Alumni Class Notes

  • Avina Sugiarto ’10, Partner at East Ventures, has been named to Fortune Indonesia’s 40 Under 40 list for 2025.

  • Nikki (Kiffe) Macdonald, CFP® ’07, Financial Advisor at Northwestern Mutual, has been recognized in Washingtonian magazine’s 2025 Best Financial Advisers list in the Washington, DC area. Washingtonian’s list is developed through a peer recommendation process backed by industry research. Only the top ~300 professionals across banks/brokerages, financial planners, tax accountants, insurance specialists, and estate attorneys in the DC metro made this year’s list.

  • Chris Vlahcevic ’84 has been appointed as an independent director to the Tredegar Corporation’s board of directors. Ms. Vlahcevic served as Senior Vice President, Finance and Chief Accounting Officer, for Performance Food Group from 2015 to 2023, before retiring from the company in 2024. Prior to her role at Performance Food Group, Ms. Vlahcevic held financial leadership roles for organizations in the biotechnology, financial services, manufacturing, and nonprofit sectors.

  • Ipek Ozerdem Unal ’04, Partner at Integra, was featured in the February issue of Marie Claire Turkey in an article highlighting women’s inspiring success stories.

  • Mary Yarbrough ’86 is joining the board of directors of First Tee – Greater Charleston to support the administration and growth of First Tee’s golf-based character education programs. Mary is an accomplished executive with extensive experience building and developing new business lines and leading business transformation initiatives in the telecom industry.  She currently serves as a Senior Advisor for Altman Solon, a global telecom, media and technology strategy consulting firm. Previously, Mary held senior leadership positions in business development, marketing, product, global sales, and operations during her 21-year career at Verizon Communications, most recently serving as SVP of the $3 billion Small Business segment. She joined Verizon after a six-year career in investment banking, focused on the TMT segment. Mary and her husband, Stuart, moved to Daniel Island in the Charleston area from Summit, NJ, in 2022.  The couple has two adult children. When Mary isn’t working, she enjoys staying active – golf, pickleball, tennis, and paddle (platform tennis) are personal favorites. She is also an extremely active business mentor, currently mentoring 25+ young women who are navigating consulting and banking careers.

  • Trent Holbrook ’16 has been promoted to Vice President at Blue Wolf Capital Partners, a private equity firm that focuses on value investments in middle market companies in the healthcare and industrial sectors. Mr. Holbrook joined Blue Wolf in 2022 after previously serving as an Associate at Eden Capital and an Analyst in the Mergers and Acquisitions investment banking group at Citi.

  • Addy Awofisayo ’07, Head of Music, Sub-Saharan Africa at YouTube, has joined The Bloom Africa Board of Advisors. With over 15 years of experience in media and technology, Addy is reshaping the music landscape by connecting artists and audiences. Her strategic vision drives growth in the African music ecosystem, ensuring diverse voices are heard and celebrated.

  • Alison Flood ’06 has been promoted to Partner at Goldman Sachs, one of 95 in the 2024 class. Partners are selected based on their commercial effectiveness, leadership, and impact on firm culture. Flood works in the firm’s global banking and markets business in New York.

  • Anant Das ’19 is a Co-Producer of the U.S. national tour of the Broadway musical “A Beautiful Noise: The Neil Diamond Musical.” Das is also producing two shows on Broadway this season: “Gypsy,” with Audra McDonald, and Steven Spielberg’s “Smash.” Das recently celebrated the four-year anniversary of his theater subscription box company, Broadway Boxed Up.

  • Natasha Subhash ’23 (M.S. in Accounting ’24) started a new role in October as an Assurance Associate for accounting and advisory firm Forvis Mazars. She is featured in a Jan. 2, 2025, Cavalier Daily story titled “From the Court to Corporate: Former Virginia Tennis Star Moves to New Career.”

  • Braden Snyder ’11, General Partner at Updata Partners, has been named to GrowthCap’s Top 40 Under 40 Growth Investors of 2024. At Updata Partners, a firm founded and run by software operators that is currently investing its seventh fund and managing more than $1.5 billion of committed capital, Braden leads new investments and works with companies as a board member. He also manages the firm’s sourcing. Today, he works with Adthena, Benivo, ContactMonkey, LandTech, Living Security, MD Integrations, and Shufti. His previous investments include Bridge2 Solutions (sold to Intercontinental Exchange), Glassbox (IPO), Homesnap (sold to CoStar), Mashable (sold to Ziff Davis), Netwrix (recapitalized, TA Associates/Centerbridge), and PulsePoint (sold to Internet Brands/WebMD). In the last 18 months, Braden led new investments totaling over $100 million of invested capital and helped exit companies worth over $2 billion of enterprise value.

  • Alexis Ohanian ’05 has committed to a multiyear, transformational gift to the UVA Women’s Basketball program. The donation is the largest in the Cavalier Women’s Basketball program history and the second largest to women’s athletics in UVA history. Its intention is to elevate recruiting and player retention efforts while addressing the financial and competitive demands of this new era of college athletics. Ohanian, a McIntire graduate and the husband of tennis legend Serena Williams, has long been a dedicated philanthropist and a champion of investing in women’s athletics.

  • Carol Sawdye ’85 joined international law firm Proskauer as Chief Operating Officer, effective Dec. 2, 2024. Carol will oversee the firm’s operations and its approximately 800 business services professionals. Carol joins Proskauer from Creative Artists Agency (CAA), where she served as Chief Financial Officer. In that role, she oversaw the company’s corporate finance initiatives, including the integration of a significant agency acquisition and the creation of Agency Operations, a new department created to drive profitable business growth throughout the organization. Prior to CAA, she was the Global Chief Operating Officer for a preeminent professional services firm, where she oversaw the budgeting, financial planning, and investments processes. As COO, Carol drove the global investment strategy and collaborated with the global leadership team on the execution across the firm of significant HR, finance, and CRM systems implementations; development of data and analytics platforms; and cybersecurity investments. Earlier in her career, Carol held the role of Executive Vice President and CFO for the National Basketball Association. During her time there, she oversaw the financial affairs of the NBA and its related entities. She also spent eight years at Skadden, initially as CFO and ultimately, as COO.

  • Grant Scott ’83, Partner at Meyer, Unkovic & Scott, in Pittsburgh, PA, was elected as an American College of Real Estate Lawyers (ACREL) Fellow. ACREL is the preeminent association of commercial real estate lawyers, focused on service to clients, colleagues, and the profession.

     

  • Ben Rosenthal ’05, CEO and Co-President of Standard Meat Company in Fort Worth, TX, has been named an Entrepreneur of The Year® 2024 National Award winner by Ernst & Young. The award, established in 1986, recognizes entrepreneurs who are revolutionizing industries and leading businesses that will shape the future. Ten national winners were chosen by a panel of independent judges from a group of 214 regional winners, representing 185 companies across the U.S. The candidates were evaluated based on their demonstration of building long-term value through entrepreneurial spirit, purpose, growth and impact, among other core contributions and attributes. Standard Meat Company is a meat processing and packaging firm with four plants in North Texas. It has been owned and operated by the Rosenthal family since it was founded in 1935.

     

  • Justin Jacobs ’96, CEO of Natural Gas Services Group Inc., presented at NobleCon20, an emerging growth equity conference presented by Noble Capital Markets that took place Dec. 3-4 in Boca Raton, FL.

  • Aaron Anderson ’18, Director of Innovation at Swinerton Builders, has been named to the 2024 BuiltWorlds Adoption Leaders Top 50 List. Aaron leads the innovation strategy at Swinerton, redefining and transforming how the company builds by applying R&D principles and collaborating with business groups to evaluate challenges and implement solutions. Having started out as a carpenter, he has over 20 years of diverse experience in quality control, constructability, business analytics, and field and project management. The BuiltWorlds Adoption Leaders Top 50 List recognizes members who actively engage in the BuiltWorlds member network. These individuals exhibit a high level of interest in learning and participating in BuiltWorlds offerings to expand their knowledge base and contribute to the BuiltWorlds community.

  • Sargent McGowan CFA ’95 has joined Brown Advisory as a Partner and Chief Investment Officer for Endowments and Foundations. McGowan joined the independent investment management and strategic advisory firm after an extensive investing career, with over 25 years of experience across global public and private equity, asset allocation, and portfolio and risk management. In addition to his investment background, McGowan brings an extensive network across the investment industry, as well as experience developing investment teams. McGowan previously served as a Managing Director and senior team member responsible for investing and managing UVA’s $14 billion endowment. He spent over a decade at University of Virginia Investment Management Company (UVIMCO) and served as acting CIO in 2018 during the investment office’s CIO transition. During his tenure, the endowment consistently achieved top quartile long-term returns compared to its higher education peers. Prior to UVIMCO, McGowan was a Portfolio Manager and Head of Developed Market Equities for Invesco Inc.’s Global Equity group, managing the firm’s institutional global and international equity funds. He was also a Research Analyst covering the industrials, materials, and consumer discretionary sectors globally for the team. Earlier in his career, McGowan was an Equity Research Associate at both PaineWebber Inc. and Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. Inc.

  • Jeff Smith (M.S. in MIT ’17) recently started a new position as Senior Vice President with strategic and technical consultancy Cadmus after the company’s acquisition of technology consulting firm Ventera, where Smith was an Executive Vice President responsible for leading the company’s government services unit. Before joining Ventura, Smith spent nearly seven years as a Vice President at Prometheus and over three years as a Senior Associate at Coopers & Lybrand, which merged with Price Waterhouse in 1998.

  • Rich Diemer ’80, Managing Director, Co-Founder, Co-Chair, and Treasurer at CAV Angels, has been invited to join The Raven Society, the oldest and most prestigious honorary society at the University of Virginia, promoting superior academic and extracurricular achievement. Founded in 1904, the society is named after the famous poem by Edgar Allan Poe. Ravens are elected each semester from all schools across the University, as well as from among faculty and alumni.

  • Brian Vahaly ’01 has been elected President and Chair of the U.S. Tennis Association, the governing body for tennis in the U.S. His two-year term begins Jan. 1. Vahaly a three-time All-American for the Cavaliers who went on to a successful professional career, will become the youngest chair of any Grand Slam event (the U.S. Open) and the first member of the LGBTQ community to serve in the role. Since retiring from professional tennis, Vahaly has distinguished himself as a respected chief executive – he was the Chief Operating Officer at venture capital firms Venturehouse Group and NextGen Venture Partners – with a track record of success in operational turnarounds, driving growth and improving profitability for private equity-backed, early-stage companies in the health and wellness sector. Vahaly and his husband, Bill Jones, are raising twin boys in Washington, DC.