New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio recently appointed Shola Olatoye ’96 as chairwoman of the New York City Housing Authority. Olatoye’s last position was vice president at Enterprise Community Partners, a nonprofit organization that advocates affordable housing nationally. The previous head of the authority was John Rhea ’87. The mayor made the announcement at the Abraham Lincoln Houses in Harlem, a complex of 1,282 apartments in which de Blasio and other Democratic candidates spent a night during the mayoral campaign in order to get a firsthand look at the “moldy walls and broken cabinets” that constitute the disrepair of…

Starz CEO Chris Albrecht has named John Penney '87 Chief Strategy Officer at Starz, the integrated global media and entertainment company. Penney will work closely with the CEO to extend the company’s corporate and business growth strategies via partnerships, ventures and innovative models for new business opportunities. “His deep insight into the global media and entertainment ecosystem is uniquely valued,” said Albrecht, in a press release. “He has set a high bar in providing our management team with keen industry analysis that has been invaluable to our decision making, and we look forward to John’s continued contributions to helping grow…

In November 2013, the White House nominated Stefan Selig ’84 as under secretary of international trade for the United States Department of Commerce. Since 2009, he’s served as executive vice chairman of global corporate and investment banking at Bank of America Merrill Lynch. The Obama administration rarely appoints Wall Street bankers, especially from Bank of America, so this is an exceptional case. If confirmed by the senate, Selig will head the International Trade Administration, working toward the expansion of American industry, job creation and the promotion of exports. Selig earned his BA from Wesleyan and an MBA from Harvard Business…

Maggie McLean Suniewick ’97, who served as vice president of programming for Comcast Cable, has been named senior vice president of Strategic Integration, linking NBCUniversal and Comcast. It is now her task to find creative, technological and strategic opportunities between Comcast, the nation’s largest video, high-speed Internet and phone provider, and NBCUniversal’s portfolio, which includes broadcast networks (17 cable networks and more than 50 digital properties), a motion picture company, television production operations, a television stations group and theme parks. Suniewick — an economics major at Wesleyan who went on to obtain an MBA from Columbia — will lead the charge on NBCUniversal’s…

Since September 2013, Paul Chill ’78 has been presiding as the associate dean for clinical and experimental education at the University of Connecticut School of Law. He first joined the UConn faculty in 1988 and is known for his advocacy on behalf of parents and families. Chill teaches legal ethics, legal interviewing, counseling and negotiation, torts and criminal law and has supervised clinical programs relating to child protection, civil rights, disability, mental health law and mediation. Between his time as a government major at Wesleyan and the present, he has worked with dangerous juvenile offenders, graduated from UConn Law (in…

Over a lunch of pizza in Beckham Hall on Dec. 5, Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian, a serial entrepreneur and author of Without Their Permission, addressed a crowded hall of nearly 200 students. He spoke on the importance of the internet, which allows us to access “an incredible amount of information,” and our ability to make use of it to develop new ideas, through maintaining an entrepreneurial mindset. Asking for a showing of hands of those involved in their own creative endeavors, he invited students to seize all opportunities to tell people about their idea—and to view all failures as the…

Larry Woolard II '03 was sworn into the City of Middletown Police Department in October 2013. At Wesleyan, he was a religion studies major and captain of the football team. "Larry was quite a football player for Xavier High School and for the Cardinals, especially in an exciting Homecoming win over Williams. I suspect he is one of Wesleyan's first local police officers," said John Driscoll, advisor in the Wesleyan Career Center.

Rayman Solomon ’68, dean of the Rutgers School of Law-Camden, was named to the newly created role of provost for the Rutgers-Camden campus. As chief academic officer, Solomon will work the Rutgers-Camden’s academic departments on achieving rigorous standards for curriculum and faculty development. Solomon will begin his new responsibilities as provost on Jan. 1, 2014, and will continue to serve as dean of the Rutgers-Camden law school, a position he accepted in 1998, until July 1, 2014. Under Solomon’s leadership as dean, the school opened a new, state-of-the-art $37 million classroom building in 2008. He also oversaw the school greatly…

Moira McNamara James '78 P’10, P’16, was named chair of the board for Landmark School, an independent, coeducational boarding and day school serving students in grades 2–12 who have language-based learning disabilities, such as dyslexia. The mission of the school also includes an extensive educational outreach program to parents and professionals, as well as a research collaboration with the Harvard Graduate School of Education. “I am honored to serve in this role,” said James in a press release. “Landmark’s Trustees are an impressive group of individuals. We all passionately believe in the remarkable and life changing work that the school…