Department of Economics: Alum News

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Class of 2002

Scott Arenstein moved back to LA earlier this year to head operations at the interaction design firm, Hello Design. (2007)

Lucy Boyadjian has been living in Albuquerque, New Mexico for the past year. She received her second B.A. degree in Spanish from the University of New Mexico and is currently in law school with her fiance, Justin Solimon ('02). They would love to hear from some Oxy folks! (2004)

Paul Harper has been living in Pittsburgh, PA for the past year. It took a while to find a job and adjust to the East Coast, but interestingly enough he is now working as an Affiliate Manager for an Internet marketing company based in Los Angeles. (2004)

In August 2006, Greg Impert  moved to Beijing, CN to enroll in a MBA program at the University of International Business and Economics Beijing. After living one year in Beijing, Greg enjoys the Chinese culture and chaotic fast pace of life. Recently Greg joined the American Chamber of Commerce Beijing to better understand the local business climate. Being a duel citizen with Belgium he was to attend the Economic trade delegation signing ceremony between Belgium and the Peoples Republic of China, promoting new technologies last June (presided by Chinese foreign ministers and the Belgian Royal family). He has one more year to go and will finish in May 2008 with plans to stay an additional year to work in Beijing. (2007)

Laura Kawano writes: "After three years of working at the Federal Reserve Board in Washington DC, I decided to return to school. This fall, I began an Economics PhD program at the University of Michigan." (2005)

Henrik Kühl I recently got married to Suzanne Mennell, whom I met while I was studying abroad at Copenhagen Business School in the fall of 2000. We had a lovely wedding in Vancouver, BC with people attending from all over the world, including Oxy alums Derek Lim (my bestman), Rhone Rarick, Theresa Bortcherts and Eric Bae (the four of them were also at my bachelor party in Las Vegas). I also recently switched jobs: after almost two years with Navigant Consulting and Navigant Capital Advisors, I decided to try a corporate job and accepted the position as Manager in Strategic Planning and Business Development at Herbalife International in Century City. I took the GMAT in the spring and plan on starting Business School either in the fall of 2007 or 2008. Lastly, I accepted the invitation to be the chair for the class of 2002's five-year reunion, which will take place in June 2002. Please stay tuned! (2006)

For the past year, Alyson Kwok has been consulting for 7-Eleven. Taking a break from the field, she went on a cruise to the Bahamas this past May. It was beautiful!! (2003, alysonkwok@yahoo.com)

Derek Lim Derek just moved back to LA from New York in July of 2006. He lives in Brentwood and works in Westwood. In January of 2006, he made the anticipated move to Private Equity with Fenway Partners, a middle market Private Equity Firm with $2 billion under management and offices in LA and New York. Fenway focuses on buyouts in the consumer and transportation industries. Derek is enjoying the better lifestyle on the buy-side and looks forward to spending his free time with him family and friends and getting re-acclimiated with LA after spending 3 years in New York. (2006)

Tim Ma is currently working for Paul Hastings as a corporate lawyer in Hong Kong. (2007)

Meghan (McArdle) Friesen and her husband Brendon Friesen '99 relocated to Chicago this summer. She is currently pursuing her MBA at the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business with concentrations in Marketing and Finance. She is excited to be back in school again and would love to hear from anyone currently residing in the Chicago area. (2007)

David L. Murphy II continues to live in Studio City, CA. He just decided to try different avenues in terms of employment. After 2 years with his appraisal company, he is now doing an internship with one of the largest PR firms in the country to get a feel for the industry. (2004)

Jonathan O'Steen: Jon is an attorney at O'Steen & Harrison, PLC in Phoenix, Arizona, where he practices in the areas of defective products and personal injury. He continues to operate SearchEngineDesign.com, an internet marketing firm he started while at Oxy. In July, Jon proposed to Kathryn McCormick and will be getting married in Michigan in 2007. (2005)

Earl Qua is still based in the San Francisco Bay Area. He recently moved from Sales to Operations & Marketing and is currently managing the Industrial Control Division (Home Automation) of Marvell Technologies, Inc. (NYSE: MRVL). This is a tremendous experience for him to work for the most innovative and fastest growing company in the Silicon Valley. Earl oversees the development of cutting edge technologies from concept to production. “It’s like working in a start up but with the resources of a US$ 2 Billion a year company”. Earl has an open house policy for Oxy Alums visiting the Bay… so if you’re planning to visit feel free to contact him! (2006)

Rhone Rarick moved to Seattle, WA about a year ago and is working as Project Manager at T-Mobile in their strategic marketing division. Although he loves his job and what the Seattle area has to offer, he misses all the friends he left behind in LA. He encourages any Oxy alums in the Seattle area to get in contact with him! (2005)

Doug Regner is now in his fifth year at Fisher Investments, a Woodside, CA based separate account portfolio management firm managing roughly $44 billion in institutional and private assets. Doug's current position is Innovation Manager, working to develop new business lines at the firm. Doug lives in San Francisco. (2007)

Erica Shinohara is starting her first semester (Fall 2003) in a two-year Masters of Science program at the Carnegie Mellon University John Heinz III Public Policy and Management Graduate School. While she regrets having to trade sunny Southern California for hot/humid and freezing cold Pittsburgh -- she had to go where the opportunity presented itself. Surprised to admit this, Erica is most appreciative of her Economics degree from Oxy as it helped her to automatically exempt from both Economics and Statistics courses at CMU. Since this is an ECON Dept. Newsletter, she can admit that her ECBM degree is much more valuable than her DWA degree. YAY ECONOMICS! (2003)

After having spent a wonderful summer in NYC, Purvi Tank has moved to San Francisco. She is working as an investment banker in the technology group at Banc of America Securities. (2002)

After graduation, Aida Walali moved to the windy Chicago city to be closer to her only relative in the US, her twin sister. After the first hectic 4 months, adjusting to the new city and the cold weather, working 3 different part-time jobs and searching for a full-time position, she finally started working as a Development Associate with a local non-profit organization, Spanish Coalition for Jobs, Inc. It's been a good learning experience as she learned a lot about grant writing and fundraising. However, she is still unsure this is her favorite career path. She has been teaching on the side and has found it to be more fulfilling. She is looking forward to traveling in France and Morocco during the month of October where she will be visiting friends and family. (2003)

As many of you know, Liz Young got married in June of 2002 to Steve (Giedras) Parnell. They both entered law school in the fall at Indiana University School of Law- Indianapolis. Both Liz and Steve found law school a disappointment, mostly due to large class size (100+) and faculty that lacked teaching skill and rarely cared to foster relationships with students. Liz and Steve have learned to really appreciate the wonderful professors at Oxy-- both in their teaching methods and their enthusiasm for getting to know students outside the classroom. Continuing the trend of horrible health that plagued her while at Oxy, Liz has been hospitalized nearly 8 times in the last 18 months for recurrent acute pancreatitis, possibly the most painful disease around. Additionally, she has had 5 minor procedures and a major surgery in an attempt to fix the problem, with no relief. This has unfortunately meant that law school must be postponed. In the mean time, she is considering switching gears completely, going back to school to get a nursing degree and becoming a licensed nurse-midwife. A final decision hasn't been made. Liz would love to hear from any and all friends, faculty, etc. Please e-mail her at Parnellfamily@comcast.net (2004)