Oil and gas entrepreneur honored for leadership, service Rob Kozel ’89, a pioneer and entrepreneur in the oil and gas industry, was named a 2012 Entrepreneur of the Year by Washington & Jefferson College at its 26th annual Entrepreneurial Leadership Dinner. Additionally, the CEO and chairman of Mountaineer Keystone, LLC, was named one of “Pittsburgh’s 50 Finest” by Whirl Magazine for his community service and career success. In addition to founding Mountaineer Keystone, a Pittsburgh-based Marcellus and Utica shale exploration company, Kozel has co-founded four other energy-based companies in the U.S. and Europe: Texas Keystone Inc., an independent oil and gas operator with wells in Pennsylvania, West Virginia and New York; Falcon Partners, a land-leasing pipeline and facilities company; Falcon Drilling, LLC, an oil and gas drilling services company; and Gulf Keystone, Ltd., a company with oil and gas operations in Iraq. Previously, Kozel was an account manager for Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Western Pennsylvania. His first jobs were at Key Well Services and Keystone Energy, his father’s businesses, where he first became passionate about the oil and gas industry. Kozel credits his professors at W&J, as well as his parents, for fostering his entrepreneurial spirit. “W&J instills a sense of independence and responsibility in its students,” he said. “The faculty members are very involved in students’ lives. Not only do they expect you to go to class and participate, but they get to know you on a personal level. They want to be your mentors.”
“W&J instills a sense of independence and responsibility in its students.”
President Tori Haring-Smith congratulates Rob Kozel on being named W&J’s Entrepreneur of the Year.
– ROB KOZEL ’89
Tim Sidow enjoyed the opportunity to dunk his friend and former classmate Bob Howard ’87 in a dunking tank at JT Walk in Virginia Beach, Va. The event is the National ALS Foundation’s largest single-day fundraiser for Lou Gehrig’s disease and stem cell research for neurological disorders. Sidow writes, “I was more than happy to donate for the opportunity to drop him in the water, which I did twice!”
1990 Brian Hamlin, M.D., and Jill Switalski Hamlin ’92 celebrated their 20th wedding anniversary with members of Phi Kappa Sigma and Pi Beta Phi. Attending the reunion were Nancy Killen Bryant ’95, Diane Carlisle ’94, Chuck Clontz, Jason DiNardo ’91, Shawn Echard, Jack Gullo, Christina Lane Loper ’92, Jim McKenzie ’94, Kelly McKenzie ’94 and Dana Ichenhour Olshefski ’92.
1991
1994
Steven Dulman accepted the position of vice president of accounting at Bowman Consulting Group in Chantilly, Va.
Megan Lynne Faust is a senior legal search consultant with McClelland Legal Search in Pittsburgh where she places full-time attorneys in law firms and corporations nationwide. She resides in North Strabane Township, Pa., with her husband and two children.
Hemant Pathak was promoted to assistant general counsel at Microsoft in Washington, D.C. An 11-year employee of Microsoft, his specialties are in cloud computing, healthcare information technology law, software licensing and consulting services transactions, government contracts and procurement, and regulatory and legal compliance. He resides in Reston, Va.
1992 Lisa Hawrot joined the law firm of Spilman Thomas & Battle, LLC, in Wheeling, W.Va. Jeffrey Metz was elected to the Board of Trustees at Wyoming Seminary in Wyoming Valley, Pa. He is president and chief executive officer of Metz Culinary Management in Dallas, Pa., which Food Management magazine named a top-five company to watch and ranked as a top-50 food management company. Metz also is chairman of the board of the Pennsylvania Restaurant Association.
Lisa Johnson was appointed to the position of assistant principal II at Chopticon High School in Morganza, Md. Previously, she was an assistant principal at Surrattsville High School in Clinton, Md. Jan Sundahl appeared on Fox News as a panelist during the Republican National Convention in Tampa, Fla., where she commented on changes to the Florida real estate market during the last four years. Sundahl, who has 18 years of real estate experience, is an associate in the RE/ MAX Alliance Group University Office. Prior to her career in real estate, she was a teacher in Sarasota County.
WASHINGTON & JEFFERSON COLLEGE
35