Alumni Updates

Lehigh professor inspires a legion of doctoral students to ‘do well by doing good’

 

Across more than three decades as a professor and leading researcher at Lehigh University, Professor Arup SenGupta has mentored a veritable army of young innovators in the development of solutions that holistically address the problem of groundwater contamination and create sustainable water technologies around the globe, both in developing and developed countries.

 

As an undergraduate majoring in global studies, Jessie Garcia ’12, ’13G had no clue she’d be leaving Lehigh with a master’s in technical entrepreneurship (TE) or that a concussion from playing on Lehigh’s women’s rugby team would give her the idea to start her own company – one that is now entirely run by Lehigh students and graduates.

 

Wai San Loke ’89 is managing director of Novo Tellus Capital Partners, a “transformation team” that buys distressed technology companies and makes them profitable.

 

“We usually take control of these companies and try to reinvent them,” Loke recently told The Business Times in an interview. “We are hands-on investors and usually our transformation takes many years.”

 

Loke’s most recent success story is AEM Holdings, a technology company based in Singapore. He joined AEM in 2011 as the company’s chairman.

 

A profile of Lehigh alumnus and founder of contracting and construction management firm The Rinaldi Group

 

Steve Pacicco ‘84 was named senior vice president of corporate development at MatrixCare, a healthcare software company specializing in skilled nursing care services and senior living providers, earlier this year.

 

MatrixCare is the largest long-term post-acute care (LTPAC) technology provider in the country, with its software solutions used in more than 12,000 facility-based care settings.

 

Joe Yesulaitis ‘83, CEO of Aavalar Consulting, was recently invited by the Lehigh Consulting Group (LCG) to speak at their first Lehigh Consulting Summit held in September 2017. LCG is a professional organization of Lehigh students interested in joining the consulting industry after graduation. IBM, PwC, Deloitte, EY, and other regional consulting groups were among the invited companies.

 

Jeffrey H. Burbank '86, founder and chief executive officer of NxStage Medical, Inc. has been appointed to CryoLife, Inc.’s board of directors. His new position became effective September 29, 2017.

 

CryoLife is a leading company in manufacturing, processing and distributing implantable living tissues and medical devices. Their efforts are focused on cardiac and vascular surgery.

 

Former Dell CTO to lead Flex expansion in designing and deploying innovative cloud solutions

 

Kevin Kettler ’84 joined Flex as the chief technology officer and senior vice president of its Cloud Business Unit, part of the company’s Communications and Enterprise Compute (CEC) business group.

 

Kettler earned his bachelor’s in electrical engineering from Lehigh University and his master's and doctorate in electrical engineering from Carnegie Mellon University.

 

James F. Geurts '87 is an executive for U.S. Special Operations Command at Tampa's MacDill AFB

 

Lehigh graduate James F. Geurts '87 has been nominated to serve as an Assistant Secretary with the United States Navy.

 

Technical Entrepreneurship graduate Ali Almasi '16 working to bring high-quality saffron to the U.S. market at an affordable price.

 

For centuries, saffron has remained the most sought after spice in the world. Its flexibility for use across an endless number of foods, including rice, desserts and teas, makes it a product that is always in demand but difficult to come by at a reasonable price.