Archive for October, 2011

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.

Thunderbird alumni and student Returned Peace Corps Volunteers recently gathered in Washington D.C. to celebrate the 50^th Anniversary of the founding of the Peace Corps by President John F. Kennedy.  

The  gathering took place in the Ronald Reagan International Trade Center building on Thursday, September 22, 2011 and lasted about three hours.  Professor emeritus Llewellyn Howell, Ph.D., who served as a volunteer in Malaysia from 1963-1965, led the discussion with the group of about 30 T-birds. 

RPCV T-birds served in Haiti, Peru, Senegal, and Zimbabwe, among other countries.  The discussion centered on the Peace Corps’ Third Goal, which coincides with Thunderbird’s mission to educate global leaders. 

Washington D.C. Chapter Leader Jean-Christophe Deverines ‘01 was instrumental in helping organize the event.