Class Note 2013
Hello, ’13s, and happy fall-to-almost-winter! Lots of great updates to share, so let’s get started.
First, a huge congratulations to Trevor Horan, who recently got engaged to marry Elizabeth Ballantyne ’12!
In the category of friends in advanced degrees, Ali Essey graduated from Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management in June and is moving to Los Angeles to work at Disney in September. Maha Malik graduated from Harvard Business School and Harvard Kennedy School with an M.B.A./M.P.P. this May. After a decade in beautiful New England, she is excited to move to Manhattan, where she’ll be returning as a consultant at Bain & Co. Tanisha Panditharatne recently moved to Austin, Texas, to start at the University of Texas McCombs School of Business. Melanie Wilcox graduated from Northwestern’s Medill School of Journalism, where she specialized in business reporting and documentary filmmaking. This summer she will have completed her third documentary film, which will be released sometime next year. Stay tuned! Olivia Korostelina graduated from University of Chicago Booth School of Business and has moved to New York to resume work in management consulting. If you’re passing by NoHo, let her know!
Next, we have some classmates making moves around the country. Jenna Kaplan moved to New York City at the end of August to start a job at New York Presbyterian-Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital, where she works as a speech pathologist. Svati Narula is leaving her job at Outside magazine in Santa Fe, New Mexico, to move back to…Hanover! She will be starting her new gig as an editor at the Dartmouth Alumni Magazine in September. Finally, Blaine Johnson just moved to San Francisco in June to start a new job at Boston Consulting Group; she would love to catch up with any ’13s in the Bay Area!
Last but not least, a host of classmates are off doing amazing things around the world. Lin Bo finished the acting program at Second City Chicago and will be performing as Hastings in the Eclectic Theater production of Shakespeare’s Richard III this fall. Damayanti “Dimpy” Desai writes in that she is done with her clerkship in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and will be traveling through India, Nepal, and Europe for the fall! She is trekking to Everest base camp and has a variety of other outdoor adventures set up. If anyone finds themselves in those areas, please reach out to her! Post-trip, she’ll take a road trip up to D.C. with her giant dog to start her job at a litigation firm. R.J. Griffin writes that he has been growing his real estate development business in Philadelphia during the last three years, looking specifically for value-add projects in under-served, working class communities. He is a licensed real estate agent and has built a team that is capable of fully rehabilitating properties into income-producing rentals or new homes for retail buyers. He hopes to scale up his business moving forward—great work, R.J.! Joe Schwappach, with two other cofounders, recently launched Eliqs, a company offering custom-designed beers for all types of events. They’re currently serving California and will be expanding into new geographies and beverage types in 2020! Rolland Mansilla spent his summer building a company in Y Combinator’s summer 2019 startup batch in Silicon Valley. They were covered in TechCrunch recently after presenting at demo day, pitching to top investors around the world. They’re growing quickly and hoping to find introductions to partnership opportunities with banks and law firms. Their website is www.safelydeposit.com if you’re interested!
And that’s all for this edition—see you next time!
—Aly Perez, 104 Ivy Drive, Apt. 8, Charlottesville, VA 22903; alyp625@gmail.com
