
40 minute read
Class Notes
Class Notes have been condensed due to your overwhelming response. To view the entire list, please visit thunderbird.asu.edu/class-notes.
Comings & goings
e’ll catch the big news about you: Nobel Prize nominations, when you take your company public or if you’re the first T-bird in space. But we can only know about your less publicized news if you tell us. We’re not too particular; we want to hear it all. W
Send your information to tbirdalumni@thunderbird.asu.edu.
1940s Jack Rokahr ’47, Jack has been mentoring a boy who wanted to ask Jack questions about WW II. They became friends and Jack has been men toring for the past three years. … Chuck Palmeter ’49, finally quit motor-homing, fishing and camping in Baja, but he and his wife are still up, around and rela tively healthy. He’s been retired from AT&T for about as long as he worked for them, 30+ years. He has many great memories of Thunderbird and the subsequent years in Brazil!
1950s Harry Turner ’51, had a stroke and broke his leg but he is working it out and celebrated his 92nd birthday on August 31. … Donald Carley ’55, is living in Sun Valley, ID at age 90. He has occasional correspondence with Howard Crooks ’55 who is 93. … Dan (aka Horst) Daniels ’56, fully retired after two previ ous attempts. Just celebrated his 86th birthday living at a retirement community where he often gets the feeling he is on a cruise ship. … William Rodg ers ’56, after graduation took a job with EBASCO, in New York. I was posted to Chile, tried ranch ing in New Mexico, but I missed life overseas. I joined the Peace Corps, went to Bogota, joined the State Department and was posted to Lima, Peru. Then came Brazil, Ecuador and Guatemala. … Narce Caliva ’56, continues to spend time volunteering, mainly with the Korean War Veterans Association and Red Cross. He and his wife, Leslie, now have a total of 104 years of Red Cross service. … Stanley Ely ’57, has lived in New York City since graduation. He retired after time in advertising and teaching, has written seven books, the latest published in April. … Jerome Firsty ’57, Donald Klein and I were room mates. We lived in the quad, and every Saturday morning, we would give our living quarters a real G.I. cleaning. A large percentage of my class were veterans. … Richard Jackson ’57, remains physically active and is trying to keep the parts together. … George Blake ’59, spent 25 years in Mexico. Since retiring 30 years ago, we have travelled the world. We now live in a retirement com munity where I teach robotics and artificial intelligence and Bev line dances. Both of us will be turning 90 at the end of this year. … Dan Schell ’59, in 1962 I took a job with Ames Irrigation International in Milpitas, CA. My
notes
Diego Veitta ’66

boss was Wally Petersen ’60. Ames Irrigation sold to another company so Wally and I went separately on to other things. Wally passed away 5 yrs. ago in Nigeria. We were still active in several projects together includ ing with Bill Johnson ’60 who is also now deceased.
1960s Tim Wilbur ’60, is retired and lives in Oceanside, CA & Camano Island, WA. … Steve Cole ’61, I worked for Abbott Laboratories, G.D. Searle, and A.H. Robins before I took early retirement and started my own consulting business, Cole & Associates. … Robert Drynan ’64, I have lived in Mexico for past 13 years. I have written four novels, and I’m working on a fifth, plus two short story collections. … Diego J. Veitia ’66, I stepped down as Chairman of the Company I founded INTL FCStone (INTL Nasdag). Since then I formed a family company that invests in Biotechnology’s breakthrough drugs. I still commute from Florida and Colorado with my wife Marsha. … Joe Burke ’66, is retired in Madrid, but spends time in Ecuador, his wife’s home country. This year they visited Chile, Argentina, England, Scotland, Cuba, U.S., and Costa Rica. … Steve Swenerton ’66, worked for Cargill in Minneapolis and Buf falo after graduation. He was an officer in the Coast Guard for 3 ½ years. Retired now in Boulder, CO he teaches history. … Bill Brogdon ’66, I was recruited at Thunderbird by Bucyrus Erie and have been in the mining and heavy construction business ever since. I traveled in sales throughout South America, Eu rope and Africa. … Dean Ross ’67, my wife and I moved to our permanent home in Puerto Val larta, Mexico where I can swim and play tennis every day to my heart’s desire. My memories of Thunderbird are always inspir ing and memorable. … David Carpita ’67, has retired from his second career, a cooking school and private country inn in St Remy-de-Provence with his wife, Nitokrees. They live at the Mas de Cornud and spend their winter months in the Red Sea resort town of Hurghada, Egypt. … John E. O’Brien ’68, and his wife, Anne, who worked in the registrar’s office while he was at T-bird, are retired and moved to San Marcos, TX. John worked the first 20 years after Thunderbird for Eastman Kodak. … Stephen Nadler ’68, just returned from a trip to Iceland, Paris, and Corsica. I own and manage commercial properties acquired during my business career. One of my interests is as a postal historian and stamp collector (philatelist). … Wayne Battenfield ’68, I have been to 65 countries and still counting. I moved back to Arizona with my wife, Julie, after being gone for 44 years. I have four great grandkids ages 8 - 19. … Meg Goetz de Gaona ’69, I just celebrated my 36th anniversary with the Santa Barbara Neigh borhood Clinics and 37 years as a Nurse Practitioner. I’ve been married to the same wonderful man for 37 years and we have two daughters. … Richard Koehler ’69, finally located in one place after an international career. My wife Inga-Märit has been with me over the entire
thunderbird magazine Thunderbird travel-log, 50+ years, including her Glendale Campus tour of duty. We are now settled on the Swedish island Gotland in the Baltic Sea. … Chuck Hazen ’69 & ’72, when the first of my two Thunderbird degrees was conferred in 1969, that era was the beginning of a golden age for international/ global career aspirants. When I received my second Thunderbird degree in 1972 that awakening was gaining momentum.
1970s Tom Sanders ’70, I retired from teaching finance at the University of Miami. I now teach part time at Washington, DC universities. I worked in international departments of banks on Wall Street in the 1970s. … Dave Hackett ’70, Dave and his wife Cindy reside in Gig Harbor, WA. They have two children and four grandchildren. Dave retired from a career with the U.S. GAO with assignments in Europe, New England and Washington DC. … Jan Jarne ’70, was elected Chairman of the Board of the Brazil-Finland Chamber of Commerce. He has

also been the Honorary Consul General of Finland in São Paulo for the last 12 years. … Phillip Moore ’70, attended Thunder bird after serving in the Marines, was hired by a global insurance group out of New York, then spent 22 years outside the US. I retired as Senior VP of a Fortune 100 company after a 30 year career. … David Josephson ’71, David is Managing Director, Northern California at the Export Import Bank of the United States in San Francisco CA. … Robert Ainslie ’71, has been involved with Greater China since 1980. As an advisor to New York investment bankers like DLJ and Bear Sterns. I recnetly organized two LLCs so, no retirement in the foreseeable future. … Mahlon Barash ’71, I have been living in Lima, Peru after returning from Cajamarca while directing a housing micro-finance program from a contract in Mexico. In February of this year I became a Peruvian citizen, in addition to my American citizenship. … Juan Manuel de Cardenas ’72, is founder, main investor and CEO of Energia Azul, a development company of Santa Maria Hydro Power Project (SM), a 750 MW hydro in late stage of develop ment based in Peru. … John Cullison ’72, retired in 2015 after 42 years with Bank of America including a decade overseas. John served on the Board of the San Francisco Opera for eight years and the American Red Cross Bay Area Board for nine years and recently joined the Board of Global Partners for Development. … Basel Khalifeh ’72, I am a resident of Dubai. I own a consulting office focused on providing management solutions focused on the medical sector as well as on international law. … Tom Kenyon ’72 is retired and lives in Paso Robles, CA. … George Hiller ’72, I am still
teaching at the University of Richmond Business School. This fall, I will be teaching a short course at a university in Colombia. … McDiarmid (Mac) Messenger ’72, completing my sixth year of retirement and my 31st year of living abroad since Thunderbird. I have lived my T-bird dream. Living and working in Germany, Denmark, the UAE, Brazil, England, and now in Switzerland. My travels for business and pleasure have taken me to more than 80 countries. … Kevin Tam ’73, I’m working with Script International. Script has projects in over 30 countries with over ten decades of combined experience. … Ernest L. Kangas ’73, my wife, Melody, who worked for President Voris while we were at Thunderbird, and I moved to Windsor, CA. I have been with Hefferan Insurance Brokers 12 years specializing in trade credit and political risk insurance. … Dimitri Andonov ’73, After working several years overseas as international sales manager for International Paper Co., Campbell soup Co., and Johnson Controls International Co. I started my own export company. I am now passing the baton to my son, John. I live with my wife, Sharon, in Florida. … Brian Marshall ’73, I am currently back in the U.S. recovering from surgery, I have worked since 1997 in the Balkans, Eastern Europe and Central Asia with OSCE, most recently as a Long Term Observer on postings in Ukraine. During this period, I also served the U.S. State Depart ment in Iraq. … Bela (De) Mariassy ’73, I am wrapping up a long career in Aerospace. I worked many years for Allied Signal / Honeywell in Phoenix. Twelve years ago I moved to Annapolis where I work for ARINC / Rockwell Collins in export compliance. I retired at the end of September and plan to travel. … Stephen Elson ’73, I currently live in Palm Springs with Tom Stewart, retired in 2001 from Sodexco, a hospitality management group. I am a docent at the Palm Springs Art Museum and a member of the Pasadena Society of Artists (photographer). … Michael Zahaby ’74, Michael is semi-retired in Naples, FL after 40 years in banking and corporate finance. He is also an adjunct professor of Finance at Florida Gulf Coast University. … Roberto Bradford ’74, I am the owner and CEO of RG Bradford Representações, based in Rio de Janeiro. Our family company was founded in 1946 specializing in marketing/ representation services to foreign companies interested in doing business in Brazil. … Craig Williamson ’74, I recently retired in Queen Creek, AZ after career that included overseas assignments in

Curtis Piper ‘74 Singapore and Hong Kong with Fleet Financial Group, now Bank of America. … Michael Crotty ’74, has been in the home textiles business for thirty+ years as the President of TexStyle, Inc., and its China subsidiary, TexStyle Asia (Shanghai) Co., Ltd, that he founded in 2001. In 2007, he established MKT & Associates, Ltd. to capitalize on his expertise in building networks between Chinese and U.S. companies. … Curtis Piper ’74, I am retired from Nomura Real Estate, Inc. My wife and our husky, spend summers on Prince Edward Island, Canada and we travel to Japan twice a year to visit my 91-year-old mother-in-law. … James Dodson ’74, after living and working in Spain for 36 years, I have moved to Algarve, Portugal to avoid Spanish tax on a small inheritance. I am now retired and I am busier than ever. … Tom W. Glaser ’75, after retiring from Miami-Dade County Public Schools, I started teaching for Academica Charter Schools, and transferred to Brooks Collegiate Academy in San Antonio, TX. I LOVE being a teacher! … Larry W. Ishmael ’75, retired Northwest University as a professor of economics and entrepreneurship. He and his wife, Francie, will be moving to Sunriver Resort in central Oregon. … Dirk Visser ’75, will be retiring in April 2018. I am a risk director at Cargill Europe, based in Belgium. Once retired I will take it easy living between Brussels and Sitges near Barcelona. … Timo (Sauna man) Lahdekorpi ’75, I’m in Finland to research the renowned Loyly Sauna facility in Helsinki. I’ve been commis sioned to design and construct a similar one in the U.S. … Scott Johnson ’75, is sales manager for Martin Door Manufacturing in Salt Lake City, UT. … Mark W. Andersen ’75, after almost 28
Shogo Miyamoto ‘78
years running businesses in Latin America and Europe with responsibility for EU, Russia/ Ukraine, Turkey and Northern Africa, I moved back to the U.S. and started my own consulting business. … Emmett Steed ’75, after 25 years in the hotel industry, I went back to school and earned a Ph.D. in Hospitality Administration. I am now a full professor in my 15th year at SUU. … Leonard Brockman ’75, Thunderbird, oh Thunder bird!! The doors you opened led me from Ukraine to Singapore, Zambia to Panama and 25+ countries. Today, I still run Traderbrock.com, a company I started in the rainforest of Panama. … Alan P. Goode ’75, has been elected Chairman of the Board of Commissioners of the Manchester Transit Authority (MTA). He served as a senior insurance examiner/regulator for the New Hampshire Insurance Department for 37 years. He also served as a U.S. Army Field Artillery Officer. … Rich Pedersen ‘76, has retired to rural life in Texas Hill Country, raising chickens, cattle, bees, and enjoying his grandchildren. Before retirement Rich was a risk advisory director with KPMG. … Pru Pande ’77, I am working as a financial analyst/ auditor for the Department of Labor in Denver, Colorado. My husband, Arun Pande ’77, is enjoying retirement. … Rafel

Puig ’77, I’m retired, living and having fun in Gavà, a beach town close to Barcelona. … Susan (Sunny Speca) Suval ’77, is based in Doylestown PA, where her company, Susan Duval Seminars, hosts experts in personal growth, holistic health, healing, spirituality and metaphysics. … Mark Bubar ’77, I’m helping financial services clients with their digital transformation. Continually excit ed to see where these changes take the world. Very grateful to have the global foundation provided by Thunderbird. … Steve B. Stevenson ’77 and Lisa Moore Stevenson ’77, Lisa worked with a non-profit Capital Area Soccer League in Raleigh, as Controller. Steve was Director of Intl. Dev. for the State of North Carolina, taught Intl. Mgmt. at NC State University and Meredith College, and has lectured at Duke Fuqua School of Business. … Sue Gile Whitmer ’77, I am still enjoying my career with global health insurer GeoBlue, and I am working on my third book, which will be about everyday heroes. … Jon Dietz ’78, I met my wife, Jennifer (Woody) Dietz ’79 at Thunderbird on the first day of school in 1978. I started a printing service company that became FSSI. Jennifer is now President. I am still active with FSSI but have started other companies, including Gorilla Gadgets and Sonostar. … Wes Bigler ’78, Mike Camplin ’78, a classmate and I reconnected two years ago on LinkedIin and this summer we met at his place in Victoria British Columbia. We hadn’t seen each other in 39 years. The Thunderbird mystique continues! … Tom Cath ’78, has been the Director for the Career Center al Valparaiso University since 2009. … Alyce Tidball ’79, I am semi-retired from the U.S. Foreign Service. I recently attended First Tuesday in Bogota with Alumni TEM Lab participants, where I enjoyed meeting other alumni who were offering mentoring to Colombian companies. … William Moore ’79, after three years in the Philippines with the U.S. Peace Corps Agency, I transferred to Morocco in May as Director of Man agement and Operations. … David Ford ’79, about 10 years ago I started developing a special applicator for the distribution of fast-drying liquids on small bottles. I received a patent and a trademark. Now Fineline Applicators are sold all over the world. … Dave Kastner ’79, is enjoying semi-retirement in San Luis Obispo, CA, rated one of the best places to live in the world. (True!) He also enjoys being a grandfa ther. … Mohammed Azab ’79, lives in Dubai and currently heads Private Banking Group for Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank, providing wealth management advisory services for high and ultra-high net worth individuals. … Willie Cone ’79, After a 40-year career in corporate event marketing and promotions, I’m now giving back by teaching ESL to adult/professional students. My wife and I have taught over 2000 students from more than 40 countries.
1980s Carl Daher Delnero ’80, retired from PepsiCo International and now lives with Sylvia, his wife, in bucolic New Hampshire. He published four Kindle books on Amazon about Liberal Theology, of all things. … Griffith Frost ’80, works for the Hawaii Cooperative Development Center, helping people develop multi-stakehold er cooperatives. CoOp Gym, Noni Juice CoOp, Tea Farm CoOp are all based in Hilo, HI. … Mary Schmitt ’80, practiced bankruptcy law in for over 25 years. I now have a small bankruptcy law practice in Friday Harbor, WA. I am enjoying my free time exploring the San Juan Islands with my dog, Keeva. … Linda Jaekel Avery ’80, life is great for us here just outside Telluride. I have been an independent real estate broker in this region for the past 15 years. My husband, Doug, and I also like to travel to different areas nationally and internationally, by both sailboat and by land. … Jan Meertens ’81, my second book, “Do We Have A Deal?” was published. The book is in Dutch for Dutch people working with people from other cultures. I plan to publish an international edition “Do We Have A Deal?” in English. … Dan Austin ’81, I just returned to Miami after heading Consumer Marketing for MasterCard in Asia-Pacific. Never a dull moment from India to New Zealand with Singapore as the belly button. I could have lived there forever! … Barbara (Mattie) Mertz ’80, after 35 years of working in the global produce industry, I am getting ready to retire from my current position as Director of Business Administration at David Oppenheimer and Co. and eagerly planning my next career outside of the corporate world. … Babs Potvin Ryan ’81, received her seventh patent, creating the first direct-to
Jan Meertens ’81
consumer product for her client, Aflac. Babs has visited 85 countries and lives in Boston’s North End. She is also a PSIA certified ski instructor. … Melissa Taylor ’81, just had a mini-reunion with housemates Melissa Stoll Santucci ’81 and Dennis Howard ’81 in Dallas, and Cheri Tillman Anderson ’81 in Albuquerque. We still all keep up after 26 years! … John Citti ’81, has joined the U.S. Board of URBAN REFUGEES, a non-profit organization addressing the refugee crisis in innovative ways. His day job is running the treasury function at the American Civil Liberties Union. … Tracy Hufford ’82, I teach at the University of Iowa in the Event Planning Certificate program. I live in Solon, IA and we are blessed to have a granddaughter that lives nearby. Life is good! … Barry Richard ’82, I moved to Oberlin, OH, with my wife, Carol, sixteen years ago to raise our family. I was able to remain at Expeditors Interna tional. Thirty-four years total in the global logistics business, and there’s something new every day. … Shelley Blessing Bay ’82, upon graduation, I moved to work for William O’Neil & Co. I worked in the commercial satellite contracts organization for Hughes Space and Commu nications (now Boeing) as the youngest member and the only

female on the team at the time. … William Liu ’82, after working in Human Resources for 26 years, I am devoting myself to developing new talents in retirement. We have a weekly gathering with retired executives in Taipei, Taiwan. … Ian McCluskey ’82, I have been Commercial Service of the U.S. Department of Commerce after 28 years of employment with the federal government. I still live in Milwaukee and have been keeping busy with volunteer work. … Donavon Ostrom ’83, I have recently created Arizona Collaboratory, an economic development non-profit to grow the Arizona economy and create sustainable, high-value jobs for Arizonans. … Alison Stern Stilwell ’83, I have been working in the Communications Department of Kiwanis International in Indianapolis, IN for nearly 16 years. … Gary Geller ’83, has been appointed to Atradius Special Products as head of the London underwriting team. Gary brings over 30 years of experience in trade finance,
Kenneth Strange ‘87
running the Americas operations for Thinking Heads, a consulting company which pioneered the business of personal positioning. We represent former and aspiring CEOs, as well as a number of ex-presidents, including Vicente Fox, Laura Chinchilla and Felipe Gonzalez. … Jane (Mary Jane Lewis) Lael ’82, I moved to Vilcabam ba, Ecuador, in 2010. I continue to work as a freelance writer and editor, editing books on Asia. I teach Chinese to kids here - Chi nese originally learned at Thunderbird! … Jerald (Jerry) Veit ’83, I retired from the

commodity trading and management of commodityrelated projects to the new role. … Tom Garrity ’84, and his wife of 35 years, Colleen, are retired. In 2011, they sold their business, Thermshield, a heat sink and cooling product supplier in global electronics industry. … Rob Lewis ’84, I recently celebrated my 18th year at PDQ Vehicle Wash Systems, I am responsible for global sales of equipment, parts and consum ables through distribution in Australia, New Zealand, Asia, and Europe. … Ted Wendelin ’84, retired from the University of Colorado Denver after 21 years, where he taught classes in Spanish for Business and Translation. He plans to spend time hiking, nordic skiing, sailing, reading, writing, traveling and maybe some more teaching. … Zeek Ojeh ’84, is the Chief Financial Officer for the Cartwright School District in Phoenix, Arizona. … Nancy Baldwin Wagner ’84, I spent seven years with the Wenger Corporation in Owatonna, MN as Director, International Sales. I live in the Minneapolis/St Paul area with my husband of 21 years. … Doug Beckerman ’85, joined Danforth Advisors last August as a Finance Consultant in the life sciences industry. … Gary LeCheminant ’85, after 28 years in the Bay Area, I moved to Utah in January 2014 to become the Finance Director for Highland City. … Ahmed Dawood ’85, I am semi-retired and living in La Habra, CA with my wife, Seham, and my son, Amr, seven years old. I’m doing some consulting projects for 500 fortune companies for the EMEA region. … James Bogin ’85, I am now in my 20th year of managing my own global hedge fund. I enjoy keeping in touch with class mates Gary Greenberg ’85, Peter Boardman ’84, and Franco Bove ’84. … Abdul S. (Abe) Khan ’85, I worked as director of marketing for over 20 years. Since then, I have been writing short stories, poems, and creative non-fiction, which were published in two anthologies. … Daniela Bryan ’85, I have been working extensively with senior leaders, helping them gain clarity, make difficult decisions and lead themselves and others to maximize meaning and fulfillment. … Kathleen Phibbs-Pierz ’85, is the Practice Development Manager, Global, at JAMS. She works in the New York Resolution Center and recently completed a
T-bird’s dream project of working on the Global Pound Conference series. … Karen Baldauff ’85, I am in the midst of transitioning out of hi-tech, in part inspired by academic and sustainability talks at the Thunderbird reunion in Mallorca. Juris Ulmanis ’85, has lived in Latvia for the past 24 years and is co-founder of Experiential Simulations, an EdTech company that develops computer simulations which help make business topics/courses more interesting students. … Brian Nilsson ’85, I joined the State Department in October 2015 as the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Defense Trade Controls. My directorate is responsible for the U.S. export control system for defense articles and services. … Catherine Curry ’86, is a real estate entrepreneur, a licensed Real Estate agent, investor and property manager specializing in architecturally unique properties. She is also the proud mother of one son. … Claudia Worthing ton Hess ’86, combined her Thunderbird degree with her long time experience in the fine art market to become a certified professional art appraiser. … Barry Weiss ’86, I’m celebrat ing 20 years as a residential and multi-family Realtor in Los Angeles. This year, I sold my 100th property with a cumula tive volume of $52.7 million. … Bob Caragher ’86, following an almost 30-year career in higher education administration, I recently transitioned to working in the museum world. I was appointed Vice President of Finance and Operations at the Autry Museum of the American West. … Daniel Wagner ’87, published his fourth book - “Vir tual Terror” -a comprehensive review of cyber terrorism, redefines what terrorism has become in the 21st century. … Bob Caines ’87, continues to serve as Managing Partner of
thunderbird magazinethunderbird magazine Paley Advisors, LLC, the New York-based M&A advisory and global business development firm. … Kenneth Strange ’87, recently launched an interna tional investigative services company (Development Fraud Investigations), that offers risk mitigation services to NGOs and non-profit organizations. … Maria Houle ’87, after winding down a corporate career in New York and Geneva, returned to the Phoenix area. She is now Director of the Thunderbird SHARE Fellowship which provides funding and mentorship to exceptional Thunderbird students from developing countries. Maria encourages all alumni to get involved. … Stephen Hargreaves ’87, I joined Agilyx Solutions, North America in January 2017 as an Implementation Consultant for Unit4 ERP software. … Patrick Holland ’87, his wife, Pia, and son, Andaman, spent this summer in Eastern Europe. It had been 28 years since Patrick worked in Budapest. Currently Patrick and his family live in Chiang Mai, Thailand. … Genevieve Salley Athens ’87, I’m currently working at Wake Forest University in the Bioethics Graduate Program, responsible for recruiting more working professionals to complete the Master of Arts in Bioethics. … Paul Bradley ’87, I was appointed to serve on the B20 Task Force on Employment and Education for the G20 (the annual Heads of State Summit), which was hosted by the German Government. … Pamela (Pauline) Jenkins ’88, my Australian husband and I just celebrated 25 years of marriage. We have three children in their early 20s and live on the Northern Beaches of Sydney, Australia. … Reed Ramlow ’88, after serving seven years in overseas posts in Jordan and Vietnam as a “Chief of Party for USAID family planning and HIV programs, and as Country Director in Vietnam for FHI 360, I recently relocated to the Washington, DC area. … Greg Olson ’88, after spending time this past year re-establishing myself in my hometown of Spooner, WI, I moved back to Egypt to manage a performance management and evaluation project with USAID/Egypt. … Steven Gan ’88, On August 17th I gave my sixth author speaking event on my book “Making it & Breaking It in Japan- My true Story of Songs, Sins, and Solitary.” The event was held at the Japan America Society of Chicago. … Kevin Chan ’88, after Thunderbird, I was in advertising with Leo Burnett, Grey and Dentsu for over 13 years in Tokyo. Then I worked for Japan’s biggest beauty chain for 12 years managing their Asia operation. Now I’m in real estate invest ment in Japan. … Rene ’88 and Michele von Rauten kranz ’88, returned to Europe after spending 12 years in Asia. Michele accepted a position with the International Atomic Agency (IAEA). Rene continuous running his trading company based in Singapore, representing clients in Asia/Pacific. … Ann Kunderer Hughes ’88, was appointed as a member of the Technical Advisory Committee for the R2 Standard, third party certification for those who manage end of life computer and other electronic equipment. … Helmut Kaisergruber ’88, and Sabine Möritz-Kaisergru ber ’89 are co-founders of Astro-Pharma GmbH, a family-owned company specializing in the distribution and trading of pharmaceutical products. … Diana Cowan Morrow ’89, in February I joined Risk Removal, an environmental services company in Colorado as the CFO/COO. … David R. Morse ’89, I have just had a new book published: “Divided We Stand: Racism in America from Jamestown to Trump.” … Taide Guajardo ’89, is currently living in Geneva, Switzerland, after 27 years working for Procter & Gamble right out of Thunderbird via Mexico, Poland and Italy. She is the head of Europe Brand Operations. … Ingo F. Schreiber ’89, Managing Director of schreiber-weinert.de in Hannover, Germany, sells business equipment worldwide and in such remote areas as Mongolia. … Steven Perkin son ’89, I recently trained (Factory Product Sales Training) at the KION Group in South Carolina on the Linde forklifts and was awarded my certificate by none other than a fellow T-bird: Mark Roessler ’77. … Lisa Woods Ploeg ’89, has joined Baylor Scott & White Health in Dallas, Texas as Leadership Development

Program Manager. … Julie Johnson ’89, is celebrating 27 years of living in The Nether lands with her Dutch artist husband Lieuwe Kingma and two teenage children! She founded JJC, a fast-growing global coaching services business. … Michael Laurie ’89, in March of 2017, I joined Fifth Third Bank as a Managing Director, Head of Food and Agribusiness Group.
1990s Amy Barone ’90, has a new poetry collection, “We Became Summer,” from New York
Brendan McInerney ’92
Quarterly Books, which will be released in 2018. … SoonYong Kwon ’90, since 2012 I have been working as COO of LHH (Lee Hecht Harrison) KOREA. LHH is the world’s leading integrated Career Transition and Talent Develop ment Company in over 60 countries. … Steve Syrmo poulos ’90, claim to fame: I used to be the bouncer at the PUB, LOL! I completed my Ph.D. in Financial Management earlier this year at Northcentral University, and now it’s Dr. Syrmopoulos! … Aleksandra (Aleks) Lubavs ’91, I was promoted this year to vice president, global field marketing for NCR Corporation. I manage a global team of marketing professionals across multiple industries. I’m still based in
London. … René van Baardewijk ’91, In August, Robert Falco ’91, Eric Kufel ’92, and I had a reunion in Sterling Alaska where Eric has a summerhouse. While fishing, kayaking and hiking we added new memories to our friendship started at Thunderbird. … Kathryn Ang ’91, joined Korn Ferry as Senior Client Partner, in its Singapore office. … Mario Zaldivar ’91, Mario’s firm opened offices in Morelia, México City and Houston, Texas. They provide services such as auditing, taxes, accounting, outsourcing payroll for expats.

… Lisa Tanen-La Fontaine ’91, is Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer at LIMRA. … Leslie Hilleman ’91, I am Broadcast Relations Manager for Adstream. After several international positions I now travel throughout the U.S. for work. … Sanjeev Chowdhury ’91, after completed his term as
Marnee Reiley ‘96 Consul General of Canada in Rio de Janeiro, he has assumed the position of Head of the CanadaEuropean Union Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement Task Force. … Terry Rosen bluth ’91, has been in Luxembourg for 23 years and is now Director of Business Development for Morningstar Benelux after 20 years with ThomsonReuters. I am married to a Frenchwoman and our only daughter is starting at McGill University. … Adrienne Pierce ’91, is the Director of Product Marketing at IronRidge. She is also on the Board of Directors for RE-volv, a nonprofit that crowdfunds to enable other nonprofits to go solar! … Samir Kumar ’92, was a delegate of Governor Clement Otter of Idaho’s trade mission to Beijing and Shanghai to explore business opportunities in China. He is based in Hong Kong where he runs his China food import consultancy, Sino Hero Foods. … Sunder Kimatrai ’92, recently stepped down from his role as EVP Asia Pacific for Twentieth Century Fox International ending a 24-year career starting right after Thunderbird, which took him to India, Singapore and Australia. He and his wife, Saira, currently reside in Sydney with their children. … Sven Thorslund ’92, has assumed the role of Vice President of Sales and Product Strategy, Travel Assistance at Generali

Global Assistance where he will develop and implement sales, account management, product, and marketing strategies. … Brendan McInerney ’92, who is head of Risk Analytics Europe at HSBC, recently completed the Fastnet yacht race from the UK to Ireland and back, to raise funds for the UKSA charity. … Musharraf Khan ’92, I have worked in North America, Middle East, and South Asian countries in various senior management positions with major FMCG companies, MNCs, and IDOs. … David Sanchez ’93, is semi-retired and living in Hawaii. He is also substitute teaching and managing his mainland house through Airbnb. … David Wittenberg ‘93, has joined the Indian School of Management and Entrepreneurship in Mumbai as professor of entrepreneurial innovation. … Katherine Brucker ’93, has been a Foreign Service Officer with the Department of State since 1994. She finished an assignment as Deputy Chief of Mission in Libreville, Gabon, and moved to Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire as Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. Embassy. … Michael Adams ‘93, is a director with PwC in Eurasia, focusing on interna tional financial institutions and regional M&A and valuation advisory. He lives with his wife, Olga, and their two children in Astana, Kazakhstan. … Jeff Smith ’93, is enjoying his new adventure leading Backroads biking trips in California and also actively advises technology companies through the Tech Futures Group in Berkeley. … Patrick Galvin ’94, just celebrated his 15th anniversary with his wife Ellen Galvin and 15th year in business as owners of The Galvanizing Group, a marketing communications company. … Jesse Lunsford ’94, is a real estate developer in Austin, TX. … Achim Gut
Mel Jackson ’98

knecht ’94, works as Operations Finance Director in Zurich / Switzerland for an Australian packaging company. … Louisa Elder ’94, Manager, Global Trade Compliance and Trade Agreements for AbbVie, a biopharmaceutical company, is busy with USTR and EU trade re-negotiations, updates and Brexit. … Mark Field ’95, is Branch Manager and Senior Loan Officer for Geneva Financial. Mark has worked in the mortgage industry for 18 years serving as an underwriter, loan officer and branch manager. … Andreas Sigl ’95, has joined Burson-Marsteller in Switzerland as Managing Director, Geneva and as Member of the Executive Board. Andreas lives in Switzerland with his wife and their sons. … Nicola Hartmann ’95, is CEO for Youth On Their Own. A nonprofit helping youth experiencing homelessness stay in school and graduate from high school. … Mark Field ’95, was selected for the 2017 Arizona Veterans Hall of Fame. Mark is a U.S. Navy Submarine Veteran. … Eric Stoen ’95, is a travel writer with three kids who has taken his kids to 47 countries and writes/ photographs to inspire others to travel with their kids. Forbes just named him the world’s 4th most influential traveler. … Alison Sturdevant Miller ’95, is Product Manager, Dispensers
thunderbird magazine ESSITY. … Bryan Rice ’95, my tourism company - San Francisco Movie Tours - just celebrated its 10-year anniver sary of providing memorable tours to famous movie locations all over San Francisco. … Brian Beeghly ’96, is co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Informed360, a technology company focused on supporting effective ethics and compliance programs. He currently lives in Milwaukee with his wife and three daughters. … Gregory Simmons ’96, is the senior vice president of sales for Amplifire in the company’s higher education and test prep division. Greg, will be responsible for the growth and strategic direction of Amplifire Advanced Educa tion. … Alberto Cipriano ’96, Founder of Oh Crepes! Bistro to Go is the first launch in the food and beverage industry that fulfills a need in a niche market of a growing and evolving
Andy Harris ’02 prepackaged gourmet meals. … Kim Lee Ozawa ’96, designs jewelry for hit TV Shows and Films. Her handmade jewelry has been purchased by customers from 26 countries, and featured in Huffington Post and Lucky Magazine. … Greg Fitzgerald ’96, is Chairman of Cyberforce Security LLC a global cybersecurity reseller and Managed Services Provider. Cyberforce represents the best of the next generation cyber products, which Greg helped build from idea to over $1.5B valuation. … Marnee Reiley ’96, is a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist in Irvine, CA. She spends much of her free time training her puppy, Luigi, to be able to join her in sessions as a therapy dog. … Elizabeth Painter ’96, completed her Ph.D. in Ethnochoreology at the Irish World Academy of Music & Dance at the University of Limerick. … Adam Falkoff ’97, was recently named to the Power 100 List - a list of Washington, D.C.’s 100 most powerful and influential people. … Dimitry Polyntsev ’97, recently moved to Darien, CT with his wife, Anne, and three young children. Dimitry works for Mylan N.V. in New York City as head of Branded BD. … Kristi Meyer Walsh ‘97, is a communications consultant for Arizona Public Service. She was previously the Assistant Executive Director for the Arizona Exposition & State Fair. … Chelle Johnson ’97, Ann Bozick ’98 and Marianna Hynson ’97 recently got together in Denver, CO. The three are a part of a T-bird women’s group of seven that graduated in 1996-1998! Ann was visiting from Pittsburgh and Marianna and Chelle live in the Denver area. … Brett Marx ’97, is an accountant for the Manitowoc County, Wisconsin Recycling Center and a tax professional for H&R Block. I also volunteer for the Autism Society of Lakeshore. … Bo Herbst ’98, Heidrick & Struggles a provider of executive search, leadership consulting and culture shaping services worldwide, has appointed Bo to lead its Industrial Practice worldwide. … Melissa Conforti ’98, has spent the past year skiing around the world with Ski7, a fundraiser for Pancreatic Cancer research. She also launched her executive and life coaching business. … Mel Jackson ’98, our T-bird classmates, Eric ’99 and Susan Zimmerman-Peter ’99 and Sergio Ilic ’98 and his wife, Becky, joined me and my wife, Lucie Jackson ’97, in Sun Valley, ID for an eclipsewatching weekend. … Joseph Urso ’99, was appointed as Director of GM International Operation’s Corporate Develop ment, Mergers & Acquisitions covering the Asia Pacific, Southeast Asia, India Subconti nent, Middle-East and Africa regions.

2000s Carrie (Stein) Melanda ’00, has recently joined Apple as the Sales Training Operations Manager for Latin America. She will be based in the Coral Gables, FL office. … Brian Kenny ’00, after serving as an analyst at the U.S. Department of Commerce in Washington D.C., Brian joined the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
Los Angeles District. Brian’s current role is Civil Works Project Manager, Arizona Nevada Area Office, in Phoenix. … Brian Kaplan ’01, I’m married to Kimberly Kuhn ’02. We just spent a little over a week in the Isle of Skye, Scotland. We are a Thunder-Couple and have a seven-year old son, Quincy. … Jennifer Beaston Hedrick ’01, is the executive director for Eagle Mount Bozeman, an organization committed to provide quality therapeutic recreational opportunities for people with disabilities and young people with cancer. … Irene Kontje ’01, after four years living in North Carolina and working at Duke University Medical Center, I returned home to the New York City area and am currently Director of Graduate Medical Education at Mount Sinai Beth Israel/Mount Sinai Health System. … George Sales ’01, after almost 20 years in management consulting
Gbemi Disu ’06
and project management, I’ve decided to follow my passion and open up a mid-scale Filipino restaurant in Saint Johnsbury, VT. It’s the only Philippine restaurant in the state, and everyone is excited. … Paul Caldron ’02, completed a Ph.D in Governance and Policy Analysis at Maastricht University, United Nations University - MERIT in the Netherlands after defending his dissertation regarding motivations, economic, and manpower
Angelika Makkas Rougas ’08

inputs into short-term medical missions by U.S. physicians. … Steve A. Varela ’02, earned a 2017 Fulbright Scholar award for his research and development in international program development for business school programs. … Andy Harris ’02, my wife Molly and I had our first child Penelope Juliet on July 9. Baby and mom are healthy and all are doing well! … Ercan Turkuner ’03, I am the Head of

Internal Audit and Senior Banking Expert at Banking Regulation and Supervision Agency of Turkey based in Istanbul. … Todd Kirkbride ’03, I am living in Pristina Kosovo with my wife and two kids. I run my own Public Private Partnerships for Development Consultancy with clients in the Balkans, Asia, Africa and the U.S. … Kevin McKellar ’03, I have been living in Los Angeles since 2008 and opened a restaurant concept called Bottega Louie in Downtown Los Angeles. … Matt Frary ’04, the company I founded, SmarterChaos.com, has been featured for the third year in a row in the Inc 5000 fastest growing companies in America. … Gerardo Gonzalez-López ’05, I met my wife of 10 years, Maria E. (Sissy) Urista ’05 at Thunderbird. We now live in Princeton, NJ and I am running the NYC marathon in November. … Gbemi Disu ’06, everyone thinks I am joking when I say Thunderbird is with me everywhere I go! On a trip to South Africa on Safari, I found out that a couple in my group are ThunderParents! Their son is Malcolm Whitehead ’12. … Tracey Nguyen ’06, authored a study for IBM surveying over 330 nonprofits and 30+ organizational case studies revealing it is more important than ever for nonprofits to leapfrog analytics capabilities. … Becky Sacher Woods ’06, I recently joined ADP as their Global Mobility Director in New Jersey. That is keeping me busy, in addition to my five-year-old twins. … Mike Tomasello ’07, having spent 18+ years working with hiring executives and recruiters Mike launched his company HowToLandANYJob.com out of Los Angeles after a successful Marketing Executive Career. … Thomas Steck ’07, EMBA Prague Cohort IV celebrated its 10th anniversary in Dubai, UAE. Thanks to Ghusoun Al Khaled ’07 and Stephane Sinimale ’07 now living in the UAE, we celebrated this important milestone from the top of the Burj Khalifa to the tip of the Palm Jumeirah. … Jaz Wray ’07, purchased a plane and earned his pilot’s license about five years ago. With the freedom of wings, he flew with his two sons from Southern California to experience the total eclipse of the sun just north of Boise, ID. … Shaun Smithson ’08, is now the CEO of Fig and Olive Restaurants working from the company’s offices in New York. He will be overseeing the portfolio of restaurants with a focus on stabilizing and growing the brand both domestically in the US and internationally. … David Riggs ’08, I run a business in Nashville, TN and Kathmandu Nepal. I have 10 employees in Nashville and 30 in Kathmandu. I have also been to Turkey, India, Panama, Colombia and Peru. … Angelika Makkas Rougas ’08, I am currently working in the biotechnology sector in Human Resources. My husband and I live in Cambridge, MA with our two children. … Umar Ahmed ’09, after graduating from Thunderbird, I developed a passion for teaching International Business and Strategy. I taught for about seven years in a University in Pakistan and am working on a Ph.D. in International Business at Victoria University of Wellington. … Bradley Lazard ’09, I am the Vice President of North Shore Steel headquarters in Houston. Our most recent business concern is taking care of our employees, customers, and vendors that have been devastated by Hurricane Harvey. We plan to provide steel products to rebuild our community. … David Schrader ’09, I am the Chief Operating Officer of Scythian Biosciences Corp, a Canadian company. We are in the pharma ceutical development field and working on a drug treatment for traumatic brain injury.
2010s
Mackenzie Cane ’10, I am the Associate Director of Business Partnerships at the Sierra Club based in Oakland CA, and I work with mission-aligned companies who are helping to advance solutions to environmental issues.
Bryan D’Souza ’11, is getting married to Sophie Ramer on October 7, 2017. He is currently working at Microsoft in Redmond, WA.
Sidharth Madhav ’11, a few T-birds from the class of ’11 attended the Second Annual T-birds & Friends Cookout hosted by Antoine Eloi ’11 at his home in Philadelphia. It was great catching up with this fun group I went to school.
Bharath Balasubramanian ’11, works for American Express Global Network Business bringing emerging payment solutions to new markets in the Americas.
Michael Johnson ’12, I was named Vice President - Global Strategy at PracticeMax in Scottsdale, AZ. Since then I have opened our first overseas operations in Cebu, Philippines. We opened in May with zero em ployees and will expand to 300 by December.
Andrew Goehl ’13, I recently accepted a threeyear National Office rotation with EY that will relocate me and my family from Seattle to Cleveland through the summer of 2020.
Brent Nelson ’13, I was recently on business travel in London, UK for my job at Amazon. I was fortu nate to run in to my fellow cohort mate Ben Gherardi ’13 who leads international efforts with Jackson and in London.
Sean Murphy ’13, is Vice PresidentRegional Asset Manager for JPI Companies, a commercial real estate firm in San Diego headquartered in Dallas. Sean and his wife, Amber, welcomed Jaz Wray ‘11 their second son in August.
Barbara Noseda ’14, was named to the 30 under 30 for the Institute for Supply Management (ISM). Barbara joined LifeScan, a Johnson & Johnson company as a member of the Procurement Leadership Development Program.
Andres Porras ’15, I am Operations and Logistics Manager at Uber in Colombia for Cali, the country’s third largest city. Shortly after, I was assigned to work on the expansion of Uber in Colombia, 16 cities total, and in early 2017 was sent to Thailand to lead the expansion in that country.
M. Brett McMickell ’16, accepted the position of Senior Vice President of Global Product Development at AgJunction.

Read more at thunderbird.asu.edu/ class-notes
Questions? Contact Hannis Latham ’71 Cell: (520) 975.6522 Office: 1.520.529.3871 or (800) 769.7464 Email: hannis@reflectivetechnology.com We’d love to hear from you!
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