Archive for the ‘Alumni’ Category

Thunderbird School of Global Management transferred presidential authority to U.S. Ambassador Barbara Barrett during a special ceremony April 27, 2012, following spring commencement on campus in Glendale, Arizona.

During the ceremony, Thunderbird’s ninth President Ángel Cabrera, Ph.D., shared memories from the past eight years and talked about the impact that T-birds and the school have had on his life.

“We may leave Thunderbird the campus,” Cabrera told the students. “But we will never leave Thunderbird the community.”

As Cabrera steps into his new role as president of George Mason University in Virginia and Barrett leads Thunderbird as interim president, a 12-member committee is continuing its worldwide search for Thunderbird’s next president.

The search coincides with an ongoing search for a new chief academic officer and provost. During commencement, David Bowen, Ph.D., officially handed over duties to Interim Chief Academic Officer and Provost Larry Penley, Ph.D.

But before all of the ceremonies and formal farewells, T-bird faculty and staff on campus had one final chance to have fun and say goodbye to their president during a surprise party April 25, 2012, in the Thunderbird Commons. See photos here.

One by one, a handful of faculty and staff members stood up and shared memories of working with Cabrera. Students and staff also performed cultural dances. Dr. Beth Cabrera and the Cabrera children sang a Spanish song, and a staff band performed Coldplay’s “Viva La Vida,” a favorite of the outgoing president.

The party ended with an emotional Cabrera saying goodbye and thanking the Thunderbird community for its hard work and accomplishments.

“This event was just one small way of showing Ángel as a collective whole how much we appreciate his leadership and immense contributions to Thunderbird over the last eight years,” said Special Assistant to the President and event organizer Gbemi Disu ’06.  “Almost 200 staff and faculty showed up to show their support and love for him.”

Over the past eight years, Dr. Cabrera has helped Thunderbird grow in new ways and has connected the school with some of the world’s most influential and effective global organizations, such as the United Nations, the World Economic Forum and the Clinton Global Initiative. These are just a few of the relationships Dr. Cabrera has cultivated to strengthen Thunderbird’s recognition in the international community and among global leaders.

“As president of this great institution, I’ve been touched by personal stories of courageous women entrepreneurs from Kandahar to Lima,” Cabrera said.  “I’ve been honored to share time with world figures like the Dalai Lama, Sandra Day O’Connor and Bill Clinton. Most importantly, I have taught and been taught by hundreds of amazing students from every part of the globe.”

Barrett, who formerly served as U.S. Ambassador to Finland, will bring world-class credentials in business, diplomacy and philanthropy to Thunderbird. She has also been an executive, lawyer, and entrepreneur and has broken many barriers in these positions. She is also an instrument-rated pilot and certified astronaut.

“I am conscious of what a great privilege and responsibility it is to lead such a special place as Thunderbird,” Barrett said during her first speech as Interim President. “I look forward to the privilege of being part of this extraordinary Thunderbird faculty and family.”

Thunderbird Alumni Network Board President and Thunderbird Global Council member Karen Longo ’88 called Ambassador Barrett a true global leader.

“Thunderbird is in the most capable hands we could imagine for this transition,” Longo said.  “I am confident that she will strengthen Thunderbird through her leadership, guidance and wealth of experience and continue the mission of the No. 1 international business school in the world.”

Three T-birds recently found themselves together in Monterrey, Mexico during a business meeting to discuss process automation and paperless business.

Garth Knudson ’99 – who shared this great photo with us – has been working for the past four years in international sales for HandySoft, a software and solutions vendor based in Washington D.C. One of his roles is to develop partnerships in Latin America, so he has been working with T-bird Enrique Vignau ’00 (2nd from left) since 2010.  Most recently, he met Ruben Dario Trevino Gonzalez ’00 (on right).

Thank you T-birds for sharing this photo with us! Have a photo to share? E-mail alumni@thunderbird.edu

Four new T-bird alumni blogs have been added to Thunderbird’s Alumni Blogroll section, and Thunderbird would like to thank those authors for sharing their thought leadership.

The Alumni Blogroll is located to the left of this section and features a list of blogs written by T-bird alumni. The purpose of this section is to provide a space where alumni can share their knowledge and experience with fellow alumni.

Recently added blogs are as follows:

-          Business Reinvention with Nancy Lin – written by Nancy Lin ’90 (California, USA)

-          YogaLuxxe – written by Ingrid Von Burg ’03 (Switzerland)

-          In-New-Way-Shown: Innovation – written by Yalman Ansari ’07 (Pakistan)

-          Midwest Entrepreneurs – Don Capener ’85 (Illinois, USA)

Do you have a blog that is business or travel-related and regularly updated with fresh content? Please send it to alumni@thunderbird.edu for possible inclusion on the Alumni Blogroll.

Please note that the purpose of the Alumni Blogroll is not to advertise an individual’s products and services, so blogs of this nature will not be included.

Thunderbird’s Dastor student newspaper recently featured  the on-campus engagement of Thundercouple Rahul Pruthi ‘09 and Virgilia Kaur Singh ‘08.

The Thundercouple returned to campus March 30, 2012, where Pruthi proposed to Singh as a surprise with help from Thunderbird Student government.

The article in Dastor said ”They have been dating for over three and half years now and the time had come to take the leap. What other better place to pop the question than the place that you met that special someone.”

So outside the B-210 dorm room, Pruthi proposed and Singh said, “Yes.”

Read more and see the photos

Thunderbird Alumni Relations would like to congratulate our alumni on their engagement!

This note comes from Gary Miller, T-bird alumnus class of 1973.

“We had a good group of friends in school and nothing has changed. Constantine Theodorou flew in from Athens, Greece, while all else flew in from around the USA.

We all enjoyed getting caught up and plan on seeing each other annually. In the photos are Constantine Theodorou, Gary Miller, Jimmy Sanchez,Norm Gottlieb, Peter Wallin, Bob Lautz, Baxter Urist and Santiago Hinohosa.”

Thanks for sharing Gary! Want to share your alumni stories? Email Alumni@Thunderbird.edu

If you didn’t register for any of the 11-11-11 events, but would like to return to campus and reunite with your former classmates, you still can.

We received approval to expand attendance to Last Pub Night (Thurs, Nov. 10) and Margaritas & Beer on the Tower Lawn (Sat, Nov.12) There are NO TICKETS for these events, so if you aren’t registered, you will be admitted on a first-come, first-serve basis until we reach capacity.

Please arrive early. Last Pub Night doors open at 7 p.m. and Margaritas and Beer on the Tower Lawn begins at 4 p.m.

Registrations for the Tower Celebration, Regional Night and the Farewell brunch have reached capacity and remain closed.

All events provide a great opportunity to gather with T-birds and I hope you can join us! I look forward to meeting you in person. If you have any questions, you can post them here or reach me directly at Katie.Mayer@thunderbird.edu.

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.

See a recent post from Ask the Headhunter as he responds to a job hunter’s question about handling nervousness during interviews.

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.)

“If starting or growing a business weren’t hard enough before the financial crisis, try doing so today,” says successful entrepreneurs Sherwood Neiss (’96), Jason Best (’96), and Zak Cassady-Dorion (’10).  According to a petition on their website www.startupexemption.com, they state small businesses represent over 99% of the employer firms in the U.S., and employ half of the private sector employees.  Between 1993 and 2009, those businesses accounted for 65% of the 15 million net new jobs created.  

According to the Department of Labor, prior to the financial meltdown, 76% of small businesses received traditional funding (ie: bank loans, credit card advances, finance companies, etc).  Any entrepreneur will tell you that cash is king.  Without it you cannot grow or hire employees. However, since the financial meltdown traditional financing has virtually disappeared. The money might be out there but it is not flowing from the people who have it to the people who can use it.

Neiss, Best, and Cassady-Dorion believe one of the answers to getting out of the recession is small businesses and entrepreneurs.  Economists and politicians are in agreement as well: jobs create prosperity. President Obama stated, “Startups bring a wealth of transformative innovations to market, and they also play a critical role in job creation in the United States. Those entrepreneurs who are intent on growing their businesses create the lion’s share of these new jobs.”  Jobs create taxable wages and spending which stimulates the economy and replenishes the government coiffeurs. 
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