Alumni Impact

About 15 T-birds and guests enjoyed a visit in Madrid on October 13, 2011 at EntreVinos restaurant.
Global Community Engagement Manager Bell Benjapatanamongkol ’08 was in Madrid for the MBA Tour and shared this photo from the gathering.

Pictured above (from left to right): Bruno Cornelio ’76, Amanda Carson ’09, Ryan Fong ‘08, Amanda Fong ‘07, Pamela Rager ’99 and student Will Keller

Six T-birds gathered Dec. 15, 2011 at a bar called the Duck and Cover located at the U.S. Embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan.

The group called its gathering T-bird Thursday and hopes to make it a monthly tradition.

We’d like to extend a special thank you to Pamela Rager ‘99, Executive Director of the 10,000 Women Program, who works for Thunderbird at the American University in Afghanistan, for organizing this event and sharing this photo. We’d also like to thank Amanda Fong ‘07 for hosting the group at the U.S. Embassy and for snapping this photo.

Simon Hakim ’75 recently moved to UBS Bank in Israel as an Executive Director in the Rep office. Prior to this, he worked 11 years at HSBC in Israel.

Richard Gibson ’78 was recently appointed Senior Vice President of Global Sales and Support for Iveda Solutions. Gibson has 30 years’ experience in IT, networks and security. He has held leadership positions in large companies such as IBM and Motorola.

Bruce Duff ’82 has been promoted to Chief Executive officer of ARCOS. He succeeds ARCOS Founder Mitch McLeod, who held the CEO role since creating the software company in 2005. For the last three years, Duff has been Vice President of Sales. Duff has more than 25 years of experience in the software industry, including assignments across North America, Europe and Australia.

Ann McCartney ’82 has been named Senior Vice President of Private Banking in the North Scottsdale, Ariz. office for Enterprise Bank & Trust, the banking subsidiary of Enterprise Financial Services Corp. McCartney has more than 25 years of experience in the financial services industry.

Phil Schlesinger ’82 has recently been named Vice President of Marketing for CEA Global Education, which is located in Tempe, Ariz. and markets and delivers study abroad programs to U.S. and Canadian university students. Most recently, Schlesinger was Associate Vice President, Marketing for Thunderbird.

James Lazor ’87 has recently been appointed Executive Director for Alpine Ontario. Lazor brings with him more than two decades of sports marketing and business skills as well as ski industry management experience.

Rennie Young ’87 has accepted the position of Vice President Purchasing and Supply Chain Management for Stant Corp. Young earned his Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from the University of Hartford before graduating from Thunderbird.

Martha Van Gelder ’88 has been appointed Director of the Terry J. Lundgren Center for Retailing and the PetSmart Professor of Practice, an endowed chair in the Norton School of Family and Consumer Sciences, located at the University of Arizona. Van Gelder brings more than 20 years of high-level leadership in business growth and development for several companies with a global reach, including Gaiam, Sesame Workshop, The Walt Disney Company and L’Oréal.

Lisa Woods Ploeg ’89 recently joined MARY KAY as Senior International Development Specialist in Dallas, Texas. Ploeg spent the past decade as an adjunct professor for Maastricht University, the Netherlands and in the U.S. at Baylor University, Texas Christian University and Texas Woman’s University in Texas, where she taught marketing and global business.

Bryant Bell ’93 has recently joined iCONECT Development as the Senior Director, Product Marketing. Bell has more than 20 years of experience in marketing and product management. Prior to joining ICONECT, he served as Director of Product Marketing at EMC and held senior marketing and product management positions at CT Summation, Adobe Systems, Computer Associates and others.

Denise Simpson ’94 is the new Vice President of Marketing for Personal. Simpson comes to the company as an innovator in online marketing and driving massive engagement with online products. She has held senior marketing positions with AOL, Ancestry.com and Washington Post Digital.

Sarah Perez ’91 was recently named Executive Director of MBA executive programs for UNC-Chapel Hill’s Kenan-Flagler Business School. Perez joins Kenan-Flagler from Florida International University where she was executive director of its executive and professional MBA program.

John Williams ’91 has recently been named Chief Financial Officer of StratCorp. Williams has over 15 years of investment banking and corporate finance experience. Most recently, Williams was the CFO of UNITY Mobile. Prior to working for UNITY Mobile, he was a Vice President with Lehman Brother’s Mergers & Acquisitions Group.

Steve Hilbert ’07 has recently been hired as Wealth Management Consultant for Rainier Group. Previously, Hilbert served as Vice President within Private Wealth Management at J.P. Morgan Chase. He has also served as Vice President and Financial Consultant for Charles Schwab. Hilbert is also an Alumni Chapter Leader for the Washington T-bird alumni chapter.

Megan Ronk ’07 is the new Public Information Officer for the Idaho Department of Commerce. Ronk spent the last five years as Executive Director of the Idaho Meth Project, where she raised more than $8 million for a statewide anti-drug campaign. She was also a policy advisor to former Gov. Dirk Kempthorne.

More than 40 T-birds and their guests gathered at the Ritz Carlton Dove Mountain  hotel in Marana, Ariz. on October 27, 2011 to hear Thunderbird President Ángel Cabrera, Ph.D., present his Vision 2020 strategy.

The group – largely Tucson Alumni Chapter members – enjoyed some light appetizers before gathering in a circle along with Special Assistant to the President Gbemi Disu ‘06.

During the informal presentation, President Cabrera provided an update of the school, shared his Vision 2020 strategy and closed with a question and answer session. Two prospective students also attended the event to learn more about Thunderbird.

See more photos here.

If you didn’t register for any of the 11-11-11 events, but would like to return to campus and reunite with your former classmates, you still can.

We received approval to expand attendance to Last Pub Night (Thurs, Nov. 10) and Margaritas & Beer on the Tower Lawn (Sat, Nov.12) There are NO TICKETS for these events, so if you aren’t registered, you will be admitted on a first-come, first-serve basis until we reach capacity.

Please arrive early. Last Pub Night doors open at 7 p.m. and Margaritas and Beer on the Tower Lawn begins at 4 p.m.

Registrations for the Tower Celebration, Regional Night and the Farewell brunch have reached capacity and remain closed.

All events provide a great opportunity to gather with T-birds and I hope you can join us! I look forward to meeting you in person. If you have any questions, you can post them here or reach me directly at Katie.Mayer@thunderbird.edu.

More than 80 T-birds and friends of Thunderbird attended the Phoenix Alumni Chapter’s fifth annual Entrepreneurship Forum on Oct. 19, 2011 at the Wells Fargo Conference Center in downtown Phoenix.

The panel, moderated by Thunderbird President Ángel Cabrera, Ph.D., featured three speakers who focused on international market assessment, finding and building partner relationships and leveraging cultural divides. The event is the primary fundraiser for the chapter’s annual scholarship and raised more than $2,000 this year.

“It was perfect and organized flawlessly,” said panelist Rudy Vetter, Senior Vice President for International Business Development with the Greater Phoenix Economic Council. “It was really fun because the group was receptive and active.”

The event was organized by a committee which included Phoenix Alumni Chapter President Mike Cottrell ’07, Richard Hasenpflug ’68, student Christian Lorentzen, David Decker ’07, Alden Ulrich and Lisa MacCollum ’97.

Cottrell said the focus of this year’s event was to help attendees understand the real-world requirements of going global.

“Whether as an entrepreneur or an executive seeking expansion of a company in an international capacity, the process of sourcing development, manufacturing or distribution partners, analyzing a market or crossing a cultural divide – all are key to operating in a global capacity,” Cottrell said.

Attendee Bill Miller, Managing Director of Mergers & Acquisitions Clear Growth Capital, said the event was interesting and worthwhile. “We Americans get so into our own worlds we forget the rest of the world does not do business as we do,” he said.

See more photos here

By Monika Stoeffl ‘11

T-birds find themselves in all sorts of memorable situations around the world. The Thunderbird Stories Project, started by students, was inspired by these stories.  

On 11.11.11 we are launching our first edition Thunderbird Stories Project: Volume 1 – Tales of Global Adventure. This book collects 22 stories from T-birds around the world, encompassing tales past and present.

Join T-birds as they float down the Niger River, journey into the heart of India, see North Korea through the eyes of a local, become a patient at a local Chinese hospital, meet a Bedouin elder, and much more.

“One of the best parts of my job is meeting Thunderbird students and alumni everywhere I travel. This book shows why.” – Ángel Cabrera, Ph.D., Thunderbird President

The book will be available both on Amazon and through the ThunderShop. All profits go towards funding Thunderbird scholarships. This collection of stories has been a labor of love, and we hope that you will not only share this news with friends and colleagues, but will champion the book to help us make this launch a great success.

Brad Roof ’73 has been named to the 2011 Virginia Business Magazine Super CPAs. Roof is a professor of accounting at James Madison University. The Super CPA list is compiled annually by the Virginia Business Magazine and the Virginia Society of Certified Public Accountants. The list highlights the state’s top CPAs for their contributions to the profession. Super CPAs are nominated by their peers and are recognized for outstanding professional activity in firms, companies, nonprofits, government and higher education.

Mark Emkes ’76 was named in dnj.com as the keynote speaker at Middle Tennessee State University’s Economic Outlook Conference. Emkes is retired CEO and President of Bridgestone Americas and the current commissioner of Finance and Administration for the State of Tennessee.

Bill Valentino ’85 was named in asiahealthcareblog.com as a speaker in a Beijing Healthcare Forum event. Valentino gave a presentation entitled “An Overview of Corporate Social Responsibility in Pharmaceuticals.” Valentino is a recognized expert on sustainability, social entrepreneurship, social innovation and CSR. He was the VP of Bayer’s Corporate Social Responsibility China and worked for the company for 24 years until his retirement in July 2011.

Jon Kondo ’93 was recently published in Business 2 Community. His article is entitled “Why Finance is the Last SaaS Frontier.” Kondo is President and CEO at Host Analytics. As CEO, he has led the company to record growth, partnerships and industry accolades.

Gordon Smith ’96 was recently featured in Reuters in an article entitled “Insight: Chase’s card chief rebuilds business part by part.” Smith is Credit Card Chief for JPMorgan Chase. He joined the company in 2007 after 26 years with American Express.

Marty Grtiz ’01 was recently featured in Finance & Commerce in an article entitled “Pizzeria owner and solar business find help at SBDC.” Gritz owns five Domino’s franchises in southeastern Minnesota and Iowa. He bought his first store in 2005. He currently employs 84 people and plans to add 10 more in the next 12 months due to sales increasing dramatically.   

DeAnn Flora ’11 was named in the Huntington County TAB after graduating from Thunderbird with an MBA. She is employed by Adesa Los Angeles as an e-commerce manager.

Front Row: (Left to Right) Bill Ferry ‘51, Susan (Daryl Moseley’s friend), Daryl Moseley ‘57 & BKY Award Winner, Sandy Petani (wife).

Standing: (Left to Right) John Dickinson ‘68, Jim Walton ‘74, Mike Irwin ‘92, Kimberly Ely ‘86, Anna Tordorova ‘03, John Walker ‘78, Barbara Bell Fletcher ‘79 & BKY Award Winner, Rick Burnett ‘05, Melissa Fraley Agguini ‘93, Aaron Swerling ‘03, Paul Petani ‘85, Martha Gilbert Lamprect ‘74, Lee Lamprect ‘73 and Dan Sjostrom ‘97

Nashville T-birds gathered at the home of Jim Walton ‘74 and his wife Anne  on Oct. 4, 2011 for a T-bird Tuesday.

We’d like to extend a special thank you to John Walker ‘78 for sharing this great photo of the group. 

Do you have a photo from a recent T-bird gathering? Send it to alumni@thunderbird.edu and we will post it.

In the October edition of Thunderbird’s e-newsletter Thunder News, we asked our alumni to share the memories of their first day on Thunderbird campus.

We were thrilled to see the first submission come in from Barbara Yunker Bettison ‘55! Read her memory in her own words:

“Perhaps the most shocking thing to me was finding out that there were only eight single women on campus.  Not only that, but having graduated from Scripps College in Claremont, Calif. where the entire campus was surrounded by a white wall, I was amazed at the open campus, the air field, the pool surrounded by the resident buildings, the huge hangar where we parked our cars.  My most vivid and happy memory of the registration process was standing in line for Emily Brown and having my children’s late father, Bill Bettison, stand behind me. The rest is history!”

Thank you Barbara for sharing your memory and photo! Alumni, please send your first day memories to alumni@thunderbird.edu and we will post them in the order we receive them.