1970s
John Heyman (A&S ’74, MBA ’76) and his wife, Kathy, recently visited New Orleans, where they met with members of the intercollegiate athletic department and the Freeman School’s accounting department. Heyman now lives in West Palm Beach, Florida, and last year retired after a 38-year career in public accounting. That career included serving as a Professional Accounting Fellow at the Securities and Exchange Commission, serving as the national SEC practice director of BDO, LLP, and running his own boutique firm that advised companies and accounting firms on SEC reporting. During this time
he served on two FASB task forces and the AIC PA SEC Regulations Committee. Heyman has now taken over the management of the family investment entities. In addition, he has maintained his interest in golf and now serves as a volunteer tournament rules official for the Florida State Golf Association.
Mark Bostick (A&S ’76, MBA ’77) was reappointed by Florida Governor Rick Scott to the Board of Trustees of Florida Polytechnic
University. Bostick is president of Comcar Industries, one of the nation’s leading ground transportation companies.
1980s
Lorna Donatone (BSM ’80), CEO of Schools Worldwide for Sodexo, has been tapped to lead Sodexo North America. As region chair of North America, Donatone assumes the duties previously held by Sodexo North America President and CEO George Chavel, who retired in December 2015. She also continues to serve as CEO of Schools Worldwide. A member of the Tulane University Business School Council, Donatone joined Sodexo in 1999 and has held several key leadership roles in the company, including president, Spirit Cruises; president, Schools Division; and most recently, president and COO, Sodexo Education. “Lorna is one of the most able and accomplished executives I’ve had the pleasure of working with,” said Ira Solomon, dean of the Freeman School. “I’m delighted to see her take on this exciting new role as Sodexo’s North America chair.” A board member of the National Restaurant Association since 2005, Donatone currently serves as vice chair and trustee of the National Restaurant Association Educational Foundation. She is past chair of the board of directors of the Women’s Foodservice Forum and is a member of the board of trustees for the Culinary Institute of America. She previously served on the board of Entertainment Cruises and was most recently elected to the board of Jamba Juice Inc. Donatone began her career in public accounting with Deloitte & Touche in Dallas and has worked in the airline, banking and high-tech industries. She has a Bachelor of Science in Management from Tulane University and an MBA from Texas Christian University.
Carla Moradi (MBA/MPH ’89) has joined Hub International Ltd. as executive vice president of operations and technology. Moradi will lead the implementation of strategic enterprise-wide customer technologies and operations for the company, a leading global insurance brokerage. Prior to joining Hub, Moradi served as group vice president and CIO at Walgreens Boots Alliance, where she was responsible for IT infrastructure, architecture, security and technology field operations.
1990s
Peggy A. Babin (MBA ’92), who recently retired from Tulane University after a 17-year career as associate dean for external relations at the A. B. Freeman School of Business, has joined the New York-based venture capital firm Valmiki Capital Management as president and CEO of Valmiki 504, a newly formed subsidiary established to bring world class investing expertise and connections to the New Orleans startup ecosystem. The firm has already made investing commitments to six local companies and is expected to announce a number of joint ventures with local academia, incubators and business organizations in the coming months.
“Our investment model is a little different from most venture capital firms,” Babin says. “We’ve created a structure of industry experts to thoroughly vet each opportunity, sometimes as long as over a 12- to 24-month period prior to investing, and those experts continue to work with the companies as consultants and advisors following our investments. So while most venture capital-backed startups have a success rate of only 10-25 percent, we feel that our model de-risks the early-stage risk in investing and substantially improves the success rate.”
The firm is currently in the process of launching two venture capital funds. Valmiki Bayou Partners I, a $15 million fund, will focus on seed-stage funding in Louisiana start-ups, while Valmiki Bayou Partners II, a $50 million fund, will invest in the later stages of the Louisiana companies as well as offer local investors the opportunity to invest in Valmiki’s global ventures.
“Raising $65 million for VC in New Orleans is a lot, but because of our model and because investors are seeking to diversify their portfolios for a higher return than the current market offers, the timing is right,” Babin says. “And as I like to tell our potential investors, we didn’t enter the New Orleans market to be a charity for the entrepreneurial ecosystem. We entered it to make money for ourselves and our investors, and we believe there are terrific opportunities here.”
Babin isn’t the only Valmiki employee with Tulane roots. The company was founded in 2008 by Ravi Suria (MBA ’95), who built a reputation as one of the most respected analysts and investment managers in New York through his work at Lehman Brothers, Duquesne Capital and Moore Capital Management. Valmiki 504’s board of directors includes James W. McFarland, professor of management science and former dean of the Freeman School, and the advisory boards of the funds include Freeman alums Eric Handler (MBA ’95), media analyst at MKM New York, and Motez Bishara (MBA ’95), former portfolio manager for the Kuwait Sovereign Wealth Fund. Babin has also hired a number of interns from the Freeman School.
“Ravi and I both know and love the Freeman School and the amazing talent it brings to New Orleans,” she says. “We’re looking forward to tapping into that incredible resource.”
David Becker (BSM ’94) is managing director of the equities division of Time Equities, a full-service real estate firm involved in the acquisition, development, conversion and management of commercial and residential properties throughout the U.S. and in Canada, France, Germany, the Netherlands and the British Virgin Islands. Becker oversees the firm’s opportunity fund, which has raised over $100 million
in the last two years to help the company expand its global footprint.
Roger Jenkins (MBA ’94) has been appointed to the board of directors of the LSU Foundation. The foundation supports LSU in its quest to enhance the student experience, support research, provide working capital to recruit and retain faculty and staff, and drive economic development. Jenkins, who earned his undergraduate degree in petroleum engineering from LSU , is president and CEO of Murphy Oil Corp.
Ryan Ackerman (BSM ’98) is a partner in the Ackerman Group, a real estate firm that earned the highest closed residential sales volume among all agents in Sarasota County, Florida, for 2015. The company has also ranked as the No. 1 real estate group in southwest Florida for the past three years. Prior to joining the company, he served as vice president at CBRE Inc., the world’s largest commercial real estate firm.
Andrew Friedman (BSM ’99) is director of baseball operations for the Los Angeles Dodgers.
2000s
Robert Aikman (BSM ’00) is a managing principal with Odyssey Investment Partners, a private equity company headquartered in New York that specializes in transforming and accelerating the growth of middle market companies, with an emphasis on industrial services and business services. Prior to joining Odyssey, Aikman worked for private equity clients in the financial sponsors group at UBS Warburg.
Robert McNally (MBA ’00) has been appointed senior vice president and chief financial officer of EQT Corp. McNally was also
appointed as SVP and CFO of EQT Midstream Partners and EQT GP Holdings. Prior to joining EQT, McNally served as executive vice president and chief financial officer of Precision Drilling Corp., a Calgary-based oil and natural gas contract drilling, completions and production services provider. Before that, he spent time with firms including Kenda Capital, Warrior Energy Services Corp., Simmons & Co. and Schlumberger.
Anne Kelligrew St. Clair (MBA ’01) has joined Wilmington Trust as Private Banking team leader in the company’s Wealth Advisory office in Iselin, New Jersey. St. Clair provides strategic advice, personalized service, and access to banking and lending solutions for high-net-worth clients throughout the Northeast. Prior to joining Wilmington Trust, St. Clair spent three years with Wells Fargo Private Bank as a senior private banker and 13 years with U.S. Trust as a senior private client manager. Earlier in her career, she served as an equity research statistician with Banc of America Securities and a fixed income
analyst with Lehman Brothers.
Maile Gradison Hermida (BSM ’04) was elevated to partner with the global law firm Hogan Lovells in Washington, D.C. Maile represents the food industry on regulatory matters.
Michael Thomas (BSM ’05) has been promoted to managing director of Colliers International Group, where he focuses on tenant representation for TAMI companies along with select landlord agency assignments in New York. Thomas joined the company’s New York office in 2005 and previously served as director.
Kristin McDermott Woodrum (MBA/JD ’05) has been elected to partnership at the law firm BakerHostetler. Woodrum is a member of the Business Group in the firm’s Atlanta office, where she practices in the area of healthcare law, advising healthcare systems, providers and companies in regulatory and compliance matters. Additionally, she structures complex healthcare transactions, including acquisitions, joint ventures and other strategic affiliations.
Graham Haskell (BSM ’06) has been named director of human resources at Lantern Hill, a new Erickson Living retirement community in New
Providence, New Jersey. Haskell oversees all aspects of the human resources department and directs daily activities. Prior to joining Lantern Hill, he served as senior client service associate for TriNet.
Ben Sullivan (BSM ’06) recently moved to Austin, Texas, to establish the first Texas branch office of Palisades Hudson Financial Group, a fee-only wealth management and financial planning firm.
2010s
Rich Page (MBA/JD ’10) co-authored an article for Bloomberg BNA titled “How Can a Renewable Energy Plant Be Sold For a Capital Gain as Opposed to an
Ordinary Gain?” The article analyzes how taxpayers can plan strategically in pursuit of favorable capital gains tax treatment. Page is a tax attorney in the New York office of the law firm Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld.
Brandon Iglesias (MBA ’11, MFIN ’11) is founder of Reactwell, which recently established a new office on the West Coast. Reactwell was recently awarded a patent for a technology to convert wet air and solar photons into a specialty chemical using a single-step process. The company plans to use the technology to participate in carbon offset and credit markets.
David Pruner (MFIN ’16) has joined executive search and leadership consulting firm Heidrick & Struggles as a partner in its Houston office. Pruner will provide expertise in oil, gas and power as part of the firm’s Industrial Practice. Prior to joining the company, Pruner served as a senior vice president at Wood Mackenzie, a global research and strategic advisory firm specializing in the energy, chemicals, metals and mining industries.
