Class Notes

2014

Greg Andrews (BBA ACCT) Following the Notre Dame men’s tennis team’s first season in the Atlantic Coast Conference, Irish player Greg Andrews was named to the 2014 All-ACC Academic Men’s Tennis Team. He served as captain of the squad and played No. 1 singles and doubles.

Ryan Bandy (BBA MGTC) also was named to the 2014 All-ACC Academic Men’s Tennis Team.Bandy served as a crucial link in the lineup at No. 2 singles. He is employed by PNC National Bank in his hometown of Cincinnati.

Ray Korson (MSB) recently joined Gibson as a client executive in the employee benefits practice. He assists employers with their workforce initiatives, which includes analyzing, developing and implementing employee healthcare and benefit strategies. Prior to joining Gibson, Korson worked as a business sales and service consultant at Frontier Communications Corp.

Sean Leahy (MSB) was recently named an administrative fellow at Franciscan Alliance Inc., Mishawaka, Ind.

Daniel Webster (EMBA) has been admitted into PwC U.S.’s partnership. Webster was admitted as an assurance partner and brings nearly 15 years of diverse public accounting and consulting experience
to the position.

2013

Cheryl Booms (MNA) recently relocated to Ypsilanti, Mich., to join the Ann Arbor-based fundraising consulting firm of Richner & Richner as a consulting analyst.

Coley Girouard (BBA FIN) is the director of Mid-Atlantic Business Development for Footprint Free, an environmental startup. Footprint Free offers businesses a simple way to go green and connect with their customers by calculating and offsetting their carbon footprints.

Monica Luechtefeld (EMBA) has been appointed to the board of directors of PFSweb Inc., an international provider of end-to-end eCommerce solutions.

2012

Matthew Pyzyk (MBA) has been promoted to vice president of Green Courte Partners LLC, a private equity real estate investment firm focused on building companies within niche real estate sectors. Pyzyk joined Green Courte in June 2012.

CJ Webster (EMBA) was promoted to director of segment management for LexisNexis, corporate legal segment. Webster was also recognized by the American Association of Inside Sales Professionals as a 2014 Top 25 Most Influential Inside Sales Professionals.

2011

Kirk Reich (EMBA) has been named senior vice president, manufacturing, at AK Steel, West Chester, Ohio. Reich assumes responsibility for the company’s manufacturing operations, as well as the company’s safety and quality programs.

2009

Scott Filer (EMBA) was recently named president and CEO of One Hope United, headquartered in Chicago. Each year, One Hope United serves nearly 20,000 children and families through foster care, early learning and child development, clinical support and intact family services in Illinois, Wisconsin, Missouri and Florida. Filer previously lead the National Children’s Center in Washington, D.C.

2007

Brian H. Veith (BBA MGTE) was appointed SVP of Commercial Banking by the Board of Directors of Mt. Washington Savings Bank. Veith joined Mt. Washington Savings Bank from The Huntington National Bank, where he was commercial relationship manager for Huntington’s middle market division.

2006

Kyle Chamberlain (BBA MARK) was named to the Michiana Forty Under 40, which honors the area’s most talented and dedicated young executives, professionals and leaders who demonstrate career success and community engagement. Chamberlain is corporate counsel for the regional commerical real estate firm Bradley Co.

2005

Joe Herman (MBA) was recently appointed COO and CFO for Hickory Farms Inc., the specialty food and holiday gift retailer. In this position, Herman will provide leadership and support to the company’s executives responsible for holiday markets, franchise operations and supply chain as well as finance and administration.

Nitin Jain (MBA) has been appointed executive vice president and CFO at Leisureworld Senior Care Corp.

Patrick Ringsred (BBA FIN) has been named an associate at the investment banking firm Cleary Gull Inc. Ringsred joined the firm in 2007.

2004

Ryan Chimenti (MBA) has been named managing director for the investment banking firm Cleary Gull Inc. Chimenti will be responsible for executing transactions across several industries, business development and private equity coverage.

Chad Kohorst (MSA, BBA ACCT) has joined Maranon Capital, L.P. as a senior fund accountant. Kohorst is responsible for financial planning, analysis and reporting.

2003

Gregory Stewart (EMBA) has joined WESCO as a managing director in Singapore. He has responsibility for managing the China, SE Asia and Australia operations. Stewart has more than 20 years of electrical distribution experience with GE and Rexel, including leadership roles while living in China as an expatriate.

Kristin Zielmanski (BBA MARK) was recently promoted to principal at Berman Fink Van Horn P.C., Atlanta, where she practices in the area of business and real estate litigation, labor and employment and legal ethics. Zielmanski currently serves as president of the Atlanta Council of Younger Lawyers and is a member of the Community Bankers Association of Georgia and the Lawyers Club of Atlanta.

2002

Stephanie Cerney (MSA, BBA ACCT ‘01) was named to the Michiana Forty Under 40, which honors the area’s most talented and dedicated young executives, professionals and leaders who demonstrate career success and community engagement. She is a senior manager at Crowe Horwath LLP. 

2001

Joshua T. Brumm (BBA FIN) has been named the CFO at Versartis Inc. Brumm will lead the company’s financial operations including responsibility for investor relations.

Brant Ust (BBA MARK) has been named executive director of the Notre Dame Monogram Club. Ust became one of the most decorated players in Notre Dame baseball history and played nine years of professional baseball.

2000

Tim Emerick (BBA ACCT) was named to the Michiana Forty Under 40, which honors the area’s most talented and dedicated young executives, professionals and leaders who demonstrate career success and community engagement. Emerick is a partner at Barnes & Thornburg LLP.

1998

Bill Cerney (BBA ACCT) was named to the Michiana Forty Under 40, which honors the area’s most talented and dedicated young executives, professionals and leaders who demonstrate career success and community engagement. He is a client executive at Surety, Gibson. 

Brandon Solano (MBA) has been named senior vice president of marketing for The Wendy’s Company. Solano will lead the company’s brand marketing efforts.

1997

Louie Gentine (BBA FIN) has been promoted to CEO of Sargento Foods Inc. Gentine is a third-generation owner of the company and has most recently served as president and chief customer officer.

Steve Lind (MBA) has been named president of Kelley Blue Book. In this role, he will oversee all aspects of the brand and business. Lind previously served as Kelley Blue Book’s vice president of operations.

Darin Schmalz (BBA MARK) has joined Maranon Capital, L.P. as a principal. In this role, he is responsible for sourcing and evaluating investment opportunities as well as transaction execution and portfolio management with a particular focus on Maranon’s senior debt and unitranche strategies.

Patrick Slater (EMBA) is the managing director of Horton International, a global, retainer-only executive search and management consulting firm with 50 offices in 27 countries. Slater has responsibility for the Financial Services Practice Group on a national basis.

1995

Patrick McCullough (MBA, ND ‘95) Patrick McCullough has been appointed CFO of Just Energy Group Inc. McCullough
has an 18-year career of progressive experience in senior financial roles.

Nicholas Vakkur and Zulma Herrera (BBA FIN) recently published a book, Corporate Governance Regulation: How Poor Management is Destroying the Global Economy (J. Wiley & Sons, 2013). Vakkur is the founder of Vakkur.org, a nonpartisan think tank whose mission is to help corporations manage risk while positively influencing corporate governance policy through comprehensive analysis. Herrera serves as the acting CEO of Vakkur.org, where she helps corporate clients improve their ability to manage risk.

1994

Tim O’Neill (BBA MARK), president-elect of the University of Notre Dame’s Alumni Association, recently joined the University’s Board of Trustees in an ex officio capacity. O’Neill and his brother Ryan (‘97), who perform on two pianos as The O’Neill Brothers, have sold more than 10 million copies of their music and were nominated for an Emmy Award.

Michael Quinn (BBA FIN) has joined Annaly Capital Management, Inc. as head of equity commercial real estate investment.

1990

James (Jim) Corr (BBA ACCT) has been appointed the executive VP and CFO of Scivantage®, a Global FinTech 100 technology provider of information-enabled software.

Pete Disser (BBA FIN) is pleased to share that his son, Jack is a member of Notre Dame’s incoming freshman class. Jack is planning to enroll in Mendoza and study finance. Disser also shares that he recently ran the Indanapolis Mini-Marathon with fellow alumni Kevin Hipskind and Kevin Kennedy (both BBA FIN ‘90) and Joe Cripe (BBA ACCT ‘86) and Ray Kennedy (ND ‘87). Disser is CFO of NIPSCO.

Sean Fitzpatrick (BBA ACCT) has been named the managing director of North American Research Solutions at LexisNexis Legal & Professional. Fitzpatrick is responsible for the U.S. research business, which delivers information resources and insights to legal professionals in law firms, corporations and government. He also oversees the company’s Canadian business operations. 

Michael Flynn (BBA FIN), CFA, has joined Wedbush Securities Capital Markets Group as managing director and head of the municipal securities division.

James Rojas (BBA ACCT) has joined HBR Consulting LLC as managing director and corporate development officer. Rojas has more than 20 years of experience in finance, management consulting, and mergers and acquisitions.

1989

Scott Smith (BBA FIN) has been hired by City National Bank to serve as senior vice president and manager of its commercial banking team in San Francisco. Smith will help lead City National’s commercial banking activities throughout the Bay Area.

1987

Frederick W. Ahlholm (BBA ACCT) has been appointed vice president of finance and CFO at Minerva Neurosciences, a leader in the development of new therapies to treat neuropsychiatric diseases and disorders.

1986

Scott C. Malpass (MBA), Notre Dame’s VP and CIO, will receive the Lifetime Achievement Award from Chief Investment Officer (CIO) magazine during ceremonies in December. In CIO’s announcement of the award, Malpass was praised as “an investor (who) grew alongside the endowment, both becoming among the most respected in the institutional universe.”

John Pietrowicz (BBA ACCT) has been promoted to senior managing director and CFO of CME Group. Pietrowicz has been with the company since 2003 and has been serving most recently as senior managing director, corporate development and finance and deputy CFO.

Stephen Rolfs (BBA ACCT) has been apointed SVP and CFO of Sensient Technologies Corporation SXT. Rolfs, who joined Sensient in 1997, currently serves as SVP, administration.

1985

Martin Dunn (BBA FIN) is a corporate finance partner based in Morrison & Foerster’s Washington, D.C. office. Prior to his career in private law, Dunn spent 20 years at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, having served as chief counsel, deputy director and acting director of the SEC’s Division of Corporation Finance, as a highly respected counselor to public companies.

1983

Dan Hammer (BBA MGT) was recently appointed to the newly created position of general manager, frozen division for Inventure Foods Inc., a leading specialty food marketer and manufacturer.

Michael Mulligan (BBA ACCT) has joined Mechanics Bank as VP, Real Estate Industries Group. Mulligan has management experience in commercial and multi-family real estate loans and equity investments and transactions for large banks and small companies throughout the Bay Area and western United States.

1982

Frank T. Connor (BBA FIN) has been appointed to the board of directors of Cohen & Steers Inc. Connor is the executive vice president and CFO of Textron Inc.

1981

Tom McCabe (MBA) has joined Orbital Sciences Corp. as senior VP, general counsel and secretary. McCabe will direct Orbital’s legal, ethics and compliance, and regulatory affairs functions and will be based at the company’s headquarters in Dulles, Va.

1980

Robert F. Carey (BBA ACCT) was appointed executive vice president and chief business officer at Horizon Pharma.

Tom Crotty (BBA FIN) was elected to the Board of Trustees for the University of Notre Dame. Crotty is a senior adviser at Battery Ventures in Boston after previously serving as managing general partner for the firm. He has served on the board of the National Venture Capital Association and chairs the board of directors for Grassroots Soccer, a nonprofit that seeks to eradicate HIV/AIDS in Africa. He also has served as a member of the Mendoza College of Business Advisory Council and the advisory board of the Gigot Center for Entrepreneurship at Notre Dame, currently sits on the board of The Foundation for MetroWest and is a trustee of the St. Mark’s School in Southborough, Mass.

Kevin Manion (BBA ACCT) recently received a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Orange County Business Journal’s Seventh Annual CFO of the Year Awards. Manion, who is CFO for Aliso Viejo-based liquor and wine wholesaler Young’s Market Co., previously was employed at Hostess Brands LLC and Nestlé USA.

Greg Sebasky (BBA ACCT) has been named CEO of Ascend Learning, a provider of technology-based learning solutions that efficiently deliver superior student results in health care and other professional fields.

1979

Eric J. Letendre (MBA), has been named senior trust and investment officer for First National Bank of Santa Fe. Letendre is primarily responsible for providing trust administration, financial planning advice and solutions for high-net worth clients, trusts, entrepreneurs, retirees and endowments.

Andrew McKenna Jr. (BBA ACCT) was recently elected to the Board of Trustees for the University of Notre Dame. McKenna is the founder and president of Central Street Games, a mobile game developer. He previously served as president of Schwarz Paper Company. McKenna was education chairman of the Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce and chairman of the Illinois Business Education Coalition, a strong voice for school reform embracing educational standards and accountability. He serves on the advisory board of Notre Dame’s Alliance for Catholic Education, the School Board of the Archdiocese of Chicago and the board of trustees of Rush University Medical Center.

Raymond V. O’Brien III (BBA FIN) has been elected to serve as vice chairman of the board by the board of directors of CVB Financial Corp. and its principal subsidiary, Citizens Business Bank. O’Brien has served on the board since 2012.

1977

Charles B. Amman (BBA FIN) was appointed EVP, general counsel and corporate secretary at Semtech Corporation, a supplier of analog and mixed-signal semiconductors.

Dennis Hanno (BBA ACCT) was unanimously appointed president of Wheaton College by its Board of Trustees. Hanno will be the eighth president in the college’s 180-year history. He took office on July 15, 2014.

1975

Stephen Hare (BBA) has been appointed EVP and CFO for Office Depot, Inc.

1973

Patrick T. Mulva (BBA MGT), vice president and controller of Exxon Mobil Corporation, has retired after more than 38 years of service. Mulva joined Exxon Company U.S.A. in 1976 as a financial analyst at the company’s refinery in Baton Rouge, La., and went on to hold a variety of financial positions of increasing responsibility in the upstream and downstream operations.

Weddings

Betsy O’Neill (MSA ‘11, ‘10) married Garrett Busch (MBA ‘10, ’09) at St. John the Baptist Catholic Church in Napa,Calif., followed by a night of dancing under the vineyard that is home to the winery that they run together, Trinitas Cellars, at the Meritage Resort in Napa.

The wedding party included several Domers: Bridget (O’Neill) Zand (MBA ‘08, ‘07), Eric Cherney (‘06), Katie (Motto) DeMott (BBA MGTC10), Ann-Marie Woods (‘10), Meghan Pearl (BBA ACCT ‘10), Alison Schilling (MBA ‘11, ‘10), James O’Neill (Class of ‘15), Patrick Seul (‘06), Kevin May (MBA ‘10), and Thomas Le (‘07).

The night concluded with the ND Victory March with the newlyweds and more than 50 of their fellow Domers singing the Alma Mater. Betsy and Garrett Busch are residing in Napa and will continue to run their family winery, Trinitas Cellars.