Alumni Newsletter

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Happy Birthday!

July 20, 2011

Each month, FuquaNet recognizes the alumni whose birthdays fall on the issue's publication date. We asked the alumni celebrating a birthday today (July 21), "Where are you now?" Here's what they said:

Tim Black, Daytime MBA 1983
I have lived in Charlotte, NC, since 1989 where I work for US Trust as a financial advisor. My wife, Debbie, and I have daughters attending USC and the UNC at Asheville.

Alvaro David, Daytime MBA 2011
Right now I am in Costa Rica, enjoying a nice and well deserved vacation after graduating from the MBA. I am taking the time to dive and to travel around the national parks in Costa Rica, which are awesome

Laura Dawahare, Daytime MBA 1987
I am living in Lexington, KY, married to fellow alum, Michael Dawahare. I gave up my gig as a TV chef to manage the lives of my three children:  twins Sam and Elisabeth (14) and "bonus baby" Celia (8). Frankly, this "new" job uses my skills learned as an MBA more effectively than any paying job I ever had.  Who knew Organizational Management would have such an impact?

Audra Earle, Daytime MBA 2002
Craig (Fuqua '02) and I are still in Tampa, FL, with our two daughters, Sophia (5) and Elizabeth (3).  I am with HCA as the Chief Operating Officer at Northside Hospital.  Hope everyone is having a happy, safe, and successful summer. 

Gigi Hergenroeder, MHA 1984
I am an Assistant Professor in the Vivian L. Smith Department of Neurosurgery at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston Medical School.  As a Vivian L. Smith investigator and Mission Connect investigator, biomarker discovery in spinal cord and brain injury has been my primary focus. In addition to the biomarker studies, I am the PI of a U.S. Department of Health and Human Services supported research project utilizing a nutritional intervention in organ donors with the goal of improving the quality of organs. Most importantly, I have been happily married to Al for 27 years, and together we have three wonderful children, AJ (a math graduate student at Rice University), Alicia (an architecture graduate student at Rice University) and Georgene (Plan II and Biology major at The University of Texas at Austin).

Kurt Jetta, Daytime MBA 1986
I am CEO and Founder of TABS Group, a marketing research and consulting firm in Shelton, CT.  We have 20 people in the company, and we do a variety of assignments for consumer products companies both domestically and internationally.  In May 2008, I received my Ph.D. in Economics from Fordham University, and I am trying to commercialize my thesis work:  "A Theory of Retailer Price Promotion Using Economic Foundations:  It's All Incremental."  The big eureka was finding a condition where retailers and manufacturers can make riskless profits.  I will be celebrating my 50th birthday by taking my family—wife, son and two daughters—on the Fuqua/Duke Basketball Team trip to China and Dubai.

Kat Jones, Daytime MBA 2009
I'm currently living in Albuquerque, NM. I work in business development and strategic planning for Sandia National Laboratories.

Jennifer Matuszek Keating, Daytime MBA 2000
I live in Darien, CT, with Kevin Keating (Fuqua '96) and our three children, Katie (6), Riley (4), and Declan (2).  Over the last two years, I've been leading a project to rebuild the playground at our children's school, which we completed this spring after several successful fundraising efforts!  I just returned to work as a part-time marketing consultant.  But, mostly, I'm hanging with Kevin, visiting with our nearby families and playing with the kids, which are all the best parts of where I am now.

Brady Knudson, Daytime MBA 2010
I'm currently working as a Senior Associate in the Transaction Advisory Services group at Ernst & Young.  I currently live in the Atlanta, GA, area and am married with two little boys, ages 4 and 1. 

Shivinder Singh, Daytime MBA 2000
Fortis is presently Asia's fasted growing hospital network and well on its way to realizing our dream of becoming a world-class, integrated healthcare delivery system!  We have just completed a decade in existence and are very proud of the remarkable story we have scripted in these past ten years. We have shaped a mammoth healthcare delivery organization with quality, patient-centricity and efficiency at the core.  Fortis has grown rapidly, from a single hospital in North India, to a 56-hospital chain, spanning the country and delivering high-end tertiary and quaternary care to international standards. We are working towards becoming the institution of choice for healthcare services, not only in Asia but globally. 

Maury Wray-Bridges, Daytime MBA 2004
I am living in Pristina, the capital of Kosovo, with my husband, Andrew, and our four-year-old son, Roland. I am in my sixth year doing consulting work for Booz Allen Hamilton.  My current client is the U.S. Agency for International Development, and our goal is to increase the competitiveness of Kosovo's private sector.