“Raising our kids to be global citizens is important.”
Sara Leventhal Fleiss ’95 continued
Peter, were impressed that these core values remained constant and integral to the Park community. After Park, Sara attended Milton Academy and Harvard College, where she studied applied mathematics. She then went on to receive an MBA from Harvard Business School. Sara co-founded and, until recently, was co-portfolio manager of Emeth Partners, an emerging markets arbitrage hedge fund. Prior to founding Emeth, Sara was the lead analyst on the emerging markets equities portfolio at Harvard Management Company (HMC). At HMC, Sara built and developed a team that focused on risk arbitrage, volatility arbitrage, and relative value trading strategies. She started her career on the Citigroup Equity Derivatives desk. This fall, Sara will shift roles to become a senior lecturer at Harvard Business School, where she teaches finance in the MBA program. Sara chairs the investment committee for United Way of Mass Bay and Merrimack Valley and serves on the investment committee of the Planned Parenthood League of Massachusetts. She also sits on the advisory board of Match Education. Sara and Peter live in Brookline with their three young children, Solomon (Grade I), Morris (age 4), and Annabel (age 1).
12
The Park School Bulletin
fall 2016
Neela Pal
H
aving grown up in India, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Japan, Neela truly values the global perspective that is infused into the Park School experience. In social studies last year, her fifth grader learned about the US immigration experience and the stories of the variety of people who come to this country; her second grader studied the lives, food, shelter, arts, and cultures of people from Columbia, India, Mexico, and China, and in sixth grade, her oldest had a chance to participate in a South Africa apartheid simulation. “Raising our kids to be global citizens is important. It has been great to see all that Park does to help children understand the inter-connectedness of the world and how they can contribute to the both local and the global community.” After spending her elementary school years in Westchester, New York, Neela’s family moved to Tokyo, where she attended the American School in Japan. She met her husband, Sekar Kathiresan, in their freshman year at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. After graduation, Neela moved to Cincinnati to work in brand management at Procter & Gamble, while Sekar moved to Boston to attend medical school at Harvard.
Finally, after a few years of back and forth between the two cities, Neela joined Sekar in Boston while she earned her MBA at Harvard Business School. Neela and Sekar live in Newton with their three children, Nina (Grade VIII), Nikhil (Grade VI), and Devan (Grade III). “When Sekar and I were looking at elementary schools for our oldest, a number of colleagues recommended that we look at Park. In our meetings with the faculty and administration and in talking to other Park families, we were really impressed with the combination of a warm, inclusive community, a focus on academic excellence, and a commitment to developing confident and caring students.” At Park, Neela has volunteered at SpringFest, served as a Class Rep, and co-chaired the annual raffle at the Faculty & Staff Appreciation Luncheon. Neela is currently vice president of brand marketing at TripAdvisor, where she is helping the company transform from a review site to a travel booking and commerce site. “As businesses and organizations evolve, its critical to make sure that the brand—and what it stands for—also evolves.” As a trustee at Park, Neela is looking forward to helping the School define its place among independent schools, using her marketing and branding experience. “Park is a great brand, but like TripAdvisor, as we evolve our offerings, we have an opportunity to be even more clear about what we stand for and communicate that core to our current and prospective communities.”