Some highlights:

Baseball both a passion and a profession for Karl Ravech '90

Karl Ravech, MASS '90 , the commentator and co-host of ESPN's Baseball Tonight, spoke April 10 to the Harpur Forum about his love of the game, how he got to ESPN and what he thinks about the current status of baseball.

Full story...

Alumni, students connect at Career Day 2002

Alumni shared their secrets for success with about 800 students in the Mandela Room at Binghamton's annual Career Day April 11. Full story...

To view the names and photos of alumni who participated in the event, go to http://harpur.binghamton.edu/42002hotline/images/career.htm.

Psychobiology alumni speaker series

The psychobiology program hosted two alumni in April who spoke to undergraduate psychobiology, psychology and biology majors about alternative careers in the healthcare industry.

Beth St. James '98, a health care administrator for KPMG Peat Marwick Company who holds a master's degree in public administration from New York University, visited campus April 5. St. James works in an advisory capacity with various health organizations, including hospitals and pharmaceutical companies, and is involved in business planning, reimbursement analysis, operational improvement and database management.

Judy Krempin '96, a cardiac surgery database manager with Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Readville, Mass., holds a master's degree in applied physiology and anatomy from Boston University. She visited campus April 19.

Both visits were informative and a lot of fun, said Dave Laber, the program's undergraduate coordinator.

Alumni museum professionals speak at art history conference

Three alumni museum professionals came to campus April 13 to speak at a conference hosted by the Art History Department, "Public Hanging: The Politics of Curating in the 21st Century."

Alison Ferris, MA '90, curator at the Bowdoin College Museum of Art, spoke on "Exhibiting Contemporary Art at a Small Museum in Maine." The title of the talk given by Patrick McGrady MM '80, PhD '89, Charles V. Hallman Curator at the Palmer Museum of Art at Pennsylvania State University, was "Curatorial Formality in an Age of Entelechal Awareness." Shawn Parker, MA '93, program manager for exhibit interpretation at the Mashantucket Pequot Museum and Research Center in Connecticut, gave a presentation titled "First Voices: Reclaiming Native Interpretation in Southern New England."

Management students meet author, venture capitalist Peter Kash '83, an international venture capitalist and co-author of Make Your Own Luck: Success, Tactics You Won't Learn in Business School (Prentice Hall Press, 2002), returned to his alma mater April 9 to lecture in management Professor Paul Steidlmeier's World of Business class, Professor Arieh Ullman's Global Strategic Management class, and to participate in several book signings. Kash is the co-founder and senior managing director of Paramount Capital, a venture capital firm that specializes in biotechnology. Kash earned an MBA from Pace University and is an adjunct professor of entrepreneurship and international venture capital at the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania.

SOM students get opportunity to learn from experts

School of Management students interested in the world of leveraged buyouts, corporate legal tangles and the latest in accounting conundrums got a chance to learn from executives who've been there, done that and have the T-shirts to prove it.

Six members of the school's New York City area alumni advisory board presented case studies drawn from their experiences to upper-division and graduate classrooms April 11 as part of a new program designed to give students a taste of street knowledge, said Alan Greene, director of development for SOM.

While the school has invited alumni to speak to classes before, this program will regularize the practice, using members of the school's three advisory boards as faculty. In future sessions, guest lecturers will also be drawn from the Dean's Cabinet and the Binghamton area advisory board. All three boards are made up of high-level executives. The New York City group is exclusively made up of alumni, Greene said.

"Our students want to do what these people are doing," Greene said.

In addition to the teaching, the three boards met in a joint session April 11 and 12.

Mark Deutsch '81, the managing director of Manhattan-based Kenner & Co., a leveraged buyout firm, is one of the six who taught. Deutsch, who earned his accounting degree at BU before moving on to earn an MBA at Harvard, presented a case study about a 1998 leveraged buyout of a builders service company that was acquired by his firm, restructured to take advantage of growth opportunities and then sold.

"I was particularly involved in negotiating and structuring the transaction and arranging the financing," said Deutsch. He also worked closely with the company's managers, molding them into a team, and was responsible for maintaining relationships with the investors on whose behalf the buyout was undertaken. "We're a small firm; there's just three of us, so we all do everything," Deutsch said.

During his 90-minute talk, he described various ways to structure buyouts, find financial partners, cope with human resource and team-building issues and build teamwork. He also discussed business strategies in picking potential leveraged buyout targets, what makes a company a good prospect for acquisition, and what makes the restructured firm a good acquisition for the eventual purchaser.

Among the other alumni who taught were William Forgione '81, vice president and chief counsel for TIAA-CREF, and Allen Zwickler '79, managing director of First Manhattan Co.

The Binghamton advisory board members, many of whom had never met their metro counterparts, initiated the idea of a joint meeting. For some members of the metro-area board, it was the first visit to campus since their graduation. "It's a great way for our alumni to give back," Greene said.

TOP