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In January Mayor Bloomberg appointed Michelle L. Goldstein (MPA) executive director of the Office of Federal Affairs, New York City’s Washington, D.C., office. She has led N.Y.C.’s Albany office since 2006 and led the negotiations that resulted in the state takeover of the city’s Off-Track Betting Corporation. Adriano Hultmann has joined Prudential Douglas Elliman as a senior VP/associate broker specializing in the marketing and sales of new developments. He was previously a VP at the Corcoran Group. Ashan Ahmad Khan and Michelle Estrella Ligaya were married in May in Washingtonville, N.Y. He is a VP and director of the communications planning group of advertising agency Zenith-Optimedia; she is an advertising sales manager for CafeMom.com. Tracey (Ryan) Murphy, program manager at Ogilvy, gave birth to a son, John, in December 2009.

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Jodi Brockington was one of 26 African and Caribbean Americans honored with a 2010 Young, Gifted & Black Entrepreneurial Award in February (Black History Month). Brockington, the VP for corporate social responsibility and philanthropy, NEXUS Brands, received the Motivator Award, presented by Darwin Davis, president and interim CEO of the Black Equity Alliance.

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In the recently published Why Too Big to Fail? (AuthorHouse), author and financial analyst Kaye Bonnick (MBA) examines the history of financial regulation in the U.S. since the Great Depression and points the way for the future. She and her husband have three children and live in High Point, N.C. Baruch economics professor Ted Joyce is working with his former student Silvie Colman at Mathematica Policy Research, a public policy research organization. At Baruch Colman won the Kanner Award for best honors thesis on public policy, the Morton Wollman Medal in Economics, and the Provost’s Scholarship for Academic Excellence. She then received a Chancellor’s Fellowship to study economics at the CUNY Graduate Center, where she earned a PhD in 2008. She is a health researcher at Mathematica. Stephen Dandrow, an independent communications consultant, was a researcher and contributing editor for the book Buffett’s Bites: The Essential Investor’s Guide to Warren Buffett’s Shareholder Letters, by L.J. Rittenhouse (McGraw-Hill). Rudy Murillo has finished his last year at University of California, San Diego, Medical School and is doing his residency training in general surgery at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston. Prior to attending medical school, Murillo spent a year in clinical research at the National Institute on Drug Abuse and also worked as a research assistant at Johns Hopkins. David Zeller and Jennifer Sausa were married in North Haledon, N.J., in June. He is a network administrator at 1199 SEIU Benefit and Pension Funds in N.Y.C.; she is a manager of financial reporting at Aeropostale in Wayne, N.J.

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Investors Savings Bank has appointed Diana Gabriela (Voivozeanu) Ghosh (MBA) assistant VP and manager of its Dunellen, N.J., branch. Previously she was a branch manager at Sovereign Bank. Last November Gregory Allen Miller (MBA) and James Patrick Godfrey were married in Williamsburg, Mass. Miller is the medical director of adult services for the New York State Office of Mental Health in Albany, N.Y. Godfrey retired as the upper school principal at Rye Country Day School in Rye, N.Y. In January Tarril Roberts began his diploma program at the Institute of Culinary Education, a new venture. He’s interested in becoming a private chef and teaching children the basics of food. Carson Wang is a data analyst in the professional development group at Bloomberg, reporting on performance management.

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Lori Chyla and Adam Ross were married in February on Staten Island, where they live. She is an English teacher at Port Richmond High School; he is a controller with RCG Longview in Manhattan. Kristine Rivera (MPA/NUF) was recently appointed executive director of Cents Ability, Inc., which partners with city schools and community centers to conduct free financial literacy workshops for high school students. Previously, she served as the director of Comp2Kids at Per Scholars. Rivera is currently working toward an MSEd in educational leadership at Baruch College. Hunter Group CPA LLC hired Maurice Smith (MS) as a manager in the tax department. His areas of focus include estate and trust taxes, and assisting clients on corporate and nonprofit matters. He previously was tax supervisor for Berdon CPAs and Advisors.

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Daniel K. Lee (MS) has been appointed CFO of Shuaiyi International New Resources Development Inc., a nutraceutical company that specializes in the development of engineered Cordyceps militaris mushrooms in China. An advocate for the National Lighthouse Museum, a proposed Staten Island institution, Ronald Meisels has formed Lighthouse Action and Mobilization Planners (LAMP), a grassroots campaign to rejuvenate the museum’s board and involve more local people and organizations. Anthony Passaro and Megan Erin Cavanagh were married on Staten Island in December. He is a market data analyst with JPMorgan Chase and is pursuing an MBA from Touro University International; she is a third-grade special education teacher in Tompkinsville, Staten Island. Adam Shlachter (MBA) has been named managing partner for digital investment at media agency MEC. Sharon Xiaorong Tang (EMBA) has been appointed CFO of Energroup Holdings Corporation; she previously served as CFO of EFT Biotech Holdings, Inc. Suzana Zayed completed the first year of her MBA program at Columbia Business School and spent the summer as a finance intern at Intel in Oregon.

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Michael Capobianco was recently named executive director of the Catalog for Giving, a New York-based foundation that supports innovative youth-focused programs.

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Paul Kundel is the co-founder and CEO of Youlayaway.com, a company he launched (along with Laura Mai [’08], Igor Doktor [’07], and Jacob Shak [’08]) in 2009 after working in the fixed income department of Morgan Stanley for a short time. The online service lets people make small payments on purchases over time, interest free. Kundel was featured in an April article about entrepreneurship in Crain’s New York Business. Geralda Mertenika is a risk and P&L analyst at Bank of America; she previously worked at Barclays Bank.

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Ismoila Alli-Balogun, an investment banking mergers and acquisitions analyst at Renaissance Capital’s first Africa office in Lagos, Nigeria, was selected as one of that country’s Young Professionals of the Year by the Future Project. Astoria-based jewelry maker Krista DeJoseph (MPA), whose line is called Queens Metal, was recently featured in Time Out New York. Ben Elman (MA) and his wife, Rebecca, founded the website DateBritishGuys.com, which matches American women and British men. Gabriel Luber is VP, sales and marketing, for Your Wall Street Office, which provides business support services for entrepreneurs and small businesses. Tamara Webb (MPA/NUF) was admitted to the doctoral program in international education and comparative development at Teachers College.

09

Michael Becker (EMBA) has been promoted to senior VP, financial product strategy, at Business Wire. Previously he was VP, global disclosure and financial reporting services. He is also president of NIRI New York, a professional association for investor relations practitioners. Victoria Poon works with Baruch Natural Sciences Professor David Gruber as a research assistant. In addition, she’s commuting two days a week to undertake studies at the Yale School of Medicine. Her research involves the isolation and characterization of novel fluorescent proteins from marine organisms. Faina Savitch (profiled in the Winter 2008 issue of BCAM) plans to apply to law school. Tom Tancredi and his twin/business partner, Dom, were recipients of the “Best Use of an iPad” Award at the annual iPadDevCamp 2010 NYC for their “Ghost in the Machine” Ouija-board-like game. Their success story was featured in the Huffington Post.

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Jonathan H. Cottone (MBA) is the co-founder of twiddish.com, an online social networking tool that allows diners to upload pictures of dishes they order in restaurants along with a short review. After almost five years as director of the 17 Lex Society in Baruch College’s Office of College Advancement, B.B. Huff (EMBA) recently returned to the West Coast, where she is the new director of development for the Napa Land Trust. Bennu, a socially responsible company that develops quality brands using sustainable business practices, was co-founded by Ashok Kamal, Sayaka Eto, and Kevin Ng. This fall the company designed customized backpacks made from 100 percent recycled material for Great Seneca Creek Elementary School (Germantown, Md.) and launched “Greenpacks for Great Kids,” an online campaign providing backpacks to low-income students. Bennu was the social track winner of the 2008-2009 Baruch entrepreneurship competition.  Lily Okamura (MPA/NUF) was recently awarded a research grant from the American Planning Association (APA) Housing and Community Development Division. The grant allows her to conduct site visits to cities that have vacant land management issues.

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