ALUMNI

Harvard Business School Alumni Alumni Bulletin Class Notes Class Note Details

ALUMNI BULLETIN
CLASS NOTES
CURRENT ISSUE: DECEMBER 2017

PLDA

Ronald Rennick
PO Box 643282
Vero Beach, FL, 32964-3282
772-567-0054(H)
rrennick@plda2009.hbs.edu

For questions by Birce Koca and Jeremy Valeda (both PLDA 15, 2013), see p. 29.

Shelly Hester Hemler (PLDA 7, 2014) rang the Nasdaq bell with her new company, Brighthouse
Financial (Nasdaq: BHF), on Aug. 7. Shelly is chief auditor for Brighthouse. Ali Jamal (PLDA 22,
2016) wrote in: "Having joined Julius Baer as an exec. dir. in 2013, I was promoted in 2015 to
mng. dir. sr. adviser running the Middle East business for the Ultra High Net Worth. In parallel, I
underwent my PLD and Negotiation course at Harvard, becoming an alumnus, and established a
new department called Key Clients, Emerging Markets. My Harvard training helped shape my
leadership and strategic skills as head of Key Clients, Emerging Markets, a position I have held for
the past year."

The Lewis family

Chris Lewis (PLDA 17, 2015) and his wife, Clare, are happy to announce the birth of their first
child, David Colston Lewis. The Lewises live in Charlottesville, VA, where Chris is employed by S&P
Global as the dir. of product operations. Chris is also the pres. and founder of Redmont Holdings
LLC, a property and events mgt. company that serves the needs of the family's growing real-estate
portfolio. Dimo Kostopoulos (PLDA 8, 2010) would like to announce the birth of his second son on
May 23, 2017. His name is Maximos Marios Kostopoulos, and he was born in New York, NY.

Ferreira

Brett Wallace (PLDA 7, 2014) was invited to join New Inc., part of New Museum, as a member for
201718. A photo in front of one of Brett's artworks is nearby. Eduardo Ferreira (PLDA 12, 2012)
sent this update. "I flew solo on Sept. 18, 2017, toward my private pilot certificate. On July 23,
2017, I completed 120 hrs. of instruction on Machinery and Technical Specialties, Aircraft
Appraisal Program. On Aug. 7, 2017, I fulfilled the requirements to become a candidate in the
American Society of Appraisers. I relocated to Granger, IN, where I reside with my wife, Renata,
and our five children, Rafael (12), No (11), Isabella (8), Carolina (7), and David (5)."

Narayanan

Aruna Narayanan (PLDA 22, 2016), previously the head of marketing and CSR at Dulsco LLC
(UAE), has moved within the organization to take charge as the head of strategic initiatives for
environment solutions. As part of the new role, Aruna will be working closely with local authorities
in the UAE and global sustainability experts on waste-treatment options, thereby diverting waste
away from landfill. In Sept. 2017, Aruna was invited to speak at the Women Empowerment Global
Summit in Crete, Greece, organized by the European Sustainability Academy. At the event, Aruna
shared her experiences on how individuals can become shining leaders in waste mgt. and effect
positive behavior change. For a photo of Aruna, see the online notes. Fariha Ansari Javed (PLDA
18, 2014) has been appointed a board member of HBS of India, leading HBS alumni engagement
and activities in the North India region. Fariha's husband of this dynamic duo, Shiraz Javed (PLDA
18, 2014), completed the first successful year of a home decor "restartup" called Global Hudson.
The NYC-based company designs and develops home accessories and is leaning on four
generations of family lineage in the handicraft industry of India.

Charles-Etienne Bost (PLDA 18, 2014) became sr. VP, integration and transformation, at Coty,
leading integration between Coty and P&G Beauty. This has been one of the largest integrations of
late. Azad Chowdhury (PLDA 16, 2013) wrote in that after the completion of PLD M5 in 2013, his
realization and drive to do something entrepreneurial in social development led him to Bangladesh
(in late 2015), where he has partnered up with a fellow Ivy League alumnus to launch the very
first impact investment fund domiciled in Bangladesh. Azad, a Canadian national, returned to his
birthplace in Bangladesh after nearly 30 years. He has had an international career in investment
banking across North America and Asia, spanning more than 20 years. The fund, SR MSME
Impact Investment Fund, will be the first of its kind (globally), with an innovative mechanism
deployed to graduate cottage and micro enterprises to SME value chains. Azad sees enormous
opportunities in Bangladesh, a country with 160 million and a drive for rapid growth to reach
middle-income country status by 2021. He hopes to reach out to HBS alumni, foundations, family
offices, HNWIs, and all other institutional investors and philanthropist organizations that wish to
proactively do social good for this planet alongside the desire to earn market or above-market
returns.

Caithness, right, at the summit

Angus Caithness (PLDA 15, 2013) completed the seven summits

(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/seven_summits) in May this year after summiting Mount Everest. He
was actually on Everest during the 2014 avalanche and the 2015 earthquake, the two worst
disasters in Everest's history, and was probably only one of fewer than five Australians to have ever
completed both the Bass and Messner seven summit lists. Dana Antoun (PLDA 20, 2015) was
promoted to IT dir., Americas, a month after completing PLD. In 2016, she received the Crain's
Detroit 40 Under 40 designation. Crain's reported, "There are business success stories, and then
there is Dana Antoun. Antoun has been promoted twice within her first year at the company for the
unexpected value she has delivered. Her first major achievement was to revamp the company's
electronic data interchange system and processes. The revamp eliminated sales and logistical
failures that had plagued the business for years." From an IT standpoint, she built a manufacturing
plant in Charleston, SC. Since 2016, she has been heavily involved in M&As for her company. To
date, it has acquired four companies just in North America, two in 2016 and two just the week she
sent in her update. She is part of the core team to build her company's North American
headquarters in Michigan. As of publication date, she will have completed the HBS Management
Excellence Certificate. She rounded out her updates in saying, "It's been exciting and nonstop!"

Allen and Jreissati

Derek Allen and Michel Jreissati (both PLDA 18, 2014) formed the real-estate development
platform LandForge Capital Partners (http://www.landforgecp.com) in 2016. Derek writes, "Our
development firm has been creating engaging and meaningful residential properties in western US
urban infill locations. We have active developments in several cities and are looking to expand our
footprint again in 2018. Our development ethos focuses on institutional equity grade properties
that are boutique-sized and rooted in urban planning principles of smart growth and sustainability.
Public art is a significant component of our brand differentiation, which has resonated with our
target demographic and continues to be a comparative advantage against larger regional and
national-sized development groups within the markets we operate in." Anne Kim (PLDA 21, 2016)
has launched Alphavita Capital, an investment and advisory platform in Singapore, focused on the
healthcare sector across Asia. For more info on collaboration and investment opportunities, please
visit http://www.alphavitacapital.com.

Powell

In 2015, Joseph Boorady (PLDA 10, 2012) took the role of pres. and CEO of TearScience Inc.,
based in Raleigh, NC. TearScience is a medical device company with technologies to diagnose and
treat meibomian gland dysfunction, the leading cause of dry eye. In Sept. 2017, it was announced
that Johnson & Johnson Vision had acquired TearScience for an undisclosed amount. Brandon
Powell (PLDA 18, 2015) founded a digital technology services firm called HatchWorks this year
and is focused on helping companies modernize by developing impactful software, products, and
experiences. For a photo of Brandon, see the online notes.

Fabian Ringler (PLDA 7, 2011) sent this, a veritable case study. "Even though I will soon reflect
on my time, my achievements, and learnings after graduating from Harvard in a more detailed way
(maybe under the headline 'I haven't made a cent more since Harvard, but...'), I am proud to share
about the latest difference I made in my small world. Over the last year, I initiated and
successfully closed a hockey pitch crowdfunding initiative for a half-million euros. The new field
hockey arena construction phase has just finished, and the official opening is Sept. 9, 2017. The
story in a more detailed perspective: WAC [the Wiener Athletiksport Club], founded in 1896, is one
of the oldest sports clubs and one of most successful hockey clubs in Austria. But due to the lack
of an artificial pitch on its home ground, the continued survival of the hockey section was seriously
threatened. For many years, the club has been renting space away from its own ground for training
and matches, but this would soon had become impossible due to the rising demand for facilities
as a result of the increasing popularity of the sport in Austria. For many years, the WAC attempted
to secure the necessary funding from the public purse, but all attempts were finally thwarted." And
fast-forwarding to after Fabian's crowdfunding efforts, "Finally, the life-saving new artificial hockey
pitch was finished in June 2017. A whole film about the project is forthcoming, and meanwhile a
time-lapse clip about the construction phase can be viewed at http://bit.ly/2zHkiVW. The project
and the Club respectively were one of the 2016 nominees of the EHF Club of the Year award."

News about the Oct. 2017 PLD Global Summit in Dubai and about future summits (Munich 2018)
can be found at http://www.pldsummit.com. Please also log in at hbs.edu under the Alumni tab to
determine when your session number of PLD will have its next formal reunion on campus and for
upcoming campus-planned exec. ed. summit events.

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