Alumni Connections - No. 103 - February 2013

Austin Ventures LP: Scott Donaldson, '07, has been promoted to partner. He will continue to colead Texas middle market investment for the Austin-based venture capital firm.

Citigroup Inc.: Riko Tasmaya, '08 (AXP-7), has been named head of Citi transaction services for Indonesia. He had been head of treasury and trade solutions, Indonesia. The global bank is headquartered in New York.

City of Coralville, Iowa: Tony Roetlin, '97, has been named director of finance. Coralville is a suburb of Iowa City.

Dorsey & Whitney LLP: Ken Cutler, AB '70, MBA '70, has been promoted to managing partner from partner, transactions group head. The Minneapolis-based, international law firm represents companies in agribusiness, energy, financial services, government, life sciences, and technology.

Double Eagle Petroleum Co.: Scott Baxter, '89, has been named to the board of directors. The Denver-based company explores for natural gas in the Rocky Mountain area and owns interest in oil wells. Baxter is founder and managing partner of New York – based Baxter Energy Partners LLC.

Goodman Group: Phillipe Van der Beken, '05, has been appointed managing director, continental Europe. The global property development and management company is headquartered in Sydney.

Kimberly-Clark Corp.: Michael Hsu, '93, has joined as president, North America consumer products. The consumer products giant has headquarters in Irving, Texas.

Nanophase Technologies Corp.: Kevin Cureton, '91, has joined as vice president - sales, marketing, and business development. The company develops nanomaterials technologies for coating computer monitors and abrasion-resistant coatings for a range of products. It is based in Romeoville, Illinois.

National Economic Research Associates (NERA) Economic Consulting Inc.: Lawrence Wu, PhD '92, has been appointed president. The New York – based company offers analysis, consulting, and policy recommendation to governments, law firms, and regulatory agencies.

Retrofit Inc.: Matt Ferguson, '01, has been appointed to the board of directors. Based in Skokie, Illinois, the data-driven weight loss program for professionals offers a yearlong program and private lessons with a registered dietician, exercise physiologist, and behavior coach. Ferguson is CEO of Chicago-based CareerBuilder LLC, the largest online job search site in the United States.

ScanSource Inc.: Charles Mathis, '86, has been named CFO. Based in Greenville, South Carolina, the company distributes specialty technology products.

Textura Corp.: Dave Habiger, '98 (XP-67), has been named to the board of directors. The Deerfield, Illinois – based company provides online technologies for the construction industry, including design, bid management, submittals and payment. Habiger is the former CEO of NDS Group Ltd., a tech company supplier for digital-pay television. NDS recently was acquired by Cisco Systems Inc.

London-based Barclays associate Carlos Garza Riquelme, '10, ranked as one of 16 finalists in ModelOff 2012, a financial modeling world competition. To become a finalist, competitors had to pass through two rounds of online testing about a discounted cash flow case study and practical, theory, and Excel-related problems. The 16 finalists competed live December 2 in New York before three judges. They were tested on innovation, speed, data and risk understanding, best practice modeling theory, and more, according to the ModelOff website.

Rajeev Gautam, '03 (XP-72)
President and CEO
UOP LLC
Gautam won the 2012 Personal Achievement Award from Chemical Engineering magazine, which is awarded for a distinguished career. "Since being named to UOP's top position in 2009, Gautam has led the introduction of several breakthrough technologies that help meet the world's growing demand for energy and petrochemicals," said a press release from the company, which supplies technology for the petroleum refining, petrochemical, and manufacturing industries.

"These breakthroughs include Methanol-to-Olefins (MTO) process technology, which can convert noncrude oil sources such as coal or natural gas to building-block materials used for plastics production. UOP also developed the Uniflex process, which allows refiners to turn heavy, bottom-of-the-barrel crude into valuable products." The press release also said Gautam developed advanced algorithms "that have become the cornerstone of modern process design and optimization software."

Gregory Jaros, '98
Founder and CEO
A Spare to Share LLC
The online and mobile platform gives building residents, office workers, and club members the wherewithal to start collectives and share, rent, or sell items or post requests. "People like helping their friends and neighbors and are happy to share their items, skills, and even their time with people they know," Jaros said in a Crain's Chicago Business blog published January 7. "Having a safe, closed sharing network within their workplace or community makes perfect sense."

Steve Rhodes, '84
Chairman and CEO
The Trendlines Group
The start-up incubator in Israel invests in agricultural and medical device technology. In a December 5 interview in St. Louis Jewish Light, Rhodes was asked about innovation in Israel. "Part of it has to do with the government having withdrawn from the economy in a big way," he said. "When I moved to Israel in 1985, the government controlled 75 percent of the economy, directly or indirectly. There was no venture capital at all. In the early 1990s, the government did several things that jump-started the economy. It withdrew from controlling the economy. It provided financial incentives to create, overnight, a venture capital industry. The government was a seed investor for venture capital funds, to reduce risk and get funds established. The government provided incentives to draw investors into this early, high-risk investing.

"Part of it is that we're a nation of immigrants, and we're a very small country. We don't have a domestic market. We are very externally focused. When we start a company, the business plan from Day One is 100 percent export focused. We are very into cooperation, strategic partnering, leveraging what we do well, which is innovate, with what other people do well, which is market and bring product to the world."