Alumni on the Move
ABB Taiwan:
David Loeliger, �04 (EXP-9), has been appointed country CFO. Previously, he was automation financial services officer of ABB in Switzerland, responsible for five strategic business units.
 Applied Micro Circuits Corp.:
Niel Ransom, �86 (XP-55), has been elected to the board of directors. Based in Sunnyvale, California, the company provides computer chips to control voice and data transmission. Ransom has more than 30 years of experience in the telecommunications industry, including an executive role at Alcatel.
 Arch Coal, Inc.:
Brian Jennings, �89, has been named to the board of directors and will serve on its finance and audit committees. The St. Louis�based company is the country�s second largest coal producer. Jennings is CFO and senior vice president of corporate finance and development of Devon Energy Company in Oklahoma City.
 The Cannery:
Mike Wokosin, ’96, has been promoted to Vice President, Marketing and Technology. The Cannery is a Los Angeles-based advanced media and creative services company that combines the best strategic thinking and cross-platform creative execution into market-driven solutions.
Cantor Fitzgerald & Co.:
James Lim, �94, will co-lead the trading firm�s new technology banking team based in the San Francisco Bay area. Before joining Cantor Fitzgerald, Lim co-headed technology investment banking at Pacific Growth Equities.
CareScience:
Richard Bankowitz, MD �83, MBA �99, has joined as vice president and medical director of the Philadelphia-based firm. A division of Quovadx, Inc., CareScience provides Internet-based operations review and analysis to hospitals, health care plans, and drug manufacturers.
Cinram International Income Fund:
Randall Yasny, �94, has been appointed to the board of trustees. The Toronto-based company is the world�s largest provider of prerecorded multimedia products and related services. Yasny is a managing director with Amaranth Advisors ULC, the Canadian advisor to the Amaranth group of private investment funds.
City of Chicago:
Jim Szczesniak, �04, has been named deputy commissioner of aviation planning and is responsible for both Midway and O�Hare International Airports.
Commission for Newborn Umbilical Cord Blood Research and Medical Treatment:
Timothy Neja, �96, has been appointed by Georgia Governor Sonny Perdue to the Atlanta-based commission. Neja is senior director of laboratory operations at CryoLife Inc.
CVS Corporation:
Paula Price, �88, has joined as senior vice president, controller, and chief accounting officer. Based in Woonsocket, Rhode Island, CVS is the country�s largest retail pharmacy.
Delphax Technologies Inc.:
George Carranza, �01 (XP-70), has joined as vice president, sales and marketing. Based in Minneapolis, the firm designs and makes advanced digital print production systems based on its patented electron-beam imaging technology.
DeVry Inc.:
Richard Gunst, �80, has been appointed CFO and treasurer at the university holding company, which is based in Oakbrook Terrace, Illinois. Gunst was CFO of the Quaker foods and beverages division of PepsiCo after Quaker merged with PepsiCo. DeVry Inc. is the holding company for DeVry University, Ross University, Chamberlain College of Nursing, and Becker Professional Review.
 Florida Venture Forum:
Richard Brekka, �87, has joined the board of directors. Based in New York and Tampa, the forum is Florida�s oldest and largest support group for venture capitalists and entrepreneurs. Brekka is the founder of Dolphin Equity Partners.
Fogelson Companies:
Mark May, �93, has been named vice president of the Chicago-based real estate developer.
 Forensicon, Inc.:
Jason McDannold, �05, has been hired as managing director. The Chicago-based computer forensics firm specializes in trade secrets, employment litigation, and internal investigations. McDannold will be responsible for client services, internal systems, and overseeing expansion into new markets.
GMI:
Michael Allenson, AB �88, MBA �99, has been recruited as a leader for the company�s new syndicated research group. Headquartered in Mercer Island, Washington, GMI provides software for the market research industry. Allenson previously was principal and managing director of Technomic�s center for food service consumer research in Chicago.
Harris Bankcorp:
Tim Crane, �98, has been named president, community banking. Crane started his banking career in 1984 with Chicago-based Harris, which is part of BMO Financial Group.
HealthTech:
Steven De Mello, �77, has been appointed director of research and forecasting at the San Francisco�based nonprofit center for technology and innovation.
Human Genome Sciences, Inc.:
Timothy Barabe, �77, has joined as senior vice president and CFO. Headquartered in Rockville, Maryland, the firm develops and manufactures drugs, primarily those that focus on proteins and antibodies.
InSync Software Inc.:
Yashpaul S. Dogra , ’96, joins InSync Software as senior vice president and CFO. InSync Software is a rapidly growing Silicon Valley-based provider of collaborative RFID and sensor based supply chain software applications that track assets on the move.
 ITC Holdings Corp.:
G. Bennett Stewart III, �76, has been appointed to the board of directors and will serve on the audit committee of the private utility, which his based in Novi, Michigan. ITC Holding Corp.�s subsidiary, ITCTransmission, is the first independently owned and operated electric company in the United States. Stewart co-founded Stern Stewart & Co., a global management consulting firm, with Joel Stern, �64. He also serves as CEO of EVA Dimensions, a firm he formed in March to acquire and manage Stern Stewart�s valuation modeling, investment research, and funds-management services.
 Japan America Society of Chicago:
Karl Buschmann, �85, has been appointed executive director of the organization, which fosters understanding between the two cultures. �The position will draw upon my experience working with exceptional people in volunteer positions in the alumni circles� of Chicago GSB, he said. Buschmann is founder and chairman of the GSB�s International Roundtable.
JC Whitney & Co.:
Lawrence Marmon, �75, has been named president. The Chicago�based company is the world�s largest direct marketer of aftermarket auto parts and accessories. Marmon joined JC Whitney in 2005.
KKR Financial LLC:
Geoffrey Jones, �98 (XP-67), has been appointed general counsel of the company�s investment vehicle, KKR Strategic Capital Fund, L.P. He is secretary and acting general counsel of KKR Financial Corp., a real estate investment trust based in San Francisco.
 LoopNet, Inc.:
Dennis Chookaszian, �68, has been elected to the board of directors and will join the audit committee. Based in San Francisco, the firm is the leading online marketplace for commercial real estate and businesses for sale in the United States. Chookaszian most recently was chairman and CEO of mPower, Inc., a financial advisory firm, and chaired the executive committee of CNA Financial Corporation.
 LSI Logic Corporation:
Timothy Chen, �91 (XP-60), has been named to the board of directors. Based in Milpitas, California, the firm provides products used by technology companies to enable the creation, storage, and consumption of digital information. Chen is corporate vice president and CEO, greater China region, for Microsoft.
MIVA, Inc.:
S. Brian Mukherjee, �96, has been appointed senior vice president, North America, of the New York�based company, the leading independent online advertising network.
Next Realty LLC:
Eteri Zaslavsky, AB �99, MBA �04, has been appointed director of retail acquisitions at the Northbrook, Illinois�based company. Previously, she underwrote commercial real estate loans for Allstate Investments.
NorthStar:
Vicki Morris, �92, has been hired as vice president of marketing. Based in San Francisco, the firm sells software to such financial institutions as broker dealers, banks and trusts, asset managers, and service providers.
 Pathology Partners Inc.:
Margaret Bedgood, �98, has joined the company, which has changed its name to Caris Diagnostics, as senior vice president and CFO. Based in Irving, Texas, the firm offers gastrointestinal services to physicians who treat patients in an ambulatory setting.
PepsiCo:
Hugh Johnston, �87, was named executive vice president for operations. Previously, Johnson was senior vice president for transformation.
Shuffle Master, Inc.:
Todd Jordan, �96, has been elected to the board of directors and will serve on the governance, audit, and compensation committees. Based in Las Vegas, the gaming supply company specializes in automatic card shufflers, roulette chip sorters, and table systems. Jordan is a senior analyst at Ardsley Partners, a Connecticut-based hedge fund covering consumer-related sectors.
 SVB Financial Group:
Kyung Yoon, �78, has joined the board of directors. Based in Santa Clara, California, the financial holding company serves the technology, life science, private equity, and premium wine industries. Yoon is vice chairman for Heidrick & Struggles, an executive search and leadership consulting firm.
 Tampa Bay Devil Rays:
Mike Carpenter, �03, has joined the baseball team in its finance and business development group.
Telsey Advisory Group:
Tom Chin, �98, has been appointed director of analytics at the New York�based independent research firm, which covers the retail industry.
 Tenneco Inc.:
Paul Novas, �86, has been named vice president and comptroller. Previously, Novas was vice president, finance and administration, for Tenneco�s European operations. Headquartered in Lake Forest, Illinois, the company designs emission control and ride control products and systems.
 UAL Corporation:
Mary Bush, �71, has been named to the board of directors. The Chicago-based holding company�s primary subsidiary is United Airlines. Bush is president of Bush International, which advises governments and corporate clients on capital markets and banking systems.
Wachovia Securities:
Brian Van Elslander, �93, has joined the firm as a managing director. Elslander was a managing director in the financial sponsors group at Credit Suisse. Wachovia is based in Charlotte, North Carolina.
|
|
|
Alumni to Know
 A story in the Chicago Tribune about a hostile bid by Esmark Inc., for steelmaker Wheeling-Pittsburg Corp. featured Esmark Inc. president and CFO Craig Bouchard, �81, and his brother, Jim, the CEO. �In their quest to move their Chicago Heights (Illinois) steel service-center holding company onto a bigger stage, the Bouchard brothers want to take over publicly traded Wheeling-Pittsburgh Corp. by means of a financial maneuver known as a reverse merger,� the July 30 article said. �If successful, privately held Esmark would become a public company.� The brothers have built the firm in three years by paying a total of $200 million for 10 acquisitions, the Tribune said. Esmark formed a nine-person slate to run against one backed by Wheeling-Pittsburgh management. A vote is expected this fall, the article said.
Timothy Chen, ’91 (XP-60), Microsoft�s corporate vice president and CEO, Greater China Region, recently oversaw a historic regional meeting. About 850 employees from the area that includes China, Hong Kong and Taiwan, the company's fastest-growing target market, met in Taipei, Taiwan. What is significant is that 379 attendees were from mainland China. Taiwan and China have been separate since the Communist takeover on the mainland in 1949. Chen noted the meeting was the first time such a large number of Chinese executives have been allowed into the country at one time. The annual meeting covered sales, product development and marketing strategy as Microsoft is poised for one of its biggest years ever with the release of four new products. Chen forecasts a double-digit increase in sales from a year ago.
Paul Davis, �90, has returned to Raytheon Integrated Defense Systems as new head of critical infrastructure and chem bio protection for joint battlespace integration, after graduating with distinction, Class of 2006, from the Industrial College of the Armed Forces. The college is part of the National Defense University, which reports directly to the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Davis attended the school as one of ten Industry Fellows and was Raytheon�s sole representative. �This is an opportunity for Raytheon to assist high potential leaders in the military and agencies in their understanding of how industry operates,� Davis said. �At the same time, we gain insights that better prepare us to interact effectively with our customers.�
 Richard Friedman, �81, who has run the Goldman Sachs private equity business since 1991, has been compared to standout Goldman principal investors from a past generation, but with a twist. �Friedman and his growing family of funds have given color to a darker-hued picture of the Goldman banker,� said a July 26 New York Times article. �One where the emphasis can at times be on what the client can do for Goldman, as opposed to what Goldman can do for the client.� Goldman Sachs manages more than $20 billion in private equity funds and is raising capital for a 13th fund that is predicted to be record-breaking, the Times said.
 Rob Gendelman, MBA �84, MD �84, left his hedge fund in June to return to the corporate world. He was recruited to Legg Mason, a big fund manager, by Brian Posner, �87, head of Legg�s ClearBridge unit, formerly Citigroup Asset Management, said the July 24 Financial Times. Posner also ran a hedge fund before rejoining corporate life. �Actually, Brian and I were on a conference panel together three years ago, about mutual fund managers who went off to run hedge funds,� Gendelman said. �Now we�re both back again�What I found in hedge funds was the focus on short-term performance was so overwhelming I could not run the fund in the way I wanted. And if you haven�t raised the money, you can�t hire the talent you want.�
Mike Graham, �86, new CFO of Lake Bluff, Illinois�based Terlato Wine Group, discusses his career path in a July 31 Chicago Tribune article. He started at Sunbeam Corp. in 1996 and spent 15 years aiming for CFO. �I was away from Chicago for the first time in my career, working with a team I didn�t know. Their roles changed daily. Every day I was living shock and awe,� he said. The experience taught him to �treat others the way you want to be treated. Employees aren�t costs. They�re assets. You have to invest in people, training, salary, benefits and work-life balances. If you don�t invest in people long term, they�ll be gone short term. Your investment will be worthless. In every job since, I�ve built great teams. I�m still friends with people at every company I�ve left.�
 Satish Jasti, �02, will head the first South Asian Indian-owned bank in Michigan. Jasti and 20 other investors, 19 of whom are Asian-Indian, received approval for the City Central Bank which will open in December. For Jasti, who has worked for the Federal Reserve in Detroit and other institutions the past twenty years, this is an entrepreneur�s dream come true. Part of what will make the bank stand out, according to Jasti, is that it is �locally owned and decisions happen here and fast.� Another strategy comes from the fact that almost half the investors are doctors. The bank will develop specialized services and products for the physician market.
 Victor Niederhoffer, PhD �69, refuses to buckle under and start investing conservatively despite the collapse of his hedge fund in 1997, and recent losses with his current hedge fund. �I had a bad May,� Niederhoffer said in a July 22 profile in The Wall Street Journal. �But one sparrow does not make a spring, and nor does one bad month.� Still, continuing losses in June put his largest hedge fund, the $250 million Matador Fund Ltd., down 12 percent for the year through the end of June, the article said. Another profile, published June 18 by Bloomberg News, depicts Niederhoffer being honored as one of the country�s top money managers in April. �I appreciate the difficulty and the courage it took to give me an award, since I once went under,� Niederhoffer told the crowd of 300 money managers at the fete. The loss, during the Asian economic crisis, had forced Niederhoffer to close his firm, mortgage his house, and sell his antique silver. He has since changed his investment strategy somewhat, sticking closer to home, and making money from short-term movements in the S&P 500. �To do that, he buys and sells various futures and options contracts on the index as many as two dozen times a day,� the Bloomberg article said. �He typically holds each position for one to five days.� His trading team includes �a former professional poker player, a hot-shot stock trader just out of college, and several professors with mathematics backgrounds,� The Wall Street Journal article said. �His fund trades out of his 10-bedroom, Connecticut chalet situated on 13 acres of land, where, among his other quirks, he maintains a no-shoes policy in his trading room, reflecting an Asian influence.� Niederhoffer has begun a second hedge fund, Manchester Partners LLC, which, unlike Matador, is open to U.S. investors, Bloomberg said.
 Michael Polsky, �87, CEO of Chicago-based Invenergy, was to develop wind farms in Wisconsin, Illinois, and South Dakota, but the Federal Aviation Administration claimed the alternative energy sources might disrupt radar signals from nearby military installations. �I can�t imagine how turbines located 12 to 40 miles away can interfere with radar,� Polsky said in the August 7 U.S. News and World Report. Before proceeding, Polsky must wait for completion of a Defense Department study. �But critics decry the study as a political maneuver aimed at derailing one project in particular: Cape Wind, a proposed farm of 130 turbines off the shores of Cape Cod,� the article said. U.S. Senators Dick Durbin and Barack Obama, both from Illinois, have pledged to block an FAA appointment until the study is finished U.S. News said.
 Sarah Slaughter, �05, is one of a new breed of working women achieving work/life balance as profiled in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Reporting that a 2005 survey by staffing company Spherion found work/life balance was one of the top three retention factors, the article looked at how the daughters of Baby Boomers are taking control of their lives. Slaughter, who works as an internal consultant at Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance, says it�s a topic she talks about �all the time with my friends from college and business school.� Jobs with non-negotiable hours at companies with a work hard culture are no longer the only option for this new generation. Instead, Slaughter, and others like her see flexibility as a viable option and believe they can find �creative ways to make it work.�
|
|
|
