Archive for the ‘Miscellaneous’ Category

The Thunderbird Alumni Relations Office recently welcomed New Zealand alumni chapter leader Kent Deitemeyer ’76, when he visited Thunderbird campus during a business trip.

In addition to sharing stories about his life in the south of New Zealand with us, Deitemeyer – who enjoys photography – also shared the two beautiful, scenic photos above, which he snapped while visiting the U.S. Southwest.

Pictured on the right is Deitemeyer in Thunderbird’s Alumni Lounge, a space in the Alumni Relations office where alumni can flip through yearbooks, use a computer and have a quiet workspace while on campus.

Thunderbird would like to thank Deitemeyer for his visit and for supporting our school and our alumni.

The family of the late Jamaican singer-songwriter Bob Marley values sustainability, peace and philanthropy, so it comes as no surprise that two T-birds were chosen to lead a global brand in partnership with this prominent family.

Director of marketing Karen Korponai ’98 (at left) and director of sales Jen McVey ’98 (at right) work together for House of Marley — an earth-friendly, audio electronics and lifestyle product company that adheres to the Marley family core values: Equality, unity, authenticity, sustainability and charity. The House of Marley also donates 5 percent of its profits to its charitable organization, 1Love.org.

The company, launched in 2011 in partnership with the Marley Family, focuses on growing a profitable global enterprise while also making a positive impact on the world.

“I’m excited to dedicate my time and energy to helping develop a new way of doing business, one which aligns with my personal values and beliefs,” Korponai said.

The company’s products are sold online and in retail stores around the world, including the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Australia, Hong Kong, South America, The Middle East and the Caribbean. This year, House of Marley plans to expand into at least 30 more countries.

“Working with another T-bird is always great because you are both thinking globally,” McVey said.

Surprisingly, McVey and Korponai did not know each other when they were classmates at Thunderbird, but the two are glad to be working together now.

“The people I met at Thunderbird care about making a difference,” Korponai said. “We’ve lived in various countries and when you couple that with our business background, we have more of global perspective in developing solutions.”

An example of developing global solutions is their internal global sales and marketing meetings. Instead of just focusing on their own market, they gather international intelligence from their counterparts around world to make better marketing decision and product adjustments throughout the entire brand.

Korponai and McVey are also philanthropists at heart and gravitated toward House of Marley’s focus on charity. 1Love.org supports causes such as global hunger, clean water and child education, which are important to the Marley family.

“A lot of companies have gone to the Marley family wanting to use their name, but it didn’t support their core values,” Korponai said. “It’s not uncommon for House of Marley management to ask themselves, ‘What would Bob Marley do right now?’ and to listen to his music for inspiration.”

The highest rate of alumni giving last year was 26% from the class of 2007!

Where does your class stand? See the list below to find your class giving rate and total gift amount.

Remember, gifts of any size count toward our alumni participation rate. Thank you to all of our alumni who gave a gift to Thunderbird during the last fiscal year. Your donations went toward Thunderbird scholarships, technology, curriculum development, faculty research and alumni programs and services.

We hope we can count on you again this year. Make your gift today.  

ALUMNI GIVING BY CLASS

Nearly 50 T-birds and other guests enjoyed an evening of light appetizers, a silent auction, drinks and great company during the Chicago Alumni Chapter’s annual holiday party on December 8, 2012.

“The event was a great success,” said Lee Schlesinger ’01. “A special thanks goes to those who donated items as well as a number of people who volunteered to call alumni.”

Schlesinger and chapter leadership invited T-birds to their events through a special phone campaign and a concerted effort to reach more people through e-mail communications.

A number of new T-birds also shared their contact information and expressed interest in attending future events, Schlesinger said.

The event was held at Webster’s Wine Bar in a private room. Silent auction items included toys, Cubs tickets, wine and more. Donated items were provided by Lee Schlesinger ‘01, Tom Kostal ‘99, Scott Altman ‘86, Keith Olson ‘77 and Heidi Saunders ‘99.  

Thunderbird would like to extend a special thank-you to the Chicago Chapter leaders for their time and commitment to making this event a success – and for sharing these great photos!

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.

More than 40 T-birds and their guests gathered at the Ritz Carlton Dove Mountain  hotel in Marana, Ariz. on October 27, 2011 to hear Thunderbird President Ángel Cabrera, Ph.D., present his Vision 2020 strategy.

The group – largely Tucson Alumni Chapter members – enjoyed some light appetizers before gathering in a circle along with Special Assistant to the President Gbemi Disu ‘06.

During the informal presentation, President Cabrera provided an update of the school, shared his Vision 2020 strategy and closed with a question and answer session. Two prospective students also attended the event to learn more about Thunderbird.

See more photos here.

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.

Nearly 1,000 T-bird Alumni will gather on campus in just six weeks to network, re-unite and celebrate.

Some are attending Thunderbird’s first inaugural Global Business Dialogue, others are attending the largest celebration in our school’s history, and Homecoming – and many are taking part in everything.

As Thunderbird gears up for 11-11-11 , world-class speakers are still joining an already impressive list of top global business leaders for the Thunderbird Global Business Dialogue set for November 10 – 11, 2011. In addition, Class of ’86 leaders are working with Alumni Relations staff to gather classmates for a reunion. And Thunderbird event planners are putting the final touches on the Tower Celebration.

“After 32 years of being an alumnus, I am still as excited as ever about getting back on campus to renew the sense of purpose we felt when we graduated,” said John Cook ’79. 

Despite living in Switzerland, Cook rarely misses a Homecoming and calls the returns to campus “truly amazing.”

Another T-bird, Nona Niner ’81, who is a New York City Chapter Leader, said returning to Thunderbird campus for Homecomings and attending European reunions have been among the most memorable and joyful times in her life.

“Being an alumni leader for many years has given me the opportunity to meet and inspire new alumni, to catch up with the special staff members who take care of our cherished school and to reconnect with fellow T-birds from all graduation classes and countries around the world,” Niner said.

On November 10 in the evening, after the first day of the dynamic two-day Global Dialogue, alumni will head over to the original Thunderbird Pub, founded in 1971, for the Last Night at the Old Pub event. There, T-birds spanning six decades will share stories – old and new – over pints of beer in the new Pub housed in the west wing of the award-winning restored air traffic control tower.

On Friday, Nov. 11, T-birds will gather at the center of campus to celebrate the restored Tower during a long-awaited party complete with dinner, drinks, fireworks and music.  Then, on Saturday evening, alumni can enjoy margaritas and beer on the tower lawn, followed by dinner, dancing and entertainment for Regional Night.  Lastly, a final farewell champagne brunch on Sunday morning will provide a relaxing morning to say goodbye to friends old and new.

Register here  if you plan to attend any of the events. Hotels are booking up quickly due to a number of events occurring in the Phoenix area around the same time, so don’t wait until the last minute. We recommend booking your hotel now. American Airlines is offering a 10 percent discount   to alumni traveling to and from this event.

Thunderbird’s annual Career Fair is coming up quickly! An entire week’s worth of Professional Development workshops and networking opportunities culminates in the career fair on Thursday and interviews on Friday.

Is your company looking for new talent? Would you like to see more Thunderbirds in the office? This is your best chance to make it happen! Send your HR or recruiting team here and reserve a spot today to meet some of the most talented new MBAs willing to travel globally.