Archive for December, 2011

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.