Partnership.Tel: +1.215.898.5070Email: [email protected]

http://partnership.wharton.upenn.edu


The Wharton School is pleased to announce the new Campaign for Wharton website and the

2009 Annual Report to Investors, exclusively online:

The Campaign for Wharton

Browse video snapshots and multimedia stories as our students, alumni, faculty and friends illustrate Wharton’s impact on their lives and the world.

WWW.THECAMPAIGNFORWHARTON .COM

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2 | WHARTON MAGAZINE | SUMMER 2010

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SUMMER 2010 | WHARTON MAGAZINE | 3

It is one of the most colorful events on the Wharton calendar—the Wharton Charity Fashion Show. Held in late April at the Crystal Tea Room in Center City, this year’s event featured 22 student models showing off new designs from such fashion stars as Calvin Klein, Nicole Miller, Stewart + Brown and others. Th e student-organized show drew 600 guests and raised $8,000 for charity.

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18‘Let’s Start Writing Our Stories’ Wharton celebrates its newest graduates at the School’s 126th Commencement. By Kelly Andrews

20Why Come Back?Wharton’s MBA Reunion Weekend is bigger and better than ever. So why should you come back for your reunion? We give you fi ve good reasons. By Tim Hyland

26Moment of TruthWhat’s it take to compete in—and win—the Wharton Business Plan Competition? We followed one of this year’s teams to fi nd out.By Saki Knafo

ContentsSummer 2010

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6 Editor’s LetterEver heard of Gustavus W. Smith? Unless you’re a Civil War buff , you probably haven’t. Because when history came calling, Smith backed down. By Tim Hyland

7 Th e InboxWharton alumni take us to task for those “clunky typewriters” we wrote about back in the spring.

8 Guest CommentaryIndia’s business leaders do things their own way—the India Way. By Peter Cappelli, Harbir Singh, Jitendra Singh and Michael Useem

10 DebriefA BATTLE IN THE PACIFIC: There’s a trash heap the size of Texas fl oating in the North Pacifi c. Doug Woodring, WG’95, wants to clean it up. By Mike UngerTHE FUTURE OF BOOKS: At the Wharton School’s Future of Publishing Confer-ence, industry insiders debate what the future holds for the publishing industry. By Steven KurutzWHARTON FOLLY: The iPad as publishing savior? WHARTON Q&A: Wharton’s new Associate Dean for External Aff airs, Sam Lundquist, discusses why ‘partici-pation’ matters. By Tim HylandFROM THE VAULT: Back in the old days, Commencement was a downtown aff air.

34 Knowledge@WhartonPASSION VS PROFIT: MICROFINANCE’S TALENT WARS: Microfi nance institutions have performed incredibly well. But their success has also created an unforeseen problem.

Wharton Leaders

30 Denis Benchimol Minev, WG’03, on his eff orts to preserve the Amazon rainforest.

32 Thuy Dam, WG’96, on the past, present and future of business in Vietnam.

38 Class NotesALUMNI NEWS: Who got married? Who has kids? Who’s retired? Who started a new job (or a new company)? Find out in your always-popular Class Notes section.

ALUMNI ASSOCIATION UPDATE: Meet some of Wharton’s new Class Engagement Ambassadors and Class Development Ambassadors. Pg. 41

80 Final ExamTAKE OUR CHALLENGE: In real estate, it’s all about location, location, location. No matter where you live, though, you’re invited to tackle our latest Final Exam challenge.

Being a thought leader in business means sharing good ideas as widely as possible, and nothing has furthered

this aspect of the School’s mission more dramatically than the social media revolution.

Wharton has always been on the vanguard of technological innovation, and these days we are more plugged in than ever thanks to such sites as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. If you aren’t already doing so, I encourage you to stay connected as alumni through at least one of these digital platforms. Each is at once a virtual campus, bringing our international community closer together, and a portal to the world, bringing Wharton news and ideas to ever-expanding audiences.

Now more people have access to the latest faculty research, student and alumni stories, and School highlights from across the globe—as well as more opportunities to share their thoughts with us.

Thomas S. RobertsonDean and Reliance Professor of

Management and Private Enterprise

A Message from the Dean

Wharton’s new website allows visitors to jump directly from the homepage to

the to the School’s Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube and Flickr pages.

Join the Conversationwww.wharton.upenn.edu

ON THE WEB

VISIT WHARTON ON …

A REAL-WORLD LOOK AT PRIVATE EQUITY: Wharton’s new Advanced Seminar on Private Equity brings the real world to the classroom. By Kelly Andrews WIMI TACKLES THE WORLD CUP: Wharton partners with ESPN on a fi rst-of-its-kind research initiative. By Tim Hyland

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Editor’sLetter

WHARTON MAGAZINE

EDITORIAL STAFF

Director of CommunicationsSherrie A. Madia, Ph.D.

EditorTim Hyland

Associate EditorLauren Anderson

Assistant EditorsCarol QuinnStefanie Schultz

Editorial CommitteeKaruna KrishnaJillian McGowanIra RubienSusan Scerbo

Creative ServicesJustin Flax

Business ManagerStefanie Schultz

DesignAldrich Design

Advertising [email protected]

ADMINISTRATIONTh omas S. RobertsonDean and Reliance Professor of Management and Private Enterprise

Sam LundquistAssociate DeanExternal Aff airs

Wharton Magazine Vol. 16, Edition 3Wharton Magazine is published quarterly by the Wharton External Aff airs Of-fi ce, 344 Vance Hall, 3733 Spruce Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104-6360

Change of AddressOnline: Visit WhartonConnect.comMail: Wharton Magazine, Attn: Alumni Address Up-date, Wharton External Af-fairs, 344 Vance Hall, 3733 Spruce Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104-6360Telephone: +1-215-746-6509Fax: +1-215-898-2695

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There are no Gustavus W. Smith Elementary Schools in the South.

Because when history called, Smith refused to answer.

As William and Jacalyn Egan Professor of Man-agement Michael Useem explained to an audience during Wharton’s 2010 MBA Reunion Weekend, Smith served (for a very brief time) as Command-er of the Army of Northern Virginia, the fl agship army of the Confederate States of America. Smith assumed command of that army on May 31, 1862, just moments after his superi-or, General Joseph E. Johnston, was badly wounded in battle—and just as his breakaway republic seemed on the brink of collapse.

It was a perilous time for the Con-federacy. The Union Army was clos-ing in on Richmond. A very worried Confederate President Jefferson Davis asked Smith for his plan. The general asked for a day to fi gure it out. Davis obliged.

Now, if anyone would have seemed fi t to tackle the monumental task before him, it was Smith. He had graduated eighth in his class at West Point. He was a decorated veteran of the Mexican-Amer-ican War. He knew strategy as well as anyone in the Confederacy. And here, in the early summer of 1862, his moment had arrived.

On June 1, just as he had promised, Davis re-turned to the battlefi eld. The Union Army was rum-bling in the distance.

Again, he asked Smith for his plan.“Sir, I have no plan to defend the Confedera-

cy,” Smith infamously replied. “Do you have any good ideas?”

Suffi ce to say, Smith’s tenure as the South’s top commander was short-lived. He was promptly re-placed by a little-known, lightly regarded colonel by the name of Robert E. Lee—a man who would go on to repel the Union Army’s advance on Richmond,

extend the Civil War for two long years and prove himself to be one of the most brilliant—and most decisive—Generals in American history.

As Useem explained, what Lee had—and what Smith so clearly lacked—was the ability to make decisions in times of crisis. It is an ability that all great leaders simply must have.

Especially today. Especially in business. At Wharton, it is plain to see, stu-

dents are taking Useem’s lesson to heart.

A couple days after hearing Useem speak, we here at Wharton Magazineinterviewed one of Wharton’s newest graduates, Salim Kassam, WG’10, who had been chosen by his class-mates to serve as their Commence-ment speaker (you can check our video interview with Kassam by vis-iting whartonmagazine.com). During our interview, we asked Kassam what he thought he would take away from

his Wharton experience. His answer echoed, almost to a tee, what Useem

had said two days before.“What I learned at Wharton was to be fearless in

life, to be selfl ess in life,” Kassam said, “and to be willing to take action.”

Later that day, Kassam joined 950 of his MBA classmates in receiving their Wharton degrees. The School also handed out 606 undergraduate degrees. These new graduates now enter a trou-bled fi nancial world, one that will demand not only creativity, fearlessness, selfl essness and brilliance, but also decisiveness—decisiveness in the face of great uncertainty.

Eventually, history will come calling for them.I’m betting that, when their moment arrives, they

will be more than willing to seize it.

Sincerely,Tim Hyland / Editor

Michael Useem

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Editor’s Note: Our regular “From The Vault”feature from our Spring issue generated enor-mous reader response. For good reason, too: We here at Wharton Magazine made a mistake. In the opening sentence of our short piece about Dietrich Hall, we wrote that the pictured stu-dents could be seen “typing away” on “clunky typewriters.” At least, we thought they were typewriters. But it turns out, they weren’t—and many of our readers wrote in to correct our mistake. We received far too many letters to include in this issue. But here are some of our favorites.

I read with great interest your short note about Dietrich Hall in the Spring issue of Wharton Magazine.

You may be interested to learn that the “clunky typewriters” in the 1960 photo were not typewriters at all.

They were mechanical calculators, which were actually able (believe it or not) to mul-tiply or divide large numbers in a fraction of a minute. They produced their results one digit at a time, but very quickly. This was obviously a great labor-saver compared with doing this type of calculation manual-ly, which is why you see so many Wharton students (all male and mostly with jackets and ties, I noted) taking advantage of the availability of these state-of-the-art devices.

There were two such machines in the early 1950s—Friden (the ones pictured) and Marchant. My recollection is that the March-ants were “clunkier” than the Fridens; so perhaps by 1960 the Fridens were the only ones used.

I should add that Dietrich Hall was indeed a great improvement over the prior site for most Wharton classes, Logan Hall, though I don’t recall any air conditioner as is pres-ent in the 1960 photo. I fondly remember an 8 a.m. class in a cramped, non-air-con-ditioned attic classroom on the top fl oor of Logan in my pre-Dietrich freshman year.

David Sachs, W’54

Send your letters via email to [email protected] or via traditional mail

to: Letters, Wharton Magazine, Wharton External Aff airs, 344 Vance Hall, 3733 Spruce Street, Philadelphia, PA, 19104-6360. Letters

may be edited for clarity or brevity.

Before electronic calculators, before comput-ers, before Excel spreadsheets, there was the Friden. The advent of the electronic calcula-tor quickly obsoleted these heavy, large and somewhat confusing-to-operate machines, which were truly a work of art and science.

Using a system of gears, buttons and le-vers, the calculating machine could solve complex mathematical problems, in addi-tion to the basic add, subtract, multiply and divide functions. While solving the problem, the machine would shake, rattle and clank while the long bar at the top would move from side to side. They were amazing ma-chines, and worth the time to look up online.

At an accounting fi rm I worked at during my college years’ summers, we would see who could set up the problem that would take the longest to solve, just to see the ma-chines dance and hear the rhythmic beat of the gears.

Joel Kantor, W’66

I howled with laughter at the sight of the 1960 photograph of Dietrich Hall and [the sentence], “Don’t let those clunky typewrit-ers fool you.” Those clunky calculators did fool you!

In addition, my fellow students never came to class so handsomely dressed and well groomed. Perhaps these stu-dents dressed for the photo op or were on their way to an interview? Anyone recog-nize themselves? And note the ashtray on the table!

Thank you for a lively and entertaining magazine.

Brita Skarbrevik, W’58

Those contraptions pictured are (almost certainly) what were called accounting or bookkeeping machines—in eff ect, large elec-tro-mechanical adding machines with rows and columns of mechanical digit keys like old-time cash registers.

I think they were mostly replaced by elec-tronic adding machines by the early ’70s, though in my early post-MBA career, in the late ’70s and early ’80s, I would sometimes stumble upon one at a vacant desk in my job travels. After plugging it in, for fun (ob-viously I am easily amused) I would enter something like 999,999,999 divided by 111 and then watch the machine mechanically whirr through the calculation, often taking as long as 30-45 seconds!

For more letters visit: www.whartonmagazine.com

ON THE WEB

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The carriage you see at the top of the ma-chines in the photo would move during this process. Even then, I was amazed to real-ize that these accounting machines were once the cutting edge of our computation-al technology.

Thanks for sharing this.D. Craig Blizzard, WG’77

I believe you may have dated yourself in the Spring 2010 edition (as am I now!). On page 10, the “clunky typewriters” shown in “From The Vault” appear to be “clunky adding ma-chines” (aka Friden calculators).

Notwithstanding this historical discrepan-cy, the Wharton Magazine in its revamped format is refreshing and a pleasure to read.

Robert W. Swaney, W’63

Excuse me, but those so-called “typewrit-ers” labeled in your photo are Rotary Calcu-lators, precursors of the electronic version. The guy in the front of the photo is operat-ing a Friden brand and the next man over is using a Marchant.

How do I know? My dad was a region-al sales manager for Marchant for 20 or so years in Indianapolis.

Jerrold Asher, WG’54

I was amused by the explanation under the picture taken in Dietrich Hall that the stu-dents were using “typewriters.”

As can be clearly seen, those are Friden Electro-Mechanical calculators, not type-writers. Almost no one owned a calculator at that time, and the room was available in Dietrich Hall to work on projects involving mathematical calculations.

Today I have a better calculator that I bought for a dollar at Wal-Mart.

M. Bruce Miner, W’60

‘Clunky Typewriters?’ Think Again …

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‘Purpose, pragmatism and people’

“Purpose, pragmatism and people” aptly capture much of the essence of the India Way. Composed of a mix of organizational capabilities, managerial practices and distinctive aspects of company cultures, the

book identifi es what makes Indian enterprises diff erent from fi rms located elsewhere. This essence is characterized by four principal practices: holistic employee engagement, improvisation and adapt-ability of managers, creative value delivery to customers and a broad sense of mission and purpose.

Bundled together, these principles constitute a distinctly Indian way of conducting business, one that con-trasts with combinations found in other countries. Indian business leaders, as a group, place greater stress on social pur-pose and transcendent mission, and they do so by devoting special attention to sur-mounting innumerable barriers with cre-ative solutions and through the utilization of a prepared and eager workforce.

Not all Indian business leaders are saints or sages, just as not all American CEOs are laser-like focused on delivering sharehold-er value while ignoring larger societal con-cerns. Nor do Indian fi rms and their leaders hold a monopolistic view on virtue. Corrup-tion and malfeasance can be found in the In-dian business community, like Satyam Computers,1 just as it can be found in other countries. Yet, the attributes of the India Way appear often enough and especially among India’s most successful companies, who have come, we believe, to constitute a clear and distinctive model. Drawn from the voices of Indian business lead-ers, and from our observations of Indian leaders and companies in action, the four attributes of the India Way capture much of the modern Indian way of conducting business.

In completing this study of Indian business leaders, we were re-peatedly reminded of the remarkable impact that Japanese busi-ness leaders and the Toyota Way have had on the auto-making

world and far beyond. The methods of lean production pioneered by Eiji Toyoda and his company—treating all buff ers as waste and seeking continuous improvement in all aspects of production—orig-inated in the cultural traditions and austere times of postwar Japan. But the methods have proved powerful drivers far beyond that con-text, enhancing both quality and productivity in everything from Porsche manufacturing in Germany to hospital processing in the United States. With a model originally built in Japan, Toyota has become the world’s largest automaker, and its methods have come to be widely emulated by managers far beyond Japan.

Much the same applies to the India Way. It was born of the circumstances facing In-dian business during the past two decades, but like the Toyota Way, it is also a model that can readily transcend its origins, pro-viding a template for Western business lead-ers to reinvigorate their own, often sluggish growth rates. Think of it pragmatically: if ap-plying the principles of the India Way were to generate even a single extra percentage point in yearly growth, say increasing the annual growth rate from 3 to 4 percent over the next fi ve years, the 4 percent–rate com-panies would see their value doubled, com-pared to 3 percent–rate fi rms. Over 10 years, they would triple their worth, compared to

the slower-growing companies.India is a world leader in business, with interests ranging from

medical procedures to investment banking. Innovation and ideas either migrate from other countries to India or spring up from within. Simultaneously, Reliance, ICICI, Infosys and hundreds of India’s other top companies have been clambering onto the world stage to compete directly against Western multinationals in virtu-ally all sectors. In mastering the art of high-quality and effi cient production—and in developing unique ways to manage people and assets to achieve it—Indian executives have delivered growth rates that would be the envy of any Western executive. During much of

Guest Commentary

Indian Business Leaders Do Th ings Th eir Own Way—‘Th e India Way’

BY PETER CAPPELLI, HARBIR SINGH, JITENDRA SINGH AND MICHAEL USEEM

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the 2000s, India’s gross domestic product (GDP) had been rising by more than 9 percent per year—several times that of the United States and nearly equal to that of China. That 9 percent–plus GDP growth, we should note, represents Indian businesses as a whole. Many of the nation’s premier companies—the focus of our inqui-ry—reported that they were growing at twice the rate of the general economy or more. Chairman Subhash Chandra of Zee Entertain-ment Enterprises—India’s largest media and entertainment compa-ny—told us, for instance, that his company had grown from $400 million in annual revenue six years earlier to $2 billion at the time of our interview with him. Managing director G. R. Gopinath of Deccan Aviation said before his acquisition by Kingfi sher Airlines in 2007 that he had been adding a new aircraft every month to the fl eet, growing from one to 45 planes in less than four years. Info-sys Technologies’s chairman Narayana Murthy had presided over a company that employed 10,700 and drew $545 million in reve-nue in 2002; seven years later, his company employed 104,900 and earned revenue of $4.6 billion.

Originally, we did not believe that the rapid expansion of the In-dian economy would be the result of an innovative and exportable way of doing business. In fact, we had expected much the oppo-site: with the triumph of American-style capitalism, at least until it came under a cloud during the fi nancial crisis of 2008–2009, man-agers around the world had often sought to understand the leader-ship secrets of U.S. companies like Apple Computer and General Electric. In commencing our study of Indian business leaders, we had anticipated a cross-national convergence on American terms, with Indian companies looking to adopt the management methods of Steve Jobs, Jack Welch and other leaders of American enterprise.

What we found instead was a mantra of “not invented there.” Though well aware of Western methods, Indian business leaders have been blazing their own path. And though rooted in the tradi-tions and times of the subcontinent, the value of their distinctive path can, we believe, transcend the milieu from which it arose. When Indian companies, for instance, take over publicly traded Ameri-can fi rms—such as Tata Motors’ acquisition of Ford’s Jaguar and Land Rover divisions in 2008—research confi rms that the acquired fi rms increased both their effi ciency and their profi tability. Western fi rms might be well advised to learn from the Indian experience in advance. Indeed, understanding the India Way and its drivers has become vital for business managers everywhere.

This piece is adapted from The India Way: How India’s Top Business Leaders are Revolutionizing Management. The book is published by Harvard Business Press.

Holistic engagement with employees. Indian busi-ness leaders see their fi rms as organic enterprises where sustaining employee morale and building company culture are treated as critical obligations and foundations of their success. People are viewed as assets to be developed, not costs to be reduced; as sources of creative ideas and prag-matic solutions; and as bringing leadership at their own lev-el to the company. Creating ever-stronger capabilities in the workforce is a driving objective.

Improvisation and adaptability. Improvisation is also at the heart of Th e India Way. In a complex, oft en volatile environment with few resources and much red tape, business lead-ers have learned to rely on their wits to circumvent the innumerable hurdles they recurrently confront. Sometimes peppering English-lan-guage conversations, the Hindi term ‘jugaad’ captures much of the mind-set. Anyone who has seen out-dated equipment nursed along a generation past its expected life-time with retrofitted spare parts and jerry-rigged solutions has wit-nessed jugaad in action. Adaptabil-ity is crucial as well, and it too is frequently referenced in an Eng-lish-Hindi hybrid, adjust kar lenge—“We will adjust or accommodate.”

Creative value propositions. Given the large and in-tensely competitive domestic market with discerning and value-conscious customers, most of modest means, Indi-an business leaders have of necessity learned to be high-ly creative in developing their value propositions. Th ough steeped in an ancient culture, Indian business leaders are inventing entirely new product and service concepts to sat-isfy the needs of demanding consumers and to do so with extreme effi ciency.

Broad mission and purpose. Indian business lead-ers place special emphasis on personal values, a vision of growth and strategic thinking. Besides servicing the needs of their stockholders—a necessity of CEOs everywhere—Indian business leaders stress broader societal purpose. Th e leaders of Indian business take pride in enterprise suc-cess—but also in family prosperity, regional advancement and national renaissance.

Principle Practices of the India Way

1. “Satyam: Sanskrit for ‘Enron’” – Wall Street Journal. Th e Indian IT company “cooked the books to the tune of at least $1 billion” http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123143655097064873.html

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10

1,618

For three days each spring, Wharton welcomes its alumni and their families back to campus for MBA Reunion Weekend. Th is year, graduates from around the world returned to campus to meet up with former classmates, learn about the latest business research from top professors, hear about the School’s exciting new programs and initiatives, enjoy family-friendly activities and, of course, to have a party or two—Wharton-style. In this edition of the Bottom Line, we take a look at Reunion Weekend 2010.

total attendees

276 registrants from the Class of 2005—tops among all classes

“offi cial” parties, including the 2005 MBA Pub, the all-alumni mixer, seven reunion class dinners, and . . . the WG’90 Barn Bash

DebrieA Battle in the Pacifi c

School News

the morning of August 2, 2009, Doug Woodring and two dozen scien-

tists, oceanographers and environmen-talists departed San Diego Harbor aboard the 130-foot marine research vessel New Horizon. They were bound for a massive section of ocean formally called the North Pacifi c Gyre, a remote swath that has come to be known simply, and tragically, as the “Great Pacifi c Garbage Patch.”

Four days and 400 miles later, Woodring, WG’95, was sailing into the heart of his new life’s mission—gazing off into the distance and trying to fi nd the fa-bled island of trash. But it was only when he fi xed his eyes straight down, directly overboard, that he fi nally could see the white particles strewn like confetti blan-keting the ocean surface.

“It looks like stars in the sky,” Woodring

Th ere is a Trash Heap the Size of Texas Floating in the North Pacifi c. Doug Woodring, WG’95, is Working to Clean It Up.

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says, “but instead of looking up you’re looking down in bright blue water, and it’s everywhere.”

The particles are plastic. Plastic that may well have been used for 30 minutes or an hour, but won’t biodegrade for 300 to 1,000 years.

“When something washes into a river or stream or beach, if the wind doesn’t push it back on shore or it doesn’t sink, it can wind up in the ocean,” Woodring says.

And it has. When Woodring learned at a 2008 tech conference that incalculable amounts of water-borne plastic debris were fi nding its way to one specifi c section of the Pacifi c Ocean, he knew inaction was not an option. Which is why just four months later, Project Kaisei—Kaisei means “Ocean Planet” in Japanese—was born. Based in San Fran-cisco and Hong Kong, the nonprofi t aims to measure the scope and scale of the North Pacifi c garbage patch and better understand

its impact on oceans and the environment. In addition, Project Kaisei works toward solutions for both prevention and clean-up of the waste.

A native of the Bay Area, Woodring, 44, has spent virtually his entire life swimming, surfi ng and paddling in, on and through the water. Through Project Kaisei, he’s hoping to ensure future generations will be able to do the same. And some believe he’s got a chance to do just that.

“He has a personality that engages people,” says James Leichter, associate professor in biology at Scripps Institution of Oceanog-raphy at the University of California at San Diego. “Because he has a background both in business and economics as well as in envi-ronmental issues, he’s able to interface with people in these disciplines quite eff ectively.”

Woodring majored in political science and economics as an undergraduate at UC Berkeley, and worked for a few years in Asia before enrolling at Wharton. After gradua-tion, Woodring headed back to Asia, where he created a framework for a global environ-mental technology fund at Merrill Lynch. He later migrated to the startup world, where he

visit from Philadelphia’s own “Ben Franklin” at each of Saturday’s fi ve Family Picnics

On

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family-friendly, exclusively Philly excursions: Franklin Institute Tour, Mural Arts Trolley Tour and Please Touch Museum visit1 14.7512 events off ered on Friday; 31 events

across campus and in Philadelphia on Saturday; and three events, including Commencement, on Sunday

“State of the School” address by Dean Th omas Robertson and one “State of the University” address by Penn President Amy Gutmann

hours of professional education workshops and presentations led by top Wharton faculty, staff , and alumni, including: Professors Mike Useem, Olivia Mitchell, Raffi Amit, Jeremy Siegel and Peter Fader; on such topics as leadership, retirement, private equity, personal wealth management, interactive media and career development

efone of at least fi ve spots in the world’s oceans where water comes together along a circu-lar path, essentially rotating around a cen-tral point. The gyre, it seems, cannot help but attract all of that plastic.

During last August’s expedition, Project Kaisei and its partner, the Scripps Institu-tion, took more than 250 samples from the surface of more than 3,500 miles of water. Plastic was found in every single one.

In other words, while the trash heap hasn't gotten nearly the attention that the Gulf oil spill has, it may be just as disastrous for the ocean environment. “There’s plenty of evi-dence that [this plastic] is eaten by all kinds of wildlife. They’ve recently found a sperm whale in California that had 800 pounds of plastics inside his stomach,” he says.

remains today as a consultant. But Project Kaisei is his ultimate startup. The organi-zation initially came together with the sim-ple mission of educating the public about the garbage patch and the problem of plas-tics. It has since morphed into much more.

“The main goal is to show there’s a value for waste,” he says. “New technologies are coming out in diff erent parts of the world right now that to me are pretty promising for the waste management business. If some of these can turn plastics into fuel by re-liq-uefying, it’s a great way to get this stuff off the planet.”

For now, though, the focus is on the gyre,

Still, Woodring came away from the voy-age optimistic that improvement is possi-ble. He’s even kicking around the seemingly outlandish idea of cleaning up the trash. All of it. Next on Project Kaisei’s agenda, how-ever, is another research trip to the gyre. The trip is set for August, and the group is in the process of trying to raise $3 million for the work.

“We are trying to tackle a huge issue,” he says. “The ocean covers two-thirds of the earth, but it is the momentum, and the awareness, that is really going to make some changes. We don’t need billions of dollars, but getting our expeditions out to sea to learn how to deploy new technologies goes a long way in motivating the world to think about changes.” —Mike Unger

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Wingard Named Vice Dean of Executive EducationDr. Jason Wingard, formerly a senior director of the Wharton Executive Education program, was named Vice Dean for Executive Education in early April.

As Vice Dean, Wingard will oversee Whar-ton’s non-degree executive education programs, including open enrollment and custom pro-grams. Those programs reach an estimated 9,000 business leaders each year through ses-sions in Philadelphia and Wharton | San Fran-cisco as well as global programs in India, China and Europe.

Prior to his return to Wharton, Wingard served as executive director of the Stanford Educational Leadership Institute, a senior fel-low at the Aspen Institute and founder and managing partner of Th e Zoeza Group, a man-agement consulting fi rm specializing in organi-zational strategy, leadership development and business planning. Wingard holds a bachelor’s degree in sociology from Stanford, master’s de-grees in education from Emory and Harvard, and a Ph.D. from the Graduate School of Edu-cation at Penn.

$3.16 Million Gift Establishes Wharton- Netter Center-Community PartnershipWharton in early May received an anonymous gift of $3.16 million to establish the Wharton-Netter Center-Community Partnership.

Th e goal of the new community partnership is to create an eff ective model for university-assisted community development that can be replicated both in cities throughout the United States and the world. Th e Wharton-Netter Cen-ter-Community Partnership will work to devel-op and implement programs in social impact that involve both Penn students and faculty in curricular, co-curricular and research activities.

“We are deeply grateful for this gift ,” said Dean Thomas S. Robertson. “The Whar-ton-Netter Center-Community Partnership will stand as a dramatic example of the potential for business to enact positive change on both local and global levels.”

Ira Harkavy, Associate Vice President and founding director of the Netter Center, said he believes that university-community partnerships “can powerfully advance research and learning, as well as the quality of life in communities.”

Founded in 1992, the Barbara and Edward Netter Center for Community Partnerships works to use the broad range of human knowledge needed to solve the complex, comprehensive, and interconnected problems of American cit-ies and communities so that West Philadelphia (Penn’s local geographic community), Philadel-phia, the University itself, and society benefi t.For more information about the Center, visit http://www.upenn.edu/ccp/.

News Briefs

Down From the iMount

Illustration by Brian AjharConcept by the Wharton Folly Committee (Joel Serebransky, WG’85, Matthew Sinacori, WG’03, Ram Rajagopal, WG’02, Steve Margolis, WG’86, and Andy Stack, WG’01)

Wharton Folly

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Debrief

Here’s a riddle for the publishing industry: if some-one were to write a book about the future of books, what would the result look like? Published between covers or an e-book? Promoted through traditional

channels or social media? Sold at Barnes & Noble or upload-ed to the Kindle or iPad?

The currently amorphous answers are being debated in edi-torial offi ces, corporate boardrooms and, increasingly, in pub-lic, as though the industry, facing the digital revolution and wary of a misstep, wants to test new concepts. Three separate panels were held over the span of a week in April in New York to discuss the book’s future. The most prominent took place during the Wharton Future of Publishing Conference, a kind of Apalachin Meeting for the media in which high-ranking em-issaries from the industry came together at the Marriott Mar-quis to plot a course forward. Days earlier at the New School, the London Review of Books pondered the “Author in the Age of the Internet,” and two days after Wharton’s event, at the PEN World Voices Festival, another talk covered similar ground.

The Future of Books? It’s Anyone’s Guess In attending these events, two things became clear: Gutenberg’s

name hasn’t been invoked this much since the 15th century—as in, “Not since Gutenberg invented the printing press”—and, while theories abound, no one knows what book publishing will resem-ble even two years from now. “People have presented interesting pieces but I haven’t seen anybody put the whole picture together,” says Brendan Cahill, C’96, WG’98. Formerly an editor at Gotham Books, Cahill left traditional publishing and went to Wharton to get his MBA. Now he’s looking to “crack the code,” as he put it, and cre-ate a new business model for the 21st century as Vice President of e-book publisher Open Road.

Cahill was one of the panelists at the Wharton conference, which was sponsored by the Wharton Interactive Media Initiative (WIMI), Knowledge@Wharton and Wharton School Publishing. Peter Fader, Wharton’s Frances and Pei-Yuan Chia Professor and co-director of WIMI, said the idea was “to get folks together and, instead of navel gazing, rely on data.” Not that navel gazing didn’t take place. What follows are some thoughts on the future of the book from partici-pants of the Wharton and London Review panels. In their confl icting mix of optimism, anxiety, measured concern and humor, the com-ments illustrate the diverse range of thought at this critical and un-sure moment in the history of the published word.

—Steven Kurutz

JASON EPSTEIN, founder, On Demand Books: “Th e fragility of content in digital form

is something to worry about…It’s very, very important that we keep physical inventories…Because that’s all we have between ourselves and chaos.”

JOHN LANCHESTER, British writer, novelist: “When I picked up my felt tip pen, I was hoping to write books. I wasn’t expecting to live through a moment of cultural and technological ferment.”

BRENDAN CAHILL: “E-books are the future, and it’s going to be here faster than anyone thinks.”

JAMES WOOD, New Yorker magazine: “I bumped into Andrew Sullivan a couple of weeks ago in Washington, DC. Some of you know he made a switch from print journalism to blogging at the Atlantic. I said how are you doing? He said, not so well. I was thinking he was going to talk about his physical health. It was really his mental health he talked about. He does 300 posts a week. As you might imagine, it has completely interfered with his ability to concentrate on anything longer than a few paragraphs.”

ELLEN ARCHER, president/publisher of Hyperion: “Th e beauty of a book for me has been about the writing and storytelling. I don’t feel the need to hold a physical book in my hand.”

STEVE WILSON, co-founder, Fast Pencil: “In 2009, traditional publishing remained stagnant, and self-publishing grew by almost 200%. Just like you see on TV—it’s reality shows, individuals being themselves.”

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Why ‘Participation’ Matters

Wharton Q&A

As Wharton’s New Associate Dean for External Aff airs, Sam Lundquist Wants to Build a Stronger Connection Between the School and its Alumni

When Sam Lundquist enrolled at Denison University in the fall of 1977, he did so without any specifi c career in mind.

As a self-described “classic liberal arts” student, Lundquist instead hoped that his college experience—his learning experience—would ultimately tell him what he wanted to do with his life.

“I went to college hoping to learn what I would be passionate about,” says Lundquist. “I went through three years of college and then I sort of had this epiphany where I re-alized I could actually have a career in high-er education.’”

And he has. After graduating from Denison with a psy-

chology degree in 1981, Lundquist took a job in Bucknell University’s admissions of-fi ce. He’s remained in academia ever since.

In a long and winding career that’s taken him through a variety of positions at four dif-ferent universities, the one constant through the years, it seems, has been Wharton, which he’s returned to now three diff erent times. After serving as associate director of admis-sions here between 1985 and 1987, Lundquist later returned to serve as director of MBA admissions and fi nancial aid (1992-1996), chief of staff (1996-1999) and managing director of administrative services (1999-2000). He also spent fi ve years working as Penn’s assistant vice president for devel-opment and campaign initiatives between 2001 and 2006.

But when the Philadelphia native left Penn to return to Bucknell as vice president for development and alumni relations in 2006, Lundquist was fairly certain that stop would be his last.

Then there came word that a new oppor-tunity had opened up at Wharton.

“It was something I couldn’t resist,” says Lundquist, who took over as Wharton’s Asso-ciate Dean for External Aff airs in April. “Be-cause of my deep background at Wharton, and because of the opportunity to work with this outstanding alumni body, it is something

that was very, very ap-pealing to me.”

I n h i s n e w ro l e , Lundquist will not only guide Wharton through the last two years of its historic $550 mil-lion fundraising cam-paign, but also work to strengthen connections between the School and its alumni.

How does he plan to do that? That was among the many questions we asked when we sat down for a conversation with Lun-dquist earlier this summer.

You obviously have an affi nity for Wharton. What is it about the culture here that keeps drawing you back?

The thing I love about Wharton is the cul-ture of ‘initiative’ here. I always remembered that initiative was highly valued in the ad-missions program when I was involved in it. Wharton is a place that is big enough and complex enough that if you’re going to be successful here, you’re going to have to be a self-starter and take initiative—and take risks, too. That’s what I love about Wharton.

Tell me a bit about your approach to devel-opment, and what you’d like to achieve here at Wharton.

One of the big messages that we want to get out to the Wharton community is that good fundraising results refl ect a healthy campus culture. We very much recognize the value of student and alumni engagement in all of the School’s programmatic off erings. Our focus really needs to be on those en-gagement experiences, so that the students and alumni working with us are adding value to what we’re doing. Also, that at the same time, it’s reciprocal, so engagement provides value back to them. It’s only then that we can switch from this ‘engagement moment’ to one that would be supported with a fi nan-cial contribution. Because we know people will give to their passions.

How would you define ‘engagement’ in terms of alumni involvement?

Engagement can be both informal and formal. When a student or a graduate takes on a volunteer leadership position, they be-come formally engaged with us—as a board member, for instance, or with the Wharton Graduate Association. Students and alumni in that type of formal leadership role have a set of responsibilities that really defi ne the way in which the institution interacts with them. But not everyone who graduates from Wharton wants to be on the board. That’s why informal engagement is critically im-portant to us, as when alumni engage with their local Wharton clubs, or come to cam-pus to recruit for their companies, or par-ticipate in career networking through our online community, or help organize class-based activities as part of a Reunion com-mittee. The act of giving to Wharton is also a form of engagement. Contributing to Class Notes is a form of engagement. It can get that simple. Because we also know that peo-ple are so busy, we want to create an envi-ronment in which even their small acts of engagement are still meaningful.

One of your principal tasks here at Wharton, of course, will be successfully wrapping up the campaign. Where do we stand today?

We’re at 65 percent of our $550 million goal, which means that as much as we can celebrate what we’ve accomplished, we do still have a couple hundred million left to go. And so we’ll approach the next two years as a campaign within the cam-paign. We have a very well-defi ned outcome for what we want to achieve over the next two years: We want to raise $200 million. If that goal is achieved—or, I should say, when it’s achieved—we will have set fund-raising records and strengthened Wharton considerably.

How do you plan to “re-energize” the cam-paign and ensure that these goals are met?

Well, campaigns are seven years long for a reason—and one reason why is to weath-er economic cycles. The reality is that we’ve just been through one of the biggest econom-ic downturns ever. But the fact that we’re emerging from the past several years of eco-nomic turmoil is in and of itself an opportu-nity to refresh the campaign.

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DebriefThe wonderful thing about Wharton is

how dynamic this place is. Our priorities are well-known to us, but opportunities are the things that cycle in during the life of a sev-en-year campaign—everything from social impact to faculty development to curriculum development. Scholarships have been one of the constants throughout the campaign. We’ll also have the opportunity to talk about opportunities in our international initiatives and all of Wharton’s research centers, which are constantly evolving.

Why is it so important for Wharton to achieve these goals?

One reason that emerges top of mind for me is the little-understood phenomenon that tuition alone does not pay the operating costs of the School. It is, instead, the generosity of those who came before that allows the current student body to enjoy what Whar-ton is today. And it is the accomplishments of those not yet here at Wharton—the next generation—that will make Wharton even greater than it is now.

Can you speak generally about your goals for the School?

I am very interested in fi nding a way to communicate out [to our stakeholders] the importance of participation. This “Wharton Community” provides the critical mass that defi nes how far we can reach. It’s the most powerful asset we have, and it provides the basis for moving forward in a very mean-ingful way. My strategy is to do as much as we possibly can … to make sure alumni and friends can invest in the School in a man-ner that is of value to them and that ulti-mately has the value of strengthening their Wharton degree.

How do you accomplish that?It goes back to building a healthy culture

of philanthropy, which I sometimes now refer to as a culture of investment or a culture of innovation. We want our alumni services to be valued by the people who are seeking those services, and relevant to them, too. We are very interested in being as creative and innovative as we can. But we can’t do that without the gift of time from our alumni, and the gift of fi nancial resources. It takes both. And that gets down to the question of participation. —T.H.

Top Tweeters

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Ask Dawn Henderson what most impresses her about Wharton’s efforts in social media, and her answer is quick and succinct: “Everything.”

Henderson, an Honours marketing student at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow, Scotland, set out this year to analyze the social media involvement of 20 top business schools in the United Kingdom and United States. And when Henderson fi nished her work, one thing was clear: Wharton is tops in tweeting.

And pretty much everything else in social media, too. According to Henderson’s analysis, Wharton ranked far ahead of its peer schools.

Harvard Business School and MIT’s Sloan School of Management were next best. In her dissertation, Henderson wrote that Wharton “is clearly focused on en-

gaging with prospective students, current students and their alumni, who all show a keen interest in interacting with [the School] and adding to their student experience.”

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Marc Wolpow, W’80, jokes that when he was at Wharton, it’s

not just that there was no course on private equity. It’s also that there was not a recognized in-dustry in private equity.

Today, of course, that’s hard-ly the case.

Though private equity activity and leveraged buyouts have been staples of the business world since the early 1900s, only in recent years has PE become es-tablished, somewhat unoffi cial-ly, as a sector all its own—not to mention a possible career path for Wharton grads. In response to the rapidly growing interest in private equity, Wharton this year created the Advanced Sem-inar on Private Equity, a new course designed by Associate Professor of Finance N. Bulent Gultekin to bring a uniquely “real world” perspective to Wharton’s

From Th e Vault

classrooms—and give students an idea of what it takes to make it in PE.

Wolpow believes the course delivered exactly that.

“It was a great experience,” says Wolpow, Co-Chief Execu-tive Offi cer at the Audax Group in Boston and a contributor to Gultekin’s course. “The students were very engaged. They had great questions, and they clear-ly valued the experience.”

The Advanced Seminar on Private Equity was designed by Gultekin to be a strictly “ap-plied” course, presenting mate-rial on the entire private equity cycle through the experience of high-level practitioners such as Wolpow, Fadi Arbid, WG’03, Ex-ecutive Vice President for private equity firm Amwal AlKhaleej, Ammar Al-Khudairy, CEO of Amwal AlKhaleej, and Antoine Dréan, WG’92, Chairman and CEO of Triago, among many others.

The course grew out of a re-quest by Dean Thomas S. Rob-ertson and Deputy Dean Mike Gibbons, who had been seeking

WHARTON IN THE NEWS

Google, the Whale to be HarpoonedTh e Seattle Times | May 21, 2010Wharton professor Eric Clemons said he believed Google’s reported $6.5 billion profi t on sales of $23.7 billion last year was “misleadingly low.” Said Clemons: “My guess is that the real profi t margin on search is about 70 percent.”

Are U.S. Shoppers Over Frugality?Marketplace | May 20, 2010Wharton professor Stephen Hoch com-mented on whether Americans are start-ing to spend more freely again. Said Hoch: “It’s going to be a more measured con-sumer—even the high-end consumer—I think as we go forward, because habits that change and then change back take time.”

Can people actually 'own' virtual land?CNN.com | May 10, 2010Wharton professor Andrea Matwyshyncommented on digital property rights, explaining the legal issues involved in virtual land ownership. “The law is a slow-moving elephant, and technol-ogy is a graceful gazelle,” she said. “And it’s a mismatch.”

Greek Tragedy Unfolds CFO Magazine | May 7, 2010Wharton professors Richard Marston and Mauro Guillen talked about the global impact of the economic crisis in Greece. “If the Europeans had acted de-cisively at the very beginning,” Marston said, “they could have snuff ed it out.”

'Not in my term of offi ce'Washington Post | April 14, 2010Wharton professor Michael Useem wrote about how leaders can better prepare for catastrophes. “Th e art of leadership includes preparing for the unexpected, and the value of leadership thus be-comes more important when the world becomes more unpredictable. Leaders face special challenges with respect to low-probability, high-consequence events: By defi nition, they occur rarely and are especially diffi cult to predict.”

What is Naked Short Selling?CNN Money | May 19, 2010Wharton professor David Mutso com-mented on “naked” short-selling. Said Musto: “Essentially, you’re selling some-thing you don’t own.”

a way to tap into the expertise of Wharton’s alumni network in private equity and have students learn fi rst-hand from successful practitioners.“They wanted to develop an experimental course a bit diff erent from other off er-ings,” explained Gultekin. “Since our alumni were very support-ive, we would bring them into the classroom. I developed some teaching materials, including some cases, and invited alumni to address each topic—how they did it, how they do it, compar-ing across companies.”

For Wolpow, that meant get-ting down the “nuts and bolts” of running his fi rm—including such “human” issues as managing his relationship with his co-CEO. Overall, he came away impressed with the students’ inquisitive-ness about the business—not to mention the functionality of this unique new course.

“If the other classes in the course were as productive as the one I attended,” Wolpow says, “I have no doubt that it will be a very successful course.” —T.H. & K.A.

A Real-World Look at Private Equity

For more news visit http://www.wharton.

upenn.edu/news.

ON THE WEB

Penn Commencement used to be a decidedly downtown aff air. Back in 1901, graduates marched from 34th and Walnut all the way to Broad and Locust. Ceremonies were moved to University City starting in 1922.

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Debrief

The 2006 World Cup Final was among the most-watched sport-ing events in history, as an esti-mated 715 million viewers tuned in

to see Italy knock off France, 5-3, in a pen-alty kick shootout.

The 2010 Cup Final, which was set to play in early July, was expected to draw even more viewers—and ESPN, which owns the broadcast rights to this year’s tourna-ment, seemed intent on learning as much as possible about the viewing habits of each and every one of them.

This spring ESPN announced the creation of ESPN XP, a new multi-partner research initiative through which the network will study consum-er behavior tied to some of the biggest events in sports—the 2010 World Cup being the first. To study television viewership of the tournament, ESPN contracted with Nielsen Co., and to look at branding issues, it brought in marketing research firm the Keller Fay Group. But when it came to In-ternet and mobile technologies, “The Worldwide Leader in Sports” turned to a Wharton research initiative that may well be termed “The Worldwide Lead-er in Interactive Media.”

As one of the major components of ESPN XP, ESPN turned all data gathered about its mobile and Internet viewers during the fi rst round of the World Cup over to the Wharton Interactive Media Initiative (WIMI), which moved quickly to analyze that data and then report back to the network with a predic-tion of how (and how many of) those same viewers fi gure to consume the later rounds of the tournament.

“This is obviously crucial information for them,” explains WIMI co-director Eric Bradlow, Wharton’s K.P. Chao Professor. “This is how they make money—by selling to advertisers.”

Glenn Enoch, Vice President of Integrated Media Research for ESPN, says the network is unique in that its brands cross basical-ly every single media platform—television (through ESPN, ESPN2, ESPN U. and oth-ers), radio (via ESPN radio and a family of

For more infomation about WIMI and its various research initiatives, visit

www.whartoninteractive.com

ON THE WEB

podcasts), Internet (through ESPN.com), mobile (through ESPN Mobile) and print (through ESPN The Magazine). As such, ESPN execs have long been interested in fi guring out whether its television viewers, for example, are also heavy consumers of its other products.

The problem, he says, is the network hasn’t been able to fi nd a dataset that can give them those answers.

“When we started looking at cross-media data, we only had information about each

platform as silos,” Enoch explains. “What we lacked was the ability to see how sports fans were navigating from platform to plat-form. We want to understand and encour-age that behavior. In other words, we want viewers of the television network to also be multi-platform users. It’s important to be able to tell advertisers on each of these plat-forms, ‘Here’s why TV works, here’s why radio works, and here’s why being a multi-platform advertiser somehow adds up to being more than just the sum of its parts.’”

The World Cup, and the partnership with WIMI, presented ESPN with its fi rst oppor-tunity to be able to do just that.

Peter Fader, Wharton’s Frances and Pei-Yuan Chia Professor and Bradlow’s fellow co-director, notes that while other large media companies have launched similar initiatives in the past, the ESPN-WIMI partnership is unique in that its goals are proactive. Rath-er than gathering data about a past sport-ing event, Fader says, WIMI will prepare

forecasts for a future event. The unique structure of the World Cup—which takes about a month to complete—helps make that aim possible.

“NBC has looked back at the Olym-pics, trying to fi gure out how many people watched on television or via mobile or on cable,” Fader says. “But NBC was looking backward there, saying ‘Here’s who watched

the Olympics on our various platforms.’ We wondered, ‘Wouldn’t it be better to say that before [the event] happens, so you could plan accordingly and inform your advertisers about it?’ We told ESPN, ‘Let’s do this proactively.’”

Coverage of the World Cup on ESPN began on June 11, and the Cup fi nal was set for July 11. But the conclusion of the tournament isn’t likely to be the end of ESPN XP. Already, ESPN has said that it will expand the initiative to include its coverage of both professional and col-lege football. And Enoch says he’d like to see cross-media research fully integrated into ESPN’s daily research work by 2012.

“Instead of just being a special project, I’d like cross-media research to be some-thing we can do every day—something that is part of our regular research initiatives,” Enoch says. “We’re just getting started with the World Cup.”

Bradlow and Fader, for their part, hope the ESPN partnership—and the results of their World Cup work—will show other media companies how they stand to benefi t from WIMI’s methods as well.

“At the end of the day, we believe this will be a success if we can predict the last three weeks of the tournament based on the fi rst two weeks,” Bradlow explains. “If we can do that, we’ll [be able] to go around to other businesses and media companies and tell them, ‘We did this for the World Cup, and this is what we can do for your site.’ It would be proof of concept that ac-ademic forecasting algorithms have practi-cal value and can help answer real business questions.” —T.H.

WIMI Tackles the World Cup

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COMMENCEMENT 2010

It was a joyous event held during an uncer-tain time. As Vice Dean Georgette Chapman Phillips noted while greeting undergraduates during the morning ceremony at Franklin Field, this new generation of Wharton grad-uates will enter the business world at a time of great turmoil.

But with that turmoil, Phillips said, there also comes opportunity.

“Let’s go back to 2006,” said Phillips, the David B. Ford Professor of Real Estate. “Re-member when the dollar was strong, the hous-ing market peaked, and you began your time at Wharton? Now how we view business and business leaders is fundamentally diff erent. The value system of corporate America con-tinues to be reshaped. The great news is that with change comes opportunity.”

Freed from the expectations of the past, Phillips said, Wharton students are increas-ingly choosing less traditional paths. They are starting their own businesses, teaching or working for government and nonprofi ts. “Focus on what you can contribute to soci-ety,” Phillips said, “rather than the narrow lens of monetary gain.”

The graduates seemed excited to do so, as the Franklin Field mood was celebratory. Be-sides, after four years of discussing the devel-oping fi nancial crisis, “today is not the day for that,” said Shannon Dwyer, W’10, who was selected to speak on behalf of her class.

Dwyer, who had a concentration in fi nance and was named Wharton Woman of the Year

Uncertain Financial Times Remain, but Wharton’s Newest Graduates Seem Set on Changing the World for the Better.

for her involvement as Head Team Advisor for Management 100, among other activi-ties, applied to speak at graduation at the urging of her friends. Her selection capped a remarkable four-year journey, Dwyer said. “When I decided to come to Wharton, I was told I was going from being a big fi sh in a little pond to a little fi sh in a big pond,” she said. “I’ve been amazed at how quickly this pond got smaller.”

As the fi rst Wharton undergraduate class to be organized by cohort, the Class of 2010 dis-played a strong sense of community through-out their time at Wharton. “We get each oth-er,” Dwyer said. “We work hard and we’re passionate about something. That’s what brings us swimming in this pond together.”

In a new Commencement tradition, Whar-ton undergraduates honored a faculty mem-ber as speaker for the fi rst time. Philip Nich-ols, Associate Professor of Legal Studies and Business Ethics, who got to know many stu-dents as faculty master of Stouff er College House, was chosen for the honor. Nichols re-peatedly described the graduates before him as “amazing,” pointing out that 10 applicants vied for the seat in which each graduate was sitting. Experiencing Wharton was a gift, he said. “Use your gift to be as amazing in the world as you’ve been at Penn. Lead where you live, in ways that really matter, even if no one notices.”

Beth Kaplan, W’80, WG’81, a member of the Wharton Board of Overseers and the

former Chair of the School’s Undergradu-ate Executive Board, addressed the audi-ence on behalf of alumni. Alumni marshal Alvin Shoemaker, W’60, HON’95, a Whar-ton Overseer and Emeritus Penn Trustee, passed the Wharton 2010 fl ag to Dwyer.

MARKING KEY MOMENTSWhen the morning cloud-quilted skies cleared to a sunny blue, MBA students turned up the festivity; the 1 p.m. ceremony was ener-getic and celebratory. As the new graduates fi led in, the sight was that of an expanse of black robes dotted with bright mylar bal-loons and fl ower leis.

Said Dean Thomas S. Robertson: “You’ve reached a key moment in life, and it’s ter-ribly important to get key moments right. What you end up facing will be a lot of rou-tine, punctuated every so often by these key moments.”

To make his point, Robertson recounted the story of Captain Chesley Sullenberger, who lived through 27,000 hours of mostly routine fl ight time before the six minutes that tested him—and ultimately defi ned his career—in 2009. Everything that could go wrong went wrong when US Airways Flight 1549 hit a fl ock of birds over New York, but Sullenberger and his crew did everything right to avert disaster. With both engines disabled, Sullenberger successfully ditched the plane in the Hudson River. All 155 pas-sengers survived.

“The key to effective leadership is the ability to accurately assess the nature of a crisis—and then do something about it,” Robertson said. “That’s what key moments are about.”

Robertson closed by recalling Joseph Whar-

‘Let’s Start Writing Our Stories’

BY KELLY ANDREWS

harton observed its 126th graduation on May 16, conferring degrees to 606 undergraduates and 950 MBAs, including 150 graduates of the MBA Program for Executives. W

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ton’s guiding exhortation to create “pillars of the state, whether in public or private life.”

“Go forth and do great things,” he said.

THE COIN OF THE REALMAkihisa Shiozaki, WG’10, speaking as the 2009-2010 Wharton Graduate Association president, told the story of an early graduate who answered Wharton’s call—Shiro Shiba, a displaced and defeated Japanese samurai who, at the age of 32, became a member of Wharton’s fi rst class back in 1884. Shiba went on to enjoy a career in Japanese parliament.

“When we walk out the gates at Franklin Field, let’s remember that we’re not the fi rst to take the stony path,” he said. “The world has been waiting for us long enough. Let’s start writing our stories.”

The keynote speech was given by Rob-ert S. Kapito, W’79, co-founder, president and director of BlackRock, Inc. Robertson observed that BlackRock is one of the few companies in its sector to emerge from the fi nancial cyclone bigger and stronger than ever. “That’s what happens when you get the key moments right,” Robertson said.

“You desire more than just a job,” Kapito told the graduates. “That’s why you came here

from every state in America, from Asia, from Europe, from Latin America, and around the world. You want to create something mean-ingful, develop products and services, help create jobs, reinvent stagnant businesses, translate technology to manufacturing, cre-ate clean energy and focus on global needs. Most importantly, [you must] eliminate un-ethical practices.”

Integrity, he said, “was the coin of the realm in the midst of unpredictability—a guiding principle.”

“The secret ingredient in your career plan is to trust more than your brain,” Kapito con-tinued. “Trust your heart. Leading with your heart will make everything around you fall into place. The rest will become natural.”

LESSONS IN SELFLESSNESSSalim Kassam, WG’10, who spoke on be-half of the full-time MBAs, recounted how Wharton had taught them all valuable les-sons in selfl essness.

“We succeeded in these two years because we believed that someone else’s success was just as important as our own,” he said, not-ing that the all-for-one ethos reached far off campus.

“Think about how much we’ve accom-plished in two years,” Hassam continued. “After the earthquakes in Haiti and Chile, we did more than give money. We rallied students, alumni, faculty and administrators to create a course which not only deployed talented students to the disaster zone, but will shape the way the world will respond to disasters and crises in the future. We did this while we were starting families, fi nding jobs in an economic crisis, and handling the challenging coursework at the best business school in the world.”

Todd Gensler, WG’10, representing the graduates of the MBA Program for Exec-utives, touched on a similar theme. “The most valued aspects of our experience are also the least expected,” he said. “We ex-pected Wharton to make us better profes-sionals. We didn’t know it would make us better people.”

Gensler, who also served as co-chair for the 2010 Class Gift, raised the issue of giv-ing back. “The responsibility for the stew-ardship of the Wharton brand is now ours,” he said. “We applied to the Wharton School because of its reputation for excellence. Now we have responsibility for that reputation.”

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was a record-breaking year for the Wharton MBA Reunion Weekend. Nearly 1,700 alumni, family and

friends returned to campus in mid-May, surpassing all previous attendance benchmarks for Wharton’s biggest annual alumni event. ¶ For three days, and from West Philadelphia to Chester County, the 2010 Reunion attendees reconnected with old friends, listened to and learned from Wharton’s esteemed faculty, made valuable business connections and, to put it simply, had a wonderful time reliving their days at Wharton.¶ As anyone who has returned for Reunion can attest, the event is well worth the trip. ¶ Here, in a photographic look back at our most recent Reunion event, we’ll show you what makes the weekend so special—and why you should consider coming back for your next reunion.—T.H.

2010 MBA REUNION

Why Come Back?

It With so many accomplished Wharton alumni from so many diff erent fi elds all back on campus at one time, Reunion Weekend provides a tremendous networking opportunity—an opportunity that alumni are encouraged to seize. As Wharton Alumni Association Chairman Craig Enenstein, G’95, WG’95, joked at the start of this year’s event: “It is a business school, aft er all.”

Photos by Tommy Leonardi and Shira Yudkoff

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Access Your Network

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Learn Something2010 MBA REUNION

Th e Reunion Weekend experience is enriched by presentations from some of Wharton’s most popular and respected professors. Th is year, alumni packed the Annenberg Center’s Zellerbach Th eater to hear Jeremy Siegel, the esteemed Russell E. Palmer Professor of Finance, off er his thoughts on the future of the world economy. And yes, Siegel (author of Stocks for the Long

Run) still believes stocks are the answer.

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family events

Go Play2010 MBA REUNION

Reunion Weekend is not just for grown-ups—future Wharton grads have their fun, too. From family picnics to entertainment just for the kids, the event is more family-friendly than ever. Besides, it’s never too early to introduce your kids to Wharton, right?

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Reconnect & Reunite2010 MBA REUNION

It’s ultimately what Reunion Weekend is all about—seeing dear friends, reuniting with classmates, rekindling old relationships. “Reunion is always a great opportunity,” says Marie Williams, G’95, WG’95, who served as a Class Ambassador for her class (for more information on the Class Ambassador program, see page 41). “With those you knew well, you just pick up where you left off . And with those you didn’t, you get to know them better.”

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Explore Philadelphia2010 MBA REUNION

Th e 2011 Wharton MBA Reunion Weekend is scheduled for May

13-15 for classes with years ending in 6 or 1. For more information, visit

wharton.upenn.edu/reunion/2011/

ON THE WEB

Reunion Weekend may be all about Wharton. But its events most certainly aren’t limited to campus. In 2010, events and parties were held not only across the city (the all-alumni mixer was held at the beautiful National Constitution Center) but as far afi eld as bucolic Chester County, as well, as the Class of 1990 held their ‘barn bash’ at the farm of Edward Cook, WG’90Edward Cook, WG’90.

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the weeks be-fore delivering their presenta-tions, Ben Rhee,

WG’10, and his three teammates compiled a list of questions they expected the judg-es to ask them. They had been working on their plan for months—researching the in-tricacies of reimbursement strategies and the antibiotic market and discussing their ideas at weekly meetings in the makeshift restaurant they’d discovered in the back of an Indian grocery store on Chestnut Street. But they knew that there was no way they could anticipate every question the judg-es would throw at them. The judges, all of whom had been recruited from the high-est ranks of some of the country’s leading

Ever Wondered What It Takes to Compete—and Win—in the Wharton

Business Plan Competition? We Sent a Writer to Huntsman Hall to Find Out.

BY SAKI KNAFO PHOTOGRAPHS BY TOMMY LEONARDI

fi rms, had had plenty of time to pour over the team’s 50-page business plan, and had no doubt scoured it for mistakes and omis-sions. There was a high probability that, as Rhee later put it, he and his teammates would be called upon to answer at least one question they had not anticipated.

R2R Therapeutics—Resistance to Resis-tance—was one of eight teams that reached the finals of the Wharton Business Plan Competition this year, and Rhee, 27, was their leader. He spoke in soft, measured tones and blinked emphatically—qualities not normally associated with boardroom leadership. But, in his case, they suggest-ed a quiet determination and seriousness that served him well. Born in Hong Kong, where his father was a self-employed trad-

In

er of electronic parts, he knew from an early age what he most wanted was to be his own boss. The Wharton competition potentially represented a signifi cant step toward that goal. At stake were $75,000 in cash and in-kind services for the three winning teams, and just as importantly, a shiny badge of prestige, all of which would go a long way toward helping the eventual winners sepa-rate potential investors from their money.

Of course, successful leadership depends not just on the leader’s abilities but also on those of the people around him. So, even be-fore he settled on a specifi c business idea, Rhee enlisted as a teammate fellow Wharton student Vishwas Sheshadri, WG’10. At 34, Sheshadri was the team elder, and he project-ed the sort of outward confi dence one might have expected to see in Rhee. If Rhee was careful and compact, Sheshadri was excited and expansive. He sang lead in a tradition-al Indian music group, and moved around with the upright, chest-out gait of a peacock.

Sheshadri and Rhee met last year at Whar-ton, but they didn’t really get to know each other until the summer, when they interned at the same pharmaceutical company in New Jersey. After work, they would hit the tennis courts (“We were both pretty bad,” Rhee ad-

Moment of

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mitted) and then the local Taco Bell, where Sheshadri, a vegetarian, would order the cheese quesadilla and hold forth about mo-lecular structures. It was a subject he knew a lot about: He had worked for years as a high-ranking manager at an Indian drug company, and he had a Ph.D. in microbiol-ogy and immunology.

Two other Wharton students, the auspi-ciously named Payman Roghani, WG’10, a physician from Iran, and Christine Chen, WG’10, a former marketing consultant from New Jersey, rounded out the group. Chen was the team’s resident expert in pricing and reimbursement as well as its hype-person—the wisecracking extrovert who could be counted on to kick up the energy when it was fl agging.

The morning of the competition, Rhee, Sheshadri, Chen and Roghani gathered in a classroom in Huntsman Hall, just down the hall from the auditorium where in a lit-tle over an hour they would stand and be judged. The men had on dark suits and red ties—they looked, as Chen pointed out, like a doo-wop group—and there was some dis-cussion over whether they should wear their jackets buttoned or open (fi nal verdict: but-toned). Occasionally, a member of another

team would walk over from another part of the room and engage Rhee and his comrades in a bit of good-natured trash-talking. “In-terim CEO?” said a guy named Greg, point-ing to the label on Rhee’s jacket. Greg’s own label simply said CEO, and he seemed to be suggesting that Rhee’s insistence on accu-racy betrayed a lack of confi dence.

“We have nothing to hide,” Rhee replied. “If you have nothing to show, you have

nothing to hide,” Greg fi red back. But Rhee did have something to show, and a half-hour later, he and his teammates rose and made their way to the auditorium.

A TRAGEDY AVERTEDR2R Therapeutics was one of about 150 stu-dent teams who entered Wharton’s business-plan competition this year. Only eight teams made it to the fi nals. By the time they got there, they had each spent up to a year on their plans. They had found a product, re-searched its market potential, built a case against the competition, and drawn up fi -nancial and operational blueprints for their proposed companies, all while shouldering the weight of a full course load. Over the past few years, business plan competitions have multiplied and matured, attracting

attention from a growing number of venture capitalists, and as a result, the seriousness and professionalism of the entrants have increased as well. Wharton’s competition is one of the most prestigious in the country. Sitting in the hall as the contestants parad-ed across the stage, you could almost for-get that the Dow had fallen 213 points the day before, its biggest loss in nearly three months. If there was any hope for Ameri-can businesses, chances were that some of it could be found here, in Huntsman Hall.

The product on which Rhee and his team-mates had pinned their own hopes was a mol-ecule—a pre-clinical drug that they believed to be capable of fi ghting the antibiotic-resis-tant “superbugs” that have swept through the country’s hospital wards for almost a decade, killing tens of thousands each year. Unlike other antibacterial drugs, which tar-get proteins, DNA and RNA—materials that mutate frequently, generating drug-resis-tant strains—this drug attacked a molecule on the cell membrane that had not changed in millions of years and thus seemed unlike-ly to change in the future. Rhee had learned about it almost a year before, when he vol-unteered to a help the Penn scientists who had invented it to apply for a grant. His be-

Truth

Th e R2R Th erapeutics team (from left to right): Paymen Roghini, Christine Chen, Vishwas Sheshadri and Ben Rhee.

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lief in its potential, though, or at least his enthusiasm for finding an antibiotic that could overcome drug resistance, stemmed from an earlier “nearly tragic” experience.

In June 2008, one month before Rhee en-rolled at Wharton, his wife, Lauren, woke up complaining of pain. She’d had her wis-dom teeth removed the day before, but this wasn’t the kind of pain you usually get from dental surgery. “I still remember that it was Friday, June 13,” Rhee told me, with a terse, ironic laugh. “She was nauseous and she couldn’t keep anything down. That night, we were about to go to sleep—lights out—and my wife turns to me and says, ‘Ben,

we’ve done so much, we’ve added all these medicines, but nothing’s helping and I don’t know what to do.’”

“My wife is a very tenacious woman,” he continued, “she’s fi nishing her Ph.D. in phys-ics, and it sounded to me like she was giving up. I said, ‘Lauren, we’re going to the hospi-tal right now,’ and once we got to the ER the head nurse saw me dragging her in and said, ‘Don’t sit down, go straight to the back.’”

“My wife was crashing. Her head and throat were swollen. The staff did a great job of getting a ventilator tube into her throat, but she was in the ICU for three weeks and had multiple surgeries. She had to learn how to walk again because her muscles had atro-phied. One of the nurses in the ER told me if I’d brought her in 10 to 20 minutes later she would have been dead.”

Lauren had contracted necrotizing fasci-itis, a rare “fl esh-eating” disease, to use the common journalistic term. The disease gives off toxins that destroy soft tissues in the body, causing the skin and muscle to blister and decay. Unchecked, it can quickly spread into the blood, sending the body into septic shock. Many diff erent kinds of bacteria can cause it. In Lauren’s case, a deadly strain of streptococcus was responsible, which she’d presumably picked up at the dentist’s offi ce.

As her health improved, Rhee began think-ing about “how to combat this thing,” and it was at that the point that he learned of the huge demand for “superbug” drugs. This was not the fi rst time, however, that he’d thought about starting a biotech business. At the Pennsylvania prep school he attended, he and three friends would sit around their dorm rooms talking about their dreams of rising to the top of the biotech industry the way other kids talk about becoming rock stars. (In the late ’90s, as he pointed out to me, biotech was “pretty hot”—as it is to-day.) As an undergraduate at Swarthmore, he studied biology and economics, and af-ter graduating he worked as a management consultant in the pharmaceutical industry. So Lauren’s illness didn’t set him on a new course so much as it sharpened his vision. And it provided him with a compelling nar-rative around which he and his team could build their case for victory.

THE PITCH In the hallway outside the auditorium, while waiting for the cue to go on, Sheshadri cheer-fully announced to his teammates that they had already won. He had decided several

weeks earlier that R2R was destined for greatness, and now, with the critical moment looming, and everyone’s nerves jangling, he simply wanted to assure them that the pos-sibility of failure had already been ruled out.

Rhee, for his part, was feeling “a little more cautious”—not quite ready to join his team-mate in declaring their mission accomplished.

A student volunteer ushered the team into the auditorium, and Rhee took the mi-crophone and greeted the judges, students, spouses and parents, who were spread out in the stadium seating above them. How do you bring an early-phase biotech product to market? That, in essence, was the ques-tion that the team had set out to answer in their plan, and while Sheshadri, Chen and Roghani stood silently, hands by their sides, expressions serious, Rhee did his best to re-late what they had learned.

In short, they would fi rst raise $2 million for in vitro tests, followed by an additional $3.5 million for animal studies. Then they’d apply for the FDA certifi cation that would al-low them to test the drug on humans. Those tests would cost another $13.5 million. If at that point the drug achieved “proof of con-cept,” they would attempt “to be acquired” by a major pharmaceutical company, whose scientists would complete the remaining hu-man trials necessary for getting the drug ap-proved. Through their research, they had de-termined that their drug had the potential “to be priced at parity or with a modest pre-mium to the newest antibacterials,” and so they estimated that “big pharma” would buy them out for between $75 and $120 million.

But was that enough? Even if they hit the $120 million mark, only about half the pro-ceeds would go back to the investors, which meant that late backers of the project could hope to triple their bets at most—not near-ly enough considering the inherent risks of gambling on a drug that had yet to be tested on people. In the question-and-answer peri-od, one of the judges asked them what they planned to do about this problem. This, as it turns out, was the inevitable question for which they had not prepared.

Days before, they had agreed that Chen, the marketing expert, would answer all questions about fi nancial projections, and so Sheshadri, who was holding the microphone, made a move in her direction, but Rhee stopped him. “I’ll take it,” he said. Later, when asked what was running through his mind at that mo-ment, he said, “If we don’t answer this cor-rectly, we’re done.” It had occurred to him

Doctors may soon have another weapon to use in their battle against osteoporosis. Th e Cortical Concepts team—Stephanie Huang, M’13, Jason Hsu, Christopher Komanski, Evan Luxon and Nicolas Martinez—won the $20,000 Michelson Grand Prize at the Wharton Business Plan Competition for their “Cortical Anchor,” a new device, similar to a drywall anchor, that can be used to anchor bone screws in spinal surgery. Th e team says the Cortical Anchor will increase the long-term health and well being of the nearly 10 million people battling osteoporosis. In the months leading up to the competition, the Cortical Concepts team completed a small-scale pre-clinical trial with human cadaveric spine, did mechanical testing and fi nished four rounds of beta prototyping. Th e team also fi led for a provisional patent and raised $40,000 in grant funding. Th e other winners in the 2010 Wharton Business Plan Competition were:• Second Prize ($10,000) went to NanoLab,

a calculator-sized device that can perform accurate diagnostic tests at point of care.

• Th ird Prize ($5,000) went to R2R Th erapeutics.

• Th e Gloeckner Undergraduate Award ($5,000), awarded to the highest ranking Wharton undergraduate team, went to PowerFlower Solar, which aims to design and manufacture solar devices for deployment on agricultural land.

• Th e People’s Choice Award: ($3,000) to Kembrel.com, a private sales club for students that off ers discounted brand-name products.

• Th e Committee Prize (Social Category) went to Ecoclutch, a retailer of eco-friendly and reusable products.

• Th e Committee Prize (Global Category) went to Hector, a nutrient rich “PowerWater” drink in an innovative pouch designed for emerging markets.

• Th e Committee Prize (Committee’s Choice Category) went to PowerFlower Solar.

Cortical Concepts Takes Top Prize

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that he was the only person on the team with any inkling of how to do that, and as it turns out, he was right. Looking up at the judg-es, he explained that even after the compa-ny was sold, investors would continue to re-ceive payments totaling up to $300 million as the product made its way through further rounds of testing. Of course, there was no guarantee that the drug would reach those “milestones,” let alone pass them, which was why Rhee had decided against mentioning them in his speech, but now was clearly not the time for caution.

As they left the stage, a professor con-gratulated them, specifi cally commending them on their decision not to use “the pic-ture.” “The picture” was a photograph Lau-ren’s mother had taken of Lauren the day she arrived in the ER. It was a horrifying image—her head swollen almost to the size of a basketball—and the team had wrestled with the question of whether to include it in the presentation right up until the night be-fore. “Our friends liked the idea,” Sheshadri told me later. “However, when we ran it past our communications professors, they said it could work against you because it could at-

tack the emotional jugular. Finally, we de-cided to play it safe.”

THE WINNER IS … For an outsider, a business plan competition is a strange thing to contemplate—its log-ic is closed, its form cyclical. Contestants are awarded money for demonstrating that they can make money. He who proves him-self most likely to win, wins.

R2R didn’t win. Or maybe they did. It de-pends on your perspective. They placed third, behind the runners-up from team Nano-Lab and the Michelson Grand Prize Winners from team Cortical Concepts (see sidebar). For their third-place fi nish, R2R received a plaque, $10,000 in in-kind services, and $5,000 in cash—more than enough money, as Chen observed, for massages in Vegas. Roghani, who had joined Sheshadri earlier in guaranteeing victory, noted that he hadn’t specifi ed fi rst place. And Sheshadri imme-diately found a way to spin the ambiguous outcome as a historical achievement. “We are the fi rst team ever to win in the Wharton B-plan competition for a health care mole-cule,” he told me.

Rhee was clearly disappointed, and ad-mitted as much over the phone a few days later. Yet the experience, he said, had been “one of, if not the highlight, of our Wharton careers. While I would say we were acquain-tances before, this experience has made us very solid friends. And the learning that we gained from each other was incredible.”

It also looked like they might get an im-portant meeting out of it.

A group of venture capitalists, he said, had expressed interest in R2R after learn-ing about them through a competition bro-chure that a Wharton student had sent them. They had emailed the team a list of ques-tions, including one that was very close to the question that had caught them by sur-prise at the contest. Rhee wasn’t about to email back an answer. The goal was to get in the room with them.

But if the question comes up in conversa-tion, he’ll be prepared.

Saki Knafo is a regular contributor to the New York Times. This is his fi rst piece for Whar-ton Magazine.

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Denis Benchimol Minev, WG’03

Wharton Leader

Denis Benchimol Minev, WG’03, was one of the few people who ac-tually got what he wanted at the Copenhagen Climate Conference

last December. Minev attended the event as Secretary of

Planning and Economic Development for the Brazilian state of Amazonas, where he recently spent three years seeking a sustain-able balance between economic growth and forest preservation. His attendance was one of his last offi cial acts before leaving public service to rejoin his family’s retail and ener-gy businesses. (His family owns Sociedade Fogás and Lojas Bemol in Manaus)

Hopes ran high for the conference. With the Kyoto Protocol set to expire in 2012, time was running out for world leaders to begin implementing a new international agreement on reducing carbon emissions.

Two weeks of divisive talks ended with lit-tle accomplished … except one thing. Partic-ipants acknowledged that developed coun-tries should provide fi nancial incentives to developing tropical countries to reduce defor-estation—a policy that delegates from Brazil and Amazonas had been advocating since the Bali climate conference in 2007. The Copen-hagen event marked the fi rst time there was global agreement to fi nance forest preserva-tion as a strategy to combat climate change.

“Despite global failure of negotiations, for-ests and REDD [Reductions in Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation] took a primary role and became the only point of agreement,” said Minev, 33. “Copenhagen was bad, in that nobody committed to any-thing, but for us, it was good.”

True to their word, developed nations in May pledged $4 billion to launch a new pro-gram—REDD Plus.

During his time in government, Minev pre-sided over a major philosophical shift in how the state stewards its land, which is 98 per-cent virgin rainforest.

Major arteries of the Amazon River fl ow through the sparsely populated region twice the size of Texas, feeding a dense ecosystem that represents 20 percent of the world’s tropical rainforests. Scientists have estimat-ed that ending deforestation will do more to

limit carbon in the atmosphere than elim-inating all of the world’s cars, planes and ships put together.

Minev and Eduardo Braga, the governor of Amazonas who invited Minev into govern-ment in 2007, worked to bring the state’s rate of deforestation to virtually zero. Since 2002, annual deforestation has declined 75 percent. During a speech at Copenhagen, Governor Braga announced that now just 0.03 percent of the state’s land, or 400 square kilometers, is lost to farming each year. The bottom line? New industries seeking to clear land are no longer welcome in Amazonas.

“We made it the formal policy that unless it’s on already deforested land—which is two percent of the state—that’s not something we want in Amazonas,” said Minev.

Of course, remaking Amazonas into a green brand meant learning to say no, he said.

“This goes straight back to Wharton,” said Minev, who fi nished his MBA at Wharton in 2003. “I remember from strategy class that the heart of strategy is being able to tell what you’re not going to do. Telling what you’re going to do is easy but telling what you’re not going to do—like when you’re going to say no to your customer—is much harder. There has historically been a lot of cattle breeding in the state, but if a new investor came in today and said ‘I want to bring my cattle into Amazonas’, the answer is, ‘If you can fi nd a place that has already been de-forested, fi ne, but if you want to take them to a new place we won’t grant your license.’”

The state also pays households and com-munities “forest conservation grants” to dis-courage them from clearing more of their land.

“We want to be the best preserved state in Brazil,” said Minev.

Now the focus is on attracting industries that leave the rainforest intact. Amazonas eliminated all taxes on cosmetics that use forest-produced products and subsidized the startup of a rubber industry to make tires for automobile companies. It made bidding documents and state payments public for transparency.

Minev also took steps to improve govern-ment effi ciency, using more lessons from Wharton. Within his offi ce, he dramatically

reduced the amount of time it takes to open a new business and automated the system of awarding incentives by implementing ISO 9000 quality management standards borrowed from business. These standards were also put in place in fi ve other state in-stitutions, with 15 more to come. For the fi rst time, the government was able to track 5,000 points of data relating to effi ciency in areas like public safety, law enforcement and hospital care. “You can only manage something you can measure,” Minev said. “You learn that in pretty much every class in Wharton—you need to know the numbers and be quantitative. This was part of the cul-ture I tried to bring into the government.”

Still up in the air, however, is how Amazo-nas will fund its conservation eff orts.

Norway pledged $1 billion over ten years to Brazil for forest conservation. Other countries have promised a few billion more, though the actual money has yet to be seen. Amazonas created a foundation, Fundação Amazonas Sustentável, that has raised about $30 mil-lion from sources such as Coca-Cola, Ban-co Bradesco and Marriott.

It’s a start, says Minev, but it’s not near-ly enough.

“McKinsey estimated it would take $30 billion per year to eliminate deforestation in the world,” he said. “I think that number is about right.”

Though state economic growth has been a healthy seven percent during Minev’s ten-ure, he said growth could have been higher had the state ignored conservation.

“I can tell you with certainty that we could have achieved short-term higher rates of growth had we opened up the forest to palm oil,” he said. “We see there’s an internation-al value in preserving the forest, but we ex-pect the world to share in the cost, which is signifi cant in terms of opportunity cost.”

—Sonja Sherwood

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Two of Wharton’s most esteemed alumni—Bong-Suh Lee, W’59, and James Joo-Jin Kim, W’59, G’61, Gr’63—were awarded the Dean’s Medal, Wharton’s highest honor, during the Wharton Global Alumni Forum in Seoul in May.

Kim is Executive Chairman of Amkor Technology, Inc., one of the world’s largest suppliers of semiconductor assembly and test services, and has served on the Wharton Executive Board for Asia since 1997. He is also an emeritus trustee of Penn.

Lee has held various positions in the South Korean government, including Secretary to the Prime Minister (1973-1978), Vice Min-ister of Energy and Resources (1983-1988) and Minister of Trade and Industry (1990-1991). He has also served as Vice President at Asian Development Bank (1991-1998) and in 1998 was appoint-ed Chairman of the Danam Corporation. He formerly served as a member of the Wharton Executive Board for Asia.

Wharton’s Global Alumni Forums are now in their 17th year, and the Seoul event was another success: It drew nearly 400 attend-ees from around the world to South Korea’s beautiful capital city.

During his acceptance speech, Kim marveled at how far his na-tive country had come. Excerpted here is some of what Kim had to say. — T.H.

“[When I came to Wharton] both parts of the Korean peninsula had been ravaged by the war, and you cannot begin to imagine how grim the outlook was for all Koreans. We were desper-ately poor, and our nation was in shambles. We survived, we persevered and then we pros-pered. Now Korea is a developed, wealthy society. How did we go from a poor, under-developed society to a modern, high-tech nation? Part of the answer lies at the intersection of Ko-rea with my other great passion—namely, the University of Penn-sylvania. Penn has educated many Koreans in business, in medi-cine, in architecture and other disciplines. These Penn-educated Koreans, like myself, started their careers in the United States, but have increasingly returned home to help build the founda-tion of a prosperous and stable democracy.

“Koreans today represent the third-larg-est source of foreign students in the Whar-ton MBA program, trailing only China and India. Penn has played a pivotal role in the development of Korea over the 51 years in which I have had the privilege of being an alumnus of this great institution. While Penn has been training so many of Ko-rea’s past, present and future leaders, the University has also been building its infra-structure to train others about Korea, es-pecially the Korean language. I think this is critically important, because it is quite

KIM: ‘There is much to be done’

Global Alumni Forums

Bong-Suh Lee, W’59, and James Joo-Jin Kim, W’59, G’61, Gr’63, with Dean Th omas S. Robertson.

diffi cult for a nation to be recognized and appreciated unless peo-ple from other countries know about it. In addition, with so many Americans being of Korean descent, there is a need for Korean lan-guage and history programs to allow the diaspora to retain an inter-est and respect for the country of their ancestry. Where do we go from here? Well, there is certainly much to be done. With so many Koreans training every year at Wharton, Penn is educating a gener-

ation—much larger than the few who joined me in the 1950s—of corporate executives with the linguistic, cultural and business skills to expand the breadth and depth of Korean business worldwide. I fully sup-port this new generation, and invite them to do better … to learn from our mistakes and to [make] the world a more peaceful and prosperous place. Just as Wharton as-sisted me and others… it is time for us to ensure that others can have the same op-portunity that we had. I urge you, espe-cially those who have become leaders in your profession, to participate in the ef-forts of Wharton to educate the leaders of the next generation.”

Next year, Wharton will convene top academ-

ic, civic, business and nonprofi t leaders—and

our outstanding international alumni network—

at a single Global Alumni Forum, to be held in

San Francisco.

Th e 2011 Global Alumni Forum, set for June

23–24, will coincide with the 10th Anniversary

of Wharton | San Francisco, our West Coast cam-

pus and home to a thriving MBA Program for Ex-

ecutives. We are delighted to bring the Forum to

this truly global city, one of the United States’

most exciting hubs of innovation, and we hope

that you will join in the celebration.

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Thuy Dam, WG’96

Wharton Leader

During Vietnam’s long transition from a planned economy to a bur-geoning market economy, Thuy Dam, WG’96, has often found

herself at the leading edge of change in the country.

A few years after graduating from the University of Hanoi in 1985, Dam and four friends launched a consulting fi rm to advise foreign companies on entering the Vietnam-ese market. The country had just decided to allow foreign investment, and the new fi rm, InvestConsult, was Vietnam’s fi rst private-ly-owned company. It would provide crucial help to some of the world’s largest compa-nies, which were trying to gain a foothold in the country.

Two decades later, after getting her Whar-ton MBA and becoming established as an in-ternational banking executive, Dam returned to Vietnam to head the Australia-New Zea-land (ANZ) Banking Group’s Vietnam op-eration. Under Dam’s leadership, ANZ won a government license to operate as a local bank and launched a dramatic expansion, growing from two branches to 12, boosting staff from 100 to 700, and quadrupling rev-enue. ANZ brought change to Vietnam’s fi -nancial sector, introducing Internet bank-ing, credit cards and new fi nancing options for local businesses.

“I like building things,” says Dam, 49. “I’m probably not very good at being a caretak-er. I get bored very quickly.”

Dam has been with ANZ, the third larg-est bank in Australia and one of the leading banks in Asia, since leaving Wharton, which she attended as a Fulbright Scholar. Like many of her classmates in the mid-1990s, Dam planned to work on Wall Street, but her scholarship required her to work out-side of the United States for two years af-ter graduation. Melbourne-based ANZ hired her to help guide the investment bank’s ex-pansion in Asia from a recently-opened of-fi ce in Singapore.

“I always had an intention of staying for two years and then going back to the States to work,” she recalls. “But I can say now that

one should never plan anything in life. I end-ed up spending 10 years in Singapore and really enjoyed it.”

In 2005, ANZ assigned Dam, a native of Hanoi, to head the Vietnam headquarters in the city. In Vietnam and other countries with-out a well-established banking sector, foreign banks usually bring in executives from the home offi ce to run local banks. Dam was one of the fi rst Vietnamese to head any foreign bank in the country. And when she arrived, she didn’t know what to expect.

“Being away for a long time, I thought going back in a new job would be diffi cult,” she recalls. “But I landed in Hanoi around lunchtime, and by late afternoon, I didn’t feel like I was starting anything new. It all seemed so familiar.”

A young child in the 1960s, Dam was liv-ing in Hanoi during the diffi cult times of the Vietnam War. Her father was a college pro-fessor in chemistry and physics; her moth-er, a biologist at the Pasteur Institute. To

protect children, the North Vietnamese gov-ernment split up families, sending children to the countryside where they would be less vulnerable to attacks. Adults also were sep-arated so that families would not be wiped out in a single raid.

“My father was in one province. My moth-er was in another,” Dam recalls. “My grand-parents stayed in Hanoi because they were very old and didn’t want to move. My broth-er and I were together in another province.”

She says the experience instilled a sense of independence. She remembers living among 30 or 40 children, cared for by a couple of adults. “They cooked for us, and we just looked after ourselves. I don’t know how we did it, but we managed.”

After college, she worked for nearly two years for Vietnam’s patent offi ce before de-ciding she needed a change. This was the mid-1980s, and the war had been over for a decade. East-West relations were thaw-

continued on page 36

“Being in this country and being Vietnamese,” Dam says, “I have to be optimistic about the future of this country and this market.”

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New isn’t always better. After all, it is said that up to 80

percent of all new products fail. Which begs the question: What is it spe-

cifi cally about the design, strategy and util-ity of those other products—the ones that do succeed? What sets the 20 percent apart from the 80 percent?

According to award-winning industrial de-signer Ravi Sawhney and business strategist Deepa Prahalad, the answer isn’t just design, but rather design combined with strategy.

In Predictable Magic: Unleash the Power of Design Strategy to Transform Your Business,Sawhney and Prahalad make the case that the creators of super-successful products of-ten fi nd a way to seamlessly integrate cor-porate strategy with design.

In other words, they don’t deliver utilitar-ian objects: They craft rewarding, empow-ering experiences.

To outsiders, this looks like magic: incom-prehensible and impossible to reproduce. But it isn’t, the authors say, and in Predictable Magic they present the complete design pro-cess for making the “magic” happen—over and over again. Sawhney and Prahalad in-troduce “Psycho-Aesthetics,” a breakthrough approach for systematically creating deep emotional connections between consum-ers and brands.

Step by step, Predictable Magic will teach you everything you need to know to make Psycho-Aesthetics work, from research to strategy, implementation to consumer ex-perience. You’ll also see it at work in case studies from some of the world’s top com-panies, including Medtronic and Amana, as well as innovative start-ups.

Financing the Future: Market-Based Innovations for Growth

By Franklin Allen and Glenn Yago

Financial innovation has done a lot of good for the world.

Starting with the use of credit in Assyria and Bab-

ylon over 3,000 years ago and development of the bill of exchange in the 14th century, fi nancial innovation has driven social, eco-nomic and environmental change world-wide, transforming ideas into new technol-ogies, industries and jobs.

Yet when fi nancial resources are misun-derstood or mismanaged—as they were most recently during the events leading up to the current fi nancial crisis—the consequences can be severe.

In Financing the Future: Market-Based Innovations for Growth, two leading ex-perts—Franklin Allen, Wharton’s Nippon Life Professor of Finance and Professor of Economics, and Glenn Yago, Director of Cap-ital Studies at the Milken Institute—explain how sophisticated capital structures can en-able companies and individuals to raise fund-ing in larger amounts for longer terms and at lower cost, thereby accomplishing tasks that would otherwise be impossible.

The authors recount the history and basic principles of fi nancial innovation, showing how new instruments have evolved—as well as how they have been both used and mis-

used. In this important and highly readable book, Allen and Yago thoroughly demystify complex capital structures, off ering a prac-tical toolbox for entrepreneurs, corporate executives and policymakers.

Financing the Future presents clear, thor-ough discussions of the current role of fi -nancial innovation in capitalizing business-es, industries, breakthrough technologies, housing solutions, medical treatments and environmental projects. It also presents a full chapter of lessons learned: essential in-sights for stabilizing the economy and avoid-ing pitfalls.

Wharton School Publishing

The Diff erence in (Great) Design

What's New At . . .

When it Comes to Super-successful Products, Design Matters—But Only When Paired With Sound Strategy

Remembering C.K. PrahaladTh e business world lost a prophetic and cre-ative thinker with the death of C.K. Prahalad on April 16.

Prahalad was an internationally respected consultant and professor at the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business, where he was known for his writings on corporate strat-egy. In 2004, Prahalad garnered widespread acclaim for his groundbreaking book Th e For-tune at the Bottom of the Pyramid: Eradicating Poverty Th rough Profi ts, which was one of the fi rst books ever printed by the then-brand new Wharton School Publishing house.

The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid made the case that private investment, not charity, would lead to expanding opportuni-ties in struggling markets around the world. It was named the best business book of 2004 by the editors of Amazon.com and remains one of Wharton’s best sellers, with approxi-mately 200,000 copies sold worldwide. Th e Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid is wide-ly credited with helping jumpstart the “social impact” movement. Wharton School Publish-ing released a fi ft h-anniversary edition of the book last year.

Earlier this spring, Dean Thomas S. Robertson called Prahalad’s ideas “masterful and infl uential.”

“When we bring business solutions to social problems we are following his advice,” Rob-ertson wrote. “When we resolve to ‘do well by doing good’ we are echoing his call. Now it is up to us to carry on his ideas.”

Ba

Fdw

c

For more books visit: http://www.whartonsp.com

ON THE WEB

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Passion vs. Profi ts: Microfi nance’s Talent Wars

Published April 14, 2010 in Knowledge@Wharton

Employment in the microfi nance industry is at a crossroads. When microfi nance began, its scope was simple: Charitable, donor-drivenorganizations with a mission to

eliminate poverty gave out very small busi-ness loans to help the world’s poor. Big banks—deeming the double- and triple-dig-it loans too small to be profi table—didn’t get involved.

Today, after three decades of rapid growth, the microfi nance industry has become both more crowded and more complex. The Mi-crofi nance Information eXchange reports 1,200 microfi nance institutions (MFIs) with 64 million borrowers and 33.5 million sav-ers, and those numbers are growing at 25% a year. Big banks, realizing there is money to be made at the bottom of the pyramid, are now entering microfi nance markets that were once solely the territory of philanthro-pies. Commercial investors, too, are seeing profi ts. And microfi nance institutions are scrambling not to lose ground.

“I feel like we’re seeing a lot of polariza-tion as this industry grows up,” said Elizabeth Lynch, manager of the Center for Microfi -nance Leadership at Women’s World Bank-ing. “Now it’s the NGO [non-governmental organization] versus the bank, the social in-vestor versus the commercial investor. Mi-crofi nance encompasses so much that there naturally seems to be a tug of war.”

The tug of war is most recently playing out in microfi nance’s human resources de-partments. As a greater number of for-profi t microfi nance institutions enter the market, more established MFIs worry that banks are poaching their best employees. At the same time, traditional MFIs need to attract bank-ing talent at the managerial level to tackle the more sophisticated fi nancial services they must off er to survive.

“Field offi cers are probably the most val-ued commodity in microfi nance,” Lynch not-ed. “So if banks are looking to go into re-tail microfi nance, there is the issue of banks poaching loan offi cers and branch managers because they bring the on-the-ground exper-tise that these banks desperately need.” The fl ow goes in the other direction at the man-agerial level when microfi nance institutions seek to expand their portfolio of services, Lynch added. “A lot of activities such as trea-sury management, risk management, fi nan-cial management—they wouldn’t have neces-

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sarily had these skills in-house as an NGO.”Industry veterans worry that the new infl ux

of banking talent and the increasing focus on banking services could jeopardize micro-fi nance’s original mission to help the poor.

“It’s causing tension in the fi eld,” stated Monica McGrath, adjunct assistant profes-sor at Wharton’s Aresty Institute of Execu-tive Education, who recently wrote a needs assessment for the microfi nance industry with colleague Dana Kaminstein. In many countries, microfi nance institutions are tran-sitioning from their status as non-govern-mental organizations to regulated fi nancial institutions in order to make their business model more sustainable, she added. By be-coming regulated, an MFI can take deposits, reducing its dependence on donations and increasing its access to capital. “The talent and succession issue is important because as these institutions off er new services, they have to increase the level of professionalism in their organizations. There is a very strong case to be made that if we over-commercial-ize, we’re going to be serving the wrong peo-ple or emphasizing the wrong result.”

The talent discussion heated up recently at the Aresty Institute of Executive Educa-tion, where about two dozen microfi nance leaders from around the world gathered for the Women’s World Banking Advanced Leadership Workshop. Some participants la-mented the loss of well-groomed talent to big banks, while others maintained that the microfi nance industry would continue to at-tract talent because it off ered benefi ts that banks cannot. A number of participants told stories of leaving banks to work at microfi -nance institutions, while others talked about moving in the opposite direction.

The program was off ered by the Center for Microfi nance Leadership, which Wom-en’s World Banking launched last year in part as a response to the 2008 “Microfi-nance Banana Skins Report.” The annual survey of the microfi nance industry found that management quality topped the list of concerns among microfi nance institutions. “Many recognized the need to develop lead-ership and management capacity in the in-dustry,” Lynch said. Studies show that only about one-fi fth of the developing world pop-ulation has access to formal fi nancial servic-es, and the need continues to grow. “There is such an enormous potential market for these fi nancial services, and the concern was

that the institutions are growing so rapid-ly that the development of this talent is not taking place.”

Increasing managerial skills and talent in the microfi nance industry has become even more important in the global economic re-cession. The most recent 2009 Banana Skins report, written by David Lascelles and Sam Mendelson at The Centre for the Study of Fi-nancial Innovation, found that management quality fell to No. 4 as more fi nancial wor-ries, such as credit risk and liquidity, moved up. “The emergence of credit risk as the top [concern] in this survey is the clearest in-dicator of the dramatic new challenges that face the microfi nance industry in these tur-bulent times,” the report read. “In the past, credit risk (the risk of loss when loans are not repaid) was seen as a minor problem in a business whose typical customers had an excellent repayment record. (In our 2008 survey it was ranked No. 10.) But not any more. A combination of stressful economic conditions and structural change within the microfi nance industry has greatly increased concern about default and loan loss.”

Such economic turmoil has brought the need for fi nancial know-how into even sharp-er focus. “The big question, though, is wheth-er MFI managements are up to leading their institutions through these testing times,” the report continued. “Respondents saw a need for more skills in the areas of risk manage-ment, cost control and strategy as MFIs face tougher competition and diffi cult mar-ket conditions.”

A Double WhammyIn the end, it boils down to survival. Microfi -nance institutions risk losing customers un-less they provide a wider range of services—such as convenient banking through ATMs, branches and other outlets, said Maria An-gelica Hoyos, marketing manager for Wom-en’s World Banking Colombia. “We need a full portfolio—not just loans. As a bank, we can have a higher level of clients.”

Growing more sophisticated allows MFIs to keep serving customers who have become successful in business and now have fi nan-cial needs beyond the micro-loan. For ex-ample, some microfi nance institutions are branching into housing loans and other types of credit. Others are looking into crop and health insurance. Many microfi nance insti-tutions also see savings accounts as a vital

component of the services they must off er. The expanded portfolio is not just good for the clients: By off ering more banking ser-vices, the MFI also brings in more capital, creating a more sustainable operation that feeds into the growth of the MFI and makes it better able to pursue its mission.

Despite the perks, bankers and micro-finance institutions make strange bedfel-lows. Annet Nakawunde, head of operations at Uganda Finance Trust, Ltd. in Kampala, Uganda, can see the need to provide more banking services, but she chafes at the fl ow of labor away from microfi nance institutions. “We have a challenge in that the big banks are downscaling, but they don’t have the capac-ity to take care of the microfi nance custom-er, so they are looking to the microfi nance institutions to fi nd their employees,” said Nakawunde, who has watched several em-ployees leave to go to fi nancial institutions. “The microfi nance industry has turned out to be a training ground for the big banks. We take the … people and train them, and then the banks come and poach the talent.” The exodus becomes a double-whammy for the microfi nance institution, because MFI cus-tomers often follow the employee to the new bank. “When you lose that talent, you also lose customers, because [the bank employ-ees] also have targets.”

On the managerial level, attracting bank-ing talent to the microfinance sector is a challenge in part because of pay and bene-fi ts that are comparatively low. “I’m not sure that we’re in a position to poach top exec-utives from banks,” said Karim Fanous, ex-ecutive director of The Lead Foundation in Egypt. “We will be unable to compete on at-tractive salaries and fi nancial remuneration. But we have a lot of other things to off er. We need to make sure people know that these things are there.”

Lynch agrees that microfi nance “can’t com-pete in terms of salaries” but believes that microfi nance’s social mission and “double bottom line” is “a signifi cant draw for those who are susceptible.” Women’s World Bank-ing frequently gets calls from women on Wall Street who want to use their skills for a so-cial purpose. “Microfi nance off ers something to people in fi nancial services who want to contribute to the greater good,” she says.

Career development also draws some peo-ple to banks from microfi nance, pointed out Maros Parreno Apostol, who works as gen-

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eral manager of South Pacifi c Business De-velopment (SPBD) in Samoa. Before mov-ing to Samoa, she was based in Cambodia for nine years with two other microfi nance institutions. In both Samoa and Cambodia, “MFI staff transfer to banks because of the organizational nature of the MFI,” she said. “MFIs have a fl at organizational set-up com-pared to banks,” where there are diff erent functions and specializations. “We can train people, manage their talent and send them to international conferences. However, the job level/function is the same.”

David Mukaru pointed out that career ad-vancement was one reason he moved from a non-profi t microfi nance institution to Equi-ty Bank, a for-profi t microfi nance institution in Kenya. He also saw a greater opportuni-ty to off er a broader range of services to the people he wanted to help. “Why did I move? Probably I needed to scale up, to get wider and deeper into the market. Sometimes of-fi cers need to grow their skills” in order to better help their constituents, he said.

When banking executives do decide to go into microfi nance, it’s not always easy to fi nd a good fi t. Glynis Rankin, a workforce consul-tant at London-based Creative Metier, said a recent study she did of 15 microfi nance CEOs found that the institutions struggled to integrate banking talent into their culture. “Sometimes people would come into micro-fi nance from banks and try to make it work like a bank,” she said. This caused problems in an industry that is highly mission-driv-en. The concern she often heard from CEOs was, “‘How do you re-orient people to un-derstand that this is microfi nance, that this is something very diff erent?’ I think there’s a real issue there.”

Faisal Malik, head of information technol-ogy at the Kashf Foundation in Pakistan, said that, when recruiting banking execu-tives, he always asks, “Do you have an abil-ity to unlearn? That’s a very important as-pect.” Banking executives might have talent, but there is a lot more to microfi nance, he added. “It’s a whole diff erent level of gratifi -cation when you see something grow; when you’re able to touch the grass roots-level pov-erty and see how you’re having an infl uence. In the end, life is a lot more than just bene-fi ts and compensation.”

Some employees who leave microfi nance institutions do come back, according to Erdenechimeg Dorjgotov, director of the op-erations management division of XacBank, part of the Tenger Financial Group, in Ulaan-baatar, Mongolia. In her experience, about 40% of employees who leave her MFI for a traditional bank return after a few years. “They miss the culture,” she said.

Those non-tangible benefi ts are what drew Lorisa Canillas away from a bank to become general manager of South Pacifi c Business Development in Nuku’alofa, Tonga. “The trigger for me to shift to microfi nance was not monetary gain or career growth,” Canil-las said. “I was looking for meaning from my work and I just could not get it from the corporate and commercial banking world. I thought that if I am going to work so hard, I might as well do it [for] those who are dis-advantaged.”

The advantage of transitioning from be-ing a banker to becoming a microfi nance practitioner “is that you can bring a strong business approach to your program, which helps ensure sustainability rather than just being benevolent,” Canillas noted, adding that “there are aspects in microfi nance work that you cannot apply your banker’s mind-set to. For example, you cannot expect to do thorough fi nancial analysis on loans as low as $100 for clients who do not even have re-cords of their income and expenses; or lend to start-up micro-businesses, which is un-thinkable in the banking world. More impor-tantly, having the commitment—or sharing the same values and mission of helping the poor—is a very important factor for a tal-ent to be eff ective. MFIs must guard against the fl ow of talent that has no passion for the double bottom line.”

“Th e trigger for me to shift to microfi nance was not monetary gain or career growth. I thought that if I am going to work so hard, I might as well do it [for] those who are disadvantaged.”

ing, and Vietnam was opening to the out-side world. She and her cofounders of In-vestConsult saw an opportunity. “Vietnam had been closed to the world for such a long time,” she says. “When you open up, there is always a huge gap between what the for-eigner looks for and what the government wants. We believed there needed to be a bridge between the two parties.”

She says that she and her partners ran the business largely on intuition and their own fi rst-hand knowledge. Realizing she needed a broader understanding of business, she decided to apply to Wharton. She remem-bers having a difficult time applying for admission and the scholarship. The Unit-ed States had only just lifted its trade em-bargo, and relations between the two coun-tries were still tense.

“Everything was so new. It was hard to get information. Trying to fi nd a place to sit for exams was challenging,” she recalls.

She describes her two years at Wharton as an intellectual awakening.

“What Wharton taught me most was not technical skills. It was the things I learned from my friends and classmates [that stood out]. There was this entrepreneurial spir-it there,” she says. “People tossed around ideas, and professors were ready to enter-tain ideas. I had come from a society where ideas and thought were shaped by some-body else.”

While she is reluctant to make any predic-tions about her career, she expects to be in Vietnam for some time. Last year, ANZ gave her responsibility for the bank’s operations in Laos and Cambodia, as well as Vietnam.

Although the world fi nancial crisis hurt Vietnam, the country has fared better than many others, according to Dam. Vietnam relies heavily on exports, and while the global recession did weaken demand for the country’s products, Vietnam’s emerg-ing banking industry never got entangled in the disastrous investments that brought down banks elsewhere.

“There are still quite a few challenges the country will have to deal with, and there will be bumps in the road,” she says. “But be-ing in this country and being Vietnamese, I have to be optimistic about the future of this country and this market.” —Robert Preer

Thuy Dam continued from page 32

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Add to the investment you’ve already made in yourselfIn an economy fueled by innovation, the analytical abilities you develop

as a student at Penn—and that you apply every day to the complex questions that face

the world—are among America’s most valuable economic assets.

Penn’s Alumni Program can help you

Check out our interactive online course guide www.sas.upenn.edu/lpscourses

tel. faxemail

NEWFO R

fall 2010

There’s no application fee —in fact, no application.

Just download the Alumni Registration

Form from our web site and register

for the courses you want to take. Fall

2010 classes begin on September 8.

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Alumni News

Please send information about yourselves to your class correspondents at the listed addresses or to Wharton Magazine, 3733 Spruce Street, 344 Vance Hall, Philadelphia, PA, 19104. Email: [email protected] Fax: +1-215-898-2695 Telephone: +1-215-746-6509

Wharton Undergraduates

Class Correspondent W’42

Harold Diamond1549 Elkins AvenueAbington, PA 19001

50s

Class Correspondent W’50 and ’51

Jack R. BierBAC Associates201 South White Horse PikeAudubon, NJ 08106

22 Shriners Children’s Hospitals providing free orthopedic and burn care to all children.”

John Hackney, W’50, of Devon, PA, was given a wonderful birthday present by one of his sons: a trip back to Utah Beach in France where John had landed with his anti-aircraft unit on D-Day, June 6, 1944. This visit in September with his wife, Joan, son, and daughter-in-law was John’s fi rst since D-Day. He was given a medal of gratitude by the French, and a certifi cate making him an honorary citizen of Sainte-Marie-du-Mont, the town adjacent to the Beach. On his return home John had knee surgery but looks forward to singing “Daddy” at the dedication of the refurbished Mask & Wig Clubhouse.

John writes: “I once had the privilege of honoring the June 6, 1944 veterans who landed on Utah Beach and survived. My closing salute was to the heroes of Utah

Fax: [email protected]

Bob Anderson, W’50, of Webster, NY and Delray Beach, FL, writes: “My wife Betty and I drive our motor home back and forth. When we get to Florida we do many RV rallies…one or two a month. I’ve been retired since we sold our business 20 years ago, but have kept active in condo association operations and activities. Betty and I have six kids (two of whom graduated from Penn), 18 grandchildren, and 12 great-grandchildren. I’ve also been a board member of many organizations, and I’m active in church work. It’s been outstanding being an active member of the Shrine of North America, past Potentate of Damascus Temple in Rochester, NY, and a representative to their national conventions. The Shriners do great work with their

Editor’s Note: Regrettably, space constraints do not permit publication of all photo submissions.

RAVINDRAN

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MAIL: 344 Vance Hall, 3733 Spruce St., Philadelphia, PA 19104-6360 SUMMER 2010 | WHARTON MAGAZINE | 39

and Omaha Beach, 18 miles away, and the impossible advances which resulted from their bravery. They truly accomplished a victory beyond description and each one of them should be awarded a Congressional Medal of Honor.”

You may recall that on Hey Day May 19, 1950, four Class of 1950 classmates were elected by the class as “Honor Men”; Cane Man L. Edison Mathis died in 1982. Spoon Man Harry Wettlaufer passed away a few weeks after our 50th Reunion. Spade Man Ed Igler died this past September. Bowl Man John Hackney, current class president, is now the sole survivor of this honored quartet.

Jim Hickok, W’50, writes: “I’m sitting out here in Scottsdale, AZ, scorching to death for three months every year, but otherwise enjoying some of the best weather in the country. I have been here in a golf community since 1995, when I retired. My golf has slowly deteriorated, along with virtually everything else. My health is generally good, but I have lived alone since 2004 when my wife of 50+ years passed away, but two of my three sons live in the general area and keep an eye on the old man. A close neighbor in the complex is Jim Farren, W’52, who was also a Sigma Nu fraternity brother. My new companion is Carole Heroux, a gal I have known for 30+ years and who lost her husband about the same time as my Ginny. She’s a great gal, and a dynamo who keeps me hopping (a bit of a stretch as I can’t really hop anymore).”

Jim Jordan, W’50, G’57, GR’66, of West Chester, PA, writes: “I’m still working at 82 after being VP of Astra-Zeneca for some 34 years, which included a stint as adjunct professor at Wharton from 1966 to 1982. I decided to keep going as labor arbitrator. I have decided more than 1,200 cases all over the U.S. on permanent arbitrator panels for Boeing and the U.S. Air Force. I’m heading for Croatia, which is among the 40 other countries I’ve visited. My grandson, David Jordan, a Penn graduate with Honors, got three degrees and a masters in four years. He is now a fellow at Rockefeller Institute.

Gene Kaplan, W’50, of Princeton, NJ, is still active in business as Managing Partner of Capital Consulting Network, fi nancial, merger & acquisition and turnaround consultants. Harking back, he wonders how many of us actually wore dirty white bucks at Penn!

Ben Kreitzberg, W’50, of Monroe Township, NJ, is an attorney today who is still connected to track and fi eld where he starred as an undergrad. He lives near Princeton and says he has “acted as chief judge/timer at their track meets, as well as the IC4A meets and the Heptagonals. Last year I was doing the same thing at Penn. For many years I’ve been an offi cial at the Penn Relays and recently got the Ken Doherty Award for retired offi cials (and then was called back to active duty as Head Timer for the Relays.) I recently had the pleasure of having my grandson Sam Connelly accepted to Penn this past September. He thus joins me and both his parents as Penn people.”

David L. Mahoney, W’50, of New Hartford, NY, writes: “Briefl y: President Phi Delta Theta, U.S. Navy, 1950-1955, married Janemarie McEvilly, Marymount 1950; joined, then acquired family insurance brokerage; sold the business and retired in 1991. Served as chairman of Herkimer County Legislature, Herkimer County Community College and Little Falls Hospital. Children and grandchildren are scattered from Connecticut to California.”

John (Bud) Mannes, W’50, Bethesda MD, he writes: “I guess the most important things in our lives at this point are our grandchildren. The oldest, Ben Sack, graduated Harvard two years ago and is in his thriving computer consulting business in Boston. The other two boys, Daniel and Matthew, are at Harvard. Alex graduated from Brown and is working for a marketing fi rm in Washington, DC. Jillian is at Cornell and is a senior who has spent time in Tanzania and Kenya as a volunteer with medical groups. Daniel spent the summer in Beijing teaching English. Matt worked with a company representing “rap” artists. Me, I have decided my best golf years are

behind me. I still play, but not very well. We hope to visit Japan for three weeks this fall.

George C. Matteson, W’50, of Overland Park, KS, has a genetic hearing problem and would be totally deaf today were it not for a cochlear implant. He describes what he hears as “voices coming out of a 55-gallon barrel” but he is grateful. Like many others with hearing boosters, he gets a noise overload in large gatherings, parties and the like. After graduation George spent a year working in Chicago, then two in the service followed by several years with an auto parts manufacturer in Wichita, KS, Racine, WI, and Kansas City. In 1965, he founded his own company in Kansas City that sells promotional playing cards, which he sold in 1992. The company’s name today, Gemaco, is a new one, but it still echoes George, the founder.

Edward F. McGinley III, W’50, of Villanova, PA, writes: “Just got through having two heart valves replaced. So far, no problems, but also, no guarantees. One grandchild just graduated from Penn in the class of 2009. Kyle Whiteman is his name and he’s headed to Washington, DC to be a page in the Senate. God help him. His younger sister, Anna McGinley Whiteman, is a freshman at Penn in the Class of 2013. Coincidentally, she will be living in the exact same dorm that I was in when I was a freshman in 1946-47. Ain’t life GRAND! I’m retired from Goldman Sachs in the Fixed Income area. Live in Villanova; love it here and, if God is good, I shall die here in the same home where I’ve lived for the past 42 years. (We sold our home in the West Village in New York several years ago.) I have been a very blessed man.” Ed was reminded that two Penn grandchildren meant four generations of McGinleys at Penn. He replied, “Some may say ‘that’s plenty’ but I hope we’ll keep going as long as we can still pay the tuition.” Ed added, “I think it may be some kind of a ‘record’ that there are/were FOUR letter winners in football named McGinley (from the same family).”

Henry F. Michell III, W’50,

of Radnor, PA, and Hilton Head, SC, writes: “I play lots of golf and don’t miss the northern winters. See Pete Peterson periodically. Spend summer and Christmas in Radnor. I retired from active participation from the family business several years ago and it’s now run by my son. The company, Henry F. Michell Co., will celebrate its 120th year in business in 2010. It was started in 1890 by my grandfather as a retail seed store in Philadelphia. Got out of retail in the mid 1950s (not coincidental with grad year) and moved to King of Prussia in 1960. Primary product line is live plants and seed. Like most industries, ours is very competitive and demand is soft, which is refl ective of the economy. Things will improve, obsolescence hasn’t bothered us yet.”

Paul F. Miller, Jr., W’50, HON’81, of West Conshohocken PA, Bokeelia, FL, and Center Sandwich, NH, former chair of Penn’s Board of Trustees, writes, “Some sad news. Ed Igler died on September 13. The memorial service was on September 25. We attended and I spoke. In July, I had a new aortic valve put in my heart, and it seems to be fi ne now.”

Alan S. Moscowitz, W’50, of West Orange, NJ, writes: “Penn has always been a love of mine. I see Eugene Nadel and Dick Winneg all the time and we have many of the good things in life with each other. I have been retired from the scrap metal industry since 2000. It’s amazing how that industry has changed over the years. I cannot believe the prices of scrap metal today. I have two sons, one of whom graduated from Penn in 2000. We are both active in the Penn Club of Northern NJ and we both have interviewed students applying to Penn.”

Daniel I. Murphy, W’50, of Bryn Mawr, PA, says: “Being retired, I manage to stay busy without pressure. Two days per month I work for the Philadelphia Courts as a mediator to settle cases. I often see Marv Halbert (a retired judge) who seems to be busy doing something while dressed in his cowboy garb. Another two days per month, I sit as an arbitrator for the Philadelphia Court.”

Diarmuid F. O’Connell, W’50,

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of Cohasset, MA, writes: “I am grateful to be alive and well. I have been retired for a long while now and been living in the lovely town of Cohasset, MA, now for over 40 years with my lovely wife of 47 years. She graduated Connecticut College 1950. We have three children and now seven grandchildren. We travel by choice and necessity as our children live now in San Francisco and Paris. We had one son graduate from the joint Johns Hopkins SAIS/Wharton MBA program and he is with the Capital Group in San Francisco. My other son is with the Tesla Electric Car Co. (It goes @40m/charge). He has my name so you may see information about him. Be assured, I have stayed retired. Our daughter and her husband are retired from Morgan Stanley. Tennis is now the big sport in my life along with cruising off our shore and the northeast in a Nordic Tug.”

David H. Samuel, W’50, of Greensburg, PA, recalled his days (and nights) on WXPN, “when I had a 5-something p.m. sports show, AND an early morning 6:30-8:00 a.m. DJ stint of big band records, which, incidentally, my eventual bride, a Drexel student/grad, could listen to in her dorm. I also wrote sports for the Daily Pennsylvanian, worked for two years in the Sports Information Offi ce for Ed Hunter; was a sports stringer for the Inquirer and Bulletin covering all Penn sports except varsity football and basketball; and covered the Penn-Villanova doubleheaders at the Palestra for the AP. Upon graduation, I was Sports Editor and police reporter for the Coatesville Record; returned to Philly to work for Adelphia Associates, a PR fi rm; got downsized, married my Drexel grad (who became an Asst. Buyer at Wanamaker’s and was an executive trainee at Lit Bros, returned to my home town of Johnstown, PA, to work in Adv./P.R for Pennsylvania Electric Co.; transferred in a similar capacity to West Penn Power in Greensburg (where we continue to live). Partnered a clothing store for big-and-tall men; owned a restaurant/bar;

sold insurance (most recently AFLAC), then retired. Am currently involved in writing a ‘coff ee table book’ about famous-and-infamous Pennsylvanians (not the university) whether born here or emigrated to our state. Terry and I have two married children, two grandchildren and a mortgage. Other than the above, I’ve not been too busy. I almost forgot this; I served two years as Drexel’s fi rst fulltime Sports Information Director while my fi ancé was still an undergrad.”

Marvin Sohn, W’50, of Silver Spring, MD, writes: “Roma and I celebrated our 55th anniversary in September. We have fi ve lovely granddaughters ranging in age from 15 (almost 16) to 5. After being New Yorkers for all of our lives we now are living in a lovely active adult community in Maryland and enjoying the proximity to Washington, DC, while having trees and wildlife in our backyard.”

Donald M. Swan, Jr., W’50, L’53, of Coopersburg, PA, remains active in his vocation, fi nancial advisor, through his own Flint Hill Management, and his avocation, the theater. In 2009 Don appeared in three productions in Allentown-Bethlehem-Easton area theaters. He played a reporter and the US President in The Manchurian Candidate, the grandfather in Guys & Dolls (he insists audiences wept as he sang More I Cannot Wish You) and the Wizard in 16 performances of The Wizard of Oz for adult and youth audiences.

Clyde Zukswert, W’50, of Florham Park NJ, writes: “Like George Curchin I passed the CPA Exam and went to work for my dad who had a public accounting practice. After four years, however I realized my interest was in construction. While at Acacia Fraternity I had put in about 75 hours completely rebuilding the top section of the four-fl ue chimney. In 1964, I had the opportunity to purchase the residential remodeling company I had worked for during summers while at Penn. My son now operates the business. I continue to stay active serving as a volunteer fi reman for 58 years, a Weichert real estate agent, a

Kiwanian, a food pantry volunteer and for the last two years with the help of a Bose CD player, I’ve volunteered to sing at over 50 assisted living residences in Northern NJ.”

Thanks to Tom Poole for most of the notes used in this article for W’50 alumni.


Lawrence W. Althouse4412 Shenandoah AvenueDallas, TX [email protected]

Philip (Phil) N. Baker and his wife, Sandy, on June 20, 2010 celebrate 58 years of marriage that issued in three children, seven grandchildren and one great granddaughter. In 1962, the Bakers moved from New England to St. Louis with Monsanto’s Plastic Division. After Monsanto got out of plastics, Phil joined D’Arcy Macmanus & Masius Advertising as vice president and director of research. In 1985, he started P.N. Baker Associates, a marketing consulting fi rm. It was a Wharton seminar course that fi rst stirred his interest in marketing research, as well as taking part in a project for Lit Brothers in Philadelphia. The burning question of the day then was: “Does it make any sense to open branches in the suburbs?” He knocked on a lot of doors to interview housewives, before giving Lit a big, “Yes!” Now, living in Kirkwood (St. Louis, MO) his volunteer projects have included the Emmanuel Episcopal Church food center, a local library, doing Talking Tapes, reading to the blind on a nearby Illinois radio station, serving as a board member for two childcare agencies, holding various offi ces of the Civil War Roundtable of St. Louis, correspondent for the class of 1948, from Northfi eld Mt. Hermon School (MA) and various offi ces in the American Marketing Association. The Bakers “once cruised and traveled widely” but today they look forward to spending Februaries on Sanibel, FL. Phil says: “I’ll be 79 on June 23. And 80 on June 24.”

Paul (Rick) E. Oppenheimer writes: “I’ve retired from my management consulting practice

and for the past 18 years I have been a Chair with Viostage International, Inc. A Chair is the facilitator for monthly CEO group meetings and the mentor meets monthly with each CEO member, one-to-one, in his/her offi ce for 1 1/2 hours. I have fi ve groups: three for CEOs and two for the KEY direct reports to the CEO—about 70 people. Very stimulating and great psychic income.” Rick and his attorney wife have been living in Lancaster, PA for the past 44 years. There are fi ve grandchildren ranging in age from 7 to 21 —four boys and one girl “all heavily into lacrosse.” The Oppenheimers enjoy annual visits to Las Vegas, Puerto Rico and Maui. Rick says: “I have enjoyed being on the Penn Grapplers Club Board for the past 10 years. Life is good!”

Jerry Buff writes: “Since graduation, I got a double dose at Harvard Business School and spent my business career in investments. I spent a lot of time at Smith Barney and then as a partner in the money management fi rm of David J. Greene & Co. Since retiring, I have taken a lot of English lit courses and developed an interest in poetry (reading, not writing).” He is also a member of the NYC Grolier Club (book collecting) and has served on the Board of the Keats Shelley Association. He has two daughters and three grandchildren and is very happy in a second marriage to Sharon. He concludes: “Friends, reading, travel and managing my investments keep me busy, but smelling the roses is an important activity.”

Arthur M. Edelman is a retired partner of CPA fi rm J.H. Cohn LLP, headquartered in Roseland, NJ. In 1986, he sold his local Lawrenceville, NJ practice to J.H. Cohn and it is now the largest independent accounting and consulting fi rm in the Northeast. In 1953, he was married to Marion Lavine (Douglass/Rutgers) and they had three children. Marion died in 1972. He married Carol Frank (two children) in 1974. As partner-in-charge of the Lawrenceville, NJ offi ce of the fi rm, he took mandatory retirement in 1996, but remained as consultant until

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Alumni Update

Laura O. Ross, C’98, WG’05 (Development Ambassador)HOMETOWN: Great Neck, NYWHY I’M AN AMBASSADOR: I am very proud to be a Wharton alum so I wanted to give back to and do as much as I can to help the School maintain its spot among the top business schools in the world. Wharton has had such a profound impact on my life. It has helped me successfully navigate my career and multiple job searches, with the Wharton alumni directory, the Wharton job board, the receptivity of the alumni network, and Wharton networking events in general. Going to Wharton has also introduced me to most of my best friends! As a result, I feel passionately about giving back and putting in as much eff ort as possible to motivate others to give back as well.WHAT WHARTON MEANS TO ME: While the education I received at Wharton was top-notch, to me the School is as much about what I learned outside the classroom as it is what I learned in the classroom. Many of my friends today are either from Wharton or through Wharton friends. Additionally, my involvement in clubs and activities has defi nitely made an impact on my personal and professional life. Finally, some of my most exciting adventures and experiences resulted from the numerous opportunities I had at Wharton to travel the world—through student-led excursions, GCP, WIVP or on my own with Wharton friends.MY REUNION EXPERIENCE: Not long enough! It was great being able to catch up with so many people I hadn’t seen in a long time, but there were so many others I wish I could have also spent more time with. Everyone is so busy “in the real world.” Th e reunion was a great opportunity to stop and refl ect on life since graduation, hear about what everyone has accomplished in such a short period of time, meet future Wharton grads, and reconnect with friends from school.

AMBASSADOR SPOTLIGHTS

Marie Williams, G’95, WG’95 (Engagement Ambassador)HOMETOWN: Ashburn, VAWHY I’M AN AMBASSADOR: Becoming a Class Ambassador was an easy decision for me. For my 15th reunion, I was the Communications and Technology Chair, and my goal was to create platforms to reconnect everyone. Over the years, we’ve built a great foundation through Facebook, Twitter and our robust network of cohorts. I view my role as an Ambassador as an extension of this, and I hope to build upon it.WHAT WHARTON MEANS TO ME: Simply put, it’s a very valuable brand to have on your resume. Th is has been all the more apparent to me as I’ve changed companies. I know that I can always rely on the Wharton network. My classmates, in particular, are incredibly helpful when I need to make connections—personally and professionally.MY REUNION EXPERIENCE: It never fails to amaze me at how well my class comes together. We lucked into fantastic weather that weekend, but Reunion is always a great opportunity. With those you knew well, you just pick up where you left off . And with those you didn’t, you get to know them better. I also enjoy taking advantage of the faculty seminars and brushing up on the latest research. But my favorite moment was our class picnic on Saturday. Th e weather was gorgeous, the location ideal, the atmosphere relaxed and the conversations engaging.

Don Short, WG’70 (Engagement Ambassador)HOMETOWN: Buzzards Bay, MAWHY I’M AN AMBASSADOR: Reconnecting with classmates has led to plans for getting together this summer with a number of people. Since we are on the coast on Buzzards Bay, a number of classmates plan to stop by as they sail north this summer. Renewing friendships and establishing new ones with classmates that “have gone through the minefi elds” of two years of graduate study at Wharton and the opportunity to benefi t from the many Wharton outreach programs is most exciting and revitalizing!

WHAT WHARTON MEANS TO ME: Wharton provided me with the skills to progress from marketing and sales to general management in the “business world” and the skills to be able to do some adjunct teaching. At fi rst Wharton was a door-opener into Fortune 500 companies and then smaller, more entrepreneurial companies. Later it was a supporting credential in attaining greater responsibility. My experience as a Teaching Fellow in Marketing at Wharton began my love of teaching. In recent years, I’ve taught seven diff erent courses at the graduate and undergraduate levels, furthering my own learning, too, in fi elds far diff erent from my marketing major.MY REUNION EXPERIENCE: I’ve learned that reunions are increasingly special as we grow older. From the time I hit the registration desk, meeting two classmates, we were all on the go: lunch, meeting more classmates; to the excellent globalization seminar; to a pre-cocktail party before the class dinner, meeting all the returnees. It was terrifi c to meet the “gang” and spouses. I really enjoyed participating in activities at Wharton’s fi rst-class facilities, a quantum leap forward from our one building, Dietrich Hall. Edward Cook, WG’90 (Development Ambassador)HOMETOWN: Costa Mesa, CAWHY I’M AN AMBASSADOR: First and foremost, we had and continue to have a phenomenal Wharton class. It was an amazing, collegial group of very creative people, and that made our experience during business school exceptional. Th at’s carried through to a lot of people’s desires to keep Wharton relevant throughout our careers.WHAT WHARTON MEANS TO ME: Wharton has been a very important asset in my life, which is why I’ve given back both with my time and fi nancially. Wharton is an incredible institution that is basically at the tip of the sword of America’s business competitiveness. Wharton has some of the top thought leaders in the entire business world, and we are graduating people who are going to shape our future, particularly at this questionable junction. MY REUNION EXPERIENCE: Reunion gave me the opportunity to reach out to alums all over the world. I was able to recruit friends and classmates from Th ailand, from Mexico, from London, from all corners. It became a daisy chain of enthusiasm. … We ended up with an event that nobody wanted to end. To a man and woman, there was an overwhelmingly positive response to Reunion.

Wharton’s Class Engagement Ambassador and Class Development Ambassador programs off er new opportunities for alumni to get involved with their alma mater. Engagement Ambassadors work with Wharton Alumni Aff airs to keep communication going within their class, in both reunion years and non-reunion years, by sending out letters to classmates and managing social networking sites. Development Ambassadors work with Th e Wharton Fund team and help contribute to the School’s fundraising eff orts by rallying giving from those in their class years. Four Ambassadors recently spoke with Wharton Magazine about why they decided to take on this responsibility, what Wharton means to them and how rewarding their eff orts have been. —Tim Hyland

For more information about the Ambassador program, call Diane Feissel at 215-573-8527.

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EMAIL: [email protected] FAX: +1-215-898-269542 | WHARTON MAGAZINE | SUMMER 201042 | WHARTON MAGAZINE | SUMMER 2010

2005. The Edelmans winter in Bonita Springs, FL. His “greatest accomplishment:” the grandchildren. They graduated from Colgate, Columbia and McGill, one is a student at Northeastern, the youngest is 13 years old.

Bill Berger made his home in Upper Montclair, NJ, for 37 years, before moving to live at Leisure Knoll in Manchester, NJ (near Tom’s River and Lakehurst). After graduation from Penn, he worked for Strawbridge & Clothier in Philadelphia, including a two-year stint in the US Army. From there he went to work for Montgomery Ward, fi rst in Baltimore and later to New York City. After nine years with Montgomery Ward he moved to WT Grant, also in New York City, for seven years. Bill writes: “When they went under, I already had a deal with a ‘head-hunter’ to join and spend 20 years with General Felt, a holding company.” It was the holding company for Knoll Offi ce Furniture, Color Tile, Diamond Lumber and Foamex International, with home offi ces in Saddle Brook, NJ. The work involved lots of travel with various private truck fl eets, other trucking/rail/ocean containers, and household goods moving services. All these and more provided Bill with the opportunity to do some consulting work to help them improve transportation and distribution problems. He greatly enjoyed annual meetings of some related professional groups: the National Industrial Traffi c League, Furniture Traffi c Managers Conference, Chain Store Traffi c League and one that he helped found in 1974 as fi rst president and 20 years as a director: the Transportation Consumers Protection Council, with 900 corporate members. Bill says, “It was lots of fun, the only major regret was the lack of portability for pensions in private industry. But a company headquarters move just two days from my 65th birthday gave some good settlements for those not wanting to move to Linwood, PA (me!).” In June, Bill travels with six family members to Alaska, with a fi rst stop at Ketchikan, the world’s salmon capital.

Howard A. (Hank) Goodman marks his beginning at Penn with the advent of University President Harold E. Stassen, who at one of those many “freshman smokers” told us, “I, too, am a freshman here!” Barely three months after graduation, Hank went into the US Army as an enlisted man and ended up in Okinawa in May of 1953. Fortunately, the war ended in July. “Okinawa,” he says, “was great, but had a lousy golf course—sand greens!” Returning to the US and civilian life, Howard got married, divorced and remarried. “Great gal,” he says of the latter as they get ready to celebrate their 40th anniversary in October. There was a son from each of his two marriages and both are married and live nearby. There are three grandchildren from his fi rst marriage. Life insurance was his major at Penn and he was a commercial insurance broker all his working life. His last position was with Arthur J. Gallagher, one of the three or four largest in the world and listed on the NY Stock Exchange. Although he would have preferred to continue, the age barrier enforced his retirement. Hank has lived all his life in New York City, but also had a house in Connecticut. His letter comes from Palm Beach Gardens, FL, where he plays some bridge, some golf and eats a lot. “Boring. They call it God’s waiting room. The big event of the day is when I get a joke or story on my email” (he enclosed two that he felt were “appropriate”). “I am still very friendly with one of my classmates. The others either died or I lost track of them.” I think he meant all of us when he wrote: “Hope you have a good life.”


Felix A. SantoniBox 34125Fort Buchanan, PR 00934-0125 Felix Santoni writes: “I continue to travel on personal and military matters and will visit Fort Carson in April, Denver, for the Council on Foundations meeting, and Kansas City for the Secretary of the Army’s Civilian Aides Conference. Supporting our soldiers and their

families is a great way to serve, and I am very grateful that I have been given this opportunity to continue to serve our Army. It all started for me as an ROTC Cadet at the University of Pennsylvania and continues today.”


Jim Orlow120 Sibley Avenue Apartment 307 Ardmore, PA 19003-2312


Eric W. JohnsonWinter address:Th e Summit Condominiums707 N. Helen StreetMount Dora, FL 32757Tel: 352-383-8520

Summer address:Th e Oaks305 White Oak DriveHendersonville, NC 28791Tel: 828-697-3444


Bart A. Barre, Esq.P.O. Box 1206135 Wild Hedge LaneMountainside, NJ 07092-0206Phone: (908) 233-5550Fax: (908) [email protected]

60s


Harry S. Yates58 Champions Bend CircleHouston, TX 77069Tel: 1-800-755-5962Fax: [email protected]

First, I’d like to thank Igor, one of the six people who actually reads this column, for urging me to be more politically correct.

Rear Admiral Bob Weidman, C’63, retired from the Navy

in 1999 and from the CIA in 2003. Bob was regular Navy in Penn’s NROTC. While serving at Ft. Meade in the National Security Agency (NSA), he met and married Cathy, who worked for the Canadian liaison to the NSA. Bob keeps ties to the Navy as president of the Navy League in San Antonio, TX. He spends a lot of time playing doubles tennis, and he’s the head of the local Penn Alumni Club, which hosted the Penn Glee Club in May.

Ben Castle, C’60 attended Georgetown Law School and is an attorney who confronts men who abuse children. Ben says, in a way, he’s a child lawyer. Ben married Nikki, a Bryn Mawr girl, who has two masters degrees and a PhD in fi elds related to law and social policy. Ben wanted to move his new bride to New Mexico, and she wanted to settle down in Philadelphia. Ben says they “compromised” and settled in Delaware. Ben rowed for Penn’s lightweight crew and would still row but for a herniated disc that limits his water sports to sailing on Chesapeake Bay.

Tom White, WG’67, a friend from church, joined Humble Oil and Refi ning (later Exxon) right after graduating from Penn. He later spent 12 years as an independent marketing consultant and is now president of Vision Resources, Inc., an oil marketing and trading company in Houston.

Another church friend, Frank Embick, WG’61, served in the Navy for 4 years after graduating from Princeton. Frank worked in fi nance and accounting with Exxon for his career. He remembers meeting Malcolm X in 1964 in Africa. Mr. X lamented that he was better known in the US but just another American in Africa. I told Frank that I saw X at an outdoor lecture at Berkeley in 1963.

Charlie Kleinbaum continues his career as a real estate attorney in New York. After graduating from Penn he attended the University of Chicago for his law degree. Charlie also represents the securities regulator FINRA in arbitrations. His wife, Abby, is a retired college professor. They have two children, one, an attorney in New York state and the other,

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an urban planner in Oakland, CA.Ray Peil stays pretty close to

home in Easton, PA, with his signifi cant other since 1993. Ray used to recruit for Penn and saw some of his recruits play ball for Penn. He had transferred from Penn State and pitched for Penn once, a game in relief, against Temple. Their big hitter Pickles Kennedy, hit an inside-the-park home run that warranted this headline in the DP: “Pickles Kennedy Pickles Peil’s Pitch.” A sore arm put Ray into retirement.

Dave Dockham spent half of his business life in public administration and the other half with Sprint, forecasting for their northwest region to help Sprint decide on making capital expenditures. Dave reports that Wes Wadman died recently. Both Dave and Wes were associated with the Fels Institute of the Wharton School.

Lud Jones, W’59, father of fi ve boys and one girl, has great memories of Penn, its wonderful campus, and the excellent education Penn off ered us all. Lud regrets that “the entire Ivy League and many other good schools have been turned into hotbeds of liberalism.” He lives and works in Fort Worth, TX, as a business broker. Ninety percent of his contracts originate on the sell side.

As for me, I stay involved with church work, most recently with Kairos, a religious mission to prisons. Thirty fi ve of us spent four days at Texas’ maximum security prison talking and working with 42 inmates selected from the hundreds who had applied. What did I take away from the weekend?1. They receive little mail and few visitors.2. They trust few people.3. They can forgive others but not themselves.4. They are open to a religious conversion.5. They will have a tough time in the free world with few skills and a prison record to show for many years of their lives.

And fi nally, ’60 leads the Red & Blue!


Walter L. Pepperman II, W’61, L’67549 Coy Hill RoadTwin Mountains FarmPost Offi ce Box 1234Middletown Springs, VT 05757-1234Tel: 802-235-3700Fax: [email protected]


Howard P. Weisz1210 Winthrope LaneWest Chester, PA [email protected]


Judy Cederbaum Kobell2758 Mt. Royal RoadPittsburgh, PA [email protected]


Jay S. WeitzmanPark America, Inc.Park America BuildingOne Bala AvenueSuite 500Bala Cynwyd, PA 19004Tel: 610-617-2100Fax:[email protected]


Bruce Hoff manI. Levy Sons, Inc.734 East Boston Post RoadMamaroneck, NY 10543Fax: [email protected]


Glen Jacobs W’67Post Offi ce Box 145Lenni, PA 19052

Gregg Huff has moved to teach and research at the University of Oxford where he is Senior Research Fellow at Pembroke College. Gregg leaves the University of Glasgow, where he was a Professor of Economics.


John A. Cantrill

Cantrill, Clark & Davis15 Garrett AvenueRosemont, PA 19010Fax: [email protected]

Paul H. Ross retired from New York-based ING Investment Management in June 2007. Soon thereafter, he opened a family offi ce, Westover Asset Management LLC. “My life in New York City remains as busy as when I was employed, but there is much more satisfaction to help individual clients and charities. As well, there has been more time for visiting with friends, traveling and reading. I recommend a busy retirement to all my classmates!”


Robert H. LouisSaul Ewing LLP1500 Market Street, 38th FloorPhiladelphia, PA 19102Tel: 215-972-7155Fax: [email protected]

70s


Gary E. Meringer, [email protected]

Larry Finkelstein is a highly experienced (35 years) sophisticated business lawyer with business and fi nance experience, representing very substantial privately held companies, primarily family-owned businesses, located all over the U.S., and foreign owned companies in purchasing, establishing and operating U.S. businesses, including cross-border transactions and relationships. Particular specialties include M&A, fi nancing (debt and equity), joint venture and cross-border transactions, as well as business, tax and succession planning. Clients are in many

industries, including health care, real estate, sophisticated manufacturing and fi nancial services.

R. Dixon Thayer is happily married (to another Penn grad) with two sons in high school.He recently took the CEO role at Southwest Windpower Inc., the VC-backed global leader in distributed wind power products; headquartered in Flagstaff , AZ. He writes: “Before this, I was CEO of I-trax Health Solutions, a healthcare company traded on AMEX (DMX); acquired by Walgreens in 2008. Before this, I was CEO of GreenLeaf Auto Recycling (after leading and LBO of this division from Ford Motor in 2003); sold to Schnitzer Steel in 2005. I also worked with “Chainsaw” Al Dunlap at Scott Paper and Sunbeam, and Jacques Nasser at Ford. Still having fun. It’s been a wild ride so far!”

Jack Arnold is working for IBM storage in Tucson, AZ. “My job is technical in nature, as a consultant on disk storage controllers and business continuity. I’ve got a great family that keeps expanding (at home right now are three wonderful boys and a great wife). My personal

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email is [email protected] if anyone wants to get in touch.”

Gary Meringer is delighted to announce that he has accepted the position of General Counsel and Chief Operating Offi cer for Global Hunter Securities, LLC, an international investment bank headquartered in New Orleans, LA.


Steven D. Stern, CFAInvestment Advisor4401-A Connecticut Ave. NWPMB #213Washington, DC 20008Tel: 202-248-1762Fax: [email protected]


Laurence H. Schecker, Esq.13104 Hugo PlaceSilver Springs, MD [email protected]


Jo KarabaszBox 215Broadway, NJ 08808


Alan GradCEO, PresidentAmerican Business & Professional Program, Inc.1205 Northern BoulevardManhasset, NY 11030Tel: 516-627-3900 Ext. 264Fax: [email protected]


Lisa Brown-Premo3417 Meadow Bluff DriveCharlotte, NC 28226-1128


Rick WienAmerican Business & Professional Program, Inc.470 Park Ave. South 6th Floor New York, NY 10016Tel: 212-842-3608Fax: [email protected]

80s


Bill TamulonisErickson Retirement Communities701 Maiden Choice LaneBaltimore, MD 21228Tel: [email protected]

Gerard J. Bifulco writes: “Mayann and I recently welcomed Grace into this world that already includes our granddaughters Jada and Kaitlyn and our grandson Nicholas. Our daughters Nichole and Crystal are wonderful moms and our sons Gerard and Timothy are proving to be terrifi c uncles! I have moved to Ameriprise Financial where I continue to grow my fi nancial advisory and asset management practice. Best of luck to all of you and enjoy your 30th reunion!”


Larry Erlich3554 Hulmeville Road, Suite 108Bensalem, PA 19020Tel: 215-244-6700Fax: [email protected]


Lawrence M. Lipoff Lipoff Global Advisors 46 Powder Horn DriveSuff ern, NY 10901-2428Tel: 914-262-6812 llipoff @lipoff advisors.com


Mary [email protected]

Sharon Stern writes: “Following 20 years of working in corporate fi nance in New York with Salomon Brothers, Bankers Trust and Deutsche Bank, I got married and moved to the Hamptons. Over the last fi ve years, I have been involved in real

estate and am now at Sotheby’s International Realty in our Bridgehampton offi ce. The Hamptons are extremely beautiful and the real estate business here is unique and exciting; it is great to be able to enjoy this gorgeous place while being active in one of the country’s most active resort markets. If you are ever in the area, please send me an email at [email protected].

W. Blake Baird, W’83, C’83, is now Chairman and Chief Executive Offi cer of Terreno Realty Corporation, a NYSE-listed acquirer, owner and operator of industrial real estate in six major coastal U.S. locations. Terreno completed its initial public off ering in February 2010.


Michal Clements2669 Orrington AvenueEvanston, IL 60201

ADLER

Jeff rey Adler organized a program which brought Jehoshua (Josh) Eliashberg to the Wharton Club of Washington, DC in February 2010. Professor Eliashberg is the Sebastian S. Kresge Professor of Marketing and Professor of Operations and Information Management at the Wharton School.

Jeff rey Adler was one of Professor Eliashberg’s very fi rst Marketing Research students when he fi rst started teaching at Wharton in 1982. Eliashberg inspired Jeff rey to pursue a career in Marketing Research. Upon graduation, Jeff rey was hired as a Marketing Research Supervisor for Procter & Gamble. Since 1997, Jeff rey has been a principal of Centrac DC Marketing Research,

where he is currently President. Jeff rey has traveled back to Wharton every year for the last several years to guest lecture for Professor Eliashberg’s graduate and undergraduate marketing classes in Marketing Research, New Product Development and Marketing Models.

At the DC Club event, Professor Eliashberg shared his groundbreaking work in bringing some ‘science’ to the movie industry. He described and refl ected on his work with movie exhibitors (Pathé Cinema), movie distributors, and most recently, with movie producers for whom he and his colleagues developed a scripts-based fi lm demand forecasting program. Our alumni really appreciated the opportunity to learn about how the models he developed at Wharton were quantifi ably proven eff ective in real world applications with movie exhibitors, movie distributors and movie producers.

Adler is a long time contributor to the DC Club, a charter member of the DC Wharton Leads Council and Leads Council Ambassador to other Wharton Leads Councils. He indicated Professor Eliashberg’s visit was important for the DC Club because, “Outstanding Wharton professors are at the core of the fi ber which created and holds together the Wharton Club of Washington, DC. The opportunity to continue to interact with Wharton professors as alumni helps us to continue to stay dedicated to the concept of lifelong learning upon which the Wharton School is based.”

Several other students of Professor Eliashberg’s attended the event, which is certainly testament to the high regard in which he is held by his students.


Maria Grazul319 East 53 Street #4CNew York, NY [email protected]

Greetings all. I hope that you’re doing well and enjoying the early summer. Please remember to send in your news!

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Marty Lessner has written that the Delaware Children’s Museum opened in April. After years, literally, of hard work by Marty’s wife, Lisa, the new museum is a Delaware fi rst. In between preparing for the new museum opening, Marty, Lisa and kids took a family vacation to Europe, where they visited Marty’s sister in England and saw all of Paris in a single day. Wow, that makes me tired! Back at home, Marty’s eldest, Sabrina, earned her driver’s license and has begun looking into colleges. Zack, 14, concentrates on sports, with golf, bowling and baseball among his favorites. Jodi, 12, continues with ballet, tap, lyrical, jazz and hip hop dance, but has also become a bigger Phillies fan, much to Marty’s delight.


Laurie Kopp Weingarten129 Briarcliff DriveMorganville, NJ 07751Tel: [email protected]

Hi everyone! It’s been terrifi c to hear from so many of you. If you aren’t receiving quarterly emails from me, it’s because your email address is outdated/incorrect. Please email me at the address listed above so I can add you to the updates. Keep the news coming... it’s nice to catch up with former classmates!

Jim Mitchell, W’86, L’89, is a partner at Stillman, Friedman & Shechtman, P.C. in New York. His law practice involves litigation with a focus on white collar criminal defense law. He and his wife Jennifer Mitchell (Gierke), W’86, C’86, live in Westchester County, NY, with their four children, ages 16, 14, 11 and 2. Jennifer retired from DeutscheBank in 2004 after an 18-year career in derivatives and hedge fund-related business.

Michael A. Goldstein writes that since being profi led in a 2005 issue of the Wharton Alumni Magazine, he was promoted to (Full) Professor of Finance at Babson College in 2007, and was appointed the Natalie Taylor Senior Term Chair last year. He has published articles in fi nance journals and won “Best Paper”

awards. Michael became Chair of NASDAQ’s Economic Advisory Board for 2005, and has been a member of the Economic Advisory Board of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) since 2007. He has also served as an Expert Witness in a variety of litigation cases (including Citigroup v. Enron) and is a Senior Advisor with The Brattle Group. Last spring Michael took a sabbatical in Ireland, and was appointed a Visiting Professor at Trinity College (Dublin) and appointed to be an Honorary Professor at the Queen’s University of Belfast (UK). His wife, Joanne C. Pratt, Gr’91, was also at Queen’s as a Visiting Senior Research Fellow in Biomedical Sciences. Michael recently became Chair of the Faculty Senate at Babson and was also appointed Faculty Director of The Stephen D. Cutler Center for Investments and Finance. Also, he has received a National Science Foundation grant to study the eff ect of changes in seasonality on the Arctic economy; you can follow this at www.arcticecon.com. In addition, Michael was appointed as an Associate Editor of The Financial Review, and is a Director of the Eastern Finance Association. Classmates can reach Michael at www.magoldstein.com. Michael has been told that he is still the only person in Wharton’s 129-year history to receive all four degrees that Wharton confers, but would like to know if this is not accurate.

Eric Roberts is currently a Managing Director of the Caxton Advantage Life Sciences Fund, which makes public and private equity investments in life sciences companies. He co-founded the fund in 2005 after leaving Lehman Brothers where he was Managing Director and Co-Head of the Healthcare Investment Banking Group. He resides in Manhattan and Millerton, NY with his wife, M.C.

A. Scott Bobrow and Greg O’Connor are in the midst of launching a new venture called AuditionBooth. “Our partner is Paula Abdul. This is the fi rst thing she committed to doing since leaving ‘American Idol.’” It is an

online talent discovery site that will modernize the way casting is done for TV, fi lm, music, brands, etc., and allow for people from every nook and cranny to fi nd their way to fame. Sounds exciting!

That’s all for now. Keep the updates coming!

Weir & Partner LLP is pleased to announce that Abbe A. Miller has joined the fi rm. Miller concentrates her practice in the areas of creditors’ rights, insolvency and restructuring. She represents secured and unsecured creditors in bankruptcy proceedings and related transactions, commercial litigation and out-of-court work-outs. She also represents debtors and creditors’ committees in Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings and buyers and sellers of assets and real property. Miller is a member of the American Bankruptcy Institute, the Turnaround Management Association and the Eastern District of Pennsylvania Bankruptcy Conference. Miller is a former Vice Chair of the Education Committee of the Eastern District Bankruptcy Conference. Miller served on the Board of Directors of the Consumer Bankruptcy Assistance Program, a pro bono organization. Weir & Partners LLP, with offi ces in Philadelphia, Delaware and New Jersey, specializes in banking and business fi nance.


Leslie Sherman Crane25 Quidnic RoadNewton, MA 02468

Wendy Ferber writes: “I am the co-owner of a promotional company called Pride Products. For the past twelve years I have helped to run the company, but starting in 2010 I’ve decided to take on a new challenge by selling for Pride Products. We imprint, embroider and emboss logos on anything from inexpensive giveaways for trade shows and conferences to high-end gifts for clients, prospects and employee recognition—any item that will help to build market presence and brand awareness (i.ei, bags, umbrellas, eco-friendly “green” items, UBS drives, apparel and desk items, pens, etc.) I would love to hear from classmates. [email protected].”


Marci Cohen4 Kensington ParkArlington, MA [email protected]


Keith Wasserstrom3810 N 41 AvenueHollywood, FL [email protected]

LEIJON AND PORTALES

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90s


Alan J. [email protected]

Dawn Leijon writes: “For the last two years, I’ve been working with a small team to research and build a comprehensive college planning website called WiseChoice (www.wisechoice.com). We went live in late 2009 with the mission of helping high school students fi nd the colleges that fi t them best. We evaluate all the important factors—student personality, academics, preferences and priorities, and the family budget, then use a sophisticated fuzzy logic matching engine to rate how well each college matches the student. Our goal is to improve students’ chances of success in college since currently less than two-thirds of college students get a degree within six years of starting! One of our challenges was to fi gure out how to capture the personality of each college. Our solution was to undertake a massive marketing research eff ort: asking college students from over 1,300 schools across the country to complete a survey about their campuses. So far we’ve gotten over 100,000 students to weigh in, and I’ve learned a lot about Facebook advertising in the process. On the personal side, I continue to live in DC with my Swedish husband and three kids (Lukas, 9, Edvin, 7, Linnea, 4). I’ve recently reconnected with several Penn classmates via Facebook, and I was able to get together in person with Karen Portales, on a short trip to Disney World. Facebook has been a great way to keep up with long-lost friends from college. Everyone should give it a try!”


Robert Lee200 East 87th Street #18DNew York, NY 10128


Juan E. Alva15233 Ventura Blvd.Penthouse 2Sherman Oaks, CA 91403juan@fi ft hstreetcap.comOffi ce: 818-990-3144Cell: 310-993-2582


Christopher C. LeeBetts, Patterson & Mines, P.S.701 Pike Street, Suite 1400Seattle, WA 98101-3927Tel: 206-268-8659Fax: [email protected]

Mazy Moghadam writes from Monte-Carlo, Monaco where he moved two years ago after 10 years in London. He and his wife, Leila, are pleased to report the birth of Amber Yas, a little baby sister for Cameron, age 8 and Ariana, age 6. Mazy is with Merrill Lynch doing private client and family offi ce work, based out of Monaco with a strong connection to London still, covering clients across Europe. Mazy and his family are enjoying life on the beach after all the years in the UK.


Mindy Nagorsky-Israel 8 Oak Valley LanePurchase, NY [email protected]

Kaihan Krippendorff and Pilar Ramos, C’94, are proud to welcome their third child, Makar, to the world. He was born on March 16, 2010. Above is a picture of him on day one with his brother and sister, Lucas and Kaira. Heather (Lawrence) Carrillo writes: “I got married on June 20, 2009. Heather Peikes Kirschner, C’94, and Michelle Boisvert Cutter, C’93, were Penn alums in attendance. My husband’s name is Christian Carrillo.”

KRIPPENDORFF

Tobias Dengel writes: “I’ve recently become CEO of WillowTree Apps, Inc., a boutique custom mobile applications development company based in Charlottesville, VA, where I live with my wife and two young sons.”

Joe Cohen is living in New York with his wife Dalia and their three boys: Ezra, Jack and Morris. Joe is a Vice President at Goldman Sachs in the Private Wealth Management Group. He works with individuals and their families to provide them with risk management techniques, wealth advisory services and access to the best thinking of the fi rm.

Brian Hurst and Nisha Hurst, W’95, report that Asher Jason Hurst was born on February 18, 2010 at Greenwich Hospital. He was 6 lbs., 6oz. and 19.5 inches long. Big sister Maya and big brothers Dillon and Chase are crazy about him. Nisha says: “He is growing quickly and has a strong personality. I guess he has to in order to be heard as the youngest of four!” Brian is a principal at AQR Capital Management in Greenwich.

Marcos Galpern writes: “MercadoLibre, the company I founded in 1999, is the largest e-commerce and online payments platform in Latin America. We IPOed in NASDAQ in 2007 (ticker: MELI). The company grew from four persons in a garage in Buenos Aires to a regional company with 1,500 employees, $2.7 billion in transactions and 12 million unique active buyers and sellers in 2009.” Congrats to Marcos.

Stefan Whitwell and family are enjoying their fl ip video camera, having most recently captured their 3-year-old son holding his fi rst frog on video, LOL! Professionally, Stefan is building up FX Solutions, LLC

(FXwealth.net) and developing an automated trading algorithm, so he can tap into overnight volatility while he is sleeping.


David Simon One Columbus PlaceApartment S-16FNew York, NY [email protected]


Sandy Rapkin3270 Glendale Ave.Menlo Park, CA [email protected]


Karen KrauseTh e McGraw-Hill Companies1221 Avenue of the Americas47th FloorNew York, NY 10020Tel: [email protected]

AKHTAR

Senwan H. Akhtar has joined the law fi rm of Greenbaum, Rowe, Smith & Davis LLP in its Woodbridge, NJ offi ce. Akhtar is a member of both the Corporate and Real Estate Departments.Akhtar’s experience includes the representation of companies in general corporate matters, private venture fi nancings, federal securities laws compliance, employment agreements, distribution and licensing agreements, and the structuring

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of new business entities and joint ventures. She represents sellers and purchasers in all aspects of real estate acquisitions and dispositions, including offi ce buildings, industrial facilities, shopping centers and residential developments. Akhtar also represents landlords and tenants in the negotiation of leases for offi ce, retail and industrial properties. In addition, Akhtar represents lenders and borrowers in a wide variety of fi nancing transactions, including construction and permanent loans, secured and unsecured credit facilities, the purchase and sale of loans, and the workout of distressed loans. In 2009, Akhtar was recognized as one of Real Estate New Jersey magazine’s Women of Infl uence. She is a LEED Accredited Professional (LEED AP), a credential awarded by the U.S. Green Building Council, and she is a member of the board of directors of the New Jersey Women Lawyers Association. She received her J.D. from New York University School of Law. In 2010, Greenbaum, Rowe, Smith & Davis LLP celebrates its 96th year of building business in New Jersey. The fi rm has over 100 attorneys in four main practice departments: Litigation; Real Estate; Corporate; and Tax, Trusts and Estates. The fi rm has offi ces located in Woodbridge and Roseland, NJ. Class Correspondent W’98

Cindy Young MontanoBrandAsset Consulting285 Madison AvenueNew York, NY [email protected]

Hi Class,For this issue, I have much baby news to share. Congratulations to all the new and expecting parents!

Hester Chang and Michael Chang, W’97, delivered their son, Ian, on Jan. 12, 2010. Ian’s older sister Emma, now 3, has welcomed him nicely!

JP Lespinasse has twice the good news. He is engaged and expecting a baby boy in June. He and his new family will reside in Hoboken, NJ. JP continues to

work at the NBA, as a Director of Marketing. Finally, he is selling his Manhattan mini-loft studio. Please contact him at djtakefi [email protected] if you know of anyone looking for an apartment. Listing link: http://bit.ly/east37.

Kimberly Baltz has been keeping herself very busy, but took a few minutes to email me her exciting news. “I just formed an LLC, Exodus 35:31 Artistry, LLC to help me pursue my writing and artwork. I’ve already shown my artwork (pastels) in a gallery in Grand Lake, CO, but I’m hoping to get it shown in a Denver gallery as well and possibly even sell some pieces! I’m also working on self-publishing some children’s stories. I just started working with an illustrator. Once the illustrations are ready, I’m going to submit it to a publisher and have the book printed! It will be available on Amazon.com, BarnesandNoble.com, and available for order at any bookstore. I’m hoping to have the fi rst book out by the end of the year—Frieda Tails, Volume One: A Tea Party with Frieda the

Fox & Frieda Goes to Town (two stories). I’m working on my sixth Frieda story right now and have two novels I need to work on as well. Busy! I’m also working on residential real estate investment and development deals with my parents.”

Hope all of you are enjoying the summer!


Hang Kim210 Poplar AvenueWayne, PA 19087 Tel: 610-909-5925Fax: [email protected]

Jackie Kamali and his wife, Shirley, are thrilled to announce the birth of their second daughter, Chloe Kamali, on October 25; she weighed 7 lbs., 2 oz., and was 20 inches long at birth. They live in Great Neck, NY, where he is a real estate developer.

Amy Paul Tunick was recently promoted to President of Alliance, the entertainment marketing agency of Grey Group and

WPP. Amy has been with the company, where a collaborative team specializes in developing, negotiating and activating buzzworthy marketing and public relations concepts for brands that leverage celebrities, television shows, movies, music, events, causes, promotions and brand partnerships, for seven years. She welcomes new business or career inquiries and partnership ideas from brands, agencies or entertainment properties. Learn more at www.alliance-agency.com. Amy and her husband Jonathan live on Manhattan’s Lower East Side, where she is active in the alumni network of Wharton undergrad’s Lantern Society.

00s

Class Correspondents W’00

Tomas [email protected] Th [email protected]


Aaron [email protected]

Raja Ramachandran, W’01, ENG’01, and Richa Misra, C’00, recently moved to Saratoga, CA. Raj graduated from Harvard Business School in June 2009 after spending fi ve years at Microsoft in various roles. Richa completed her internal medicine residency at the University of Washington in 2007 and proceeded to work for two years at Harvard Vanguard as an Internist. With the move to California, Raj is now an Associate Investment Manager with Intel Capital as a part of Intel’s Accelerated Leadership Program and Richa is an Internist with Kaiser Permanente. They also have two children: Rohan (son, 2.5

Karen Havers (last name Smith now) and her husband Chris Smith welcomed the arrival of their twin girls, Rachel Kathryn and Taylor Nicole, on November 14, 2009, in Wynnewood, PA. Karen has been working in health care for almost seven years since leaving the Big 4, and currently is the Assistant Compliance Offi cer for Main Line Health System outside Philadelphia.

KarenHavers W’98

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FAX: +1-215-898-269548 | WHARTON MAGAZINE | SUMMER 2010 EMAIL: [email protected]

years) and Ruchika (daughter, 1 year), and are eager to reconnect with other Penn alums in the Bay Area.

Jon Hoff enberg is now the Executive Vice President of the Foundation for Hair Restoration and Plastic Surgery.

Sugata Ray, WG’01, GrW’09, completed his Ph.D. in Finance from Wharton in May 2009. He married Shalini Bhargava in Philadelphia in June 2009. After honeymooning in wine country, they moved to Gainesville, FL, to take up their new jobs teaching at the University of Florida. They also recently had a cute little baby boy, Rahul Ray (born March 2010), who is decidedly nocturnal and delights in keeping his mommy and daddy awake at night.

Fernando Okumura has taken the role of CEO at Kekanto, a local services review site in São Paulo, Brazil, that shares similarities with Yelp! and other collaborative guides. He’s also a partner at ITCapital Ltda., a digital marketing consulting fi rm focused on the Brazilian market.

Gina Faarup married Arturo Cochez on September 2, 2006 in Panama City, Panama. Gina and her husband are also proud to announce the birth of their daughter Georgina Lilla on December 12, 2009 in Panama. She weighed 6 lbs., 15 oz. Gina continues to work at HSBC where she is Vice President of Finance. Gina, Arturo and Georgina are enjoying their time together as a family in their home in Panama.

James Casey and his wife Jocelyn recently purchased a home in Center City Philadelphia and are looking forward to the birth of their fi rst child in September. James recently started working for Jocelyn’s family business, The Faulkner Automotive Group.

After a successful career in brand management, Jared Suscohas happily made an industry shift to higher education by returning to Wharton as the new Director of Operations & Strategy for the Undergraduate Division. He is also engaged to Christopher Stearns, L’05, whom

he will marry in Boothbay Harbor, Maine on Oct. 10, 2010.

Kevin G. Lenaghan, W’01, WG’08, married Heather Cohen in a beautiful ceremony in Sonoma Valley, CA in the summer of 2008. Kevin graduated from the Wharton MBA program with honors and dual concentrations in Finance and Entrepreneurial Management in December 2008. He currently serves as the Research Head for Multi-Strategy and Arbitrage Hedge Funds for Cliff water LLC, an investment advisory fi rm in New York. In his spare time, Kevin still enjoys playing classical piano, skiing and getting into trouble with his German Shepherd, Roxy.

Lindsay (Matthews) Ball and her husband, Steve, are thrilled to announce the birth of their fi rst child, daughter Elise Aurelia Ball. Elise arrived on her due date, April 9, 2010; she weighed in at 7 lbs., 3 oz. and measured 19.5 inches. Everyone is healthy and happy in San Diego. After enjoying her maternity leave Lindsay will return to her job as a Marketing Manager for Stewart Title, where she’s been since 2006.

Michael J. Germano, IV was promoted to Vice President of Wealth Management at Citigroup. He also joined The Watstein Group in the newly branded Citi Personal Wealth Management division of Citi. His nine-advisor team manages nearly $1 billion and provides broad-based fi nancial planning and investment management for the affl uent with specialization in fee-based asset management, estate planning, corporate stock/option services and syndicate. Recently, he also moved to the Upper East Side of Manhattan.

Sarah Rifaat, W’01, C’01, married Matthew Glowasky, W’03, C’03, on November 7, 2009 at the Episcopal Church of Saint John the Divine in Houston, Texas, with a reception following at the St. Regis Hotel. Alumni in the wedding party included the groom’s parents, Beth Cardwell, C’78, M’84 and Albert Glowasky, C’73, G’75, WG’84; maid of honor Carine Hejazi, W’03, and bridesmaids Sarah Aibel, C’03, and Sheila Evangelista, C’01; best man Luke Glowasky, C’10; groomsmen

Daniel Oswald, W’02, Nicholas Stipp, W’03, C’03; and usher Brian Cooper, W’03. Other alumni in attendance were David Bard, W’03, EAS’03, WG’11, Costas Constantinides, W’02, WG’11, David Graff , C’01, Benjamin Katz, W’03, Randy Kessler, W’03, Luke Panza, C’03, and Max Sung, W’03, C’03. Sarah and Matt live in New York City, where she is an attorney with the French aviation company Thales and he is a Vice President with Monarch Alternative Capital LP, a distressed debt asset management fi rm.

Farah Nathani, W’01, C’01 married Robert Menzies whom she met while working in London shortly after her MBA. They tied the knot last July in Jersey, Rob’s hometown in the UK. The celebrations then continued with their Indian wedding in Mumbai over the New Year. Many Penn alumni were in attendance to help celebrate including: Patrick Brett, W’02, Fahd Chinoy, C’01, Ryan Decker, W’01, C’01, Vivake Gupta, WG’06, Nisa Godrej, W’00, Christy Hart, W’00, C’00, Ashwin Hira, WG’04, Caroline Issa, W’99, Aleem Jivraj, W’01,Myrna Jivraj (Majmudar), C’01, Mukund Khaitan, C’02, Roberto Kriete, C’02, Ankit Minglani, W’01, Sumeet Nindrajog, W’01, Siddharth Parekh, W’01, Nikhil Shah, W’01, and Thomas Recchione, C’01. After living in India last year, Farah and Rob have now moved back to London and would love to hear from friends.


Sandy [email protected]


Alexis [email protected]

Dennis Mahoney Tupper, W’03, and his wife, Gina Marie Tupper, are thrilled to announce the birth of their fi rst daughter, Reagan Mackenzie Tupper, on February 28, 2010; she weighed 6 lbs., 1 oz., and measured 19 inches. She was welcomed by her proud grandparents, aunts, uncles,

cousins, and friends, including aunt Catherine Mahoney Tupper, C’06. Dennis and Gina currently live in Warren, NJ.

TUPPER

David Barclay, W’03, EAS’03,and Teri Ikegami Barclay, W’04,are excited to introduce their fi rst child, Kylie Alyssa Barclay, to the world. She was born on March 11 at 6 lbs., 9 oz, and 19 inches. The growing family lives in the San Francisco Bay Area where David works as the Director of Energy Management for OpenPeak and Teri is an Asset Manager in Commercial Real Estate.


Keri [email protected]


Joyce Huang142 East 49th StreetApartment 9DNew York, NY [email protected]


Daniel [email protected]


Varun [email protected]

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“Giving back is a part of the Wharton experience, from the moment you arrive on campus.I can think of no better way to continually foster and improve the Wharton community

than through a gift to The Wharton Fund.”

“I Support The Wharton Fund.Make Your Impact Today.”

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Emeritus Society Correspondent

Hugh Gillespie, WG’49Gillespie Machinery, Inc.506 W. Beechtree LaneWayne, PA 19087-3299Tel: 610-688-6028Fax: 610-688-7470

40s

Class Correspondent WG’49

Leonard Feldman1601 Market Street #2525Philadelphia, PA 19103-2301Tel: 215-567-8000 ext. 203Fax: [email protected]

50s


Edgar W. Caterson343 Camden LanePort Charlotte, FL 33953-1596 Tel: [email protected]


C. DeWitt Peterson310 Pleasant Valley AvenueMoorestown, NJ 08057-2610Tel: [email protected]


Philip Murkett1653 South Perry StreetMontgomery, AL 36104fi [email protected]


Walter S. Bruckner

Wharton MBAs5315 Vista MontanaYorba Linda, CA 92886-5716Tel: 800-779-2506Fax: [email protected]


Albert J. Anton, Jr. 2140 Bonnycastle Avenue, #6D Louisville, KY 40205-1319

60s


James J. Koch8801 West Oklahoma Avenue, #312Milwaukee, WI 53227


Frank Pinkus 18912 La Amistad PlaceTarzana, CA 91356Tel: 818-705-1885Fax: [email protected]


Jim Pollak8610 Parker PlaceRoswell, GA 30076Tel: [email protected]


Edward R. Raupp Georgian University of Social Sciences 77 Kostava Street, V BuildingTbilisi 0175, Georgia (Republic)Tel: +995 99 19 87 17 [email protected]


John W. Th ompsonTh ompson, Plumb & Associates, Inc.1200 John Q. Hammons DriveMadison, WI 53717-1940


Karel J. Samsom, PhD70 S. Winooski #111 Burlington, VT 05401 [email protected]

Charles Kurz retired from Keystone Shipping Company as president emeritus, after nearly 35 years with his family’s marine transportation business, which was started by his grandfather in Philadelphia.

Charles continues his work with the Kurz Family Scholarship Fund at Penn, which benefi ts Wharton students interested in a career in transportation. Beyond his life in the maritime industry he is enjoying a new career of “redeployment,” doing a variety of philanthropic fundraising work as a trustee for several charitable organizations, such as the Webb Institute, Camp Tecumseh and Valley Presbyterian Foundation. He recently became president of the Valley Presbyterian Foundation where his focus is on planned giving for growing his church’s endowment.

Karel J. Samsom continues his work through university seminars, public speaking and consulting in the U.S. and Europe. The strategic new business opportunities at the intersection of economy and ecology are growing at a phenomenal pace. Still, most companies don’t yet understand the full, profound, fundamental and physical changing relationships between economy and ecology. As a result, they miss out on vast arrays of emerging and profi table new opportunities. As one example, it was recently reported (Roper) that the fastest growing variable in the wide array of purchase motivations is neither price, nor quality or usefulness. It is the perceived values of the company producing these goods and services. Samsom writes: “My time at Wharton, 40 years ago, set me on a fantastically varied career path taking me all over the world and in a variety of international business, entrepreneurial and educational occupations. As a prime example, Prof. Howard Perlmutter was one of the pivotal infl uences in my

life, who taught me long before it was “fashionable” in business education that a systemic and holistic, people-based approach to worldwide business would be a winner in all respects.”

70s


Donald [email protected]

After 40 years in commercial banking in several banks in the Midwest and the East, the most recent being ECB Bancorp, Inc. [The East Carolina Bank], a community bank headquartered in Englehard, NC, where he served as President/CEO and Director for the last 15 years, Arthur Keeney has announced his retirement. He will continue to be involved in many statewide and regional activities and directorships, but looks forward to traveling with his wife, Alice, to include more frequent visits to their three children in Tampa, Baltimore and Rochester, NY. Art “looks forward to, and fi nally has the opportunity to manage his calendar instead of his calendar managing him!”

On December 4, 2009, the Consul General of the Netherlands

PAAP

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in New York, on behalf of Queen Beatrix, bestowed the Knighthood in the Order of Orange Nassau onto Henry P.M. Paap, Honorary Consul to New England from 1997 to 2008. The decoration was in recognition of Henry’s dedication as Consul to foster relations between the Netherlands and the New England states. Henry was born in the Netherlands and came to the U.S. in 1965. He has been a citizen since 1970, and he and his wife Judy reside in Wellesley, MA. Class Correspondent WG’71

Kathy Jassem1764 Russet DriveCherry Hill, NJ 08003

Frank X. Speidel has been appointed chief executive offi cer of St. Luke’s Hospital at The Vintage. Dr. Speidel will manage all aspects of the new hospital, including staffi ng, operations, marketing and regulatory compliance. He maintains his board certifi cation in emergency medicine.


Joan Eisenberg176 East 77 Street, #2FNew York, NY 10021Tel: 212-879-9013Fax: [email protected]


Charles P. RogersFax: [email protected]


Carmen (Jones) [email protected]


Jeff rey B. RotwittObermayer, Rebmann, Maxwell & Hippel, LLPOne Penn Center, 19th fl oor1617 John F. Kennedy BoulevardPhiladelphia, PA 19103-1895Tel: 215-665-3052Fax: 215-665-3139 jeff [email protected]


Soussan Manouchehri Arfaania1505 Wilson Terrace, Suite #155Glendale, CA 91206Fax: [email protected]

Gordon Logan, founder and CEO of Sport Clips, the nation’s leading hair care franchise dedicated to men and boys, and his wife Bettye, Sport Clips vice president, were recently recognized with two Georgetown, Texas-area philanthropy awards. The Georgetown Chamber of Commerce presented the Logans with the Jesse (Buz) Sawyer Philanthropy Award for their signifi cant contributions to the Georgetown community. The Logans also recently received, for a second time, the Jeremiah Milbank Society recognition for outstanding contribution to the Georgetown Boys & Girls Club.


Tad LaFountain41 Fairway DrivePrinceton, NJ 08540Tel: [email protected]


Robert C. Schneider12 Reeve RoadRockville Centre, NY [email protected]

Gary Gensler was profi led in a story in the March 11, 2010 edition of The New York Times entitled “A Convert to Reform.” He was also written up in an article in the March 11, 2010 edition of the Wall Street Journal entitled, “CFTC’s Gensler Criticizes Wall Street on OTC Regulation” and an article in the April 1, 2010 edition of the Washington Post entitled, “U.S. May Curb Energy Market Trading.”

Since graduation Barbara Kellc has spent her fi nancial career with Citibank and Credit Agricole (formerly Credit Lyonnais) heading up teams in securitization and loan syndications. She recently changed gears and joined Halstead Property in its Upper

West Side Manhattan offi ce specializing in residential sales. Barbara has lived on the Upper West Side of Manhattan since graduation with a brief two-year stint in Los Angeles. She would love to hear from other classmates. Her email address is: [email protected].

Robert Bowman, former Michigan State Treasurer and currently the CEO of baseball’s online and interactive media operation, was reported in the February 12, 2010 edition of USA Today to have fi led the paperwork Thursday with the State of Michigan Secretary of State to form a committee to explore a run for Michigan’s Democratic gubernatorial nomination. This was also reported by the Associated Press and elsewhere.

Lisa Fitzig is bringing the same level of success to real estate sales that she enjoyed throughout her 30-year career on Wall Street. During her fi rst year with the Corcoran Group, she sold several million dollars’ worth of Manhattan real estate and was named Corcoran’s 2009 Rookie of the Year/Manhattan. Specializing in New York brownstones, condominiums and town houses, she is committed to providing sophisticated service for her clients’ unique property needs. Prior to joining Corcoran, Lisa was Deputy Head of the Global Industrial Group, Investment Banking for Citigroup, where she managed a team of 150-plus professionals who called on industrial and infrastructure clients worldwide for investment banking services, merger and acquisitions, equity and debt. She also held positions as Chief Operating/Administrative Offi cer for the Mergers & Acquisitions Group at Citigroup and Managing Director for the Public Finance Department at Lehman Brothers. Her impressive business experience is a direct refl ection of her extensive educational training. Prior to receiving her MBA in Finance and Accounting, Lisa earned a B.A. in Political Science from Georgetown University in Washington, DC (with her junior year at the London School of Economics).

80s


Bob Shalayda39 Wallace RoadSummit, NJ 07901 [email protected]

Marilynn Katatsky, Senior Vice President, Morgan Stanley Smith Barney, LLC, attended the fourth annual Barron’s Winner’s Circle Top Women Advisors Summit, hosted by Barron’s magazine to promote best practices in the industry and the value of advice to the investing public. The invitation-only conference was held at The Breakers in Palm Beach, FL, December 2–4, 2009. Katatsky was one of the more than 400 fi nancial advisors who were selected by their fi rms to attend and participate in the event. Also participating were 81 of the Top 100 Women Financial Advisors in the U.S., as ranked and published in Barron’s June 8, 2009 issue. This annual ranking is the basis for the Top Women Advisors Summit and the fi nancial advisors are chosen based on the volume of assets overseen by the fi nancial advisors and their teams, revenue generated for the fi rms, and the quality of the fi nancial advisors’ practices. The top 100 is composed of fi nancial advisors from major security fi rms and independent operations. “It was an honor to be a part of this event and to meet other professionals who share the same integrity and passion for this industry,” said Katatsky. “Discussing best practices one-on-one with the top fi nancial advisors across the country was a unique experience. It will be benefi cial to bring these insights back to my fi rm and my clients.”


Alan M. Sooho11 Veterans Aff airs Medical Center

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5500 Armstrong RoadBattle Creek, MI [email protected]


Andy Cross142 East Oak AvenueMoorestown, NJ 08057 Tel: 609-734-9300 (x101)[email protected]

Ray Katz writes: “I left Optimum Sports in September 2009 to join the rapidly growing Leverage Agency, a property consulting content development and sponsorship sales company focused on sports and branded entertainment.”


Taz [email protected]

Satish Jindel writes: “For over two years now, I have been appearing on Bloomberg TV (“Taking Stock”) and Bloomberg Radio to speak about the developments in the transportation industry and various public companies such as railroads like UP, NSC, global carriers like UPS, FedEx, trucking companies like YRCW, JBHT, and even airlines. I continue to manage my two small businesses: SJ Consulting Group, Inc., which focuses on management consulting work for transportation providers, and ShipMatrix, which is technology solutions for companies that utilize the services of UPS, FedEx, DHL, etc. I continue to reside in the suburbs of Pittsburgh and also come into NYC often and welcome hearing from and meeting classmates and other Whartonites who have similar interests.”


Larry Bartimer10 River LaneWestport, CT 06880Tel: 203-222-0622 (home) and 914-328-6660 (work)[email protected]@thepsg.com

Dear Wharton 1984 Classmates: Thanks again for your

submissions. I have now reached out to 150 classmates over the past 10 issues! Only another 600 to go! Please write me and don’t wait for my call or email. If you are reading this issue, please take a few minutes and send me an email. Much of the contact information I have is dated, so I am counting on you. —Larry Bartimer

David Shapiro writes: “I am currently a Vice President in Wealth Management at Neuberger Berman LLC in New York. I have worked in New York for the past 25 years, at CBS, Drexel Burnham and Goldman Sachs. After nearly 13 years in Institutional Equity Sales with Goldman, I left at the end of 2002. During those years, I became involved with student recruiting and training, and I used to look forward to visiting Wharton and interviewing students there a couple of times each year. After I left the fi rm, I fi rst assisted a friend who was developing a new hedge fund and then consulted to the head of a brokerage fi rm. Five years ago I joined Neuberger Berman, which had long been a client while I was in institutional sales. I am a wealth advisor and consult to individuals, families, endowments and foundations. I have especially enjoyed working with educational endowments and arts foundations. From time to time, I have kept up with Tom Goldstein and Ben Rose, and I occasionally run into our classmates at Penn and Wharton events. I live in the city with my wife, Yael, and our two teenage sons.”

Richard Dine writes: “As of February 2010, I took a new position as a Training Specialist with the National Archives and Records Administration, helping a new team there develop ways to better protect the archival record of the United States. Wharton’s alumni network and several Class of ’84 alumni were very helpful and encouraging during my job search.”

Dan Stauder writes: “After school I went to DLJ in their institutional equity sales group in NY. After a year I went out to help open their Chicago offi ce and have been here ever since (was at DLJ for eight years). After

that, I became an early partner in a start-up boutique called Vector Securities, focusing solely on health care and in particular biotechnology. We sold the fi rm to Prudential in 1999 and I stayed on for a couple years before starting my own broker/dealer, EHS Securities, in 2001. I wrapped that up in 2005 and did a brief stint in RW Baird in health care investment banking. In early 2007, I joined an old Vector partner, as well as an old Wharton classmate (Joe Jolson), at JMP Securities. I head up JMP’s Healthcare Equity Capital Markets eff ort. I live in Lake Forest, IL, which is about 35 miles north of Chicago on Lake Michigan. My wife Sara and I have four kids. We have a child who is a junior at Penn, a high school senior (Cally), a sophomore (Danny) and fi nally a 6th grader (Sally). I keep in touch with Tom Flanagan and Dick Wallach pretty regularly. I obviously see Joe Jolson, and occasionally catch up with Joel Hausman.”

Sharon Fairley writes: “I am living in Chicago where I have been for almost seven years. After 20 years in advertising and corporate marketing I decided to make a change to public service. I went to University of Chicago Law School and fi nished in 2006. Although I never imagined becoming a trial attorney when I started law school, I quickly developed an affi nity for criminal law. I am currently an Assistant United States Attorney here in Chicago. Most recently, my work has been focused on narcotics and gang cases. It has defi nitely been the most challenging yet rewarding professional experience I’ve had. Regarding life in Chicago, after spending most of my adult life in and around New York, it took me a while to adjust, but I’ve come to enjoy Chicago very much, particularly this time of year.”

Rolando Espinoza writes: “After graduation I worked at GTE until 1996, then spent an additional nine years in the telecom industry, mostly with a series of venture-backed start-ups and mergers as the industry expanded, then contracted. Four years ago I started a consulting practice, where my small team and I help fi rst-time entrepreneurs and family-

owned businesses. After so many years in the corporate world, it’s a real joy to help these very knowledgeable, but not classically trained, business owners enter new markets, make process improvements, truly understand their cost structure, or create their fi rst strategic plan. My wife Zoe and I are celebrating our 30th anniversary this month. Since leaving Philadelphia we have gotten to “see the country,” living in Indianapolis, Connecticut, San Francisco, Tampa, and fi nally settling down in Dallas in 1997. I always fi nd it hard to believe that it has been 26 years since Wharton. The memories are so fresh I always feel like it was just a short time ago, that is, until I see my 25-year-old son, Ben, or my daughter Elizabeth who is turning 20. I want to thank Larry for his perseverance and for keeping us connected through these class updates.”

Mary Jo Bernard writes: “Has it really been over 25 years?! After Wharton, my husband Alan and I moved back to the West Coast and have worked in a variety of positions with computer, networking, and Internet-related companies. Our daughter Lisa received a physics degree from Yale two years ago and is in the next generation of technology— solar power. I guess we’re a real Silicon Valley family.”

David (Bud) Bell writes (update since his last submission in the Fall of 2009): “My company, Advanced Performance Naturals, launched its fi rst consumer product. It is an all-natural, high-performance anti-aging skincare cream called Eselemme. It is based on a patent-pending soy lipid formula that imitates the skin’s own lipid signature and helps preserve healthy skin cell function. It also smells and feels great! You can learn more about it at www.eselemme.com. Kathleen (Burkhalter) and I remain busy with the kids and school.”

Vince DePalma writes: “In August 2009 I became President and CEO of Shred-it International, based out of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Shred-it is an international document destruction company, operating

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140 service centers in 16 countries worldwide and servicing over 150,000 global, national, and local businesses. Prior to Shred-it, I was President of Pitney Bowes Management Services based in Stamford, CT and a Corporate Offi cer of Pitney Bowes. Prior to joining Pitney Bowes, I was President of ADP Benefi t Services based in Alpharetta, GA, and a Corporate Offi cer of Automatic Data Processing (ADP). On the personal front, I married Carol (Conkling) De Palma. We have one daughter, Kelly, who is fi nishing her sophomore year at Villanova University. Go Wildcats! When not working, I enjoy golf, exercise, reading and cooking. I have not seen too many Wharton grads recently. I did see Sam Chapin about two years ago and ran into Tom Flanagan at a golf course in Kiawah, SC, about the same time. I currently sit on the board of directors of the Thomas Hartman Foundation for Parkinson’s Research.”

Anne Punzak Marcus writes from Boston: “First I would like to thank Larry for being so persistent and patient with me. Larry, I applaud your eff orts, and have enjoyed reading about my former classmates. After Wharton I joined Fidelity Investment’s Fixed Income Group, where I worked as an analyst, portfolio manager and Research Director. I retired in 2002, though still enjoy following the markets. Since leaving Fidelity, I have focused on developing and funding collaborative scientifi c, clinical, educational research to improve the lives of children with neurological disorders. I have two sons: Robbie, who is 16, and Christopher, who is 11. Robbie has cognitive delays and other neurological disabilities as a result of a prenatal stroke. As my husband Paul Marcus and I began to explore the area of medical research, we became frustrated by the lack of collaboration across institutions, and between researchers and clinicians. In 2005, we helped to develop a not-for-profi t organization called The Autism Consortium. The mission of The Autism Consortium is to catalyze rapid advances in the understanding and treatment of

autism by fostering collaboration among a community of clinicians, researchers, donors and families. Currently, the Autism Consortium (www. Autismconsortium.org) has 74 research and clinical members representing 15 medical and academic institutions. All of our member organizations have pledged to share their research. We have had a couple exciting research discoveries and are confi dent that this model is transferable to other disorders. I would love to connect with any classmates who have children with neurological disabilities, and would be happy to share information about the Autism Consortium. I can be reached at [email protected].”


Kent Griswold1336 Gypsy Hill Road Lower Gwynedd, PA 19002 Tel: 215-540-0811 [email protected]

Class Correspondents WG’86

Elizabeth Wilkins [email protected]

David Bigelow [email protected]

Thanks to Jeff Hewitt and Mark Vonderheide, I’ve stumbled upon a way to get news from the remote and the reluctant. Seeing their names mentioned in passing in the last column, both emailed me with some actual news. Jeff is enjoying working in private equity with ESS Funds in Houston. He and his lovely wife Naomi, whom some of you may remember from Wharton days, have two teenage daughters, the oldest of whom, Ann, was recently accepted to Wharton and Penn Engineering! Jeff has kept in touch with Chris Brewer, who is at Ford in Detroit and “has at least four kids.” (Perhaps this will motivate Chris to write in and clarify.) Jeff lost touch with Jim Peters when he moved from Houston back to “Pennsylvania somewhere, I think west of Philadelphia.” (Again, vagueness soliciting clarifi cation.) When Jeff last bumped into Jim

at the Houston airport two years ago, he was working as CEO of a private equity portfolio company on a turnaround. Prior to that, Jim had been a consultant for McKinsey and Alix Partners. Mark Vonderheide was in NYC trading oil futures at Deutsche Bank when Jeff and he last spoke. Mark is still living in Manhattan with wife Cecilia (a Harvard B-School grad) and their three children, but he left Deutsche Bank and started an oil trading company a couple years ago. I’m pleased to report that Mark and Cecilia, as well as Jeff and Naomi, plan to attend our 25th

reunion! I have yet to hear from many

of the rest of you, but those illustrious enough to end up on the cover of this publication, like Mehmet Oz, are freed from their obligation. Though surely the only person who has not seen Dr. Oz on TV, I was introduced to him by his sister Seval Oz Ozveren while at Wharton. I only recall her mentioning that he was in medical school, but I guess he fi gured he’d tack on an MBA while he was in Vance Hall. (I should have gotten his autograph before he became famous. Ditto for Brad

John Selsky G’78, GrW’88John Selsky, G’78, GrW’88, associate professor of management at the University of South Florida Polytechnic, will receive the Walker Prize from the Human Resource Planning Society at its 2010 Global Conference in April. Th e award recognizes the article, “Building Agility, Resilience and Performance in Turbulent Environments,” which Selsky wrote with his colleagues Joseph McCann (Jacksonville University) and James Lee (University of Tampa). “Th ese are troubling times for many businesses, fi lled with disruptions and threats,” says Selsky. “Our research found that managers in many parts of the world are concerned. I hope our work can help some fi rms become more agile and resilient so they can cope better.” HRPS established the Walker Prize in 1997 to honor the monumental work of its founder and guiding spirit, James W. Walker. Th e prize celebrates the tradition of vision, quality, and innovation. It is awarded annually to the paper, article or commentary published by Th e Human Resource Planning Society that best advances state-of-the-art thinking or practices in human resources. Th e second, updated edition of Selsky’s book, Business Planning in Turbulent Times: New Methods for Applying Scenarios, which he edited with with Rafael Ramirez and Kees van der Heijden from Oxford University, is being published this month by Earthscan Press. It includes a new chapter on the global fi nancial crisis. Selsky joined USF Polytechnic in 2005 aft er teaching for many years in New Zealand and Australia. He earned a Ph.D. from Wharton.

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Pitt in 1989, but that’s another story.) Because I read the Wharton Magazine article, I was able to answer my father-in-law’s query as to whether Mehmet is related to Mustafa Oz. Unlike me, my father-in-law has seen Mehmet on TV and even follows his advice. Wilmington is a small town, so it turns out that Mehmet’s father Mustafa, an ob/gyn physician, used to rent lab space in Dr. Wilkins’ veterinary offi ce so he and his colleagues could practice non-ob/gyn surgeries on dogs. The objective was to obviate the need to call in a general surgeon during their gynecological surgeries should an unforeseen ancillary surgical need arise. (Enterprising, brilliant! Like father, like son.) My father-in-law just anesthetized the dogs but enjoyed learning a thing or two in passing. So, all of you not planning to appear on the cover of this magazine, please write in so your classmates can learn a thing or two about you in passing.


Matt Hoff man60 Temple Place, 2nd FloorBoston, MA 02111Tel: 617-523-6700Fax: 617-367-2265 mhoff [email protected]

Class Correspondents WG’88

Mary LeonidaPolaris Companies 6901 Shawnee Mission Parkway, #420 Overland Park, KS 66202 Tel: 913-262-1565Fax: [email protected] Duff eyjpduff [email protected]

Yasuhiro (Yasu) Oshima has joined Barclays Capital as Managing Director, leading eff orts to provide strategic solutions to fi nancial institutions based in Tokyo. He, having spent the last 17 years at investment banks such as Lehman, Merrill and J.P. Morgan, remarks that fi nally the economic and fi nancial cycle in Japan seems to be picking up and he is excited to be able to contribute to

the creation of a trusted advisor relationship through strategic dialogue with major fi nancial institutions to help them grow in the post-crisis setting.

Tom Jenkins, a native Texan, attended Texas A&M University where he served in the Corps of Cadets and as the Business School’s Student Council President. In addition to his studies at the Texas A&M business school, Tom has also received the Certifi ed Investment Management Analyst designation from Wharton Executive Education. Tom is the head of a fi nancial advisory practice within the fi rm of Merrill Lynch. He manages nearly $600 million for 85 wealthy families and individuals, which include senior corporate executives, business owners and retirees. With nearly 20 years of experience as a fi nancial advisor, Tom is practiced in utilizing risk management and prudent fi nancial planning strategies to assist his clients in managing all aspects of their wealth and fi nancial needs. Tom has been given the honor of not only advising his clients, but having his clients introduce his services to their children and their children’s children—“becoming an advisor to a family and helping continue their legacy is my most treasured honor.” Tom has obtained membership in Merrill Lynch’s Director’s Circle, which places him among the Top 1 percent of fi nancial advisors in one of the world’s largest investment fi rms. Tom also continues to be honored with recognition as one of the Barron’s Top 1000 Financial Advisers, a ranking across the country and among all industry fi rms. In addition, Tom was also ranked among the Top 40 of all fi nancial advisors under 40, across the country and among all industry fi rms (“Top 40 Under 40,” OnWallStreet). Tom speaks throughout the Merrill Lynch system to fi nancial advisors nationwide as his practice is well-regarded as one of the top providers of fi nancial advisory services in the Firm. Tom is an active leader in his community, where he serves as a Committee man for the Houston Livestock, Show & Rodeo. He

sits on the board of the Theatre Under The Stars, serves on the Development Board for the Houston Pregnancy Help Center, serves on the Advisory Board for the 12th Man Foundation (the athletic foundation for Texas A&M University) and serves on the Finance Committee for his church, Houston’s First Baptist Church. In addition to community stewardship, his heart is in enjoying outdoor adventures; including hiking, snowboarding, fl y-fi shing, golf and just about any park his kids wish to visit. Tom and his wife Amanda live in Houston, TX with their daughter, Olivia Grace; their son, Dylan Thomas; and their newborn daughter, Sofi a Taylor.


Patricia (Berenson) Bogdanovich 920 Shippen LaneWest Chester, PA 19382Tel: [email protected]

Hillerich & Bradsby Co., the 126-year-old makers of Louisville Slugger® bats, gloves, and other baseball and softball equipment, has announced Sean Collins as a new board member. Collins is the co-founder of Partner Advisors, a fi nancial services partnership development and management company in Wellesley, MA. Prior to starting Partner Advisors, Collins led partnership development teams and managed products and consumer marketing programs at American Express, Bank One and Fidelity Investments.

The Washington Post recently posted an article entitled, “Anonymity: A secret fi x for campaign fi nance,” by Marc Geff roy. Since 1988, Geff roy has developed, leased and fi nanced retail, fl ex and offi ce projects throughout the mid-Atlantic and southern California markets. He has held executive positions with KLNB, Trammell Crow Commercial, South Charles Realty and J.P. Morgan. He earned an MBA from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School in 1989 and a bachelor of arts degree in economics from Haverford

College in 1984. Geff roy is also an Adjunct Professor of Finance at the Carey School of Management of Johns Hopkins University; he teaches commercial real estate investment theory in the master’s program there. He lives in Chevy Chase, MD with his wife and three children.

Patrice van de Walle is working on an IPTV show called “The Great Kitchen Table Debate.” He writes: “We are going into people’s kitchens around the UK to fi lm their kitchen table conversations. We did one in London and one in Glastonbury with druids. Topics range from global warming, to the Olympics, voting, “free” digital music, and Ecocide (killing of natural habitats). We’ll be airing the videos on positivetv.tv.”

Bill Britton lives in Ft. Lauderdale, FL, with his wife Erica and their three kids (Zach, 17; Alex, 15; and Lauren, 10). Bill writes: “Zach is off to college in one more year so we are trying real hard to enjoy our time together. We continue to travel amidst a crazy schedule and all is well. Erica is still doing health care consulting and started a new elderly care business, and I founded and run a boutique investment banking group. All visitors to south Florida are welcome and encouraged to give a call (954-410-1936) and stop by. We love visitors.”

Jeff Goldberg, W’83, WG’89,writes: “While many of my classmates are thinking about getting their kids into Penn, I decided to take advantage of the economic slowdown by having twins a year ago April. Logan and Riley (W’2027) join their 7-year-old brother Jake (W’2020). Nicole and I live in Short Hills, NJ, and couldn’t be both happier and more exhausted! On the business front, I had been running equity investments for Insignia Financial Group for 14 years and when they merged with CB Richard Ellis in 2003, I started my own company called The Milestone Group. Today, Milestone owns and manages 40,000 apartment units across the country, and is headquartered in New York and Dallas.”

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90s


Jennifer Taylor8030 Monticello DriveAtlanta, GA [email protected]


Chris Malone32 Springton Pointe DriveNewtown Square, PA [email protected]

We’ve got updates from 5 of our WG’91 classmates this time! Also, in addition to this magazine column, all current and many previous updates for our class are now available online and unedited at our class website, www.WG91.com. I also have an email address for everyone listed here, so let me

know if you need help contacting anyone.

Sharon (Rappoport) Bell: “I’ve taken a job with Just Kid Inc, a marketing strategy, innovation and consumer research consultancy in Norwalk. Been working with them as a consultant for the past seven months and I just accepted a perm job.”

Rob Cain: “Together with my Stanford MBA business partner I’ve been writing a fi nancial blog focused on picking U.S.-listed Chinese small cap stocks, mainly OTC stocks that we

anticipate will uplist to NASDAQ or AMEX. Our portfolios were up 150 percent in 2009, and up another 21 percent in the fi rst quarter of 2010. So far we’ve treated it as a hobby, but with web traffi c and readership booming we’re beginning to consider turning it into a business. You can fi nd us at http://chinaotcplayer.blogspot.com. I’m also still producing, with a couple of feature fi lms in the works, a TV reality series with the creators of HBO’s “Hard Knocks” that will focus on aspiring minor league baseball

players, and a major live event in Las Vegas called “America’s Wedding” that will celebrate love and marriage with major music performers, celebrities and thousands of couples from around the world.”

George Hongchoy: “I joined Link Management Limited in January as CFO. I will become CEO later this year. Please refer to: http://www.thelinkreit.com/en/press_news/press_release.asp?prid=923.”

Theresa (Gende) Clouser: “I recently had dinner with Brent Baum, Gary Skraba and Chris Malone in Los Angeles. We had a great time catching up on each other’s recent exploits.”

Chris Malone: “After commuting from Philly to DC every week for the past two years, a few months ago I decided to forego the corporate world and started a new venture. It’s a research-based, sales, marketing and HR consultancy focused on helping fi rms measure, manage and strengthen the key business relationships that drive their

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examples provided in this document are for illustration purposes only and are not intended as legal

or tax advice. We encourage you to consult your tax or estate advisor.

Your gift qualifies you for membership in the Charles Custis Harrison Society

WHA CGA d 05 24 2010 i dd 1 5/25/10 11 54 49 AM10050988_38-79.indd 5510050988_38-79.indd 55 7/13/10 6:12 PM7/13/10 6:12 PM


performance. You could assist me greatly by briefl y testing the new relationship assessment tool I’ve developed. You can check it out here: http://www.relationalcapitalgroup.com/knowledge-center/enterprise-rq-beta/. Thanks in advance!”


Rick Tullio1717 Pine StreetPhiladelphia, PA [email protected]

Cohort A rep

Randi Smithrandi.smith@comcast. net

Jeanette Ourada has moved back from Thailand. She is still with Chevron, as General Manager of Investor Relations, and living in Walnut Creek. She just returned from a ski trip with Kathleen Conterno’s family.

Franciso Martinez-David sends greetings from rainy Madrid. He and his family enjoyed Disney World and NYC where he met up with Jeff Aroy. If any Cohort A members are planning on traveling to Spain this summer, please let him know!

Dave Creamer saw BJ Fair while in Scottsdale and reported that Jim O’Connell was fi red up about Duke winning NCAA.

Cohort B rep

Karen Levine [email protected]

Alister Campbell submitted the following update from the hockey-playing nation to my north: “I had the pleasure of seeing fellow WG’92 Cohort B chum Bradford Richardson last Fall for dinner and a round of golf when he came up to our North Country Canada cottage in Muskoka. Bradford is President of Shaklee International these days and claims to spend his time golfi ng and traveling for business in Asia. His low handicap seemed to suff er from some unfortunate FX eff ect when converted to a score on a Canadian Shield golf course. But good resolutions were made for a re-match in 2010!”

Omer Malchin wrote in from Palo Alto (and Port-au-Prince): “Nittai (my son and a junior in high school here in Palo Alto), with a bit of my help, initiated One Love Advocates (www.oneloveadvocates.org) a few months ago. His mission is to do whatever possible to improve access to education in communities that are struggling with destructive or endemic problems. His immediate focus is helping kids in Haiti gain access to educational opportunities.

As part of that, Nittai raised money to start with ($15,000 before the trip... more coming), and he went (I was with him) to Haiti for a week—after setting some links and connections in Port-au-Prince and outside of the big city. In Haiti the focus is working with kids in tent schools, documenting what he sees and learns, and deciding where is the best focus of money and eff orts going forward. We were mainly in tent schools doing stuff .

We are planning a second trip in June with more people (4-5 kids) and to more places. We also got interest from other schools around the country to adopt schools there, etc. The idea is to involve as many people who want to help as possible—with One Love—through donations, volunteers, etc., so the next 2-3 months will be interesting.”

Here, by the way, is one of Nittai’s blog entries: “Among the most exciting moments during our trip in Haiti came during our visit to a tent school in which we showed a class how to use a computer for the fi rst time. Using a portion of the money that we raised, we purchased one HP laptop along with one HP printer. We installed a ‘photo booth’ type of program on the computer along with ‘Paint’ and other such interactive and fun applications. Next, we were able to fi nd a technician named Carl (who speaks Creole) who we hired and was willing to help us launch a program through which we would teach children how to use computers.

The pilot program now has Carl cycling through the 14 diff erent Prodev schools, going to each school every couple weeks, and

ultimately teaching them how to use the computer and printer. Although this may seem trivial to you and me, Haitian children have, for the most part, never used a computer in their entire lives… In the near future we are also planning to add Internet access to these lessons and eventually connect schools in Haiti to schools here in the U.S.”

For those interested in donating to these eff orts, there is a place to do so on the One Love website.

Joan Adams submitted a few snippets: “The kid keeps growing. Owning a 100-year-old house is a full-time job. Thanks to the rain, I am conducting a not so interesting mold experiment in my backyard (yes, here in NYC—I actually have one). Spoke to Bill Webb, WG’93, after he saw me on TV getting interviewed on the Campbell Brown show. My website is being redone as I write—so by the time this is published it should be UP AND READY at www.pierian.net. I have a couple blogs going and Twitter, too.”

I ran into Michael Ippolito in the lobby of the Harvard Club early in February. He was there preparing for an event that his company sponsored in March. Michael now covers the Northeast region for Hay Group and splits his time between Philadelphia and New York, focusing on Financial Services and Life Sciences. Hay Group co-sponsored an event with the Wharton Club of Philadelphia that was held at the Union League in Philadelphia on June 16.

Professor Jeremy Siegel was the keynote speaker, and there was a panel discussion on the future of the global enterprise.

I saw Paul Bascobert at a recent WIMI (Wharton Interactive Media Initiative) conference that was held here in New York in April. The conference addressed the “Future of Publishing” and Paul, as the new president of BusinessWeek, was one of the expert panelists. His panel was moderated by Marketing Professor Pete Fader, who is co-director of WIMI. Paul was appointed president of BusinessWeek shortly after Bloomberg acquired the publication in December. Prior to this position, he was chief marketing offi cer for Dow Jones’ consumer media group. The keynote speaker for the conference was Martin Nisenholtz, C’77, ASC’79, who is the CEO of New York Times Digital and holds two Penn degrees.

In March, I had the opportunity to attend WIMI’s “Interactive Retailing” conference, which was held at the executive offi ces of Macy’s. The conference was also attended by Carl Cohen, WG’85, whom I had met at a Wharton event earlier in the year. I also had the good fortune to meet Michelle Hankin, W’97, at that Wharton event. Michelle is Vice President/Account Director at Grey Advertising. In February I attended a (non-WIMI) panel during Social Media Week. One of the expert panelists at that event was Lauren Hobart, C’90, who is the Chief Marketing Offi cer of Carbonated Drinks for Pepsi North America.

As for me, in addition to attending lots of great conferences and blogging about them at www.karenlevine.com, I have continued my work as a digital

MALCHIN

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strategy consultant in the media, entertainment and advertising space. One of my clients is an advertising/PR agency that retained me to help with new business pitches and the development of social media programs. In addition, I have been working with a new venture called Better Advertising that provides self-regulatory programs to major advertisers and agencies interested in proactively addressing consumer and government concerns about behavioral advertising and consumer privacy. I have also had the opportunity to serve as a digital media expert for private equity fi rms researching specifi c sectors and trends.

Sadly, I have not worked with any Wharton colleagues the past quarter, so please reach out if you would like to collaborate or to retain me for a consulting engagement or freelance project.

Cohort C rep

Jackie Lutz [email protected]

Cohort D rep

Steve Moff smoff @pct.edu

Cohort H rep

Annette (Juhasz) Bergeon [email protected]

Cohort J rep

Joe Hage [email protected]

In the pub it was, “Can I get you a beer?” All grown up, it’s “Can I get you a house?” Stephen Colanero just sold his Dallas home to fellow WG’92 grad Deborah Roy Crumpler. I wonder if they both took Negotiations at school.

Facebook reminded me to wish Omer Malchin a happy birthday. Omer started Palo Alto-based creative agency (MoxieMethod.com) eight years ago. He and Solly now have four children: One of them an extraordinary 17-year-old boy named Nittai whose mission is to “to educate communities in Haiti struggling with destructive or endemic problems.” Proud Omer just returned from a week with him in Haiti.

Steve Deitsch started a strategic marketing/PR consultancy in NYC, called Reverberate! (re-verberate.com), focusing on the health care/pharma and consumer health/beauty industries. He also helps companies reach the lucrative gay/lesbian market. Clients include Continental Airlines, New York Life and Novo Nordisk. Reach him at [email protected].

Our little Facebook experiment (budurl.com/WG92) is working. New group members posting on our “Wall” last quarter include Abby Bronson, Rich Capen, Ivy Horowitz Elkins and Akiko Gordon. Join us to keep in touch, won’t you?

Cohort K rep

Matt Feely [email protected] Cohort L rep

Andrew Moloff moloff @evercore.com

News from Robert Wieselberg: “First, we start with breaking news: Margarita has just got her Ph.D. in Audiology, after almost four years of strenuous work. She is now the fi rst member of the Wieselberg family with such a degree. Celebration was hot, with dinner with our closest friends, lots of alcohol (champagne, for sure), a week in San Diego, CA to relax and loads of kisses from her very proud family. By the way, the family has not grown, but continues to give us “trouble:” Julia, now almost 16, has just fi nished (yes, yes, yes!!!) her fi rst “serious” relationship with a boy, after a very long eight months of cinemas and holding hands. Imagine how I am going to feel when the next one starts… Sofi a has just completed 12, so we all are currently involved in the preparation of her Bat Mitzva. The party is planned for November 28. In case you will be around, please let us know—you are invited to celebrate with us. As for me, while still spending long hours in the bank (for the ones who don’t remember, I head the marketing strategy group of the USD 4 billion mass affl uent business of Santander in Brazil), I also started a parallel entrepreneurial

life. Last October I opened a super premium 100% natural ice cream business, which takes orders only by the Internet and is aimed at supplying fancy restaurants, cool catering and luxury hotels. It is an old passion turning into a new business. The 12-month business plan was met after four months—not bad. For the curious ones, visit www.bobberg.com.br and send me your impressions, though we are not able to send you samples overseas (yet).”

Cohort M rep

JB [email protected]


Christine Jamgochian Koobatian [email protected]

Cohort A rep

Mitch Goldfeld [email protected]

Cohort B rep

Julie Luttinger [email protected] Cohort C rep

Karl [email protected] Cohort D rep

Mark [email protected]

Cohort E rep

Paul [email protected] Cohort F rep

Lori (Nishiura) [email protected] Cohort G rep

Lisa Brown [email protected]

Cohort H rep

Dana [email protected]

Cohort J rep

Barbara Zepp [email protected]

Cohort K rep

Deborah Bryant [email protected] or [email protected]

Cohorts L and M reps

Patrick Parr and Alden Levy [email protected] and [email protected]


Scott Horn2205 247th Court NESammamish, WA 98074Tel: 425-936-1155scottho@microsoft .com

We have all the Cohorts covered except for Cohorts F and I. Jamie Garrett recently retired as the Cohort F rep after doing it for a number of years (thanks, Jamie!) so I’m looking for volunteers for both Cohorts. If you’d like to volunteer as the Cohort I Rep or help another Cohort Rep then please send me email at [email protected]. It’s easy, fun and doesn’t take much time. Cohort A rep

Keith Khorey [email protected] Cohort B rep

Leonard Tannenbaum len@fi ft hstreetcap.com

Cohort C rep

Adam Slohn [email protected] Cohort D rep

Leslie Prescott [email protected]

Cohort E rep

N.K. Tong [email protected]

Dear Fellow Cohort E members,Thanks again for your updates. Please keep them coming, and do let me know updates of your movements, and both your current home address and email, too. Send us some more news soon.

Rich Vanatsky writes that he and Sandy have moved from Chicago to Cincinnati in 2001 and started a family, Katy (9) and Jake (6). After seven years at Accenture, he worked at a couple of smaller consultancies and did a lot of work in the metals industries. In 2008, he took a job at O’Neal Steel as the GM of the Asia region. He still keeps an offi ce and home

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in Cincinnati, but spends about a third of his time in Asia, most frequently in China: Shanghai, Suzhou, Beijing and Xian. He would love to catch up with anyone traveling through Cincinnati or China.

Ratan Agrawal recently moved to a new house in Malboro, NJ, and is still at Cisco looking after Operations and Strategy for one of the segments in their Services business. After nine years in San Francisco with the Shorenstein Company, Christine Kwak is moving on to new opportunities in 2010, to be announced.

Pelayo Primo De Rivera follows a strong tradition of Cohort E members, and is co-leading the organization of the Global Alumni Forum in Madrid on June 24-25. He and Ines spent Christmas in the Dominican Republic, leaving a few days before the earthquake in Haiti.

As CEO of Collective Solutions, Tim Tigner has just launched eagerintern.com, which brings

together people needing experience with employers needing help, to complete projects online. EagerIntern is a crowd-sourcing application, a new web-based process on which he has a couple patents pending and is writing his doctoral dissertation.

Starting in February, Jenny Ritchie-Campbell has taken a year’s sabbatical from the consulting company where she worked, and is working for a UK cancer charity, Macmillan Cancer Support. She is their joint head of Intelligence and Research. “It’s proving good fun and very diff erent so far, which is great!” On the home front, she and Casey bought a lovely old stone house in Provence, France at the end of last year. They are now busy deciding how to tackle the renovations. Part of it dates from around the 13th century, so it needs careful thought on how to update and restore.

James Flintoft has left ANZ after 10 years to move onto the next stage of his professional career.

He is ‘crossing the divide’ and moving into the Commonwealth Public Sector, also undertaking a small Non-Executive Director role and continuing his part-time not-for-profi t involvement with the Mirabel Foundation, which provides counseling to children orphaned or abandoned due to parental drug abuse.

Michelle Marie Ritchie has taken a job at Jamba Juice as Director of Consumer Products & Licensing.

Jim and Denise Byrd welcomed their beautiful daughter, Mackenzie Brooke Gangi, into the world on December 1, 2009. She has been quite patient with her novice parents and is doing great.

It is with much sadness that we note the passing of Rosa Hsing on October 21, 2009 from Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease. Rosa’s intelligence, beauty and passion were inspiration for all who knew her. Rosa is survived by her husband, Rick Smith, and their three children, Nicole (10), Ryan

(8) and Chloe (6). They wish to pass along their most sincere appreciation for the outpouring of love and support from our Wharton friends. John Friedmann reports that he, Tony Larino, John Daab and Howard Sudnow were at her memorial service.

It has been a busy time for Catherine and me, with some new adjustments without my mother. She fi nally departed in March after a two-year bout of cancer. She had a great and active life, even in her fi nal days, and we had plenty of time to say goodbye as she stayed with us during that period. In the meantime, the two older kids, Elise (12) and Debra (10) have fi nally proven that they can out-ski us on the black slopes in Niseko, Park City and Alta. I continue to be very involved in the YPO (Young Presidents’ Organization), as a member of their International Education Committee and International Seminars Committee, and as the Vice-Chair for S.E. Asia. If anyone is passing this way, please holler!

As usual, if you are reading this for the fi rst time in the alumni magazine, it means that I need your address and email info. You can reach me at this permanent offi ce address: N.K. Tong, B-13A-P1 Plaza Mont’Kiara, 50480, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Fax: +603-6201-3139, Lifelong email: [email protected]

Take care and write soon.Best regards, N.K. Tong

Cohort F rep

Jamie Ginsberg Garrett [email protected]

Cohort G rep

Scott Horn scottho@microsoft .com

Paul Baldwin sent a great update on what’s going on with him and Sarah. As usual you’ll be envious—in Paul’s own words. He writes, “As you know I “retired” from banking and left HSBC in July last year. I had a couple of quiet months at home whilst Sarah was working—became a bit of a house husband, supervised some minor refurbishments at home, did the

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Christies’ wine course, read some books, and took the dog for lots of walks.

Since the start of December, however, we have been skiing pretty much non-stop, and it has been a fantastic season—82 days skiing (so far) including two weeks in Tignes (France) pre-Christmas, two weeks in Kitzbuhel (Austria) post-Christmas, two long, fi ve-day “boys” weekends in Wengen (Switzerland) and Chatel (France/Switzerland), then three weeks in Jackson Hole (Wyoming), before coming to Chamonix (France) about four weeks ago. We are nearly done now for the season and will return to London early next week. I have been tracking my progress with my GPS—this season I have covered 3,500 km (over 2,200 miles) of horizontal distance and over 450,000 m (nearly 1.5 million feet) of vertical descent! That’s equivalent to skiing from the summit of Everest to sea level 51 times.

The two weeks in Tignes were for Sarah and me to qualify as “reps” (basically ski guides, but for various reasons we can’t call ourselves that) for the Ski Club of Great Britain. It was a very intensive and gruelling course, but also a lot of fun. It was the Ski Club that paid for our trips to Kitzbuhel and Jackson Hole. Sarah was working in the former, with me playing the tail-gunner role, and I was working in Jackson with Sarah returning the compliment by picking up the pieces at the back. On top of that, Sarah has also found time to complete and pass her BASI (British Association of Snowsports Instructors) Level 2 Instructors course, which she did in Morzine (France) in March.

The snow conditions here in Chamonix for the last couple of weeks have been superb. We had fi ve consecutive days where we have found fresh-powder tracks all day, and one day earlier a week ago was particularly spectacular as we got to the very top of the mountain just as the sun was coming out to enjoy around 50 cm of fresh snow (the lift had been closed for the three previous days, and we got fi rst go at it!!).

Once we get home, I will enjoy a few weeks of catching up and

doing little. In June, I am off to South Africa to watch the (Soccer) World Cup with a friend who is also “retired.” July will probably be back to Chamonix for some summer alpine walking and relaxation, then by the middle of August Sarah’s work is likely to be busy again so we will be back in London.

It’s tough, but someone has to do it!”

I also caught up with Dave Wittenberg after too long a time. He’s been teaching at the Business School at Pacifi c Lutheran University and loving it. He’s fi nishing up the school year and getting a consulting business going.

Paul Vasilopoulos sent an update that he’s now with Bank Street, a tech/telecom boutique after living through the Wall Street craziness of the last couple of years. We’re planning to catch up via phone soon.

G’s send some news—photos are great, too. Cohort H rep

Laura Rogers [email protected]

Cohort K rep

Raymond (“Big”) Tsao [email protected]

Cohort L rep

Corey Luskin [email protected]

Hi Everyone! I hope you’re all doing well.

Carrie Winograd writes from Saratoga, NY: “I’m loving the quiet existence in this small town. My boys are awesome. They are 3 1/2 and 8 1/2 and growing so fast and are so much fun. I’m teaching yoga in my spare time, which I love, and still practicing a lot. I have been at PayPal for eight months and it’s going well. I serve as “Chief Of Staff ” for the manager of our channel group—driving strategy and developing and executing operational projects—all from the comfort of my own home! As we like to say: ‘Living the dream.’ It’s 75 and sunny up here today and glorious and no complaints at all!”

Cohort M rep

Debra Sussman Fletcher debrafl [email protected]

Steve Fletcher met up with Dave Paley for dinner while in San Francisco in April. Back in March, Dave and Steve as well as Joe Samluk took a road trip in Manhattan to Harlem’s famous Charles’ Country Fried Chicken for dinner—apparently it is worth the trip!

Steve and Deb (Sussman) ran into Min Min Tun and Karim el Fishawi at Squaw Valley—they seem to have an unplanned rendezvous at the bottom of the gondola with their kids during February’s ski week each year!

Email Debra with your news: debrafl [email protected].


Jeanne McPhillips [email protected]

Cohort A rep

Christopher Vollmer [email protected]

Cohort B rep

Jennifer [email protected] Cohort D rep

Carlos [email protected] Cohort E rep

Irina Sasu [email protected]

Cohort F reps

Todd Rogers and Vera [email protected] and vera.wu@pfi zer.com

Cohort G rep

Bob Townsend [email protected] Cohort H reps

Brian Owens and Jeanne [email protected] and [email protected]

Cohort I rep

Amy (Crandall) Kaser [email protected]

Cohort J reps

Jeff Hagan and Cynthia Grisé jeff [email protected] and [email protected]

Cohort K reps

Dan Davis and Michael Spence [email protected] and [email protected]

Cohort L rep

James Liam [email protected]


Kerstin [email protected]

Cohort A rep

Terri Jackson Wade [email protected]

Cohort B rep

Mina (Takayanagi) [email protected]

Cohort C rep

Caroline [email protected]

Cohort D rep

Jeff rey Ealerjeff [email protected] Cohort E rep

Seth Faler [email protected]

Cohort F rep

Marc Stockli [email protected]

Michael Bluestein checks in: “Juliet and I are doing great. We’re still in Alexandria, VA, where we’ve lived now for 10 years with our two sons Harrison and Hollis (10 and 12). Our excitement for 2009 was the launch of my new private equity fi rm, Grindstone Partners, around mid-year. It’s been a whirlwind but I closed my fi rst acquisition at year end and have another one set to close at the end of February. My focus is on diversifi ed small cap, niche service and manufacturing businesses that are having trouble accessing capital for expansion and recapitalizations. It’s a huge, unmet market right now, given

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the paltry credit environment and investor skittishness.”

Yoav Amiri and Tamar are living in Fair Lawn, NJ with their three children, Noga (12), Nadav (9) and Naomi (6). Since graduating from Wharton, the Amiris have moved around quite a bit with stops in Texas, Germany, Italy, France and Israel before returning to the U.S. in 2002. Yoav held various management positions across several industries before founding Remington Business Group in 2006. Remington serves as a unique gateway to and from the U.S. Its mission is to help smaller companies—both foreign and U.S-based—expand to new markets and realize their international ambitions, by off ering business development and operational/administrative support.

Frank Rodriguez briefl y let me know that he and his family are doing great, with promises of a more detailed update to come. He visited Switzerland at the end of April, but unfortunately we did not manage to connect.

Cohort G rep

Lisa Sellards Jaouiche [email protected]

Cohort H rep

Tucker Twitmyer [email protected]

Cohort J rep

Robert Coneybeer [email protected] Cohort K rep

Rebecca Susser (Whellan)[email protected]


Linda Chandler [email protected]

Cohort A reps

Pamela Friedmann and Sallie Smalley Beason [email protected] and [email protected]

Tad Aogai writes from Japan to say that he has been posted

to the New York offi ce of the Development Bank of Japan. Tad, his wife and two children will move to New York this summer. Welcome back to the United States to Tad and his family!

Gary Orenstein sends news from Silicon Valley where he and his family enjoy walking their dog Milo and meeting up with Jonathan Towers and his dog Czar.

Cohort B rep

Tip Kim [email protected]

Atlanta-based Purchasing Power has named Chadwick F. Delp chief fi nancial offi cer. Delp recently served as senior vice president in the consumer group of Purchasing Power’s investment partner, Stephens Inc. During his tenure at Stephens, Delp executed client transactions including mergers and acquisitions and capital raises. Delp currently serves as a director of Purchasing Power, Morrell Wine Group, 5 Star Sports Calendar and ACCESS schools, a non-profi t organization that serves the needs of children with learning disabilities.

Cohort C reps

Ruth Kirschner and Julie Wingerter [email protected] and [email protected]

Howard Crow reports from Seattle that he is racing motorcycles on the AMA pro tour and enjoying skiing with Rylie, his 4-year-old daughter. Howard is at Microsoft, 13 years now, and enjoying

Seattle’s mellow life.Meanwhile, Rich Stockton has

also been doing some recreational driving: he celebrated his 40th in Leipzig, Germany on the Porsche 911 sport driving course with fellow classmates Steve Audi, Sean McDuff y, Julius Sarkozy, Vince Arena and John Cormier. And, after 10 years in the UK, the family (including his wife and 3-, 4-, and 5-year old children) is moving to Singapore where Rich will take on his new role as the Co-Head of Asia Pacifi c Real Estate Banking at Morgan Stanley, his employer of the last 13 years). Rich’s “territory” will include: India, China, Australia, Singapore and everything in between!

Rob Rhee was recently awarded tenure as a Professor of Law at the University of Maryland School of Law. However, this summer he will be teaching at Korea University College of Law as a visiting scholar. Rob reports that son Piers, 5, will be joined by an adopted sibling sometime soon.

And Yasu Kuroda writes to announce the birth of his second son, Nicholas (April 2010) who joins big brother Alex (3). Yasu’s business, HR & Organizational consulting, M&A Advisory and venture incubation is busy and his wife has recently joined him as a consultant.

Julie Wingerter reports a busy Spring that includes a move to a nearby Boston town, a big (20 something) birthday, a 5-year wedding anniversary and the impending birth of a baby boy in June, which will mean 3 under 3 for

her clan. She is still working part-time at Pangea Media where she heads up corporate marketing.

Cohort D rep

Kent [email protected]

Kevin Chinoy has been living in Los Angeles since 2007 producing fi lm and TV through a company he owns with his long-time girlfriend, Francesca Silvestri. Their latest production is a new comedy for MTV called “Warren The Ape” coming out this summer, but their most important production to date has been their son Giacomo, who turned 1 in May. Kevin urges anyone that comes out to LA to give him a shout, and let’s see some updates from the rest of Cohort D!

Cohort E rep

Cathy Niemoller [email protected]

Ricki Rabin reports in that she and Scott Rosenberg caught up and got their families together during one of Ricki’s visits to NYC. The Rosenbergs live outside the city but Ricki and family are still living in Dallas.

Cohort F rep

Kevin [email protected]

Cohort G rep

Surindha [email protected]

Cohort H rep

Linda [email protected]

Cohort I rep

Paul Jackson [email protected]

After many years of silence from Cohort I (which is hard to believe knowing Whartonites are hardly a reserved bunch!), Paul Jackson emerged and is taking on the role of agent for the underrepresented I’s. Welcome Paul!

For quite a while we have been in Cohort I Rep wilderness, so, I have decided to pick up the

STOCKTON

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mantle, shake the trees and see what we have to say. To get the ball rolling I reached out to my old learning teammates, “The Outliers,” to see what they’ve been up to. First from my friend, Jay Levyne, “I have just climbed Mt. Everest without taking even one breath, became Blankfein’s personal hairstylist, and solved the Rubik’s cube while blindfolded.”

Glad to see the hallucinogens continue to do a sterling job for Jay. In between doses, he continued...

“Let’s see, I’ve been at Modern Management, Inc., a boutique labor relations consulting company, since 1998, reside in Chicagoland with wife Linda, son Aidan (10) and Jenna Cate (8). Had the opportunity to run into Paul “I have a HOT fi ancée” Jackson, Mike Carrel (CEO of Vital Images), Olga Spaic, Diane Rich and Eric Scharpf.”

From Olga Spaic: “My big update is that I’m engaged and getting married this summer in Seattle. My fi ancé’s name is Perry Lutz, and he is a Boeing engineer. I’m still at Microsoft (5 1/2 years) and am currently working in our Global Marketing Operations group.”

And from Ramon Gomez de Olea: “I am now part of the furniture at Russell Reynolds, Madrid, after 10 and a half years. My daughter Paloma is almost 14, Patricia, 13, and Carlos, 9 years old.”

Chris Crawford and his wife Lindy and two boys are living the Boston area. After 15 years in large mutual fund and hedge fund companies, Chris and two partners formed Crawford Capital Partners, LP last year to invest in out-of-favor and underfollowed public securities.

Bill Esler writes: “Hello everyone. Congratulations to Olga on her engagement. As with Ramon and Paul, our kids are growing up too quickly—Nathalie (11), Christopher (10) and Viviane (8). Gesine and I have been back in Germany since 2000. The last fi ve years I’ve headed a software startup/scale-up, which was acquired in October. I’m staying on as MD of the German operations, but see us back in the

States sometime in the coming years.”

And from Mike Carrel: “On this end things are great. Renee and I live in Minneapolis (have been here since graduation). We have two daughters Lily (9) and Charlotte (7) and three dogs! Simply put, we are just enjoying life. As for work, Renee is still at Johnson & Johnson. Same company since business school. I am president and CEO of Vital Images, a publically traded (VTAL) medical imaging company. Have been here since 2005. Sans the economic downturn and uncertainty in health care, we are doing well and improving patient lives! Fun work for sure.”

As for me, Jay is right, I do have a hot fi ancée, offi cially as of April 21, 2010, when I got engaged in Little Cayman to Anna, who works as a kindergarten teacher in Zurich. I am still in the fi nancial services sector picking over stocks and asset classes around the world, while in my limited spare time I am writing a book entitled The Recycling of Wealth. My two children, Camilla and Oliver, have sprouted up before my eyes. Camilla, 17, is off to university in August where she’ll continue competing in track and showing her prowess on the soccer fi eld. My son, Oliver, 15, a freshman at Newton North, is pursuing his passion for hockey, playing on the varsity team this year. Hopefully, he’ll learn a thing or two about the arts and sciences along the way.

So, Cohort I of 1997, send me your updates, anecdotes, and anything else you’d like to share with the Wharton community.

Until next time, my best wishes to you all.—Paul Jackson

Cohort J rep

Troy [email protected]

Not too much new to report this time around:

But Mary Pat Knauss writes that she “continues to enjoy life in the nonprofi t sector and am now President of the Board for Wings For Success. I fi nd that I’m leveraging many of the skills I developed in the corporate world

to benefi t those in need in my community. It’s very rewarding on many levels. I also have enjoyed catching up with fellow Wharton grads on Facebook. Keep those postings coming!”

Always reliable J-update contributor Ivy Brown reports: “I have moved to a new role still within J&J—Marketing Director for Johnson’s Baby Brand and Desitin—this includes Johnson’s Baby Lotion, Powder, Oil, Head-to-Toe Wash, Bubble Bath, Shampoo and Diaper Rash off erings. Been at it since February 2010 and it’s going very well!”

And fi nally: Jeff Napoliello writes, “I recently moved back to the Philly burbs from upstate New York after a year of running strategy and business development for a Lockheed Martin business up there. Now running LM’s New Ventures Line of Business addressing Renewable Energy, Nanotechnology, Supply Chain, and other commercial businesses. Having a good time. Family (Barbara, Rachel and Renee) are all doing great.”

Please keep the updates coming to [email protected].

Cohort K

Linda Chandler [email protected] Cohort L rep

Jeff Donoskyjeff [email protected]

Laurel (Beltrone) Cavalluzzo writes: “I can report that I have been fi ve years in the Midwest now—Madison, WI to be exact—with my three wonderful kids (ages 8, 6 and 3). After I spent the fi rst part of my career post-Wharton getting good corporate experience (XOM), I now have a marketing consulting practice that will be fi ve years old this fall. It has been very rewarding working with small businesses and non-profi ts—basically organizations that need marketing plans pulled together for them and their staff trained on how to strategically think and execute communications. And with social media having such an enormous impact on all business

communication, it keeps the world of marketing very exciting, as every day the fi eld continues to evolve. (I wish I could hear how social media is being discussed back in the Wharton classroom!!) So that is about it for me—I am sad to say that there is a dearth of Wharton MBA grads here in Madison. That’s one thing I miss out on by living in a smaller Midwest town—not having the same social network of alums as found when living in a larger city!!”

Julie Lin writes: “Not much has changed for me and my husband, other than our companies were both acquired last year (Barclays Global Investors is now part of BlackRock, Genentech is now part of Roche). Our daughter Olivia is now a bit over 2 years old. She defi nitely keeps us busy. Now that she is a bit older, I’d love to reconnect with the Wharton cohort who lives in the SF Bay Area.”

LIN

Glenn Leibowitz reports: “I’m in my 13th year with McKinsey, living in Shanghai now with my wife Pei-Wen and son Keanu (10) and daughter Pasha (4). I manage McKinsey’s external relations and communications in Greater China. I just met up recently with Wharton’s Director of Admissions, J.J. Cutler, C’93, WG’97, when he was visiting Shanghai for interviews. It would be great to keep in touch with more Whartonites living in or passing through China. Contact me at [email protected].”


Cornelia [email protected]

Cohort A rep

Mark Wenger [email protected]

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Cohort B rep

Mark Mannino [email protected]

Cohort C rep

Elisabeth Socolow [email protected]

Cohort D rep

Stephanie Wong [email protected]

Baby William Patrick was the most recent addition to the Rene Lajous clan. He was born on December 16, 2009. Not to be outdone, Rene says he has fi nally caught up to the family size of fellow Cohort D’er Hugh Macdonnell.

Duncan Alvarez writes: “Last August and after eight years in Houston, all our family, including our dog Charlie, moved to Doha, Qatar. I am working on an assignment for Qatar Petroleum, which is the National Oil Company, in the Project Finance Department. The kids (Isabel 12, Sebastian 9 and Nicolas 7) are almost fi nishing the school year in the American School of Doha and everybody is very happy and getting adapted to such an interesting and diff erent culture. Qatar is the country with the fastest-growing economy in the Middle East and they are investing heavily in infrastructure, education and in developing their hydrocarbons resources. During the summer it gets very hot, reaching temperatures of 50°C (122°F).”

Laszlo Sabjanyi and family spent a sunny summer back in Hungary, and he is now back in London building his strategy consulting business.

Kent Madsen writes: “So it only took me 43 years ... but on November 28, Elizabeth and I had our fi rst child. Caroline Sarah Madsen was born at 1.45 p.m. weighing 6 lbs., 10 oz., and was 20.5 inches long. We are all doing well and excited.”

Cohort E rep

Birken Olson [email protected]

Cohort F rep

Kelly Wright [email protected]

Cohort H reps

Robin (Pulis) Carney and Scott [email protected]

Brendan Carney recently accepted a new position as CEO of Citibank Belgium. He began working in Brussels in March of this year and is still commuting home to Lisbon on the weekends to spend time with Amalia (6) and Leonor (4).

Robin (Pulis) Carney is continuing her work as Vice-President of Laço, a breast cancer charity, and will join Brendan in Brussels when the girls fi nish school in July. They would love to see any Whartonites living in or visiting Europe!

Cathy DuRei reports: “After a brief six-month hiatus from the working mommy thing during spring/summer of 2009 (inadvertent leave—survived my fi rst layoff ever), I’m back at Pfi zer Pharmaceuticals in NYC. I now work four days a week, which allows me to spend more time with my family and even sneak in some exercise once a week! My husband, Brian, who went to Kellogg when we were at Wharton, also works there. We live in Rye, NY in a busy household with 8-year-old Amy, and 3-year-old twins, Jack and Ciara. All three are in school now, with the twins doing three days of nursery school and Amy as a

second grader. They are all very busy and growing like weeds. Life is always full of surprises, and while it keeps us very busy, I make a point of slowing down here and there to enjoy these special times with our young ones. Plus I love experiencing the world through their eyes.”

Cohort I rep

Aimee Vincent Jamison [email protected]

Cohort J reps

Suezann Holmes and Banu Tansever [email protected] and [email protected]

Cohort K rep

Debbie Berland [email protected]

Cohort L rep

Colette Levy [email protected]


Lucy Carone Elliott9432 Rosehill DriveBethesda, MD 20817Tel: [email protected]

Cohort A reps

James Fong and Elizabeth Kopple [email protected] and eko [email protected]

Dan Weiner and family made a huge move in 2009 from Brooklyn to Denver in search of extra space and “lifestyle” after the birth of Dan’s third kid. Dan joined a company called Thought Equity Motion that does rights and technology for digital video. His wife, Liz Weiner, WG’00, recently left Credit Suisse and launched a strategic advisory fi rm for real estate fund-raising called The Kap Group. Dan hosted fellow Wharton classmates Larry Tanz, Brian Ring, Ethan Klemperer, Dan Feldman and Ken Zeff for some very exciting skiing in March and hooked up with Ryan Harrington and his family who have been in Denver for a few years now. As a side note, Cohort A is planning a ski trip to Denver this coming winter and plans to crash the entire cohort at Dan’s house for two weeks.

It seems that a Wharton MBA in Finance is still not good enough. Ten years after receiving his MBA, Winston Wang took the challenge and passed the Certifi ed Financial Planner Board Exam. Congratulations, Winston! By the way Winston, should we go long or short on Goldman?

Cohort B reps

Blair Carnahan and Anna Buckingham Gsanger [email protected] and [email protected]

Cohort C reps

Lucy Carone Elliott and Kate Holdsworth [email protected] and [email protected]

Lucy Carone Elliott, Bob Elliott and Trey (3) recently caught up with classmate Kazumi Naito while on “Babymoon 2” in Tokyo and Seoul this past April. Kazumi is still working with Citibank in Tokyo. Lucy and Bob are expecting Baby #2 this June and still have a lot to do to get ready!

Tom Treanor and his family are doing well, including Sophie (8) and Chloe (6), who have turned out to be pretty good skiers. His wife Audrey’s architecture and design business has been strong and Tom (after 7+ years) decided to leave HP and start his own

DUREI

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consulting fi rm. Learn more at www.RightMixMarketing.com. Tom reports that San Francisco is losing several Whartonites back to the East Coast including Jeff and Sandra Smith as well as Marc and Sandra Micek.

Sydel Howell has co-founded The Caregiver Relief Fund, a nonprofi t social venture committed to caring for caregivers. They provide resources, assistance and a voice to over 50 million Americans who are currently caregivers to the chronically ill, aged or disabled. Check out www.caregiverrelieff und.org. Donations and assistance welcomed! Cohort D reps

Elisabeth Burghardt Bartel and Natalie [email protected] and [email protected]

Derrick Irwin writes that he and Marcia (Cillan) Irwin had their second baby last week: Isabel McLean Irwin, 8 lbs., 12 oz. and 19 inches long on March 29, 2010. Congratulations from all of us! Mom and baby are doing great. In other news Derrick continues to work on the Evergreen Investments Emerging Markets Growth Fund, which he says is great fun.

Cohort E rep

Marissa Peters Cherian [email protected]

Cohort F reps

Sandra Juhn Schubert and Jen [email protected] and [email protected]

Sandro Trosso writes: “I have returned to Peru and have started working with one of the candidates for the presidential campaign due April 2011.”

Karen Ward writes: “I left Bank of America Merrill Lynch last summer and joined up with two previous partners to form The CenterCap Group, a real estate investment banking fi rm. We focus on providing M&A advisory and raising strategic growth capital for mid-sized public and private real estate operating companies and investment managers. In everything we do, we try to bring

a principal mentality to the table as our entire team (there are seven now) has all been on the principal side before. Here is the website: www.centercapgroup.com. So, it’s been very exciting! My partners and I are building a new business and we have found that everyone has been very supportive. We have really started to hit our stride since we started out in the fall of 2009 and have been active on many fronts, including pre-IPO advisory, entity- and asset-level capital raising and start-up advisory for our clients.”

Cohort G reps

Dan McKone and Fawad Zakariya [email protected] and [email protected]

Caskie Collet writes in with an update: “Our third child, Peter, was born August 11, 2009 and everyone is doing well. Big brother Jack, 5, and sister Whitney, 3, love the addition and are very excited to teach him the ways of the world. We are living outside of San Francisco in Marin County where we’ve been for the last two years.”

Darren Bramen has an update from the Philadelphia Main Line: “My wife Becky, NU’96, GNU’98, and I are well settled in Bryn Mawr after surviving a 5-year home renovation that began in 2003. We have two little girls running around that home, Sydney (6) and Samantha (4). I remain a partner with Veritable, LP, located in Chester County’s beautiful horse country, 15 miles west (as the crow fl ies) of Penn’s campus. I’ve been with Veritable almost 11 years now, coming here straight from Wharton. We took the company private in 2004 and it has grown to be one of the largest fee-only, objective investment advisors to the ultra-affl uent. Despite appreciating our lives in the East, Becky and I are still drawn to the West and often make the pilgrimage to California. The entire Bramen clan was hosted by Doug Tomlinson during a visit to San Francisco last August.”

Marc Lehmann informs us from New York: “The Lehmanns are moving to Miami this summer. I will be taking some time off and then more than likely starting my own

fund late this year or early in 2011.”

Cohort H rep

Allison Stark [email protected]

Cohort I rep

Geoff rey Williamsgeoff [email protected]

Cohort J rep

Chip Baird [email protected]

Cohort K rep

Jay [email protected]

Mark Somol has joined Mzinga, a the leader in social software, services, and analytics for business, as the company as Chief Financial Offi cer. As Mzinga’s CFO, Somol will oversee all aspects of the company’s fi nance, corporate development and strategic initiatives. He has spent the last two decades in senior management and fi nance roles in high-growth technology ventures, where he directed growth strategies, business planning and corporate development. Somol most recently served as Principal at NeoCarta Ventures, a $300 million venture fund that invests in technology and media companies. Somol also served as a board

member, observer or advisor to multiple NeoCarta portfolio companies and worked closely with the companies’ CEOs on business strategy, raising capital, M&A transactions and operations. Before that, Somol was co-founder and principal of Highgate Ventures, a $75 million venture fund that invests in information technology companies, and held investing and operating roles at GE Capital and Oracle.

Paul Bamundo writes: “Claire and I bought our fi rst house in Darien, CT, so that I can be closer to work and not have to do the hellish commute from Brooklyn to Subway’s offi ces in Milford anymore (75 miles each way). Still having fun doing sports and entertainment marketing for the brand. Hopefully you all have seen our latest Subway commercials featuring Michael Phelps, Ryan Howard, CC Sabathia, Michael Strahan, Laila Ali, Blake Griffi n, Nastia Liukin, Carl Edwards and others. And now that we have a house, we fi gured no time like the present to start a family. So yes, we will soon be joining many of you proud dads and moms sharing baby pictures in future updates because Claire is due with our fi rst child in September. We are going old school and not fi nding out if it is a boy or a girl. We’ll hopefully

Derrick Irwin WG’99Derrick Irwin writes that he and Marcia (Cillan) Irwin had their second baby last week: Isabel McLean Irwin, 8 lbs., 12 oz. and 19 inches long on March 29, 2010. Congratulations from all of us! Mom and baby are doing great. In other news Derrick continues to work on the Evergreen Investments Emerging Markets Growth Fund, which he says is great fun.

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share the news in the Winter edition!” Cohort L reps

Andrew Yoon and Lisa Brichta [email protected] and [email protected]

Andrew Yoon writes: “After eight years living abroad in Tokyo and Hong Kong, my family and I will be moving back to Los Angeles in June. We’ll be living in Pacifi c Palisades and look forward to spending more time with our family and friends.”

Sherine (Nabih) Freeth moved from London to Bahrain this past January, “so if anyone is passing through the Gulf region, please do look us up! I stopped working in banking (high yield/credit sales at Citi in NYC and then Barcap in London) almost two years ago (before our son Zaki was born) and it still feels weird so I think I’ll eventually get back to something but just a question of what. Great to spend time with the little guy though! So, for the moment, enjoying life on a desert island and getting a bit nervous for how hot that desert island will be in another month’s time as it’s already 90 degrees and it’s only April!”

Gregg Spiridellis is plowing away at JibJab. In May the company announced a partnership with LucasFilm and released a Star Wars Starring You series. Like JibJab’s ElfYourself campaign, users can upload their photos and put themselves, family and friends into the original Star Wars movie, Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi.

Sandra Cordova Micek writes: “My family and I have moved back to New York after having lived and worked in London and San Francisco since graduating from Wharton nearly 11 years ago. I recently joined NBC Universal in New York as vice president of integrated marketing. Marc, Max, 3, and Eliana, 1.5, and I live in Manhattan and are really enjoying being back on the East Coast. It’s been great catching up with our New York Wharton friends again.”

00s


Wendy Bagdi229 East 28th Street, 1D New York, NY 10016 [email protected]

Cohort A rep

Skip [email protected]

Cohort B reps

Denise Hsu and Steve [email protected] and [email protected]

Cohort C reps

Mandy (Scheps) Pekin and Idris [email protected] and [email protected]

Cohort D rep

Wendy [email protected]

Cohort E reps

John Pietrzak and Laurent [email protected] and [email protected]

Cohort F rep

Patti [email protected]

Cohort G reps

Joe Benavides and Amanda [email protected] and [email protected]

Cohort H rep

Art [email protected]

Cohort I rep

Andrea Nickel [email protected]

Cohort J rep

Jamie Parks [email protected]

Cohort K rep

Liz [email protected]

Cohort L rep

Christian [email protected]

Radhika Shroff writes: “Unfortunately, I didn’t make it to this year’s reunion as I’m expecting my second baby around the same time, and don’t want him to be born at Pub (which might not be inappropriate given my stellar attendance record there from 1998-2000). My husband, Seth Bair, WG’03, and I are still happily ensconced in Manhattan, living in a city with the best restaurants and nightlife in the world and not taking advantage of any of it! Hoping that’ll change in a couple of years. I am still working on making microfi nance investments in Peru with Rosanna Ramos-Velita, G’92, WG’92, as well as with Maya Kaimal Fine Indian Foods (www.mayakaimal.com). Both projects plus the imminent second baby are keeping me very busy and I hope to see everyone at our 15-year reunion, if not before.”

Assaf and Natalie Tarnopolsky write: “The Tarnopolsky family is still living the dream in LA and our three boys are growing up fast under the sunshine. We recently saw Lara Koslow and Joanna Popper at Audrey Greenberg’s beautiful wedding in Big Sur. Hope all are well and looking forward to the reunion. Wow, 10 years. We keep telling ourselves that 40 is the new 30 ...”

Tom Lee writes: “Still working at GIC Real Estate and recently began looking at real estate investments in Brazil. On a recent trip to Rio I was able to meet up with Sidnei Shibata over dinner at a nice churrascaria. Sidnei is keeping busy with his twins and new job at a major telecom company called Oi.”

Qayyum Hafeez writes: “Our fi rst baby is due on or around June 1. It’s a girl! I have been working at a private equity fund in Dubai since 2008.”

Bill Baker writes: “I’m in my 10th year of investment banking, and now in my fi fth year with my

current fi rm, GCA Savvian, based in San Francisco. I have transitioned to a coverage role and now run the Cleantech group, which is focused on the intersection of technology and natural resource management: fuels, electricity and water. Since our fi rm is headquartered in Tokyo and San Francisco, I am beginning to spend more time in Tokyo, and spend many Lost in Translation nights looking out of my hotel room window at three in the morning. We are doing primarily M&A advisory and increasingly focused on US-Japan cross-border work. In spite of the revelry in Brazil, I defi nitely chose the wrong Lauder language. The family is great and kids are getting older: Emily (6), Charlotte (4.5) and Harry (2.5). Everyone has taken to skiing, which is a huge victory. We voted on getting a dog last year and my vote didn’t count, so we got a crappy little dog. His name is Fergus.”

Erica Judge writes: “My husband Simon Bendle and I welcomed Luke Cameron Bendle to their family on April 23. Brother Matthew (2 in May) is very excited at the new addition and so are we!”

Anurag Kapur: “On April 6, Shivani and I welcomed Anish Kapur, 7 pounds 12 oz., born in Santa Monica, CA. Aditya, 4 1/2 years old, likes to sing to, play with and occasionally paw at his baby brother. Professionally, I joined Wells Fargo’s Securities & Investment Group in September 2009 and focus on investing in stressed, distressed and leveraged loans. If anyone passes through Los Angeles, defi nitely look me up.”


John DohertyOne Crestwood LaneSummit, NJ [email protected]

Class of 2001,Hope 2010 started off well for

everyone … with the limited number of items submitted, it appears everyone is very busy!

Best regards, John

Cohort A rep

Robert [email protected]

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Cohort B rep

James Fields jameswfi [email protected]

Cohort D reps

Sampriti Ganguli, Peter Fair and Jason Stack [email protected], [email protected] and [email protected]

Cohort E rep

Ruth [email protected]

Reuben Advani was recently featured in Investor’s Business Daily in an article entitled “Track Costs And Benefi ts To Make Smart Business Decisions”

Cohort F rep

Vishal Sharma [email protected]

Chelsea Vaughn writes: “I got married to Anthony Showalter on September 12 in New York, and some WG’01 friends helped us celebrate. In the picture below, from left: Udayan Chattopadhyay, Rachel Wasserstrom, Arnab Ghatak, me, my new husband, Sujata Wasudev Deshmukh, Tal Lev, Theresa Wong pregnant with her second child (who turned out to be Evan), and Asha Gohil.

Sujata and Asha were bridesmaids. I have been at Random House since graduation and am currently a director in the corporate online and digital marketing group, working on online marketing and digital strategy. Anthony is from Indiana, received his MBA at Indiana University, and is a director at Echoing Green, an organization that funds emerging social entrepreneurs. We live in Fort Greene, Brooklyn.”

Cohort G rep

Alec Campbell [email protected]

Cohort H rep

Alison R. [email protected]

Balazs Felcsuti writes: “All updates are work related from the Felcsuti family. I recently started a new job

in Business Development with Ironwood Pharmaceuticals. Noemi is working as a psychotherapist at Westwood Lodge Hospital and thus, the kids, Dani and Lili, have to pull their weight as well by going to daycare full-time. And as the Boston winter is fi nally winding down we are looking forward to enjoying some sunny days.”

Beny Rubinstein also provided this update: “I am still living in the Seattle area. More precisely, Newcastle, but the one in Washington, although I’ve been spending most of my time in the UK lately where I had the opportunity to reconnect with Oren Beeri and other classmates. Recently visited New York on my way back from London and had a chance to see Shimon Shkury, Tal Lev, Theresa Wong and their kids, as well as many others. It was wonderful to see that everyone is doing well. I am looking forward to the summer. Planning a trip to Alaska and who knows where else?”

Cohort I rep

Dave [email protected]

Divesh Makan writes: “Diksha and I had our third daughter, Treesha, on April 1, 2010. Life-wise, Kreeya (eldest) is starting Kindergarden at Hamlin, whilst Mira (middle) is at Pre-k. I am still at Morgan Stanley, and Diksha is occupied running our life. Still happily in San Francisco and staying in the city (avoiding the suburbs!).”

Cohort J rep

Paul [email protected]

John Long has landed a new role with Willis Group (NYSE: WSH) as its China CFO. He is based in Shanghai and invites classmates to contact him if they are in China or passing through. John’s email is [email protected]. Cohort K reps

Amy Peterson and Jenny Cobleigh [email protected] and [email protected]

Cohort L rep

Liz Everett [email protected]


Annie C. LeeTel: [email protected]

Cohort A rep

Annie C. [email protected]

Cohort B rep

Chris [email protected]

Cohort C rep

Sandra [email protected] Cohort D reps

Kim Schuy and Rob [email protected] and [email protected]

Cohort E rep

Barat Dickman [email protected]

Abhey Lamba writes: “We had our second kid in December, a son, Yuvraj. Life has been crazy since his arrival but all for good. Professionally, I am still working in equity research at ISI group covering technology stocks.”

Daniel Daniel writes: “After working at UBS since graduation, I left the fi rm in April. I am building a special situations group at Wall Street Access to complement the existing merger arb research product. My focus is on identifying and evaluating non-arbitrage corporate change situations that

will unlock value in a company’s security structure.”

Cohort F rep

Tony [email protected]

Shannon Foy got married in April 2008 “to someone I met online—yes, online! Believe that?! I did it for fun and ended up meeting my future husband.” Shannon’s husband left Manhattan and she left DC and they moved to Philadelphia in 2006. Shannon now works for a small sports and entertainment advertising agency. Her transition from working for multi-billion dollar companies to a small 15-person organization has been “very refreshing.” They just had their fi rst baby in October 2009. Her name is Dyllan Kelly Leaf and “she’s happy and has a ton of personality already.”

Melissa Chan (Cohort B) and Tony Estrella recently got engaged in Geneva, Switzerland and spent a celebratory weekend in Barcelona enjoying the start of their life together. No date yet, but plans will be forthcoming. Meanwhile, they continue their lives in New York where Melissa is singing Opera (www.melissachan.net) and fi nishing her second Grad degree in Arts Management, and Tony is celebrating the fi fth year anniversary of HealthiNation (the health care media startup that he co-founded) this coming April.

Cohort G rep

Francesca [email protected] David Hopkins and his wife DeVona welcomed a new baby

VAUGHN

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girl, Drew Elise, on February 21, 2009. The Hopkins still live in Pittsburgh, PA, along with their three other children, Darrien Renee, Dailyn Iman, and Donovan Noah, where David is Market Manager for PNC’s Western PA and Eastern OH Community Development Bank.

Cohort H rep

Rick [email protected] Cohort I rep

Sundar [email protected]

Cohort J rep

AnnMarie [email protected]

Cohort K reps

Elisa Graceff o and Vanessa Karubianelisa.graceff [email protected] and [email protected]

Jennifer Lee is an Executive for Chef Bobby Flay, and “we opened Bobby’s Burger Palace yesterday (April 6, 2010). It is a fast, casual restaurant which off ers burgers, fries, and milkshakes inspired by Bobby Flay’s culinary travels. The food is really aff ordable and the restaurant is located very close to Huntsman Hall at 39th and Walnut. Come have a burger and don’t forget to get it CRUNCHIFIED!”

Marc Shedroff and his wife Tracy had a baby boy, Benjamin Jacob, born on Oct 15, 2009. He was 7 lbs., 11 oz.

Elisa and Greg Graceff o are thrilled to announce the birth of their third child, Charlie Graceff o, on March 12, 2010. Elisa and Greg are still in Seattle and working at Microsoft, on the Offi ce and Bing businesses, respectively.

Cohort L rep

Jenise [email protected]


Carter Mayfi eldCarter.Mayfi [email protected]

Cohort A rep

Brian D. [email protected]

Cohort B rep

Viru Raparthi [email protected]

Christian Hernandez writes: “Michelle and I have now been in London for four years. Life has been great, Sebastian is almost 2 and European long weekends continue to make it a great place to be. Things were getting a bit settled, so we decided to shake things up a bit: We are expecting the birth of our daughter this summer; we therefore had to move houses to the third since we arrived in London, and I decided to switch jobs. As of October, I have joined Facebook to lead our international expansion as Head of International Business Development. I am loving working for a 25-year-old CEO and being 10 years older than the median age at Facebook and at the same time knowing that we have 400 million passionate users to support. On the personal side, the Wharton posse continues to evolve with Kim Henderson and Katie Peterson (Mensch) having left, but Jen Bernstein arriving soon. I continue to be close to the school and still serve on the Alumni Association Board of Directors and am excited to welcome my fellow DGSAC Co-Chair Brian Wong to the Board along with Fadi who joined last year! Look us up when you come to London.”

Cohort C rep

Raza [email protected]

Mark Mechem and Molly (Maoli Huang, Cohort A) celebrated the birth of their second daughter, Samantha, on February 3 in Shanghai.

Pamela Brown reports that “The BIG news in my life is that

I am getting married this May 15 to a wonderful guy. His name is Nicholas Kournetas, he is Greek-Canadian and does investment banking (at Moelis) for a living. We are looking forward to having Sarah Searson from Cohort C there as well as other Wharton friends Amelia Weir and Andrea Remyn.” The happy couple is going to Italy for their honeymoon and is currently living on New York’s Upper West Side with their dog Chaplin.

Cohort D rep

Sangita Jinwala [email protected]

Cohort E rep

Stephanie [email protected]

Cohort F rep

Sara [email protected]

In April, Cohort F’ers chimed in to a mass email exchange, complete with memory lane references to cohort bingo and Hat Day 2001. We had folks chime in from across the U.S., as well as Hong Kong, Ukraine, China, Russia, Mexico, Brazil and Canada. Javier Vila invited us all to a Cohort F BBQ reunion in Puerto Rico, featuring a Chef Michael Robbins and Chef Scott Bolton throwdown challenge against Bobby Flay. If you missed the email party, please send Sara Kleinberg your email address!

Cohort F will be keeping our eyes out for Ryan Nathan in the Couer d’Alene Ironman in June, Grace Huang’s new baby in July, Aldo Francisco’s fi rst baby in late June, Seth Bair’s second baby this summer and Forest Lin’s second son in May.

We’ll be sure to visit Fleurish, Susan Cespuglio’s new fl ower design studio in Philadelphia, the next time we’re in town.

We congratulate Alicia Smith on her new role running Global Business Strategy & Sales Operations for Motorola, Mobile Devices, and Nanhee Kim on her move to Beijing and new role at LG Electronics, China Strategy division.

Ian Colville, Eric Grimes,

ESTRELLA-CHAN

GRACEFFO

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Kent Wasson, Scott Bolton, Marta Miguel Self, Jeff Wallace, Joel Muniz, Scott Davis, Natalie Perkins, Mike Duff y, Naomi Hansen, Huybert Groenendaal, Mike Boyden, Ramona Persaud, Veronica Garcia Seffi no, Chris Krummel, Xin Zhao and Sara Kleinberg had no news, but shouted out hello and “word up.”

And Guatam Kollu is daydreaming about buying a new fl eece.

Cohort H rep

Michael [email protected] Cohort I rep

Stanley Huang [email protected]

Cohort J rep

Vinay [email protected]

Cohort J continues to love the spotlight and reality TV. Brent Sonnek Schmelz opened up the year with “Who Wants To Be A Millionaire” (www.millionairetv.com). In the show aired on April 28, 2010, Brent went on to win $100,000 in prize money. That is a lot of trivia questions that Brent got right. But as you can see some of them were just too easy for him. Brent was the well-regarded social chair for Cohort J, who with his equally capable co-chair Ellene Hu famously diversifi ed the social activities for the Cohort with nightly excursions to dive bars and other places of dubious entertainment in Philadelphia. In other memorable run-ins with TV, you may remember Sarah Leshner from “The Amazing Race” and Nicholas Benedict from “The Tyra Banks Show” and “Dr. Phil.”

In “I do” updates, Jerrlyn Shelley Iwata and Michael Jen-Howe Lee were married in April in a nondenominational ceremony at the Acqualina Resort and Spa in Sunny Isles Beach, FL. Jerrlyn works in New York for Verizon Communications. She is a director of mobile content strategy and acquisition for the company’s V-Cast video subscription service. Michael is a partner in Royal Capital Management, an investment fi rm in New York, where he is responsible for making

stock and bond investments in North America. He graduated magna cum laude from Dartmouth College. You can fi nd a link to their New York Times marriage announcement in the fashion & weddings section: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/11/fashion/weddings/11iwata.html.

In baby updates, Dan Plaxe and wife Jennifer proudly announced the birth of their son, Colin Jacob, on December 1. Colin joins big sister, Amanda, who turned 4 in March. Dan continues to manage a distressed credit fund that he co-founded in early 2009. Since spearheading the Cohort J trip to Atlantic City during the fi rst year at Wharton, Dan continues in his self-appointed role as social chair by periodically organizing events for cohort J’ers in the New York area.

Paul Boehms and Jyl were blessed with Noah David Boehms who was born on December 7, 2009. That brings the total up to three boys for the Boehms! Paul writes that Andrew and Jacob, Noah’s two older brothers, have welcomed him with open arms and Jyl is learning to cope with all of the men in her life. Charles and Puja Dhanraj are delighted to announce the birth of their fi rst child, Alexander Neal Khurana Dhanraj, who was born on April 4, 2010.

In other updates, Facundo Barrera left AmEx after almost seven years to join Visa, where he is managing products for small businesses in Latin America. He is still based in Miami. He says it was an off er he just couldn’t refuse.

Brian Wong is still based in Hong Kong with Alibaba.com where he is now leading their Global Sales division, setting up operations and reseller partnerships in export-oriented countries such as India, Vietnam, Turkey, Brazil and Korea. He writes that it has been a fascinating experience for him being on the inside of a fast-growing Chinese company that has big global ambitions. He also joined the Wharton Alumni Board in fall 2009 and was thrilled to be back on campus and see how the School and its MBA program have progressed.

Jewel Huijnen, who has been working in the hedge fund industry since graduation, sends in this

update from London. Jewel started on the allocating side of hedge funds at APG and J.P. Morgan, and, since May 2009, has been at the New York-based hedge fund Two Sigma Investments. In March and April of this year, she exchanged Manhattan for London to fortify Two Sigma’s City offi ce. In those two months, Jewel was happy to catch up with several Cohort J and other classmates in London. She attended the fi rst birthday party of Lara Rosborough, the very cute daughter of Nese Güner Rosborough and her husband Angus where she also saw Thibaut De Cours and his wife Christine. At the British Museum she randomly ran into Nicholas Benedict who was visiting London from Los Angeles. At a WG’03 Class London Mixer organized by Mukul Sukhwal and his wife Seema, Jewel spent a lovely evening with Michael Larbie and his wife Rita, Juan Lamo de Espinosa, Fabiana Eggers, and Ramona Persaud and her boyfriend Anthony. At the First Friday Drinks organized by the Wharton Club of the U.K., Shegun Holder and Jewel welcomed newly expat Jennifer Bernstein into town. And fi nally, Jewel went on a hike in the beautiful countryside of Kent organized by Loredana Guglielmi and her boyfriend Manuel Martinez-Fidalgo, WG’02.

Cohort K rep

Claudia Wilderman [email protected]

In March, Cliff Bayer was promoted to Executive Director at UBS. Class Correspondent WG’04

Santosh Kookal [email protected]

Greetings from Sunny California. Last year, I took a role leading product planning for health informatics at medical device company St. Jude Medical (NYSE:STJ) based in the L.A. area. Priya Mina (5), Mohun (2), our lab Brandy and I call Pasadena (of “Big Bang Theory” and Rose Bowl fame!) home now. As always, we welcome visitors.

Cohort A rep

Santosh [email protected]

Cohort A continues to be a tight-lipped bunch except for Phil Shpilberg whose Facebook updates are consistently entertaining. Cohort D rep

Neel Bhatia [email protected]

Cohort F rep

Tracy [email protected]

Jared Remington writes: “I joined Peak Capital, a real estate private equity fi rm, in 2009. As a partner, my role includes investment analysis, underwriting, fi rm strategy, business development and capital sourcing. We live in New Canaan, CT, I work in CT and NY, and always welcome catching up with Whartonites if they’re in the NY/CT area!”

Wayne Rudolph writes: “We recently had our fi rst baby. Daniel was born on January 26. He is a pretty big kid, born weighing 8.4 pounds, and is around 14 or 15 pounds by now (he gets that from his dad)!”

Meredith Epstein Goodman writes: “My news is that I have a new job. I am now the marketing director for the skincare category at Dior.”

Matt Fifi eld is living in Palm Beach, FL, and building coal mines in southern Illinois. James is now 3 years old and Mary is 1 year old!

Kelly Breast Parsons writes: “Lucien (Cohort G) and I added a little girl to our family, Van D. and I am doing some independent consulting in marketing management.”

Jack Ryan Blawat was born on February 19, 2010. Big, happy, and healthy, Jack has made Nick Blawat and Erica very happy and sister Addison (now 2 1/2 years old) is getting along swimmingly with her little brother. Still in Chicago, Nick is VP of Supply Chain at Feeding America and Erica is still considering whether or not to return to work at her small high-end residential architecture fi rm.

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Cohort G rep

Anjana [email protected] or [email protected]

Azim Nagree and Soraiya became proud parents of their fi rst child, Reza, on November 3, 2009. He’s already 6 months old.

Ashwin Hira reports that he has left sunny California for even sunnier UAE. Ashwin left McKinsey after a fi ve-year stint there to join Advanced Semiconductor Investment Company, a specialized investmentvehicle for the Abu Dhabi government to invest in the semiconductor space. Ashwin lives in Dubai and works in Abu Dhabi. He is often on the road (no change from McKinsey on that front) and travels once every month to Singapore, Germany and the U.S.

Noah Shanok writes: “I’ve been living in beautiful San Francisco since our graduation. I started a mobile Internet radio company called Stitcher a couple of years ago which has been one heck of a learning experience and is coming along nicely. I sometimes see Tommy and Sim who are both doing great, and I get holiday cards from Nancy Park (Turner) who has the most beautiful kids! If you are in San Francisco, please drop me a line so I can take you out for beers.”

Cengiz Ozelsel and Chantelle Streete are now living in beautiful Miami. They just welcomed the latest addition to their family, London, who is now 3 months old. Cengiz has created a thriving, high-end wedding photography business and asks us to check it out: www.adagion.com. Recently, he photographed the Super Bowl charity party for Jim Carrey.

Tamara Paton reports: “We survived another Canadian winter! Our second little one, Sam, arrived on February 14 and was welcomed warmly by his 2-year-old sister, Carly. I’m juggling the kids, along with some independent consulting (www.ideavine.ca). We missed the reunion last year because we were in the middle of moving from Toronto to Niagara. Tom took a clinical teaching post with McMaster University’s medical school and spends his free time

riding his new tractor around our property. We miss the city at times, but love living in the middle of wine country. Fellow alums are welcome to visit, especially if fond of ice wine!”

Cohort H rep

Andy [email protected]

Andy Wickless and Simla Somturk are still living in San Francisco. In May, Andy spoke about export opportunities for Chinese solar PV companies at the 5th Annual Renewable Energy Finance Forum in Beijing. On that trip, he visited Aarti Angara (Cohort I) in Hong Kong. Simla continues building and loving her business as a health & nutrition coach. She decided a while ago to specialize in working with busy professionals and those living with autoimmune conditions. Her latest program launch was for her 28-day virtual, guided, whole-foods based Delicious Cleanse, designed for this group. After a week in Argentina with Andy, she had to do the cleanse herself too.

Tony Horsley reports: “My wife Catherine and I have made two additions to our family since leaving Wharton. We now have four children: Calder is 8, McKay is 6, Henry is 4 and Gwen is 6 months. We moved into a new home (new to us, old to the world) in Draper, UT, last summer and did some substantial remodeling. We live at the base of the Wasatch Mountains and have had a blast skiing every weekend with our kids the past couple of years. I left Bain about 2.5 years ago to join a small PE/Growth Capital fi rm in SLC, UT. I was recently promoted to Partner.”

Stephen Hartley writes that he has been asked to head CareFusion’s Asia Pacifi c Division and will soon trade Kansas City for Tokyo.

Anita Pramoda writes: “I’ve traded my life in sunny San Diego for cheese, lakes, colorful spring blooms and icy cold winters in Madison, WI. As CFO at Epic, I go to work every morning to help the provider community improve patient care in the United States and beyond.”

For those of you who didn’t hear the news, Boris Siperstein is now married to Nina Godiwalla, who has a book pending release entitled Suits: A Woman on Wall Street. Amazon indicates that it is due out December 1, 2010. Pre-order now!

Juan Batlle reports: “Kathy and I are still living in Cambridge, MA, with our twin girls, (3 1/2) Eva and Amelie, who as of October have a new brother, Gustavo! This summer there will be another big change once I fi nish up my musculoskeletal radiology fellowship at MGH. We’ll all be moving to Miami, FL, where I’m from, for me to start a job as a private practice radiologist for Baptist Health System. Everyone is welcome to visit!”

Peter Bates sends his typical “I have nothing new to report” update (grin): “... literally nothing has changed. I’m still married (to Sarah, for 14 years this June), still have 3 kids (Chris, 10, Will, 8, and Emma Kate, 6) and a dog (Herbie, a Golden Retriever) and am still doing the same job at T. Rowe Price.” He adds, “My big exciting trip was going to the Beijing Olympics in 2008. This summer we are fl ying to Denver, renting a motor home and driving around to see all the National Parks (Yellowstone, etc.). Very Clark Griswoldish …”

Jackie Shen and Jason Kim moved to Austin from NYC in February and had a little Texan boy named Owen on March 19!

Meredith (Chan) Krishnasamy and husband Suresh are the proud parents of Abigail Krishnasamy, who is now 4 months old.

Rimmy Malhotra married this past January in Costa Rica. Leah Barton and Yaron Ben-Zvi (Cohort E) attended. Rimmy is now living between NYC and Palo Alto.

When asked for an update, Carolyn Magill wrote: “Funny you should ask for an update this week, because in the last seven days I have accepted a new role at my company and become engaged! Lots of fun changes recently. I’ve been promoted to Chief Operating Offi cer of AmeriChoice New Jersey, a health plan within UnitedHealth Group that serves 350,000 individuals in NJ who

have Medicaid and Medicare. Also, thrilled to share that Tim Hanson and I are engaged. We’re relocating from Minneapolis to the NYC metro area this summer, and planning a fall wedding. Happy times!”

Atul Aggarwal reports that he is “still at Bain (with half of WG’04 ...),” but recently got a chance to do a really fun project in education, with the Robin Hood foundation and KIPP, one of the leading charter school networks in the country, “so I am feeling particularly ‘good’ right now.”

In typical fashion, Erick Schneider writes: “I have retired from work to focus on working out and traveling. Trips include reliving the Spring Break of all Spring Breaks as I am in Turks and Caikos now, will go to India, Tibet, Nepal and China for three months this summer. Married? No way!”

Tiff any Bray now has two kids (a 3-1/2-year-old-boy, Austin, and a 1-year-old girl, Aubrey). She and her husband moved to Boulder, CO, and are living the suburbia life. They are about to go to Hawaii for vacation (the fi rst trip with two kids—yikes!). Tiff any now works at Covidien.

Rand Clark got married on May 1. He is working as a Tech Analyst at a NYC-based hedge fund and is living in Park Slope, Brooklyn.

David Schuppan and wife Kate are welcoming their third child (a boy) in June 2010. They continue to reside in Chicago.

Deepak Tayal reports that he is still in New York (“no marriage, no babies”) and works for a hedge fund called Argonaut.

James Dolton writes: “I never thought I would still be in banking in 2010 but after four years at Bear in NYC I have now been at Deutsche in Sydney for 2 years. On the family front, we celebrated William’s fi rst birthday in March and Tora and I are looking forward to the arrival of No. 3 in August. That will make it three under 3 which proves I am a glutton for punishment. In other random news I won a red ribbon (2nd prize) for quince jelly at Sydney’s Royal Easter Show which shocked the offi ce and impressed my 92-year-old grandmother and

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2-year old daughter alike.”Emily Chow got married

in March and is still living in Singapore.

Lisa Jordan (now Dunlea) reports that she got married a few years ago and recently had a baby boy. His name is Ian and he is 10 months old.

Paula Janssen writes: “I got engaged in March to a great guy that many Cohort H people have met over the years: Greg Greene, a veterinarian. We live together in Wilmington, DE with our dog and four cats. My business, Janssen’s Market LLC, just won the 2010 Rush Award for Family Business from the Better Business Bureau of Delaware.”

Sangeeta Desai left Apax to take on more of an operational role as Chief Operating Offi cer at HIT Entertainment, producer of children’s entertainment like “Thomas the Tank Engine” and “Bob the Builder.” She is still living in London but travelling frequently to NY.

Martin Johnston reports: “I joined the international group of the Carbon Trust in London about a year ago. It’s interesting work, stimulating the development of low-carbon technologies and companies. Most recently I have been to Nairobi, Kenya and New Delhi, India to help local low-carbon businesses; stopped off for a week in the Maasai Mara for some awesome big-5 action! I was lucky to get a rare sighting of Andy McAlister in London last week. Yes, he is alive and well, currently hiking around Scotland as part of a European tour. Swiss Chris (Braendli) is still acting as social rep in London, so see him frequently; also had a drink and catch-up with Jon Bebo and Simon Davidson. Steve Hartley has taken a role as a circus performer in Japan.”

And last but not least, an update from Dan Riff . It took an off er of $10 for anyone to fi nd Dan and get an update from him. Peter Bates wins the prize (although Dan was trying to get his $5 share) after having tracked down Dan (on his BlackBerry, I suppose) at the Kentucky Derby. Dan writes, “…co-PM of Janus Fund and Long/Short Fund … 19-month-old boy Mathis…

skiing as much as I can from our Bachelor Gulch place … crash-landed getting in here (private plane had landing gear problems, but all OK).”

Cohort I rep

John Paul [email protected]

Cohort J rep

Richard [email protected]

Hey JCo. Hope all’s well. Things are good here in the Bay Area. I’m still with Anchor Intelligence, a startup in the online advertising space. In my free time, I’m picking dirt out of the mouth of Emi, my 2-year-old; or trying to convince Keira, my 3-year-old, to wear something other than a pink princess dress every day. - Richard Sim

Adam Zotkow says: “Jodi and I had a baby girl, Chloe Michele Zotkow, in September; brother Brady, 3, loves his new sister.” Also, Adam was promoted to Managing Director at Goldman Sachs in November.

Breaking the stereotype that Wharton produces mathletes, not athletes, Emmanuel Toutain says: “I fi nished 8th/850 in the South Midwest Olympic Triathlon Championship. I was 2nd/150 of my age group (men 35-39). I qualifi ed for the 2010 National Championship that will be held in Tuscaloosa, AL at the end of September. On the work side, I am strategy director for Technip North America. We provide engineering, technologies and project management to the oil and

gas industry.” Everyone cross your fi ngers that Emmanuel will blaze through Tuscaloosa in record time!

Abigail Suberman Chen updates: “Big news in our family: new baby girl Madeleine. She is super cute and we are having a great time with her.”

And fi nally, Jeff Reid and Ricky Welsh watched the Texas A&M game in December. He says: “Of course we were hanging out in Hermosa beach! (and the Aggies lost) ...” Keep the updates comin! And check out our Facebook update: Wharton MBA ’04 Cohort J.

Cohort K rep

Leo [email protected]

Christopher Fikry and Stephanie Mann celebrated the fi rst birthday of their daughter Addison (WG, 2037) this past April. The family is living in lovely Jersey City, NJ. Stephanie is a Vice President at Citi working in M&A and Christopher is a Senior Director at Novartis Vaccines.

Laura Drum Miller checks in from the Bay area: “Andy and I are having a blast with our son, Nathan, who is 7 months old. We’ve been appropriately proud of major milestones such as rolling over, sitting up and drooling. He’s so fun he’s almost satisfi ed my desire to get a dog (and they do the same tricks!) ... we’ll see. I’ve been back to work at Genentech for a few months now and have been able to fi nally visit our new corporate headquarters in Basel, Switzerland (fortunately after the snow melted). Andy just recently

took a new job with Google, heading Mobile Advertising-Online Media Sales.”

Cohort L

Jonathan [email protected]

Bob and Suzanne Murray celebrated the publication of their 50th edited book in May through their writing and editing company, StyleMatters (www.style-matters.com). They’ve been growing the company since 2006, when they moved back to Philly from New York with son Robert (5). Now joined by daughter Avery (2), they encourage any and all L’ers to stop in next time they’re in town!

Rodolphe de Hemptinne reports from London: “Nothing new on the family front, apart from the fact we recently moved to a bigger house in Chiswick. On the business front, we have closed our second round of fund-raising in February. CognoLink is now in global expansion mode ...We have opened up an offi ce in Shanghai, where I am going to be spending one week per month as of May (I look forward to catching up with the Shanghai-based Wharton alumni from our class). We are also in the process of opening an offi ce in New York. If any of our classmates are investing in Europe or Asia, we are happy to connect them with the right experts!”

Lastly, news of a few cohort gatherings: Tarek Kutrieh enjoyed a golf weekend in Orlando in February with Jonathan Korol, Jeremy Butteriss, Sam Hines and Ray Chan in Orlando. Not to be outdone, the European contingent—Erwin Spolders, Joao Carapeto, Jonathan Pennella and Rodolphe—enjoyed a ski holiday with Bernd Wendeln and other WG’04ers in Austria in March.


Enmi Sung (Kendall)Tel: [email protected]

Perhaps I oversimplify but there seem to be a few universal milestones for post-MBA life. It goes something like this: fi rst post-

SIM

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MBA job, pay taxes, wedding, meaningful transition to next job, pay taxes, have kiddies, now pay both taxes and for kids, take over the company, pay even more taxes. It seems like lots of classmates are gamely nailing the fi rst few of these milestones with no problemo!

Exhibit A: Amritha Kasturirangan made the move to Chennai, India last year to take a job there as an investment analyst with Franklin Templeton. She “was chatting with some of my Wharton buddies who have also moved back to India and wondering whether this might be a trend” about folks moving to emerging markets for work.

The trend seems to be one of Import/Export, actually. Sue (Kolloru) Barger wrote in to share that she and Rob returned to Atlanta from Singapore in January. Loved their time there, but they “wanted to have Amara grow up a little closer to our families.” Edward Nevraumont also came stateside after leaving McKinsey’s Toronto offi ce to work as the Senior Director of Customer Loyalty for Expedia based in Seattle. Ed sums it up nicely: “My passion for travel has taken me to a travel company where I now travel a lot less. There is irony there somewhere.”

Crossing just state lines is Elizabeth Seeger, who recently left the Environmental Defense Fund to join Kohlberg Kravis Roberts as an alternative asset manager for its responsible investment eff orts. “With a private equity portfolio of more than 50 companies, this is a huge, but exciting opportunity. Our biggest

initiative has its own web site (http://green.kkr.com.).” Elizabeth walks the green walk with her frequent trips between her DC offi ce and NYC taking place via public transportation on the Acela.

In the meanwhile, Jake Levin and Aldo Melpignano are busy gearing up for the biggest trip of one’s life—a wedding! [ed. Reminder to re-write this: sounds like Jake and Aldo are marrying each other.] Jake and his beloved, Diana Junquera, are planning for a likely very small wedding in Miami this November. In the special way that only Europeans can, Aldo and his wife are upturning the regular (bo-ring!) order of things. They’re staging a wedding this July with their daughters Emma Vita and Maria Deya happily presiding! The family will be celebrating in Puglia, Italy.

My best friend in the whole world, Phil Austern, had an international wedding celebration of his own in January. Phil and Dina were married in a colorful festive party in her native Cartagena, Colombia. For the hordes who no doubt will write in asking for proof of his nuptials, please refer to the accompanying picture. Photos don’t lie unless they’re Photoshopped.

Also taking the plunge is Matt Kolling who married Lara (Lorenzana) in late April in “a blowout reception at Tribeca Rooftop” in NYC. Loads of

WG’05 abounded including: Justin Davies, Michael Langer, Schuyler Coppedge, Matt Elias, Tej Arora, Greg Battle, Dave Birnbaum, Courtney (Kramer) Birnbaum, Kathy Bergsteinsson, Megan Smyth, Miriam Zalcman, Reed Schwandt, Drew Herold, Jeremy Herz, Nicole (Botcheos) Werner, Brandon Johnson, Ana (Sawicki) Johnson, Leena Jain, Mike Mortellaro, Tim DeGavre, Niall Sheehan, Jason Fabro, Geoff Pitfi eld, George Corey, and Jake Levin.

The family motif is a strong one this issue. Ian and Fiona Simmonds welcomed their fi rst child Charles Dexter Simmonds on April 12. Fiona shares: “in short, he is Ian’s mini-me” by which she means, “Basically 100 percent Ian, 0 percent me (at least in the looks department!).” Only a couple of weeks younger is Rush McCloy’s daughter, Porter Hoke McCloy, whom he and his wife Brooke welcomed on April 28. Rush shares: “After communicating with us for 10 months through kicks and twirls, Porter Hoke McCloy introduced herself to us in person.”

This next item is just Too Much of a Coinky-Dink. Cate (Strauss) Khan was kind enough to write in that she and her husband Imran welcomed their baby boy Tomal Jeff rey Khan on February 22. Not only that, Cate notes that “coincidentally” classmates Patricia Liu and Will Brilliant also had a baby on the exact same day at a hospital across town. Papa Will confi rms news of young James Lawrence Brilliant and notes the two sons were born “an hour and a half apart.” Now I

would not be upholding the high journalistic standards I pledged to if I didn’t probe and ask on behalf of inquiring minds: c’mon guys, born ninety minutes apart across the street is a mere coincidence?! This perceptive reporter thinks it’s more likely that both sets of parents went to the same party nine months prior, got pretttty happy, and continued celebrating back home with an excellent after-party. Congrats x 2!

To keep the gender scales even, Derek and Allison Crevello welcomed a daughter, Avery Elizabeth Crevello, on December 11 of last year. Simos Simeonidis and his wife Eliza are delighted with their fi rst baby, Philippos Efthymis Simeonidis, born on October 21. Rafi Zitvar shares news of his second child, Ben David Zitvar, born on December 11. He assures us that “Sister Lia and mother Michelle were psyched,” though I’ve yet to confi rm with Lia if that’s quite the case.

Axel Lapica and Melissa (Rodriguez) Lapica had their fi rst child, Lucas Enrique Lapica, on February 10, which fell “a month early and in the middle of a blizzard in NYC.” The baby apparently isn’t the only new whirlwind for the Lapicas: Axel also left McKinsey and is now launching his own business, symbeo, “an innovative subscription-based healthcare company off ering primary care to the un- and underinsured” with its fi rst location opening in May in Bloomfi eld, NJ.

Ryan Miller’s taking to heart the lessons of the economies of scale and literally bringing them home. Ryan and his wife Jennica are expecting twins this August “taking us from 3 kids to 5, which is totally insane, but we are excited.” The family moved from Dallas to Salt Lake City earlier this year when Ryan took a position as VP of e-commerce of Deseret Digital Media, the digital arm of a regional media (newspaper, TV, publishing and retail) business. They “love being near the mountains and near some of the best ski slopes on earth.” At this rate, Ryan & Co. should be able to handily secure a group discount to enjoy them. Despite

KUTRIEH, KOROL, BUTTERISS, HINES AND CHAN

AUSTERN

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his many “kidlets” (his word, not mine!), Ryan still had time to recently lunch with Jeremiah Radandt who also relocated to Salt Lake, only a few blocks away—apparently “a pleasant coincidence that has happened more than once” when they both moved into the same Dallas neighborhood to work at Bain some fi ve years ago after leaving Philly. Jeremiah, given this pattern, if I were you, I’d start warehousing diapers in bulk very soon.

Yvette Tan knows all about diapers too. She and her husband Adrian Sackett had their fi rst baby, Christian Tan Sackett, on December 4. Also joining the babied ranks is Christian Selchau-Hansen. Christian and his wife Lou had their fi rst child, Inga Louise Selchau-Hansen, born on March 3. I imagine Christian’s narrative is commonly shared by many new parents: “We are managing to get some sleep and otherwise amazed at how quickly time has passed.”

My Favorite Submission of This Issue is from none other than Adam Stein. Adam opens with an accurate observation: “Hi Enmi, you seem desperate …”, and obliges my pleas for class news with lots of awesome tidbits—from wayyy abroad nonetheless! In no ranked order, Adam shares that he is married (“Not actually news, because I’ve been married for a year and a half now”), that he and his wife are in Borneo (“as part of an extended vacation/delayed honeymoon kind of thing that is taking us through New Zealand, Australia and Southeast Asia”), and that they’re planning to move to Europe thereafter, probably to London.

Keep writing in with your news, whatever it may be. You may have noticed—under this management, editorial policy skews verrry open and liberal. Acceptable milestones include travel, partying, Crucible MomentsTM, whathaveyou. (Please don’t be intimidated by the startlingly good quality of writing.)


Rodney [email protected]

Cohort A rep

Amanda [email protected]

Dmitry Binkevich writes: “After 3-plus wonderful and exciting years at McKinsey, I have joined Barclays Capital in New York as a Vice President with the Strategy Group. Much like a consultant, I work with business line leaders in the bank to grow their business, identify opportunities for expansion (both organic and inorganic) and help them execute those opportunities. The new position does not require me to travel and allows me to spend evenings and weekends with Julia and our daughter Dana, who just turned 2. From what they tell me, both Dana and Julia are happy to have me back home full time. I’m always looking to catch up with Wharton folks, so please email me at dmitryb@gmail com. I am in Midtown West. On a separate note, last week I ran into Ngozi Dozie, who was passing through New York on his way back to Lagos. He is doing great, raising money for his Africa-focused PE fund, globe trotting and enjoying life.”

Alex Lauren writes: “On September 14, 2010, Alex and Christine and big sister Amelia welcomed little sister Aubrey to the family. Everyone is doing well and Amelia is thrilled and very protective.”

Cohort B rep

Ajay Bijoor [email protected]

Alex Grau got married on May 8, 2010 in Winston-Salem, NC, and after four years, is still working at American Capital, Ltd. with our classmates, Will Rudat and Lucia Marin. He sends his best to Cohort B!

Joseph Kirikian moved to Bahrain from Dubai with his ex-boss recently. He writes: “Doing pretty well and trying to build a career in the Middle East. If you are ever on this side of the world look me up.”

Martin and Mokky Lemoine are happily married, with a two-year-old daughter, Mélia. Martin is

still working on emerging market investments, now with the Asian Development Bank in Manila.

Ajay Bijoor writes: “Mona and I are still in NY. We had our second daughter, Yana, about a year ago and she and her older sister, Jaya, are growing up thug life in Brooklyn. I would love to grab lunch or a drink if you are in town.”

William Greene writes: “Cara and William moved from the Philippines to Switzerland in 2008 before getting married in September of that year. They now happily live in Lausanne where Cara is fi nishing her Ph.D. and William is working on renewable energy investments with Etrion. We often go skiing or hiking with Katie Ellias and Motty Klots who are also enjoying life in in Lausanne and continuing their work with Medtronic, after their own wedding, also in September 2008. In the same wedding-rich month, Martin Lemoine was married in nearby Chamonix, France.”

Cohort C

Nina Godiwalla writes: “My husband (WG’04) and I are enjoying Austin’s great lifestyle. We have beautiful hiking and kayaking in our neighborhood, so life is quite ideal. I’m just fi nishing up my fi rst book, Suits: A Woman on Wall Street, which will launch with a major New York City publisher in December 2010. The book is about how I used my investment banking experience to redefi ne my idea of success. My national book tour will start in December 2010, so I look forward to seeing many of you around the country! To fi nd out more join me on Facebook: Nina Godiwalla Author Page.”

Michelle Choo writes: “My husband, Alexander Popov, and I would like to announce the birth of our daughter, Hailey Min Popov, who arrived on April 14, 2010 weighing in at 7 lbs 3 oz. Being mom and dad to Hailey is both the toughest and most heavenly thing we’ve done so far! We are still in New York City and about to move from the Upper West Side to TriBeCa.”

Marina Hervy writes: “I moved

back to San Francisco with Booz & Co two years ago. Recently left consulting and got involved with a health care technology start-up. I’ve also been working on some personal projects: my son David was born soon after graduation and a baby sister joined him recently. Liza turns 1 in July.” Richards Gilbert writes: “I’m in Asia right now. Singapore to be exact, working for Google. Nice gig, but still getting used to being in a “big” company!” Cohort D rep

Rodney [email protected]

Mona Moazzaz was married to Rajaee Rouhani on April 17, 2010 in Dubai, where the couple now lives.

Christophe Pella reports on behalf of his Learning Team (J.T. Marlin): J.T. Marlin is now split equally between the U.S. and London. ‘J.T. Marlin - London branch’ (Elie Rassi, Nathan Mackey and I) met over dinner in Notting Hill last week to ponder how quickly time fl ies: 4 years now! We enjoyed” the additional company of Arjun Somasekhara, who has used time well: his wife and he just had their second kid. ‘J.T. Marlin - US branch’ is happy to report Dina Thakarar’s upcoming wedding. I generously volunteered my help in organizing Dina’s hen party, but she refused on the somewhat surprising pretext that she was “so afraid” of what would happen. Dina’s college friends seem much more worrisome to me.

“Over Easter David Larramendy and I ran into each other in Stephane Girard’s brand new wine bar in the heart of Paris. David is now happy in Paris although he misses the energy of London. As for our beloved former Wharton Wine Club president, his wine bar is fantastic and the business outlook is bright.”

Vishal Shah writes: “Seeta and I are expecting a second baby this summer to join our fi rst son, Arjun, who is now 2 years old. I am now a brand manager at Campbell’s.”

Mauricio Sanchez writes: “Since graduating in 2006 my

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wife Susana and I have had 2 kids, Bernardo in July 2007 and David just now in March 2010. I guess that’s a pretty nice update for the class notes!”

Rodney Gibson continues his work as VP Sales at the Ambrose Group in New York City. “Please reach out to me if your fi rm gets a high healthcare renewal, or is overwhelmed by the changing landscape of healthcare reform. We move companies from small group-brokered insurance onto our Fortune 500-scale benefi ts platform and take care of their payroll, benefi ts, and back offi ce HR admin—bringing scale and effi ciency so they can focus on their core business. We work with hundreds of funds, and are one of the few service providers that actually bring a signifi cant net savings.”

Cohort E

Daniel Simon was married last year to Melora Krebs-Carter. After a stint working together in Myanmar and travelling around the world they are excitedly

awaiting the arrival of their fi rst child in the fall of 2010.

Cohort F rep

Lee [email protected]

Min Sim founded and launched Om Republic, an eco-friendly yoga apparel line. About one-third of the designs feature chic Oriental touches, a fi rst in the activewear market. The designs are inspired by Min’s background in Chinese classical dance and her yoga practice. The company is based in Singapore and ships worldwide. For details, visit www.omrepublic.com

Cohort G

Isaac Thorne writes: “I’m still living in London (but working on a project in Dubai right now).”

Danny Allen writes: “I got married to Charity Goodman, L’07, in June of 2008. Wharton folks who attended were Maria Silvon, Jon Silvon, WG’07, Tracey Gamble, Jason Dubeshter, Jennifer Garstka, James Redfern, Jamie

Barrett, Zachary Klehr, WG’08, Alison Little, Ashley Conn, Justin Markle, Neha Champaneria Markle, and Jose Villa. We live in Washington, DC.”

Shiva Sekhar writes: “Hi Everyone! We welcomed our third son into this world on February 17, 2010. Roshan Sekhar is joining a testosterone-fi lled house with his two older brothers. I left AstraZeneca and joined Celgene last year. I am enjoying the smaller company environment and still focusing on new product planning/business development in the oncology fi eld. Please send me your updates and pictures for the next issue!”

Steve Uster writes: “Got married and moved to Toronto last summer to start my own investment fi rm and recently launched ElKap Financial Ltd. If anyone is up in Toronto, please let me know and I’d love to get together.”

Sunil Asnani writes: “Left McKinsey in June 2008, and have since moved to San Francisco, working for the India strategy of

Matthews International Capital Management, which is an Asia-focused mutual fund company.”

Aditya Narayanan writes: “I left SAC at end of last year, now working at a hedge fund in Boston, place called Adage Capital. Also, I am married now and my wife is still working in New York City for now so I am there every weekend.”

James Chern writes: “I’ve been living in Hong Kong since graduation. I met a wonderful girl here and am getting married this year. As for work, I’m a VP at Morgan Stanley’s Merchant Banking group making PE investments in the infrastructure sector in Asia. If anyone comes by Hong Kong, I’m happy to host them.”

Jack Huang writes: “I’m relocating to Taiwan in May to continue to work for Intel doing business development. Love to host people if they plan on swinging by Taiwan.”

Saquib Toor writes: “Dalia and I are proud to announce the birth of Tarek Mahmoud Toor. He was born on Tuesday, March 30, 2010

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at 10:11 p.m. He was 7 lbs., 6 oz., and 22 inches long. We cannot tell which parent he resembles most.. Mom and Tarek are doing great!”

Jeff rey Chan writes: “Relocated to Beijing last September. Still with Goldman IBD. Let me know if you are in town. Cheers!”

Kurt Grichel writes: “Living in New York City. Have been working at Bain since graduation. Still running.”

Jennifer Friel Goldstein writes: “I am still in New York at Pfi zer, now a Director in their Venture Capital group, investing in biotech companies and loving it. I got married nearly two years ago (I can’t believe how quickly time fl ies by) and Jeremy and I live down in the TriBeCa/BPC area. Would love to see those passing through town and for us New Yorkers, we are quite overdue for a big get-together. I’m on the road frequently for work, so it would be great to keep tabs on where everyone is living these days as who knows, I might be out your way soon. All the best, Jennifer.”

Cohort H rep

Katherine [email protected]

As this is Cohort H’s fi rst update since graduation, there is quite a lot of news.

Jaime Padilla moved back to Mexico City with BCG after graduation. He spent 2008 in London and is now in Mexico City with his family which has doubled in size! Sebastian was born on March 8, 2008, and Alex was born on December 27, 2009.

Ahmed Zaki is still with Morgan Stanley investment banking in London. He is with the telecoms team and continues to focus on the Middle East and emerging markets. Ahmed spends his time between London and Cairo, where his family is based—his son is almost 3 and his daughter is 1. Ahmed reports that all is well and he would love to come back to the U.S. very soon to catch up with the friends that stayed there.

Rio Luo is working with a PE fund named Quad-C Capital, which is headquarted in Virginia. Rio is based in Beijing, China. He

and his wife had a baby boy three months ago. JianRui (Leon) Luo weighed 4.95kg (over 10 pounds) and is very healthy and cute.

Esther Rajavelu is in New York City and had a baby, Eva Neola Johnson, on August 26, 2009. Esther reports that she and Neil have given up hope of ever sleeping through the night for the next couple years, but it’s been a lot of fun and excitement!!

Serhan Secmen and Aysu welcomed Berke Cem Secmen on February 23, 2010. Berke weighed 8 lbs., 5 oz. and was 20 inches long. He is the little brother to Bora and the entire family is doing great.

Sylvia Lee is currently in NY. She and her husband, Steve Won, are expecting their fi rst child this July. On the job front Sylvia is still with her fi rst job out of b-school, working as Business Planning Manager at Standard Chartered Bank.

Josephine Shum has been living and working in New York City since graduation. She recently joined Brookfi eld Financial and is getting married in Bordeaux, France this September.

James Redfern is also recently engaged. He is still in New York City and is working at Morgan Stanley.

After three years at McKinsey and Co., Marketa Wills recently became the Director of Physician Resources for the Texas Medical Center campus of the Memorial Hermann Healthcare System in Houston, TX. In her role, she has direct oversight of the Physician Recruitment, Physician Relations and Medical Staff Services departments.

Stephen Meikle moved to Maida Vale, London after graduation and is living with his English girlfriend, Emily. Stephen is still at McKinsey where he is an Engagement Manager and is focused mainly on fi nancial services.

Jose Iturriaga is living in Madrid, working for Goldman Sachs and still not married. Itu reports that everything is cool in Madrid, he’s waiting for everyone to come and visit and looks forward to the reunion next year and to catching up with anyone

going to Madrid for the Wharton Global Alumni Forum in June.

Chris Nyren has been working the past three years in corporate development and global strategy for Apollo Group, primarily focusing on their joint venture with the Carlyle Group called Apollo Global, which is an international education private equity fund. He has done four acquisitions including a university focused on digital communications in Chile, a university in Mexico and most recently a business and law education company in the UK called BPP. Since the close of BPP last year, Chris has been working in London, but may be moving back to the States come spring or summer. Chris bumped into Lora Gotcheva on the tube over the winter and meets up with Tim Viles fairly often.

Ryan Berger is living in Los Angeles with Rebecca and working at Amgen. Rebecca is currently working at Hulu and was recently included in an article for the technology section of USA Today. Ryan has been back to Philadelphia several times to visit Wharton on various recruiting trips. He and Rebecca both miss life in Philadelphia occasionally, but love Los Angeles.

“As for me, Katherine Cary, I spent two years in New York after graduation. I married Gautam Mishra in February 2008 and we moved to Sydney, Australia soon after. I’ve recently left consulting to take a role in Group Strategy at Westpac, one of the large retail banks in Australia. Over New Years, we caught up with fellow WG’06s Melanie Rubinsohn, John

Kidd, Daniel Simon and Daniel’s wife Melora. If anyone has plans to visit Australia, please let me know—would be great to see you.”

Shiva Rajaraman recently joined Twitter to build out new monetization programs after spending the last four years at YouTube and Google. He’s focused on building a lasting legacy of working at companies with cute names.

Sonaly Aditya reports: “I married Raul Ferrer, WG’04, after school in Jan. 2007 in Jaipur, India. There were tons of Wharton people there including Marcos Bueno, WG’04, Ricardo Maiz, WG’04, Liz Lee Koo, WG’05, John Koo, WG’05, Kalpesh Mehta, WG’06, Gulnar Mewawala, WG’06, Lora Gotcheva, WG’06, Stefan Nedialkov, WG’06, Brian Turpin, WG’06, Samita Mallik, WG’06, Jose Manuel Iturriaga, WG’06, David Larramendy, WG’06, and Caroline Ng, WG’06. In October, 2008 we welcomed our daughter Ariana Ferrer and this March 2010, our son Alejandro Ferrer was born.”

Cohort I rep

Oliver [email protected] 59 West 12th StreetNew York, New York 10011

Vishal Chopra writes: “After three super years in Philadelphia/New York City area with IBM’s strategy group, my wife, Priyanka Chopra, WG’09, and I recently relocated to the city of Ahmedabad, India. While I will be pursuing entrepreneurial ventures, Priyanka is exploring multiple options with

KLOTS

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Indian companies and MNCs. We have two wonderful angels, Arnav (6 years old) and Anika (3 years old) who are enjoying the colorful, chaotic life in India.”

Cohort J rep

Jay [email protected]

Joe Cohen became a Vice President at Goldman Sachs. Joe is helping families with risk management, inter-generation wealth transfer, and investment advice. He is also involved in recruiting activities for the fi rm’s Investment Management Division at Wharton.

Bala Sankaran became a dad yet again. Renu and Bala are welcoming Disha Sai Balaji to our Wharton family! She was born October 16, 2010 and she has been an “absolute cutie pie” smiling always and lightening their lives ever since. Professionally, Bala moved to an active sales role at Google from operations. He is currently part of the agency sales and development team leading the strategy and planning function.

Wiktor Sliwinski is still doing mostly distressed debt investing, but has started to look at some risk-arb. Wiktor will be doing two road trips in the U.S. this year: Alabama, Georgia, Florida and New York in the summer and California in the winter.

Jay Cecil and Jordana welcomed their second son Ethan Kennedy Cecil on Christmas Day 2009. Mom and Dad both doing well acclimating to life with two kids. Jay is still working in New York at Caxton focused on life science investing.

Cohort K rep

Arif [email protected]

First off , Lauren Bloomer let me know that she’s moving back to New York City in early June and fully expects all K’s to stalk her. To maintain an air of mystery, she’s only letting select people know what she’s up to in New York. Call her for more information!

Finally, Scott Shandler: wrote “I would like to announce the birth

of two. The fi rst being my second son, Reuben Zachary Shandler (March 2010) and the second being a startup biotech company, Longevity Biotech (April 2010) of which I am the founder and CEO.” He’s currently seeking funding for both opportunities.

Thanks again to everyone who submitted their updates, and I hope to hear from the rest of you for next time around.

Cohort L rep

Garron [email protected]

Linh Thai has spent the past couple years in Vietnam, enjoying the food and travel opportunities. She is currently a Director at DFJ VinaCapital, investing in technology-focused venture-stage investments in Vietnam, other Asian countries and the U.S. In her free time, she is planning her next few trips, including the World Expo in Shanghai, Mt. Kinabalu and Nepal. Drop her line if you are in HCMC or are interested in meeting up somewhere in Asia: [email protected].

Brian Kravitz is Vice President of Business Development at Beejive, one of the leading mobile messaging app vendors for iPhone and BlackBerry. Beejive’s instant messaging platform, BeejiveIM, has won numerous accolades and has been featured in several Apple print, online, and TV advertisements. Brian and the company are now hard at work on a new mobile messaging product line. Class Correspondent WG’07

Renos [email protected]

Jorge Margain writes: “After two and a half years working for AREA Property Partners (a.k.a. Apollo Real Estate Advisors), I made the decision to move to a family offi ce called Tresalia Capital to head the real estate investment group. I moved to Mexico City in January of 2009 and I have a 1-year-old daughter, Alexia. The address [email protected] is still my main email contact.”

After spending a year on

assignment in Finland, David Gold is back in New York City. Dave is still with BCG and enjoying his new apartment in the East Village.

Please keep sending in your updates! New jobs, new family members, weddings, engagements—keep it coming. Look forward to hearing from you all soon.

Cohort A reps

Shirin Ghadessy and John [email protected] and [email protected]

Cohort C rep

Jon [email protected]

Cohort D

Mei (Hung) Gechlik writes: “Since 2007, I have been teaching such courses as “Chinese Law and Business” at Stanford Law School. In addition to being a Lecturer in Law and Microsoft Rule of Law Fellow, I also serve as a Visiting Fellow at the Hoover Institution. In early 2010, I founded Good Governance International (GGI), a California-based nonprofi t, to promote good governance through research and global partnerships. Despite its short history, GGI has three offi cers, 11 board members and six staff members. GGI certainly looks forward to collaborating with interested Wharton alums.”

Cohort E rep

Vikram [email protected]


Humera [email protected].

Class of WG’09

Cohort A rep

Danica Griffi thgriffi [email protected]

Cohort B rep

Hannah [email protected]

Cohort C rep

Jing [email protected]

Cohort H rep

Christian [email protected]

Elizabeth Sullivan Windram is living in the Bay Area with her husband Anthony and their new cat. You can follow their adventures at http://anthonywindram.wordpress.com/.

Arlin Tao has survived her fi rst Minnesota winter while working for General Mills.

Mu Mu is working for Coda Automotive, based in Santa Monica, CA, as the head of business development for China.

Since graduation, Hak-Jae Lee has been working in Switzerland. In April, he was in Korea for one week to vacation, meet family and see friends (like Taemin Shim).

Michelle Khundakar and Matt Scattarella both live (separately) in Singapore.

Christian Kellett is still in Philadelphia, working for Saint-Gobain.

Saqib Jalil is working (and living) at a boutique investment bank in New York City.

Nobu Higuchi has his headphones on and his hoodie up in Tokyo, but he is in the Middle East often for work.

Julien Guth and his wife Sophie have moved to Dubai where he is working in the telecommunications industry.

Devin Griffi n married Sarah Mantilla in August 2009 and they now live in Chicago.

Steve Engelbrecht is living in New York City, where he is running half marathons and hosting Wharton alumni barbeques on his penthouse deck on the Upper East Side.

Morli Desai is now engaged to Jim Schroder. They live in Denver and are planning for a spring 2011 wedding/Cohort H reunion.

Karina Danilyuk and Marcus Lackey are living in Washington, DC, where she works for

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Rothschild.Sahil Dalal is living in Mumbai

and working at a PE fi rm called Advent International.

Rafael Chang is enjoying Washington, DC and working at Accenture.

Cohort I rep

Michele [email protected]

Fouzan Ali and Vijaya Ravindran were blessed with a baby boy, Aman on December 2, 2009 in London.

Cohort J rep

Rachel E. [email protected]

We all knew Tim Cheung was a betting man, now we know for sure. After graduating and touring the world in shorts, Tim settled down back in Australia to launch Cheung Capital Management. In April CCM launched its maiden fund, the Global Gaming Opportunities Fund, investing in listed casinos and gaming stocks around the world. It’s open to Australian wholesale and sophisticated investors only. [email protected]

After a nine-month detour away from investing and Los Angeles, Investment Management Club President Dack LaMarque, WG’09, has returned to both as an investment professional at the private equity fi rm Theorem Capital.

Jake Astor, spent eight months having an excellent time in Beijing, but needed a change of scenery and thought he’d give Hong Kong a go. He moved there in June to start work with First Eastern Investment Group, a Chinese private equity group, investing in mainland China. Cheers, mate!

Cohort L

On September 5, 2009, Vlada Lotkina, WG’08, and Davide Buzzi were married in Lucignano, Italy a medieval village in the heart of Tuscany. Vlada and Davide have then celebrated their wedding in the Castle of Modanella, surrounded by relatives and friends, including Isacco Neri (Davide’s

best man), Shiva Mirhosseini, WG’08, Anna Dayn, WG’08, Alexander Klimenko, WG’08, and Sergey Sosnov, WG’08.

MBA for ExecutivesWEMBA WG’94

West Penn Allegheny Health System (WPAHS) President and Chief Executive Offi cer Christopher T. Olivia, MD, has been recognized as one of the nation’s 50 most powerful physician executives by Modern Healthcare and Modern Physician magazines.

More than 11,000 physicians were nominated for this elite recognition and nearly 70,000 votes were cast to determine the sixth annual ranking of the 50 top physician executives.

“It is an incredible honor for our CEO, Dr. Olivia, to be recognized by his peers and included on this distinguished list of accomplished and talented medical professionals,” said David McClenahan, Chairman of the WPAHS Board of Directors. Dr. Olivia joined WPAHS in 2008 and has made remarkable progress in turning around the Pittsburgh-based six-hospital healthcare system.

Class CorrespondentWEMBA WG’99

Steve [email protected]

Class CorrespondentWEMBA EAST WG’01

Gowri [email protected]

Four winters in Chicago was enough for Dave Tanner and his family. They’ll be relocating from Chicago back to San Francisco this summer. No idea what is next for Dave as he is doing everything possible to take all of 2010 off !Mark Turner reports that he and Tom Gibbs and their families vacationed again together this

past winter, in Killington, VT, this time. This was the fourth such winter get-together for the families. Tom and Mark agree that the kids will be out-skiing the adults in no more than a year or two now.


Ismail Dawood [email protected]

Hope all of you saw the recent update in the latest Wharton Magazine and read the article on our own rock star, Rocking Roger Crandall. Please reach out to me or one of your WEMBA colleagues and get us an update so we can share what is going on in our personal and professional lives.

So the Philadelphia group did get together … and prompted by the promise of Joanna Gordon in bowling shoes, Laura Williamson coordinated dinner at Tinto in Philadelphia, to be followed by an outing at Lucky Strikes. In the midst of a blizzard (ok, it wasn’t quite a blizzard, but more than a fl urry) Robin and David Parke, Wendy and Peter Haabestad, Catherine and Keith Goldan, Max Gowen and Brian, and Christina Morin and Steve Graham… along with their usual gaggle of off spring … ate and drank to our hearts’ content. Joanna didn’t make it because of the snow, so the bowling (and unveiling of

Brunswick’s spring line of bowling shoes) will wait for warmer weather.

Rob Pinataro has spent the years since WEMBA becoming a growth and turnaround guy, completing six SBU turnarounds at ADP and Open Solutions Inc. Rob, Angela and the kids, Robert, age 11, and Cassie, age 9, live in Atlanta and are enjoying the great family life. They frequently vacation in the Washington-Baltimore-Philly-Allentown corridor due to family ties, so he will be looking up some of you next time he is in town. If any of you are passing through Atlanta sometime, look up Rob as he would love to reconnect.

Mary Gross couldn’t get enough of WEMBA so she came back two years ago to provide career management services to the current WEMBA students—she loves being on the WEMBA staff ! She and Brian still live in central NJ and are busy getting their son ready for college and keeping up with their soon-to-be teenage daughter.

After graduating at Wharton, Werner Bonadurer started his P.hD. Finance studies at the University of St. Gallen, Switzerland, graduating in 2007 summa cum laude. Most of his research focused on hedge fund investments. In 2007, Werner published a book on Long/Short Hedge Fund Investments. During 2003 to 2007, he managed to fi nd

BUZZI

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time to lecture at the Finance & Banking Institute at the above mentioned university. In 2008, he and his family relocated to the U.S. and he assumed a position as Associate Professor of Finance at the W.P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State University (ASU) in Tempe, AZ. At ASU, he is teaching courses on Security Analysis and Portfolio Management, Investment Strategies, Derivative Securities and International Finance at the undergraduate as well as graduate level, including executive MBA students. Aside from his academic role, he is also the non-executive chairman of a large fund-of-hedge-fund business in Switzerland.

On April 9, 2010, Keith Goldan, Maxine Gowen, Greg Whaley and Laura Williamson joined 25 WEMBA alumni from other years to provide valuable career advice to current WEMBA students as part of the inaugural “Career Conversations with Wharton EMBAs” event hosted by Mary Gross, Director of Career Management Services for the WEMBA program.

Patrick Gallager recently joined Noven Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a specialty pharmaceutical company, as Vice President, Business Development in New York (he is in the process of moving from Boston). Noven’s headquarters are in Miami so Patrick gets to bounce back and forth between locations. He has responsibility for Business Development (licensing, acquisition work) and Alliance Management (relations with existing partners). Patrick also reports that he was blessed with his fourth grandchild in

March. Truly an embarrassment of riches!

Tara Gohlman (we knew her as Tara Smith) reports that she and Jay moved to Boston about seven years ago. They were looking for a family-friendly urban environment and found it in downtown Boston! Tara took a job with Tyco International running their Corporate Audit group for the Americas, but soon after their fi rst child was born and she decided to stay home for a few years. Tara is proud to share that Faine Ann Gohlmann (child number 4) was born on February 6, 2010. Her sister, Maggie, age 5, and brothers Ryan, age 4, and William, age 2, were delighted with her arrival!


Susan [email protected]

Class CorrespondentWEMBA/SF WG’03

Mori [email protected]

Robert Gabriel had much to report given the updates on his four sons (“I feel so old”), his wife Gladys Gabriel, WG’99, and the continued success of his company. “Jonathan is now in his second year at Northeastern University, in Boston. He is currently doing a co-op at Lexington Insurance (a Division of AGI). Tom is completing his fi rst year at Rensselaer Polytech in Albany, NY with a major in Engineering. Dan will attend Rensselaer starting in September as a Business major.

Rob is going into his third year in high school and wants to be an architect. Gladys is doing well at IFF as a global purchasing director and travelling abroad quite a bit. I continue to manage Genesis (we are doing well despite the economy), and launched last year Cognise Consulting, an Innovation and Management Consultancy based in NYC and are doing work in Egypt. We are establishing an offi ce in Cairo as well. I am teaching part-time at Fairleigh Dickinson University Department of Entrepreneurial Studies and at the Jersey City Campus of the University of Phoenix. In addition, I continue to support Wharton as a business plan competition judge. Gladys and I both serve on the Leadership Council.”

Sivaram Krishnan has had a hectic year this past year given Oracle’s off er to acquire Sun. Once the deal closed, he joined Hitachi as VP, Global Operations and Transformation. His wife Vijaya is a physician at El Camino Hospital and their son Ajay, age 5, is keeping them very busy.

Donald Landwirth also has exciting news on the professional front. Don reported that he was the COO and the second employee hired by the 19- and 23-year-old founders of People Search Media, LLC in April 2007. People Search Media LLC changed its name to Infl ection, LLC as it surpasses 25 million unique visitors per month. Donald helped the company establish offi ces in California, Nebraska and Lviv, Ukraine and achieve its multiple eight fi gure run rate with no external fi nancing. After staffi ng the functional areas of fi nance, engineering, HR, legal, customer service and business development with VP’s such as the former president of Match.com and former VP, Finance of Netfl ix, Donald has stepped down from his day-to-day role to remain on the company’s Board of Advisors. Congrats, Don!

Last but certainly not least. The most exciting news of all comes from Kishore Seendripu and Brendan Walsh and their company, MaxLinear. Thanks to updates from Ron Murayama we’ve been hearing about MaxLinear’s continued success

since its inception. For this edition of class notes, I was thrilled to hear from Kishore who reported on the latest from MaxLinear: “I had left my job right in the middle of the WEMBA program to start MaxLinear and was so fortunate to have Ron [Murayama], Doug Collom and Brendan Walsh join me in this journey. With their incredible advisory roles, and Brendan’s outstanding business creation skills, we were able to achieve the IPO milestone. Now, the challenges are myriad, but the need for good blessings and fortune are the same. I thank you all for everything you have meant to me during the WEMBA years.” Kishore and Brendan, congratulations on your success with MaxLinear! This is an amazing accomplishment and we were so proud to see you ringing the opening bell!

Thanks to all of you for these updates. Looking forward to hearing from you for the next edition of Wharton Magazine!


Tom [email protected]

Class CorrespondentWEMBA/SF WG’05

Matt [email protected]


Brian [email protected]

Todd Bolon took a new position at LabCorp as VP of Client Products & Connectivity in the Information Technology Group. LabCorp is the number two medical diagnostic testing company in the U.S., and is located in Burlington, NC, which is not far from Todd’s home in Chapel Hill.

Iain Briggs relocated to Tokyo on May 10, 2010 to assume the role of Chief Operating Offi cer of American International Group KK. AIGKK provides IT and

GROSS, GOLDAN, GOWEN, WHALEY, WILLIAMSON

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shared services to regulated AIG businesses in Japan and AsiaPacifi c region. Some major objectives over the next few years include: integrating Japan into a new global IT Services delivery structure and transforming the fi nancial operations towards a more commercially focused model. In addition, he will continue to lead the divestiture separation activities in Japan for AIG’s sale of American International Life Insurance Co. (ALICO) to MetLife.

After three-and-a-half years running Strategy & Business Development for Vorbeck, it was time for John Crain to hang up the lab coat and don the suit once again. In January, he started a management consulting practice (www.452consulting.com), specializing in strategic risk assessment and alternative revenue stream development. John is focusing on business development eff orts in the wireless and technology sectors, advising clients on opportunities to tap into new revenue streams from existing operations. John is still based in Washington, DC and is supporting clients in the Washington, DC area, as well as New Jersey, California and the Middle East. If you are interested in learning more about how he can assist your organization, please don’t hesitate to reach out.

Erin and Kevin Dippold are thrilled to welcome their fi rst child, Emma Anne Dippold (7 lbs., 6 oz.) born in February 2010 in New Jersey. Mom, Dad and Baby are all doing wonderfully.

Brian Egras has taken on the role of Director, Business Support at Tyco Electronics Ltd. In his new position, he will be assisting the creation of strategy for the company’s diverse products & manufacturing technologies. Brian kicked off his fi rst assignment with a trip to Japan and Shanghai, where he was able to meet up with fellow classmate, Gus Giraldo.

Tom Fredell volunteers as the Chairman of the Board of Trustees for the KIPP Academy Lynn (KAL) based in Lynn, MA. KAL is part of the Knowledge is Power Program (KIPP)—a national network of free, open-enrollment,

college preparatory public schools dedicated to preparing students in underserved communities for success in college and in life. Anyone who is passionate about improving education and might like to get involved, please contact Thomas at [email protected]!

Outside of his volunteer work, Thomas is in the midst of starting two companies. For one company, Thomas has invented a process & technology for “dynamically segmenting” the user base of websites. The dynamic segmentation is used to target the appropriate marketing message to the potential consumer through display advertising. The second company, ForAllTime, is creating the equivalent of “IntraLinks for Moms”—that is, a secure online repository where moms can easily capture their most precious memories of their kids. Thomas hopes to launch that business in late 2010. Family-wise things are great; the latest addition to the Fredell family, baby girl Eilidh, is sleeping well and growing like a weed (4 months old and 20 pounds already, big healthy baby!)

Bob Mecca has been promoted to Vice President Finance - Technical Operations & Global Support Functions at Bristol-Myers Squibb. His responsibilities include fi nancial oversight for the Company’s global manufacturing and supply chain network and several global support functions such as Information Management and Global Procurement. In his spare time, he coaches his son’s Bridgewater Township fourth grade lacrosse team.

Mike Ruggieri, President of Comar, announced that Comar has fi nalized a transaction acquiring 100% of Universal Container Corporation’s (Unicon) assets from its current shareholders. Based in Cayey, Puerto Rico, Unicon is a leading manufacturer of high quality injection-molded, injection-blow-molded and extrusion-blow-molded parts and containers. Comar, based in Buena, NJ, is a manufacturer of proprietary pharmaceutical packaging with a leadership position in the Liquid Medication Delivery Device Market.

Vivek Sagi and his wife Shalini

have a new addition to their family. Their third son, Arun Sagi, was born on February 12, 2010, six weeks before he was due. Both baby and mom are now doing great and they are fi nally realizing what they got themselves into with three boys.

Paul Yoo left Philadelphia Park Casino and is now the President of US Patriot LLC. US Patriot has two brick and mortar stores outside of Fort Stewart, GA, (one of the largest Army deployment bases—home of the 3rd ID) and one outside of Fort Jackson, SC (the largest Army training base in the U.S.). They also run Internet sales out of a warehouse in Columbia, SC, contract with the Department of Defense, Department of Energy and the State Department to provide uniforms, gear, etc. and work with private companies such as Blackwater, etc. to provide the tools of the trade that they require.


John [email protected]


Utpal [email protected]

Class CorrespondentsWEMBA/SF WG’09

Cori Johnson and Stan [email protected] and [email protected]

Class 33 had another banner quarter—thanks to the many people who sent in updates! It was great to see so many of you at the Day with Wharton event at the JW Marriott in March. Once again, WW33’s dominated the dance fl oor and made us proud. It’s great to see so many of you keeping those drinking and dancing skills fresh even almost a year after graduation.

Shobhana Ahluwalia was the fi rst to weigh in on this quarter’s promotion list. Shobs writes: “I got promoted to Vice President of Information Technology for CBS Corporation. I am responsible for leading the Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) department for all business units for CBS. Other than that, life is busy as usual. We moved to San Carlos and also went for a great vacation to Geneva and Munich...umm can someone say beer!” Umm, I can Shobs. Take me with you next time!

Purav Jhaveri was also promoted to Senior Vice President-Portfolio Manager, Investment Strategist at Franklin Templeton Investments. He is responsible for global equity allocation, oversight of Asian equities and is a portfolio manager for global equities. The group he works with is responsible for $21 billion in assets under management. Congratulations, Purav!

In addition to promotions, we have had several classmates move on to greener pastures. Joe DeMike left his production planning position at Genentech in March for a position in Business Development at a Silicon

DIPPOLD

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Obituaries1930s

Edward B. Hawley, W’35, died on October 18, 2009 at his residence in La Jolla, CA, at the age of 96. He was car distribution manager for Buick Motor Division in Philadelphia, PA for over 40 years. He is survived by his wife of 65 years, Ruth, son Ed and daughter Beth, and two grandchildren.

1940s

John C. Alexander, W’40, age 92, of East Gloucester, MA, died on Sunday, December 6, 2009, peacefully at his home. John grew up in Gloucester and attended Gloucester High School where at his graduation in 1935, he held the rank of Lt. Colonel in the R.O.T.C. He went on to graduate from Wharton. After college, John became a fl ight offi cer and instructor in the Navy. He was a Squadron Commander aboard the USS Enterprise during WWII. In 1947, John, his father and brother started Beacon Marine Basin, Inc., located in East Gloucester. He is survived by his wife Anne, his two sons and expanded family.

Roberto de Jesus Toro, W’40, WG’43, age 90, of Ponce, Puerto Rico, passed away on October 21, 2008. While at Penn, he was a member of the Sigma Chi Fraternity and the lightweight crew squad.

After his second graduation from Penn in 1943, he served in the U.S. Army during World War II. At the end of World War II, he held positions in various agencies and departments of the Government of Puerto Rico, including the Department of Agriculture, the Planning Board, and the Government Development Bank, and as Director of the then newly

created Offi ce of Management and Budget. Over this period, he served under three Governors, including Guy Rexford Tugwell, W’15, GrW’22, the last non-Puerto Rican Governor appointed by the President. He was prominent in much of the legislation and administrative reforms that culminated in the creation of a modern local government.

In 1954, he joined Banco de Ponce where he worked for 30 years and became its longtime President and CEO. He held these positions until his retirement in 1983. Over the years, he was a board member of many public and civic organizations, among them the American Red Cross, Union Carbide Corp., University of Puerto Rico and the Penn Club of Puerto Rico. During his entire adult life, he maintained close friendships with several of his former Penn classmates and visited the University on many occasions; the last of these visits was in the fall of 2007.

He is survived by his wife of 61 years, Sylvia, two sons (Roberto and Nestor, W’75), two daughters, (Sylvia and Ana Maria), as well as by 11 loving grandchildren.

Eino O. Kero, W’47, age 87, of Orlando, FL, passed away August 14, 2009. Mr. Kero served in the Navy during World War II and received his honorable discharge in 1946. He graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 1947. Following graduation, Mr. Kero began working as an auditor for Ford Motor Company in Detroit. He married Miss Mary Evelyn Rivett in 1954. In 1960, he was promoted to the position of Finance Manager in Ford’s International Division where he was assigned to work on Portugal and Finland. After his overseas assignments, he returned to Detroit and continued with Ford Motor Company until he retired.

Valley start-up called Palantir Technologies. His new role will send him all around the world, including back into some war zones, to market and sell the most cutting-edge data analysis tool ever to emerge from Silicon Valley. Joe and his fi ancée Brianna Bubeck are planning to get married at West Point during the summer of 2011. Brianna has just completed her fi rst year of grad school at USF, and scored a major promotion at Genentech. She now works as a Project Manager in the Commercial Division. A few weeks ago, Joe and Brianna moved to Atherton, CA, into a beautiful two-bedroom house with a big backyard.

Josh Batie left Toyota in March and took a new job with Fisker Automotive in Irvine, CA as the Manager of Customer Services. Josh writes: “Fisker Automotive is a California-based American manufacturer of premium green vehicles with the goal of leading the automotive industry into the next generation of high-end design expertise and eco-friendly powertrain technology. In this role I will be responsible for our clients’ purchase experience and the development of our retail network worldwide. We launch our fi rst vehicle, the Karma, in fi rst quarter 2011 and I expect everyone to purchase one!”

Jesper Jensen has accepted a position as Marketing Director with Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals starting in May. Jesper, Nellie and Johannes will be moving to Ridgefi eld, CT. Nellie is pregnant with their second child (due August 3, 2010) and looking forward to giving birth closer to sea level.

And speaking of second kids, Carey Lai also sent this news: “The Lai family apparently does not do very well bored. We recently bought a new home in Palo Alto. Why? We’re expecting our second addition to the family to arrive by August 2, 2010. We’re looking forward to more sleepless nights.” Congratulations to both the Jensen and Lai families. We

don’t have any pictures this time around, so we can save our quota for the many baby photos I am expecting in our next update.

John O’Connor is settling in to his new life and job in New York City. After working at the Stanford University Endowment for four years, he joined the investment team of Summit Rock Advisors in the summer of 2009, covering private equity and real asset investments and formulating asset allocation strategy for his fi rm’s clients. Summit Rock Advisors was co-founded by David Dechman (former head of Goldman Sachs Wealth Managment) and Nancy Donohue (former CIO of the Harvard Mgmt Company) and serves as the outsourced CIO for U.S.-based philanthropic families and foundations. John lives in Greenwich Village and while he misses the sun and surf of California, is enjoying New York City. He looks forward to getting together and catching up with any WEMBA classmates who make their way to the Big Apple.

Jonathan Alcabes began a new job at the beginning of year as Manager at Accenture. Specifi cally, he is working within Accenture’s Management Consulting, Sales Transformation and Sales Strategy practice.

Thanks everyone, for sharing your news. As I (Cori Johnson) write this, I am taking one last look at Lake Washington as the moving company is taking inventory of the hundred plus boxes that comprise my life’s possessions. I’m headed for Boulder, CO, and a Senior Global Platform Manager position with Covidien Respiratory and Monitoring Solutions. More on that transition in our next update…by then I hope to be an expert bow hunter and making my own jerky (or at least working on my fi rst suntan in many years). Keep those messages coming and I look forward to our next update this summer!

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Mike was an active participant in youth athletics, coaching soccer and baseball in Durham, NC. He was a supporter of Penn baseball and Duke University men’s and women’s soccer and lacrosse programs. Mike was an Iron Duke, a member of Penn’s Weightman Society, the Graduate Baseball and Sprint Football Clubs and the Varsity Club. Mike became a cheerleader for and supporter of other cancer patients. A smile, words of encouragement and Jimmy V’s “Never Give Up” pep talk were all part of his heartfelt concern for others. Michael is survived by his loving wife Carol, sons Colin of Durham and Gregory of Baltimore; Peter and wife Koy of Ching Mai, Thailand; James and wife Kenia and grandchildren Nicolas and Isabelle of Redding, CA; a brother Peter and wife Ronnie Tate of Princeton, NJ; and nieces Shannon Tate Freehart and Amanda Tate. Donations may be made to the Duke University Cancer Center, c/o Dr. Jeff rey Crawford, Chief of Medical Oncology, DUMC Box 3476, Durham, NC 27710.

1970s

Alan D. Bernstein, W’79, age 52, passed away on January 27, 2010. Born and raised in New York, Alan was a devoted husband to Janet and father to Eric and Kate, and adored brother of Steven and Gail. We will forever remember and will sorely miss Alan’s unselfi sh love and devotion to his family, his unique intellectual gifts and his indomitable spirit.

2000s

Dustin Joseph Drapkin, W’09, passed on March 5, 2010 in Snowmass Village, CO. Dustin was raised in Alpine, New Jersey, where he attended Dwight Englewood School. He graduated in 2009 from Wharton with a dual major in Management and Music. Dustin was set to embark on his passion to become a chef, having recently been accepted to the French Culinary Institute.

Dustin had a passion for life that was contagious to all who had the fortune of knowing him. While his life was certainly too short, those who were touched by him understand that the quality of existence far exceeds the quantity of time in which one lives. His smile, humor and passion for life brought so much joy to both family and friends. Dustin is survived by his loving parents, Donald and Bernice of Alpine, NJ; devoted sisters and brothers Matthew, Dana, Nicole, David and Amanda; beloved brother-in-law Josh and sister-in-law Annie; and adoring nieces and nephews William, Lilly, Annabel, Emma and Charles.

Douglas James Sheppard, WG’10, passed away on February 2, 2010. Doug graduated Magna Cum Laude from the University of Delaware with a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration and most recently was working toward his MBA at Wharton. As a management and strategy consultant, he worked and lived in Portugal, Spain and New York City. Doug was skilled at business analysis and creating new fi nancial products and was regarded by his colleagues as an entrepreneur. He was admired for his deep intellect and creative problem solving abilities. His college friends talk about his charisma, how much he loved giving parties, and said that everyone wanted to be around him and were better for it. He lit up a room. His high school friends will remember his beautiful green eyes and his having “saved the day” playing the role of “Chico.” A world adventurer, Doug enjoyed his many travels through Europe, South Africa, Australia, and the Americas. He had great fun running with the bulls in Pamplona, partying at Carnival in Rio, toasting the New Year in Cape Town and in Sydney, cheering at the World Cup in Portugal, cruising the Greek Islands, sky diving and scuba diving in Panama, and bungee jumping in Costa Rica.

His father Stuart, mother

Bonnie, brother Steve, twin sister Jill and brother-in-law Lee love him deeply. He is also beloved by his two grandmothers, his Uncles Bill and Howard, his aunts, uncles and cousins in the U.S. and Australia and by his very large circle of friends here and around the world. His spirit, good nature and generosity inspired us all. Donations in Doug’s memory may be made to the Douglas James Sheppard Memorial Fund at the Prechter Bipolar Research Fund at http://depressioncenter.org/giving/gift.asp or mailed to the University of Michigan Depression Center, 4250 Plymouth Road, Room 1332, Ann Arbor, MI 48109-2700.

Raphael Speck, WG’10, was fatally hit by a car on June 5 while crossing the road in his native Switzerland. His wife, Cornelia, was also seriously hurt, and as of press time was receiving acute medical care. Funeral services were held on June 18 in Zumikon, Switzerland. In a letter to the campus community shortly after Speck’s tragic death, Peggy Bishop Lane, Deputy Vice Dean of the Graduate Division, B. Kembrel Jones, Deputy Vice Dean for Student Aff airs, and Anjani Jain, Director of the Graduate Division, described Speck as “a gentle soul” who possessed a “quiet intelligence, humor, charm, and contagious good spirit.”

After retiring from Ford, he moved to Orlando, FL, permanently in 1977. He became an avid golfer and was a regular at Orange Tree Country Club. He was preceded in death by his wife, Mary. He is survived by many nieces and nephews. In lieu of fl owers, memorial contributions may be made to SPCA of Central Florida.

1950s

Paul Lemmer Billig, W’59, passed away on Friday, March 5, 2010 in Daytona Beach, FL. He moved to Ormond Beach, FL, from New Jersey in 1997. Before his retirement, he worked as a Computer Systems Developer with Bell System. Outside of work, he was a member of Prince of Peace Catholic Church, in Ormond Beach, FL, and he was also a 4th Degree Knight with the Knights of Columbus. Mr. Billig was the President of the Police Academy Auxiliary, and past President of the Hospital Auxiliary, A.A.R.P. and Telephone Pioneers. He leaves behind to cherish his memory his loving wife of 52 years, Evelyn; son, Paul C. (Beth) Billig; brother, Thomas Cliff ord (Paige) Billig, Jr.; and three grandchildren, Dr. Kelly (Michal) Billig-Figura, Janelle Billig and Matthew Billig. Memorial contributions may be made to the Pregnancy Crisis Center, 416 N. Ridgewood Ave., Daytona Beach, FL 32114 or St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, 501 St. Jude Place, Memphis, TN 38105.

1960s

Michael J. Tate, C’62, WG’64, age 69, died Saturday, March 27, 2010 after a long and courageous battle with cancer. At Penn he lettered in both football and baseball and was a member of Sigma Chi. During his 40-year business career, Mike held senior sales and marketing positions with the Colgate-Palmolive Company and several of its subsidiaries. Mike worked with Sports Endeavors’ Team Sales Group in Hillsborough, until ill health forced his retirement.

John Stockton, emeritus professor of legal studies and business ethics, passed away on May 2 at the age of 86. Professor Stockton joined the Wharton faculty in 1953 and served as Chair of the Business Law Department (now Legal Studies and Business Ethics) from 1963-1971. He retired in 1989, but continued to teach at Wharton until 1995. His research focused on sales law and he was the co-author of a textbook on law and the legal process.

10050988_38-79.indd 7910050988_38-79.indd 79 7/13/10 6:12 PM7/13/10 6:12 PM

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