Alumni Connections - No. 104 - March 2013

1WorldSync: Gary Lo, ’04 (AXP-3), has been named CFO. The Lawrenceville, New Jersey-based company manages product data for businesses.

99¢ Only Stores: Michael Fung, ’86 (XP-55), has joined as interim chief administrative officer. Based in Commerce, California, the company runs 311 discount retail stores, mainly in California but also in Texas, Arizona, and Nevada.

Altamont Capital Partners LLC: Tim Bruer, ’85, has been named operating partner, focusing primarily on food and beverages industries. The middle-market private equity firm is based in Palo Alto, California.

Ascena Retail Group Inc.: Dirk Montgomery, ’90, has been appointed executive vice president and CFO. The Suffern, New York-based specialty retailer sells clothing for women and tween girls through stores across the United States and Canada run by its wholly-owned subsidiary brands, the Dressbarn, Maurices, Justice, Lane Bryant, and Catherines.

Azul Partners Inc.: Pierre Mitchell, ’96, has joined as managing director, also serving as chief research officer for Chicago-based Spend Matters, an online research and reporting site about procurement. Spend Matters is an arm of media, publishing, and advisory firm Azul Partners, which also is based in Chicago.

Bank of America Corp.: Arnold Donald, ’80, has been named to the board of directors. The global bank is headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina. Donald is former chairman and CEO of Chicago-based Merisant Co., which makes sweeteners Equal, Canderel, and Pure Via.

Clearwater Paper Corp.: Thomas Colgrove, ’75, has been named president of the consumer products division. He had been president of the pulp and paperboard division. The Spokane, Washington-based company is the largest provider of private label tissue to retail grocery chains in the United States. It also makes bleached paperboard.

Fidelity Investments Canada ULC: Stephen DuFour, ’92, has assumed portfolio management responsibilities for the Fidelity Growth America Fund. The company is part of Boston-based financial services giant Fidelity Investments Inc.

General Cable Corp.: Gregory Lampert, ’96, has been promoted and has assumed responsibility for company operations in the Americas, including the United States, Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean, and Central and South America. Lampert had been executive vice president, president, and CEO for General Cable North America since 2008. The Highland Heights, Kentucky-based company makes communication, energy, industrial, and specialty cables.

Greater Chicago Food Depository: Steven McCullough, ’96, has been named vice president of community partnerships at the Chicago-based nonprofit food distribution network of soup kitchens, food pantries, and shelters. He previously served on the Food Depository’s board of directors.

Greenhill & Company Inc.: Stephen Cruise, ’92, has joined the New York-based independent investment bank in its Chicago office as a managing director focused primarily on the industrial sector.

Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Ltd. (HKEx): Ketan Patel, ’06, has been appointed co-deputy head of clearing risk management. The company runs securities and derivatives markets in Hong Kong and clearing houses for those markets.

Houlihan Lokey Inc.: Rick Nathan, ’93, has joined the Los Angeles-based investment bank’s Chicago office as director in financial advisory services.

Isles Ranch Partners LLC: Neal Johnson, ’05, has joined as managing partner in the new Minneapolis office. The alternative investment management firm is based in Newport Beach, California.

Jefferson Regional Medical Center: Dorothy Bellhouse, ’83, has been named vice president of integrated delivery system planning and development. The medical center is based in Jefferson Hills, Pennsylvania.

Kendall College: Susan Tinnish, ’86, has been named dean of the school of hospitality management at the Chicago-based college.

LEK Consulting Ltd.: Michael Connerty, ’02, has been promoted to vice president and partner in the consulting company’s Chicago office from vice president.

Lincoln International: Jeffrey Corum, ’96, has been promoted to managing director, leading the building and infrastructure group in North America, from director. The Chicago-based mid-market investment bank has thirteen offices in the Americas, Asia, and Europe.

Medline Industries Inc.: Kristofer Howard, ’06, has joined as CFO. Based in Mundelein, Illinois, the company makes and distributes health-care products.

NatureWorks LLC: Richard Weber, ’08, has been named Asia/Pacific commercial director, based in Bangkok. The Blair, Nebraska – based company makes plant-based biopolymers.

Ophir Energy plc: Glenn Corrie, ’10 (AXP-9), has been named commercial director, based in London. The oil and gas explorer also has a corporate office in Subiaco, Australia.

PCS Edventures!.com Inc.: Murali Ranganathan,’02, has been appointed to the board of directors. The Boise, Idaho – based online K-16 education company emphasizes hands-on experiences in science, technology, engineering, and math.

PNC Bank: Scott Swanson, ’96, has joined as regional president for Illinois. The bank and financial services company is headquartered in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Proactive Worldwide Inc.: John Swanson, ’98, has joined the Schaumburg, Illinois-based research and consulting company as chief operating officer.

Residential Finance Corp.: Nicholas Hahn, ’08, has been named CFO. The mortgage lender has corporate offices in Columbus, Ohio and in Tampa, as well as numerous branch offices across the country.

Temple University: Leon Moulder, ’97 (XP-66), has been named to the board of trustees. The university is based in Philadelphia. Moulder is cofounder and CEO of TESARO Inc., a Waltham, Massachusetts-based biopharmaceutical company.

Unwired Planet: David Lockwood, ’83, has been appointed to the board of directors. The Reno, Nevada-headquartered technology company invented the mobile internet. Lockwood is president and CEO of Salt Lake City-based environmental services and technology company EnergySolutions Inc.

In honor of the MBA Poker Championship, which takes place in Las Vegas in January, Bloomberg Businessweek compiled its own list of poker-playing MBAs. Two Booth alums sat the top of the list: Clifford Asness, MBA ’91, PhD ’94, and Aaron Brown, ’92. The January 24 article labeled Asness “the Hedge Fund King” because “the cofounder of AQR Capital Management increased assets under management by about two-thirds in 18 months, to $54.5 billion as of June 30. He was one of the poker-playing money managers featured in Scott Patterson’s book, The Quants,” the article said. Aaron Brown made the list because “this risk manager for AQR Capital Management and former executive director at Morgan Stanley also wrote The Poker Face of Wall Street.”

Louis Hanover, AB ’86, MBA ’89, comanaging partner and chief investment officer of New York – based Marathon Asset Management, listed sixth among the 100 top performing large hedge funds compiled by Bloomberg Markets Magazine in their February issue. Hanover was cited as comanager of the fund Marathon Securitized Credit. Victor Khosla, ’83, tied for 81st on the list for managing the Strategic Value Restructuring fund at Greenwich, Connecticut – based Strategic Value Partners LLC.

The new managing director of Adidas in India, Erick Haskell, ’98, has spent the majority of his two months on the job taking a hands-on approach visiting various markets with the aim of creating confidence, said a January 28 article in The Hindu Business Line. “Retail is about detail and when I walk into a store, I walk in with a certain checklist: Is the mannequin wearing the right clothes, are the windows clean, are the salesmen attentive to the customer’s needs? All these things give us clear signals that all is well,” Haskell said.

Chicago Deputy Mayor Steven Koch, MBA ’82, JD ’82, a former Credit Suisse investment banker, is leading the effort to drum up funds for the Bloomingdale Trail project, a multimillion dollar bike and running path to be created from an elevated Canadian Pacific railway spur in Chicago, said a January 24 Chicago Tribune article. Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel had tasked Koch with the fundraising even before appointing him as deputy mayor. “He said he had a job that was important to him that he was intent on getting done,” Koch told the Tribune. “It appealed to the sort of things he thought were important, and he knew that if you don’t put weight behind it and set an ambitious goal, it sort of gets put in the back pile like everything else. He was going to dig it out of the back pile.”

Businessweek researched how many MBAs have taken prominent political power. Making the December 24 list was Jack Markell, ’85, Democratic governor of Delaware, and Todd Young, ’02, a Republican US Representative from Indiana’s 9th Congressional District.

Jennifer Song, ’11, has opened The SONGBiRD Café in Ann Arbor, Michigan. She left a brand marketing job to do so. “I wanted something more hands-on,” Song said in a January 23 article in ConcentrateMedia.com. “I have always known that I have an entrepreneurial spirit.”

National University of Singapore is becoming much stronger because of its dean, Bernard Yeung, MBA ’81, PhD ’84, who has been busy recruiting new professors and even instituting a Western-style tenure system. “You walk into a place like Chicago and you can feel the intellectual intensity,” Yeung said in a December 19 Financial Times article. “It is beginning to feel like that here.”

Paul Idzik, ’85
CEO
E*Trade Financial Corp.
The appointment to chief exec of the New York-based online investing platform was effective January 22.

Kristina Peterson, ’90
CEO
Greenwood Biosar LLC
Greenwood Biosar is the Carlsbad, California-based renewable energy joint venture between Greenwood Energy and AKTOR/Biosar.

Matthew Campbell, ’94
CEO
MedProperties Group
The Northbrook, Illinois-based business isn’t slowing down any time soon, with Campbell planning to double its portfolio of medical office buildings this year, said a January 4 Crain’s Chicago Business article. “With the acquisitions we completed last year, once we have all of those assets stabilized . . . our portfolio value is in excess of $100 million,” Campbell said. “We’re thinking we can add $75 million to $100 million a year every year for the foreseeable future.” The company would like to invest in other cities as well. “Our investment strategy is to acquire three to four properties for every one that we develop, so we’ll continue our development activity. . . .We don’t feel that we can just parachute in and be a developer in Cincinnati or St. Louis or some city like that. But we will acquire in markets like that—secondary markets—and then once we've built relationships with local health systems, we’ll try to build our development business there.”

Seyi Fabode, ’10
Cofounder and CEO
Power2Switch
Fabode has been named a member of the Technology Industry Diversity Council, a Chicago-based, mayoral-appointed body whose stated goal is to increase opportunities for minorities within Chicago’s technology economy, in part by “helping to create a pipeline” for Chicago Public School and City College students to transition into technology positions, according to a January 9 press release from the office of Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel. Power2Switch is an online platform for switching to cheaper, alternative residential fuel sources.

Martin Nesbitt, ’89
Cofounder and Former CEO
The Parking Spot
Nesbitt, a best friend of President Barack Obama, is making a transition of his own, said a January 21 Chicago Tribune article. The airport parking company, cofounded with industrialist Penny Pritzker, was sold to a private equity company. Nesbitt plans to start a private equity firm called The Vistria Group, the article said. The firm will invest in such fields as education, health care, and financial services.

Larry Popelka, ’85
Founder and CEO
GameChanger Media Inc.
The free mobile scorekeeping app “has been growing at a rate of about 50 percent a year,” Popelka told the San Francisco Business Times. Baseball, basketball, and softball teams can use the app to record every play in the game, and get stats and instant recaps.

Dhiraj Rajaram, ’03
Founder and CEO
Mu Sigma
The data analysis company has a head start in a rapidly growing field, said a December 26 article in ZDNet. Some analysts expect India’s data industry to grow from $200 million in 2012 to $1 billion in 2015, the article said. Mu Sigma employs 75 percent of its 2,500 “data scientists” in Bangalore, India, the article said. “You need people in analytics who have a combination of maths, business, and technology, and there’s no place in the world that’s more suited to produce this sort of talent than in India,” Rajaram said.

Tom Ricketts, AB ’87, MBA ’93
Chairman
Chicago Cubs
Ricketts was named by the Chicago Tribune as “one to watch” among business executives in a January 6 article. The reason: a potential $300 million renovation of Wrigley Field that the City of Chicago may help finance, the Tribune said. Ricketts wanted to use $150 million in city amusement tax revenues, an unlikely scenario, the article said. “We have to compete against rooftops every day that … undercut us on price,” Ricketts said. “We have limits on what we can do to our stadium and inside our stadium. We have limits on what time we can hold games and when we can host events. Our position is: Let us run our business. And if we can do that, we can unlock a lot of economic potential.”

Frederik Seegers, ’89
CEO
CT Corp.
Seegers was a speaker at the Asian Financial Forum, a conference held in January in Hong Kong to discuss Asian market developments and trends. It was attended by 2,000 participants and 500 media representatives. CT Corp. is a Jakarta, Indonesia-based holding company that focuses on financial services, media, lifestyle and entertainment, and natural resources.