Parekh, Jai

Class of '08
Brar-Parekh Eye Associates & Star-x Clinical Research, Managing Partner & President

Jai G. Parekh, MD, MBA, is a 2008 graduate of Fuqua's Weekend Executive MBA/HSM program. He is a board-certified ophthalmologist/corneal transplant surgeon practicing in the New Jersey/New York area. He is a managing partner at Brar-Parekh Eye Associates, a 40-year-old clinical practice, and Co-Founder/President of the newly formed Star-x Clinical Research LLC, a research think tank. Jai is also Chief of Cornea & Medical Director of the Research Institute at St. Joseph's Regional HealthCare System in New Jersey, where he was recently chosen to serve on the Hospital's Board of Trustees. He is Assistant Professor of Ophthalmology at the New York Eye & Ear Infirmary, a world-renowned eye hospital, where he did his cornea and refractive surgery fellowship several years ago. In Boston, Jai completed medical school and training in both internal medicine and ophthalmology where he served as chief resident in both specialties. He has been privileged to train at many hospitals affiliated with several medical schools including Boston, Brown, Tufts, and Harvard Universities. Jai is well-published and lectures at various national and international meetings; he is a key opinion leader within the pharmaceutical industry as well. In fact, he was recently named the only ophthalmologist in the country to serve on the prestigious Society of Academic Medicine Board. Jai's interests include ocular surface diseases, entrepreneurship, practice/disease management, charitable healthcare, and philanthropy. Jai resides in New Jersey with his wife of 16 years and three children.

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Peruzzi, John

Class of '88
Citigroup, Managing Director, Global Head of Credit Operations

John Peruzzi is head of Credit Opportunities, a $1 billion investment group within Citi.  Mr. Peruzzi's 25-year career in finance includes extensive experience in leveraged finance, private equity and mezzanine investments. Mr. Peruzzi has been involved in several landmark transactions including the leverage buyouts of HCA, Inc. and Burger King. Prior to Citi, Mr. Peruzzi was a member of Chase Manhattan's Merchant Banking Group and a partner with Vaxa Capital. Mr. Peruzzi has served on eight corporate boards, including Iron Mountain Information Systems (NASDAQ). John is a Fuqua Scholar and recipient of Fuqua's Xerox scholarship and Fuqua Fellowship. John resides in Greenwich, CT, with his wife, Hillary (Fuqua '89), and two children.

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Popper, Jeff

Class of '93
Hasbro Inc., VP of Marketing, Global Brand Strategy & Marketing

Jeff Popper is a Vice President of Global Brand Strategy & Marketing at Hasbro, Inc. He has been at Hasbro since 2001, leading beloved toy brands including Star Wars, Nerf and Play-Doh. From 2006-2008, he worked in International Marketing, heading up Preschool and Girls marketing with responsibility for all business outside North America. He is currently leading the Playskool business.

Prior to joining Hasbro, Jeff spent nearly seven years at household products company Reckitt Benckiser, holding positions of increasing responsibility in marketing and new product development on such familiar brands as Lysol and Resolve.

In addition to the Duke MBA, Jeff holds a BA in Economics from Vassar College. He resides in Medfield, MA, with his wife of 17 years, Alyson, and two young sons. Outside of work, he enjoys running, coaching youth sports, and is a wine enthusiast.

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Robinson, Steve

Class of '92
IBM Corporation, General Manager of IBM Security Solutions

Steve Robinson is GM, IBM Security Solutions WW.  In this capacity, Steve is responsible for leading all of IBM's commercial security initiatives across software, hardware and services divisions representing more than $100B globally of business opportunity.  Steve has held numerous software executive roles in his 27 year career in the areas of sales, technical services and development.    Steve was named to IBM's Integrated Values Team in 2007.   The IVT is made up of 300 executives across the company to drive integration and growth initiatives for IBM.

Steve holds a BS degree in Business and Computer Science from Wake Forest University and received an MBA degree from the Fuqua School of Business at Duke University, where he graduated as a Fuqua Scholar.

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Ross, Lyle

Class of '08
Goldman Sachs & Company, Associate

A 2008 graduate of the Daytime MBA program, Lyle works as an Associate for Goldman, Sachs & Company in the Private Wealth Management Division. A Durham native and lifelong Duke athletics fan, Lyle graduated from Washington & Lee University in 1999 with a BA in English. Prior to business school Lyle worked as an analyst for a boutique investor relations firm in San Francisco and as a fundraising officer in the Development Office at Stanford University. At Fuqua, Lyle served as a student representative to the Board of Visitors, an Executive Fellow, Alumni Relations Fellow, Admissions Ambassador, and as a cabinet member for the Social Impact Club. Lyle and his wife, Lizzie, live in San Francisco, CA.

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Shefferman, Jesse

Class of '07
Barclays Capital, Vice President

Jesse Shefferman is a Vice President in the Investment Banking division of Barclays Capital in New York City.  Jesse is a member of the Healthcare Investment Banking group where he provides advisory services for a number of companies in the healthcare services, medical device and specialty pharma sectors.  He has worked on a number of mergers and acquisition transactions as well as equity and debt financings for Barclays Capital's Healthcare clients.  Jesse joined Lehman Brothers, whose investment banking unit was later acquired by Barclays Capital, after receiving his MBA from Duke University's Fuqua School of Business in 2007.

Prior to business school, Jesse worked in European Equities Sales for Cazenove & Co, Commerzbank and Citigroup in New York and Boston where his coverage efforts focused on value-oriented hedge funds.  Prior to this, Jesse was an equity research analyst with Citigroup in London covering the Oilfiend Services sector. Jesse's career began in 1997 as a Research Associate with Credit Suisse First Boston in Houston, TX, where Jesse worked in the Oilfield Services research group. Jesse graduated from Gordon College in Wenham, MA, in 1997 with a degree in Accounting.

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Shetty, Sanjith

Class of '95
Soham Infrastructure Pvt. Ltd., Vice Chairman

Sanjith S. Shetty is the Managing Director and Vice Chairman of Soham Renewable Energy India (P) Ltd. Soham Energy is a purely renewable focused company that today has constructed, commissioned and operates two hydroelectric power plants with seven others in various stages of implementation. While lighting up close to 1.25 million lives, the company prides itself in generating power in an energy-starved nation in a manner that is enviro-, eco- and people-friendly. One aspect of the company that is dear to every Soham employee and Sanjith is its CSR activity where it runs four unique programs dealing with computer education, school transportation, health insurance and building school infrastructure. Today its programs impact the daily lives of close to 5,000 children in rural India.

Sanjith has been a serial entrepreneur, in the past heading ventures in the manufacture of alcoholic beverages, IT education and IT services. An industrial engineer by training, he served as the graduation speaker the Daytime MBA Class of 1995 at Fuqua. While at Fuqua he was President of International Business Club, An Executive Fellow and Member of the Duke Rugby team. After graduation Sanjith has remained closely involved with Fuqua as an alumni club leader in Bangalore and an admissions volunteer. He also serves on Duke's India Alumni Advisory Board. Sanjith is an active member of the Entrepreneurs Organisation (EO) and Young Presidents Organisation (YPO), both global peer-to-peer networks of business leaders.

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Skinner, Mark

Class of '06
Lend Lease Retail & Communities, Inc., SVP - Strategy and Development

Mr. Skinner is Senior Vice President, Finance for Lend Lease Development - Americas.  His responsibilities include financial management, reporting, advising on business unit strategies, and developing and executing M&A transactions. 

Mr. Skinner has extensive international experience in corporate valuation, due diligence, accounting, and strategy development particularly with regards to real estate and technology companies. Mr. Skinner has executed investment transactions involving companies with assets exceeding $400m. In his twelve years with Lend Lease, Mr. Skinner has also held financial and corporate management roles within the Group and several portfolio companies in Australia and U.S.

Prior to joining Lend Lease, Mr. Skinner was Assistant Controller at an U.S.-listed technology company and worked for five years at Arthur Andersen in their Sydney, Australia, London, U.K. and San Jose, Californian offices.

Mr. Skinner graduated from Macquarie University (Sydney, Australia) with a Bachelor of Economics (Accounting) and earned his M.B.A. from the Duke University Fuqua School of Business. Mr. Skinner is CFA Chartholder and a Member of the Australian Institute of Chartered Accountants.

Mr. Skinner lives in Chicago, Illinois, with his wife Aimee, twins Anna and James and dogs Shadow and Ginger. Mr. Skinner is actively involved in the community and is Director of Boundless Readers, a non-profit organization focused on encouraging a love of reading in children and a member of the Chicago Fuqua Alumni Club.

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Smith, Suzanne

Class of '08
Social Impact Architects, Founder and Managing Director

Suzanne Smith is founder and managing director of Social Impact Architects. Suzanne serves as a coach and consultant for social organizations seeking to maximize the impact of their social strategies and achieve real, measurable results. Having spent the greater part of the past two decades generating innovative and break-through social ideas, she has been widely recognized for her success in building and implementing award-winning programs and initiatives within the social sector.
 

Outside of Social Impact Architects, Suzanne holds a research fellowship at the Center for the Advancement of Social Entrepreneurship at Duke University. She is also a member of the prestigious Society of Organizational Learning (founded by Peter Senge), serves on the National Board of the Social Enterprise Alliance, and is the 2010 recipient of the Next Generation Social Entrepreneurs Award. She also is a member of Dallas Social Venture Partners.

Prior to founding Social Impact Architects, Suzanne was a Senior Consultant with the Washington, DC firm Community Wealth Ventures. Previously, she also worked in government relations with both the Phoenix House and the American Heart Association. While with the American Heart Association, Suzanne championed early efforts to build an integrated and outcome-driven platform to combat childhood obesity. In that role, she cofounded the Alliance for a Healthier Generation with a team from the William J. Clinton Foundation.  A hallmark of her career has been the development of productive and mutually beneficial partnerships with organizations such as the National Football League, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, and the National Black Caucus of State Legislators.
Suzanne holds an MBA from Duke University's Fuqua School of Business, where she was a CASE (Center for the Advancement of Social Entrepreneurship) scholar.

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Snyderwine, Barr

Class of '82
Hargrove, Inc., Chief Information Officer

Mr. Snyderwine is the CIO and Director of IT/IS of Hargrove, Inc. As CIO Barr provides the leadership and IT vision for Hargrove's information systems operations and future. Hargrove has provided event planning and services to every Presidential inaugural since 1946. He also provides management of IT operations assuring the provision of services to more than 1,000 trade shows, events, and custom exhibits throughout North America annually, including large-scale events such as Presidential Inaugurals, DC, ASAE, and the DC and Philadelphia Car Shows. He plans new application and technology initiatives, evaluates new technology for inclusion in the IT roadmap and plans business process improvements. The Exhibits Division designs, creates and delivers custom exhibits for clients of all sizes and industries including Fortune 500 clients.

Prior to joining Hargrove in 2009, Mr. Snyderwine was the Service Director of ePartners, Inc. for the Northeast, ePartners was the second largest Microsoft Dynamics VAR in the United States. As such he provided management and leadership to the consulting arm of the Northeast offices in Washington DC; New York, NY; and Boston, MA. Prior to consulting he held CFO leadership roles in the health care and furniture industries and also worked with Ernst and Young in their Consulting and Entrepreneurial Services Group.

Mr. Snyderwine holds an MBA from the Fuqua School of Business, Duke University and a BS in Chemistry from Trinity College, Hartford, Connecticut. He lives in Potomac, MD, with his wife Dr. Elizabeth Snyderwine. They have one son who is currently enrolled in Duke University majoring in economics and football. In his spare time, Barr coaches ice hockey at St. Albans High School in Washington, DC, coaches rugby at The Landon High School in Bethesda, MD, and collects vehicles.

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