Class Notes

Three years after graduating Jimmy Calano (Mktg) co-founded CareerTrack, a company that revolutionized the professional development training industry. Under Jimmy’s leadership, the company grew from a start-up to a nationally recognized corporation. After great success in the corporate sector, Jimmy sold his company and shifted his focus to the community. His involvement has aided several community projects and organizations, including United Way of Boulder, the CU Foundation, the Dairy Center of the Arts and the CU-Boulder Alumni Association. He was awarded this year’s George Norlin Award for his service and will be recognized at the Alumni Association’s annual awards ceremony in the University Memorial Center Oct. 15 during Homecoming Weekend.

Craig Clark (CivEngr) served as a charter member for the installation of a new chapter of the Phi Kappa Phi honor society at Alfred State College. He serves as the dean of the school of applied technology. Phi Kappa Phi is the nation’s oldest academic society honoring all academic disciplines. Craig lives in Alfred, N.Y.

Barron’s magazine ranked James Moore (Fin) among the top financial advisors for 2015. He works as a managing director of investments for the Clayton, Mo., Wells Fargo branch and was ranked 12th in the state of Missouri. James, who has 36 years of experience in the brokerage industry, lives in St. Louis with his wife and five children.

President Barack Obama nominated Gayle Smith (Engl) this spring as administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). Of her work, the President said, “I’ve worked closely with Gayle for nearly a decade, and for the past six years Gayle has served as a senior leader on international development, humanitarian crisis response and democracy issues on my National Security Council staff.” Since 2009, Gayle has served as special assistant to the President and senior director for development and democracy on the National Security Council staff, where she is responsible for global development, democracy and humanitarian assistance issues.

Attorney Sharon Caulfield (Anth; Law’82) joined Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck’s health care group as a shareholder this spring. She advises many types of health-care providers and senior services organizations in regulatory compliance, operational effectiveness and good employment practices. She was named a top health-care attorney by 5280 magazine and has been listed as Best Lawyers “Best Lawyer in America” for nearly a decade. She lives in Boulder.

Scott Thompson (Econ) was part of an investment group that purchased the Beverly Hills Country Club. The group will invest an additional $10 million to restore the club as one of the premier athletic and fitness clubs in Los Angeles. Scott is a real estate investor and transactional attorney in Westlake Village, Calif. Both of his children, Hailey Thompson (Mktg’09) and Nathaniel Thompson (Fin’12), are CU graduates also.

Attorney John Lund (Econ) has joined law firm Parsons Behle & Latimer’s Salt Lake City office. John has more than 30 years of experience as a trial attorney. His practice focuses on commercial litigation and trial work in the Intermountain West. John is admitted to the Utah, Wyoming and Colorado State Bars.

Former CU-Boulder Alumni Association board member Jenny L. Herring (Jour) joined the Broomfield, Colo., office of investment advisory firm Wilshire Associates. She has had a career in public relations, marketing and writing for financial services companies and is now part of Wilshire Consulting’s business development team. Her 2014 article “Remembering Jamestown” was published in the Forever Buffs Insider e-newsletter.

Ever thought about dropping everything and traveling the country? When Penny Roushar Jansen (Mgmt) and her husband retired, they decided to do just that — on a bike, for a year. After eight months and more than 6,000 miles, Penny wrote about some of their adventures in the Wall Street Journal, advising other adventure-seekers to “look beyond your fears.” Penny, a mother of three, also blogged about her adventures at www.cycle4retirement.com.

Tax attorney Susan Seabrook (Hist) joined Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney’s Washington, D.C., office. She previously worked as a trial attorney for the IRS and as an attorney advisor in the National Office of Chief Counsel. She is a three-time recipient of the IRS’s Special Act Award, once for significant issue litigation and twice for her superior performance.

Wendy M. Kent (EnvCon) joined Portland, Ore., law firm Bodyfelt Mount LLP this spring as partner. Wendy’s practice emphasizes employment, professional malpractice and personal injury defense. She previously worked for nearly a decade as managing attorney and lead trial attorney for Zurich North America Insurance Company in Portland. She has more than 25 years of trial experience handling civil claims in Oregon, Utah and Washington.

After writing a paper for CU’s College of Music on Beethoven, Geary Larrick’s (DMus) piece was placed in the archive collection in the library at the Beethoven-Haus in Bonn, Germany, Beethoven’s hometown. The paper was originally published in the journal of the National Association of College Wind and Percussion Instructors. It can also be found in the collection in the University of Colorado Music Library.

Northbrook, Ill.-based TotalLink2 Community appointed David Wolf (Hist) director of development. The nonprofit helps the developmentally disabled. In his role, David writes grants, reaches out to donors, creates and manages the organization’s donor database and secures gifts from individuals, foundations and corporations.

After working several decades in real estate in New York City, Colin Rath (Econ) published a book about his experiences entitled It Is What It Is: A True Manhattan Real Estate Nightmare with a Silver Lining. This year Colin and his family traveled the world on their sailboat Persevere and raced in major regattas. Find him at www.colinrath.com.

Keith Villa (MCDBio), founder and head brewmaster of Blue Moon Brewing Company, was named the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce of Metro Denver’s 2015 Businessman of the Year. The Arvada, Colo., resident’s family includes several Forever Buffs: wife Jodi Nelson Villa (ArchEngr’86), mom Mercedes Wheeler (Nurs’88) and daughters Catherine Villa (MechEngr’16) and Marie Villa (Bus’19).

Make Yourself Indispensable, Darren McKnight’s (PhDAero) fifth book, is a practical guide to career success. He provides insights about core aspects of being indispensable: Effective communication skills, taking a strategic view to success and a passion for learning. Darren, who is technical director for Integrity Applications Inc., lives in Centreville, Va.

After the $44 billion merger of the French and Swiss cement-supplying giants Lafarge and Holcim, Eric Olsen (Fin) was named CEO. Eric had been with Lafarge since 1999, holding several positions in the company’s North American operations. Originally from Chicago, Eric became a joint U.S-French citizen last year after more than a decade in France.

Holliday Fenoglio Fowler LP hired Scott Bales (Econ) as a managing director in its San Francisco office. He focuses on multi-housing investment sale transactions in Northern California. Scott has more than 25 years of experience in the commercial real estate industry and has closed more than $2 billion in transactions encompassing more than 5,000 multi-housing unit deals.

Jeanette Meyer (MBA) of Meyer and Associates at Remax Alliance ranked in the top 10 percent of the 902 realtors in Colorado’s Larimer County last year. Jeanette is in her 14th year as a residential realtor in Northern Colorado.

After retiring from Microsoft in February, Louis Flint Ceci (MCompSci) plans to write more stories and novels about the residents of Croy, Okla., a fictional town in the south-central part of that state and the setting of his 2008 novel Comfort Me. At Microsoft, Louis served as a senior software engineer and worked on Skype for Android, specializing in adapting the user interface for use by the visually impaired.