A Passion for Science - Columbia College - Columbia University

CLASS NOTES Columbia CollEgE Today
with the Pittsburgh Symphony and
an Off-Broadway production of
Tape, a play by Stephen Belber. I’ve
also begun teaching, most recently
completing my second year as a
visiting professor at the Yale School
of Drama, as well as guest residencies
at Manhattan School of Music
and Mannes College of Music. I’m
working on a world premier of a
new opera, The Secret Agent, based
on the Conrad story. After premiering
here in New York, it will travel
to the Armel Opera Festival in
Hungary. Much of my work can be
viewed at samhelfrich.com.”
Looking forward to seeing everyone
in June! For those of you who
can’t make it, I’ll do my best to recap
it for you. Until next time … cheers!
92
Jeremy feinberg
315 E. 65th St. #3F
New York, NY 10021
jeremy.feinberg@
verizon.net
News, anyone?
I thought so. It’s nice to be able
to give you what you want.
Let me kick things off with news
from Karla sanchez. Until recently,
Karla was a partner at the prestigious
Patterson Belknap Webb &
Tyler law firm. But she left to enter
government service, accepting a
position with newly elected Attorney
General Eric Schneiderman’s
office. She is the executive deputy
attorney general for economic
justice, responsible for the Investor
Protection, Consumer Protection
and Fraud, Antitrust, Real Estate
Finance, and Internet bureaus.
Karla is looking forward to her
time in the AG’s office and doing
great things to protect the citizens
of New York State.
Karla is not the only one of our
classmates doing great things in
government service. I ran into ben
lawsky at a recent Columbia men’s
basketball game. He is the chief of
staff to Governor Andrew Cuomo
(D-N.Y.). Similarly, peter hatch is
the state director for Senator Kirsten
Gillibrand (D-N.Y.). I saw Peter and
his wife, hilary rubenstein hatch,
at the annual Dean’s Scholarship
Reception in February.
I had lunch with Jake Novak ’92
GS, who graciously hosted me at
the offices of News Corp. in Manhattan.
Jake is the senior producer
of Varney & Co. on Fox Business
Network. He also runs a thorough
blog on all things Columbia football
at roarlions.blogspot.com.
Q Vanbenschoten e-mailed to
pass along some good news: She’s
been promoted to regional compliance
officer of Americas for Intertek,
a FTSE 100 company. As Q describes
it, “I still spend too much time in
airports. But I love my new job. I am
scheduled to speak at the Compliance
Week Conference in Washington,
D.C., at the end of May, and I
get especially psyched about flying
into Dulles. Usually I have time
to stop by Five Guys for the best
cheeseburger in any airport in North
America, with two shots at it during
layovers: Terminals A and B.”
I heard from Kirsten danis, my
former Spectator editor-in-chief, who
has taken a new position as deputy
editor of the Greater New York Section
of The Wall Street Journal.
Finally, a little bit of personal
news: I was deeply honored to be
asked to serve as the “Honorary
Coach of the Game” on senior night
for the men’s basketball team. I
sat on the bench not only next to
the current team and coaches (and
tried to stay out of the way) but also
next to Jerry Sherwin ’55, who has
long served as an ambassador for
the team, as well as the University
as a whole. I am pleased to report
that Columbia trounced Brown that
night, sending off the seniors with a
win and finishing the season with a
15–13 record in coach Kyle Smith’s
first year. (I’ll happily end my
“coaching” career with a 1–0.)
On that cheery note, I think
there’s only one way to end this
column: Roar, Lions, Roar! Till next
time.
betsy gomperz
41 Day St.
Newton, MA 02466
Betsy.Gomperz@
gmail.com
Ask and ye shall receive. In a recent
column, not only did I ask for those
of you celebrating birthdays to
write in, but I also asked for details
about neil turitz’s 40th birthday
celebration, and Neil delivered.
According to Neil, “My birthday
party was pretty fantastic. Tons of
people, a great time. I wore a tux
(as you recall, the invite was ‘black
tie optional’), and looked pretty
spectacular. Friends and family
joined me, there was much alcohol
consumed, as well as a fair share of
pigs in blankets and jalapeño poppers,
of course. I know for a fact that
Joe saba and his wife, Jen, stephen
Morfesis, Kevin connolly, axuve
Espinosa ’93E and addison golladay
were in attendance, but I had to
settle for good wishes from friends
who were not able to make it, like
you, steve conway, robyn tuerk
(who was on her honeymoon), patti
lee, Matt Eddy ’95, alan freeman,
Eric Zuckerman ’94, Karen Sendler
’94, Marci Levy ’93 Barnard, Matt
streem, Joan Campion ’92, Jen
Beubis ’91 and plenty of others.
Addison, meanwhile, turned 40
almost a month later, and the two
of us have attended each other’s
shindigs for years. While his was a
more intimate affair (what with Addison
being a tad less ... well, let’s
say ‘flamboyant’ than me), it was
still delightful. He had a group of
friends gather at the Russian Vodka
Room on West 52nd Street, where
we sampled flavored vodkas (and
argued to some extent about which
flavor was which) and chatted in an
amiable and low-key way.”
Kirsten danis ’92, former Spectator editor-in-chief,
is deputy editor of the greater new York section
of The Wall Street Journal.
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MAY/JUNE 2011
70
I also heard from Matt streem,
who lives “in Solon, Ohio (eastern
Cleveland suburbs), with my
wife, Shereen, son, Ryan (6) and
daughter, Sari (3). Enjoying the
lowstress levels of the suburbs
and just spending time with family
and trying to keep in shape! I
own a distribution company, Trend
Evolution, where we sell Burt’s
Bees, Blistex, Carmex, ChapStick,
Dial and other impulse products
to specialty retailers in the United
States. We also recently developed
and launched an organizational
line of office products called Contact
Keeper (contactkeeper.com)
that is now available in 1,100 Office
Depot stores and will be in
900 FedEx Office stores in March.
The products solve a common
problem of keeping business cards
and notes together, and are great
for meetings, trade shows, job
interviews and any business card
exchange situation. My brother
Jason Streem ’00 is finishing a residency
in periodontics at Virginia
Commonwealth University and is
planning to start a private practice
when he moves with his family to
Cleveland in August. He and his
wife, Mindy, welcomed a son, Sam,
in October. I was hoping to see
chad Moore in California at the
Natural Products Expo in Anaheim
in March. I keep in touch with Joel
cramer, Kevin connolly and neil
turitz. Otherwise, I’m looking
forward to a weekend of fun and
celebration in NYC for my 40th.
I will definitely check out the old
stomping grounds!”
Kwon-Kyun chung recently
was named v.p. of finance at Soltage,
a renewable energy provider
that develops, finances, builds,
owns and operates solar energy
systems under a power purchase
agreement at client facilities across
the United States. At Soltage, Kwon
was involved in the financing of
one of the first merchant power
plants in the U.S., Sithe Boston
Generating (1,500 MW), located
in Boston. Before joining Soltage,
Kwon worked at Alinda Capital
Partners for three years, where he
was responsible for the origination
of investments in energy and infrastructure
projects in excess of $2
billion. He has been with Dresdner
Kleinwort Wasserstein and WestLB
AG, where he completed various
energy project financings in excess
of $1 billion. Kwon lives in Jersey
City, N.J.
As I finish writing this column,
it is a Sunday evening, and I am
watching TV. It’s time for my favorite
Sunday night show, ABC’s
Brothers & Sisters, and there is cara
buono appearing as Rose, Tommy
Walker’s girlfriend. A little Internet
digging, and I was reminded that
Cara appeared in Mad Men this
past fall and also appeared in one
of my favorites, The Sopranos.
94
leyla Kokmen
440 Thomas Ave. S.
Minneapolis, MN 55405
lak6@columbia.edu
Well, after my sad, newsless column
in the last issue, I am pleased
to share an abundance of updates
this time around.
suzy shuster Eisen and her husband,
Rich, welcomed their second
son, Cooper, in February; he joins
brother Xander. Megan Mcgowan
Epstein was there to help celebrate
his arrival. Suzy is taking some time
off from sports broadcasting but is
working with Ron Shelton (who
directed Bull Durham and Tin Cup)
on a pilot he wrote based on her
career as a sideline reporter on ABC.
Suzy is producing the pilot, which
has been optioned by NBC.
david Eisenbach has been
teaching history, CC and Lit Hum
at Columbia. In April, Palgrave
Macmillan is releasing his third
book, One Nation Under Sex: How
the Private Lives of Presidents, First
Ladies and their Lovers Changed the
Course of American History. David
co-authored the book with Hustler
publisher and free speech advocate
Larry Flynt.
david dooling lives in Falls
Church, Va., with his wife, Amy
Lopez Dooling, and daughter Sofia
Elena (2). David went to grad school
for physics then went on to Montreal
for a post-doc. He spent five years in
New Mexico before starting work in
McLean, Va., in 2007.
Last October, tony ambroza
moved to Ann Arbor, Mich., and
joined Carhartt, a 121-year-old
apparel brand, as v.p. of marketing.