Class Note 1989
Every fall for the last seven years at Tuck’s orientation Russell Wolff has given a speech to students about dream jobs, a perfect description of his own life since he graduated from Tuck in 1994. Russell worked at MTV, directing sales and marketing for that network and a number of others, including Comedy Central. In 1997 he jumped to ESPN, where these days he’s Executive vice president and managing director, overseeing 46 networks outside the United States. He’s responsible for all of ESPN’s international interests and spends about 65 percent of his time traveling around the world. The programming on these networks is tailored to local interests and when we spoke, Russell was getting ready to head to India for the Cricket World Cup. When not globetrotting he lives in Mamaroneck, New York, with his sons Michael, 9, and Spencer, 7, and his wife, Patty, who recently retired from PepsiCo as a VP. Russell even finds a bit of time to keep playing ice hockey and he serves on the board of Tuck, helping business students pursue their own dreams for the future.
Elsewhere in the wide world of sports Tom Paskus checks in from Indianapolis, Indiana, where he works for the NCAA as its principal research scientist. Tom has a Ph.D. in quantitative psychology from UVA and previously taught at the University of Denver. His job sounds pretty complex and he says family and friends want to know if it involves ticket distribution, which it doesn’t! It does involve analyzing the academic and athletic success of students from more than a thousand colleges, universities and athletic conferences that belong to the NCAA. Tom also looks at the data about their lives outside sports and beyond college to look at trends and the role that sports plays in their lives. Tom is married with two children, Molly, 8 and Grant, 5. He hasn’t run competitively for many years, but says he stays in shape and enjoys visiting with Dartmouth friends on his travels, including a number of former track guys.
Alex Simpson lives in Manhattan, where he’s general counsel of Reis Inc., an online commercial real estate information company. He has two children, Shae, 9 and Austin, 7, and his wife, Lisa, is a partner at Orrick, Herrington and Sutcliffe. Alex and Marc Monplaisir are helping to organize and encourage Dartmouth alumni rowers to get back in the game at alumni and masters events. For more information go to www.evergreenboatclub.com, and head out to cheer them on at the Head of the Charles next October.
Erich Fischer writes from D.C., where he’s a partner at Booz & Co. He married Hallie Henderson last September at his house on Nantucket, Massachusetts, and they honeymooned in the Maldives and Kenya in December, after getting engaged in the hills of Tuscany. Erich says he still finds a bit of time for playing and writing music and for sailing on the Chesapeake and elsewhere. He happened to be in New York City on business in February and joined close to 20 classmates and spouses at the ’89 cocktail party.
A hearty thanks to Jennifer Kochman Marrus, who hosted the party at her Tribeca loft, complete with ’89 napkins and Dartmouth cookies. Among those attending were Russell, Alex, Marc and Erich, who are mentioned above. Others included Josh Adler, Jamie Heller, Kristen von Summer Waldorf, Bridget Fawcett, Brian Meyer, Catherine Baggia Duwan, Tim Brody, Kevin Braker, Dennis Morgan, Nancy Obler and of course our mini-reunion chair Laura Fitch Mattson. If you’d like to host a mini-reunion in your city, let us know!
—Jennifer Avellino, 5912 Aberdeen Road, Bethesda, MD 20817; javellino@mac.com
