Class Note 1974
Alta Alliance Bank, a community bank with offices in Oakland, Piedmont and Los Altos, California, has named Sedrick Tydus president and chief executive officer. Sedrick had served as chief operating officer since 2006, when he helped to found the bank. Sedrick earned an M.B.A. from Stanford University and worked at Wells Fargo, Bank of America and E-loan, gaining solid experience in management, marketing and business strategy in the financial services and online industries. Sedrick serves on the board of the Oakland School Foundation, an entity dedicated to promoting excellence in Oakland’s public schools so that all students have the opportunity to achieve. He is also a member of the board of directors for the Piedmont Council of the Boy Scouts. Sedrick’s wife of 30 years, Jain Williams, is the entrepreneur of the family and a successful State Farm agent in Oakland. Jain attended Smith College for two years, transferred to Carnegie Mellon and graduated with a degree in economics. She also earned an M.B.A. from Columbia. Sedrick and Jain have a son, Ricky, who attended M.I.T., playing baseball for four years and graduating with a degree in electrical engineering in 2005. Today he is a chartered financial analyst and works for Wells Capital Management. They also have a daughter, Courtney, who is a senior at Washington University in St. Louis. She will graduate in May with a major in film and a minor in marketing. She plans to move to Los Angeles to pursue a career in the film industry. Sedrick recently enjoyed President Jim Yong Kim’s visit to San Francisco. Fellow classmates Andy Krakoff and Greg Hannah as well as Willie Bogan ’71, Mark Ayers ’73 and Kenneth Monteiro ’76 were in attendance.
As a new class participation co-chair Len Smith has accepted the challenge to lead us to a fifth consecutive Dartmouth Fund record. After Dartmouth Len earned an M.B.A. from Tuck and two weeks later married his wife, Gail. Len joined ADP in New Jersey with subsequent assignments in Maryland and Michigan. Along the way son Matthew and daughter Emily were born. After 14 years with ADP the family moved to Virginia, where Len worked for a series of startups. In 2005 Len and Gail moved to Ocean Pines, Maryland, 15 minutes from the Atlantic, and built their dream home. Len consults in strategy and new-product planning with companies seeking to harness the Internet. He is also a partner in an offshore custom software company. Gail taught elementary and middle school for a decade and now is a professional reading coach for the local public schools. Matt and his wife, Lexy, were married in Ocean Pines and they live in Alexandria, Virginia. Emily works for Drexel University in Philadelphia. Gail and Len have plenty of space and invite any ’74s who need a few days at the beach to stop in and visit!
—Rick Sample, Retreat Farm, 1137 Manakin Road, Manakin Sabot, VA 23103; samplejr@msn.com
