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R.E. Clevenger ’51, who lives in Houston, sends his greetings to the Class of 1951!

Robert Understein ’63, a member of McIntire’s Advisory Board and outgoing President of Financial Executives International of Nevada, has formed Cavalier Capital in Las Vegas with Foster Grose ’63. Cavalier Capital focuses its resources on real estate investment and financing in the greater Las Vegas metro area. Grose and Understein, who were classmates and friends at McIntire School, lost contact with each other in 1963. They renewed their friendship in January 2005, when they discovered that not only did they live in the same Henderson, Nev., community, Anthem Country Club, and hold membership at the same country club (Grose being president of the club), but that they were both in the real estate finance business. Shortly after their reunion, they formed Cavalier Capital, in mid-2005. Understein has also been appointed to the Board of Trustees of University of Southern Nevada.

Steve Zacharias ’72, Co-Founder of Transact Capital Partners and former Corporate Treasurer for Media General, a $900 million TV and newspaper media company, recently joined the Stockgroup Information Systems board of directors. His achievement was featured in a July 18, 2006, News Blaze press release headlined “Online Media and Finance Senior Executives Join Stockgroup Board.”

Andrew Rudin ’79 (M.S. in MIT ’05), Managing Principal of Outside Technologies Inc., of Vienna, Va., has partnered with Stewart Strategies Group to provide sales and marketing strategy development services for an Arizona-based company selling a high-technology service to the building products industry. The engagement will include a national launch of a multi-channel sales program, communications and public relations campaign, branding, and other services. Rudin is also a member of McIntire’s M.S. in MIT Advisory Board.

Stephen E. Riffee ’80 has been named Executive Vice President and CFO of Corporate Office Properties Trust in Columbia, Md. Most recently, Riffee was CFO of CarrAmerica Realty Corporation in Washington, D.C. He joined CarrAmerica in 1999 as Senior Vice President, Controller, and Treasurer. Prior to CarrAmerica, Riffee held positions with Marriott International Inc., Burlington Northern Railroad, and KPMG Peat Marwick. His appointment was featured in an Aug. 1, 2006, news release carried on Business Wire headlined “Corporate Office Properties Trust Announces COO and New CFO.”

James Dondero ’84, President, Managing Partner and Co-Founder of Highland Capital Management, was featured in a Sept. 2, 2006, Dallas Morning News article titled “High Intensity Pays off for Highland Capital.”

Joseph M. Squeri ’87, formerly Executive Vice President, Operations and CFO of Choice Hotels International (NYSE:CHH), has been promoted to President and COO.

Todd Bolon ’88 has been named Vice President and CIO of Railinc. Bolon, who has been a leader within Railinc’s IT group since 2003, has nearly 20 years of IT experience, more than half with leading transportation sector companies, including GE Rail Services, Trans World Airlines, and Sea-Land Service Inc., a subsidiary of CSX Corporation Inc.

Kevin Buck ’88 has been appointed Chief Marketing Officer for the Association of Corporate Counsel.

Alan Linkous ’88 announces the relocation of his law firm, Howell Linkous & Nettles LLC, to the historic Doctor John Lining House, in Charleston, S.C. The law firm concentrates its practice in municipal bonds, local government law, economic development incentives, and affordable housing development.

Amy E. Scheeler Sparks ’88 and her husband welcomed their second son, Dylan Webster, born Jan. 23, 2006. He joins his proud 2-year-old brother, Jason.

Colleen Hannon ’89 was recently appointed Director of Human Resources at Alenia North America, Washington, D.C., headquartered in Rome. Alenia employs approximately 10,500 people worldwide.

R. Mark Cox ’91 (Darden ’95) has been named Vice President of Corporate Development for Wabtec, effective Sept. 12, 2006. Cox has 11 years of experience in mergers and acquisitions, most recently as director of Business Development for the Electrical Group of Eaton Corp. Cox joined Eaton in 2002 and led a team responsible for all facets of the Electrical Group’s acquisitions, including identifying targets, valuation, negotiation and due diligence. Before joining Eaton, Cox spent seven years as an investment banker with UBS Warburg, Prudential, and Stephens, primarily focused on industrial and capital goods companies. He and his wife, Susan, have two children and live in Sewickley, Pa.

Shondale Bostick ’94 was recently named a Partner at Accenture. Bostick also spent the 2005 holiday season spreading good cheer in Sri Lanka, one of the countries heavily hit by the December 2004 tsunami, by helping children whose music teacher (Orlantha Ambrose) died in the waves. Inspired by Ambrose’s work to offer free music lessons with the hope that it would create a communication channel to bring peace and unity to a civil war-affected country, Bostick wrote, organized, and produced a Christmas concert titled “Heart Strings” for the students. The concert originally aired on MTV Sri Lanka on the first anniversary of the tsunami, Dec. 26, 2005, and will become an annual event.

Priya Sazawal Koul ’95 and her husband, Dr. Sharat Koul, happily announce the birth of their first child, daughter Kiran Sazawal, born May 26, 2006. The family resides in Chicago, where Priya is completing her final year of law school.

Grayson O'Hara and Anniston Mahaffy.

Tia Brunelli Mahaffy ’95, a member of McIntire’s Advisory Board, and her husband, Michael, joyfully announce the birth of their first child, Anniston Jane, born July 11, 2006. She weighed 7 pounds, 2 ounces and was 19 inches tall. Anniston’s birth follows that of her cousin, Grayson Timothy O’Hara, born April 29, 2006. Grayson is the son of Tia’s sister Dara Brunelli O’Hara ’97 and Timothy P. O’Hara (A&S ’86).

Mac Selbe ’95 (Master’s in Accounting ’96) married Kathryn Marie Craft June 10, 2006.

Tiki Barber ’97 and Ronde Barber ’97, NFL All-Pros, announced a $1 million gift to the University of Virginia to kick off U.Va.’s $3 billion capital campaign. The brothers were also featured in an Oct. 3, 2006, Richmond Times-Dispatch article titled “Barbers: To Mother with Love” and an Oct. 4, 2006, Daily Progress article titled “Local Heroes—and More.” And, Tiki Barber, the New York Giants’ all-time leading rusher, announced in October 2006 that he is making retirement plans.

Kim Turner ’97 and David Dolezal (A&S ’97) were married in Kiawah Island, S.C., June 10, 2006. The couple resides in Chicago.

D.I. von Briesen (M.S. in MIS ’97), in September 2006, took his wife Elizabeth von Briesen (A&S ’94) and their five children (ages 4 to 12) to Senegal, where the children will be studying and Elizabeth will be helping run a school for a year. Mr. von Briesen is the Program Chair of Web Technologies for the IT Division at CPCC in Charlotte, N.C., in addition to being Web Technologies Chair, and keeps in touch with his family via Skype and blogs while they’re apart.

Fox Everett Christiansen.

Brian Christiansen ’99 and Eleanore Rowe Christiansen (A&S ’00) welcomed their son, Fox Everett, born July 21, 2006. Brian is a banking lawyer at Skadden Arps; Eleanore works on health care IT for Microsoft. They live in Arlington, Va.

Jessica (Henley) Collins ’99 and her husband, Chris, joyfully announce the birth of their son, Zander David, born June 1, 2005.

Beth Elias (M.S. in MIS ’01, Education ’06) graduated in May 2006 from U.Va.’s Curry School of Education, earning her Ph.D. in instructional technology. Dr. Elias’ dissertation research focus was user acceptance of health care information systems. After taking the summer to relax, Elias looks forward to finding a faculty appointment that will allow her to teach at the graduate level as well as continue her research. Says Elias, “My experience with McIntire’s M.S. in MIT Program prepared me well for the rigor of U.Va.’s doctoral studies. That preparation, combined with the full support of my husband and dissertation committee, allowed me to achieve my educational goals. I feel very fortunate indeed.”

Kerun Bindra ’02 is attending the Wharton School, starting in fall 2006, to earn an M.B.A. He moved to Philadelphia in July 2006.

David Chapman (Education ’75, M.S. in MIT ’02) is a Ph.D. candidate in public administration and urban policy at Old Dominion University and currently a Research Associate for the E. V. Williams Center for Real Estate and Economic Development at ODU. In the July 2006 issue of Urban Affairs Review, he was the primary author of a study on national housing differences (“Determinants of Neighborhood Satisfaction in Fee-Based Gated and Nongated Communities”; secondary author was John Lombard Ph.D.). David was also a Web site surveyor contributor to “Digital Governance in Municipalities Worldwide (2005),” available from the E-governance Institute (Rutgers University-Newark).

Scott Proctor (A&S ’93, Darden ’98, M.S. in MIT ’02) has been named CIO of GE Healthcare Life Sciences, based in Sweden. In addition to having degrees from the College, Darden, and the Commerce School, Proctor is a CFA.

Deborah Cassidy (M.S. in MIT ’03), CIO at World Access, was a speaker at the Richmond Tech Summit Aug. 22, 2006. The sold-out event was organized by the Greater Richmond Technology Council.

Rob Ericsson (A&S ’93, Master's in MIT ’03) and Jason Cline (Engineering ’99) recently published SQL Server 2005 for Developers (Charles River Media). SQL Server 2005, the latest version of Microsoft's enterprise database product, has many enhanced tools that fall into three main categories: data management, developer tools, and business intelligence. SQL Server 2005 for Developers teaches software developers how to leverage these new tools and incorporate SQL Server 2005 into their IT projects.

Ali Sarafzadeh Khorassani (M.S. in Accounting ’03, Law ’03) moved to Washington, D.C., after almost three years between Dubai and Montreal as General Counsel for a private equity firm. After a short stint with the Office of the Attorney General, he now is doing a clerkship with the Senate Finance Committee of the U.S. Congress. Khorassani’s wife is the Accounting Manager for the Meyer Foundation, a nonprofit foundation. Classmates can contact Khorassani at alirsk@hotmail.com.

Mark Messersmith (M.S. in MIT ’03), a member of McIntire’s M.S. in MIT Advisory Board, joined RABA Technologies as a Principal Consultant. RABA Technologies, headquartered in Columbia, Md., is an established technology solution provider focused on research, design, development and integration of technologies and processes for public sector/federal government and commercial industries. Mark’s role as a technology strategist is to provide senior leadership as a key architect in designing and delivering the security service-oriented architecture (SOA) portion of an enterprise SOA for a large U.S. government client. In addition, Mark is using his experience gained while in the M.S. in MIT Program to develop and open RABA’s Tampa, Fla.-based operations. Mark joined RABA from IBM Business Consulting Services, where he was a Managing Consultant with its Public Sector Strategy and Change Consulting Practice. Mark lives in Apollo Beach, Fla., with his wife and son and continues the commute to the Tysons Corner/McLean/Washington, D.C. area.

Mark Bieberich (M.S. in MIT ’04) was recently promoted to Vice President, Communications Infrastructure at Yankee Group.

Susan Lilly Gerock (M.S. in MIT ’04) joined Corporate Office Properties Trust Oct. 16, 2006 as its Director of IT Application Services.

Tim Kelly (Master’s in MIT ’04) and his wife, Audrey, welcomed their second child, Nina Dwyer, born May 5, 2006. Tim works for Oracle Corporation, where he leads the Oracle University eCommerce and eLearning teams. The Kelly family resides in San Francisco.

Rob Cimperman (Master’s in MIT ’05) recently authored the book UAT Defined: A Guide to Practical User Acceptance Testing (Addison-Wesley, 2006). The book provides an explanation of software testing, development, and project management to equip user representatives to manage software development from the user perspective. By giving the user acceptance testing team the tools it needs to address its process and political factors as early as possible in the software development lifecycle, the book allows the IT staff to deliver more useful products while avoiding costly mistakes, rework, and delays that result from a typical user acceptance testing approach. Cimperman currently works as a consultant for Pivotal-Insight LLC.

Alexis Ohanian ’05, Steve Huffman (Engineering ’05), and Aaron Swartz, Co-Founders of reddit, have sold the Boston-based technology startup to Conde Nast.

Joelle Rowley (Master’s in MIT ’05) married Brian Lyons March 18, 2006. The couple lives in the Richmond, Va., area. Joelle serves as a Senior Manager in the US Card IT Division for Capital One Financial Corporation.

Mehul P. Vora (Darden ’04, M.S. in MIT ’05), a member of McIntire’s M.S. in MIT Advisory Board, reports that his experience in the M.S. in MIT Program is generating a lot of value. Says Vora, “Two of my classmates helped recruit me to Lockheed last October [2005]. Since then, I have led our efforts in private equity investing, including a $12.5 million investment in an early-stage transportation deal, a $5 million investment in a leveraged buyout of a ship repair company, and over $250 million in fund investments. I’m interested in seeing business acquisition or investment opportunities from other alumni.”

David Wright (Master’s in MIT ’05) took on the role of CIO for Capital One’s European businesses, effective Aug. 1, 2006. David, who is a member of McIntire’s M.S. in MIT Advisory Board, joined Capital One in 1999 and has held a number of roles in IT, including his previous role as Managing Vice President for Enterprise Data Center Services. He and his family moved to the Nottingham, England, area at the end of August.

Tony Witherspoon (Master’s in MIT ’05) announces the birth of his first child and daughter, CeCe Morgan, born July 17, 2006.