Archive for April, 2011

This week alumni stepped up their game and came to campus in droves to bring back more Tbirds to their respective organizations.Read below to see who’s doing what.

• The Triumph Group sent Jim Jackalone ‘02, VP of Sales and Customer Support, to find students for a summer internship at their office in Thailand. He’s interviewed eight so far and is still looking for even more interns!
• John Nuclo ‘12 (Evening MBA) from Double Positive interviewed 34 students and alumni for two marketing analytics roles.
• Brent Berger ‘05, President of Creative Studio B was also on campus this week interviewing students for a supply chain analyst position in the graphic design and social media space.

Up next: Hammes sends Travis Messina ‘10, Senior VP International, to campus next week to continue interviews that he started last week looking for international managers.

It’s the final two months of Campaign Thunderbird and in the spirit of the friendly rivalry that is built during Foundations, we thought we’d make things fun – with a global fundraising competition, a winner and prizes!

Join us today as we kick of Thunderbird’s first ever Global Giving Competition.

The winning team will be featured in the Fall edition of Thunderbird magazine and will see their names published. They will also receive a personal thank you letter from President Dr. Cabrera and will be recognized during the 11-11-11 Global Celebration. Two runner up teams will be recognized in summary form.

Here’s how it works: In order to make a balanced competition, we’ve divided all T-bird alumni into 42 teams based on geographic location and number of alumni living in the area. Some teams are composed of a grouping of countries or U.S. states, while other teams are composed of only one country or U.S. state.

Here’s how to win: Your regional team must have the highest percentage of alumni who have made a gift to Thunderbird this fiscal year (07/01/10 -06/30/11). Note: We’re not measuring dollars raised!We’re only measuring the number of alumni in your area who have participated by giving a gift. Help your team win by re-tweeting contest updates, getting together at First Tuesdays, posting messages to your Facebook page and motivating T-birds in your area to make a gift to Thunderbird. Ultimately it’s about making Thunderbird an even better school.

We’ll be reaching out and connecting Alumni chapter leaders individually for each of the 42 teams, and we encourage collaboration! Each week, we will update the alumni community on the status of the contest, which ends June 30, 2011.

Good luck T-birds and stay tuned! We will be announcing the current numbers each week.

Questions? e-mail alumni@thunderbird.edu

Current teams and percentages for April 18-22

Africa & Middle East 10.4%
South Korea  9.3%
China & Hong Kong 16.2%
Inda, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh 10.9%
Southeast Asia  12.3%
Taiwan 11.5%
Oceana, Indonesia, Malaysia 6.6%
Thailand 6.4%
U.K.  14.9%
Spain  11.9%
France  12.7%
Germany  12.2%
Northern Europe  12.9%
Central Europe  13.6%
Eastern Europe, Russia & Mongolia 9.8%
Brazil  12.5%
Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador 12.2%
Argentina, Chile, Paraguay  13.2%
Peru, Bolivia, Suriname  13.5%
Oregon, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming  9.1%
Washington State  11.6%
Nevada, Utah, New Mexico  9.5%
Colorado  9.5%
North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Minnesota, Iowa, Kansas  10.2%
Oklahoma, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee, Missouri  8.6%
Indiana, Michigan  11.1%
Kentucky, Ohio, West Virginia  9.6%
Virginia  10.9%
Maryland, Delaware, Connecticut  11.0%
New Jersey  11.4%
Rhode Island, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont, Maine  10.7%
Washington D.C  7.9%
North Carolina and South Carolina 9.3%
California  9.0%
Arizona  8.7%
Texas  10.0%
Illinois  9.7%
New York  10.3%
Florida  8.5%
Canada  10.9%
Mexico  9.1%
Central America  10.3%
Hawaii, Puerto Rico, Virgin Islands, Guam, Alaska  10.4%

An open letter from Thunderbird Vice President Joan Neice:

During the past five years, when the global economy was hit hard and lives changed, Thunderbird embarked on an important $65 million campaign to secure its future. Attaining the goal has been a struggle at times, but you have stepped up to support Thunderbird in word and deed!

Early and significant pledges from our trustees set the tone for success. Other gifts followed — large and small — that showed us the power in numbers.

You championed Thunderbird in your organizations, providing support for internships, Winterims, Summerims, jobs and educational opportunities.

You mentored scholarship students from emerging countries. You spoke at events and recruited students. You engaged as true advocates for each other at several regional gatherings. You participated as members on the Board of Trustees, Board of Fellows, Global Council and Alumni Network Board.

And you participated in near record numbers with your generous gifts toward Campaign Thunderbird.

Alumni giving reached 15.1 percent in fiscal 2009-10, a 50 percent increase over the prior year. So far this year, 9.2 percent of you have made gifts. With four months left to go, we’re confident you will join us again to reach a 17 percent alumni giving participation rate.

Corporations and foundations are responding positively to the increased alumni engagement with their own generosity. Donors include Goodyear, J T Tai and ExxonMobil, to name just three.

The message you have shown in word and deed is that alumni have full faith in this fine school.

Your gifts have gone to renovate Thunderbird Tower and our aging classrooms, to build the Global Mindset Leadership Institute, to create scholarships, to support classroom technology and timely academic research, to develop curriculum and programs, and to fund new projects such as the Thunderbird Emerging Markets Laboratory.

Your gifts also support the annual fund, which subsidizes all of Thunderbird’s daily activities not covered by tuition.

As Campaign Thunderbird comes to a close on June 30, 2011, we have a shortage of about $7 million to reach our goal. Numerous grant proposals have been submitted to help us close the gap, and we remain optimistic. But there is one thing I know for sure: The success of Thunderbird and the campaign rests with our legions of alumni all over the world.

It takes about 300 donors to move the alumni participation rate by 1 percent. That’s about 2,400 more alumni worldwide to reach 17 percent. Just imagine what you could say to the world about our No. 1 alumni network if 10,000, 20,000 or all of you made a gift of any size.

What a celebration we will have at the Pub in the renovated Tower on 11.11.11! So make your gifts, mark your calendars and come celebrate the successful completion of Campaign Thunderbird. Cheers!

Joan Neice,

Thunderbird Vice President and Chief Development Officer

———-

To Donate

Visit www.thunderbird.edu/campaignthunderbird or call 602-978-7309.

Laurence Lipsher ’65 was recently quoted in an Asia Times article called “Taxman chases overseas Americans and their bankers.” In the article, Lipsher, a U.S. accountant and author of the book Larry’s 2011 Tax Guide for US Expats and Green Card Holders in User Friendly English discusses his concerns with a new IRS program targeting Americans abroad.

Alan Zemek ’81 recently published a column in the Park Rapids Enterprise called “Common Currency: Idea age about to replace info-based economy.” Zemek is a Park Rapids area developer and author of “Generation Busted: How America Went Broke in the Age of Prosperity.” You can follow his blog, or comment on this article on his website, www.generationbusted.com.  

Leslie Rainbolt-Forbes ’84 was recently named in the Oklahoma Daily newspaper in an article that announces her election as Vice Chairman to the OU Board of Regents. Rainbolt-Forbes was appointed by Governor Brad Henry in 2006. Rainbolt-Forbes has also served as an assistant clinical instructor at the OU Health Sciences Center.

H. Joseph Ehrmann ’97 was recently profiled in Nightclub & Bar Magazine for the success of his San Francisco bar Elixir. Ehrmann’s bar. Elixir is on the corner of 16th and Guerrero in the Mission District and has game nights and trivia nights and also offers an extensive spirits collection with seasonal cocktails. In December 2005, the bar was named as one of the first 50 businesses in San Francisco to be acknowledged as a Green Business through the Department of the Environment’s certification program.

This Mother’s Day honor your mother – or any woman who has inspired you – with a global tribute card. Empower a woman from Afghanistan (see Fatema’s story) or other emerging country to develop her own business and create a better life for her and her family.

We can train a Project Artemis fellow for approximately $15,000. The returns – livelihood and security – are incalculable. Your investment of $25, $50, $100 or more will not just help one woman entrepreneur from Afghanistan or other developing country; it will yield sustainable prosperity for future generations.

Ways to Give:

• By phone, (M-F; 8a-5p Arizona) at 602 978-7309 or 800 457-6981  toll-free (US only)
• Online – please make sure to enter the name of the honoree and her address in the appropriate text boxes.

Donations must be made by Tuesday, May 3, in order to provide adequate time to reach US addresses by May 8 (Mother’s Day, USA). On-time delivery cannot be guaranteed. We will send to international addresses as well.

Give a gift today and the inspirational woman of your choice will receive a personalized card that recognizes your gift in her honor.

For more information about Project Artemis, please visit: thunderbird.edu/projectartemis

Market investor Howard Lindzon ‘91 has one source for financial ideas: His own microblogging platform, StockTwits. “I built it for me,” the Thunderbird School of Global Management graduate said April 21, 2011, during a campus visit. “It is the only product I use.”

Lindzon is not alone. More than 300,000 unique visitors share ideas on StockTwits each month, and Lindzon has nearly 200,000 Twitter followers. He has rung the NASDAQ closing bell and been featured in the New York Times, Fast Company and TIME.

“People used to trade around the world at desks,” Lindzon said. “But computers and electronic data have changed things so much, those jobs are gone.” He said investors now share ideas from home, and sites such as StockTwits bring these people together in active communities that never sleep.

He said StockTwits empowers people to become smarter faster, and it provides a forum to learn from others’ mistakes. “People are telling you more about their mistakes,” he said. “That makes people smarter.”

Lindzon calls the StockTwits community “verticalized.” Microbloggers write about a range of topics on Twitter and other social media sites, but everybody who comes to StockTwits shares a passion for investing. The StockTwits community is also curated, which means the site promotes its best contributors and blocks spammers.

Lindzon, who lives in Coronado, California, credits the popularity of the site to three major trends. “You have a confluence of events,” he said. “You have a shrinking world, you have the true bubble of the 1990s that created all of this bandwidth, and then you have this social layer.”

Learn more in the Thunderbird Knowledge Network video below.

Sean Mulvaney ’97 was recently nominated by President Obama for Member, Board of Directors of the Export-Import Bank of the United States. Mulvaney currently serves as director of the Economic Policy Program at the German Marshall Fund of the United States.

Prior to this position, Mulvaney worked for the U.S. Agency for International Development, where he served until November 2008 as Assistant Administrator for Management, a Presidentially-appointed and Senate-confirmed position.

Previously, he was Assistant to the Speaker for Appropriations, Budget and U.S. Trade Policy in the U.S. House of Representatives. From 2001 to 2005, he served as a trade and foreign policy advisor to the chairman of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Foreign Operations.

From 1998 to 2001, Mulvaney worked in brand management for the consumer products division of GlaxoSmithKline.

Did you know that Thunderbird has six career coaches who offer discounted rates to T-bird alumni?

Our group of  recommended experts provide coaching on a variety of topics such as career transitions, career advancement, life transitions, management training, cross-cultural management and much more.

Click here to view the complete list of resources. (Note: You must be logged into MyThunderbird to view this list)

If you don’t remember your MyThunderbird login and/or password, please e-mail alumni@thunderbird.edu for assistance.

The Munich Alumni Chapter recently gathered for a First Tuesday at the world’s largest wheat beer brewery in Erding, near Munich. The brewery is celebrating its 125^th anniversary this year and is still family-owned.

Pictured in the photo: Axel Mees ’76, Candice Aebi ’11, Edgar Sanchez Wilke ’03, John Lavallee ’92, Melanie Hartman ’00, Tina Huesing ’96, Wally Schoch ’76 and friends.

The above  photo will be presented to the Pub during the 11-11-11 Global Celebration.

A special thanks to Munich Chapter President Tina Huesing ’96 for sharing this picture!

Eric Adams ’78 has been named Market President and Business Banking Manager for Larimer County. Adams was most recently Community Banking President for Norwest Montana and has worked for Wells Fargo for 18 years. He has more than 30 years of experience in financial services.

Mark Goldman ’80 was recently appointed Head of European Fixed Income Sales for Cantor Fitzgerald, a leading global financial services firm. Goldman recently served as an Advisor to a macro-economic investment fund at Zolotov Trust. Prior to that, he was Managing Director of Fixed Income Sales and Trading at Mitsubishi UFJ Securities International. Goldman was also Managing Director of Institutional Client Businesses at BNP Paribas and has served in a number of senior management roles at Merrill Lynch.

Steven Crane ’82 has recently been nominated to the Pulse Electronics Board of Directors. He will run for election along with others at the 2011 annual meeting of shareholders on May 18, 2011. Crane is Chief Financial Officer of ModusLink Global Solutions. He would bring more than 20 years of senior finance and operational leadership experience to Pulse Electronics. 

Patricia Grasso ’85 was recently appointed Regional Sales Manager for Latin America at SENCORE, which develops high-quality signal transmission solutions for the broadcast, cable, satellite, IPTV, telecommunications and professional audio/video markets. Throughout her career, Grasso has represented more than 25 product lines for broadcast technologies ranging from graphics, video compression and digital asset management to the IPTV and VoD markets.

James Hedges IV ’91 is president of newly-launched Montage Finance, which will provide secured lending to high net-worth art collectors, established gallery owners, auction houses and other art world investors. The niche asset-based lending firm will provide loans that are secured by fine art. Hedges brings 18 years of experience as an industry leader in alternative asset management coupled with over 20 years of experience within the art world as a collector, patron, producer and advisor.

Jennifer McVey ’98 recently joined The House of Marley as Director of Sales, Lifestyle. McVey brings nearly 15 years of experience to The House of Marley with a focus on helping lifestyle brands achieve what she calls, “the triple bottom line” of planet, people and profit. McVey is treasurer of Protect Our Winters, a non-profit organization started in 2007 by professional snowboarder, Jeremy Jones, to unite the winter sports community toward a common goal of reducing climate change’s effects on our sports and local mountain communities. McVey joined The House of Marley after a 10-year relationship with Nikita Clothing, an Icelandic clothing brand. Most recently, McVey was Nikita’s International Sales Manager, responsible for sales, marketing and operations in all non-European territories, including the United States and Australia.

Elaine King ’00 has joined the Lubitz Financial Group as Managing Director of Wealth Planning. King’s focus is on wealth planning for multi-generational families with emphasis on retirement, education and estate planning. Prior to joining Lubitz Financial Group, King created and directed the Wealth and Well-Being Institute, a platform for high net-worth families at Gibraltar Private Bank & Trust, where she worked seven years as vice president and director. Before that, she was the Latin American Investment Sales Manager for The Royal Bank of Scotland, U.S. division’s $8 billion investment advisory group and worked at Citigroup as the Sales and Marketing Manager for a $13 billion investment advisory service.

S. Boyd Karren ’10 was recently introduced as the new CEO of SearchMarketMe. The company’s founder said in a statement that SearchMarketMe needed a leader with both advanced education and experience in international business and working with diverse cultures. The founder said that Karren brings a wealth of understanding, experience and professional contacts from around the world and was the right person to take the company to the next level.