Bentley University Magazine Winter 2016

WINTER 2016

BENTLEYMAGAZINE

CHANGING THE WORLD IN BIG WAYSDATA

Planning for the Bentley Centennial | 8

Screen time at TD Garden | 10

Alumni stars in the big data universe | 15

Taking analytics to the movies | 20

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Big data lends itself to hyperbole. You see figures like 2.5 quintillion (page 13) and suddenly it’s not a leap to think big data will save the world or end civilization as we know it. This Bentley Magazine steps back from outsized predictions on either side.

Instead, you’ll hear from alumni using analytics in real time, to help drive strategy in marketing, finance, human resources and more. We also tap Bentley’s deep bench of academic expertise: faculty from the MS programs in business analytics, marketing analytics, and human factors in information design, and the Center for Business Ethics. All were generous with insights and patient with follow-up requests for a clarification here, an example there. The collaboration produced stories with takeaways for power users (hello, data storyteller), novices (five must-read books) and everyone in between.

Our own team learned a lot about making a complex topic acces-sible. To the specialists who do this translation all the time: respect. Ultimately, though, delivering on the promise of big data and avoiding its pitfalls is a challenge that belongs to us all.

Finally, a somber note. As this magazine went to press in late November, Bentley lost a leader whose vision shaped the university: Chancellor and President Emeritus Gregory H. Adamian. Our next issue will pay special tribute to his life.

Stay well and stay in touch,

Susan Simpson Editor

BETWEEN THE LINES

2 | HERE SAY

3 | ON CAMPUS> Finish a business

degree online

> Tour the expanded Student Center

> Meet some Bentley storytellers 6

5

ContentsWINTER 2016

S CONTRIBUTORS

MARY K. PRATT

WALTHAM, MASS.

Ethical issues around big data are rising on the radar of individuals and society, says the freelance journalist who inter-viewed Bentley experts on the topic.

She writes on business and IT for publi-cations including The Boston Globe, The Boston Business Journal and

Computerworld. Page 22

JEN A. MILLER

COLLINGSWOOD, N.J.

The marathon runner, journalist and self-described “hired pen” writes for The New York Times,

Financial Planning, Bankrate.com and CIO.com, among others.

Her book Running: A Love Story debuts in March.

Page 15

BRIAN SMITH

NEEDHAM, MASS.

The freelance photographer has recorded scores of Bentley events

over the past 20 years. Homecoming 2015 boasted “beautiful weather and outstanding food … and the football

team won! It certainly makes my job easier when guests are truly

having a great time.”Page 34

JENNIFER SKUCE-SPIRA

WEST GREENWICH, R.I.

“I love interviewing interesting people,” says the freelance writer who talked with John Mitchell ’89 of TD Garden.

This spring, the Girl Scout troop she leads will join him for a backstage

tour of the venue. “Free Thin Mints coming your way, John!”

Page 10

FEATURES12 | Big data from 30,000 feet

15 | Alumni turn insights into action

18 | The PROfile: Equifax VP Kenneth Viciana ’99

20 | Analytics research goes to the movies

22 | Keeping ethics in the picture

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24 | CLASS NOTES

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20

15

29

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18 COLUMNS7 | Five Things: Rx for your next doctor visit

8 | Take Two: Centennial celebration planners

10 | Inside Job: John Mitchell ’89 of TD Garden

29 | Next Stop: Winter highs in Denver

31 | Family Matters: Worlds apart, close at heart

ONLINE EXTRAS | Many of our stories have expanded interviews and more photos at bentley.edu/magazine.

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We welcome your feedback.Send your compliments and critiques on the stories inside — or suggest one for the future. COMING SOON: politics and elections. Let us know if you’re connected to these topics.

[email protected] @bentleyalumni

175 Forest Street, Waltham, MA 02452

Bentley Magazine is published by Bentley University, Waltham, Massachusetts, and distributed without charge to alumni, parents, students, faculty, staff and friends of the university. BENTLEY UNIVERSITY is one of the nation’s leading business schools, dedicated to preparing a new kind of business leader — one with the deep technical skills, broad global perspective, and high ethical standards required to make a difference in an ever-changing world.

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MAGAZINE

EDITORSusan Simpson

PUBLISHERTiffany Smith

WRITERSAriella Brown

Deblina ChakrabortyHelen Henrichs

Joanna HowarthMeredith Mason

Jen A. MillerMary K. Pratt

Jennifer Skuce-SpiraKristen Walsh

CREATIVE DIRECTOR

Claire S. Anderson

ART DIRECTION & DESIGN

Carol DirgaSara Jane Kaminski

Kelly Milligan

DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY

Chris Conti

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

ADVANCEMENT RELATIONS

Leigh K. Gaspar

DIRECTOR ADVANCEMENT

COMMUNICATIONSMichael S. Lynch

SENIOR ASSISTANT DIRECTORS

ADVANCEMENT COMMUNICATIONS

Caroline CruiseKristin Livingston

PRESIDENTGloria Cordes Larson

VICE PRESIDENT FOR UNIVERSITY

ADVANCEMENT William Torrey

INTERIM CHIEF MARKETING

OFFICER Valerie Fox

HERE SAY

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Outdoors by CrackyAn entire issue dedicated to farming, food and origin? Imagine my delight when I opened this summer’s alumni magazine to pictures of Tango Celery, heritage cattle, and even an old John Deere 2040 like the one I first used as a boy. Well done, Bentley University and Bentley University Alumni. A business school that cares about life’s realities is precisely what we all need right now. It might be time for me to go back and finish that PhD.Justin Chase MBA ’09

ON THE LAST ISSUEWhen I grow up (some-day, maybe) I want to be just like the people in the new Bentley Magazine. Sara Brody ’10

I just received the Bentley Magazine, opened the cover, and was surprised to see an adorable picture of my husband, Tom, and daughter, Emily. Thanks so much for including it. Our little Emily feels like she’s famous!Laurie (Hillard) Flanagan ’05

I really loved the past issue that Bentley produced. It was amazing to see alums succeed in entrepreneurial areas! Way to go. Nicole Chan ’08

Honored to be featured in Bentley Magazine. Thank you for the education!Nick Belsito ’08

FROM THE EDITOR Robert Hoffman ’42, the alumnus noted in the letter from Eleanore Laut, was 92 years old when he passed away peacefully at his home in Southbury, Conn., on February 14, 2015. A New York native, he attended Bentley after graduating from Clinton High School. He was employed at General Electric Financial Services for 42 years — 20 of which he spent in Brazil. He is survived by Gladys, his wife of 68 years; three children; and a granddaughter. Source: Dimbleby, Friedel, Williams & Edmunds Funeral Homes


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BENTLEY MAGAZINE | 3

ON CAMPUSPEOPLE >> PROGRAMS >> EVENTS >> IDEAS

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FlexTime>> Thursday, September 3, 11:58 a.m.The Class of 2019 arrived for First Week amid a flurry of Facebook check-ins (1,297), tweets (42) and Instagram posts (39) using #BentleyFW. Devin Koss ‘16 of Newington, Conn., was a First-Year Seminar peer facilitator for some of the 925 newest falcons.


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Inc.How Millennials Find Remarkable Success in the WorkplaceSeptember 18, 2015

Market research from Bentley’s PreparedU Project is used to explain the advantages of hiring millennials.

Boston GlobeMove Over, Millennials. Gen Z is New Target Audience September 1, 2015

Marketing Professor Ian Cross explores consump-tion habits of Generation Z.

U.S. News & World ReportBusiness Schools Give Undergraduate Programs a Liberal Arts TwistSeptember 9, 2015

The Bentley curriculum is highlighted for fusing the study of business with the arts and sciences.

The EconomistThe Value of University: Where’s Best?October 30, 2015The magazine places Bentley at No. 5 in its new college ranking.

Bloomberg Radio David Gulley Discusses the Fed’s Decision to Not Raise Interest Rates October 29, 2015

Professor of Economics David Gulley discusses the recent statement issued by the Federal Reserve about U.S. economic conditions.

Fortune Dealing with a Competitive Colleague? Befriend Them August 13, 2015

President Gloria Larson shares strategies for handling competition in the workplace.

Time.comWhat College Students Need to Know About NetworkingSeptember 14, 2015

Associate VP for Career Services Susan Brennan explains how students can make connections that will pay off after graduation.

IN THE NEWS >> Read more at bentley.edu/newsroom/media-coverage

ON CAMPUS >>

About 20.2 million students are enrolled at American colleges and universities this year. If history is any guide, some 40 percent will step off the track to a bachelor’s degree. That’s akin to handing over $1 million in lifetime earnings, according to figures from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. A new program at Bentley is poised to help. The Online Bachelor’s Degree Completion program in business administra-tion serves candidates who stepped away from their education, but have accumulated two years of college-level credit in a non-busi-ness concentration. The first cohort begins in January 2016. “This degree can open doors,” says Bentley Dean of Business Chip Wiggins. “It’s an opportunity for someone looking to advance in their career or increase their

earning potential, a parent who stepped away from education but wants to return, veterans and active members of the military transitioning into the civilian workforce, or someone with an associate’s degree interested in pursuing the next level of education.” While making full use of Bentley’s strong business curriculum and faculty expertise, the program has a flexible format that fits busy lives. “We are making study more accessible by offering the program online,” notes Wiggins. “But it’s important that students feel they are truly part of the Bentley community and the Bentley legacy.” Students complete 16 courses, offered one at a time in eight-week segments. Those who pursue the program without any breaks can expect to graduate in just over three years.

OTHER HIGHLIGHTS:

n Courses are offered asynchro-nously, so students can work at their own pace and access assignments and lectures when it’s convenient for them.

n Virtual office hours and synchronized lectures at specific times expand communication with faculty members.

n Students move through the program as a group, which cre-ates networking opportunities, builds strong relationships and fosters camaraderie.

n Each year features a two-day residency at Bentley, where participants can collaborate with faculty, administrators and other students, while enjoying the amenities of campus.

Go to bentley.edu/online- degree-completion to learn more, request a program guide and download the eBook 10 Tips to Successfully Completing an Online Degree. For more details, contact Annarita Meeker (781.891.2765 or [email protected]).

Redrawing the Finish LineBentley’s online program completes a business degree

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+$1M

+$700K

HIGH SCHOOL DIPLOMA

LIFETIME EARNINGS POTENTIAL

BACHELOR’S DEGREE

ASSOCIATE’S DEGREE

Individuals with a BACHELOR’S DEGREE make an average of $1 MILLION DOLLARS more in their lifetime than those with just a HIGH SCHOOL DIPLOMA and almost $700,000 DOLLARS more than those with an associate’s degree.

New York Federal Reserve Study

NEW MODEL FOR A NEW WORLD

This April, college acceptance letters will land in mail-

boxes across the nation. As “where-will-I-go-to- college” receives an answer, an even more important question awaits. How will you go to college? Recent surveys by Gallup and others point to a handful of experi-ences during college that set new graduates up to thrive. Key factors are accessible professors, meaningful academic projects, encouragement from a mentor, intern-ships, and participation in campus activities. “Employers are asking for graduates who have benefited from this type of education,” says Bentley President Gloria Cordes Larson. “Today’s innovation econ-omy demands hard skills, such as knowledge of computer software, as well as soft skills, such as communication and understanding context.” In PreparedU: The Promise of Fusion Learning for Today’s Graduates, she argues for remaking the college experience to develop both skillsets — and presents a road map for doing so. Download an excerpt at bentley.edu/prepared-book.


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STUDENTCENTEREDBY KRISTEN WALSH

Walk through the newly renovated 11,000-square-foot Student Center, and you can feel the energy.

When students spoke of feeling the pinch of administrative offices in their space, Andrew Shepardson didn’t just listen. The VP for student affairs and dean of students committed to collaborate and conceptualize a new model that would belong to them. “The results are what we envisioned: a student-centered space, designed with direct student input.”

Adds Nicole Chabot-Wieferich, director of student programs and engagement: “Students just find their space, and the building comes alive. We want it to be the place students can count on to build their community.”

LEARN MORE | bentley.edu/magazine

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Dear World, an international storytelling project where people write personal messages on themselves to share with the world via photo portraits, came to Bentley during annual First Week activities for freshmen. More than 250 students were

photographed, telling stories that made classmates laugh and cry. “I learned how many other people are struggling through the same issues I do,” says Nick Williams ’19 (top row, left). “It gave me an opportunity to leave my small imprint on a big community.”

The project invited students to “let down their guard and be vulnerable with one another,” says Jessica Kenerson, associate director for student affairs operations and development (top row, right). “It was the most impactful day in my seven years at Bentley.”

Tell the world one important thing.FRESHMEN AND OTHERS EMBRACED THAT OPPORTUNITY EARLY THIS FALL.

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ARRIVE INFORMEDDoing some research on your own can lead to better health. About 70 percent of people turn to the Internet first for health questions, accord-ing to the Health Infor-mation National Trends Survey. Our own research finds that people consult an average of five differ-ent sources. However, we rarely share the findings with our doctor. He or she is the best person to ask about conflicting and confusing information.

ASK IMPORTANT QUESTIONS FIRSTHave a list of questions handy on your phone or in your pocket to discuss. During the average 10-minute appointment, the first issue broached will occupy five minutes. By the time you hear “do you have any additional questions?” the doctor may have one foot out the door — often quite literally. Address your most-pressing concerns at the start of the visit.

TALK ABOUT EMOTIONS Be honest about how you’re feeling, both physically and psychologically. However well intentioned, doctors often miss nonverbal cues that a patient is upset. Don’t assume they will notice when you sigh or tear up when discussing the stress in your life. Our research also shows that doctors tend to underestimate patients’ pain. Communicating clearly with your doctor can help you get the care you need.

SEEK EXPLANATION Medical jargon can leave patients confused about their health status and what to do next. Try repeating complex instructions or medical information back to your doctor, so he or she can verify you have the details right and address any uncertainty. And if you’re unsure on any points, don’t be afraid to ask for additional explanation.

ENLIST A CARE TEAMPatients today are managing multiple con-ditions, navigating health insurance and consulting numerous specialists. Coordinating these efforts is important and you shouldn’t do it alone. Keep your primary care doctor informed about your visits with specialists. Nurses, pharmacists and patient navigators can be great resources. Moreover, studies show that bring-ing a family member or friend to a visit can help you remember more.

Five Rx FOR YOUR NEXT DOCTOR VISIT

DANIELLE BLANCH HARTIGANAssistant Professor of Health Studies, Department of Natural and Applied Sciences

Teaching & Research: Health psychology; doctor–patient communication; patient-centered care; cancer survivorship; nonverbal behavior

Writing Credits: Articles for the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Health Communication, Patient Education and Counseling, Medical Care, and Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, among others

Underway: Ability of providers and caregivers to judge patients’ pain level; role of patient engagement and patient-centered communication in the experience of cancer survivors

<< FIVE THINGS


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KAITLYN LIJOI ’17 Set to graduate in 2017; enrolled at Bentley after a

months-long process that included an online application; lives on a classic New England campus in Waltham;

throws the disc in Ultimate Frisbee.

GEORGE FANTINI ’64Attended Bentley more than 50 years ago; aced a challenging entrance exam and waited, in person,

for the results; commuted to classes on Boylston Street in Boston; rolled with the bowling team.

TAKE TWO >>

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CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION

A Milestone in the MakingINTERVIEW BY KRISTEN WALSH

Bentley University (nee The Bentley School of Accounting and Finance) turns 100 years

old in 2017. The Centennial Steering Committee is leading a large contingent of faculty, staff,

students and alumni in planning the festivities, which unfold over nine months starting in

September 2016. Meet committee chairman George Fantini ’64 and member Kaitlyn Lijoi ’17,

who bring different experiences, but shared enthusiasm, to the task.



“We feel like orchestra leaders trying to blend and capture everybody’s insights so the performance is memorable.”

TAKE TWO >> << TAKE TWO

WHAT’S IT LIKE TO BE

INVOLVED IN CENTENNIAL PLANNING?

KAITLYN LIJOI: Ever since President Larson mentioned [at Opening Convocation] that we are Bentley’s 100th class and there would be a huge celebration, we’ve all been waiting to hear more. Serving on the committee as the representative of the centennial class, my goal is to take ideas I’ve heard and bring them to the table; I want to honestly represent my classmates. Speaking person-ally, it has been humbling to hear about what alumni have accomplished — both at Bentley and for Bentley.

WHAT IS THE ROLE

OF THE COMMITTEE?

GEORGE FANTINI: Our members represent the entire Bentley community: students, faculty, staff and alumni. Our focus is to shape a celebration that will recount Bentley’s remarkable history and bring together all the different segments and classes. The interaction of committee members really energizes us — different age groups, backgrounds and ideas. It has been interest-ing to “look under the hood” of Bentley and understand all the moving parts.

WHAT ARE SOME

NOTABLE ASPECTS OF PLANNING?

K L : It has been fun getting to know more people on campus, particularly those who are more behind-the-scenes when it comes to making sure Bentley runs smoothly. I like coming up with creative ideas; the challenging part is developing a plan that works universally. Who will want to come? Who will be able to come? Will they enjoy it?

G F: A 100-year celebration doesn’t come along very often. We feel like orchestra leaders trying to blend and capture everybody’s insights so the performance is memorable. We would love to hear ideas from readers. Programming is in the formative stage, so the committee is very open-minded.

ARE THERE ELEMENTS OF

THE CELEBRATION YOU’RE

PARTICULARLY EXCITED ABOUT?

G F: It’s the combination of all the events that will make this special. We feel strongly about reaching out to all class years, including people who haven’t been on campus for a long time. In addition to forming subcommittees, we’re naming 100 Centennial Ambassadors who represent each decade, which will add another dimension to our planning.

WHAT SHOULD OTHERS KNOW ABOUT

THE CENTENNIAL AT THIS POINT?

K L : We want to gather all the history we can about the school, because there is so much that remains untold. We’re looking for personal stories, which are the most interesting ones, in order to effectively celebrate what Bentley has become. The university is successful because of what our alumni have accomplished; they’ve contrib-uted so much to its reputation. I want to acknowledge that by inviting them to join in the celebration as much as possible and share their own Bentley stories.

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SPEAKING OF BENTLEY STORIES,

WHAT ARE YOUR MEMORABLE ONES?

G F: I saw a lot of changes while attending Bentley. The Bentley School of Accounting and Finance transitioned from a two-year to a four-year school — the Class of 1964 was the first to graduate with a four-year degree — and the name changed to Bentley College. I also remember my commute from Cambridge to Boylston Street on a bus from Harvard Square. A lot of mornings, I would be doing my homework and [former

chancellor and president emeritus] Greg Adamian would be sitting across the aisle correcting papers. I got the chance to know him fairly well.

K L : When I visited campus for Open House, the first thing I noticed was that everyone was smiling. It wasn’t just Bentley’s reputa-tion, it was the people that attracted me. Freshman year, I lived on the wellness floor and we all bonded so well that we hold the same friendships to this day. Also, when the Red Sox, Patriots or our own women’s basketball team won a champion-ship, everyone instinctively knew to gather on the green space to celebrate; even the police officers were excited about the victory. I’m inspired to do as much as I can to make sure that all of our legacies last — along with the legacy of the university.

SHARE YOUR BENTLEY STORY

Go to bentley.edu/100 to share your memories, reflections and photos.


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BANNER DAYSEvery morning, when the elevator door opens on level nine at the Garden, I see the six Bruins championship banners, the 17 Celtics championship banners, and many retired player numbers. I always try to take a moment and realize how special it is to have had this as my office for the past 22 years.

IN THE ZONEOne of the best things about this job is the instant reaction from the crowd when we play our videos during Bruins and Celtics games. We have 17,500 of the most passionate and knowledgeable fans in the world right outside our control room windows. That’s quite a focus group.

AFTER FURTHER REVIEWWith $15 million of event technology equip-ment at the Garden, there’s always something to maintain, upgrade or replace. This year the NHL is adding an official’s review, so we designed and installed new infrastructure to give coaches and management the ability to see multiple camera angles of the play in review.

GREATEST GARDEN MEMORIESn The Celtics crushing the Lakers and

winning the NBA championship in front of our hometown fans in 2007-2008.

n The Bruins winning two Game 7’s at home on route to their Stanley Cup victory in 2010 – 2011.

n Rolling down Boylston Street in two championship parades celebrating Celtics and Bruins victories.

n Receiving a Bruins championship ring alongside my co-workers.

GINO TIMEWhen the former Fleet Center opened in 1995, the Celtics game presentation producer had me edit some videos of famous dance scenes from movies and TV series. We’d run the videos late in the game when the Celtics were winning, and cut back and forth between fans dancing in the stadium and movie clips. One day, VH1 ran a 24-hour marathon of old American Bandstand episodes. We recorded it and cut together a compilation of the best wardrobes and dancers from the 20 hours of footage. I noticed this one guy wearing a skin-tight shirt that said “Gino” on it and put him in the video. It soon became the team’s signature celebration ritual. Over 20 years later, Gino Time is still an integral part of a blowout Celtics win at the Garden.

As told to Jennifer Skuce-Spira

Master of the Screens As director of audio/video for TD Garden in Boston, John Mitchell ’89 has the best seat in the house. Perched above the main event, Mitchell and his control room team generate the galvanizing sights and sounds of the HD DiamondVision scoreboard for every Boston Celtics and Bruins home game. The handiwork of his 40-strong team lets New England fans revel in replays, cheer in sync, and groove to Gino Time.

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BIG DATA << FEATURES

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INSIDE JOB >>

HAVE AN INTRIGUING JOB? Tell us about it at [email protected]


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Data analytics

will be the lifeblood

of all companies and

the price of admission

into the 21st century

and beyond.

CHRISTOPHER LYNCH MBA ’91

The People

Analytics team at

Biogen has identified

“talent attractors.” These

are managers who have

hired a higher-than-usual

share of high-performing

employees.

AARON KAMHOLTZ MBA ’11, MSIT ’11

Researchers

have struggled with

a way to visualize

very large data sets,

as typical tools run

into problems.

DOMINIQUE HAUGHTON, Professor of MathematicalSciences

Why should

anyone, with the

click of a button,

be led to information

that is irrelevant or

out of date?

DEANNA (BROWN) DUPLAK ’82

The data storyteller

is a hybrid position

requiring IT, data and

analytics skills, along

with some sales and

marketing savvy.

KENNETH VICIANA ’99

Let’s talk big data.


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12 | WINTER 2016

Big data from 30,000 feet

By Ariella Brown

FEATURES >> BIG DATA BIG DATA << FEATURES


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Those eye-popping figures were tallied by IBM … in 2012. Three years’ proliferation of sensors, mobile devices and Internet-enabled products has only multiplied the data collected about us on a given day. The challenge now, say experts at Bentley and elsewhere, is extracting value from that tsunami of information. “Whether companies are large or small, established or brand new, they are all collecting data. The difference is that the successful ones are already leveraging it,” says Christopher Lynch MBA ’91, who works with young companies as a partner at venture capital firm Accomplice. He was the keynote speaker at Bentley’s 2014 research colloquium on big data. “Data analytics will be the lifeblood of all companies and the price of admission into the 21st century and beyond.”

A LOOK BACKIt’s worth noting how Lynch and the rest of us landed in this brave new world. David Oury, lecturer in mathematical sciences, describes how large computers and computing centers were once up to the task of storing, processing and analyzing the available data. Then came the rise of smartphones, websites and other 24/7 conduits of information. “The old tools weren’t set up to deal with that much data and deal with it quickly enough,” says Oury. “So you saw new tools being created to work with data in different formats … tools that people needed to manipulate the data.” Specialties were born. “Data mining and machine learning came out of theoretical computer science, artificial intelligence, statistics and information systems. You create models of the data, more complicated descriptions of the data,” Oury explains. “They were techniques used only by geeks and nerds and academics.” Over time, people outside the pocket-protector demographic came to appreciate data mining. “This theoretical thing, which we had not considered useful, suddenly seems to be very useful. We can gain insights about our data, how it works, how it’s tied together — and even make decisions based on these observations.”

TOOL TIME With 27 years’ experience in data analytics, Professor of Mathematical Sciences Sam Woolford sees a decided turn toward greater use of data in the last decade.

“Businesses have always sought to apply data to their strategies. What’s changed are the tools for doing that,” he says of data-capturing systems that can communicate directly with each other. “Analytics are easier to run now than 10 years ago, when all the data was in separate systems.” Directing the Center for Quantitative Analysis at Bentley gives Woolford a front-row seat to the changes underway. He and students in the Master of Science in Business Analytics program routinely work with companies such as CVS Pharmacy, Gorton’s and National Grid. Their data-driven projects have focused on improving operations, learning more about customers, and explor-

ing stakeholders’ interactions with the business. “Improved technology has broken down some of the barriers,” he says. “And greater awareness of the value that can be derived from analytics is inspiring greater cooperation among different departments within an organization to share data.” Woolford’s colleague in the Mathematical Sciences Department, Mingfei Li, pays close attention to the companies that tap the Center for Quantitative Analysis. “We can learn what companies need in analytics professionals … what kind of skills, experience and training,” says Li, who directs the Master of Science in Business Analytics program. “Industry feedback is so important.”

SEEING PATTERNS Credit card companies were among the first to use big data analytics for identifying patterns. They were on the lookout for unusual purchasing behavior, which often signals a card’s unauthorized use. Businesses across the spectrum are learning to apply the same kind of algorithm to other organizational needs. Will Markow ’12 works for one such company, Burning Glass Technologies, which combs through job listings and other labor-related data to find meaningful patterns. The work includes identifying skill sets and functional domains in high demand by employers, as well as positions that are prov-ing the hardest to fill. “A mismatch between job candidates’ training and experience and employers’ needs has created serious gaps in the fastest-emerging sectors,” reports Markow, a senior analyst with the company. “One of the key sectors with explosive growth is data analytics. But, the demand

Every day, we create 2.5 quintillion bytes of data — so much that 90 percent of the data in the world today has been created in the last two years alone.


“ Greater awareness of the value that can be derived from analytics is inspiring greater cooperation among different departments within an organization to share data.”


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<< FEATURESBIG DATA << FEATURESFEATURES >> BIG DATA

TIPS FOR SKILL BUILDING

BY KRISTEN WALSH

14 | WINTER 2016

for skills has spilled over into other functional domains, such as marketing managers who are required to learn SQL.”

CONTEXT IS KING Companies today need a triad of “good data, advanced analytics and domain expertise,” according to thought leaders such as Dean Abbott, co-founder and chief data scientist at SmarterHQ and author of Applied Predictive Analytics: Principles and Techniques for the Professional Data Analyst. In other words, algorithms don’t work in a vacuum. You need insight from the people “who know the customers about which metrics are significant,” Abbott says in an interviw for AllAnalytics.com. Without deep domain expertise, “you don’t know what you’re looking for.” The principle applies across industries — as Zebra Technologies learned in partnering with the National Football League. Jill Stelfox, Zebra vice president and general manager, location solutions, reflected on the issue in CIO magazine. “The analytics from manufacturing weren’t the same as the analytics from football,” she says of developing the NFL’s Next Gen Stats platform. “We could see correlations in the data that seemed important … and then they weren’t. We had to bring in people that had the football expertise who could say, ‘Look, this is why it matters.’”

MEETING OF THE MINDSThe rush of organizations to embrace data analytics raises some flags for Bentley’s Heikki Topi. “Data is meaningless unless it is used to create value for the organization and society as a whole,” says the long-time professor of computer information systems. “A big question right now is, how can big data be harnessed to create value and do good?” Bentley’s work in this area is global, Topi notes.

M. Lynne Markus, the John W. Poduska Sr. Professor of Information and Process Management, led an international effort to promote rigor-ous academic research on implications of big data. The research collo-quium that Topi spearheaded last fall brought together fellow academ-ics such as Sam Woolford and business leaders such as Chris Lynch to explore the relevant issues. “We looked at applications and implications of big data — and what it all means for individuals and society,” Topi reports. “We always have to ask: What is possible from a technical perspective and what is meaningful from a business perspective.”

Someone with the inside track on boosting a company’s innovation, competitive advantage and productivity is a shoe-in for Employee of the Year honors. Big data can provide that value- added for scores of organizations, according to research by McKinsey Global Institute and others.

“Integrating analytical techniques and business is now the most important demand coming from all different fields,” says Associate Professor of Mathematical Sciences Mingfei Li, who analyzed job postings on Indeed and Monster for skills and keywords. “Many corporate people see the importance of data analytics for their business, but they don’t know where or how to begin.”

Here is advice for getting your own bearings in big data, from Li and Bentley faculty colleagues David Oury and Heikki Topi, as well as other sources.

Get your read on n Data Science for Business: What you need to know about data mining and data-analytic thinking (Foster Provost)

n A Practitioner’s Guide to Business Analytics: Using Data Analysis Tools to Improve Your Organization’s Decision Making and Strategy (Randy Bartlett)

n Predictive Analytics: The Power to Predict Who Will Click, Buy, Lie or Die (Eric Siegel)

n Competing on Analytics: The New Science of Winning (Thomas H. Davenport and Jeanne Harris)

Learn the language SQL has become the de facto standard language for retrieving and manag-ing data, says Topi. “Learning it is useful even for those who focus on the latest big data technologies.” Look for free courses on SQL, Python, Java and more on Codecademy (codecademy.com).

Find an analytics program (R, SAS, Tableau, RapidMiner) that you can run on your computer. Many of these offer free trials, says Oury, who suggests doing a tutorial and producing a visual output such as charts and graphs.

The blog post “21 Essential Data Visualization Tools,” on the KDnuggets website reviews the pluses and minuses of tools such as Google Charts, Leaflet, Visual.ly and ZingChart.

Join a community Organizations such as the American Statistical

Association (ASA) and the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS) have compre-hensive websites with resources for education, career development, social networking and events.

Online communities include KDnuggets (kdnuggets.com), Data Science Central (data-sciencecentral.com) and Kaggle (kaggle.com).

Oury recommends meetups (meetup.com) on analytics, data science and big data.

Listen to experts Presentations by academic and corporate leaders already versed in big data will provide insight on using analytics to solve practical problems, says Li. Her top picks are the annual meeting of INFORMS, the American Statistical Association’s Conference on Statistical Practice, and the Open Data Science Conference.

“ Data is meaningless

unless it is used to create value for the organization and society as a whole.”


JOSEPH DERY MSMA ’11 AND PhD CANDIDATELEAD DATA SCIENTIST AND MANAGER, BUSINESS INSIGHTS AND ANALYTICS, EMC

Managing information is a challenge even for data-centric companies. At EMC Corp., the task belongs to Joe Dery, a four-year veteran at the Massachusetts-based data storage provider. “Our business insights and analytics team works on some of EMC’s most challenging problems internally,” he says. “No day is the same. We’re completely at the discretion of what management needs at that point in time …which makes the team’s work relevant and exciting.” One project involved a protection and service plan that EMC offers. Dery’s team examined which customers were most likely to renew that plan in a given time period, so EMC could prioritize renewal opportunities. This required architecting new data components to track renewals, collaborating with executives company wide, building analytical models, and communicating insights to a global sales force. While he enjoys the corporate work, Dery is pursuing a PhD at Bentley with sights set on becoming a college professor. His doctoral research uses longitudinal text mining to study “brand genericide.” That is, how long it takes for a brand to become generic to the point of losing its trademark. “A company can gain by having a brand name become a household word,” explains Dery, who teaches the Bentley graduate course Customer Data Analysis. “But it can become so generic that you’re at risk for losing your federally protected right to the name. My aim is to study and measure it.” Where it once took decades for words like “thermos” and “yo-yo” to become generic terms, Dery’s studies show the process has sped up. Example: app store. “As soon as Apple trademarked the term, they were almost immediately in court to protect it…and they did lose it.” The research draws on social media and print data, among other sources, to provide a more accurate picture of how branding works today, with legal repercussions. Without a clear-cut way to measure brand genericide, court cases “come down to the judge’s interpreta-tion of the law in prior precedent,” explains Dery. “We hope to give concrete evidence that the underlying structure of the brand name, at the linguistic level, has actually changed.”PH

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HOW WELL DO YOU KNOW YOUR WAY AROUND

A DATA POINT? • Employer demand for data analytics

skills is up 82 percent since 2011, according to a study

by labor analytics firm Burning Glass Technologies.

• The positions live in IT, sales, marketing and human

resources, among other fields, and marry hard skills

(subject-matter expertise, statistics knowledge, tech savvy)

with soft skills (communication, collaboration, storytelling).

• Learn more about the Bentley-sponsored research at

bentley.edu/prepared/2016-jobs-skills.

• Now, meet five alumni who are living the trend.

<< FEATURESBIG DATA << FEATURESFEATURES >> BIG DATA



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AARON KAMHOLTZ MBA ’11, MSIT ’11 SENIOR MANAGER, PEOPLE ANALYTICS, BIOGEN

Aaron Kamholtz joined the country’s largest independent biotech company to make a difference by analyzing big data. They have a lot of it. Biogen develops, manufactures and markets innovative therapies for people living with serious neurological, autoimmune and rare diseases. A recent shift to human resources immerses Kamholtz in what he calls “medium data.” The volume of information is large, but it’s used for more specific purposes — mainly, helping Biogen attract the best talent on the market and maximize the skills of more than 7,000 current employees. “In HR, we do have data sets that go into millions of rows, but for the most part it’s not about the quantity of data,” he says. “It’s about marrying different sources together and binding together your view of the world. We use data on our people to help inform strategic decisions being made at the top of the organization.” For example, Kamholtz’s team has identified “talent attractors.” These are managers who have hired a higher-than-usual share of high-performing employees. The People Analytics team discovered that talent attractors receive more positive feedback than their peers, confirming their talent-build-ing capabilities and effective management styles. Taking it a step further, by studying the career advancement of the people hired by talent attractors, Biogen is able to quantify the impact these critical hiring managers have on the company.

ASIF HASAN MBA ’01CO-FOUNDER, QUANTIPHI INC.

Data is a prime economic asset, says Asif Hasan. His two-year-old company, co-founded with Vivek Khemani and Ritesh Patel, helps others uncover the potential of their data to outperform competitors. “Any interaction we have with our environ-ment is now being recorded somewhere and preserved in databases,” says the alumnus, whose MBA studies focused on technology and operations management. “We’re leaving bread-crumbs behind. If someone studies these, they will find patterns that can be harnessed to improve their business.” Before Quantiphi, Hasan worked at Philips Healthcare, where his roles included starting a global analytics function. “Our job was to anticipate when medical equipment would fail, what would cause the failure, and what components would be needed to fix it,” he says. Making those predictions for a business with global scope required Hasan’s team to find meaningful patterns in a vast array of data. “That’s when I understood what the power of data can be.” Today, Quantiphi has more than 50 data science professionals split between offices in Marlborough, Mass., and Mumbai, India. Their clients cross industries such as health care, insurance, digital advertising, high-tech manufacturing and travel. “We help them build better digital products and find high-value customers,” he says. “We also improve operating efficiencies and drive down risk in their business.” One recent Quantiphi partnership, with the Lynn and North Shore community health centers in Greater Boston, involved launching a population health management solution. “It helps the centers anticipate high-risk patients and work proactively to address their needs,” says Hasan. “They’re able to improve health outcomes while reducing costs.”

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“ We’re leaving breadcrumbs behind. If someone studies these, they will find patterns that can be harnessed to improve their business.” • ASIF HASAN MBA ’01

16 | WINTER 2016



AMY (DECAROLIS) MILLER ’88HEAD OF EXPERIENCE, BIG DATA PLATFORM,HEWLETT PACKARD ENTERPRISE

Amy Miller oversees a lot of different func-tions at Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE), but all with one goal: “Make sure that we’re making customers happy,” she says. “We want to provide them with the best experience we can.” That’s no small feat, considering the company has arms in software, services, networking, storage and infrastructure, both on premises and in the cloud. Miller works within the Big Data Platform software business, with a focus on the advanced analytics database platform Vertica. “Organizations have so much information,” she says, noting that HPE Vertica enables customers to manage and quickly analyze massive volumes of data. “They gain valuable insights from their data, so it can make a real difference in their company.” Miller’s teams help customers like online search tools Snagjob and adMarketplace use Vertica and its services to full capacity. They develop and test best practices, support and nurture the user community, and create tech-nical documentation for the product. She also oversees the engineering team that keeps HPE products working seamlessly with third-party apps, and the group that handles critical customer issues when they arise. The teams trouble-shoot problems and gather information to help customers “take analytics to the next level,” Miller says. For example, GSN Games uses Vertica to under-stand how customers interact with its games on mobile phones and laptops. Then, they use the data to improve the gaming experience. “We work closely with customers like GSN to learn and document how they’re using Vertica. My goal is to get out in front of prob-lems and be more proactive than reactive.”

DANIEL GOLDSTEIN ’06, MBA ’11 HEAD OF GLOBAL BRAND ANALYTICS, REEBOK

When it comes to making effective business decisions, data and insight trump intuition every time. It’s a belief that Dan Goldstein has built a career on. “In the new age of information we’re in, marketers have an opportunity to use data, in the form of real-time customer feedback, to make sure their brand is relevant and providing value,” says Goldstein, who majored in Marketing as an undergraduate and competed on the varsity swim team. “Data allows brands to connect to their customers rather than talking through them.” In 2009, he returned for an MBA “to invest in myself and better stand out in the job mar-ket. I wanted a more executive view of big data and analytics than I’d had up to that point. Bentley was able to help me connect the dots.” The strategy worked. After stints at Digitas and Mullen, Goldstein joined Hill Holliday in 2011, where his work earned Best Use of Research honors from both the Advertising Research Foundation and The Ad Club of Boston. One of his first assignments was helping to launch the Major League Baseball Fan Cave, which aimed to engage with fans via social media and draw a younger demographic into the sport. “Using analytics helped us design content,” explains Goldstein. “We learned what messag-ing resonated with the people we were trying to convert into active fans.” Today, at Reebok, he leads a department that uses data and analytics to ensure their marketing decisions are both relevant to the consumer and generating a positive return to the business. “Reebok is a company committed to making fitness aspirational and fun again — by provid-ing consumers with experiences, products and the inspiration to be ‘fit for life,’” Goldstein says. “My role is to ensure that our efforts are delivering measurable results to the business, while uncovering ideas for future business opportunities.”

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“ In the new age of information we’re in, marketers have an opportunity to use data, in the form of real-time customer feedback, to make sure their brand is relevant and providing value.” • DANIEL GOLDSTEIN ’06, MBA ’11




THE PROFileHERO MOVES IN DATA STORYTELLING

As told to Mary K. Pratt

Companies of all kinds are embracing #dataanalytics to uncover patterns, correlations, market trends, customer preferences and other business information. But their happily-ever-after ending — competitive advantage — can be elusive without the right skills in place. Here, an industry- recognized practitioner of and speaker on #datastrategy shares insights about a new role: #datastoryteller. Kenneth Viciana ’99 is vice president, Enterprise Data Strategy, at Equifax.

COMPANIES NEED DATA storytellers to maximize their big data investments. Companies are spending millions on big data infrastruc-ture and staff such as data scientists. But many firms fall short in one area: developing professionals who can find and explain the business value yielded by all that data and analytics. That’s where the data storyteller comes in. The data storyteller helps companies use data to drive decisions by delivering stories that explain what the data means and how they should act on it. They deliver that message through presentations and visuals to external clients as well as internal managers and executives.

THE DATA STORYTELLER IS A HYBRID POSITION requiring IT, data and analytics skills along with some sales and marketing savvy. These skills allow for connecting the dots between the business challenges and what the data analysis shows. For example, Equifax, which does a lot of work in the banking space, can see what drives a customer to have a checking account with one bank while holding a mortgage and credit cards with other institu-tions. As a data storyteller with Equifax, I use data and analytics to explain to clients how they, as banks, can more effectively cross-sell services to that customer.

FOCUS ON THE ‘WOW’ FACTOR. Data alone doesn’t dazzle. So when giving a presen-tation, I leverage business intelligence tools.

This provides an interactive customer experience that is visually appeal-ing and looks sexy. I’m clicking around, drilling into different segments, while telling the story. I’ve realized that when I have visuals supporting the story, it’s much easier for the audience to digest — especially when I’m speaking to key performance indicators such as target sales and revenue figures. [Viciana often employs visuals known as memes, which inspired the images at right.]

MANY ROLES CAN TELL STORIES WITH DATA. Although data storyteller is a distinct position that’s emerging in companies, other professionals have opportunities to present stories using data. To do

this, understand your audience and the specific points you’re trying to convey, so you can focus on the right data points. When I’m making a presentation, I often go back to the basics, that is, what am I really trying to drive out of this presentation and what are the goals. Take, for instance, the banking industry’s interest in targeting millennials. Data shows they don’t follow the same financial behaviors as other generations, but banks want to attract more millennials to help grow their customer base. So I use big data and transform it into valuable insights that identify actions they need to take — for example, marketing to a specific profile such as higher-risk/lower- income consumers to drive more loan originations among this segment — to increase the customer base of millennials.

FEATURES >> BIG DATA

I DON’T ALWAYS PREDICT THE FUTURE,

BUT WHEN I DO, I USE BIG DATA PATTERNS.#BigData #Leadership #VicianaData


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18 | WINTER 2016




#DataViz #Design #Brand #Applause#Segmentation #ActionableIntelligence #DataScience #UpForTheChallenge

TELL ME THE STORY ABOUT HOW BIG DATA

HELPS TO IDENTIFY AND CAPITALIZE ON

LIFE EVENTS … AGAIN! AGAIN! AGAIN!

PRESENTING DATA? GIVE IT SOME

Razzle Dazzle!

JUST BE THE DATA, BE THE DATA, BE THE DATA.

YOU’RE NOT BEING THE DATA DANNY.

UMMM, I'M GONNA NEED YOU TO GO AHEAD AND TAKE

ANOTHER LOOK AT THE DATA. SO IF YOU COULD REVIEW THE AUDIENCE SEGMENTS AGAIN,

THAT'D BE GREAT,

MMMK ...

KEEP CALM AND

ANALYZE BIG DATA

I'M NOT FINICKY.BUT IMPROVED UX AND

A CUSTOMIZED APPROACH HAVE ADDRESSED MY

PREFERENCES … FINALLY.

“ Without data you're just another person with an opinion.”

— W. Edwards Deming Data Scientist

Once upon a time processing a petabyte was just a fairytale. Now I can do it on my lunch break. And we all lived happily ever after.

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#DataAnalytics #DataDiscovery #Innovation #DataViz #Statistics #BI #DataStories

#BigData #Insights #ChangeTheWorld #Segmentation #Loyalty #ROI #HappyCat

#KnowYourAudience #Communication

#DataScientist #DataDrivenDecisionMaking

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20 | WINTER 2016


The Bentley researchers’ k-core approach generated this

graphic showing co-star connections among actors in the IMDb. Haughton

compares the result to groups of people at a cocktail party. Numerous

circles are clustered together but disconnected from other “cliques.” Red, orange and yellow denote the strongest connections. “It gives a sense of how a very complicated

community works.”

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Story by Kristen Walsh

In the 2015 Oscar season, data science went Hollywood for a team of Bentley PhD candidates. Their research on analytics techniques explored a must-have for the silver screen and computer screen alike: high-impact visuals.

STAR POWERMovie analytics engages Bentley research team

“Visualization is an important component used for under-standing the dynamics of any network, but it has tradi-tionally been difficult when it comes to movie analytics,” says Dominique Haughton, professor of mathematical sciences and global studies. “Researchers have struggled with a way to visualize very large data sets, as typical tools run into problems.” Project principals were Mark-David McLaughlin, Kevin Mentzer and Changan Zhang — students in the PhD Quant V course that Haughton teaches. They applied different analytics techniques to see which generated the best charts, graphs and other means of representing large, complex data sets. Information for the test case came from the Internet Movie Database (IMDb), whose network of co-stars includes 2.6 million actors with upward of a billion connections. They compared a “k-core” approach to visualizing data with a more traditional technique to see which would best illustrate connections and degrees of separation among co-stars (see left). How many times has Tom Hanks worked with Meg Ryan? And the Oscar goes to … k-core. “We were able to illustrate that k-core can overcome limitations, such as memory issues, that arise from processing huge amounts of data,” says Haughton. “Our approach presented findings in a visually appealing way.”

PLOT POINTSThe research explored other aspects of movie analytics, a domain that Mentzer says is understudied. For example, they looked at online predictions of Oscar winners and developed a how-to guide for text mining online movie reviews related to the Academy Awards. “An interesting finding with movie reviews is that movie complexity matters, but only to a certain degree,” explains Mentzer. “In order to win Best Picture, for exam-ple, you need a plot that appeals to many different groups for different reasons — too simple a plot and you don’t have a large enough base of support, but too complex you lose votes because people start getting confused.”

AND . . . ACTION!The movie analytics project follows a longstanding model of faculty-student collaboration at Bentley. Her belief in such partnerships inspired Haughton to co-found the Data Analytics Research Team (DART). Students and professors use a wide range of analytical and modeling techniques to investigate data sets in areas such as global studies and living standards, marketing, health care, media and finance. “Analytics has a different flavor now, as more and more people recognize the importance of the data and the use-fulness of the tools,” says DART member David Oury. The lecturer in mathematical sciences is spearheading a campus-based data lab with software and hardware to support course curriculum and DART research. “Students and faculty are using analytics technologies to explore how data can impact business and operations, and how it can help create more productive and efficient procedures.” And Hollywood take note: Researchers recognize the need to present big data in ways that non-scientists can understand and appreciate. For example, to showcase the movie analytics findings, Haughton hosted an on-campus Oscar party complete with red carpet, replica trophies and proper attire. Of course the event featured flashy visuals: a laser show set to Billy Joel’s It’s Still Rock ‘n Roll to Me. Haughton credits DART and similar partnerships for “an impressive amount of cross-disciplinary co-publication by students and faculty. There are clear connections among areas such as math, geography, economics, sociology, statistics, global studies, marketing and computer science. Those are strong measures of success.” The research team’s monograph — Movie Analytics: A Hollywood Introduction to Big Data — was published in November as part of the SpringerBriefs in Statistics series.

LEARN MORE | bentley.edu/dart




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THE GOOD, THE BAD, THE COMPLICATED

Enormous potential

of analytics raises

ethical questions

STORY BY MARY K. PRATT


22 | WINTER 2016


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Anyone who has ever searched something on the Internet knows that the computer remembers what you did. Click on that shirt for sale, check details on those airline seats, look at the hotel price, and ads for those items will keep popping up. The computer is, indeed, keeping tabs.

And it’s tracking much more than your search history. Organizations of all kinds are gathering all sorts of details about you and your neigh-bors via computers, intent upon studying you under the banner of big data and analytics. So be warned, says Bentley professor and user experience expert William M. Gribbons: “Anytime someone is interacting with technology, someone else is collecting data.”

AWASH IN ALGORITHMS Sure, humankind has been keeping records since the days of cave painting. But technology has exponentially increased the amount and types of information available on each and every individual, along with the ability to access, analyze and use that information. “Companies use algorithms to know who you are, your past purchases, whether you want the latest thing, whether you want it now, and what kind of price you’ll pay,” explains Gribbons, director of the MS in Human Factors in Information Design (HFID) program and founder and senior consultant with Bentley’s User Experience (UX) Center. “The next step is that you’ll walk into a store and the sales clerk will be getting information about you and what it will take to get you to buy something.” The question now is, where do we draw the line?

LESSONS FROM HISTORYThe line dividing “can” and “should” is familiar territory for W. Michael Hoffman, founder and executive director of the Center for Business Ethics at Bentley. “A lot of ethical issues have opened up in trying to deal with new technologies and how they affect people’s rights, particularly around security and privacy,” explains Hoffman, who has seen similar challenges unfold in medicine, finance and a host of other industries during his decades-long career. The Hieken Professor of Business and Professional Ethics cites specific areas of concern that need to be addressed. To start, Hoffman says, people must ask who is collecting and accessing all this data — and who is keeping track of all the individuals charged with monitoring data. Is anyone vetting those workers who can access an organization’s collection of data on individuals? “Finding out these different facts to target consumers in more direct and relevant ways . . . there is good that can come out of this, not only for the corporations but for people who are looking for specific goods and services,” he says. “The darker side is that data could be used maliciously and in a way that could harm people.”

RIGHT TO BE FORGOTTENSome are already trying to limit the sting of this data revolution. Deanna (Brown) Duplak ’82 is among those who believe that links to information based on a search by one’s name should not be available to anyone, at any point, for the rest of time. The former Computer Information Systems major has drafted a “right to be forgotten” bill that’s now in the Massachusetts Legislature. The bill would allow removal of links to data found through a name search; it’s meant to protect people from inaccurate, hurtful and prejudicial information popping up anytime someone searches their name online. “Why should anyone, with the click of a button, be led to information that is irrelevant or out of date?” asks Duplak, noting that Europe already has such a law in place. She sees efforts in the U.S. gathering support as people learn how much data can be found by entering one’s name in a search engine such as Google, Bing or Yahoo.

WHOSE MANDATE? Duplak, like Hoffman, believes that society must determine who can collect what data, on whom, for what purposes. “The questions need to be asked and the concerns need to be raised,” she says. “There won’t be any quick answers. But you do have pockets of people and organizations starting to look at the issues.” For example, the Council for Big Data, Ethics and Society launched in 2014, prompted by a request from the National Science Foundation. Members are researchers and professionals from numerous fields who bring social and cultural perspectives to big data initiatives. But so far, neither the council nor any other group has received a clear mandate to develop society-wide ethical standards. “I suspect there will need to be some sort of regulatory body to over-see the use of big data and the ethical decisions that have to be made,” says Hoffman, who points to panels and review boards established to consider ethics questions in the field of medicine.

CAUSE FOR OPTIMISMThe pending issues are many and complex, according to Niek Brunsveld MBA ’13, senior policy adviser for research and innovation at the University of Amsterdam and a visiting lecturer in the Bentley MBA program. “Even at a very basic level, big data analysis rests on many, many presumptions that contain value judgments,” he says. “But, of course, it also has a huge potential to improve our lives and the lives of those who are in dire circumstances — which is an ethical imperative as well.” Brunsveld expects that, in the coming decades, society will rise to the challenge. “We will be drawing up programs, at our organizations, that make us aware of our values, help us develop more shared values, and make us better appreciate new pathways, new technologies from an ethical perspective,” he says. “If societal stakeholders — academia, businesses, governments and NGOs — work together from the start to the finish of the innovation process, we will come to agreement on where we do and where we do not want technological innovations in big data to go.”

STORY BY MARY K. PRATT

The Center for Business Ethics at Bentley University marks

its 40th anniversary in 2016. Hear presentations by leading

international scholars. Dinner proceeds will benefit the center’s

John Casey Visiting Scholar Fund.

GLOBAL PERSPECTIVES ON BUSINESS ETHICS

Free Public Conference: July 25 and 26, 2016

40th Gala Anniversary Dinner: Monday, July 25

Please register online at bit.ly/cbe40_ plans or by contacting Gail Sands (gsands @bentley.edu or 781.891.2981).

40 YEARS OF LEADERSHIP IN BUSINESS ETHICS




CLASS NOTES >>

24 | WINTER 2016

CLASS NOTES31742-15_MC467_15 Bentley Magazine_TEXT ONLY_11.20.15v3.indd 24 12/4/15 2:06 PM


1967Gerald Robillard, Plymouth, Mass., has joined the team at Precision Capital Management as an investment adviser representative.

1973T2 Biosystems has appointed Maurice Castonguay MST ’82, Canton, Mass., to the post of chief financial officer. Previously, he was senior vice president and CFO of Sonus Networks Inc.

1974Thomas DiGianvittorio Sr., Norwood, Mass., retired in May 2015 from the Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities after a 40-year career as an accountant in public service.

Stan Feather, Northfield, Ill., has been appointed to the Intuit Pro Tax Customer Council for the term May 2015 through May 2017.

1977Thomas Collins, Southborough, Mass., has joined the retail brokerage firm Atlantic Retail Properties as managing director, a position created for him.

1979Linda Burt ’MSA, Omaha, Neb., was selected for the 2015 edition of the list “150 Hospital and Health System CFOs to Know,” published by Becker’s Hospital Review. The alumna is the chief financial officer at Methodist Health System.

Robert Corcoran, Centerville, Mass., has joined Braintree Cooperative Bank as senior vice president/senior commercial loan officer. He previously served as first vice president at Rockland Trust for 21 years.

Michael Morse MST ’98, Framingham, Mass., has joined clinical trial supply company CSM as vice president of finance.

Nick Stavropoulos, San Francisco, Calif., has been promoted to the expanded role of president, gas operations, by Pacific Gas and Electric Company.

198135th Reunion: June 3 to 5, 2016Paul Bardaro, Medford, Mass., has been named to the Hallmark Health System Inc. Board of Trustees. He is a partner in the CPA/consulting firm Rucci, Bardaro & Falzone PC.

Michael Krenesky, Beacon Falls, Conn., earned silver and bronze medals for homemade wines entered in the WineMaker International Amateur Wine Competition for 2015. The event sponsor is WineMaker magazine.

1983Barry Aldorisio, Woburn, Mass., has joined Cambridge Savings Bank as first vice president, residential lending. Most recently, he was vice president, mortgage sales, at Metro Credit Union in Chelsea.

On September 13, 2015, Duane Farrar, Watertown, Mass., was crowned the Blind Sailing World Champion at the Blind Sailing World & International Championships.The Chicago Yacht Club hosted the event on Lake Michigan.

Douglas Petersen MBA ’95, Brookline, N.H., president and chief executive officer at Workers’ Credit Union, has been elected chairman of the North Central Massachusetts Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors for 2015-2016.

Carol (Pawlukiewicz) Shachat, Mansfield, Mass., has passed the FINRA 1-99 Operations Professional examination. She is employed

as an operations specialist at investment firm Winslow, Evans & Crocker.

1984Aegerion Pharmaceuticals Inc. has tapped Gary Chedekel MST ’91, Framingham, Mass., as senior director of tax and treasury.

1985American DG Energy Inc. has welcomed Bonnie (Arrigo) Brown, Billerica, Mass., as chief financial officer.

Mark Calzonetti, Brooklyn, N.Y., has rejoined the Iona College men’s basketball staff as assistant coach. The alumnus returns to Iona after spending three seasons at LIU Brooklyn.

Saco & Biddeford Savings Institution has elected Eric Purvis MST ’92, Portland, Maine, to the bank’s Board of Directors.

The Association of the Luxembourg Fund Industry has appointed Denise Voss ’MBA to be its chairman. The alumna is the conducting officer for Franklin Templeton Investments.

198630th Reunion: June 3 to 5, 2016Carol (Coble) Ribeiro, Sterling, Mass., has been promoted to president and chief executive officer at Virtual High School, an online education provider.

G. Jeffrey Shaw, Saco, Maine, was elected president of Clark Insurance by its Board of Directors. He has been with the agency since 2004.

1987Christine (Jennings) Olson, Stoughton, Mass., was inducted into the New England Basketball Hall of Fame in August 2015. She played four years for the Bentley women’s basketball team.

Michael Reney is the new chief financial officer for Dana–Farber Cancer Institute. He served in the same role at Brigham and Women’s Health Care.

1988Kelly (Butler) Sardo, Glastonbury, Conn., has been named chief financial officer for CÜR Media Inc. She joined the company in February 2014 as controller, and was previously employed at Blum Shapiro.

1989Joseph Doyle ’MBA, Medford, Mass., has been appointed human resources manager for American Alarm and Communications. He previously led the human resources program at Mac-Gray Corp.

William McCorkle, Carlsbad, Calif., is the new chief financial officer for StemImmune Inc.

Novartis Pharmaceuticals promoted Robert Rindini, Bridgewater, Mass., to director, national accounts, specialty distribution.

1990Hitachi Data Systems has hired Paul Cantini, Vesenaz, Switzerland, as branch manager-Suisse Romande.

D. Thomas Dean Jr. and Gena Barney ’91 tied the knot on July 5, 2014, in Sangerville, Maine. They celebrated with fellow alumni Shawn Manning ’91 and Karen (Johnson) Weavill ’91.

Ayo Haynes MBA ’92, New York, N.Y., is co-author of the book Ready, Set, Live! Empowering Strategies for an Empowered Life. The book quickly became a best-seller in Amazon’s self-help category.

199125th Reunion: June 3 to 5, 2016 Gena Barney and D. Thomas Dean Jr. ’90 were married on July 5, 2014, in Sangerville, Maine. They celebrated with fellow alumni Shawn Manning ’91 and Karen (Johnson) Weavill ’91.

Stephen Furlong, Hopkinton, Mass., has been named chief financial officer for Rapid Micro Biosystems. He joined the company from Hologic Inc.

Jamie (DelGrego) Garcia MBA ’97, Southington, Conn., has joined People’s United Bank as senior commercial relationship manager. She was previously with Citizens Commercial Banking.

G. Jeffrey Shaw ’86 is the new president of Clark Insurance in Saco, Maine, where he has worked for the past 11 years.

<< CLASS NOTES


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Robert Lucci, Warrington, Pa., was named president and chief operating officer of ORS Partners, a recruiting solutions firm.

Monica (Odoy) Swanson, Deerfield, Ill., has joined True Partners Consulting LLC as a director in the federal tax group. She was previously a senior manager at KPMG.

1992Mark Goodwin ’MBA has been appointed chief operating officer of the investment advisory firm Oak Ridge Investments LLC.

Maura (McDonald) Hughes ’MBA, Westford, Mass., was a finalist in the nonprofit category for the Boston Business Journal 2015 CFO of the Year award. The alumna is chief financial officer for Boston MedFlight.

Occidental Petroleum has hired Christopher Thomas, Houston, Texas, as senior adviser, social responsibility.

1993Wilmington Trust has tapped Steven Conway ’MST, Medford, Mass., as senior private client fiduciary adviser.

Glenn Muir ’MST, Lexington, Mass., was elected to the Board of Directors for Repligen Corporation and appointed a member of its audit committee. The alumnus retired from Hologic Inc. in May 2014.

Alex Popowycz ’MBA, North Easton, Mass., has joined Health First as the new senior vice president and chief information officer.

Astrid (Simon) Zajdband ’MSF, earned a PhD in history from the University of Sussex in England in May 2015. Her dissertation topic was German Rabbis in British Exile.

1994The audit and accounting firm Reynolds & Rowella LLP hired Steve Gagnon, Redding, Conn., as assurance director.

Karl Johnsen, Westwood, Mass., was promoted to senior vice president and chief financial officer by Aspen Technology. The alumnus joined the company in 2013 as corporate controller.

1995Rebecca English MBA ’99, Salem, Mass., has been named assistant vice president of operations at MCS Valuations.

James Lane ’MST, Holliston, Mass., founded Juroberth Education Decision Analytics, a consulting practice focused on the current student debt dilemma. The company advises students and parents on recognizing value in selecting a college, and identifies fraud and waste in higher education operations and fiscal endeavors.

199620th Reunion: June 3 to 5, 2016The education marketing firm Education Funding Partners has promoted Lynne (Tropeano) Cole to chief operating officer. Her previous title was senior vice president of account management.

Kenny Gill ’MSA, Anchorage, Alaska, has been named vice president, Alaska for Matson Inc. The company acquired the Alaska operations of Horizon Lines, where Gill was senior director of operations for the Alaska division.

TEGNA Inc., formerly Gannett Co. Inc., has named Sean Wechter ’MBA, Broadlands, Va., to the newly created position of senior vice president of digital technology and product

development for TEGNA Media.

Katie (Coughlin) Vickers, Waldoboro, Maine, has been promoted to vice president and commercial services manager at Kennebec Savings Bank.

1997Bryan Parsons married Carlo Iyog on June 26, 2015, the date the Supreme Court ruled for marriage equality. The wedding took place in San Rafael, Calif.

Tiffany Warren, Bronx, N.Y., was honored as a 2015 Woman of Distinction by the Girl Scouts of Greater New York. She is senior vice president and chief diversity officer for OmnicomGroup, as well as the founder of ADCOLOR.

1998Paul Brady MSCIS ’00, Medfield, Mass., has been named 2015 CIO of the Year by the Boston Business Journal. The alumnus is chief information officer and vice president of information technology for the Arbella Insurance Group.

Erica Stebe True, Belchertown, Mass., was promoted to vice president, marketing, at MassMutual Retirement Services.

1999Michael Finer ’MST, Swampscott, Mass., was promoted to the rank of colonel in the Massachusetts Army National Guard in May

2015. The alumnus has been active in the military since 1983. He is CEO of Finer Wealth Management Inc.

2000Bryan Reilly, Beverly, Mass., was promoted to senior vice president, finance, at DigitasLBi.

200115th Reunion: June 3 to 5, 2016James Carr ’MSF, Wellesley, Mass., has joined PlumChoice as chief financial officer.

David Cohen ’MBA, Framingham, Mass., is executive director of the nonprofit Doc Wayne Youth Services, which received the 2015 Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Sports Award.

Janak Joshi ’MBA, Wakefield, Mass., has been promoted to first lieutenant in SQDRN 1001st Search & Rescue with the 101st Airborne (Screaming Eagles) Air Assault Unit. He is responsible for ground combat training and tactical mission survival.

Jessica (Eaton-Bruce) Kansas, Delmar, N.Y., has joined the staff of Skidmore College as leadership gift officer. Her previous employer was Williston Northampton School.

Amanda (Lasher) Ross and husband Patrick welcomed son Griffin Patrick on March 12, 2015. He joined big brother Declan, 2.

2002Pulmatrix Inc. has tapped William Duke Jr. ’MBA, Shrewsbury, Mass., to be chief financial officer. He was previously chief financial officer of Valeritas Inc.

Jennifer Fermano, Melrose, Mass., has joined Brookwood Financial Partners LLC as vice president and controller for BW Gas & Convenience LLC, an affiliated Brookwood entity.

Michelle (Holzman) Fraioli and husband Christopher announce the birth of their second daughter, Isabella Grace, on February 19, 2015. She joins step-brother Andrew Christopher (16) and sister Emma Rose (5).

Ron and Angela (Trela) Magby, Scottsdale, Ariz., are the proud parents of son Jordan Thomas, born April 8, 2015. Big brother Connor rounds out the family. Ron recently joined Paramount Equity Mortgage as vice president of sales.

2003Jeff Abellard, Waltham, Mass., has opened the restaurant Bistro781 on Moody Street.

2004Ada Casiano, Ridgefield, Conn., has been appointed vice president, compliance officer, by Fairfield County Bank.

A ceremony in May 2015 recognized the promotion of Michael Finer MST ’99 (center) to the rank of colonel in the Massachusetts National Guard. His many awards during 32 years of military service include the Legion of Merit and National Defense Service Medal.

CLASS NOTES >>


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Matthew Gorham and wife Deann, South Easton, Mass., said hello to their second child, Trent Sebastian, on July 23, 2015. He joins sister Vida Mirabelle.

Araxie Pena wed Chris Wong on August 16, 2014, in Boston, Mass. [Editor’s note: A wedding announcement in the summer 2015 issue misidentified the groom as Kevin Wong ’05. Our apologies to all concerned.]

2005Kristen (Conroy) Kennedy, Norwood, Mass., has been promoted to business development manager for M&A & Corporate Transactions, Banking and Finance, Securities, and Bankruptcy practices at Nixon Peabody LLP.

200610th Reunion: June 3 to 5, 2016Cort Johnson has joined the advisory board of Founders Workbench, an online business and legal resource for entrepreneurs and startups powered by Goodwin Procter LLP. The alumnus is a venture partner with Accomplice VC, an early-stage venture capital firm in the Boston area.

Allison (Sui) and Christopher Leckenby, Jersey City, N.J., announce the birth of their son, Jasper, born in April 2015.

Jenna Stacy married Rob Juan on May 30, 2015, in Mahopac, N.Y. Jessica (Plattner) Kreger ’06 and bridesmaid Christine (Melisis) Urann ’06 were on hand to celebrate.

2007Samantha (Smith) and Charles III Calcagni announce the birth of Eloise May, born on December 24, 2014.

Katherine Coveney MSF ’09 and Eric Lohwasser MSA ’08 tied the knot on June 14, 2014, surrounded by Bentley friends.

Bermary Coste MBA ’15 married David Aloysius Coughlin III on June 20, 2015, in Danvers, Mass.

Amanda (Grant) Dudley MBA ’08 and husband Brian welcomed their first child, Lucas Brian, on April 22, 2014.

Einat (Elazar) Naveh, Fair Lawn, N.J., launched the bridal lifestyle company Bridal Boost in September 2015.

2008Nicole Chan and Jason Loeb, Quincy, Mass., opened the live escape game Trapology in June 2015.

Briana (Kneeland) Flannery, Winthrop, Mass., has been named a National Afterschool Matters Fellow. She is development director of For Kids Only Afterschool, which provides year-round out-of-school-time programming in communi-ties north of Boston.

Dan Grenter, Franklin, Mass., has been appointed global marketing product director, neurovascular, for Johnson & Johnson.

Leah (Jones) Hancock and husband Daniel, Wakefield, Mass., said hello to son William Robert on February 6, 2015.

Greg Ingram, Oslo, Norway, has joined Bain & Company as a consultant after receiving his MBA from Harvard Business School.

Alex Morrone, Glastonbury, Conn., has been promoted to AVP, Workers Compensation, in the small commercial business unit of insurance company The Hartford.

Natalie Schlegel ’MBA and her husband, Caleb Cochran, welcomed Ryan Wolfgang Cochran on April 29, 2015. Four-year-old Cameron loves being a big brother!

2009Dan Cohen MBA ’10, Needham, Mass., launched the action lifestyle sock line Neon Bandits.

Ed Hwang, Brookline, Mass., welcomed son Eric on March 17, 2015.

Jason Kroot, Portland, Maine, has joined Alcohol By Volume Wine Company as northeast sales manager.

Lashika Laboriel and Christian Holland ’10 were married on August 30, 2015, in Stow, Mass., surrounded by Bentley friends. The bride has been promoted to manager of digital marketing at Sunovion Pharmaceuticals.

Sean Maffei, New York, N.Y., has been named a team leader at The Siegfried Group LLP.

FM Global has promoted Dereck Mendoza, East Providence, R.I., to senior research technician II.

Janak Joshi MBA ’01 (left) was promoted to first lieutenant in SQUADRN 1001st Search & Rescue with the 101st Airborne (Screaming Eagles) Air Assault Unit.

<< CLASS NOTES

BY DEBLINA CHAKRABORTY

Mike Aldrich may not spend much time in a boardroom, but the work he does helps a lot of business deals get done.

As a player development manager for PGA of America, he connects PGA-certified golf professionals with novices, including executives who want to learn how to play the sport to bolster their career.

“We at the PGA honestly believe that golf is an important business tool,” says Aldrich, a PGA golf professional himself for 20 years. “When it’s not in your toolkit, you’re at a disadvantage.”

Though contracts typically aren’t signed out on the course, Aldrich credits golf for giving business associates more face time.

“It’s very hard to get more than 60 minutes with someone in a business meeting,” he says. “Well, golf is four hours, then possibly there’s a cocktail afterward. So in effect you end up with a five-hour meeting. The connections you can make with the other person are powerful.”

During nearly four years in the role, Aldrich has helped widen the golf world for women, young people, and other underrepresented groups. These new players include 344 female associates at KPMG offices across the country, who have taken the PGA’s five-week Get Golf Ready program; it covers basic skills and the sport’s particular rules of etiquette.

For example, along with lessons in how to properly hold a club, students learn the impor-tance of making a tee time … how it’s more akin to catching a flight (which will leave without you) than keeping a dinner reservation. At program’s end, teacher and students play a few holes on a real golf course.

“We’re creating a ‘navigable golfer,’” Aldrich says. “That is a person who can make their way through a round of golf without endangering themselves or anybody else.”

SPOTLIGHT: MIKE ALDRICH ’91


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“ Sandy faced this fight for her life just like she taught so many others, with the motto ‘Get tough.’ She faced this battle with courage, grace and integrity, and inspired us to be tough. Her confidence in us made us better than we ever dreamed we could be.”

Jennifer Weiss ’88, Former Bentley volleyball player and head coach of women’s volleyball at Harvard University

“ It was never just about winning and losing games to Sandy. Rather, how she could impact the lives of players, mentor fellow coaches, and fight for the growth of the sport she loved. She paid it forward her entire career, teaching all of us how to do it right.”

Cindy Scott, Assistant director of athletics at Bentley

“ Sandy was a compassionate friend and mentor, and she battled cancer with remarkable courage, grace and dignity. She made all who knew her feel like family. While we are saddened by her passing, we are inspired by the way she continued to live her life throughout the past three years.”

Fran Vandermeer, Retired collegiate volleyball coach

“ Coach Hoffman has been one of the most influential people in my life thus far. She changed the course of my life for the better, and I cannot be thankful enough for that. She always stressed the importance of academics, work ethic and personal responsibility. She was more than a coach; she was a mentor and a leader who led by example.”

Jessica Segal ’16, Captain of the women’s volleyball team

28 | WINTER 2016

SANDRA P. HOFFMAN

1958 to 2015

During 32 seasons as women’s volleyball coach, Sandy Hoffman led her Falcon teams to victory in a remarkable 758 matches — the fourth highest win record in Division II women’s volleyball and No. 1 in New England. But numbers don’t begin to quantify her impact on players, colleagues and the Bentley community.

In Tribute


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Skiing at Copper Mountain. Beautiful scenery. Nothing prettier on a beautiful day! John Cussen ’71

Colorado winters are sunny and mild. I love going for a long run on New Year’s Day in just my shorts and shades. Eat your heart out, Boston!Paul DeFelice ’97

Snowshoeing Squaw Pass in Ever-green. Close to Denver . . . miss the I-70 ski traffic . . . great for a beginner. View from the top overlooks Denver to the east and the Continental Divide to the west. Recharge afterwards on burgers and beers at the Little Bear Pub. Brian Zabroski ’97

Ice skating at Keystone’s five-acre lake. It’s a pretty incredible place. You can skate forever as fast as you want. Paradise! Courtney Jordan MSHFID ’06

Our favorite part of living in Colorado? Access to mountains of course. In the winter, it’s all about skiing and snowboarding. The number of choices you have is what’s great: low-key places like Loveland all the way to high-end places like Vail. Add a great downtown (Denver), a wonderfully over-saturated craft beer scene, a burgeoning train system and 300 days of sun, and you’ve got a lifestyle we can live with. Linda (Callinan) ’96 and Chris ’96 Beardsley

Though skiing is fun, the Dupees (below) much prefer to snowmobile from our log cabin in Grand Lake. We ride on the trails and in the backcountry … we even race them each year. Amy (McGlew) ’92 and Brad ’92 Dupee

NEXT STOP

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1936 Robert W. Martin

1937 Walter Oley

1938 Hubert Roberts

1940 Edward J. Carey

1941 William Dunn

1942 Frank Bartasuis Louis Limauro

1947 Joseph L. Flynn Wallace King Robert Maliar Virginia (Whittemore) Monroe Fannie Pistenmaa

1948 Warren Bishop Fred Bucklin Catherine (Kelliher) Donnelly

1949 Mary (Slattery) Candito

1950 Donald Brownell Phillip Giuffrida Richard MacPherson Robert Shedd

1951 Joseph M. Basile Henry J. Brouillard James Granger Timothy O’Connor Jr.

1952 John Hansbury Norman Johnson George Lazor Jack Williams

1953 Joseph Craig William J. Galvin Allan R. Nelson Leo White

1954 Patrick H. Brangwynne Manuel Fantinha Edmond LeBlanc

1955 Walter H. Anderberg Jr. Edward Shea Robert Storm Loris Zamanian

1956 Joseph Hammond

1957 Patricia (Schimpf) Cunningham Robert Jolicoeur

1958 Edward Cooperstein John Hickey Robert J. Leavitt

1959 Walter Clapp John Dakin Nancy A. Moore

1960 Edward H. Crawford Douglas Dreghorn Charles Joseph Kerivan Jr.

1961 Raymond Bertrand Joseph M. Wojtkowski Jr.

1962 Ezekiel Peach Jr.

1964 Robert Cass MST ’80 M. Allan Nickerson

1965 Martin O’Connor

1966 Martin Curley Jr. Ernest G. Lafranchise Alan Yaffee

1967 C. Frederick Rossbach

1969 Joseph McNamara

1970 Robert A. Kennedy

1972 Jack J. “John” Field Lennart Johnson Jess Palmer

1973 Robert Harding Steven Kamensky Michael Gustin

1974 Hubert C. Mandeville

1977 James E. Clark

1978 Norman R. Guivens ’MST

1979 Joseph Mauro Jr.1981 Robert Dubee Jr. ’MST Scott Irving James M. Lynch Joan McCormick

1982 Richard Briotta ’MSCIS Jeffrey A. Smith

1985 Eoin McWilliams

1987 Joseph Brennan Jeffrey S. Schneider ’MST Douglas Sprenger ’MBA

1988 Elaine M. Boudreau ’MST

1989 Alvydas Kazakaitis ’MSCIS

1990 Sandra Hoffman ’MBA

1997 Audrey Philbrick

2003 Thomas Flaherty ’MSF

2012 Richard Powers Jr.

2017 Brandon Grano

Friends of Bentley John Battaglino Former Trustee

Simeon Horvitz Professor

David Lane Former Adjunct Professor

John Shugert Former Director of Development

Marion “Terry” Tierney Former Staff, Management Department

Of Special Note Gregory H. Adamian, Bentley chancellor and president emeritus, passed away on November 21, 2015. A full tribute will appear in the spring issue.

In Memoriam


DenverIf you think that winter is best spent indoors, alumni in Colorado suggest an altitude adjustment. Here are some of their favorite to-dos.


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Financial adviser Christina Mitkonis ’11, MSFP ’13 earned the Certified Financial Planner credential in November 2014.

SPOTLIGHT: NOMBLE COLEMAN ’11

Danielle Millerick married Jared Dougan on May 24, 2015, in Ipswich, Mass. Alumni in the wedding party included maid of honor Courtney Somerville ’09 and bridesmaids Amy (Guerin) Hourihan ’09, Karen Manuelian ’09 and Lisa (Promise) Colella ’09.

Russell Orton ’MSA, Centennial, Colo., joined The Siegfried Group, LLP as associate manager. He previously worked at Weaver and Tidwell.

Krystina Pallos wed Adam Silva on May 30, 2015, in Providence, R.I. Celebrating with the couple were maid of honor Melissa Eleuteri ’10 and bridesmaid Megan Negrini ’10.

2010Christian Holland and Lashika Laboriel ’09 were married on August 30, 2015, in Stow, Mass., surrounded by Bentley friends.

The New Hampshire High Tech Council welcomed Peter LaChance ’MST, Auburn, N.H., to its Board of Directors. The alumnus is partner at the accounting firm Howe, Riley & Howe PLLC.

Tiffany Moy MSA ’14 and Brian Mahoney ’MST were wed on November 2, 2014, in Newport, R.I.

Nathan Wechsler & Company has promoted Matthew Nadeau, Concord, N.H., to supervising senior accountant.

Lindsay Sauve MSA ’11 and Ted Wiedemann MST ’13 tied the knot on May 16, 2015, in Cohasset, Mass.

Mariela Spillari, Los Angeles, Calif., has relocated from Macy’s NYC offices to its Southwest & South Central special events team. Her new role is special events manager.

Stephanie Wright and Larry Atkins were married on December 31, 2014, in Fair Lawn, N.J. The alumna has taken on the new role of lead manager-actuarial with AXA.

20115th Reunion: June 3 to 5, 2016Darren Agarwal, Woburn, Mass., has been promoted to principal financial analyst for Raytheon.

Salesforce has tapped Melissa Bennett, Arlington, Va., as services account executive.

Michael Martin and Jhonnari Jimenez ’12, MSA ’13 were married August 14, 2015, at St. Edith Stein Church in Brockton, Mass.

Christina Mitkonis MSFP ’13, Holden, Mass., earned a Certified Financial Planner credential in November 2014. She is a financial adviser at Financial Foundations Inc.

Kevin McConnell ’MST, Leominster, Mass., was named tax manager at Robert C. Alario CPA PC.

Molly Tabernik MBA ’12 and Alejandro Zamorano MSF ’13 said “I do” on July 11, 2015, at the Liberty Hotel in Boston. Best man Andres Zamorano ’13, MBA ‘14 and groomsmen David Gold ’11 and William Connell ’11 helped the couple celebrate.

Wells Fargo has tapped Michael Shea, Hingham, Mass., as relationship manager for its National Food and Agribusiness division.

2012Nickolas Abrarpour, New York, N.Y., has joined investment bank BTG Pactual US Capital LLC as associate director.

Jhonnari Jimenez MSA ’13 and Michael Martin ’11 were married August 14, 2015, at St. Edith Stein Church in Brockton, Mass.

Jonathan Kazarian, Boston, Mass., launched mobile raffle and silent auction system Accelevents, inspired by his fundraising work for the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.

Bridget Long, Tewksbury, Mass., is now senior credit analyst for Boston Private. She previously worked at Enterprise Bank.

BNR Management has welcomed Alex Norwood, Chevy Chase, Md., as property manager.

2013Simmons College has tapped Taylor Bastien MBA ’14, North Kingstown, R.I., as head coach of women’s lacrosse.

Sean Hamer ’MBA, Somerville, Mass., is now customer success adviser for SmartBear Software.

Sercan Lir, Mountain View, Calif., is the co-founder of Birthday Box, an app for crowd-sourced birthday gifts and videos.

2014Jared Bilodeau MSFP ’15, Nashua, N.H., joined Twelve Points Wealth Management as associate wealth adviser in May 2015.

Terry DelRossi, Morgantown, Pa., is now senior financial analyst for Penn National Gaming. His previous post was with Valley Forge Casino Resort.

CLASS NOTES >>

BY DEBLINA CHAKRABORTY

The Oreo may be America’s favorite cookie, but as Nomble Coleman ’11 recently discovered, the rest of the world wasn’t sold on its virtues.

During a five-day pre-MBA boot camp held at China Europe International Business School (CEIBS) in Shanghai, Coleman learned that Kraft Foods slipped up by not adjusting its classic cookie to suit taste preferences in Asia.

Appreciation and respect for the nuances of foreign cultures was a prime takeaway of the pre-MBA program, according to Coleman.

“People [from different backgrounds] process information in different ways,” observes the former Marketing major. “That is something my eyes are open to now.”

As a program manager for the global marketing team at IT infrastructure company EMC Corp., Coleman has plenty of opportunity to put that international savvy into practice. The experience should also provide a leg up in applying to MBA programs.

“A lot of schools are asking, ‘What kind of inter-national experience have you had?’” she explains. “That’s because corporations want well-rounded people who have that global view.”

About 70 students from around the world attended the CEIBS pre-MBA program in July 2015. A first- place finish in an essay contest sponsored by the National Black MBA Association funded Coleman’s travel and tuition. Her time in China demonstrated why the country is — and will likely continue to be — such a big player in the global economy.

“It has to do with their rate of adoption for new technology,” says Coleman. “They see an opportunity and they jump on board. I think that gives them a competitive advantage, which helps their economy grow.”

2009 continued


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Worlds Apart, Close at Heart

Is it difficult for family members to be half a world away?Jose: I don’t think we’ll get used to it, but we’re learning to deal with it. Phone, text, Facebook, Snapchat, Facetime, Instagram – we do it all.

David: My mom [Christine Elliott P ’18, ’19] texts me every day and, if I don’t answer, I’ll get an influx of messages asking if I’m OK.

Alexandra: My dad travels a lot to the U.S., so my parents visit more often than you might expect. [Jose logs an annual 300,000 business miles.]

Travel and living abroad were a large part of your childhood, David and Alexandra. How has that influenced you?Alexandra: I appreciate so many different cultures. I’m planning to minor in Japanese and after college would love to work in Hong Kong, Taipei and London.

David: I’ve learned how to live where no one speaks the same language as you and the culture is completely different. I actually consider my time at Bentley as studying abroad.

Jose, has Bentley changed since your graduation in 1987?Jose: Let’s face it, a lot has changed every-where in the past 28 years! The school is much bigger and has evolved. I get the sense that the academic schedule and curriculum is tougher, too.

Were there expectations that David and Alexandra would attend Bentley?Jose: No, my wife and I were very open about their school choices. Both of my kids actually visited Bentley for the first time without me.

David: They never pressured us into picking a particular school. I chose Bentley because of the business culture, networking opportunities, and competitive athletics.

Alexandra: My parents just wanted us to be happy. It was a coincidence that Bentley was a fit for me.

Has anything about Bentley surprised you?David: I was surprised by how much the teachers are involved with students. They engage us in conversation and are always available for extra help.

Alexandra: How friendly the community is! Everyone is helpful and welcoming; it’s definitely made the transition easier.

As told to Jennifer Skuce-Spira

Jose Hernandez ’87 and wife Christine Elliott (far left and right) with Alexandra ’19 and David ’18.

For one Bentley family, the road to 175 Forest Street spans two hemispheres. It originated in Puerto Rico, when a young Jose Hernandez ’87, P ’18, ’19 discovered the school at his local college fair. The next stop was Japan, where he serves as president and CEO of AIG Asia Pacific in Tokyo — and David ’18 and Alexandra ’19 grew up with stories of their dad’s days in blue and gold.

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32 | WINTER 201632 | WINTER 2016



1. D. Thomas Dean Jr. ’90 and Gena Barney ’91 2. Danielle Millerick ’09 and Jared Dougan 3. Lindsay Sauve ’10, MSA ’11 and

Ted Wiedemann ’10, MST ’13 4. James Brophy ’15 and Laura Simpson 5. Katherine Coveney ’07, MSF ’09 and

Eric Lohwasser ’07, MSA ’08 6. Jenna Stacy ’06 and Rob Juan 7. Molly Tabernik ’11, MBA ’12 and

Alejandro Zamorano ’11, MSF ’13 8. Bermary Coste ’07, MBA ’15 and

David Aloysius Coughlin III 9. Michael Martin ’11 and

Jhonnari Jimenez ’12, MSA ‘13 10. Bryan Parsons ’97 (r.) and Carlo Iyog

5. 6.

7.

9.

8.

10.



CLASS NOTES >>

HOMECOMINGAlumni and their families were

treated to an unseasonably warm September Saturday as Falcons far and

wide gathered for Homecoming. The carnival-themed day included games, prizes and a football victory for the

home team. Later, Class of 2015 alumni took the party into Boston,

with a first-reunion celebration at M.J. O’Connor’s.

Gatherings

34 | WINTER 2016


<< CLASS NOTES

PARENTS AND FAMILY WEEKEND

More than 1,600 guests enjoyed Parents and Family Weekend

on October 16 to 18. They attended educational sessions, joined a Town

Meeting hosted by President Larson, and cheered Falcon football to a win.

There were special events for President’s Club members and legacy families with multiple

generations of Bentley graduates.



36 | WINTER 2016

Lucia Garcia, Buenos Aires, Argentina, has accepted a position with Bain & Company as associate consultant.

Emily Hamlin, Brockton, Mass., has joined Vistaprint as channel marketing specialist.

Blair Potter, Rumson, N.J., has been hired as credit analyst by Mitsubishi UFJ Securities.

Wayfair has welcomed Sean Rodrigues, Boston, Mass., as business planning analyst.

Heather Williams, Oxford, Mass., has joined PlumChoice as associate financial analyst.

2015James Brophy wed Laura Simpson on May 23, 2015, in Manchester, N.H. Zachary Crovetti ’15 and Brenden Bourdeau ’15 celebrated with the happy couple.

Alicia Butler Fondeur, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, has just wrapped up a year’s work in Boston as special projects coordinator with Year Up.

Zhe Chen ’MSIT wed Yi Ke on June 22, 2015, in Westport, Conn.

Former Bentley University field hockey standout and current assistant coach Gina Lirange, Auburn, Mass., was

recognized as one of the Top 30 when the NCAA held its annual Woman of the Year banquet in Indianapolis.

Chelsea Lombardi, Hillsdale, N.J., has joined Compass Group USA-Flik International as catering manager.

LeveragePoint Innovations Inc. has promoted Taylor Mecham, Narragansett, R.I., to marketing program manager.

Henry Mullen, New York, N.Y., has joined Jefferies LLC as equity research associate.

Patrick Morton ’MST, Needham, Mass., has been promoted to senior accountant by CPA and business consulting firm KAF.

Ashley Perssico, Naugatuck, Conn., was hired at Constant Contact as a content developer. She is responsible for blog content, managing social media platforms, and fostering relationships with company partners.

Brent Profenno, South Portland, Maine, has been promoted to manager, financial planning and analysis, for Putney Inc.

Angela Scott, Marlborough, Mass., is now general manager for Boost Fitness.

Miaojun Wang ’MSA, Stamford, Conn., has joined Deloitte Tax as a tax consultant.

1. Samantha (Smith) ’07 and Charles III Calcagni ’07 with Eloise

2. Allison (Sui) ’06 and Christopher ’06 Leckenby with Jasper3. Isabella Grace, daughter of Michelle (Holzman) Fraioli ’02

and husband Christopher4. Ryan Wolfgang Cochran, son of Natalie Schlegel MBA ’08

and husband Caleb Cochran5. From left: Campbell (daughter of Peter ’06 and Jaclyn

(Lathrop) ’06 Smith; Charlie (son of Tyler ’06 and Sarah (Cunningham) ’06 Warren; Meredith, daughter of Nicholas ’06 and Melanie (Duval) ’06, MSA ’08 Whitney; Harper Smith (daughter of Pete and Jaclyn). Front: Graham Whitney (son of Nick and Melanie)

Twenty-five members of the Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity participated in a camping trip for dads and their kids, enjoying a pig roast, field day games, campfire songs and stories.

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Future Falcons2014 continued

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DOES YOUR CLASS YEAR END IN 1 OR 6? Save the weekend of June 3 to 5, 2016

for some reunion fun. You can even help plan the festivities

for classmates and friends by emailing [email protected].

CLASS NOTES >>


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ROBERT G. RIPLEY JR. ’80

Opening Doors for Future Generations

YOUR PLANS. BENTLEY’S FUTURE. There are many ways to create a lasting legacy at Bentley. To learn more, please contact Liz Siladi, director of gift planning,

at 781.891.2475 or [email protected], or visit bentley.edu/giftplanning.

BOB RIPLEY CREDITS BENTLEY WITH OPENING DOORS TO HIS FIRST JOB, which turned out to be at Shawmut Bank. After many years as a bank-ing executive in wealth management, he came into his own as an entrepreneur. “I truly enjoyed developing my own business culture, which led to great client relationships,” he says of having

brought a trust, tax and compliance software service to market. “It was really satisfying to help people by providing a strong business solution.” Not yet retired, the alumnus invests his time and resources in community, youth mentoring and youth ministry organizations. “Days should be filled with helping people, whether they are family or kids who need to get off the streets. There’s a lot of hurt in the world; if one is blessed with good health and finances, one should give back.” Bentley is another of Bob’s passions. He has stayed engaged with the

school since his earliest days of commuting from Medford to Waltham. Along with attending many Bentley-sponsored events, he supports the Annual Fund every year with an increased leadership gift. Visiting the campus from his Cape Cod home, he enjoys meeting students and seeing firsthand that his support is a good investment. “Professors Rae Anderson and Dick Cross inspired us to think of having an exciting career, and I certainly did,” he says. “If we can connect our careers and successes to Bentley, then we should get reacquainted with our college — and give regularly if we can.” Earlier this year, revising his estate plan, Bob fulfilled a longtime dream. His generous bequest to Bentley will establish an endowed scholarship fund for students majoring in Accountancy. “I want to say thank you to the place that gave me my start. I feel obligated to pay back that opportunity, and pass it along to the next generation.”

WINTER 2016

BENTLEYMAGAZINE

175 Forest Street Waltham, MA 02452 USA

FEEDING YOUNG MINDS IN THE LACAVA CENTER

1948

2014

THEN & NOW

Documents

Bentley University Magazine Winter 2016