Archive for July, 2011

Sue Della Maddalena ’84 was recently profiled in the Phoenix Business Journal. The article discusses Maddalena’s lifelong love for animals, her battle against cancer and her “dream job” as Vice President and Executive Director of PetSmart Charities.

Rene von Rautenkranz ’88 was recently featured in Trenchless Australasia in an article announcing that he would be speaking at a conference on the topic of pipe thruster applications for the pipeline industry.

 Mark Byrne-Quinn ’88 was recently named in The Arizona Republic as one of three engineers who have left their jobs as engineers to become Arizona high school math teachers. Byrne-Quinn said he is fulfilled, challenged and enjoys the fact that he makes a difference in children’s lives.

Lin-Dai Kendall ’91 was recently profiled in the Chantilly Patch as a candidate running for an at-large seat on the Fairfax County School Board in Virginia.

Due to a number of requests from our alumni, we are working with Harris Connect to create a hard copy and CD version alumni directory that will be available spring 2012. We will need the help of our alumni to create the directory. Over the next several months, Harris Connect will contact each of you by e-mail, post cards and phone to gather information. We ask that you take a moment to share your information, so that the directory will be current once it is published. The last alumni directory that Thunderbird created was published in 1996.

This letter comes to us from Kelly Pursley ‘08.

I work as a tourism consultant in central Bulgaria with a regional economic development NGO and local municipality, evaluating the existing 11 tourism strategies and ultimately, developing an over-arching regional tourism strategy. I have been looking for Bulgaria’s current national tourism strategy in an effort to understand the synergies among the national, regional, and local strategies. However, locating this document has been daunting.

After several weeks of searching for the illusive Bulgarian national tourism strategy, I finally received an email from the Ministry of Economy, Energy, and Tourism. This was a key turning point in this consultancy, and was made possible though the Thunderbird alumni network. The networking chain of contacts that helped me secure this necessary document is long and somewhat unexpected.

Before departing the Phoenix area for Bulgaria, Cindy Yeager (’08), a friend and classmate who now works for Thunderbird for Good, e-mail introduced me to a few T-bird alumni in Bulgaria. Luckily, Roman Vasilev (’03) and his wife, Michele Fedor (’03) met me for dinner in Sofia, shortly after I arrived. While Michele provided me with several key marketing articles and websites, Roman put me in touch with the Director of Marketing for the Invest Bulgaria Agency.

This Bulgarian Director of Marketing then provided me with two contacts in Bulgaria’s Ministry of Economy, Energy, and Tourism.

Nearly four weeks after my original search began, I received an email from Evgueni Spassov, Chief-expert of Tourism Product Development in Bulgaria. I had heard of Mr. Spassov, but he provided me the document I needed and wants to meet with me and cooperate on this project. In a business environment, where collaboration is rare and “information is power”, the Thunderbird network made it possible for me to excel in my work.

(Photo: the National Theater in Sofia, Bulgaria, one of the city’s most famous cultural attractions.)

TJ Sinha ’74 has joined American Completion Tools in Houston, Texas as the new General Manager Worldwide Operations.  The company is a manufacturer of oilfield equipment.

Dennis D’Oria ’79 is the new Vice President of International Sales and Marketing for Aeris Therapeutics. In his new role, D’Oria will be responsible for the international sales and marketing of the AeriSeal System. He will also oversee and manage the staged expansion of distribution in strategic geographies and lead direct sales efforts in certain markets.  

Siebe Van Der Zee ’80 has joined Lethers Milligan & Associates as its Practice Leader for Talent Acquisition. Prior to joining Leathers Milligan, Siebe was the owner of Vanderzee & Associates, Inc., a boutique executive search firm in Scottsdale, Arizona. He built his national and international executive search experience during his tenure with both DHR International and Cornerstone International Group where he completed both domestic and international executive search and consulting engagements for numerous local, national and multi-national organizations.

Kimberly Ely ’86 was recently promoted to Vice President of Development for the Cheekwood Botanical Garden & Museum of Art. Ely has experience in non-profit fundraising for cultural institutions as well as financial services marketing.

Daniel Ortiz ’92 is the new Chief Financial Officer of ResortCom International, which provides resort management, rental, reservations, travel services and financial services to the vacation ownership, fractional and luxury resort industry. Ortiz will be directly responsible for financial operations for the company’s services and technological division and will be involved in ResortCom’s strategic planning, projects and business development efforts.

Melissa Debes ’97 recently joined Ener1 in the role of Chief Accounting Officer and Senior Vice President of Finance. She will also serve as the Chief Financial officer for Ener1’s EnerDel subsidiary. She has more than 25 years of experience.

Derek “Deke” Kiger ’98 recently accepted a Senior International Account Manager position at Calix in Petaluma, California. Kiger, his wife Hiromi and son Stefano will relocate from Florida for the new position. Calix is the largest communications equipment supplier focused solely on access.

Ying McGuire ’99 was named Vice President of International Business for Technology Integration Group, a supplier of IT products and services. McGuire will oversee TIG’s existing International operations and expansion of the company’s international business. She will also work with TIG’s sales management team to develop and enhance relationships with strategic international business customers.

Kalamazoo/ Grand Rapids Chapter Leader Gayle Jacobs ’03 shared this great photo with Thunderbird from a June 11, 2011 Thunderfamily outing on Lake Michigan.

Greg and Anda Allison – both from the class of 2005 – hosted several families from the West Michigan chapter at their family home in Montague, Michigan for a barbecue.

In attendance were Dirck Lyon ‘96 and wife Maureen, Pat McRae ‘04 and wife Lisa, Gayle Jacobs ‘03 and husband Brian, Greg and Anda Allison, both ‘05.

Thank you to Gayle for sharing this great photo!

Have a photo to share? Send it to alumni@thunderbird.edu

Unglaub shared the above picture with Thunderbird along with a message:

“T-bird connections last a lifetime!”

It had been over 30 years since Californian Mark Unglaub ’80 and his T-bird roommate Gary Lin ’81, of Taiwan, last saw one another. 

But thanks to Facebook and T-bird bonds that never break, Lin tracked down Unglaub and the two shared an unexpected reunion in the Bay Area of California.

“I received an e-mail from Garry who informed me that he would like to visit with me while he visited his daughter in the Bay Area,” Unglaub said.

So after Unglaub returned from his travels in Costa Rica, the former roommates enjoyed a Chinese lunch while sharing decades of stories.

T-bird Chris McGinnis ‘85 is the new Business Travel Columnist for BBC.com, and his column this week discusses new initiatives in the hotel industry to offer breakfasts for global guests.

Thanks to an increase in Chinese travelers, you will soon be able to enjoy some congee, dim sum and soy milk!

Bpeace (Business Council for Peace) is looking for a T-bird finance food processing expert to share his or her experience and skills.

Bpeace is a nonprofit organization that promotes women’s empowerment through encouraging entrepreneurship and job creation.

T-bird Gita Patel ’96 currently volunteers as a researcher with the nonprofit and said the organization is a great match for T-birds who like to travel and want to use their skills to better the lives of women.

The Finance Food Processing Expert would travel to El Salvador and work with a family-run food processing business in Santa Tecla.

 For more information and to get involved go here.

Despite a number of challenges, five T-bird alumni recently gathered in Kabul, Afghanistan for a special Sunday event. During the gathering, the group shared interesting stories of their time at Thunderbird.

“To me, that really demonstrated the breadth and depth of the T-bird experience,” said Elizabeth Feary ’05. “What a great way to be involved in global partnerships and collaboration.”

Feary said that she hopes this gathering will be the first of many, as they attempt to solidify the group in Afghanistan.

Pictured from left to right: Christopher Lundh ’79, Ryan Fong ’08, Amanda Fong ’07, Bruno Cornelio ’76, Elizabeth Feary CEEP ‘05

Thank you to Elizabeth Feary for sharing this great photo with us! If you have a unique T-bird experience, share it with us at alumni@thunderbird.edu.

The winner of Thunderbird’s first annual Global Giving Competition is the China & Hong Kong team, which finished the fiscal year with 20.5 percent alumni participation!

A close second was the Southeast Asia team, which ended with 20.2 percent and third place goes to the U.K. team, which finished with 18.8 percent.

Thunderbird would like to thank the top three teams and their Chapter Leaders for their support and enthusiasm throughout this competition and everyone who participated. Thunderbird staff is still calculating the final numbers for the end of Campaign Thunderbird, but they will be available within days.

During this competition, the first place team – China & Hong Kong – stayed in the lead the entire time, while the Southeast Asia team and U.K. team were always strong contenders.

In the U.S., the Washington D.C. Area team leaped to the front of the U.S. teams and finished with 16.1 percent participation.

All China & Hong Kong donors will have their names published in the Fall edition of Thunderbird Magazine. They will also receive a personal thank you letter from President Dr. Cabrera and those who attend, will be recognized during the 11-11-11 events. The runner up teams will be recognized in summary form. 

Thunderbird staff had a great time working with our valued Chapter Leaders during this Global Giving Competition. We want to offer our many thanks for making this competition successful and for supporting Campaign Thunderbird. Chapter leaders who reached out to support us, we will be following up individually to thank you.

We will update with the final Campaign Thunderbird numbers in the coming days.

 Please see below for Global Giving Competition final numbers:

Africa & Middle East   12.5%
South Korea   9.5%
China & Hong Kong   20.5%
India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh  11.7%
Southeast Asia   20.2%
Taiwan   12.5%
Oceana, Indonesia, Malaysia   8.1%
Thailand   7.3%
U.K.   18.8%
Spain   14.5%
France    16.9%
Germany       14.7%
Northern Europe   16.8%
Central Europe   15.7%
Brazil   14.6%
Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador   14.4%
Argentina, Chile, Paraguay   15.4%
Peru, Bolivia, Suriname    15.5%
Oregon, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming    11.5%
Washington State   14.6%
Nevada, Utah, Mexico    11.1%
Colorado  12.2%
North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Minnesota, Iowa, Kansas   12.8%
Oklahoma, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee, Missouri  12.1%
Indiana, Michigan  14.7%
Kentucky, Ohio, West Virginia  13.3%
Rhode Island, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont, Maine   14.7%
North Carolina and South Carolina   12.9%
California   12.3%
Arizona   12.2%
Texas  13.2%
Illinois   12.4%
New York   13.4%
Florida   11.4%
Canada   14.7%
Central America  11.0%
Hawaii, Puerto Rico, Virgin Islands, Guam, Alaska   11.8%
Eastern Europe & Russia   16.6%
Washington D.C. Area  16.1%
Delaware, Connecticut, New Jersey, Pennyslvania   15.3%