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CLASS NOTES COLUMBIA COLLEGE TODAY
Cathy Webster ’87 (left), with her children, Meredith and Thayer, spent
time in Paris this past summer with Ilene Weinstein Lederman ’87 and
her children, Hannah and Max. Their family trips overlapped so they
met in the Luxembourg Gardens and shared a wonderful afternoon.
star students at Manhasset H.S., I’m
also most proud of my wife, Dana,
now an assistant registrar at Teachers
College.
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Jon White
16 South Ct.
Port Washington, NY 11050
jw@whitecoffee.com
Denis Searby is contracted as the
visiting professor in ancient Greek
at Uppsala University for three
years, ending in June, when he
returns to Stockholm. “I am running
an EU project called Sharing
Ancient Wisdoms (Greek-Arabic)
in Uppsala, King’s College London
and Vienna, Austria. The third
volume of my translation of The
Revelations of St. Birgitta of Sweden is
being issued by Oxford University
Press in December. What else? Yeah,
I am ‘chairman’ (probably being the
only choice) of the Alumni Representative
Committee (studentaffairs.
columbia.edu/admissions/alumni/
volunteers.php) here in Sweden,
and we have been active for a number
of years. The number of Swedish
applicants has been growing
for the past 10 years, so they have
been keeping the few CC alumni
here busy. It’s fun to interview
them, especially because I have the
perspective of a faculty member of
a Swedish university.”
Mischa Zabotin and his wife, Nicole
’87 Barnard, live in Larchmont,
N.Y. Their boys are in 11th and
12th grade at the French-American
School of New York (FASNY), a
bilingual, multicultural school in
lower Westchester. “Time will tell if
they hear alma mater’s call and if
she’ll answer. … As a result, I’m
taking a two-year leave from the
Alumni Representative Committee
that I’ve served on for many years
and will sorely miss interviewing
[more of] those bright applicants
I’ve had the pleasure to meet. When
I’m not a banker by day at Credit
Agricole Securities, I chair the Board
of Trustees of FASNY. The school
recently purchased a 130-acre site
in White Plains that will serve as
the future home for our campus
and also will become a unique
60–80-acre nature preserve, thereby
doubling the publicly accessible
green space in White Plains. This is
a fascinating and transformational
project.”
For Daniel Wolf Savin, “the big
news in my life is that I got married
on June 26 to Fryda Villars. Fryda is
an architect who lives in New York
City but works outside of the city.
My lab also is located outside of the
city, at Columbia’s Nevis Laboratories
in Irvington, N.Y. We met on
the Marble Hill Metro-North train
platform commuting to work. After
many months of seeing one another
on the platform, we started talking
one day. Two-and-a-half years later
we got married at Harkness Memorial
State Park in Waterford, Conn.,
in a beautiful outdoor amphitheater
overlooking Long Island Sound. Our
marriage is definitely part of the up
side of public transportation.”
Congratulations, Daniel!
A couple of job change announcements:
Brian Cousin has joined the
law firm of SNR Denton, where he
represents companies, partnerships
and executives in a variety of litigation,
employment law, executive
contract and real estate workout
matters.
And Tom Scotti now is a man-
aging director of Consensus Adv
isers in Boston. Consensus has
broad experience advising retail
and consumer products companies
undergoing significant transformations
to their business models. The
company has significant industry
experience representing and advising
companies, entrepreneurs,
investors, creditors and lenders in
financial and brand equity transactions.
Tom’s daughter, Anne, is a
high school senior and preparing
her college applications.
In recent months I have crossed
paths with several of my former
Kingsmen leaders … I had the pleasure
of meeting David Zapolsky in
Seattle for a Mariners game, along
with his fiancée, Lynn, and her son,
Sam. David recently completed a
cross-country trek with his son Ian,
culminating in their arrival at Carman
for New Student Orientation
just as Hurricane Irene arrived.
And because I intruded on the
’86ers’ space in my last column,
it’s only fair to go the other way
and congratulate Charles Lester ’84
upon his appointment as executive
director of The California Coastal
Commission. Dr. Lester was unanimously
voted to the position after
being acting executive director since
August. Charles has been with the
Coastal Commission since 1997 and
has been senior deputy director
since 2006. The commission chair
cited Charles’ “unique experience,
unwavering integrity and clear vision”
that he brings to this position.
Finally, at my 30th high school
reunion this fall (what a concept,
but tons of fun), I bumped into
Howie Kaye and Stephen Manghisi.
Howie lives in Dix Hills with
his wife, Toby, and has worked for
many years in IT infrastructure
at Morgan Stanley. Steve lives in
Closter, N.J., and is a radiologist
in New York City (affiliated with
West Side Radiology Associates, St.
Luke’s-Roosevelt Hospital Center
and P&S).
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WINTER 2011–12
82
Everett Weinberger
50 W. 70th St., Apt. 3B
New York, NY 10023
everett6@gmail.com
A flurry of updates from our
classmates!
After leaving Lazard in late 2009
to run for the United States Senate
in his home state of Nevada, John
Chachas chose to start something
new rather than return to a larger
banking firm. Together with several
former colleagues, John now runs
Methuselah Advisors, a merchant
banking group focused on digital
and media enterprises. The firm is
headquartered in New York and
“the cloud,” according to John.
He continues to work with the
Republican Party in Nevada as
well as maintain an active speaking
calendar on domestic economic
policy matters.
John Brynjolfsson continues to
be a booster of the stellar Columbia
Lions men’s golf team, and their
star coach, Rich Mueller, who
has kept them in contention for
the Ivy’s top spot for three out of
the last four years (and ready to
bounce back from their impressive
second place this past spring). John
manages Armored Wolf, a successful
global macro hedge fund in
Orange County, Calif. He’s glad his
son found his passion — aviation,
which he’s pursuing as a freshman
in Purdue’s world-famous aviation
program.
Eric Fromm is chief revenue
officer and managing director at
SPORTIME, which operates 12
fitness clubs in Long Island, NYC,
Westchester and the New York
capital region. Eric has been married
for 24 years to Lori. They have
three children: Daniel (21), Carly
(19) and Alana (16).
Congrats to Bennett Gordon on
the birth of his daughter, Mira Rose
Jay-Gordon, on April 26!
Here are some notes from ’86ers
in their own words.
Meir Feder: “I live in Manhattan
with my wife, Abbe Gluck,
and 4½-year-old twin boys, Ollie
and Ryan. Abbe is a professor at
the Law School. I’m a partner at
Jones Day, specializing in appellate
and complex litigation. I recently
argued and unanimously won a
case in the U.S. Supreme Court,
Goodyear Dunlop Tires Operations
S.A. v. Browne.”
John Featherman: “Doing well.
Lost the Philadelphia Republican
mayoral primary by 64 votes
citywide! The moral of the story
is your vote always counts. To
quote the Terminator, you can bet
‘I’ll be back!’ I don’t mind losing if
people understand how important
their vote is. Check out my
video — it was on the front page
of the Drudge Report, and we got
national coverage.”
Google John and you’ll see lots
of press and videos.
Paul Dauber: My wife, Emily,
and I recently had a son, Sam. He’s
4 months old and weighs 18 lbs.
Eats a lot! We also have three girls:
Rosie (6), Chloe (5) and Lily (3).
I’m a partner at PWC in business
development and live in Chappaqua,
N.Y. I still do triathlons and
recently finished the Toughman
Half Iron triathlon in Croton, N.Y.”
Ted Kenney: “In a triumph of
science and perseverance over
infertility, my wife and I welcomed
our first child, George Yimpakorn
Kenney, on March 1, 2010. At this
point he’s speaking about equal
amounts of English and Thai.”
Joel Berg: “My biggest news
is that the organization I run, the
New York City Coalition Against
Hunger, which previously worked
only in NYC, recently expanded
to run a nationwide program in
18 states, helping families obtain
food stamp benefits and summer
meals. See nyccah.org/our-work/
national-americorps-anti-hungerprogram.”
Scot Glasberg: “I live on the Upper
East Side with my wife, Alisa,
and my children, Alex (11), Evan
(5) and Chloe (1½), our newest
addition, born May 28, 2010. I am