Class Notes

 Dan Nicholson - '03 BABA

Dan Nicholson, CEO of Nth Degree CPA's, a non-traditional financial consulting firm, was recently interviewed by Q13 Fox News regarding the fiscal cliff. Prior to Nth Degree, Nicholson worked in Private Industry Accounting and was a Senior Auditor with Deloitte & Touche, LLP. 

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Senay Kahsay – '08 BABA

Senay Kahsay has taken on a new job as a Supply Market Analyst at The Boeing Company. Previously, Kahsay was a Business and Planning Analyst as well as a Procurement Agent for Boeing.

Michelle Swenson – '12 MBA

Michelle Swenson has accepted a position with the North Dakota Soybean Council (NDSC) as their Director of Marketing and Development. She will be working on expanding the NDSC's domestic and international marketing efforts.

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Alex Blum– ’89 MBA

Alex Blum is featured in an episode of "Friending", a Big Fuel original series. In this episode, Big Fuel founder and CEO, Avi Savar interviews Blum about his position as the CEO at KickApps.

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DeAnna Poling– ’88 MBA

DeAnna Poling has left her position of regional president at One Pacific Coast Bank for a position as the community investment operations manager at Federal Home Loan Bank of Seattle.

Gayatri Eassey – ’12 MBA

Gayatri Eassey has just accepted a new position with the College Success Foundation and will strive to support low-income students to gain access to and complete their college career.

John Parrott – '01, MBA

Totem Ocean Trailer Express Inc announced on Oct. 25 that the company's president, John Parrott, was honored earlier this month by his alma mater, the U.S. Merchant Maritime Academy for the 2011 Outstanding Professional Achievement Award. This award is given to the USMMA graduate "who best exemplifies the finest tradition of the Corps, 'Acta Non Verba' (meaning act, don't talk), by attaining personal achievement in their chosen field and thus lending honor and prestige to the USMMA."

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Jerod Pierce – ’08, BABA

Jerod Pierce has been added to the operating team at GenNx360 Capital Partners, a middle-market and private equity buyout fund. Pierce's main priorities will include a focus on operational value creation, operational due diligence, and working hand-in-hand with portfolio management in order to identify operational value creation opportunities to be implemented.

 Dr. Bogdan Dziurzynski - MBA

Anthera Pharmaceuticals has appointed Dr. Bogdan Dziurzynski to its board of directors. Bogdan's extensive background in the global regulatory and broad industry experience will help support the biopharmaceutical company in evolving the FDA regulatory landscape.

Ronette Snyder – MBA

Ronette Snyder has taken on a new position as the VP of Marketing at Haagen, Inc.

 Paul Sonnier – ’05, MBA

Popper and Company have just announced Paul Sonnier as their new Head  of Digital Health Strategy. Popper and Co. is an M&A advisory consulting firm dedicated to helping clients address complex business challenges across the life sciences sector. Mr. Sonnier is widely known as a founder of Wireless Health Group and is well-versed in the medical and wireless-health related technology industry.

 Jonathan LeCompte – ’92, BABA

Jonathan has just been named president of the Georgia/Alabama region for Verizon Wireless. He has been with Verizon Wireless and legacy companies for almost 20 years and will bring great leadership, experience and dedication to his new position.

Mariam Abarientos – ’04, BABA

Mariam was recently promoted to accounting supervisor at Lease Crutcher Lewis. She has been with the company since 1996 and graduated from the Albers School of Business & Economics with an accounting degree.

Kyle Quinn – ’08, MBA

Paccar utilizes their IT leadership to design and to bring awareness to the importance of having in-vehicle electronics for their trucking business.

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Gary Danklefsen - ’74, BABA

Commerce Real Estate Solutions, a Cushman & Wakefield Alliance (Commerce) has hired Gary Danklefsen as senior director of Investment Sales in the downtown Seattle office. Danklesen's experience and knowledge in extensive investment sales, corporate services and development expertise over the last 30 years will assist him in his new position as he focuses on the investment sales of the Puget Sound region's commerical office properties. 

 Jason McGill - ’98,'01, BABA

Jason has updated his job title to Executive Policy Advisor to the Governor.

Duff McKagan

Although he may be known for being a legendary rock star in both Guns N' Roses and Velvet Revolver, Duff McKagan has always had an interest in pursuing other ventures. Keep your eyes peeled for a new movie, which will feature McKagan's current band McKagan has also added to his plate the role of being a financial advisor to wealth management firm Meridian Rock.  FULL ARTICLE  

Elena Kameva – ’05, MBA

Elena was recently hired for the newly created position of European Business Development Manager specifically in the Eastern Europe and Russia regions for Quanax Building Products Corporation. The company specializes in producing both innovative and energy-efficient products for windows and doors.  FULL ARTICLE  

Bonnie Lehenbauer – ’10, MBA

Bonnie recently left her position at Microsoft as a content publishing manager for the Xbox Division to join NanoFacture, INC. as the Vice President of Business Development. Bonnie previously worked with the company in ’09 for the business plan competition and will continue to help them acquire additional funding that will support their work involving serious health issues.

May McCarthy – ’85, BABA

Advisory Board Member and SU Grad, May McCarthy, has announced that her company, Phacts will collaborate with CareFusion in an exclusive agreement to improve efficiency within hospital pharmacies.

Bernard ("Dino") M. Alfano – ’83, BABA

Dino is currently directing commercial operations, including global manufacturing, for diaDexus - a San Francisco based company. Previously, he was President of Iris Diagnostics, a subsidiary of Iris International. At Iris Diagnostics, Mr. Alfano was instrumental in growing sales from $30 million in 2003 to $70 million in 2006, and expanding distribution from three to 60 countries. He also has served as Vice President of Business and Product Development, at Oxibio, and as Vice President of Global Sales and Marketing, at Litmus Concepts, two early stage biotech companies.

Erin L. Galeno – ’01, PBEXL

The Port of Tacoma has named Erin Galeno as its new chief financial officer. Before joining the Port, Galeno spent 23 years with Weyerhaeuser Company, most recently in the position of controller for corporate support functions. In her new position at the Port, Galeno is responsible for leading the Port's financial strategy, performance measures, capital formation, financial analysis and modeling, budgeting, treasury, accounting and reporting.

Christopher M. Dorling – ’97, BAE

Chris has updated his current title to Associate at Northwest Energy Systems Co.

Tara A. Daniels - ’08, BABA

Tara has has updated her current title to Network Operations Manager for Performance Segment at Microsoft.

Reagan H. Beaton - ’06, JD

Since graduating, Reagan has joined the US Air Force Judge Advocate General's (JAG) Corps and now finds himself living and working in Japan.

Justin W. Hanseth - ’08, BABA

Justin has just returned from living and working in East Africa for the past year. He held a management position in a rural health clinic, and began the Food Security project for Village Health Works. WEBSITE  

Robert H. Alley - ’07, MBA

Rob has been appointed Senior Marketing Manager at Bensussen Deutsch & Associates.

Peter W. Drury - ’09, MBA

Peter recently launched a strategy firm, DZO Strategists. They have a particular concern for financial discipline, sustainable fundraising, and strategic wisdom that efficiently integrates these two with the program and mission at hand. WEBSITE  

Tara A. Daniels - ’08, BABA

Tara has been hired onto the Network Media Operations team as an Advertising Operations Associate at Microsoft.

Weldon (“Butch”) Leonardson - ’76, MBA

Butch has recently jointed the Board of Trustees at the Highline Medical Center.

Steven P. Matsumoto - ’98, BABA

Steve has been selected to serve on the Tower 39 Club Board, representing members under the age of forty in Seattle's Columbia Tower Club.