FEMBA Alumni Updates

Alumni from the FEMBA program have risen to high levels of management, formed successful entrepreneurial ventures, and stay very involved with the Merage school.The following is a snapshot of current professional and personal achievements from some of our FEMBA alumni...

Ken McFarland ’94, received the CFO of the Year award for Orange County, awarded by the OC/Long Beach chapter of the California Society of Certified Public Accountants. He is Mission Hospital’s chief financial officer and senior vice president.

Rafal Andrzejewski '95, an equity partner in the Amrop Hever Group, is 33% co-owner of The Amrop Hever Group in Poland.

John Brassner '95, is now a realtor in Las Vegas and was featured on HGTV’s House Hunters. 
 
Opal Sullen '95, is division finance manager at Frito-Lay, Inc.

Katie Bianchi '96, is vice president of human resources at Marriott International.  

Britton Sweet '97, is plant manager of Carson Industries, LLC, in La Verne, California.

Beda Espinoza '98, is senior product manager at Newport Corporation, and recently returned to Newport Corp in a non-engineering/non-supervisory role after a few years of leading product development teams in the electronics industry.

Eric Hall '98, is manager of Allergan, Inc., Global Marketing Research.  He was previously with The Irvine Company and joined Allergan in April 2007.

John Kowalkowski '98, earned the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) designation, and is principal consultant with business analytics firm, SandPoint Consulting.

Bill Millard '98, is the senior project management consultant for Dell Professional Services.

Eric Deng '99, director of operations at Viking Range Corporation, will be heading a new operation to design and develop high-end commercial cooking and refrigeration equipment for the well-recognized Viking brand.

James Tu '99, is an information security and privacy manager at Toyota Motor Sales, USA, Inc. 

Mike Ashworth '00, is an analyst at Integra Realty Resources in Nashville, Tennessee.  Integra Realty Resources is a commercial and residential real estate valuation and consulting company with over 50 offices nationwide.

Tawnya Cummiskey '00, is employed by RSI Home Products as the Director of Global Sourcing & Procurement.

Judith Gass ’00, and husband Daryl Bogard, are happy to announce the birth of baby girl, Sheridan Rose Bogard, who arrived on August 16, 2007, and weighed in at 8 lbs 5 oz. and 19.75 inches long.

Jimin Kumamoto (Lee)'00, is the contracts administrator at Time Warner Cable. 

Rick Scrimger ’00, recently moved back to Orange County from San Diego to return to Roland DGA Corp. as the Vice President & General Manager of the Color Products Division. Rick had previously been employed at Roland from 1993-2003.

Suki Swaroop '00, works as a LBA Realty and debt asset manager.

Truong Le '00, was recently promoted to senior finance manager for The Boeing Company.

John Blake ’01, recently became a licensed Professional Engineer in Mechanical Engineering.

Mark Carpenter ’01, has become a member of the Dean's Leadership Circle Executive Committee.

Lily Chen '01, is the general manager at Citylife China Investment Co., Ltd.  She is currently still living in Shanghai, China.

Ron Gill '01, works at Boeing in factory automation project management.  Gill is currently enrolled at Pepperdine University for an educational doctoral in organizational leadership.

Scott Reese '01, is the managing director of Xante Corporation in Europe and does business in 50 countries in Europe, launching new product channels. He lives in Mobile, Alabama and works half the year in Europe. Scott will be visiting Southern California this summer and hopes to reconnect with alumni and classmates.  

Wes Armstrong ’02, director of strategic partnerships at Goal Financial, is actively engaged in M&A and integration activities.

Matteo Conta ’02, is the director of RF Engineering at Glonav. Since graduation he added 2 more kids, Nicola and Paolo, to the family.

Andrew Kim ’02, is the district sales manager at Kia Motors America.  He relocated to Seattle, Washington, and is engaged to marry in October later this year. 

Vikki Shah ’02, is employed by Accenture and recently promoted to senior manager. 

Dan Shaw ’02, is currently the director of financial planning for the Southern California region of Kaiser Permanente.  His son, Christian, is completing kindergarten and his daughter, Angelina, is three.  

Brendan Donohue ’03, recently purchased licensing rights as a regional developer for HealthSource Chiropractic & Progressive Rehab. He has purchased the Orlando & Miami, Florida East Coast markets and will be responsible for both franchise sales and managing the relationships between the franchisees and franchisor.

Sylvia Choe Evans ’03, is the alumni relations manager at the Hong Kong International School. She and her husband Jeremy moved to Hong Kong a year ago.

Vicky de los Reyes ’03, works for Western Digital as a financial analyst. She will be taking the CFA exam and pursuing a career in market finance.

Steve Park ’03, associate director of finance at Verizon Wireless is serving as vice president and treasurer on the board of St. Anselm's Cross Cultural Community Center.

Christian Petersen ’03, is marketing manager at Disneyland Resort Hotels & Downtown Disney Company.
Marnie O’Brien Primmer ’03, is the director of marketing and business development for CALTROP, which is a leading program, project, and construction management firm specializing in transportation and public works projects with offices throughout California.

Jennifer Hovelsen Seggev ’03, is employed with Merck Oncology in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, as a marketing manager and is responsible for the clinical and marketing strategy for a targeted anti-cancer treatment under development.

Brad Sorensen ’03, began a new venture in sporting events management. The company is Gameball Concepts(TM), and the initial product is TriBall Challenge(TM) a 4-on-4-on-4 multi-team sports (patent pending) tournament open to the general public. Please visit my site at http://www.gameballconcepts.com for more info.

Kevin Trout  ’03, works for Tektronix, as an account manager. Kevin and wife Staci welcomed their third child, Matthew Jeffrey, in September 2006. 

Rafael Arredondo ’04, leads a marketing focus on the Hispanic consumer at Infinity Insurance.

Russ Barlow ’04, was recently promoted to credit union examiner with National Credit Union Administrationm and currently resides in Mebane, North Carolina.

Kelly Haggard ’04, is the co-owner of Seaport Winery in Long Beach, California.

Rohit Khanna ’04, is the chief executive officer of 3D INFOTECH. 

John Koontz ’04, is the senior engineer for Alcon Laboratories.

Jennifer Leuer ’04, was recently promoted to vice-president of Experian Interactive for Strategic Asset Assurance. 

Joe Longtin ’04, recently accepted a position with QAD, Inc. based in Irvine, CA as the Product Marketing Manager.   QAD, Inc. develops and implements ERP software solutions for manufacturing companies. 

Jennifer Aaron ’05, is a financial analyst with UC Irvine.

Steve Brenneman ’05, is a business partner in Scitor Corporation.  He did an inter-company transfer from consulting over to corporate contracts and finance.  Steve relocated to Ashburn, VA from Redondo Beach, CA in November 2006.

Al Fung ’05, and Cindy Hwee, ’05, classmates from Section B, were married July 15, 2006, in San Gabriel, California.

Avi Gur ’05, is involved with Synergy Sales and plans to marry Mary Kate Reeves.

James L. Harris ’05, has accepted the position of chief operating officer for the new U.S. operations of a London-based investment banking firm, Libertas Capital Group plc.

Stacie Le ’05, opened Curio Café in Banker's Hill, San Diego in October 2006.

Willie Lu ’05, is a business process analyst for Pulte Homes and will be married in September.

Dinesh Ravishanker ’05, is the president of Skyy Consulting, which has released its first call-center & marketing product: www.AsteriskDialer.com. This entrepreneurial endeavor now has over 600 signups, and 200 active users.  Skyy Consulting is also seeking venture capital for two new Voice-Over-IP services released in 2007. 

John Stedfield ’05, is a national account director for Monster.com.

Mai Vu ’05, is an investment advisor for MassMutual Financial Group, located in Newport Beach.  She recently received the 1st year Rising Leader award.

Mark Wales ’05, is the VP, director web/interactive - The Artime Group. 

Jeff Young ’05, is a Southern California sales specialist for Permacel. 

Erik Ahroon '06, Position: Business Development Manager at Acacia Technologies Group in Newport Beach
Erik recently obtained this position at Acacia and is currently studying to pass the Patent Bar to become a USPTO Registered Patent Agent and continuing to explore and pursue new ideas/innovations.

Tracy Allegre '06, Position: Client Services Manager, Marsh, Orange County
Tracy and her husband welcomed their first child, Olivia, on October 29th of 2007.

Tom Burns '06, Position: Director of Strategic Initiatives, Ingram Micro, Santa Ana
Tom Burns was promoted to Director of Strategic Initiatives at Ingram Micro in Santa Ana, CA. In this position he recently launch the Digital Signage division focused on helping resellers implement small office and enterprise signage solutions. He and his wife welcomed their second child, Thomas Richard Burns, in February, 2007.

Tammy Chiu '06, Position: Special Account Manager, Geo-Logistics
Tammy passed CFA level 1 in June 07, taking level 2 exam in June 08.  Tammy is currently seeking to pair up with Merage alums and form a study group for the Level 2 Exam.

Ed Francolin '06,
Position: Territory Manager, Angiotech Pharmaceuticals
Ed has been living in Miami for the past couple of months. He is the Territory Manager for Angiotech Pharmaceuticals with its Intervention Division. He is managing the South Florida territory, selling medical device products.

Diane Lee '06, Company: Kia Motors, Irvine, CA
Diane was recently promoted to Strategic Planning Manager at Kia Motors America in Irvine, CA.

Jeremy Tiss '06, Company: Edwards Lifesciences
Jeremy Tiss, recently was promoted to Sr. Business Analyst at Edwards Lifesciences in Irvine, CA after returning from a 2 year foreign assignment at Edwards Switzerland.

Veronica Wolkow '06, On the heels of Professor David Obstfeld's guidance back at the final residential, Veronica quit her job at Dimensional Fund Advisors and am currently training to be a yoga instructor. I am taking a "mini-sabbatical" from corporate America and going to do volunteer work at schools, the YMCA, and the VA to help people use yoga to reduce stress.

Steve Chang ’06, has taken on the position of world wide MVC program manager for Hewlett Packard's IPG Division in San Diego, CA.

June Chow ’06, financial advisor for PlanVestor, married Vivek Babtiwale on March 25, 2007 in Diamond Bar, CA.

Stephen Gagliano ’06, is the regional manager at Option One Mortgage Corp.

Chris Giles ’06, works in marketing for James Hardie Building Products. He recently had an addition to his family, Ryan Christopher Giles, February 2007.

Scott Lovell ’06, is a senior analyst at The Garrett Group.  His second son, Trevor John Lovell, was born on April 24, 2007.

Tommy Nguyen ’06, is vice president of PIMCO.  He is married and relocated to London to service Nordic/Baltic clients. 

Grace Ouh ’06, is employed with PayPal, an eBay Company and is a large merchant services marketing specialist, and is now relocated to the Northern California/Bay Area.

EJ Ralson ’06, is program manager at Mitrix, Inc. He also had a new addition to his family, Hallie Janet Ralston, was born on April 15, 2007.

Jesse Salen ’06, has recently accepted a position as director of sales and technology at Online Radiology.

Todd Zive ’07, and his wife Mindy, welcomed Marina Olivia into their family on September 6, 2007. She weighed 8 lbs. 0 oz. at birth.