Cynthia RockwellMost people don’t become CFO of a national organization just one year out of Wesleyan—as a first job, no less—but Seth Halpern '09 did just that. A government major, he moved to Washington D.C. after graduation to look for employment, but the job market was difficult and a month later he was still unemployed. One morning at a local cafe he got to chatting with someone who said he worked at a software start-up, NationalField. Halpern admits that he’s always been “tech savvy” and the two hit it off. From there, he was introduced to the NationalField founders and he…
Thomas Cowhey ’94 was appointed vice president of Aetna Investor Relations, responsible for maintaining the company’s relationship with the investor and analyst communities. Cowhey, who joined Aetna in 2007, has most recently served the company as managing director of new business development. Prior to his affiliation with Aetna, he was a principal with Legacy Partners Group, an independent investment banking firm, and also had been a vice president at Credit Suisse First Boston. At Wesleyan, he majored in economics. He holds an MBA, with a concentration in health sector management, from Duke. Aetna Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer…
Elise Bean ’78 was selected as one of this year’s most influential women lawyers in Washington, by the National Law Journal. Chosen as one of only 33—based upon reporting over the past year and nominations from the D.C. legal community— Bean is the Democratic staff director and chief counsel of the U.S. Senate's Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. The National Law Journal credits Bean and her fellow honorees, which include the two Supreme Court justices, with setting the legal agenda in the nation’s capital. Bean leads a team of Capitol Hill investigators, who have explored commodities trading, money laundering, offshore tax…
Judge Anthony J. Scirica ’62, of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, was one of two justices presented with the 28th Annual Edward J. Devitt Distinguished Service to Justice Awards on Sept. 13 in Washington, D.C. The Devitt award, administered by the American Judicature Society, is given annually to honor judges “whose careers have been exemplary, measured by their significant contribution to the administration of justice, the advancement of the rule of law, and the improvement of our society as a whole.” William D. Johnston, president of the society, noted in the press release that, “The award…
Dr. Joseph J. Fins ’82, chief of the Division of Medical Ethics at Weill Cornell Medical College, has been elected to the Institute of Medicine (IOM) of the National Academies. IOM membership is considered one of the highest honors in the fields of health and medicine. Announced Oct. 11, at the IOM's annual meeting in Washington, D.C., Fins is among 65 new members and four foreign associates elected this year. "Each of these new members stands out as a professional whose research, knowledge, and skills have significantly advanced health and medicine and who has served as a model for others,"…
Diana Farrell ’87, deputy assistant to the President on economic policy and deputy director of the National Economic Council, was the subject of a Fortune magazine interview. Writer Tory Newmyer was exploring the impending departure of Farrell’s boss, Larry Summers, director of the National Economic Council, at midterm elections. When asked what Farrell thinks Summers’ legacy will be, she told Newmyer: “I think his legacy and the President's legacy are going to be extraordinary. Consider the first 18 months of this administration, when Larry was really a key architect of a lot of the economic policy, it was an unprecedented…
David Resnick ’81, P’13 was appointed chairman of Global Financing Advisory for The Rothschild Group, in the company’s new management structure in North America. He will help further integrate and develop Rothschild's successful debt, restructuring, and equity advisory businesses around the world, all of which have grown substantially in recent years. Resnick was also involved in the US government’s restructuring of the auto industry last winter. Then co-head of investment banking, Resnick was advising parts maker Delphi in its bankruptcy. Advising the government on the restructuring of GM and Chrysler has been beneficial to Rothschild. Last year it was ranked…
Jonathan Schwartz '87, former CEO of Sun Microsystems, recently announced a new venture in the area of health technology called Picture of Health. In a recent blog, Schwartz writes: "We’re not saying much beyond 'we’re focusing on the intersection of innovation and public health,' but we are starting to build out a dev and design team. So if you care about health and technology, we’d love to hear from you here. "Why are we focusing on health? It’s ultimately a personal choice for both of us. For me, perhaps the most satisfying part of my last job was seeing Sun’s…
Matthew Glaser '87 has been promoted to a newly created position, chief of investment strategies and executive managing director, at Turner Investment Partners, an employee-owned investment-management firm. In this new position, Glaser will be the senior manager responsible for overseeing the firm’s diverse investment strategies. He will monitor portfolio risks and characters and help develop new investment strategies and business opportunities. He will also assist the distribution team with presentations to prospective clients. With this appointment, Glaser has become an executive managing director and a member of the executive management group. Before joining Turner, Glaser worked for Susquehanna International Group…
The cable debut of 9500 Liberty will be Sunday, Sept. 26th, at 8 p.m. (ET/PT) on MTV2, mtvU (MTV’s 24-hour college network), and Tr3s: MTV, Música y Más (formerly MTV Tr3s) as part of Hispanic Heritage Month. The critically acclaimed documentary, 9500 Liberty, is directed by Annabel Park and Eric Byler ’94 and chronicles the social, political, and economic impact of The Immigration Resolution, a law closely resembling Arizona’s SB 1070 that was briefly implemented in a Virginia county in 2008. “The decisions our elected representatives make on immigration reform now will impact our audience for generations,” said Stephen Friedman…
The eight portraits are larger-than-life, eight feet tall, of heroic proportions. Four of the subjects wear the baggy, bright orange garb of prisoners—which they are. The other four subjects are teens who have an incarcerated parent. In each painting, background icons—a hand grabbing the ankle, a daughter at the ocean, a zoo, family photographs from the past, a mask falling into a breaking mirror—depict the stories of these lives affected by the correctional system. The oil and acrylic portraits were produced in what San Francisco artist and teacher Evan Bissell ’05 calls a “collaborative dialogue. They were on exhibit at SOMArts…
Cynthia Baker '84, associate professor of religious studies at Bates College, received $50,400 from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) to support her research into one of history’s most fraught identity terms: Jew. The NEH grant will allow Baker to research and write a book set for publication in the “Key Words in Jewish Studies,” series published by Rutgers University Press. Baker notes that no studies exist that analyze the use and the historical development—from ancient times through the postmodern era—of ‘Jew’ as a term. Baker’s year-long research will involve experts and archives in the U.S., Europe, and Israel.…