“And the Moral of the Story Is…?”
Arlyn Davich ’99 and Eric Davich ’02 Are First Sibling Career Day Keynote Speakers When it comes to the format of the Keynote remarks for Pingry’s annual Career Day, juniors and seniors usually hear from one person. This year, however, for the first time, the School welcomed two Keynote speakers who also happen to be siblings: Trustee Arlyn Davich ’99 and Eric Davich ’02. Music majors at Bowdoin College, they found their true calling in entrepreneurship. Arlyn, a serial entrepreneur, is currently the Founder and CEO of PayPerks: a start-up that utilizes prepaid or store loyalty card data to promote financial literacy and healthy nutritional habits. For example, users earn PayPerks points for buying fruits and vegetables and participating in an online educational curriculum. “Every point earned is worth a chance to win a monetary prize in one of thousands of sweepstakes conducted every month. The model is based on insights from behavioral economics,” she explains. Arlyn says that her best days are when she can put unexpected pieces together (like facilitate a public/private partnership to drive mass adoption of a new product or draw on insights from the lottery to improve financial health) and days when she can feel her company’s impact (“it is thrilling to see millions of people reached”). Eric is a digital music entrepreneur who currently leads Global Artist Marketing for Google Play Music, Google’s music streaming service. He arrived at Google following the 2014 acquisition of Songza, which he co-founded in 2010. As a member of the Google Play marketing team, Eric says, “My role is to understand music listeners and partner with people in the music industry— record labels and managers—to collaborate with artists to raise awareness of Google Play Music. Examples are a virtual reality music video in collaboration 46
THE PINGRY REVIEW
Arlyn Davich ’99.
Eric Davich ’02.
with members of Queen, an ad campaign with the Beatles, and other creative collaborations that get attention for the artists and our platform.” For Eric, those collaborations can make for a truly exciting day, as can the actual launching of a Google project and receiving feedback from the public. “When I convince important people at Google that something I’m passionate about is worth putting Google’s resources behind, [and] when you get something out the door and real people are using it and giving feedback, it’s an amazingly fulfilling experience.”
development as an entrepreneur. “What I was doing,” she said, “was honing leadership skills. The core skillsets I developed were the ability to form an idea and then lead a group of people to accomplish that goal.”
Before delving into their main presentation, Arlyn and Eric spoke to the anxieties and expectations of Pingry students. “When I was sitting where you are,” Arlyn said, “I thought being good at tests and getting good grades was the only key to a good career path. The way I saw it, becoming a doctor or a lawyer was just a long line of tests away.” However, Arlyn maintained that her Pingry education was crucial to her
She later spoke of how Pingry values leadership and teaches it as a skill: in Peer Leadership, she learned how to make people feel comfortable, respected, and trusted in a group setting; in sports, athletes lead by example and do the right thing. “In a leadership role, you’re looking out for everyone and setting a tone of mutual respect,” she says. Eric expressed a similar sentiment about his path. “I was intimidated by the word ‘career,’” he admitted. At the time, “career” for him meant “growing up,” but he didn’t want to grow up. He wanted to have fun—and that meant something along the lines of being a rock star (which could later become a career!). “But there was no clear path to being a