Class Notes
New job? Promotion? Your classmates and colleagues want to know. Send your updates for Class Notes to mgt-editor@buffalo.edu.
Individuals are listed according to the year of their most recent School of Management degree.
Class Years
Alan DuBrow, MBA ’73, was named director of federal business development for Contegix, a leading provider of managed application solutions and DevOps consulting services.
Lemma Senbet, PhD ’76—who serves on Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s Independent Council of Economic Advisors in his native Ethiopia—was awarded the Ethiopian Crown’s Victory of Adwa Medal. Senbet, the William E. Mayer Chair Professor of Finance at the University of Maryland, College Park, was also elected a fellow of the Academy of International Business.
Mel Passarelli, MBA ’80, partner at Arete Advisory Board Partners, was appointed to the board of directors for 3AM Innovations. In addition, he was named vice chair of the board and an investment committee member by Launch NY.
Paul W. Evans Jr., BS ’86, CPA, was promoted to chief operating officer at Uniland Development Co.
Heather Osgood, BS ’87, was named director of graduate academic operations at Delaware Valley University.
Jim Rizzo, BS ’90, CPA, was promoted to vice president at National Fuel, responsible for tax, purchasing and accounts payable.
Robin Jubulis, MBA ’95, was promoted to vice president of human resources at Lactalis American Group.
Tyler Ricks, MBA ’96, was named president of Super Coffee, a bottled beverage brand available in more than 40,000 stores nationwide.
John Sexton, MBA ’96, was promoted to senior vice president at M&T Bank.
Donald Boyd, MBA '97, was promoted to president and CEO of Kaledia Health, Western New York's largest health system.
John G. Mangan, MBA ’99, was named senior vice president, commercial real estate executive and mid-Atlantic president at Five Star Bank. He and fellow alumnus Kevin Quinn, MBA ’95, chief commercial banking officer, have teamed up to open a loan production office in Baltimore.
Brian McCallion, BS ’01, CPA, was inducted into the Dr. and Mrs. Edmund J. Gicewicz Family UB Athletics Hall of Fame. McCallion, who played soccer at UB, serves as vice president and managing director of the Controllers Division at Goldman Sachs in Salt Lake City.
Gregg W. Moore, BS ’02, was promoted to senior vice president and business and professional banking team leader at M&T Bank.
Alumni Spotlight: A fierce trailblazer
As vice president of commercial and channel sales at Cybereason, Abigail Maines, BS ’97, MBA ’99, helps organizations defend themselves from malicious computer attacks.
It’s her latest role in a tech career she built in the Silicon Hills of Austin, through gigs at such firms as Dell, Absolute Software and Cylance.
She also is the co-founder of Females in Every Role Change Everything (FIERCE), an organization dedicated to accelerating the success of women in business, government and academia for the betterment of themselves, their families, their communities and the world. Maines says FIERCE is a direct response to the headwinds she faced as a woman in business—particularly in cybersecurity, where just one in four employees is female.
“Our experience has been that to be successful, you have to be aware that it’s going to be much more difficult as a female than a male in certain scenarios,” she says. “We have chosen to take action on that, point out it exists, and provide content, information, networking and peer-group connections to help accelerate folks through the process.”
Through FIERCE, Maines is helping prepare the next generation of women to join her on the digital battlefield.
“The response has been so positive since we launched,” she says. “It feels like there was a lot of pent-up demand to get this group interconnected and get the power moving.”
Alumni Spotlight: A distinguished couple
At its 75th anniversary celebration, Hillel of Buffalo honored Steven, BS ’87, MBA ’88, and Ellen Weiss, MBA ’92, with the Distinguished Alumni Award.
A founding partner of Cannon Heyman & Weiss LLP, Steven concentrates his practice on affordable housing and community development law and corporate finance transactions. Meanwhile, Ellen is a certified integrative health coach who helps clients become happier and healthier through her work with the Jewish Community Center (JCC) of Buffalo, Stressmaster International and other organizations.
The Weisses have been highly involved in Buffalo’s Jewish community for years. Steven is a past president of the Buffalo Jewish Federation, as well as a former board member for the JCC, Temple Beth Zion and Hillel of Buffalo. Ellen serves as secretary on the Buffalo Jewish Federation board. At this winter’s International Lion of Judah Conference, she will receive the prestigious Kipnis-Wilson/Friedland Award in recognition of her leadership and philanthropy.
James Welch, MBA ’02, was promoted to vice president of Midstream at National Fuel, responsible for day-to-day management, strategic planning and operations.
Jill Hewitt, BS ’07, was promoted to commercial lines portfolio underwriter at the Hanover Insurance Group.
Norman McCulloch Jr., MD/MBA ’07, was named medical director, advanced wound care and hyperbaric medicine at Northeast Georgia Health System.
Min Zheng, MBA ’08, CPA, was promoted to senior director of global audit and advisory at TransUnion.
Erica Kuntz, MSW/MBA ’11, was promoted to director of clinical operations and electronic medical records at Child and Family Services of Erie County.
Akruti Babaria, BS ’05, MBA ’12, was chosen from more than 18,000 applicants to win a $50,000 small business grant from FedEx for her business, Kulture Khazana.
Nate Carbrey, BS/MBA ’12, CPA, was named controller at Tackle.io.
Joel Cropp, MBA ’12, was named client success manager at Included Health, a health care company delivering integrated virtual care and navigation.
Jasmeet Singh Gujral, MS ’12, was named senior product manager at OKX, a leading cryptocurrency exchange.
Shannon L. MacCallum, EMBA ’12, was promoted to scientific department administrator at Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center.
Alan Rosenhoch, PMBA ’12, was promoted to managing director of Endeavor Western New York, which supports high-impact entrepreneurs at the scale-up stage.
Angelo Argentieri, BS ’14, co-founded and serves as CEO of AKA Search Group, an executive search firm.
Errick Cholewa, PMBA ’14, was promoted to supply chain manager at Niacet, a leading producer of organic salts, serving a variety of industries.
Joe Ray, BS ’14, joined Lighthouse Technology Services as marketing manager.
Matthew Beck, MBA ’15, was promoted to manager of managed care contracting at Kaleida Health.
Mike Cardus, CEL ’15, joined Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center as an organizational development specialist.
Jason Daniels, JD/MBA ’15, was promoted to senior associate general counsel, physician enterprise and corporate operations at Catholic Health.
Alexa Grossman, BS ’14, MS ’15, was promoted to director at Atlas Search, an executive recruiting firm.
Xuefei (Nancy) Li-Leikam, MBA ’15, was promoted to vice president at Citibank.
Kenneth Martin, EMBA ’15, was promoted to system director of laboratory services at Catholic Health.
Heather Montague, BS ’02, EMBA ’15, was promoted to senior associate vice president for budget and financial planning at Stony Brook University.
Michael Nugent, EMBA ’15, was promoted to vice president of merchandising at Tops Markets.
Sean Butler, BS ’16, was named a consultant at Capco, a global technology and management consultancy.
Gina Calorico, PMBA ’16, was promoted to senior manager of vendor compliance at New Era Cap Co.
Bryana DiFonzo, PMBA ’16, joined the New Economy Coalition as organizational resilience director.
Kathryn Gorman, BS ’16, was named accounting manager at Circuit Clinical, a startup that connects patients to clinical trials.
Siddharth Khandelwal, BS ’16, was promoted to sales team lead – Asia-Pacific at Chargebee, a billing and subscription management tool.
Varun Suri, MBA ’16, was named director of growth and expansion for the Middle East/North Africa region at PivotRoots, a global digital agency.
Valerie Andujar, BS ’17, was appointed technical account manager for Google Cloud at Google.
Charu Bhadouria, MBA ’16, MS ’17, was promoted to senior manager, commercial rating and underwriting at American Express.
Molly Booi, BS ’16, MS ’17, CPA, supervising senior accountant at Tronconi Segarra & Associates, was named to Buffalo Business First’s 30 Under 30 list for 2022.
Matthew Orszewski, BS ’15, MBA ’17, was named manager – technology, Salesforce at Accenture.
Jacob Schupbach, BS ’17, was named social media lead at Snapchat.
Natalie Sleap-Wasieczko, BS ’17, diversity, equity and inclusion program coordinator at Erie County Medical Center Corp., was named to Buffalo Business First’s 30 Under 30 list for 2022.
Justin Ninivaggi, BS ’18, was promoted to coordinator of stadium operations for the New York Yankees.
Joseph Ricciardi, BS/MBA ’18, was named strategic initiatives program manager at Trane Technologies.
Kendra Brim, PMBA ’19, was named senior diversity and inclusion partner at Tesla. In addition, she was honored with an IDEA (Inclusion Diversity Equity Awareness) Award from Buffalo Business First.
Ryan Dunn, EMBA ’19, was promoted to assistant controller at Distinguished Programs, a national insurance program manager.
Roshan Jain, MS ’19, joined Amazon Web Services as a business intelligence engineer.
Mohit Sinha, MS ’19, was promoted to manager at Deloitte.
Hannah Taggart, BS ’19, joined KeyBank as a digital product manager on the Money Movement team.
Matt Bartone, BS Engineering/MBA ’20, was promoted to demand planner at Rich Products Corp.
Victor Burdukov BS ‘16, JD/MBA ’20, was promoted to legal counsel – supply chain contracts manager at Moog.
Steven Didas, MBA ’20, was named brand manager of innovation for the Bountiful Co., part of Nestlé Health Science.
Stephanie Tisdale, PMBA ’20, was promoted to senior vice president and strategic initiatives expert on M&T Bank’s commercial and industrial segment team.
Shania Chen, BS ’21, was named account development representative at MuleSoft, a Salesforce company.
Sonya A. Tareke, BS ’17, MBA ’21, was named to Buffalo Business First’s 30 Under 30 list for 2022. Tareke serves as program manager at EforAll, and co-founder of Team Real Talk Inc.
Shubhankar Dey, MS ’22, joined Deloitte as manager – financial services risk advisory and consulting.