pany called Customer Chemistry. His classmate David Rook helped with marketing for a few months. Checco sold the company in July with the help of classmates John Stroud and Jason Ettinger. He is staying on with the new company and is enjoying the learning experience.
MBA Class of 2005 Brian Jennaro and Kate Joslyn
(MBA ’06) married at the Dahlgren Chapel on Georgetown’s campus on Sept. 27, 2008. IEMBA 10 Class of 2005 Todd Barnum was recently married
and moved to Buffalo, N.Y., to be closer to his family. Before moving north, he worked at classmate Dan Berkon’s company, Culmen International, for more than a year as a project manager and strategic adviser. Daniel Berkon started his own
company, Culmen International, in the last months of the IEMBA program to provide management and technical expertise to the U.S. government for international security and logistics programs. Berkon and his wife have four kids, ages 1–15.
Christine Cox lives in Colorado.
She recently went to Colombia for classmate Adriana Nino’s son’s baptism. Cox is the godmother. Scott East started mSights Inc.,
and invited classmate and residency teammate Fabrice Martin to be his business partner and chief operating officer. East and Martin were hired by classmate Dan Berkon’s company, Culmen International, to develop a strategic reporting Web application. East and Holley recently added a second child to the family. Melanie El-Sabaawi stepped down
as senior vice president at Callahan & Associates to help her husband start his international private practice. The couple recently purchased a house in Italy, which, of course, everyone is invited to.
Lee Bodner leads a new nonprofit
organization called EcoAmerica as executive director. He previously served as an organizer at MoveOn. org. Jennifer Boettcher still works at
Georgetown University, reliving the IEMBA experience year after year with each new class of students. She and Ken live in Laurel, Md. Richard Butcher recently mar-
ried and went on a months-long honeymoon around the world. Upon the couple’s return, Butcher was asked to take on the chief of staff position for Rep. Diane Watson (D-Calif.), serving the 33rd district. Butcher and his wife have bought their first house on Capitol Hill.
36
Jason Ettinger is still at Booz Allen
Hamilton, but runs a merger and acquisition company with classmate John Stroud. Ettinger and Stroud helped with the sale of classmate Chris Checco’s company. Ettinger and his wife have three children, the youngest of whom turned 3 in April. Ettinger’s wife was recently featured in Newsweek and Washingtonian for her accomplishments at Kipp, a charter school in D.C. Jeremy Finn is a managing direc-
tor at Fidelity Investments in Boston. His wife and three children are contemplating moving to the suburbs and leaving behind their two-bedroom apartment in the heart of Boston, less than a mile from work.
msb.georgetown.edu
Bruce Cook
Chris Checco started his own com-
ebrated Thanksgiving 2008 by bringing home their first child, Cassidy Brooke, from the hospital. Cassidy was born Nov. 25, 2008, at Georgetown University Hospital.
The Georgetown University McDonough School of Business alumni community, as well as Georgetown alumni with an interest in the McDonough School, met at three separate business networking events this spring. A gathering on March 24 drew close to 100 alumni to the Fairmont Hotel on the top of Nob Hill in San Francisco. G. Doug Dillard (BSBA ’93), managing partner and portfolio manager at Standard Pacific, and Neil Ashe (BSBA ’90), president of CBS InteracMarch 24 in San Francisco: Martin Doyle tive, spoke on the topic (MBA ’02), Ian Sims (MBA ’06), Dean George “Business, Innovation, Daly, Betsy Eshoei (MBA ’06), and Garrett and the New Reality.” The Vygantas (MBA ’04, MD ’04). lively discussion covered the influence of China on West Coast business and the concept of “keyboardready” projects as compared to “shovel-ready.” The following day, the Georgetown McDonough School of Business, with the support of the Georgetown University Alumni Association, hosted a full house of more than March 25 in Los Angeles: Slade Smith 150 Georgetown alumni (BSBA ’06), Reagan Smith (BSBA ’08), at the Beverly Hilton in Brittany Basset (BSBA ’08), and Christine Los Angeles. Greg Foster Jahina (BSBA ’06). (BSBA ’94), chairman and president of Filmed Entertainment, IMAX, and Juliana Jaoudi (MBA ’96), vice president of sales at latimes.com, shared their personal stories on the power of the Georgetown business network. A sold-out gathering in New York City on April 15 took place at the historic Time-Life Building. A panel April 15 in New York: Palden Namgyal (C ’86), of alumni spoke to the senior managing director at Atlas Strategic approximately 200 attendAdvisors LLC; Ed Finneran (BSBA ’77), ing alumni on the topic director of marketing at Brigade Capital; and “Managing Your Career J. Christopher Hoeffel (BSBA ’83), managing in Times of Crisis.” director at Investcorp International Inc. J. Christopher Hoeffel (BSBA ’83), managing director at Investcorp International Inc., Ed Finneran (BSBA ’77), director of marketing at Brigade Capital, and Palden Namgyal (C ’86), senior managing director at Atlas Strategic Advisors LLC, talked about their experiences and gave straightforward advice on career choices, the value of integrity, and the future of financial services.
Reed Hutchinson
Kathleen and Mark Wolf cel-
The Power of Alumni Networking
Annemarie Poyo Furlong
ALUMNINotes