Class Notes
1960
- Michael Borkowsky, MSM ’62, Greenwich, CT, was recently elected to The Cooper Union Alumni Hall of Fame. Michael has been a member of the school’s Board of Trustees since 1996 and is a past president of the alumni association.
- Robert Bolduc, MSIA ’66, was named BusinessWest magazine’s 2010 Top Entrepreneur. Bolduc is the founder and CEO of Pride, a chain of 24 convenience stories in Massachusetts.
- James W. Luzadder, BSIM ’68, Hendersonville, NC, has retired with his wife, Beverly A. Waters Luzadder, BSIM ’68, to the Blue Ridge Mountains. Jim worked as a stockbroker and clinical social worker. Bev worked as an executive with Burroughs Corp. before finishing her career as a principle consultant with PriceWaterhouseCoopers in information technology.
- William E. Crisick, MSM ’69, Walnut Creek, CA, is principal modelist with Financial Modeling Specialists, a firm he founded 12 years ago to provide financial modeling and business planning capabilities to emerging and established businesses.
1970
- Ronald P. Egge, MSM ’71, Las Vegas, NV, received a fellowship to study at Oxford University in England for the summer of 2010. His area of focus is global strategy and trade.
- John Groth, MSM ’71, PhD ’75, a retired Navy captain, was inducted into Purdue’s Reserve Officer’s Training Corps (ROTC) Hall of Fame in April. Groth, who served on active duty as a line officer, chief engineer and department head on a destroyer, is now a professor of finance in the Mays Business School at Texas A&M University.
- Bettina Whyte, BSIM ’71, is a managing director and senior advisor with Alvarez & Marsal, an independent global professional services firm specializing in performance improvement, turnaround management and business advisory services. She previously chaired the advisory board of Bridge Associates LLC, a crisis management and restructuring firm.
- Max E. Rumbaugh Jr., MSM ’72, Scottsdale, AZ, was elected as the 2010 president of the Scottsdale Sister Cities Association. He has been an active leader of programs that encourage students to become more internationally aware and involved. He has served as the youth committee chair of SSCA for the past three years and will continue to serve as the Scottsdale Rotary Club youth exchange chair.
- William H. Strong, BSM ’73, Lake Forest, IL, was appointed to the Board of Trustees of Indiana University by Governor Mitch Danielson July 1, 2010.
- Bill Barnes, BSIM ’76, is now director of the University of Maryland Manufacturing Assistance Program in Baltimore, a fee-based program that provides growth and operational consulting services to Maryland manufacturers.
- Molly Shaffer Detwiler, BSM ’77, Sonoma, CA, received her MFA in fiction writing from California College of the Arts in San Francisco. She lives in Sonoma with her husband, David Detwiler, BSM ’77, a captain with United Airlines.
- Kathleen Fanning, BSM ’77, is now chief financial officer with Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture.
- John J. Luttrell, BSIM '77, was appointed executive vice president and chief financial officer of American Apparel Inc. in Los Angeles, CA. He previously served as chief financial officer at Old Navy, a Gap Inc. company.
- Thomas Steipp, MSM ’77, was named president and CEO of Liquidmetal Technologies in Rancho Santa Margarita, CA. He previously served as president and CEO of Symmetricom Inc.
- Gary Rietz, BSIM '78, was appointed chief information officer at Schawk Inc., a leading provider of brand point management services in Des Plaines, IL. Rietz's 30-year career includes leadership information technology positions at Fortune 500 companies and small, private equity firms. Prior to joining Schawk, Rietz was a partner at Tatum, LLC.
- Janice Bennett, BSIM '79, whose career in philanthropy spans 25 years, is the new executive director of the YWCA Lake County in Waukegan, IL. In addition to her Krannert degree, Bennett completed the Harvard Business School Executive Education Leadership Program.
- Kenneth F. Davis, BSIM ’79, was named president of the Vehicle Group at Eaton Corp. in Cleveland, OH. Davis has held management positions of increasing responsibility since joining Eaton in 1986.
- Thomas J. Riordan, MSIA '79, was recently named president and CEO of Neenah Enterprises Inc., one of the largest independent foundry companies in the U.S. and a leading supplier of castings to the domestic municipal and industrial markets. He served previously as president and chief operating Officer of Terex Corporation, a global construction equipment manufacturer.
1980
- David Walters, BSM '80, was promoted to assistant vice president of underwriting at Brotherhood Mutual Insurance Co. in Fort Wayne, IN.
- Valerie Grindle, MSM '82, has joined PCS Edventures in Boise, ID, as senior vice president of finance and administration and chief financial officer. She previously served as CFO of Great American Appetizers.
- Charles Day, BSM ’83, a retired Army major, was inducted into Purdue’s Reserve Officer’s Training Corps (ROTC) Hall of Fame in April. He served in the Gulf War as an Army Artillery officer and then transferred to the Army Acquisition Corps. Day now owns a company that provides consulting and logistical support to companies and organizations throughout the world.
- Edward Piatt, BSM ’83, is completing his doctorate in ethical leadership at Olivet Nazarene University in Bourbonnais, IL.
- Jon A. Vardaman, BSM ’83, is now zone claims administration manager for Farmers Insurance Group in Indianapolis.
- Guglielmo Fittante, MSIA ’85, Munich, Germany, was promoted to senior principal examiner at the European Patent Office EPO, which offers inventors a uniform application procedure that enables them to seek patent protection in up to 40 European countries.
- Jeffrey Ball, MSM ’86, leads the International Business Unit for Consort Medical/King Systems in Noblesville, IN. He completed the Lacy Leadership program as a member of Class XXXII.
- David Springer, BSIM '86, was named president and CEO of Cayenne Medical, Inc., a private sports medicine device company in Scottsdale, AZ, specializing in the soft tissue reconstruction segment. Most recently, Springer served as president & CEO of CHF Solutions Inc. in Brooklyn Park, MN.
- Corey Fishman, MSM ’88, was named chief operating officer at Durata Therapeutics in Morristown, NJ. He previously was chief financial officer of GANIC Pharmaceuticals.
- Jeff Lusenhop, MSM ’88, is founder and president of Janova, a web-based, software-testing company in New Albany, OH.
- Robert Clark, PhD ’89, was inaugurated as the sixth president of Husson University in Bangor, ME. He previously served as vice president for strategic initiatives and director of the Institute of Global Enterprise at the University of Evansville.