Road racer uses education to win on and off the speedway track ANDREW RAINS, a 2015 Harbert graduate in marketing, has already taken his share of victory laps as the driver and team manager for Rains Racing, which competes on the Sports Car Club of America circuit. He’s applied classroom lessons to building relationships with sponsors, managing team logistics and capitalizing on his trips to Victory Lane. Rains’ team joined Honda Motorsports of Alabama for the 2016 season. He’s raced stock cars, VWs, and now Hondas. Rains has competed at Daytona International Speedway, Road Atlanta, Road America, Canadian Tire Motorsports Park, Charlotte Motor Speedway, and Laguna Seca. He won championships in the South Atlantic Road Racing Series and V8 Stock Cars GTA series in 2014.
Katherine Falls (’12, accounting and finance)
joined Auburn University’s Department of Civil Engineering as an administrative support associate in March 2015. She and her husband, Josh, welcomed their son, Joshua Jr., in April 2015.
Thomas Hinson
(’14, supply chain management) works for Honda Manufacturing of Alabama as a mass production buyer in the supply chain department. He recently took the project lead for HMS’ “Exceptional Service Request” to expedite billing data, which will help Honda pay its expedited carriers more quickly and accurately.
Jacob Jordan (’11, business ad-
advisor for Edward Jones Investments. His ministration) serves as direc- hobbies include soccer, woodwork, and tor of annual giving for Au- climbing. burn University Athletics’ Tigers Unlimited FoundaJeremy Leff (’13, management tion. He is a 2014 graduate of information systems) works Leadership Lee County. In addition to infor Columbus, Georgia-based stituting the Young Alumni program for Synovus as a senior softthe football program, he also helped launch ware developer, and recently Tigers Unlimited U for current Auburn earned admission into GeorUniversity students. gia Tech’s online master of computer science program. On Saturdays during the Laura Kneiss (’12, marketing) earned a pro- fall, you can find him running the new motion to game day coordinator for foot- sound system (and its huge speakers) in ball and men’s basketball in the Indiana Jordan-Hare Stadium. He can also be heard University Athletic Department. She playing saxophone in the Auburn Knights serves as assistant marketing director and jazz band. director of the Crimson Guard student rewards program. “I love that I have been Chen Liang (’15, MBA) is an associate softgiven the opportunity to execute so many ware consultant with Tibco Software Inc. elements that create a fantastic game day in Atlanta. Chen is expecting the arrival of atmosphere for our Hoosier fans,” she says. a baby girl in April. As director of the Crimson Guard program, Laura communicates information about Trey Lowe (’11, business administration), upcoming events and promotions to more who recently earned his professional MBA than 11,000 student season ticket holders. from Wingate University, works for trailShe enjoyed a trip to Costa Rica in 2015 er manufacturer Great Dane Trailers in and plans to visit England, Panama, and an Charlotte, North Carolina, as national acas-yet-undetermined location in 2016. count sales manager.
Luke Howard (’13, information systems management) earned a promotion from desktop support specialist to infrastructure support specialist with First Multiple Listing Brooke Landtroop (’15, accounting) is working Service in Atlanta. He enjoys taking his for KPMG in Atlanta as an audit associate. dog for walks in city parks and attending Auburn football games as a young alumni David C. Leavitt (’14, finance) passed the Series season ticket holder. 7 and Series 66 exams to become a financial 48 HM, Spring 2016
Rains, a former driver with Auburn’s Samuel Ginn College of Engineering Formula SAE program, says having an understanding of sales and business is crucial to success. “It’s the single biggest part of being a race driver,” he says. “Driving the car is probably only 10 percent, or less. It’s really being able to leverage the relationships around you to put yourself into a position to be in a race car.” Working with Honda in 2016 also means working to develop as a driver, Rains says. “Delivering results behind the wheel becomes increasingly important as more team partners become invested in our program, so I have to adapt and grow accordingly to deliver a strong performance at every race weekend.”
Vinay Mariyappa (’15,
information systems) is a business intelligence analyst with the indirect auto finance company Credit Acceptance Corporation in Southfield, Michigan.