Cynthia RockwellVivian Chau ’03 was selected by Pacific Business News as one of the “Forty Under 40” young Hawaii business leaders last summer, and then in December, the Honolulu Star Advertiser named her one of the “10 people who changed Hawaii in 2010.” An art history major at Wesleyan and an elementary school teacher, Chau developed and now heads a donation project that provides 1,000 pounds of fresh, locally produced food to the homeless each month. Her “Give It Fresh Today”—or GIFT—program began last year, when she set up a table at the entrance of the Hawaii Farm Bureau’s farmers market…
Tim Spencer ’97 was named vice president of worldwide sales for Skyword, an innovative venture that has trade-marked the term “search-driven media” (SDM) to describe its service. Spencer will create and oversee the company’s global sales initiatives. Previously vice president of sales for Gerson Lehrman Group, a market research firm maintaining the world’s largest network of subject-matter experts, Spencer began his career with Good Machine, a leading independent producer and distributor of award-winning films, such as The Ice Storm, In The Bedroom and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. In 2002, the company was acquired by NBC Universal and renamed Focus Features.…
Kenneth Kimmell '82 was named commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection. Previously he was general counsel for the executive office of Energy and Environmental Affairs, joining Governor Duval Patrick’s team in 2007. Energy and Environment secretary-designate Richard Sullivan has described Kimmell as the “legal lead” on all aspects of recent state energy and environmental policy. Kimmell has been credited with overseeing the state permitting of Cape Wind, the nation’s first off-shore wind project, as well as leading environmental permitting changes and drafting land-based wind energy siting reform legislation. Additionally, he has focused on the development and early implementation…
Robert G. McKelvey ’59, of Sea Girt, N.J., was named a Distinguished Friend of Oxford University by the university’s chancellor, Lord Patten of Barnes, during a ceremony at the Waldorf-Astoria in New York as part of the university’s recent North American reunion. Founded in 1998, the Distinguished Friend citation has been awarded to 42 Oxonians of approximately 180,000 Oxford alumni. The citation noted McKelvey as the “driving force” behind the Merton College Charitable Corporation, the alumni organization of Mertonians in the Americas since its formation in 1994. Merton College, one of the Oxford’s 45 colleges and halls, was founded in…
David M. Gruppo ’79 has joined the Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ, Ltd. (BTMU) as head of Latin America Corporate and Investment Banking, a newly created position. He reports to Randall Chafetz, head of corporate and investment banking for the Americas. Gruppo has spent a significant portion of his career involved in Latin American corporate and investment banking, including positions with Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and Santander. During the past eight years, he has been focused on the technology sector, working in various capacities with IBM, including T J Watson Research. An economics major at Wesleyan, he earned his JD from…
Jonathan Dube ’94 joined AOL as senior vice president and general manager of AOL news and information. Previously, he was vice president of ABCNews.com. Dube has twice served as president of the Online News Association and is now on the board of directors for the association. In a press release, David Eun, president of AOL media and studios, calls Dube "[e]qual parts journalist and business strategist,” and says that he is “adept at building online content partnerships and creating exceptional user experiences." "At the heart of my passion for journalism is my long-time interest in how technology is transforming the…
On Nov. 30, CBS named Marysol Castro '96 the weather anchor for "The Early Show,” beginning Jan. 3. This was part of the network’s sweeping change for the show, replacing the entire weekday anchor team of “The Early Show” with their weekend counterparts. Castro had most recently served as the weather anchor and feature correspondent for the ABC News weekend edition of Good Morning America (2004–2010). In conjunction with studio coverage of the national weather outlook, Castro also reported weather-related stories from the field, including several from New Orleans and Florida, focused around the recent hurricanes. Additionally, she has also…
Katherine O’Brien ’75 was promoted to senior vice president and deputy general counsel at New York Life Insurance Company. She is responsible for managing the employment, litigation, ERISA, contracts, intellectual property, corporate transactions and administrative units of the Office of the General Counsel. Previously, she was first vice president and deputy counsel after serving as the company’s chief diversity officer. She had joined New York Life in 1995 as a litigator, specializing in employment litigation and benefits compliance. O’Brien earned a J.D. degree from Brooklyn Law School. At Wesleyan, she majored in English.
“Mapendo International’s efforts to rescue and resettle one Darfuri family to the U.S. aired on ABC’s World News with Bob Woodruff (standing in for Diane Sawyer), Sunday, Nov. 21,” writes Sasha Chanoff ’94, founder and executive director of the Boston-based international refugee agency. Mapendo International rescues refugees in life-threatening situations by permanently relocating them to countries where they can rebuild their lives in safety and with dignity. Earlier this year, David Low ’76 wrote about Chanoff for WesLive, when Chanoff was awarded the Charles Bronfman Prize, which recognizes an individual under the age of 50 who has contributed to the…
Adrienne Bentman ’74, M.D., director for the adult psychiatry residency program at the Institute of Living/Hartford Hospital, received the 2010 Robert Cancro Academic Leadership Award from the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (AACAP). The Cancro award recognizes a professional serving in a leadership role for his or her contributions to the promotion of child and adolescent psychiatry. At the annual meeting of the AACAP, Bentman presented a talk on her recent work: “The Little Engine That Could; Re-Establishing the Institute of Living’s Residencies.”
Beth Rose ’84, P’14, of Sills Cummis and Gross P.C., was recognized as one of the 10 Most Admired Product Liability Attorneys by Law 360: Newswire for Business Lawyers. Rose, whose specialty is defending pharmaceutical and medical device companies facing product liability and mass tort litigation, has “earned a reputation as a quick thinker and a team player,” according to fellow litigators who nominated her for the title. A history major at Wesleyan, she received her J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center and joined Sills Cummis immediately afterward. Her first case involved defending medical device manufacturer Becton Dickinson & Company in…
Singer and composer Peter Durwood ’86, who crafts music and sound design for Sesame Workshop digital products, recently created the sound for a Sesame video that has become popular on YouTube. In it, Grover, the furry blue monster, riffs on the Old Spice web-ads. “I was an art major at Wes, but an unofficial music minor, particularly enjoying Mark Slobin's Worlds of Music course, several semesters of African Drumming with Abraham Adzinyah, and Bill Lowe's remarkable History of African-American Music,” says Durwood. His album, Peter Durwood, will soon be available on iTunes.