Penn State Smeal College of Business | MBA Class of … State Smeal College of Business | MBA Class of 2009 Directory Smeal MBA Career Services: (814) 863-0474, [email protected] 2 Smeal

1Smeal MBA Career Services: (814) 863-0474, [email protected]

Smeal College of Business MBA Class of 2009 Directory

Penn State Smeal College of Business | MBA Class of 2009 Directory



Greetings from the Penn State Smeal MBA Program.

As you know, the economy and hence the job market is suffering through one of its worst post-war periods. That means that there are still many talented MBA students seeking permanent employment. In an effort to help get the word out to Penn State alumni and supporters, we have developed a list of MBA students who are currently seeking permanent positions. In the pages that follow, you will find short biographies of the students describing their ex-periences, interests, and career goals. These biographical snapshots allow for a quick and easy review of our MBA talent.

One of the greatest assets of the Smeal College here at Penn State is the passion, the enthusiasm, and the support of the alumni. Simply put, Penn Staters are terrific at helping their fellow Penn Staters. We therefore seek your engagement on several levels.

If you are hiring, we would welcome the opportunity to discuss your • needs with us so we could refer students to you.

If someone else within your firm is hiring, would you pass this list along • with an offer of our assistance should your contact have any questions?

If you know of others outside your firm who might be interested in re-• ceiving this list, would you pass their names along to us so we can send them a copy?

In a good job market, most of these students would already have been hired at this point. I urge you not to pass on the opportunity to hire good people. We would be happy to provide further information on any of these students so please do not hesitate to contact us.

Regards,

Dennis Sheehan

Associate Dean for MBA Programs



Sasi Amarlapudi

Sasi Amarlapudi has over four years of experience in the IT industry, the first 3 years of which were with the client GlaxoSmithKline (while she was with Satyam Computers) followed by one year with J P Morgan Chase, Bangalore. At Satyam Computers, she was performing a business development role where her job was to conceptualize and procure new projects from GSK. While at JP Morgan Chase, she was part of the initial team in charge of building and developing India Technology Center, a new unit of JPMorgan Chase. She did a summer internship with Sears Holdings in Procurement and has also won the Best Idea Contest amongst 300 other Interns. She is Six Sigma Green Belt certified with process optimization and project management as her core competencies. She has demonstrated exceptional leadership capabilities all along and has also been awarded with the “Certificate of Professional Excellence” by GSK.

MBA Concentrations: Product and Market Development, Supply Chain Management

Undergraduate Institution and Degree: JNTU, India and B.Tech

Joseph Arver

With close to two years of professional experience as a Senior Financial Analyst for Citizens Financial Group, Joseph has extensive knowledge of working within a corporate finance setting. This has allowed him to develop expertise in costing methodologies as well as pricing models used in profitability analysis. Working in a team setting, Joseph was responsible for developing appropriate methodologies for alloca-tions. Previous to the financial analyst role, he worked within Citizens as a Systems Analyst, where he was responsible for the creation and maintenance of Hyperion Essbase multi-dimensional database cubes. Included in his responsibilities was the training and assistance of the company-wide user base of over 300 employees in upper management functions.

MBA Concentrations: Corporate Financial Analysis and Planning, Strategic Leadership

Undergraduate Institution and Degree: University of Rhode Island,Majors: Accounting, Management Information Systems (MIS)

Carl Asher

After seven years of professional sales & marketing experience, Carl is convinced that rigorous, in-depth research most often yields informative, actionable consumer insights which can be used to build strate-gic relationships with consumers toward profitable outcomes. He values inspiration and innovation and seeks to leverage relational capital to engage and inspire his colleagues.

Carl’s responsibilities have comprised brand management, account management, and sales in both B2C and B2B arenas. Through his experiences, he has developed functional specialties within the conception, development, and execution of Integrated Market Communications and he is versed in proposal develop-ment, team formation, and budgeting as a Project Manager. His sales career has spanned print, online, and event sponsorship, which has made him proficient in sales forecasting, client relations and digital strategy and analytics.

MBA Concentrations: Strategic Leadership, Product and Market Development

Undergraduate Institution and Degree: Penn State University, B.A. Advertising and B.S. Marketing



Sahil Asthana

After completing his bachelors degree in Management Information Systems, Sahil Asthana graduated from Temple University and started working as an IT Consultant at Accenture, Ltd. After two years with the global firm, he joined a boutique consulting firm, Compensation Technologies where he worked as a Data Integration Consultant on Enterprise Incentive Projects. With five years of consulting experi-ence under his belt, Sahil joined PSU’s MBA program at Smeal. With a focus on Entrepreneurship and Strategic Leadership, Sahil went on to intern and finally accept a full-time offer at Dell. Also, during his time in the program, he published a children’s book, titled “Inz The Warrior.”

MBA Concentrations: Corporate Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Strategic Leadership

Undergraduate Institution and Degree:Temple University, Bachelor’s in Management Information Systems

Gourav Banerjee

Gourav began his career as an IT consultant at Accenture in India. His team catered to a leading USA based financial services provider and maintained a web-based application available to its credit-card users for performing all available online operations. During his twenty months at Accenture Gourav contributed towards implementing essential initiatives to the application they maintained and helped increase the customer base from two million to seven million. With substantial exposure to IT consult-ing, Gourav transitioned to software product development and spent sixteen months at Oracle, devel-oping tools for global retailers. His team worked on a product which specialized in demand forecasting by running predictive algorithms on collaborative data obtained from suppliers. Being a part of the research and development vertical, he also assisted in enhancing the functionality of the product.

MBA Concentrations: Supply Chain Management, Strategic Leadership

Undergraduate Institution and Degree: Sikkim Manipal Institute of Technology, India,Bachelor of Technology, Computer Engineering

Somdatta Banerjee

Somdatta has five years of consulting experience with Infosys and Wipro in delivering supply chain management and customer service strategy and business transformation solutions to Fortune 500 clients. She started her career as a software engineer in India and was soon promoted to lead a five-member team to implement business solutions to optimize service-call lifecycle at the client location in Philadelphia, PA. After successfully implementing the project over a span of 28 months Somdatta tran-sitioned to a Fortune-100 networking solutions client in San Jose, CA. Here she led the consolidation of numerous customer support systems and improved call center efficiency across different countries for the client. Somdatta’s past work experience accurately reflects her effective leadership skills, ability to work in global teams and strong analytical skills.

MBA Concentrations: Supply Chain Management, Corporate Financial Analysis and Planning

Undergraduate Institution and Degree: University of Kalyani, Computer Science and Engineering



Robert (Bobby) BarkanicAfter college, Robert worked at Arnold & Porter in Washington D.C. in their corporate securities litigation practice group. After only six months he became the lead legal assistant on two successful trial teams and was responsible for daily interactions and briefings with clients. After two years, Robert left Arnold & Porter to pursue an MBA. In his first year of business school, he was heavily involved with the Nittany Lion Fund (a $50M student run fund), conducting financial analysis within the utilities and healthcare sectors. In the summer of 2008, Robert interned at Fairfield Greenwich Group (FGG), a hedge fund on Wall Street. Here he performed extensive financial analysis using the firm’s sophisticated proprietary software to iden-tify high-quality investment opportunities. He also worked on the business development committee and was an integral part of a business deal that placed FGG’s products on Credit Suisse’s investment platform.

MBA Concentrations: Investment Management and Portfolio Analysis, Corporate Financial Analysis and Planning

Undergraduate Institution and Degree: Penn State University, B.S. Economics

Jensen BeelerJensen has six years of experience in the IT sector, and during that time has started three successful tech-nology based companies. In 2008, Jensen earned his Juris Doctor from the Penn State Dickinson School of

Law, where he centered his studies around intellectual property, international, and corporate law, and will graduate with his MBA from the Smeal College of Business in 2009 with portfolios in Corporate Innova-tion & Entrepreneurship, Strategic Leadership, and Marketing.

While in law school, Jensen was the top negotiator in his negotiations course, and was the first Penn State student to be offered a position at the United Nations’ International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, where he competed against 2000 other applicants for 10 openings in the Holland based court. Including the internship with the United Nations, Jensen has spent 9 months studying and working in Western Europe, with the bulk of that time in The Netherlands, Italy, and Austria.

In his third year of law school, Jensen began concurrently taking classes towards an MBA at the Penn State, Smeal College of Business. In his first year at Smeal, Jensen was elected as the Executive Director to the Penn State Entrepreneur Network, which oversees entrepreneurial activities in the MBA program, and also oversees the $5 million Garber Fund, which is managed by MBA students through the Nittany Lion Venture Capital Club.

Upon completion of his MBA, Jensen plans to take the California Bar Exam, and pursue a career in either corporate development or venture capital, where he will be able to rely on his technical expertise and legal and business training to find strategic acquisitions and investments.

MBA Concentrations: Corporate Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Strategic Leadership,Product and Market Development

Undergraduate Institution and Degree:University of California, Santa Barbara, Bachelor of Arts: Psychology;Bachelor of Arts: Law and Society with a Criminal Justice Emphasis

James BrennanJames is a second year MBA student seeking employment in a strategic development or marketing role, preferably in the media industry. He honed his marketing skills this past summer at Time Inc.’s Consumer Marketing Division, where he helped to develop several company websites as well as perform break-even analysis on existing marketing campaigns. Additionally, he has worked on market research projects for AgCert, The Nittany Lion Club, and the Institute for the Study of Business Markets. James is capable of high-level legal analysis, as he is an admitted attorney with a background in contract and financial docu-ment review for employers including Deloitte & Touche. James is also a masterful communicator with a published writing background for companies such as Advance Publications and American Lawyer Media.

MBA Concentrations: Product and Market Development, Corporate Financial Analysis and Planning

Undergraduate Institution and Degree: The College of New Jersey, BA English, Professional Writing;The Quinnipiac University School of Law, JD



Joannie Carlson

Joannie’s background is in manufacturing and engineering. She began as an equipment operator and transitioned into quality engineering, working at Alcoa Howmet Castings’ Aerospace Division. She gained a double-major in Industrial Design and Psychology at Carnegie Mellon University where she also worked as a cognitive and behavioral psychology research assistant. She worked for Pittsburgh City Planning as the project lead for the ‘Greening Pittsburgh Project’. Following her undergraduate studies, she worked for Daedalus Excel as a junior product designer utilizing advanced product development techniques to deliver innovative polymer offerings. Her decision to pursue an MBA degree arose from her aspiration and desire for involvement in higher-level strategic business decisions at an organization. In 2008, she worked for Kennametal as a market researcher and segmented markets, performed competitive analysis, analyzed value chains, and defined critical-to-quality product requirements. She identified a new business oppor-tunity in a $150 million growing addressable market that Kennametal has added to their product develop-ment pipeline with first-year sales forecasted for 2010.

MBA Concentration: Product and Market Development

Undergraduate Institution and Degree: Carnegie Mellon University,Double Major in Industrial Design and Psychology

Kyle Charlesworth, CPA

Prior to coming to Penn State to pursue his MBA, Kyle Charlesworth gained more than four years of work experience as an accountant. Most recently, he worked as an Internal Auditor at Wyeth Pharmaceuti-cal. In this role he had the opportunity to travel around the world to many of the corporation’s affiliates and audit internal controls, business processes, and Sarbanes Oxley documentation. Prior to that role, he worked at Wiss & Company LLC., a public CPA firm, as a senior auditor. In this position he had the oppor-tunity to audit several mid-size privately held corporations in the northern New Jersey area.

Kyle is also currently a managing director of the Nittany Lion Venture Capital Fund. The NLVC fund has over $5 million dollars of endowment money and is run exclusively by the MBA student members.

MBA Concentrations: Corporate Financial Analysis and Planning, Supply Chain Management

Undergraduate Institution and Degree: Virginia Tech, BS Accounting and Information Systems

Shuwen Chen

Shuwen is a second-year MBA student from Penn State University concentrating in Supply Chain Manage-ment. She is very enthusiastic about professional opportunities in the supply chain function. Shuwen’s dis-tinct advantage is that she has valuable experiences through working as an internal consultant in both an American manufacturing company - Momentive Performance Materials (formerly GE Advanced Materials), and a Chinese logistics provider - China Ocean Shipping Company(COSCO). They are both industry leaders, as well as large companies. With this ideal combination, Shuwen possesses an excellent understanding of the logistics business from both the customer’s side and supplier’s side.

She has six-years working experience at COSCO Container Lines, the largest logistics service provider in China. Shuwen’s summer internship at Momentive Performance Materials was also a great experience. Here she applied six-sigma tools to analyze data from the SAP system and created a dynamic model called “SC Telescope” that greatly improves forecast accuracy.

Shuwen believes her strong performance orientation will contribute to her continuous improvement in her professional career. Furthermore, her MBA training will contribute great value to the company she will be serving in the future.

MBA Concentration: Supply Chain Management

Undergraduate Institution and Degree: Shanghai Maritime University/ Bachelor of Economics



WeiLi Chen

WeiLi is a goal oriented person with a passion for financial management.

WeiLi has over seven years of experience in supply chain management. She has worked for several fortune 500 companies in such functions as purchasing, inventory management and production planning. These experiences have enabled her to obtain a broad business understanding as well as develop critical business skills such as analytical skills, communication skills, teamwork skills and leadership skills. Her major achieve-ments include success on projects where she played a key role and led a team to reduce inventory cost, improve productivity and reduce cycle time.

In pursuing her primary business interest, WeiLi decided to change to a finance career by leveraging the transferable skills sets that she had developed through previous work experience. Her MBA education has prepared her well for advancement in a career in finance. Not only has it helped her obtain a broad knowl-edge of the principles of finance, but also helped her develop extensive financial analysis skills including fi-nancial forecasting and budgeting, financial performance analysis, capital budgeting and financial modeling.

MBA Concentration: Corporate Financial Analysis and Planning

Undergraduate Institution and Degree: East China Normal University, Bachelor of Science

Paul Cianciolo

Upon graduation from Smeal’s MBA program, Paul will have completed a feat never before accomplished by a student-athlete during the 59-year career of Penn State Football Coach Joe Paterno. Within a five-year span at PSU, Paul will leave the university with both an undergraduate degree in finance and a master’s degree in business administration, totaling a combined GPA of 3.92 to date. Paul also competed simultaneously as both a quarterback and pitcher on the football and baseball teams, respectively, in what would equate to an approximate 40-hour work week in addition to academics. As a quarterback, Paul regularly demonstrated vital leadership and managerial skills in order to achieve the offensive objectives of the team. These same skills, combined with his extensive background in finance, resulted in the suc-cessful analytical contribution to multiple live deals during Paul’s time as an analyst at Allen & Company, the world’s leading sports, media, and entertainment investment bank.


Undergraduate Institution and Degree: Pennsylvania State University, B.S. in Finance, 2007

Weiguo Deng

Having earned an M.A. in Economics and an M.S. in Statistics from the University of Arkansas before joining the Penn State Smeal MBA program, Weiguo developed a passion for applying his quantitative and analytical skills to uncover insights and help organizations solve their most critical problems. He has worked with BBDO Atlanta as a market research analyst intern. He worked with 4 distinct research teams and helped to complete more than a dozen primary and secondary research projects. Before coming to the U.S., Weiguo worked for seven years in two leading corporations in their respective industries. The desire to consistently deliver top quality work motivates Weiguo to continue to learn and grow.


Undergraduate Institution and Degree: Beijing University of Technology, B.A. Economics,Major in International Trade



Andrew (Andy) DuffettAndrew began his career with Merrill Lynch in New York City which allowed him to develop skills in cor-porate finance, investment management, and strategic planning. During his tenure with Merrill, Andrew first worked as an Analyst in Alternative Investments conducting due diligence on various hedge funds as well as managing the firm-wide implementation of numerous business solutions. From there Andrew was promoted to Senior Analyst within Risk Management where he created and directed several global risk management solutions which aided in protecting the firm’s intellectual assets and overall brand reputation. While at Smeal, Andrew was elected to serve as Senior Managing Director of the Nittany Lion Venture Capital, one of the world’s largest student-managed VC funds with over $5M in assets under man-agement. Through this experience he has gained significant experience in evaluating investment opportu-nities, conducting due diligence, performing valuations, reviewing term sheets, and structuring deals.

MBA Concentration: Corporate Financial Analysis and Planning,Corporate Innovation and Entrepreneurship

Undergraduate Institution and Degree: Penn State University, Bachelor of Science in InformationSciences and Technology, Minor in Business Law

Colin DunnColin wants to contribute to a forward-thinking organization by pairing his previous experience with marketing and finance knowledge gained through the Smeal MBA program. As a Professional Engineer and LEED Accredited Professional, Colin combines proven problem solving skills with a commitment to efficiency and the environment. He has also demonstrated flexibility and adaptability through a variety of domestic and international assignments for both public and private sector clients. Colin’s ideal employer would be a company focused on delivering tomorrow’s energy solutions or bringing other technological advancements to improve quality of life for people around the world.


Undergraduate Institution and Degree: University of Virginia, B.S. Mechanical Engineering,Minor in Environmental Science

Priyanka DwivediPriyanka is an experienced marketing professional with a unique education and background (MBA-Penn State ,MA in Psychology ,ISBM certification in Business to Business marketing) as well as a diverse global experience in marketing, market research & people/organizational management. Prior to joining Smeal, Priyanka worked with multinational companies in the pharmaceutical, technology & manufacturing sec-tors. During her MBA internship, she worked with the corporate brand team at DuPont and managed a project on corporate brand initiative around sustainability. Through these experiences, she has developed expertise to lead projects in several areas of marketing and management such as Integrated Market Com-munications, Brand Strategy and Management, Business-to-Business Branding & Change Management.

She leverages her marketing experience and training in people management to implement and lead initia-tives around change management, customer service enhancement, people development, and internal /external communication to build customer engagement.

Priyanka is a driven, effective team leader with experience and interest in handling cross functional and cross cultural teams.

MBA Concentrations: Product and Market Development, Strategic Leadership

Undergraduate Institution and Degree: University of Delhi, Bachelor’s Degree in Applied Psychology

Graduate Institution and Degree: University of Delhi, Master’s Degree in Psychology



Nicholas Fernez

Nicholas is looking forward to beginning a career in the venture capital industry. He has developed extensive research, writing, and analytic skills while working on faculty research projects in both the law school and the business school. He has received research credit in three academic articles for his outstanding work.

While participating in the Garber Venture Capital Practicum at Penn State, he has learned how to analyze business plans, conduct due diligence, structure deals, and communicate effectively with entrepreneurs.

Graduation Date from Smeal: May 2010; Graduation Date from Dickinson School of Law: May 2010

MBA Concentration: Corporate Innovation and Entrepreneurship

Undergraduate Institution and Degree: North Carolina State University ‘06, Bachelor of Arts in Economics, summa cum laude, Bachelor of Arts in Political Science, summa cum laude, Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy, summa cum laude, Minors in Business Management and English

Sonney George

With five years optimization consulting experience, Sonney has extensive knowledge of operations research and quantitative decision analysis. He has excellent educational credentials in mathematics, computer applications, operations research, and business including a Ph.D. in operations research and an ongoing MBA, both from Penn State.

Sonney demonstrated excellent leadership skills and superior analytic skills in an optimization consulting project for the Pennsylvania Bureau of Forestry, leading an international team of student programmers from several parts of the world including Germany, Serbia, Hungary, Chile, India and the US. His enthusi-asm, innovation, and passion for excellence helped him take increasing responsibilities within the group and ultimately become one of the co-principal investigators of the project.


Undergraduate Institution and Degree: Kerala University, India, Bsc. Mathematics

Matthew Gilbert

Matt began his career with Aramark, responsible for several corporate dining facilities throughout Hart-ford and Boston. During Matt’s time with the company, he gained extensive experience managing dozens of employees and challenging P&L accounts. Returning for a Smeal MBA in 2007, Matt sought to further his knowledge of marketing. In the summer of 2008, he secured an internship with the Teflon® Brand Management Team at DuPont where he assisted in re-invigorating the brand and led the development of a global marketing ROI model.


Undergraduate Institution and Degree:The Pennsylvania State University, Hotel, Restaurant, and Institutional Management



Kyle H. Goldschmidt

Kyle’s post-undergraduate work experience includes product design, development and manufacturing at Ford Motor Company and business strategy, business continuity and market research as an MBA intern with Johnson & Johnson. Kyle was also a teacher and mentor to AIDS orphans in Zambia, Africa. Kyle is currently pursuing his MBA, concentrating in Supply Chain and Marketing. In addition to his coursework and graduate assistantship, he is also Vice President of Net Impact, developing and implementing projects for the MBA students.

MBA Concentrations: Supply Chain Management, Product and Market Development

Undergraduate Institution and Degree: University of Pennsylvania, BSE in Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics

Mary Gorman

Mary spent six years building custom supply chain solutions as the Manufacturing Manager of a private label fashion company. Manufacturing on four continents for such worldwide brand powerhouses as Calvin Klein and Nine West allowed Mary to develop superb negotiating skills and taught her to develop mutually beneficial and lasting supplier and client relations. This hands-on experience was augmented with a Smeal MBA’s technical expertise in both supply chain management and corporate finance.


Undergraduate Institution and Degree: Lafayette College, BA Religion/Anthropology

Christopher Greco

Prior to joining Penn State University’s MBA program, Chris spent three and a half years working as a chemist for a small company called Plextronics Inc. Their business operations focused on commercializing new technologies from conductive polymers. Due to the nature of a small company his responsibilities have extended well beyond the lab to include market analysis, assessing materials suppliers, and assisting the CFO in tracking the progress of capital expenditures. His previous role required him to be a self-starter and work in a high paced, rapidly changing environment. Chris is primarily interested in working in the chemicals technology industry in a marketing or finance role.


Undergraduate Institution and Degree: University of Pittsburgh, BS Chemistry

Rohit Gurtu

Rohit has worked for 16 years in the automotive industry and has well rounded experience in the areas of manufacturing and supply chain management. Rohit began his career in manufacturing with Suzuki Mo-tors in India and moved on to a purchasing role with Honda Cars. At Honda, he honed his skills in costing and supplier management while he was involved in the launch of Honda’s first car in India. After develop-ing a strong skill set in operations and purchasing he took on the role of managing a large team engaged in the procurement, production planning and warehousing operations of Delphi Automotive Systems. In his last assignment, Rohit gained key cross functional skills as an internal consultant with Saud Bahwan Automotive, a distributor of Toyota in Oman.


Undergraduate Institution and Degree: University of Burdwan, West Bengal, India, Mechanical Engineering



Samuel Haldeman

Sam has five years of professional experience which is highlighted by his involvement in proactive initia-tives and demonstrates his capacity to work diligently, passionately, and productively.

This past summer, while at DuPont, Sam researched strategic market opportunities for one of its major product lines. As a co-founder, Sam’s entrepreneurial work with Fisk Internet Services taught him valu-able lessons in business management, and enabled him to experience firsthand the responsibilities of owning and operating a business. Through his respected position at Penn State, Sam gained valuable experience in project management, strategic planning, sales, and marketing while demonstrating the importance of being a team player.

Sam has a deep interest in marketing and intends to pursue a career in this field upon graduation.

MBA Concentration: Product and Market Development, Strategic Leadership

Undergraduate Institution and Degree: Penn State University, Information Science and Technologies

Chao He

With six years of experience in international education, Chao has extensive knowledge of the internation-al educational market. She started her career as a coordinator with the Chinese government and pro-gressed to a project manager position. Leading a cross-functional team, she was responsible for initiating new projects, negotiating contracts, and marketing these projects. This highly demanding job allowed her to develop skills in aligning strategic planning with customer needs, as well as the ability of working on international teams. In the summer of 2008, Chao worked as a marketing intern at FedEx. During the internship, she not only learned from the marketing practices of a leading global brand, but also delivered results and received positive feedback from people with whom she worked. Chao is actively seeking full-time opportunities in international marketing.


Undergraduate Institution and Degree: Yunnan University (China), English Language and literature

Jeffery P. Hoeflich

Jeff Hoeflich has over ten years experience in the hospitality industry, most notably in management and education. During the latter part of his education at The Culinary Institute of America, Jeff taught restau-rant management and wine tasting in one of the institute’s on campus restaurants. Following his term at the CIA, Jeff returned to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania to open Haydn’s on Pine and Maxine’s Martini Lounge. While Jeff was heavily involved in every facet of the restaurant and nightclub, he also coordinated numer-ous philanthropic events with the Harrisburg community. Upon returning for his JD/MBA, Jeff had the op-portunity to work at Penn State’s Hotel Restaurant & Institutional Management program as an instructor in Restaurant Operations. Jeff also has extensive experience in real estate and property management. His family has been involved in residential and commercial investment properties since 1990.

Graduation Date from Smeal: 2010

MBA Concentrations: Corporate Financial Analysis and Planning, Product and Market Development

Undergraduate Institution and Degree:The Culinary Institute of America, Bachelor of Professional Studies in Culinary Arts, Business

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Kenneth D. Holmes

With 15 years of progressive project management and business development experience spanning three industries, Ken is a proven leader adept at working both cross-functionally and in a consulting capacity. Having worked in startup and small business environments and consulted to Fortune 100 clients and in the public sector, Ken has a broad range of organizational experience.

At Young & Associates, Ken started as the third employee and eventually led the company as COO at the time of its sale. From there he was recruited by a former employee who had started a biometric consult-ing company. He served as COO again with the goal of developing a client-focused culture that delivered superior service and to position the company for acquisition. After a change in management priorities, Ken served as Director of Sales and Marketing for a contract furniture firm where he led a re-branding initiative focused on sustainability.

MBA Concetrations: Product and Market Development, Corporate Financial Analysis and Planning

Undergraduate Institution and Degree:State University of New York at Buffalo, Bachelors of Arts in Philosophy

Alicia G. Holt

Alicia is a highly educated young professional with significant experience in the area of product develop-ment and project management. She’s a self-starter most noted for creativity and innovation resulting in exceptional project management and execution. She has worked with GlaxoSmithKline in the area of brand management where she worked on several projects such as consumer claims development, public relations, and professional marketing. She is currently working as a Marketing Consultant with Go2athlete a start-up web-based company serving as marketing team leader.

MBA Concentrations: Product and Market Development, Corporate Innovation and Entrepreneurship

Undergraduate Institution and Degree: Alabama A&M University, Food Science and Technology

Matthew Holtry

Matthew is an independent consultant, Strategy & Finance MBA, and President of Penn State Net Impact. He is pursuing opportunities in corporate climate change and energy efficiency consulting in the DC-met-ro area.

Currently, Matthew is working with the PSU Intellectual Property Office to evaluate the commercial potential of a patented carbon capture technology and determine options for bringing it to market. For a large grocery retailer, he is implementing a corporate strategy to manage carbon emissions by using dashboard metrics to translate emissions reductions into cost-savings figures for store managers. For the Food Marketing Institute, he recently completed a “Carbon Footprint 101” toolkit as the industry primer for its 1,500 retail grocery members and will present at FMI’s Sustainability Summit.

Matthew obtained his undergraduate degree in Information Technology and Conflict Resolution from Juniata College. He has well-developed competencies in stakeholder engagement, project development, project management, team leadership, interviewing, and professional presentations.

MBA Concentrations: Strategic Leadership, Corporate Financial Analysis and Planning

Undergraduate Institution and Degree: Juniata College, BA in Information Technology and Conflict Resolution



Amy Hsieh

Amy Hsieh began her full time career at Direct Agents, Inc., an interactive advertising agency in New York City. In this entrepreneurial company, Amy excelled at client services and project management. Her high level of initiative and ambition evolved her early role as an account manager to leading the entire account management staff and overseeing all non-sales operations within the company. She was an in-tegral part of the company which was recognized as the 64th Fastest Growing Small Business in America by Entrepreneur Magazine in 2006.

For her MBA summer internship, Amy worked as a consumer marketer for In Style magazine at Time Inc. She conducted comprehensive print and online industry research, interviewed key decision makers, assessed competitive threats, and put forth recommendations to identify business opportunities. Amy worked creatively on marketing communication material to build partnership relations. She thoroughly enjoys the art and science of creating an effective marketing campaign.


Undergraduate Institution and Degree:NYU, Bachelors of Arts in Organizational Behavior and Communications

Young Jang

Before entering the MBA program at Smeal, Young worked for six years at ITEP, which is a government affiliated company dedicated to National Industrial Technology Evaluation and Planning. For four years, he evaluated cutting-edge technologies, surveyed technology and market trends, and investigated diffi-culties involving technological development and commercialization. Young also managed a large amount of the fund ($30 million/year) and the project. In the latter two years, his job consisted of innovation management and organizational operation. Young actively participated in a management diagnosis task force team and made crucial contributions by establishing mid and long term development plans and the company’s vision. Young was an active member of the advisory committee for one of the presiden-tial candidates of Korea who was elected as the President of Korea in December 2007.

MBA Concentration: Investment Management and Portfolio Analysis

Undergraduate Institution and Degree: Korea University. Bachelor of Science

Graduate Institution and Degree: Korea Institute of Science and Technology, Master of Science; Korea University, Completion of Doctors Course

Eun Young (“Jamie”) Joung

Jamie began her career in a small IT company, working as an online content/marketing consultant. Here, she developed insights about the internet industry and the flexibility to handle various client companies in different industries. Later she worked for SK Networks, a South Korean company well-known for its customer marketing initiatives, where she learned to communicate with customers directly through various media. Jamie worked as a marketer for a clothing brand, planning and implementing marketing campaigns through franchisees and mass media. She was also involved in and led several projects, spe-cialized in data-based marketing and multi-channel communication. After graduating from Smeal MBA program, she intends to make a career switch from Marketing to Supply Chain Management, and desires to make a big impact on a business with her analytic and problem-solving skill sets as well as her strong marketing background and various experiences.


Undergraduate Institution and Degree: Sejong University (South Korea), Bachelor of Science in Business Administration



Ramkumar Kasimani

Ram has a bachelor’s degree in automobile engineering and over four years of experience in the IT ser-vices industry. He started as a programmer in Infosys Technologies Limited and progressed to manage key projects for some of Infosys’s biggest clients. Prior to joining Smeal, Ram worked as a project manager devising and implementing product launch strategies for a UK-based telecom firm.


Undergraduate Institution and Degree: Madras Institute of Technology, Bachelor of Technology

Rugiganga (“Rugi”) Kavamahanga

Rugi has extensive international and multicultural experience. He is fluent in French, Spanish, Rwandese and proficient in Bamara. Upon graduation at Penn State with a BA in Economics, Rugi served for two years as a small enterprise development agent in the Peace Corps Mali, West Africa. Rugi is a proven com-municator, with two years experience in running grassroots political campaigns.

MBA Concentration: Product and Market Product Development

Undergraduate Institution and Degree: Penn State, BA in Economics

Arjaree (“Kat”) Keeratiprapa

With extensive experience in advertising, Arjaree, or also known as Kat, has developed a passion for marketing communications as well as a combination of analytical skills and creative judgment. Through her experience at Leo Burnett Bangkok and Index Events Agency, Kat has worked with and learned from numerous global brands, including McDonald’s, Heineken, Heinz, Johnnie Walker, Toyota and Goodyear. Having spent her life between the U.S and Thailand and having worked on regional and global campaigns, Kat is adept in extracting cultural insights and translating them into marketing implications. She comes to the Smeal MBA Program with the objectives of building a stronger business foundation and understand-ing the impact of marketing on different functions of a company. Kat led the MBA Marketing Association as President and currently seeks leadership opportunities in corporate marketing.


Undergraduate Institution and Degree:Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration from Assumption University in Bangkok, Thailand

Hyung Kil

Hyung Kil began his career at Green Integrated Logistics, Inc. in CA where he developed his skills in cross-functional multi-tasking. In order to grow professionally Hyung joined Babyworld, a retail business owned by Hyung’s parents, in Arizona. Through this experience, Hyung was able to develop his manage-ment skills and learn about his desire to pursue marketing. As a summer intern at Mars Incorporated, Hyung was able to reaffirm this desire while working with the brand management teams and the inte-grated marketing teams.


Undergraduate Institution and Degree: University of California, Irvine, Bachelor of Science in Economics



Sanghyun Kim

Sanghyun began his career in the HR department of Samsung Electronics in 1999. His first job was to recruit undergraduates. He organized plans to visit the universities that the company targeted to recruit from and he implemented publicity campaigns. He then transitioned to another field of HR where he man-aged people within the organization doing appraisals, promotions and transferring of post for three years. Before he came to business school, Sanghyun’s job was to manage human resources overseas and audit factory staff for following regulations according to HQ policy.

MBA Concentration: Strategic Leadership

Undergraduate Institution and Degree: Korea University, Economics

Kevin Koharki

Kevin began a three year career as a Mergers & Acquisitions Analyst at Morgan Stanley. His job primarily con-sisted of helping senior managers run comparability studies on possible investment opportunities for clients.

After six months, Kevin was hired as a junior analyst at Valuation Research Corporation to perform similar tasks but also take on additional responsibilities as it related to particular asset/liability valuation. This helped Kevin greatly as he gained a greater knowledge of in-depth analysis that is used to satisfy stake-holders as well as independent auditors for the acquirer.

In his final year of employment, Kevin worked for a private software company as part of a “deal team” for the company’s acquisition strategy. Here he applied all of the things he learned throughout the previous two years to help the company meet its growth objectives.


Undergraduate Institution and Degree: Penn State, B.S. in Accounting

Radoslav Lalicki

Before coming to Smeal, Radoslav spent five years in the book publishing industry in different posi-tions. He is especially proud of his role as Belgrade Book Fair Project Manager, in which he supervised construction of 130,000 square feet of exhibition space and hosted 250 exhibitors and 150,000 visitors during a week long event.

After graduation, Radoslav plans to continue his career with the Black & Decker Corporation. He has accepted their offer to join the Financial Development Program where he expects to receive two years of intensive finance and leadership training before he assumes his full-time role.

Radoslav is a recipient of a graduate assistantship from the Smeal College of Business and recipient of a privately funded merit-based Dragomir Nikolitch scholarship. He fluently speaks Serbian (spoken under different names in four Eastern-European countries), can converse in Czech and understands Russian. In addition to standard business software, he is skillful in MS Access, Hyperion Workspace and Adobe Creative Suite.


Undergraduate Institution and Degree: University of Belgrade, Serbia, BA in Art History



Yea-ling Lee

Yea-ling Lee has demonstrated her talent in cross-cultural sales & marketing through leading a cross-func-tional team to establish the first Japanese clients for her company. As a managerial assistant to the CEO, she was involved in general management decisions. Her competence in market research was recognized through an internship in a French company in the US. Yea-ling’s achievements in overcoming challenges from different disciplines, languages, industries and business customs led to the development of her strong people skills and her ability to deal with ambiguity in uncertain situations.


Undergraduate Institution and Degree: National Taiwan University, Bachelor of Science

Graduate Inst. and Degree: The University of Tokyo, Master of International Studies and Master of Science

Belinda Liu

Belinda has diverse experiences within the biopharmaceutical industry, including R&D, drug manufactur-ing, clinical operations, sales, and marketing. Her educational background in the life sciences and her business training at Penn State have enabled her to contribute to diverse projects. She has been involved in efforts to develop business plans for entrepreneurial biotech companies and recommend strategic direc-tions to generate new revenue streams for in-line products. While at Protalex, a start-up biotech, Belinda worked with senior executives, external consultants, and cross-functional teams by combining long-term corporate goals with attentive guidance in managing clinical projects for drug development. That pro-gressed to a product management role within Forest Laboratories as a summer intern. While at Forest, she identified new market opportunities for several drugs, as well as developed market communication materials. Belinda is technically competent across multiple disciplines and has a proven ability to deliver objectives, particularly within the pharmaceutical space.


Undergraduate Institution and Degree: Pennsylvania State University, B.S. in General Science

Emily MacPhail

Emily’s professional experience has been in the pharmaceutical industry where she has become well versed in procurement through her positions at Bristol-Myers Squibb and Johnson & Johnson Pharmaceu-tical Research & Development, LLC. At Bristol-Myers Squibb, she held the role of Business Analyst and sup-ported a cross-functional project team responsible for the development of global sourcing and purchasing strategies for research and development. In the summer of 2008, she interned at Johnson & Johnson Phar-maceutical Research & Development, LLC where she supported the Global Pharma R&D Sourcing Clinical Services group. She is joining the same group full time in summer 2009.


Undergraduate Institution and Degree: Penn State University, B.S. in General Science

Ben (“Sammie”) Markham

Sammie lived in Los Angeles and worked as a bass player for three years before moving to Virginia where he worked for SAIC as a Facility Administrator and Facility Manager for three and a half years.


Undergraduate Institution and Degree:Ricks College, AAS in Accounting; Brigham Young University, BA in Media Arts



Matthew Michaux

Matthew has a background in corporate valuation which began at Duff & Phelps, where he worked exten-sively on internationally-based assignments. He has also been involved in the community, volunteering regularly at Habitat for Humanity.

MBA Concentrations: Corporate Financial Analysis and Planning,Investment Management and Portfolio Analysis

Undergraduate Institution and Degree: Penn State, Economics, Management, International Studies

Jenny Moerschbacher

Prior to coming to Smeal, Jenny was an operations manager for a large private label food company in Phoenix, Arizona. Jenny earned a bachelor’s degree in engineering policy from Lafayette College where she was also the captain of the women’s swimming team. Jenny chose to pursue her MBA at the Smeal College of Business because of the high degree of individual attention from faculty and staff and the strong sense of Penn State community. In addition to her role as MBAA VP of Corporate & Alumni Rela-tions, Jenny is also a graduate assistant in the MBA Office of Corporate & Alumni Relations and a member of the WMBA, Net Impact, and the Consulting Focus Group. After her first year at Smeal, Jenny served as a project management intern for Dell Inc. in Austin, Texas.

MBA Concentrations: Strategic Leadership, Supply Chain Management

Undergraduate Institution and Degree: Lafayette College, BA in Engineering Policy (Minor in Spanish)

Joe Molinelli

With approximately five years in the golf industry, Joe has extensive knowledge of developing and strengthening customer relationships as well as how to deal with adverse conditions through his time spent playing professionally. He has worked with the Northstar Resort as a Golf Professional where he focused on clients’ golf development, coordinated tournament logistics, managed the golf shop, and supervised the outside operations staff.

This past summer he worked for AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals as an Internal Audit intern. He was re-sponsible for analyzing a department of the company and providing financial insight and strategy solu-tions to upper-level management. He is also currently employed by Penn State as a Teaching Assistant for the undergraduate course “Analyzing Business and Industry”, which has allowed him to guide student teams through any and all decision-making processes a company might face.

MBA Concentrations: Corporate Financial Analysis and Planning, Investment Management and Portfolio Analysis

Undergraduate Institution and Degree: Penn State, Professional Golf Management, Business

Craig Musheno

After graduating from Penn State with a bachelor’s degree in Marketing, Craig worked as a B2B sales exec-utive for an automation solutions company in North Carolina. During this time, he designed solutions and managed industrial automation projects for a number of companies including Procter & Gamble, General Electric, GKN Drivelines, Honda Power Equipment and Energizer. In the summer of 2008, Craig interned in Global Services at Dell Inc. where he developed a globally scalable model to manage and resolve tech-nical support escalations.

MBA Concentrations: Product and Market Development, Strategic Management

Undergraduate Institution and Degree: Penn State University, B.S. Marketing



Paul T. Nicks

Paul began his career at Hecht’s Department Stores, a local retail company located in the Washington DC area, and demonstrated quality time-management skills as the Expense Manager of a $250M yearly vendor payment system. He was promoted to the Assistant Payroll Manager position where he gained valuable knowledge and skills in managing sensitive payroll information and developing skills on account reconciliations. In both positions Paul demonstrated unique skills of improving processes within the departments and identifying critical areas that were not in compliance with Sarbanes/Oxley legislation. After a merger by Macy’s, Paul changed companies and became the Tax Analyst of Gannett Co. Inc. where he continued to identify areas of improvement within the company. During his tenure at Penn State, Paul was the teaching assistant for the Business Communications class for the first year MBAs. Upon graduat-ing from Smeal, Paul will be employed at CIGNA in their Financial Development Program.

MBA Concentrations: Corporate Financial Analysis & Planning, Supply Chain Management

Undergraduate Institution and Degree:Indiana University (Bloomington Campus) BS in Business Administration with a concentration in Finance

David Noreen

Prior to coming to Smeal, Dave worked in sales for F5 Networks, a manufacturer of Application Deliv-ery Networking equipment; ShareBuilder Securities Corporation, where he helped launch ShareBuilder 401(k), a 100% online 401k benefits solution for small and medium sized businesses; and Expeditors International, a Seattle-based Fortune 500 transportation company. Dave graduated from Washington State University with a bachelor’s degree in business administration with concentrations in management information systems and decision sciences.

MBA Concentrations: Product and Market Development, Corporate Innovation and Entrepreneurship

Undergraduate Institution and Degree: Washington State University, B.A. in Business Administration with concentrations in Decision Sciences and Management Information Systems

Tai Parks

Tai’s combined MBA/MPH provides her with a solid foundation in both management and public health, making her a unique candidate for positions in the health care industry. Her work experience as an As-sistant Professor afforded her the opportunity to work in an administrative role overseeing hundreds of undergraduate students on a daily basis while her experience working for a non-profit organization pro-vided her with direct experience creating, marketing and implementing educational programs for minor-ity women affected by breast cancer.

MBA Concentrations: Supply Chain Management, Product & Market Development, Strategic Leadership

Undergraduate Institution and Degree: Georgetown University, BS in Health Studies

Graduate Institution and Degree: Temple University, Master’s of Public Health



Amishi Patel

Before joining Smeal, Amishi worked as a Senior Software Manager and Team Lead for eight years in companies such as Tata Consultancy Ltd.(India), Citigroup (NY) and Western Asset Management (CA). Amishi has extensive experience in working with and leading teams of software engineers that design and develop financial trading systems (Fixed Income and Futures e-Trading). Amishi interned in the corporate and investment division of PNC Bank in the summer of 2008 as an Associate Relationship Manager.

While in Smeal, Amishi had the privilege of representing Smeal in the Big Ten Case Completion, and the FEDEX Supply Chain Case competition. She was the winner of the Michael Ryan Phillips Award. She was VP of Communications for the Woman’s MBA Association and also the MBA representative in the Strate-gic Planning Committee chaired by the Dean of the business school.


Undergraduate Institution and Degree: Mumbai University, Thadomal Shahni Engineering College,BS in Engineering, Computer Engineering, Graduated with distinction and was 16th in Mumbai University

Johny Paul

Over the past nine years as a technology consultant, Johny has progressively developed into a detail-ori-ented professional with a passion for results. His peers and supervisors particularly rank him very high on his work-ethic and resilience during crisis.

Johny brings to the table a solid understanding of “lean” concepts; acquired from leading a process im-provement initiative as a Logistics Intern at Dell in India. An engineer by training, Johny began his career as a consultant with the Emerging Technologies Practice at PricewaterhouseCoopers in India and over the subsequent four and a half years grew into an expert on data-integration processes for analytical report-ing solutions. Leveraging his expertise with Business Intelligence Solutions, Johny designed and deployed a KPI-based Executive Information System that enabled enterprise-wide supply chain visibility for Hewl-ett-Packard’s global supply chain. As a senior designer with HP, he was commended by the business and IT stakeholders for his superior analytical and communication skills.


Undergraduate Institution and Degree: Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kharagpur, Bachelors in Technology (Hons)

Derrick Pena

Derrick currently is a Graduate Assistant in the Office of Undergraduate Diversity Enhancement. He over-sees the Undergraduate Business Association, the Multicultural Business Society. Prior to coming back to school to earn his MBA, he had a little under a year’s experience in the mortgage industry. He was an Implementation Manager for a lead generation company for several months where he oversaw the day to day operations of a ten person lead generation department. He personally would complete on sight education sessions on their LMS (Lead Management Systems). This training would include everything from lead distributing, tracking, and disputes. Prior to this he was a loan officer where he provided loan options for future home refinances or purchases. He established quality relationships with borrowers and bank representatives and he has experience in daily multi-tasking, working in high stress situations, defusing or fixing potential problems, and working under heavy time constraints.

MBA Concentrations: Investment Management and Portfolio Analysis,Product and Market Development, Strategic Leadership

Undergraduate Institution and Degree: California State University, Long Beach, B.S. in Marketing



Adarsh Ramesh

Adarsh has approximately five years of experience in the IT service industry where he has spent most of his time implementing projects for the retail and insurance sectors. Prior to joining Smeal he worked as a Team Lead at Symphony Services, a $1.2 billion multi-national company headquartered in Palo Alto, CA, where he was involved in the development of business intelligence tools for major retailers and CPG manufacturers. Adarsh also has rich experience in managing projects across multiple countries. He has received several awards from his previous employer for his ability to manage clients and acquire more projects for his company. Adarsh did his internship at Sears Holdings Corporation where he worked as an Inventory Management Intern. At Smeal he has served as the teaching assistant for Financial Accounting & Managerial Accounting courses.


Undergraduate Institution and Degree:Visveswaraiah Technological University, Bachelor of Engineering in Electronics and Communication

Rizwan Rashid (US Permanent Resident)

Rizwan began his career as a ‘Business Analyst’ in a leading IT company in Bangladesh where he managed a cross functional team responsible for comprehending the risk management and operating process of financial institution clients in order to integrate their requirements with the developed software. Later, he developed the skills in credit risk analysis and financial modeling after joining Arab Bangladesh Bank as a ‘Management Associate’ and enrolling in an applied graduate program in Bank Management at the same time. His first-rate financial skills in AB bank resulted in an increased return on investment from 6% to 10% out of a $20M investment. He also worked for Citibank N.A. in New York City for a short period and demonstrated superior financial knowledge in the teller line. In summer 2008, during his internship at Citibank N.A in Bangladesh, he analyzed project financing proposals and identified investment opportuni-ties that broadened Citibank’s profitability outlook in Bangladesh significantly.

MBA Concentrations: Corporate Financial Analysis and Planning, Strategic Leadership

Undergraduate Institution and Degree:North South University, Dhaka, Bangladesh, Bachelor of Science in Computer Science

Devon Ray

Devon Ray has a background in transportation and logistics with inspirations to work in international logistics. As a six sigma green belt with global logistics certification, Devon has worked with several top tier companies including Lowe’s Companies, Inc, Caterpillar Logistics, Union Pacific Railroad, and the City of Atlanta Department of Law.

At Lowe’s, Devon was able to work on an international multi-company effort that increased ocean carrier data integrity to 99% and reduced issues by 50%. She also enhanced Lowe’s ability to produce correct ETA s by ensuring transit time availability for point to point movements. Yet her most important project involved working with supply chain development and GXS to create a tool that allows for automatic e-mailing, issue tracking and historic reporting.

Using her bilingual capabilities, Devon has worked extensively with the Latin American Division of Cater-pillar Logistics to negotiate 15% cost reductions for consignees through the use of FCL rates and improved efficiency by identifying root causes for missed shipments.


Undergraduate Institution and Degree:North Carolina A&T State University degree: B.S. Transportation and logistics minor: Spanish



Jeremy R. Reeh

With 5 years of experience in sales and business development in the Ag chemical and landscape indus-tries, Jeremy has extensive knowledge of product marketing. He worked for Dow AgroSciences and McFarland Landscape Services as a sales representative in both a B2B and B2C sales roles and he was an associate scientist for the biotech company, PlantGenix. He will be commencing employment with John-son & Johnson in June 2009 as a Strategic Sourcing Manager in the Procurement Leadership Development Program (PLDP) in J&J’s Pharma R&D Operations.


Undergraduate Institution and Degree: Penn State University, B.S. Turfgrass Science

Graduate Institution and Degree: University of Pennsylvania, M.S. Biotechnology

Halima Salaam

Halima is a creative marketing professional looking to leverage over three years of marketing/sales opera-tions experience. She is highly analytical, a passionate and innovative leader, and skilled in connecting with consumer needs to drive profit and volume objectives. She is a quick learner with a penchant for driving extraordinary results, process improvement and innovation initiatives. Her other core competen-cies include: Marketing Communication Planning, Product Launches, Project Management, Segmentation, Targeting & Positioning Financial Analysis, Strategic Thinking, Analytical Skills, Account Management and Negotiation, and Relationship Building.

This past summer Halima worked as a Marketing and Strategy intern where she leveraged consumer insights to reposition and repackage flagship product’s core offering, to align more directly with consumer needs. The re-launch drove an 8% increase in sales and significantly reduced customer complaints by 15%.

Before that Halima worked as a part of the Ford marketing group for Denso Intl. Here she led the marketing operations team to design and implement a process monitoring tool that ensured task ownership and ac-countability. This new process increased order accuracy and fill rates by 25% and has since become a company best practice.


Undergraduate Institution and Degree: University of Detroit Mercy, International Business

William Sandoval

After completing his MS degree in Physics, William worked as a chemist at BASF Catalysts LLC for four years. Through this experience, he gained an intimate knowledge of the chemical industry and its cus-tomers. William started his career at BASF Catalysts as a technician involved in formulation chemistry and quickly moved on to a chemist role where he became responsible for the day-to-day operations of the Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) laboratory. By the time William left BASF Catalysts, he was fully responsible for the NMR laboratory in addition to being partially responsible for the Optical Spectroscopy laboratory. Throughout this experience, William learned to work cross-functionally between R&D and marketing in addition to coordinating teams to solve complex problems. William spent his summer intern-ship at Black & Decker where he worked in the finance function. Through this experience, he further improved his ability to work cross-functionally between departments.


Undergraduate Institution and Degree: The University of Chicago, BA, Physics

Graduate Institution and Degree: Rutgers University, MS, Physics



Eleanor Schiff

Eleanor worked in several demanding roles at The White House, U.S. Senate, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and most recently at the U.S. Department of Education. While at the Department of Education she served as the Deputy Director for the Secretary’s Commission on the Future of Higher Edu-cation. Eleanor was involved in the planning of several nation-wide meetings and authored a paper on health education for the commission. Most recently she has worked at Ben Franklin Technology Partners, CNP an economic development group for the State of Pennsylvania working with entrepreneurs on busi-ness planning, investment pitches and outreach.


Undergraduate Institution and Degree: Carleton College, BA English 1999, cum laude

Steven Sheldon

Steve began his career with UAI, Inc. as a Geographic Information Systems (GIS) Analyst. UAI specialized in Automated Mapping Facilities Management, with a focus on electric and pipeline utilities. During six years with UAI, Steve served as Project Manager and eventually became the firm’s first Regional Manager. To further his career, Steve enrolled in Penn State’s Smeal College of Business, and pursued a dual focus in the Supply Chain and Corporate Finance portfolios. After completing his first year of the MBA program, Steve interned with the Commercial Division of Mars Snackfood. At Mars, Steve worked to optimize the inbound supply pipeline for co-packing and co-manufacturing facilities, which included EDI transmissions, revamping supplier managed supply rules and evaluating costs associated with excess packaging. He con-tinued to work for Mars on a contract basis, as part of the essentials team, which purchased raw materi-als, while completing his MBA.


Undergraduate Institution and Degree:The Pennsylvania State University, Bachelor of Science in Physical/Environmental Geography

Rachna Shetty

Before returning to school for an MBA, Rachna worked as a software developer for a multinational soft-ware firm, Mastek. Having managed many cross functional teams she had the opportunity to develop as a leader and be at ease with handling teams. Rachna worked with virtual teams towards creating data warehouses for the National Health Service which is a part of the Department of Health in UK. Her team was responsible for releasing a zero-defect project which significantly increased the productivity of the system. As an MBA intern at Dell she successfully designed and implemented a lean order entry system for retail resulting in a 33% decrease in annual projected resource growth and increasing productivity by 87.5%. As a research assistant at the Institute for Study of Business Markets, she was involved in a project for Deloitte, National Association of Wholesalers and Wake Forest University to study the alignment be-tween distributors and manufacturers.


Undergraduate Institution and Degree: Mumbai University, K.J. Somaiya Institute of Engineering and Information Technology, Bachelor of Engineering, Concentration: Computer Science



Mohamed (“Anas”) Siddiqui

With three years of experience in the IT consulting environment in the customer relationship manage-ment product development arena, Mohamed Anas Siddiqui is a unique mesh of fine business acumen and strong technological expertise with unmatched analytical and problem solving skills. After completing his engineering degree with top academic honors, he started his career with India’s leading technology firm, Infosys Technologies Limited, where he anchored several challenging projects that involved present-ing creative solutions to global clients. His ability to deal with ambiguity was highlighted with a successful internship project on sustainability initiatives with Sears Holdings. Mohamed exudes an entrepreneurial spirit with his independent association with two start-up firms in India, where he successfully delivered marketing and operational strategies in his role as a consultant. His passion for presentation and creativ-ity is reflected in the numerous websites he has designed over the years, including one for the accounting department at Smeal.


Undergraduate Institution and Degree:BMS College of Engineering, Bangalore, India – Bachelor Of Engineering

Raman Deep Singh Hanjra

Raman Hanjra is a result oriented professional with distinguished performance in sales, marketing and business development in the B2B environment. Armed with new product development experience, he holds a US Patent for “Assistive Walking Device”. As a recipient of the CIBA scholarship, Raman works as a Research Scholar at the Institute for the Study of Business Markets (ISBM), a leading research center in industrial marketing. At ISBM, he initiated, launched and at present leads the ‘MBA on Call’ program where he leads teams of MBA students to help firms such as ITT, Parker Hannifin etc. address their busi-ness problems. He thrives on the challenges, rigors and complexities of starting, growing, running and fix-ing businesses. With his strong leadership and team-building skills, he has been successful in managerial positions be it in marketing of industrial equipment or software products. Honed with an MBA degree, he aspires to work in a market/product development related position for a growing organization.


Undergraduate Institution and Degree:National Institute of Technology, Kurukshetra (Mechanical Engineering)

Nicholas Soonthornchai

Nick Soonthornchai, a native of Berryville, Virginia, graduated from the University of Virginia with a degree in economics in May 2000. After graduation he began work for Morgan Stanley as a financial advi-sor. Serving three years as an advisor, Nick managed over $12 million in assets prior to resigning to start his own business in 2003.

In September 2003, Nick created Infinity Ventures Ltd., which did business under the name “Wireless Zone,” a Verizon Wireless Authorized Retailer. As owner and president, Infinity Ventures grew to a 2 loca-tion franchise with annual sales of over $.5 million dollars. In September 2006, Nick sold his franchises.

Nick is currently a 2009 Smeal MBA degree candidate with concentration in finance and marketing. Nick’s summer internship was in finance with Pfizer Pharmaceuticals in New York City. Nick accepted an offer to return to Pfizer as a member of their Finance Rotational Development Program full time upon graduation.


Undergraduate Institution and Degree: University of Virginia, Degree in Economics



Shawn Triggs, LCDR, SC, USN

Shawn is an active duty Naval Officer. He has completed sea tours as Supply Officer on a ballistic missile submarine, Primary Assistant for Logistics and Aviation Support Officer on an aircraft carrier and Staff Supply Officer for an Admiral’s staff. His duties at sea included food service management, inventory con-trol, logistics support and financial management. While on shore, he was responsible for 24 hour support for worldwide nuclear propulsion support.


Morgan Troll

With a career that consists of four years in hotel guest service directory advertising sales with R.B. Elliott Associates. Morgan has high levels of experience in customer service along with strong communica-tion skills due to the cold-calling nature of the position. Morgan also improved his communication skills during his recent internship with S & A Homes this past summer in his role as chief advisor to the vice presidents of construction and sales. This role was very influential in that Morgan was exposed to a business that was in a distinct transition period due to the ongoing downturn in the new home construc-tion market. This situation helped teach Morgan about how businesses under distress make changes to improve their future outlook.


Undergraduate Institution and Degree:Penn State University Degrees in both Pre-medicine and Psychology

Matthew Tunison

With four years as an Army Aviation Manager, Matt has an extensive background in leadership in com-plex and demanding circumstances. As an operations officer, he coordinated numerous cross-border and inter-agency missions. As a platoon leader, he managed up to 20 soldiers and the only four Chinook helicopters in Central and South America. As a logistics officer, he helped prepare a 500 soldier battalion prepare for deployment to Iraq. As an executive officer, he managed 80 soldiers and 12 aircraft.

MBA Concentrations: Product and Market Development

Undergraduate Institution and Degree: United States Military Academy at West Point

Michael Waldhier

Michael has over 10 years of experience working in Information Technology, focusing specifically in infra-structure, hardware, security, and management. He started his career as the IT systems and desktop pub-lishing manager for a large printing company where he gained vital experience in managing technology as a critical component of business performance. Following that, Michael worked as the network engineer and system administrator for a both major research center at the Penn State University and for a small non-profit adult literacy organization, designing and implementing technology to support and enhance business processes. Most recently, Michael worked with the federal government to help provide oversight of large scale IT contracts, and is currently shifting his focus from implementation to management, policy-making, and bridging the gap between technology and people / business.

Outside of work, Mike is actively involved in theater, and teaches English as a Second Language.

MBA Concentrations: Supply Chain Management, Strategic Leadership

Undergraduate Institution and Degree: Penn State University, Information Sciences and Technology



Zhongsheng (“John”) Wang

Prior to business school, Zhongsheng had nine years of work experience in the manufacturing industry. With a major in Electrical Engineering, he started his career as an engineer and later worked as a project manager and an operations manager at Wantong Industrial Equipment in Dalian, China. He has been involved in over 50 projects and accumulated rich experience in project management and supply chain management. During his work, he demonstrated strong analytical skill sets and communication skills which enabled him to work efficiently in a fast paced environment and manage multiple jobs simultane-ously. He worked as an MBA summer intern in the operations department at Cummins in 2008. His capa-bility and performance was highly valued by his supervisors and colleagues. After graduating from Penn State, he expects to contribute to an innovative and growing organization by combining his great passion, strong leadership, rich experience and enhanced analytical skills.


Undergraduate Institution and Degree: Tianjin University, Electrical Engineering

Yin (“Shane”) Xin

Shane is currently a 2nd year MBA in the Smeal program pursuing a concentration in corporate finance and investment management. In addition, Shane is also working as the economic analyst for the Nittany Lion Fund-a student managed $3.2 million equity fund.

With 4 years work experience in the financial service industry prior to his MBA, Shane has been intensive-ly exposed to the real business environment. His previous experience includes financial products devel-opment, people management and business development. To further develop his expertise and business savvy, Shane has completed the level I and level II CFA program successfully. He interned at a hedge fund firm last summer in Florida.

Shane is looking for opportunities in corporate finance in companies with presence in Asia, as he believes his expertise and experience can contribute significantly to such enterprises.

MBA Concentrations: Corporate Financial Analysis and Planning,Investment Management and Portfolio Analysis

Undergraduate Institution and Degree: Zhejiang University, Finance and Computer Science

Bo Yang

Bo Yang has an extensive background in transportation and supply chain which began at NYK (Nippon Yusen Kaisha) Logistics & Megacarrier, China. Bo performed many different roles while at NYK to include Customer Service Representative, Marketing, and Sales. She managed over 60 global accounts of some of the world renowned companies and initiated relationships with new customers by providing customer-tailored transportation and logistics solutions. At the 10th largest shipping company, she also developed a strong knowledge of carrier operations, cost control, forecasting optimization, and negotiation. Her leadership, team work, and communication skills assisted her in surpassing customer expectations and exceeding sales targets year-to-year by 20%. Bo’s past work experience and the knowledge she is obtain-ing about Supply Chain Management and Financial Analysis at Penn State would make her a valuable addition to a future employer.


Undergraduate Institution and Degree: Tianjin Foreign Studies University, Business English



Lingling (“KK”) Yuan

Lingling (KK) began her career at Jiangsu Shuangliang Boiler Co. Ltd. in China which allowed her to develop her skills in strategic thinking, team work and communications. She performed two critical roles while at Shuangliang Boiler which included Business Development Manager where she led the expansion of global business into eight new countries which resulted in total operating revenue of $10M in two years, and As-sistant to the General Manager where she communicated as a significant member on the leadership team with executives from 20 countries, she traveled to Italy, Finland, France, Sweden, and Korea for new client opportunity sourcing. In the summer of 2008, Lingling interned in Worldwide Procurement at Dell Inc. where she recommended best practices for components management for $50M incremental cost savings based on strategic competitive analysis.


Undergraduate Institution and Degree: Zhengzhou University, Bachelor of Business Administration;Fort Hays State University, Bachelor of General Studies (Concentration: Business Administration)

Jian Zhang

With eight years in the biological science research environment, Jian has extensive knowledge of Genetics and Pharmacology. He has worked at Johns Hopkins University as a research scientist for two and a half years.

This past summer, Jian gained significant exposure in the field of finance during his internship at a financial services company, MidMarket Capital Advisors, LLC, located in Philadelphia. He performed a wide variety of tasks ranging from corporate financial research for U.S. and European transactions to market analysis and evaluation of the business plans of prospective clients.


Undergraduate Institution and Degree: Nankai University, China, Biology

Xiaojun (“Aphra”) Zhang

Xiaojun “Aphra” Zhang started her career as an English lecturer at Tongji Medical University, China. This role tested her work ethic and stamina, while developing her communication and interpersonal skills. She taught three undergraduate classes of 40 and one adult evening class of 20. She further strengthened her team-building, problem-solving and leadership skills while working for Beijing University of Technol-ogy. She contributed to the successful launch of a graduate program for the School of Foreign Languages by initiating and instructing a new graduate course. She also managed a pilot program to explore new instructional methods and enhanced the effectiveness of faculty-student communication by promoting an on-going feedback mechanism. While MBA training equipped her with all the hard and soft skills necessary to become successful in the business world, her 2008 summer internship with TechSource International LLC taught her to translate those skills towards business problems, especially in financial data analysis and financial model building.


Undergraduate Institution and Degree: Hubei University, BA in English Language Literature and Education

Graduate Institution and Degree: Tsinghua University, MA in Linguistics



Daniel Zoller

With over 15 years in the manufacturing and service environment, Daniel has extensive knowledge and experience in turnaround management of under-performing operations in functional areas of engineer-ing, technical service, sales and marketing. He is an experienced leader with proven experience in logis-tics, distribution networks, P&L and budget responsibility, key account management, product manage-ment, B-to-B marketing and competitor analysis.

Daniel has a background in mechanical and textile engineering which began at Sulzer and progressed to technical service, sales and marketing.

Daniel began his career at Sulzer in Switzerland and moved shortly afterwards to the United States for Sulzer. He then worked for German subsidiaries and applied his project management, marketing and team skills in different management positions. Consequently, he implemented comprehensive engineer-ing procedures, modified inventory handling, researched and approved domestic and international ven-dors, investigated competitor products and strengthened product portfolios, which resulted in increased efficiency, revenue and profitability.

MBA Concentrations: Product & Market Development, Supply Chain Management

Undergraduate Institution and Degree: University of Applied Science, Switzerland,Bachelor of Science in Mechanical & Textile Engineering

Documents

Penn State Smeal College of Business | MBA Class of … State Smeal College of Business | MBA Class of 2009 Directory Smeal MBA Career Services: (814) 863-0474, [email protected] 2 Smeal