Department of Economics: Alum News

u Return to Alum News Index

Class of 2004

Taylor Arnett After over two years at Frazier Capital, a business and commercial real estate valuation located in downtown Los Angeles, Taylor Arnett has moved on to a financial analyst position with The Koll Company in Newport Beach. Taylor will be working as an acquisitions analyst for Koll, which acquires, develops, and manages industrial and office properties. (2006)

After graduation, Ariana Arredondo began working for a real estate investment firm, IEC Property Services. She looks forward to teaching math courses during spare time, and is busy studying for the GMAT. (2004)

Lynna Barrett is International Sales Coordinator at Firewire Surfboards (www.firewiresurfboards.com). Along with heading up the international sales front in Europe and Latin America, she is heavily involved in product development and marketing, working with some of the most talented and well respected people in the Action Sports Industry. She currently resides in Encinitas, California. (2006)

Nikolay Filchev is still working at LECG. During the past year, he was staffed on major cases in the metal commodity, healthcare, newspaper and other industries. The work is getting increasingly quantitative--he frequently uses the stuff that Woody Studenmund teaches in the Applied Econometrics class. Grad school is on the horizon too. Some people from the class of 2004 should be hearing from him this year, as he will be acting as a GOLD development committee member and will try to increase the alumni giving rate. Go OXY! (2007)

Tricia Fong is having a lovely time in Hurricane Florida. She is trying to teach Hip Hop dance to little kids and is auditioning for a radio personality position at Power 95.3 (the local hip hop station) in Orlando. In the mean time, she is enjoying life after Oxy and hopes that the Econ. department as well as her graduating class is having much success in their endeavors. (2004)

Mercedes Gonzalez: After graduation, Mercedes continued to work part-time as an online marketer for Universal Music. Once part-time work was just not good enough, she looked into some full-time positions. Lucky for her an ad sales position opened up at Turner Broadcasting and after numerous interviews she got the position! So if anyone ever needs interviewing tips, be sure to contact her. (2004)

Pamela Green is living in San Francisco and just started working at Morgan Stanley in Palo Alto. (2004)

Andrew Heath (2006)

Meredith Hoffmann recently made a career change from consulting to investment banking. She currently is employed as an analyst in the Financial Advisory Services division of Houlihan Lokey in Los Angeles. She enjoys Starbucks breaks with her analyst peers, including Matt Hennessy '04. Between jobs, Meredith took a much needed vacation to Hawaii with Andrew Omori '05. Meredith and Andrew recently moved into a new apartment together in Brentwood. (2006)

Justin Johnson moved back to Phoenix, Arizona where he is currently a real estate developer. He works mostly in Phoenix, Arizona; however, his work is not unknown to stretch outside to Tempe, Buckeye, Avondale, etc. He is working on the condo/hotels with the Trump group in Arizona as a consultant and lobbyist. However, he mostly assembles parcels, works on the financials of his future projections of the projects, deals with the entitlements of the lands, and current zoning of the properties. Moreover, he often meets with Mayor Phil Gordon and several other city council members to discuss current projects and possible amendments, stipulations, or rezoning if necessary. (2004)

From Drenusha Kusari: I decided to leave Goldman Sachs at the end of my 2-year analyst program and attend Harvard Business School. I spent August traveling a bit to the West Coast as well as Europe and am now a full-time MBA student. While HBS is a lot of fun so far, I must say that business school is not a 2-year party as many people make it to be (maybe the party starts after the first semester). So far it has been a great experience, despite the hard work, and I am happy to answer any questions for Oxy people thinking of applying any time soon. (2006)

Rachel Laybourn is currently living in Los Angeles with roommate Matt Hennessy '04, and has very little time for anything outside of work. She works in the Financial Advisory Services group of Kroll, Inc. and has been staffed primarily on large-scale financial investigations since she started (currently working with former SEC chairman Arthur Levitt on the Audit Committee team investigating the City of San Diego). She has been on the road for work since Nov. 2004 with no signs of slowing (NYC, Chicago, and San Diego among her favorite business destinations), but tries to spend as much time as possible with friends and family on the weekends. (2005)

Alex Luta tinkers still on the last bits of required credits for his M.Sc. in World Politics at the University of Helsinki. He will travel during winter 2007-08 above the Finnish polar circle to work in sales with a Japanese travel agency. (2007)

Chester L. McGensy III has graduated and is enjoying life in San Francisco. Web-page: http://www.myspace.com/chesterspage (2007)

Sylvia Nash is currently residing in Seattle, WA. After a management internship with Nordstrom she is currently employed there full time with hope to move into management in the very near future. (2004)

Meghan (Ryan) Boldemann aka Meghan Ryan was married April 15th at Ironstone Vineyards, in Murphy's CA. She is still working for Dodge Ridge Ski Area as the Guest Services Director and loves her job. She is spending most of her free time at the lake enjoying the warm weather before the snow starts to fly! She is living with her husband, and new puppy in Sonora, CA and currently remodeling their home. If anyone is traveling in the area shoot her an email.  (2006)

After graduation, Cathy Tennis retreated to Cancun, Mexico for a two week break to recooperate. Upon returning in September she will begin her adventure back to school...not as a student, but as a teacher. She will be teaching 7th and 8th grade math at SouthEast Middle School in South Gate. (2004)

Heather (Weaver) Casetllao: Heather recently married Michael Aaron Kamalani Castellano, a high school classmate, and they are expecting their first child, Perry Joseph Kamalani Castellano in late November. She still resides in her home state, Hawaii, and works for Hawaiian Telcom as a Cash Applications Analyst. (2006)

Evan Woods lives in West LA and is working as a Research Analyst at LECG, an economic consulting firm located in Century City. After a few months in the corporate world, he is eagerly planning his escape back to academia, with its longer vacations, shorter hours and encouragement of diverse thought. He intends on gaining research and statistical skills from his new job before applying to graduate programs in a year or two. (2004)