Class Notes

Steve Kirschner ’69 was featured by New York Real Estate Journal as Executive of the Month. He is the founder of Principals Direct Group, a brokerage and consulting firm in Islandia, NY.

Harold Kaplan, JD, ’72, ’83 served recently as a Presiding Judge for the North Carolina Mock Trial Program’s regionals and finals, and as a volunteer attorney for Pisgah Legal Services in Asheville, NC, he recently won a case for the wrongful refusal to pay life insurance death benefits. He is principal of Kaplan Dispute Resolution located in Fairview, NC.

Alan Schachter ’72 has become a new senior managing director and leader of the Economic Damages and Business Valuation Practice at Guidepost Solutions, a compliance consulting firm in New York. Prior to that, he was a partner at Citrin Cooperman LLP.

Adriano F. Manocchia ’73 was featured in Gray’s Sporting Journal as a distinguished artist living in Oswego county, upstate New York.

John Diercksen ’75 was appointed independent board director of Accedian, performance analytics and end-user experience solutions company headquarters in Montreal, Canada. He is the former executive vice president of Verizon having served in various financial and operational positions.

Kevin Crawford ’77 joined the board of directors of Hudson Resources Inc., the Canadian British Columbia-based mining and exploration company. He is retired chairman of the board of SCR-Sibelco.

Anne Ross ’78 was elected chair of the National Federation of Municipal Analysts. She is the principal consultant at Muni Credit and Compliance Advisors in White Plains, NY.

John Jordan ’79, journalist and news professional from Middletown, NY, was named “Affiliate of the Year” by Hudson Gateway Association of Realtors in recognition of his 25 years of service in the community.

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Marc M. Besca ’81, chairman of Pace University Board of Trustees, , was appointed to the board of directors at Markel Corporation in Richmond, VA. He is a consultant to EY having retired from the firm in June 2020 after a 42-year career.

Scott Corzine ’81 joined B. Riley Advisory Services as senior managing director and Compliance, Risk and Resilience practice co-leader. Prior to B. Riley, he worked at Ankura Consulting Group and FTI Consulting. Corzine recently relocated from New York and is currently based in Arlington, Virginia.

Teresa Jacobsen ’81 was named to the Forbes/SHOOK Research Top Women Wealth Advisors list for 2021. She is a private wealth advisor with the UBS office in Stamford, CT.

Eileen Mahoney ’83 was featured by Total Retail magazine in their Women in Retail Leadership Circle publication where she was interviewed about her career, women in tech, and leadership. She is executive vice president and chief information officer at PVH, the parent company of leading fashion brands such as Calvin Klein, Tommy Hilfiger, Van Heusen, and others.

Michael Mulcahy ’83 was appointed senior managing director at Peapack-Gladstone Bank in Bedminster, NJ. Previously, he was the senior vice president at Capital One Bank, North America.

Brian Zucker ’83 has joined the board of directors of NanoViricides, a leader in developing novel nanomedicines to treat viral diseases, in Shelton, CT, as an independent director. He is a partner at CFO Financial Partners.

Mary DeTurris Poust ’84 authored an article in Catholic New York on the inspirational effect that two Sisters of Divine Compassion, faculty at Pace’s then-undergraduate White Plains Campus, had on her writing career.

Kent Nevins, JD, ’85 became a member of the newly formed leadership team at Shipman & Goodwin LLP in Stamford, CT. The management committee was formed to replace an outgoing managing partner. Nevins has been a partner of the firm since 2007.

Christina O’Neill (née Gilsenan) ’85was elected a new member of the board of trustees at Hudson River Museum in Yonkers, NY. She is a wealth advisor with Wells Fargo.

Grace Vandecruze ’85 was appointed to the board of governors of the Doctors Company, the nation's largest physician-owned medical malpractice insurer, located in Napa, CA. She is the founder and managing director at an M&A advisory consulting firm and a member of Wharton Graduate Executive Board.

Jane Buckiewicz ’86 was appointed vice chairwoman of the board of trustees of NJ Sharing Network Foundation, the organization that promotes organ donorship. She’s a retired finance and HR executive.

Bud Hammer ’86 was named the new chairperson for United Way of Westchester and Putnam. He is president of Atlantic Westchester, a HVAC company in Bedford Hills, NY. Over the years, it received numerous awards and recognitions for being a good corporate citizen.

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Betty Silfa ’86 was appointed to West Chester University Council of Trustees. She is vice president and commercial loan officer at Mid Penn Bank, which is based in Chester County.

H. Steven Vogel Jr. ’86 joined Dickinson Wright PLLC Fort Lauderdale, FL, office as member of the firm. Formerly, he was a shareholder at Baker & Poliakoff PA also in Ft. Lauderdale.

William Wresch ’86 was promoted to senior vice president of Turle & Hughes, electrical and industrial distributors in Linden, NJ. He leads the Industrial division, which includes the Rockwell Automation business in New York and New Jersey, and the company’s operation in Southern California.

Larry Birnbaum ’87 was featured in Future of Retail series on Medium.com. He is the chief executive officer of the online accessories retailer ShopWorn, Inc., and is based in New York.

Jose Luis Castro ’88 was featured in the Authority Magazine on Medium.com in an interview about his leadership path. He is president and chief executive officer of the global health organization Vital Strategies with headquarters in Manhattan.

Georgia Keresty ’88 was appointed to the board at Solid Biosciences Inc. She serves as a senior advisor to Takeda, a global research and development biopharmaceutical company, based in Cambridge, MA.

Gregory Klang ’88 joined Zivaro, Inc. in Denver, CO, as banking and finance chief strategy officer. He spent most of his career working for tier one investment banks in advisory and technology development roles.

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Susan Vallario, JD, ’88 became chair of the board of trustees of Ramapo College in Mahwah, NJ. She is a retired real estate legal executive and has served as vice-chair of the board.

Anthony Carleto, JD, ’89 has joined Gordon Rees Scully Mansukhani, LLP as partner of the firm’s Westchester office. He took a position with Commercial Litigation, Intellectual Property, and Product & General Liability practice groups. Previously, he worked at Wilson Elser.

Deirdre Cherry ’89 joined Bank of Texas as private wealth team lead based in Fort Worth, TX. As a banking executive for more than 20 years, she joins the team from her previous position as chief credit officer of Gateway First Bank based in Dallas, TX.

Sandra Denton ’89 was appointed vice president of channels and alliances at Pipefy, the business management processes solution in San Francisco, CA. Prior to that, she held executive positions in IBM, Nlyte and other companies.

Neale Bedrock, JD, ’90 joined the Metropolitan Nashville Airport Authority leadership team as its new executive vice president, general counsel and chief compliance officer. Previously, he served as assistant general counsel at Hertz Corporation.

Tim Fitzgerald ’90 appointed Retirement Plan Advisor at MJP Wealth Advisors in Connecticut. Previously, he was Vice President at Webster Investments.

John Shay ’90 has joined the board of directors of TruSight, a provider of third-party risk data for the financial industry. He is the managing partner at Capital MarketServices, Inc. in New York City and chairman of AcadiaSoft, an international risk flow solutions provider.

Raimundo Archibold Jr. ’91 joined the board of directors of Chemung Financial Corporation, the Capital Bank's parent company. He is the managing director of Schwartz Heslin Group in Latham, NY.

Deena Manion, PsyD, ’91 has joined the leadership team of Westwind Recovery, Los Angeles, CA-based addiction and mental health treatment facility as clinical officer. In addition to her extensive clinical and practice work, she has appeared on the past 16 seasons of The Dr. Phil Show and as an expert in addiction and treatment.

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Dianne Aroh ’92 was appointed co-chair of the advisory board of College of Health Professions at Pace. She is the executive vice president, chief clinical and patient care officer of Hackensack University Medical Center in Hackensack, NJ. In addition to her recognition among New Jersey Business Journal 50 Best Women in Business recognition, Aroh has also been listed by Crain's New York Most Notable Women in Healthcare in 2018 and 2019.

Michael Corcione ’92 joined HKA, one of the leading consulting firms for the construction and technology industries, as partner specializing in cybersecurity and privacy located in New York, NY. With more than 25 years of experience, most recently he was managing director, cybersecurity and privacy advisory services at Treliant.

Ann Dennison ’92 assumed the role of chief financial officer at Nasdaq. Prior to joining Nasdaq, she worked at Goldman Sachs as managing director.

Jason Goodrich ’92 launched the “Give the Gift of Livestream Theater” initiative in his community in Portsmouth, NH, to boost the brand of his business while supporting local Seacost Repertory Theatre.

Maria Weaver ’92 was appointed president of WEA, Warner Recorded Music's global artist and label services network, based in New York, NY. She was most recently senior vice president and chief marketing officer at Comcast Advertising and previously held senior marketing and creative services posts at Interactive One, HBO and Showtime.

Bijal Jani ’93 was appointed to the board of advisors of Assiduus Global USA, an international company in the field of e-commerce. She is a recipient of several prestigious awards including the "Excellence for the Future" awards in Jurisprudence and Jewish Law.

Emile Trombetti ’93 was named vice president and chief growth officer at CALIBRE Systems, Inc. in Alexandria, VA. He is a member of the advisory board for Pace’s Seidenberg School of Computer Science and Information Systems and has more than 19 years of experience with Booz Allen Hamilton.

Alice Chan ’94 was appointed chief financial officer and elected as a member of the board's first class of directors of CF Finance Acquisition Corp. III. She joined Cantor Fitzgerald in New York City in March 2015 and has served as its Global Controller and Managing Director since March 2019.

Bettye Perkins ’94 was honored as a member of Westchester Class 2020 Women in Business by Westchester Magazine for her leadership in the nonprofit sector. She is the founder of Today’s Students Tomorrow’s Teachers, a White Plains-based nonprofit organization that runs programs in high schools to encourage and prepare students for careers in teaching.

Rodney Reese ’94 became general manager of projected Legacy Sports Park in Mesa, AZ. He worked for 16 years at ESPN Wide World of Sports in Orlando, FL, most recently as sports business development manager.

Lysa Scully ’94 was appointed senior adviser at the US Division of Ferrovial Airports, one of the world's leading building and public works groups headquartered in Spain. She is principal and president of LL Aviation Advisors in Glen Cove, NY.

Dr. Wolfgang Baiker ’96 was appointed chief executive officer of Adrenomed, AG in Germany. Prior to that, he served as chief executive officer of Boehringer Ingelheim USA Corp.

Julie Madnick ’96 joined Brean Capital, LLC in New York City as managing director. She was previously portfolio director at Ares Management.

Claude Wade ’96 joined AIG as executive vice president, global head of operations and chief digital officer. This is a newly created role based in New York. He joins the company from BlackRock where he most recently served as global head of client experience and head of the Atlanta Innovation Hub.

Thomas Ammazzalorso ’97 was recently named the 2020 Outstanding Educator by the University of Chicago. He was nominated by a former student who was recently accepted into the University’s undergraduate program. He is the chair of social studies at Suitland High School in Foresville, MD.

Christopher Jones ’97 was appointed vice president of corporate communications at FanDuel Group, an online gaming company. He is joining the company with 25 years of experience in marketing and media, and most recently he was the global chief communications officer for IPG Mediabrands.

Stacey Petrower ’97 was appointed co-chair of advisory board of College of Health Professions at Pace. She is president of NewYork-Presbyterian Hudson Valley Hospital in Cortland Manor, NY.

Bernadette Shopfer ’97, partner and director of taxation at Maier Markey & Justic LLP in White Plains, NY was named member of the board of directors of United Way of Westchester and Putnam for a three-year term. She is a founding member of United Way's Women's Leadership Council.

Ted Tulpan ’97 has joined Union Bank as managing director and team lead for the Financial Institutions Group within Transaction Banking. He comes to the bank from J.P. Morgan Chase, where he most recently was the sales group executive of its Global Funds Group and is based in New York.

Omolara Olaniyi, PhD, ’98 has been included in Marquis Who's Who. This is a biographical volume where individuals profiled are selected on the basis of the current reference value. She is a family nurse practitioner in Forest Hills and Manhattan, NY.

Shaheen Pasha ’99 was featured in The Philadelphia Sunday Sun in a series of articles covering her social initiative, The Prison Journalism Project. She is assistant professor at Pennsylvania State University in University Park, PA.

Heather Schneider ’99, partner with Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP in New York, NY, was honored as a Pro Bono Attorney of the Year by Kids In Need of Defense (KIND), an immigrant children’s rights organization.

Ghenete Wright Muir, JD, ’99 was featured in South Florida Gay News as a founder of Thou Art Woman, a three-day weekend event that features visual and performing arts. She is a professor at Nova Southern University Shepard Broad College of Law in Davie, FL.

Stephen Riccardully, JD, ’00, an environmental litigator, joined Holla & Knight in New York office as partner. Prior to joining the firm, he practiced in the New York office of Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney PC.

Wilson Tang ’00 was featured on foodnetwork.com sharing his experience as Pace alumnus and owner of Nom Wah, a Chinatown restaurant, about the Lunar New Year.

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Cristina Alesci ’01 was appointed chief corporate affairs officer at Chobani. She was correspondent with CNN Money team prior to that.

Inna Kleynburg ’02 was featured in nasdaq.com Women in Technology series of interviews. She is head of compliance and legal technology at AllianceBernstein in New York, NY.

Davis John Abraham ’03 joined the board of directors of Feeding Westchester in Elmsford, NY. He currently serves as a Director at the Cognizant U.S. Foundation and has worked in the philanthropic and international development sector for 19 years.

Denise Molina Capers ’03 was appointed first-ever racial and social justice director of the town of Sommerville, MA. A Brooklyn native, she was most recently the executive director of the nonprofit organization South Boston en Acción.

Sibil Sebastian ’03 was recognized as a Rising Star by the Defined Contribution Institutional Investment Association. She is vice president for strategy and corporate development of American Century Investments in Kansas City, MO.

Katrina Shindledecker ’03 became the new executive director of Hudson Highlands Land Trust.

Alex David ’04 was appointed president and chief executive officer of Stifel Independent Advisors in St. Louis, MO. Most recently, he was head of branch development and marketing at Wells Fargo Advisors Financial Network.

Wilmer Flores ’04 was promoted to senior vice president of STV, a construction management services company located in New York. He joined the company in 2016.

Benjamin Renzin ’04 joined WME Sports as co-leader of the football business. He is an NFL agent based in New York.

Christina Farinacci-Roberts ’05 won the Albany-based Center of Economic Growth’s Pitch Your Pivot grand prize for successfully developing her consultancy over the past year. She is the founder of Head Heart Hands Consulting in Latham, NY. Prior to that, she was principal and chief executive officer of the Albany Leadership Charter High School for Girls in Albany, NY.

Leonard Townes ’05 was appointed commissioner of the Westchester County Department of Social Services. He began his career with Westchester County 34 years ago as an eligibility examiner and worked his way up through the ranks. Townes was appointed deputy commissioner in January 2018.

Lana Bailey-Tamaro ’06 joined Pace University Board of Trustees. She is the CEO and owner of CASO Document Management, a national document scanning and document services automation company in New York. Prior to CASO, she worked as a police officer in the New York Police Department’s Detective Bureau in the Forensic Investigative Division.

Doug Bleszinski ’06 started in the position of vice president of sales in North America with Bambuser, a live video shopping provider in New York, NY. He has held a variety of executive roles at Salesforce, Salsify, Elastic, and Ionic Security.

Sean Byrnes ’06 was appointed chief accountant officer at Kearney Bank. Before joining Kearny Bank, he was senior accounting officer for Amboy Bank, in Old Bridge, NJ.

David DeMilia, JD, ’06 was named president and chief operating officer of Tompkins Mahopac Bank in Brewster, NY. Most recently, he served as senior vice president and before that has held other positions since joining the bank in 2008.

Zeynep Ekemen ’06 was profiled on Medium.com as a part of our series about cutting-edge technological breakthroughs. She is the managing partner and co-founder of Silver Defender, a woman-led business that provides cleaning solutions, located in Fort Lee, NJ.

Jonathan Garbar ’06 was named Florida International University’s new women’s soccer head coach. He spent the last four years at Franklin Pierce University as their head coach.

Michelle Richter ’06 was promoted to Senior Agent at Fuse Literary, New York office. This literary agency brings innovation to book publishing. She joined the company in 2014 after working as an acquisitions editor for St. Martin's Press, where she worked on a variety of fiction and nonfiction titles.

Charles Rizzuto ’06 was honored as 2020 Secondary Physical Education Teacher of the Year, awarded by the New York State Association of Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance. He is physical education and health teacher at Oyster Bay High School in Oyster Bay, NY. Rizzuto also was named New York State Health Education Amazing Person of the Year in 2017.

Gennady Spivak ’06 joined Clear Thinking Group in Hillsborough, NJ in the capacity of managing director. Prior to that, he was senior manager in the corporate recovery & litigation services practice of a major accounting firm.

Phionah Brown ’07 has been included in Marquis Who's Who. This is a biographical volume where individuals profiled are selected on the basis of the current reference value. She is a financial service litigation attorney with Eckert Seamans Cherin & Mellot in White Plains, NY.

Claire Cox ’07 debuted with her novel Silver Beach, which won the Juniper Prize for Fiction of University of Massachusetts Press.

Douglas Jones, JD, ’07 joined Husch Blackwell, LLP in Austin, TX as a partner. He joins the firm’s Tax, Tax Controversy, and Nonprofit Organizations & Religious Institutions groups and its Energy & Natural Resources business unit.

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The Honorable Andrea Stewart-Cousins ’08 was re-elected as the Democratic Conference president pro tempore and majority leader of the New York State Senate. Following the 2018 elections, she became the first woman and African American woman to lead a legislative majority in New York.

Stephanie Andujar ’09 was interviewed by Thriveglobal.com as a part of their series about rising music stars. She’s an actress and producer based in New York City.

Olufunto Boroffice ’09 was profiled in The Nation, a Nigerian online publication in the Fast-Track Entrepreneurship section celebrating companies that have been thriving despite the pandemic. She is the founder of Chanja Datti, a waste collection and recycling social enterprise company based in Abuja.

Christina Tan ’09 was featured in The Suffolk Journal as president of the Interior Design Collective that has been offering internships to Suffolk University graduate students despite the pandemic.

Candice Brown-Saunders ’10 has been promoted to director of family court and mentoring services, Bronx and Manhattan, for the Center for Alternative Sentencing and Employment Services, a non-governmental organization in New York.

Jessica Cardichon, JD, ’10 was appointed to serve as deputy assistant secretary, Office of Planning, Evaluation, and Policy Development of the U.S. Department of Education. Most recently, she directed the Washington, DC, office and federal policy arm of the Learning Policy Institute.

Zenon Christodoulou ’10 became trustee of Raritan Valley Community College in Branchburg, NJ. He is a New Jersey entrepreneur and also serves on the NJ Department of Homeland Security’s Advisory Council.

Osas Ighodaro ’11 was featured in a publication on Thenet.ng, a website dedicated to the entertainment business in Nigeria that had a look at her successful career as an actress and TV host.

Whitney Macdonald ’11 joined Visit Napa Valley (Napa, CA) in the newly created position of senior manager. Previously she was hospitality manager at Stony Hill Vineyards overseeing immersive events and growing wine club membership.

Jeffrey Chua ’12 was promoted to Principal with Golden Gate Ventures, a Singapore-based early-stage fund. He has been with the firm for five years.

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Maral Javadifar ’12, assistant strength and conditioning coach for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, was featured in an NBC article on women coaching in the NFL playoffs.

Henry Gordon, JD, ’13 was named in the list of 40 Under 40 in Wealth Management of American Bankers Association. He is vice president and trust real estate manager for First Horizon Bank in Memphis, TN.

Jesse James Keitel ’15 was interview by NBC on their groundbreaking role in the ABC drama Big Sky.

Jennifer Pacheco, JD, ’15 was promoted to senior staff attorney at New York Legal Assistance Group. She was also celebrated as a 2019 Advocate of New York City by NYC Mayor’s Office to End Domestic and Gender-Based Violence.

Opal Vadhan ’15 was named a personal aide to Vice President of the United States Kamala Harris. She previously served as executive assistant to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

Ana Bolivar ’16 received an award from ASPIRA of New York, an organization dedicated to the development of Latino youth, for her service within the Latino community at the organization’s 2021 Virtual Circle of Achievers Gala. She is project manager at Con Edison in upstate New York.

Lauren Enea, JD, ’16, Westchester County elder law attorney, was honored by the Westchester County Bar Association with the Outstanding New Lawyer Award. She is associate at Enea, Scanlan & Sirignano LLP in White Plains and Somers, NY.

Philip Scheinfeld ’16 was named among 20 Entrepreneurs in 2020 by Healthtechnologynet.com. He is a partner with Compass Real Estate, based in New York, NY.

Vincent Valerio, JD, ’16 was featured by SI Live in an article about his unexpected career turn from lawyer to a professional gamer. He is Staten Island, NY, resident.

Sheila Arjomandi, JD, ’17 was appointed associate attorney in the commercial real estate department at Romer Debbas LLP, a New York-based law firm. Prior to joining the firm, she was in-house counsel for a real estate company.

Leigh Anne Clevenger, DPS, ’17 was named director of OpenStandards at Silicon Integration Initiative (Si2), a research and development joint venture focused on software interoperability and located in Austin, TX. She’s been with the company since 2018.

Lydia Rainey ’18 joined Wesley Clark and Peshkin in Rochester, NY as Associate Attorney.

Matt Carino ’20 was featured in Montclair Local News that tells about his passion for lighting decoration to an extent where his parents' house in Montclair, NJ, was declared local sightseeing in the Christmas season.

Michael Sandstrom ’20, a teacher at Chadron High School in Chadron, NE, was named one of only 15 educators who will create a valuable new classroom resource. These student guides will be the newest addition to the wealth of materials provided by the Library of Congress Teaching with Primary Sources (TPS) Consortium for educators in the United States and around the world.