DIvIDEnD - Stephen M. Ross School of Business - University of ...

members of the mBA class of 2004 celebrated
their five-year reunion during homecoming weekend in September.
Jonathan Dropiewski, MBA ’06, is the
mayor of Flat Rock, Mich. Jonathan has
served on the Flat Rock City Council
since 2003. He has worked as a senior
accounting executive for Open Text
Corp., which provides website management
software for the state of Michigan,
Chrysler, Herman Miller, and others.
The city budget is Jonathan’s primary
concern as mayor.
Edward Muransky, BBA ’06/JD ’09, is
a litigation associate at Ulmer & Berne’s
Cleveland office. Ulmer & Berne LLP is
a full-service regional firm with approximately
175 attorneys in Cleveland,
Columbus, Cincinnati, and Chicago.
Lakshmi Bhargave, MBA ’09, and
Katie Miller, MBA ’10, are working
with Ann Arbor Spark’s business accelerator
program to develop and promote
their company, Roomations LLC.
Roomations is an interactive Web tool
for home improvement. It was developed
at the Ross School, and the duo used
resources at the Zell Lurie Institute for
Entrepreneurial Studies to further
expand the idea.
Brewster Boyd, MBA/MS ’09, joined
Denver-based CleanLaunch as director
of finance. Prior to joining CleanLaunch,
Brewster was a VP of the Ann Arbor-based
Plymouth Venture Partners and a manage-
alumni updates{ClassNotes}
ment consultant with A.T. Kearney. He also
is the co-author of the book Hybrid
Organizations: New Business Models for
Environmental Leadership (see story, p. 13).
Jeffrey LeBrun, MBA/MS ’09, recently
joined with U-M and Michigan State
University students and alumni to develop
a plan to use algae to treat wastewater
and produce biomass feedstock. Team
Algal Scientific won the $65,000 top
prize in the U-M and DTE Energy Co.-
sponsored Clean Energy Prize competition.
Now the team is executing their
technical plan and raising funds to tap
into an annual wastewater treatment
market estimated to be about $1.5 to
$2 billion. The team also includes Geoff
Horst, BS ’02, a PhD candidate
at MSU; Robert levine, a U-M PhD
candidate in chemical engineering;
John Rice, MBA/MS ’09; Kevin
olmstead, PhD ’89; and Paul Horst,
BS ’72/MBA ’73. Algal Scientific was
awarded funding from the Michigan
Pre-Seed Capital Fund that matched
its prize winnings and angel investment.
The team was chosen to be summer
entrepreneurs-in-residence at Highland
Capital Partners in Boston and have since
moved into the Michigan Life Science
Incubator. Algal’s process takes up nutrients
at industrial and municipal wastewater treatment
plants in a single step. The nutrientpacked
algae are then harvested and
converted to fertilizer, bioplastics, or biofuels.
Zoltan mesko, BBA ’09, was a semifinalist for the 2009 national
Football Foundation and college hall of Fame national Scholar-Athlete Awards, and
the 2009 William V. campbell Trophy. of the 154 nominees, Zoltan was one of only eight
special teams players. A four-time Academic All-Big Ten selection, Zoltan also was
recognized as a Big Ten distinguished Scholar in 2009, the inaugural year of the award,
having maintained a GPA of at least 3.7 in the 2008-09 academic year. In addition, he
was named a 2009 First-team All-American. Zoltan also was named to the 2009 Allstate
AFcA Food Works Team, which honors dedicated and hard-working student athletes
for their off-the-field achievements and selfless contributions to their communities.
spring 2010 DIvIDEnD 61