News, Notes, and Nods: Undergraduates
1985
Gerry McCarthy ’85 has joined CBIZ, the nation’s 10th-largest accounting and tax provider, as a tax managing director working out of the Boston and Providence, Rhode Island, offices. “With more than 35 years of experience, Gerry has a depth of knowledge and specialized expertise in serving multinational companies in a wide range of insurance and asset management market segments that will enhance and expand the services we provide to our business community,” according to a CBIZ press release.
1992
Kelly Konsul ’92 has been appointed to the Columbia-Greene Community College Board of Trustees in Catskill, New York. Konsul, whose term extends to 2027, began her career in education working for Miller Middle School in Lake Katrine, New York. Since 2007, she has served as a school counselor at Catskill Senior High School and has numerous certifications, including Identifying and Reporting Child Abuse and SAVE (Safe Schools Against Violence in Education). “Volunteering in my community has always been important to me, and I am honored to be appointed to the C-GCC Board of Trustees,” Konsul says. “As a school counselor, I work with high school students as they develop their post-high school plans. I believe this perspective will be valuable to the Board of Trustees and the administration of C-GCC. I hope to be able to share my insights with leadership to affect the future growth of the college.”
1997
Jeremy Weiner ’97 and his son, Jacob, spent some time on the tennis court last summer with Babson President Stephen Spinelli Jr. MBA’92, PhD. He writes: “There is no better way to thank your friend and mentor Steve Spinelli than hooking him up with a private lesson with your son, the 2035 Wimbledon champ.”
2000
A group of friends from the Class of 2000 gathered August 21 to celebrate their 20th class reunion, which was delayed because of COVID-19. The group included (from left) Jeff DelPapa ’00, Michael Palumbo ’00, Wendy Liebowitz ’01, Derick Jaindl ’00, Eric Newmark ’00, host Yan Katz ’00, Linda Pizzuti Henry ’00, H’19, and Adam Koncius ’00.
2001
Wendy Liebowitz ’01 celebrated her 20-year service anniversary at Fidelity Investments. She started at Fidelity as a college intern in 1999 and transitioned to full time after graduation. Liebowitz also has an MBA from the University of Florida and is a certified financial planner. She has been the vice president and branch leader at Fidelity in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, since 2008. Liebowitz is married to Derick Jaindl ’00, the chief financial officer for MobileHelp.
2003
David Oksman ’03 was promoted to vice president of marketing and ecommerce for Samsonite, where he drives a portfolio of brands that includes Samsonite, American Tourister, ebags, Hartmann, and
High Sierra.
2007
Cameron McKenzie ’07, MBA’12, founder of the Puerto Rican financial services firm McKenzie & Associates, LLC, has been appointed president-elect of the Puerto Rico Chamber of Commerce. “For me, this represents an opportunity of a lifetime,” McKenzie says. “I feel honored and humbled to receive such trust and recognition from my peers and am confident that I will continue to move the chamber in the right direction and improve the foundation that has been laid throughout the generations before me.”
2010
Teddy Droseros ’10 founded a nonprofit called Grateful Peoples. “Our focus is simple: Bring a daily gratitude practice to classroom curriculum,” he says. “I designed a Gratitude Journal, and an awesome community has helped donate over 18,000 copies to schools across the U.S. and Canada. … I also just finished a five-year ‘public gratitude journal’ project, where I collected over 75,000 anonymous, handwritten grateful messages from strangers around the country and turned it into a coffee-table book!”
2013
Jessica Lynch ’13, MS’13, MBA’18 writes that her startup, Wishroute, a next-generation SMS platform that increases user engagement and conversion through motivating human conversations, has been accepted into the highly selective Roux Institute Techstars Accelerator. “The accelerator is working with 10 startups focused on building expertise at the intersection of humans and machines in areas that will revolutionize how we live and work, including AI, life sciences and health, and data and analytics.”
Brianna “Breezy” DiPietro ’13 published her first book, 30: Reflections of Resilience, Growth, and an Age No Longer Feared. Her father was killed by an act of gun violence when he was 30. In this creative memoir, DiPietro recounts her experience growing through that loss, and shares the stories of other trauma survivors and leading gun sense advocates. Though gun sense and her burgeoning volunteer work play a major role in the book, her focus is on shared human experience, good and bad, and the unmatched potential of someone who is supported, no matter what.
Michael Gray ’13 and Bonnie Leung ’13 were married in May. “We lived in the same building freshman year and met on move-in day,” Gray writes. “Twelve years later, we finally tied the knot, with some of our best Babson friends in attendance (and many more on Zoom).”
2014
Brad Bero ’14 married Carly Shumrick on September 4, 2021, in Cincinnati, Ohio. He writes, “Fun fact: It was one of those long engagements, where we pushed the wedding an entire year due to COVID!” The group included (from left) the groom’s father, Bret Bero P’14, a lecturer in the Management Division; Amir Ketabi ’14; Sam Byrne ’14; Jhonatan Guerra ’14; Alex Tynell ’14; John Bummara ’14; bride Carly Shumrick; groom Brad Bero ’14; Andrew Darling ’14; Jeff Stout ’14; Dara Behjat ’15; Matthew Brown ’15; and Evan Paskalis.
Kyle Gietzen ’14 and Rachel (Secrist) Gietzen ’15 were married on July 9, 2021, at Chatham Bars Inn on Cape Cod, Massachusetts. “Thirty Babson alumni were in attendance to celebrate our special day,” they wrote. “This group means everything to us, and we are so thankful for their love and support.”
2016
Alex Min ’16 leads marketing for a fully remote startup that developed a crypto wallet called Liquality. The company recently raised $7 million from notable venture capitalists in the crypto industry, including Hashed, Galaxy Digital, White Star Capital, Accomplice, Coinbase Ventures, Alameda Research, and more. The funding round received press from Axios, The Block, Blockworks, CoinDesk, Crowdfund Insider, Forbes, TradedVC, and Yahoo! Finance.
Sarah-Lizz Myers ’16 had a poem published in the July 2021 issue of Kaleidoscope: Exploring the Experience of Disability through Literature and the Fine Arts. Myers’ poem, “Robotic Pancreas,” appears in Issue 83, “Global Perspectives.” The work was selected from more than 400 submissions considered for publication. Myers is a poet and MFA student at Vermont College of Fine Arts. Nature, mythological themes, and Type 1 diabetes often are the subjects of her work. “Poetry allows me to help others with Type 1 diabetes and other medical complications know they are not alone in the fight to live,” she says. She also has recently finished her first chapter book, Hanging Flowers.
2017
Teresa Wolf ’17 writes that she recently has been promoted to team lead for product and technology strategy at HubSpot.
2018
Ryan Lupberger ’18, CEO of Cleancult, was honored by World Biz magazine with a Top 100 Innovation CEO Award.
2019
David Zamarin ’19 was recognized by Worcester Business Journal’s 40 Under 40 awards for his role as founder and chief executive officer of DetraPel. The company, based in Framingham, Massachusetts, traditionally has made protective sprays for furniture, clothing, and shoes. During the COVID-19 pandemic, DetraPel pivoted to disinfectant, a move that meant repurposing the manufacturing line and making a significant capital investment in machinery. Zamarin is “truly entrepreneurial. His ability to retool an entire line overnight is the embodiment of the action-oriented approach we teach at Babson,” says Ian Lapp, former undergraduate dean at Babson.
2020
Wes Woodson ’20 published his first book, I Have Anxiety (So What?), in May and followed with a national speaking tour. He writes, “I Have Anxiety (So What?) empowers readers to own their anxiety and other mental health challenges unapologetically through self-reflection and self-acceptance.” Woodson also was awarded contracts to travel the country speaking on mental health advocacy and teaching the power of storytelling. Follow his journey at weswoodson.com.
MORE NEWS, NOTES, AND NODS FROM THE WINTER 2021–2022 ISSUE:
Graduates » In Memoriam »
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