Alumni Impact

John Donnelly ’70 has been appointed to the Board of Directors of Dia Bras. Donnelly is currently Chairman of the Board of Zurich Financial Services in Mexico; Member of the Board of Directors and President of the Audit Committee of JP Morgan in Mexico; Founder and Member of the Board of Directors of CrediConfia, a microfinance company; and a Board Member of U-Storage, a self-storage company and Paralelo 19, a hotel ownership company, all in Mexico.

Charles Rix ’79 has joined Oklahoma Christian University as an assistant professor of Bible. Rix previously served as an associate dean and professor at the New Brunswick Theological Seminary. Also, he is a retired financial executive for Exxon and has served as a minister for 17 years. Rix is an accomplished pianist who performs around the world and has been a finalist in international pianist competitions.

Kim Korth ’80 has been appointed to President and Chief Executive Officer for Supreme Industries. Korth has served as the interim President and CEO of the company since February 2011.

Thomas Malone ’80 was recently hired as a senior advisor to Waller Capital. Malone has more than 30 years of investment banking experience including serving as the group head of Daniels & Associates’ Private Capital Group, the managing director at Chase Securities and additional roles for Chase.

Kim Royster ’85 was recently hired as Director of Client Strategy for The Pert Group. Royster will focus on the restaurant, hospitality and foodservice industries, drawing on more than 20 years of experience as an industry consultant. Royster has worked throughout the U.S. and in Europe, the Middle East and Southeast Asia.

Douglas Sanders ’87 has been appointed Chief Financial Officer of CMC Biologics. Sanders is a founder of several life science companies and a financial consultant in the industry. He brings extensive international, financial and life science experience and has spent years working in Europe and the U.S.

Nina Maria Fite ’88 recently assumed charge as the U.S. Consul General in Lahore. Fite is a career member of the Foreign Service and spent more than 20 years focusing on trade, environmental issues and post-conflict economic development. Her assignments include serving as the Deputy Economic Counselor in Kabul, Afghanistan and as the Political/Economic Section Chief in Angola.

Sanjeev Chowdhury ’91 was recently appointed by Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper as Consul General of Canada to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. This is Chowdhury’s second time serving as Consul General. He was Canadian Consul General to Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam from 2003 to 2006 and was Acting Canadian Ambassador to Sri Lanka for three months during that same time.

William Mott ’94 has been appointed Managing Director of Opel Australia. Mott has spent the majority of his career in Europe and the last 16 years with Opel, most recently as Group Marketing Manager Mini and Small Cars at Adam Opel Haus in Rüsselsheim.

Robert Criste ’95 was named Director of BigBelly Solar waste and recycling systems. He is responsible for seven states and 38 nations globally.

Ashley Moretz ’96 moved to the Kyrgyz Republic as Country Representative for USAID’s Office of Transition Initiatives’ new program, which was launched following the unexpected change of government in April 2010. Moretz previously spent five years as the USAID Country representative in Turkmenistan.

Joseph Gerard ’98 has been named Assistant Professor of Management at Western New England University. Gerard comes to the university from the State University of New York Institute of Technology, where he served as Assistant Professor of Technology Management.

Gwen Davidow ’98 will take a short term assignment with the President’s Council on Environmental Quality to further the mission of the U.S. Government’s major sustainability initiative known as GreenGov. Davidow is currently the Senior Director of Corporate Programs & Operations for the World Environment Center. In the new assignment Davidow will serve as the Senior Program Manager in the Office of the Federal Environment Executive.

Nikhil Arora ’98 has been appointed Vice President and Managing Director of Intuit India. Arora comes to Intuit from Laureate Education where he served as Vice President and head of operations. He has more than 18 years of experience in corporate strategy, business development, marketing, finance and operations and has worked for companies such as ADP, Delphi Automotive, Microsoft and CBS Television. Arora has a deep understanding of the Indian and Central Asian marketplace as well as the challenges confronting businesses in India.

Chai-Koon (CK) Tan ’99 has been appointed as the Vice President of Marketing for Asia Pacific in the Infrastructure Business Group of Belden Singapore. Tan’s most notable experience includes Director of Asia Pacific Sales and Marketing with Johnson Controls Power Solutions and various sales and marketing positions throughout Asia with Hilti.

Eigo Okada ’99 recently joined Takeda Pharmaceuticals International, Inc. as a Director, Franchise Strategy at their global headquarters in Deerfield, Illinois.

Olivier Portet ’02 has recently joined Polaris Wines as national sales manager. Portet has more than 15 years of professional wine industry experience. In his new role, Portet will focus on national sales and marketing, brand management and distributor and supplier management.

Claudia Huang Ruobing ’04 has been appointed as a member of the BASF Greater China Country Board. BASF is a leading chemical company. Huang joined BASF as a Plant Manager of Shanghai BASF Polyurethane Co. in 2004. She became the General Manager of Shanghai Lianheng Isocyanate Co. four years later.  Before joining BASF, Huang held senior positions in technical planning and project management with international companies.

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.

In photo: Front Row (left to right) Lorrain McCord ‘97, Mortada Mohamed ‘81, George Hiller ‘72 & Richmond Chapter Leader, Eugenio Reyes ‘92.
Back Row (left to right) Elizabeth Glynn ‘85, Kelly Fish ‘90, Barney Lehrer ‘89 Not pictured: Kelly Murphey ‘88

Eight T-birds recently discovered that they had more than their Alma Maters in common.  They also serve on the same board.

The National Association of Small Business International Trade Educators (NASBITE) has a total of 24 members on its International Board of Governors and eight of them are T-birds.

At a recent Board of Governors meeting in Charleston, South Carolina, the group gathered from across the U.S. and Mexico to further their organization’s mission of advancing global business practice, education and training.

Elizabeth Glynn ’85, Export Advisor/Global Trade Educator of EMG Global Business Solutions took the time to share this great photo with Thunderbird.

Thank you Elizabeth! If you have recent photos with fellow T-birds to share, please send to alumni@thunderbird.edu.

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.

T-bird student John Briscoe ’12 recently shared these photos and the following story about his experience working with a T-bird alumna in Buenos Aires during his summer internship.

“Mariangeles Perez Manoileff ’01 is currently a Commercial Specialist working for the U.S. Embassy in Buenos Aires. She hosted a local television show in Beunos Aires called Clase Ejecutiva for several years and now co-hosts Clase Ejecutiva on the radio in Buenos Aires every Friday. The show focuses on various topics related to business, politics and international issues from different perspectives. I recently had the opportunity to meet up with Mariangeles at the Radio Palermo studio and sit in on her two-hour program. The day I attended the program Mariangeles interviewed the Director of the Global MBA for LATAM Managers from Monterrey, Dr. Tripp.  About 15 minutes of the program was dedicated to this director supporting the Thunderbird brand over the airwaves of Buenos Aires. Mariangeles is a frequent and passionate supporter of Thunderbird. I was so happy to end up working with a T-bird during my internship and wanted to share one of the ways our alumna is supporting T-bird in Argentina.”

We want to extend special thanks to John Briscoe for sharing this story and photos and to Mariangeles Perez Manoileff for her commitment to our school!

Tom Coler ’67 has been featured in realallthingsrealestate.com in an article announcing that he will be inducted into the Hall of Fame of the Real Estate Buyer’s Agent Council, an affiliate of the National Association of Realtors. Coler has been a licensed Florida real estate broker for more than 31 years. He founded the Buyer’s Broker of Southwest Florida in 1989.

Paul Rachmanides ’79 was recently featured in the Houston Chronicle in an article about his book The Potato Peeler, which chronicles Greece-born Rachmanides’ story of overcoming obstacles and working many jobs after moving to the U.S. in 1971.

Karim Bennouna ’96 was recently published in Management Decision for his article “Improved capital budgeting decision making: Evidence from Canada.”  The article has been chosen as a Highly Commended Paper at the Emerald Literati Network Awards for Excellence 2011.

Todd Smith’01 was recently featured in www.benzinga.com for his six-week RV Business Plan Tour to help startups jump-start their businesses and stimulate the economy. Smith is the CEO of Blue Horizon Venture Consulting and is going to move his office into an RV for a 7,000 mile journey around the U.S. Smith is also an Alumni Chapter Leader in Jacksonville, Florida.

Rush Harris ’09 was recently profiled on marshalledc.org about his decision to work for Marshall Economic Development Corporation , his experience in land leases, land sales, right-of-way agreements and surface change agreements and his passion for his community.

Aaron Bare ’95 was recently profiled by Indiana Tech for his achievements as a successful entrepreneur who has sold six companies, traveled to more than 60 countries and who was recently named to the Phoenix Business Journal’s prestigious “Forty under 40” list. Bare has been named entrepreneur in residence at Thunderbird and is currently CEO of Buzz Mouth, a social media management company founded by Bare.

Eric Heimbecker ’10 was recently named in an article in the Ahwatukee Foothills News about a group of committed Arizonans who spend their days volunteering to put up campaign signs. Heimbecker broke his collar bone – partially because of the wear and tear he suffered as one of four men putting up nearly 600 signs across Phoenix for Claude Mattox, who is running for mayor.

Thunderbird graduate, Thomas Hedges ‘75 admits, “I’ve always been kind of a dreamer.” Many of his dreams have come true. His company, Hedges Family Estate, owns five vineyards in the Red Mountain area 200 miles southeast of Seattle, Washington and produces over one million bottles of wine a year. But this adventurous entrepreneur was not always living the dream, and he credits his Thunderbird connections for helping him get to where he is today.

Hedges recalls back to 1987 when he was trying to break into the wine business. He had found an opportunity to buy excess bulk wine that wineries could not afford to bottle or market. He knew he needed a loan to finance his new adventure, but SeaFirst Bank did not give him the news he was hoping for. “The guy said he couldn’t finance me,” says Hedges. “I got into my beater car and drove to Lake Washington. I sat there crying, literally crying, looking through the phone book for another bank.”

This was not Hedges first disappointment, and it is not the beginning of his story either. Rewind back to 1975. Hedges had just graduated from Thunderbird with a degree and a French girlfriend named Anne-Marie that he had met while away on a school-sponsored summer program in Guadalajara, Mexico.

The couple married in France, and then moved to Vancouver, Canada when Hedges was offered a job with Castle and Cooke Foods, marketing Dole pineapples. Hedges was later promoted to Manager of South American Marketing in Argentina. He laughs as he remembers how his global education came into play. “They said they wanted someone whose wife wasn’t from Iowa,” he says. “They wanted someone with international experience.”
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By Charles Reeves ‘09
Program Manager, Thunderbird Emerging Markets Laboratory

Think back to your last semester at Thunderbird. Imagine you’ve already taken your major focus area class like Corporate Finance or Business Intelligence and now, instead of finishing up with a few more campus-based electives, you board a plane. You form a crack consulting team with some of your most trusted classmates — each team member brings years of experience and a unique skillset to create a whole, greater than the sum of its parts.  You fly to an exotic locale where the climate steams and the economic opportunities sizzle — bubbling over into the crowded streets. Your team takes on a tough client and an even tougher project; how do you manage a stakeholder group including both private industry and a communist government?  How do you tell a patriarchal leader in Africa that he needs to push power down into his organization? How do you tell the leaders of a social enterprise headquartered in the former dictator’s palace that they won’t have enough cash to make payroll in six months? 

Your past experiences and your two years of global education at Thunderbird begin to crystallize. Classroom lessons get remembered and put into action. All of a sudden you are negotiating project scope in indigenous languages through translators. You are meeting with scientists to understand a new technology and prepare a market entry strategy. You are creating robust financial models, kneeling in the dirt with farmers to understand their cost structure. Or you are spending countless hours in meetings with your client, the government minister, enduring the realities and vagaries of “client resistance.” 

This experience is the Thunderbird Emerging Markets Laboratory (TEM Lab). This is how a truly global business education should culminate. Sixty-eight Thunderbirds have completed a TEM Lab consulting project over the past two years, working with clients in Asia, Africa, Eastern Europe, Central America and South America.  Governments, private industry, and social sector stakeholders have all benefited from their services. Our graduates have gone on to positions at major consulting firms and in one case, a team leader is now the president of the organization for which he consulted. This graduate, David Jaime ’10, is now implementing the turnaround recommendations that his own team provided.

TEM Lab is at the cutting edge of MBA curricula around the globe and it is born out of Thunderbird’s Vision 2020, particularly the strategic priority to expand our expertise and impact in emerging markets. TEM Lab began two years ago as a “special topics course” on a trial basis. Now the course is a permanent part of Thunderbird’s course catalog. But we face one more hurdle: building a network of partners and clients large enough to sustain the program long into the future. We need the support of Thunderbird’s vast international alumni network. 

You and your organization can benefit from a Thunderbird consulting team! TEM Lab works with Fortune 500 corporations, governments and nonprofits. The TEM Lab administrators are requesting, with all seriousness and urgency, that you approach them with your business needs.

A TEM Lab consulting team brings professional experience, international savvy, language skills and functional expertise above and beyond the MBA average. Admittance into TEM Lab is a competitive, team-based process and only the most dedicated students are deployed internationally. 

TEM Lab is a seven-week (one module) full-time consulting engagement with a client in an emerging market.  Five of the seven weeks are spent in the field. No other classes are taken simultaneously with TEM Lab, meaning that the student teams have a single focus: creating economic or social value for their client system. 

A TEM Lab consulting team is responsible for all phases of the consulting process, including scope management, discovery, data analysis, reporting and recommendations.  A TEM Lab client can expect results of the highest professional caliber. The only costs to the client are project related expenses and an international administration fee.  A typical project costs $25,000, varying based upon the cost of international airfares and local lodging. Students pay for their own food and for a portion of the administration fee. 

To learn more about our projects visit our website at www.thunderbird.edu/temlab, where all past projects are archived.  Each project page contains the project synopsis, team bio and blog posts covering cultural and business issues from the field. A project begins with needs identification and a synopsis — samples of which are also available on our website. For more information, contact Charles Reeves ’09 at charles.reeves@thunderbird.edu.

Caption: Kevin Rohrer ’82, left, and HouseHaunters founder Brian Kelly ’83 visit a short-listed factory in Guangdong, China.

Creating a scene has always come naturally to Brian Kelly ’83. The New Jersey T-bird wins awards most years from his local Halloween festival for transforming his family, himself or his home into something unexpected.

But what hasn’t been so easy for the former software salesman is finding ways to turn his budding costume and seasonal home décor company, HouseHaunters, into a viable business — that is, until recently.

“I’ve been doing HouseHaunters for three years now, but doing it right for only one year,” Kelly said.

The big game changer for the rookie entrepreneur was moving manufacturing to China. With the help of Hong Kong-based T-bird Kevin Rohrer ’82, Kelly short-listed factories, visited with their teams and eventually identified the one that would manufacture his designs.

“It was eye-opening,” Kelly said. “It showed me why the whole world manufactures in Asia.”

Kelly slashed his production costs and now sees profitability a season or two away, but not before jumping over a few hurdles.

“Quality is a challenge when manufacturing in China,” Kelly said. “You can’t just say, ‘Give me a gorilla mask,’ because that wastes time, money and goodwill.”

Kelly’s flagship costume — a gorilla that appears to be carrying the wearer inside a bamboo cage — was quite complicated and required detailed negotiation. Starting with accurate prototypes and maintaining constant quality control were keys to success.

“If you give them a prototype with a mistake in it, they will reproduce your error,” Kelly said. “Nothing beats face-to-face meetings to inspect production samples.”

As Kelly continues designing new costumes, looking for distributors and streamlining his supply chain, he credits Thunderbird with giving him the confidence to go overseas and access to a competent alumni network he continues to count on.

“Working with T-birds provides a level of trust that is key when manufacturing something 8,000 miles away,” he said.

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Navigating China

Brian Kelly ’83 shares his top 10 lessons learned from manufacturing in China:

1. Control inventory. Only manufacture what you’ve already got sold. Excess inventory is a waste for small businesses that need to conserve cash.

2. Be a sponge. Pick the brains of everyone you meet. Walk trade shows domestically and overseas. Talk to exhibitors. Remember, business travelers found stretching their legs in the back of jets to and from Hong Kong are often well-informed and eager to share. 

3. Visit your factories. Collect managers’ cards with both English and Chinese characters. Get to know their concerns. Who are their large customers and what are their key shipping dates that you will need to work around? Only after probing did Kelly discover that Chinese utilities had imposed power outages three days a week in the middle of his factory’s busy season.  Two biggies: Cost increases after they’ve already bid on your job, and workers who don’t return after the Chinese New Year.

4. Fail fast. Kelly builds prototypes of many new costumes to show at preview events in November. Only a small portion of these get developed for buyers to see in January.

5. Invest in good prototypes. Factory managers want to touch and measure actual prototypes. Prototypes communicate across all languages and provide proof of your intention.

6. Learn from competitors. You have more in common with them than you do with your customers. 

7. Avoid the $900 rookie’s phone bill. Turn your mobile phone off when arriving in Hong Kong or mainland China. Then buy a simple $39 cell phone and $25 prepaid card with a dual SIM card. Only use Skype when calling home.

8. Schedule strategically. Optimize your visit to Hong Kong/China by scheduling it around a trade show.

9. Be patient. Understand that this is a marathon, not a sprint.

10. Use the network. Contact fellow T-Birds in Hong Kong and China.

Watch as the most recent additions to the T-bird Alumni Network share their greatest Thunderbird Adventures.

Thunderbird held Summer Commencement on Friday August 19 in Phoenix, Arizona.