Archive for November, 2010

Thunderbird Alumni Relations staff enjoys seeing pictures from Chapter events, First Tuesdays and alumni gatherings of any kind! Two chapters recently shared some updates with us, so naturally, we wanted to pass them along.

The photo in this post is from a recent First Tuesday in San Jose. Chapter Leader Jose Cattani, ’89 wanted to share this photo because of the many generations pictured.

“What makes this photo interesting is that we have T-birds who graduated from the 70s, all the way to T-birds, who will graduate in 2011 and 2012,” Cattani said. “This portrays a powerful network across five decades… amazing!”

Pictured in the photo are the following:

The event was hosted by the Echeverria Family, who are the parents and sister of Maria Jose Echeverria. The hosts organized a magnificent dinner and cocktail party at their home in San Jose. Dinner was held also, for the visit of Dr. Miguel Moreno, who is the Global MBA Director at our partner school TEC Monterrey.

In other news, we received an update from the Mongolia Chapter as well.

Lee Cashell, ’93, appeared on Bloomberg TV during Susan Li’s program. He discussed the current investment climate in Mongolia.

Also, be sure to check out Jess Lampe, ’09, also in Mongolia, who created a fun parody of a Jay-Z song that gained some popularity, an appearance on a talk show and local recognition.

We’d love to hear from you! Have photos, news or stories to share with your T-bird network? Let us know at alumni@thunderbird.edu

Luis Alberto Moreno, ’77, a member of the Thunderbird Board of Fellows, and President of the Inter-American Development Bank was recently featured in Latin Trade magazine for his “distinguished service.” The article praises Moreno for his determination, leadership and unique vision.  Also, the article notes that Moreno’s outstanding work resulted in the bank’s board of governors voting in the largest capital increase in the bank’s history. Moreno is a former minister and Colombian ambassador to the United States. In addition to holding several other government posts, he was the President of the Instituto de Fomento Industrial, the main financial corporation of Colombia.

Craig Weeks, ’78, was named in Global Finance as a leading figure in the supply chain finance field who participated at a roundtable in London to discuss key developments in his industry.

Susan Cordts, ’01, was featured in examiner.com when she beat out three other finalists on Oct. 28 to win an Athena Award, given by the Phoenix Chamber of Commerce. The Athena Awards honor women who excel in their fields and have given time to their communities. Cordts is President and CEO of Adaptive Technologies, Inc. and is a board member of Arizona Women’s Education and Employment. She was awarded for the Private Sector category.

The recent issue of the magazine “Advancing Philanthropy” has recognized Thunderbird and its call center, led by Assistant Director, Annual Giving Keith Kerber for last year’s 24-hour phonathon to raise money for the Tower Restoration Project. The magazine highlights how Kerber’s team overcame obstacles such as reaching alumni who are spread out around the world and finding student callers who could speak multiple languages. “The innovative event found a way to reach diverse alumni in nearly every part of the globe. It also introduced students to a way to participate in philanthropy while connecting with alumni over a common point of interest,” the article said. Check out one version of the article here.

Are you a T-bird alum who is looking to recruit from Thunderbird? If so, please visit the Recruiting Thunderbirds page of MTB for answers to commonly asked questions and where to go for assistance.

If you have trouble logging into MTB, or need to reset your password, please contact Janet Chicvara at janet.chicvara@thunderbird.edu 

Byron Smith, ’83, was promoted to Director of International Sales for Dallas-based Maxi-Lift. Smith began his career with Archer Daniels Midland Company, followed by Con Agra and Auto Zone before being hired by Maxi-Lift in 2007.

Randel Waites, ’85, has joined Cushman & Wakefield as Managing Director of Client Solutions for the Midwest region. Prior to joining Cushman & Wakefield, Waites was Chief Operating Officer of John Buck International, where he helped establish a property management division based in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. Before that, he was an EVP in an asset management position with Prime Group Realty Trust.

Ted Wright, ’86, has been appointed Managing Director in the Loan Administration Unit of Cohen Financial. Wright, who is based in Cohen’s Kansas City, Mo., office, has 17 years of experience in asset management, mortgage origination, financial analysis and operations management. Wright comes from Situs Asset Management, which provides a variety of loan-administration services to clients. In this role, Wright oversaw some $8 billion of commercial mortgages and provided asset-management and surveillance services.

Stephen Hargreaves, ’87, recently joined Conservation International as Senior Manager, Financial Reporting Systems.

Curt Howell, ’87, recently joined Stant Corp. as CEO. Stant Corp. is a manufacturer of engineered vapor and fluid control components. Howell joined the company from American Axle & Manufacturing, where he spent the past 16 years, most recently as P&L Leader for the Americas. Prior to working for American Axle & Manufacturing, Howell spent 10 years at Chrysler. Howell carries more than 25 years of global experience in the automotive and industrial markets along with a long track record of delivering innovative product solutions, manufacturing excellence and strong service culture to some of the world’s largest and most demanding industrial companies.

Peter Mulroy, ‘96, was recently elected Chairman of Factors Chain International (FCI), a global association of factoring companies located in 65 countries. Mulroy has served on the Executive Committee of FCI for nearly ten years and travels extensively to attend board meetings and to promote the concept to banks, governments and industry globally.

Daniel Nucuta, ’07, has been promoted to Director, Electronic Airworthiness in Product Integrity & Product Assurance for Honeywell. Nucuta has more than 24 years of experience in his industry. Before joining Honeywell in 1999, Nucuta held positions of increasing engineering responsibility at Boeing Commercial Aircraft Group and Canadian Aerospace Electronics in Montreal, Canada.  Most recently he was senior technical manager in the Electronic Center of Excellence – Flight Management Systems.

Tarush Nihalani, ’09, recently began working in the Dallas area as a Materials Manager for LSG Sky Chefs in the North America Region Headquarters. Nihalani will be helping to roll out to a low cost supply chain model across the country to all locations.

Multinational firms with more than a century of experience often slow down in their old age, but mining machinery company Bucyrus International is still growing like a teenager under the leadership of 1976 Thunderbird graduate Timothy Sullivan.  Read More

Mark your calendar!

Two Thunderbird Alumni will be featured speakers on Monday, November 15 at Thunderbird School of Global Management.

Richard Rhodes, ‘95, is the founder of Rhodes Capital Management, Inc and Stephen Khan, ’93, is the owner of Anchor Bay Tile. The topic of discussion will be “Russia and Eastern Europe: Experiences in Emerging Markets.”

Rhodes’ background is in international corporate finance. From 1994 to 1999, he served as the Financial Director of Thunderbird’s Moscow-based corporate consulting group Center for Business Skills Development. Therafter, he served on WorldCom’s Strategic and Capital Planning teams, after which he went on to launch The Rhodes Report newsletter and Rhodes Capital Management, Inc. in 2001 and co-founded The CoffeeTree Fund LP in 2007. He is currently an investment strategist and portfolio manager for both.

Khan’s background is in telecom and entrepreneurship. After Thunderbird, he joined a startup wireless company, Celcore, and established their office in Moscow. After the company was acquired by Alcatal, Steve joined Qualcom in San Diego to handle sales of their products into former CIS markets with a focus on Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan. Steve now owns Anchor Bay Tile, which he runs as an ecommerce business, sourcing most products from China.

WHAT:       “Russia and Eastern Europe:  Experiences in Emerging Markets”
WHEN:        4:30 – 5:30 p.m. Monday, November 15
WHERE:      Yount DLC, campus
SPONSOR:  The Eastern European Culture Club and the Thunderbird Emerging Markets Business Association.

Take a look at the impact of your gift to Thunderbird! The Thunderbird Annual Report on Giving for FY 08/09 has been published online and is available to view. Take a closer look at some of Thunderbird’s key initiatives, such as the Tower restoration project, scholarships, student services, technology, faculty, facilities and the annual fund. You can also track the money and find out where Campaign Thunderbird stands in its goal to reach $65 million by June 2010! And don’t forget to check out the Thunderbird Giving Societies pamphlet and naming opportunities. Thank you to the thousands of alumni, faculty, staff, students and friends of Thunderbird who supported us during FY 08/09. During this final stretch of Campaign Thunderbird, we hope that we can count on you again!

In memory of Thunderbird’s leadership role past, present and future

The boom of nail guns, grinding of table saws and other daily echoes of the Tower restoration project recently came to rest while students, faculty and staff took a sneak peek inside the Tower.


Although the World War II landmark is scheduled to open in fall 2011, T-birds on campus were given the chance to take a short tour through the construction zone. Visitors clapped with excitement as they saw reclaimed wood ceilings, an open floor plan and grand windows looking out over the school.
Read more »

Luis Alberto Moreno ’77, a member of the Thunderbird Board of Fellows, and President of the Inter-American Development Bank was recently featured in Latin Trade magazine for his “distinguished service.”

The article praises Moreno for his determination, leadership and unique vision. Also, the article notes that Moreno’s outstanding work resulted in the bank’s board of governors voting in the largest capital increase in the bank’s history.

Moreno is a former minister and Colombian ambassador to the United States. In addition to holding several other government posts, he was the President of the Instituto de Fomento Industrial, the main financial corporation of Colombia.

 Moreno is a 2000 TAA Global Alumni Awards recipient for public service and a frequent Thunderbird speaker. The TAA Global Alumni Awards are presented by the Thunderbird Alumni Association to extraordinary graduates. They represent various continents, disciplines, T-bird contributions and civic activities and are nominated by faculty, staff, alumni and students.

Moreno holds an honorary Doctor of International Laws from Thunderbird. He was featured in the Washington Post “On Leadership” section in June 2010 for his efforts to apply business solutions to fight poverty.