Archive for the ‘Best Career’ Category

By David Carpita ’67

I need to share my experience in the hopes you will consider me in the draw for the best Thunderbird career.

American Express was a great employer for my first eight years after graduating from Thunderbird in June 1967. We had eight weeks of orientation in a midtown Manhattan hotel. Then we were off to Europe for a training program that included three cities in Germany and finally Zurich, Switzerland, where we had a gorgeous house overlooking the lake.

I spent the next three years in Pakistan during the “good old days” with first-class around-the-world airline tickets each summer and a generous vacation time to let our growing family explore the world. I capped my American Express career with two exciting years among the bowler hats in London.

After five years in San Francisco and Seattle, I returned to expatriate life. This time I worked as the general manager of a boutique investment bank in Bahrain. Then I spent three years living on the Bosphorus in Istanbul as the manager of a Turkish investment bank.

Midcareer, it was time to switch gears with my partner in life as owners of a country inn and cooking school in beautiful Saint Remy-de-Provence in southern France. We have been doing this since 1993. Our inn is currently ranked No. 2 of 30 hotels in the region, and the cooking school has an international following.

Not so bad for a young kid from Montana whose life was transformed by enrolling in Thunderbird, or the “Tute” as it was irreverently called in those days.

By Lisa Byrne ’77

I’m a Thunderbird ’77 graduate. Together with my sister, Pat Byrne ’80, we founded www.ItalyPerfect.com, dedicated to vacation rental properties in Italy. We collaborate with another sister who represents beautiful vacation homes in Paris and London.

We offer vacation rentals that we carefully hand pick for their location, furnishings and amenities that we can personally recommend and would want to stay in ourselves. We travel to Italy quarterly to inspect and stay in the rentals we represent, selecting special properties that offer charm, cleanliness and hospitable welcomes. We count the number of steps up to the property, check the size of the refrigerator, shower, listen for noise, inventory the kitchen equipment and even inspect the mattresses. And we offer exclusive insights and tips for tourism planning, restaurants and cafes, shopping insider secrets and tour guides.

While we work hard, we also get to enjoy the La Dolce Vita way of life while in Italy: Long delicious lunches, sipping a glass of Chianti while overlooking gorgeous views, shopping at the morning farmers’ market, catching the latest museum exhibit or tracking down fashion bargains. It’s a tough job but somebody’s gotta do it.

 By David Mayo ’61

In September 1958 my fiancé and I saw the movie “Around the World in 80 days” and decided that was for us. We were married in September 1960 and came to Thunderbird the next week. My wife taught school and attended the Thunderbird spouses program at night. I graduated in June 1961 with a job — and we were on our way.

After a three-year training period in the United States, the birth of our son and a change of employers, we moved to Puerto Rico for one year. From there I worked in Trinidad for three years as a general manager. This is where our two girls were born.

Afterward we lived in Brazil, Jamaica and Puerto Rico again. Then we returned to the United States and eventually settled in Charlotte, North Carolina.

By the time my position was eliminated after 27 years, I had been in every country in the Western Hemisphere except Cayenne and Belize. My company worked in animal agriculture and nutrition, and during this time most countries were able to increase production of meat, milk and eggs.

Next I joined a small company that focused on security badges and lamination in Latin America, Canada, England, Germany, South Africa and Australia, with spot sales in North Africa and the Middle East. This lasted 11 years until I retired.

We made our dreams come true — and nothing is better than that except maybe helping others achieve their dreams. Thunderbird helped me do this in 2010 when I returned to campus for Homecoming.

I met several impressive students in the Thunderbird SHARE Scholarship program and pledged a donation. I also started mentoring SHARE scholar Juan Pombo ’11, who has successfully graduated and is now working in his dream job.

My only setback in 50 years was the loss of my wife, who died of pancreatic cancer on July 18, 2006. Our journey together around the world was wonderful, and it is a pleasure to watch the next generation of T-birds start their own journeys.

Thunderbird Magazine has invited alumni to explain why they have the “best Thunderbird career” in 300 words or less. Send your story, along with a photograph, to alumni@thunderbird.edu before Aug. 15, 2011. One submission will be published in the October 2011 issue of Thunderbird Magazine.

By George Howard ’71

This is the 40th year since I left Thunderbird. I joined AIG when I graduated and later went to Continental Insurance and Cigna. Through my expatriate assignments with these companies, I have lived in the Dominican Republic, Greece (twice), Belgium (twice), Iran and Japan.

In part because I was usually in regional positions, I have traveled to 64 countries on five continents and have spent considerable time in many of them. I met my wife, who is Greek, when I was based in Athens, and my first child was born there.

I eventually returned to the United States and in 1990 founded Assist America, Inc., to provide emergency services to travelers — especially international travelers and expatriates. Because of Assist America, I have continued to travel and still spend four to six months each year outside the United States.

Assist America has grown substantially and now covers nearly 25 million people. The company does business in Latin America, the Middle East, India, China and Southeast Asia. Our offices are in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida (for Latin America), Beirut, Hyderabad, Beijing and Manila.

My career also has brought me into contact with many fellow T-birds. The Manila office is ably run by a Thunderbird. Our overall chief representative in Asia is also a Thunderbird. The manager in Ft. Lauderdale is the brother of a Thunderbird.

I lived 23 years as a career expatriate, including time in Mexico before attending Thunderbird.  I continue working as Chairman of Assist America, and now live in New York City, which is the most international city I’ve ever known.

I’ve experienced great highs and had my share of lows, but I believe I have accomplished what I wanted to do that day when I enrolled at Thunderbird.  I’d do it all again in a New York minute.

Thunderbird Magazine has invited alumni to explain why they have the “best Thunderbird career” in 300 words or less. Send your story, along with a photograph, to alumni@thunderbird.edu before Aug. 15, 2011. One submission will be published in the October 2011 issue of Thunderbird Magazine.

By Richard M. Peña ’02

I have always had international jobs, even before coming to Thunderbird in 2000. I landed in Washington, D.C., in 1982 and got my first real job on the U.S. House of Representatives’ Foreign Affairs Committee. The committee was looking for someone fluent in Spanish who wanted to gain hands-on experience in Latin America.

A month after joining the staff, Mexico went broke, the first Latin America debt crisis flared up, and wars in Central America erupted. It was an amazing learning experience.

I traveled into guerilla war zones in Central America and the Andean region and dealt with governments and bankers throughout Latin America on the debt crisis.    

From the Foreign Affairs staff, I went to work with the leading government relations consulting firm in Washington and then returned to Texas in 1989 as director of international marketing and trade for the Texas Department of Agriculture.

I then managed international business for a Texas oil and gas company. I spent eight years searching for deals, traveling between the United States, Latin America and Asia every three weeks and gathering more than 2 million frequent flier miles.

I witnessed firsthand the Asian economic meltdown in 1997 and was in Jakarta, Indonesia, when the riots started that led to the ouster of President Suharto.

I graduated from Thunderbird’s Executive MBA program in 2002 and have the alumni network to thank for my current job as area manager for Latin America and the Caribbean for Paul Mueller Company. Mueller is the leading dairy farm cooling equipment fabricator.

The company had two Thunderbird alumni who insisted that my current job be filled with a T-bird. Now I spend all of my time practicing what I learned at Thunderbird and traveling to Latin American dairy farms every month. This is a real Thunderbird career.

Thunderbird Magazine has invited alumni to explain why they have the “best Thunderbird career” in 300 words or less. Send your story, along with a photograph, to alumni@thunderbird.edu before Aug. 15, 2011. One submission will be published in the October 2011 issue of Thunderbird Magazine.