Alumni Class Notes

Dina Tamimi ’99, Director of Smart Cities and Industry Verticals, Honeywell Building Technologies, Middle East, Turkey and Africa, discusses shaping the future of smart city living in a July 27, 2020, Honeywell article titled “Smart Cities from the Desert Up.”

Listen to her podcast on the topic.

Tina (Shah) Paikeday ’94, Executive Director and leader of the diversity and inclusion advisory practice at Russell Reynolds Associates, shares that interest in the role of chief diversity officer is increasing in response to the call for social justice, in a July 13, 2020, Wall Street Journal article titled “Demand for Chief Diversity Officers Is High. So Is Turnover.”

Jamie Hamilton ’07 recently joined global boutique William Blair as Managing Director, Financial Technology Investment Banking. He previously was a Managing Director at SunTrust Robinson Humphrey, covering the financial technology sector. Hamilton began his career at SunTrust Robinson Humphrey and later became a Private Equity Investor at H.I.G. Capital in Atlanta.

Alison Harbrecht ’99, Chief Finance Officer at General Dynamics Information Technology, recently won WashingtonExec’s 2020 Chief Officer Award for Public Company CFO. Harbrecht has over 17 years with GDIT, where she manages financial planning, reporting, accounting, government compliance, project financial management and control.

Karen Dong (M.S. in Commerce ’13) and Keer Liu (M.S. in Commerce ’13) welcomed their son, Yiran, born April 27, 2020. The family lives in Xiamen, Fujian, China.

Amy Yang ’14, along with Co-Founder Chad Blumenthal, has launched the Coffee for Healthcare Heroes initiative to bring cold-brew coffees to healthcare workers across New York City. Partnering with local coffee suppliers, Coffee for Healthcare Heroes delivers to more than 30 hospitals.

Christine Castellano ’99 and her sister Rosemarie Castellano have shared daily violin performances in honor of healthcare workers, first responders, essential workers, and their community in New Rochelle, NY, from their balcony since April. Every night at 7 p.m. everyone comes out to “Clap Because We Care,” which is encouraged by their mayor since New Rochelle was the epicenter of the coronavirus cluster in New York. The two were inspired to add a little more to this after seeing the cheer that musicians in Italy brought to others as they performed from their balconies. Rosemarie plays her violin while Christine films and handles their Facebook page, Balcony Ballads. They have been featured on NBC News, PBS.org, News 12 Westchester, NBC 4 New York, and various local online and printed publications. Visit Balcony Ballads’ Facebook page to enjoy their music.

Margaret Cooper Kenner (A&S ’09, M.S. in Commerce ’10) and her husband, Richard, are delighted to announce the birth of their second daughter, Chloe Charlotte, born April 17, 2020. The family lives in Cincinnati, where Ms. Kenner and her husband work in the consumer packaged goods industry, at Quotient Technology and Procter & Gamble.

Nabila Popal ’04, Research Director at IDC, commented on the largest ever decline of the global smartphone market, in the first quarter of 2020, in a May 1 Yahoo Finance/Bloomberg article titled “Global Smartphone Market Suffers Worst Contraction in History.” IDC is a global provider of market intelligence, advisory services, and events for the information technology, telecommunications, and consumer technology markets.

Omar Garriott ’02 has been appointed Global Industry Lead at experience management provider Qualtrics Education, where he is responsible for driving the global strategy of the company’s Education vertical across sales, marketing, product, and customer success. With over a decade of experience at leading technology companies, Garriott joined Qualtrics in March 2020 and immediately led the team in launching a series of free COVID-19 solutions to help schools across K-12 and higher education navigate an entirely new teaching and learning environment: the Remote Educator Pulse, K-12 Remote Learning Pulse, and Higher Ed Remote Learning Pulse. Thousands of schools are now using these solutions. Prior to Qualtrics, Garriott co-founded a new business for Salesforce in K-12 education as Senior Director for Education Cloud. Garriott previously launched and led the student/university team at LinkedIn and led iPad marketing for K-12 and higher education institutions at Apple. Garriott started his career as a Teach For America teacher.

Yi-Xian Ng (“Yix Ng”) ’09 and his wife, Zi En, are pleased to announce the birth of their twin boys, Kiran and Keegan, born March 9, 2020. Ng is the Executive Director at EtonHouse International Holdings in Singapore.

Meredith Tierney Shields ’05, Managing Director of Impact Investing at the Sorenson Impact Foundation, discusses the work her organization is doing with Village Capital to set up a consortium of entrepreneurs responding to the pandemic and investors looking to support such ventures. Their efforts were featured in an April 25, 2020, Forbes article titled “Linking Up Impact Enterprises Addressing COVID-19 and Investors Changing Their Focus—Fast.”

Mary Owen ’00 is a Life Trustee at the Ralph C. Wilson, Jr. Foundation, where she oversees the grant committee that reviews and approves grant applications for early childhood education, youth sports and recreation, and other community initiatives. The Foundation has recently allocated more than $6 million toward COVID-19 response efforts. Owen is also an Advisory Board Member at KB Partners.

Sarah Lau ’19, an Advisory Associate at PwC, was recently selected as an MVP (Rookie) for the firm’s Financial Services Advisory practice.

Jonathan D. Morris ’99 has been appointed Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer at ImageWare® Systems Inc., a leader in identity management software. Morris has more than 23 years of experience as a finance executive, holding key roles in financial management, mergers & acquisitions, private equity, merchant banking, and investment banking. His career includes key leadership positions with a large private family office in New York, where he led principal investments and structuring. He also had key roles with the Blackstone Group, Credit Suisse, Gain Capital, and Lombard, Odier et Cie. Most recently, he joins ImageWare from American Patriot Brands, a provider of consumer staples, where he served as CFO.

Joseph Linzon ’15 and Julie Nozet (A&S ’17), Co-Owners of Corner Juice, have created a University Hospital juice donation drive as a way to give back to the community and support UVA doctors and staff members who continue to work during the coronavirus pandemic. They also adjusted their business model to provide contactless services such as curbside pickup and delivery, and added an essentials kit of fruits and vegetables to their online menu.

Virginia Sharma ’99 has been appointed Vice President of Brand Solutions at JioSaavn, an Indian online music streaming service and a digital distributor of Bollywood, English, and other regional Indian music across the world. With more than 20 years of experience leading marketing and sales teams, Sharma joins JioSaavn from LinkedIn, where she excelled in the top 10% of sales leaders. Virginia also worked with IBM for more than 15 years in various global and regional roles, including India Vice President of Marketing and Communications, before joining LinkedIn Asia Pacific in 2014. In addition to having an impressive track record at some of the world’s largest technology companies, Sharma is an industry leader in her own right. She was recognized on the 2018 Economic Times Women Ahead list, as well as Impact Top 50 Women in Marketing Media and Advertising in both 2018 (#38) and 2019 (#35). Sharma was also the first chairperson for the Marketing Society India Chapter and is a member of McIntire’s Global Advisory Board. She was the first Indian leader to become a Marketing Academy Fellow delivered by McKinsey and Co. Sharma is currently pursuing her doctorate in Business Administration from the Indian School of Business, in Business Model Innovation.

Liza Borches ’97 is President and CEO of Carter Myers Automotive. The dealership’s dedicated staff has been helping members of the community during the COVID-19 pandemic, including running essential errands, keeping first-responder vehicles in working order, and making deliveries for Meals on Wheels.

Anton Levy ’96 was recently name to Forbes’ Midas List 2020 for his investments in tech. A familiar face on the list each year since 2014, the Co-President, Managing Director, and Global Head of General Atlantic’s Technology sector placed #74 in 2020 for leading the growth equity firm’s investment in business communication platform Slack.