The Rochester Review,
University of Rochester, Rochester, New York, USA
 Deborah Kates Smith '68 | They're big in businessHail to former Xerox executive Deborah Kates Smith '68, who has joined Merck & Company, Inc., a leader in the pharmaceutical industry, as senior vice president of human resources. She's the third woman on the company's Management Committee, a team of 12 that assists the chairman and CEO with day-to-day business operations and formulating growth and corporate strategies. As a human-resources executive, Smith has 24 years of experience with Xerox and Bausch & Lomb. . . . Congratulations also to Christopher Schellhorn '79S (MBA), the new president and chief operating officer of Visa Interactive, a subsidiary of Visa International. The company was founded two years ago to provide electronic home-banking and bill-paying services and now serves some 90 financial institutions. Schellhorn joins Visa Interactive from International Verifact, Inc., in Denver, where he was vice president and general manager. |
At the Simon School, Kevin Pickhardt '90S (MBA) received this year's Alumni Service Award. Of nearly 500 alumni who volunteer actively for the school, he's been extraordinarily generous with his time and energy, says Deborah Howe '91 (Mas), assistant director of alumni relations and development. Pickhardt chaired the committee that planned and marketed the school's Alumni Weekend in October, and over the past year "really put a tremendous amount of time and effort into the job," according to Howe. Pickhardt is a general manager for Xerox Business Services.
Stephen Rustow '70 has recently moved back to New York City from Paris, he had spent some 10 years overseeing I. M. Pei's design team for the Louvre Pyramid. Rustow was a sculptor at Rochester who went on to earn a degree in architecture from M.I.T. . . . Speaking of great art museums: The Guggenheim now employs John Hanhardt '67 as a senior curator. Hanhardt previously worked at the Whitney Museum.
From across the country, in San Francisco, Kathy Rumrich Gilbert '69 writes of the work of Tom Rickert '58, founder of Access Exchange International. His non-profit organization helps find low-cost ways to give disabled people access to public transportation in Kenya, Mexico, Russia, South Africa, and the United States. The address is 112 San Pablo Avenue, San Francisco, CA 94127 and the phone number is (415) 661-6355.
The core group at Auragen (left to right): Sean Daly, Damir Saracevic '95, Dennis Tucker '94, Amy Murphy, Fred Beer '95, and David Thiel '95 |
"I've read magazine stories that offer the advice, 'If you're looking for someone to create a Web site, get someone in their early 20s,'" says Fred Beer '95.
Clearly, he's the right man for the job. This early-twenty-something electrical engineer is president and CEO of Auragen Communications, Inc., a Rochester-based firm that creates Web sites and other software to promote and sell business products. Together with Damir Saracevic '95, he formed the company in June 1995, just after graduation. Today, Auragen has 12 employees, including David Thiel '95, Dennis Tucker '94, and David Seaman '97.
Thiel is Auragen's creative director, a job that encompasses--well, "every day it means something more," he jokes. He came up with the name Auragen, by the way, which combines the word "aura" and the suffix "gen," implying something new. (It is, of course, a pun on the word "origin.")
Saracevic directs the company's operations. He's the glue that ties ideas to results, making sure that everyone works as an efficient team and that clients are happy. "The trick is to establish an environment flexible enough to foster creativity and teamwork, while at the same time producing results on time and on budget."
At this writing, Auragen's clients include Eastman Kodak Company, Parkleigh Pharmacy, the Rochester Raging Rhinos soccer team, and Wegmans Markets. Auragen also has its own Web site.
The company is currently working on sites for Rochester Tent City, a camping-goods store; Judy Columbus Real Estate and Relocation, a local firm; and the Rochester Project for Interactive Multimedia, a non-profit consortium of business and civic leaders who aim to foster the growth of multimedia technology among businesses and institutions in the Rochester area.
A crucial question: Are they making any money? "Yes and no," says Beer. "Yes, because we are making a decent living. No, because we are putting almost all we can back into the company to make it grow as fast as possible."
And how many hours a week does that take? "It's fairly ridiculous," he says wryly. "About 100 hours a week, give or take a few."
EXCERPTS FROM A TALK BY KAREN NOBLE HANSON '70
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Last May, Trustee Karen Hanson spoke with M.B.A. students at the Simon School regarding Genesee-Volkhov Connection, Inc., a company that she helped found. GVCO, as it's called, is a Rochester-based corporation that sells Kodak processing and products in Russia--in Rochester's Sister City of Novgorod and in Buffalo's Sister City of Tver. Hanson, who is GVCO's vice chairperson, treasurer, and CFO, also serves as an executive at Wilmorite, Inc., in Rochester. Here are excerpts from her remarks.
"Experts will tell you that you shouldn't invest in Russia today. They say 'everyone' knows that the Mafia controls Russia, that you can't get money out of Russia, that no one in Russia has any money, and that the Communists could take over at any time. If this is the case, why has McDonald's sold so many hamburgers and why are European retailers flocking to the Univermag in Moscow? . . .
"Our group decided to focus on how to go about setting up one location in Novgorod, Russia, to sell Kodak products and process color film. We further decided that our short-term goal would be to have three locations in three years. . . . We were clear about one thing: We would stay focused on the photoimaging industry and we would not sell smoked fish. (As far fetched as this might seem, most Russian stores sell whatever importers can provide. We learned one very important lesson from these stores: Whatever was available was sold. There was disposable income in Russia! The first myth, 'They are too poor and don't have any disposable cash,' fell.) . . .
"With our first site operating, we discovered that the sales volume exceeded our expectations. Labor costs were substantially lower due to the low cost of living and, as we expected, the lack of disposable income was not a factor. Lines formed at our first location and we began looking for a second location. We sold $38,000 of product in a couple of months in 1994, nearly $690,000 in 1995, and we project $1.6 million in 1996. We expanded to a second site in Novgorod in 1995, into the Buffalo Sister City of Tver in mid-1995, into a second site in Tver in 1995, and into several additional sites in 1996. One very specific detail changed: competition. We now have competition in all cities where we have labs. . . .
"Our projections for the year 2000 show sales of $5 million. We would expect to have 10 to 15 film-processing centers and 20 to 25 satellite operations by then. We expect to control 50 percent of the market share in the cities in which we have operations. And we have established several day-to-day business missions:
By Harrington E. ("Kit") Crissey, Jr. '66
Since the Eastman School of Music opened its doors in 1921, some 850 composers have passed through. This marvelous array of teachers and students has brought great credit to Eastman and to the University--and has also enhanced the profile of music in the United States and around the world.
If this writer had to pick one decade that represents a golden age in Eastman composition, it would be the 1930s. At a time when few universities had schools of music or even offered music degrees, Eastman attracted a bevy of talented, highly motivated individuals. Many of them came from the American heartland--like their role model, Howard Hanson, who hailed from Nebraska. They included Wayne Barlow '34E, '37E (PhD), Nathaniel Dett, David Diamond '37E, Anthony Donato '31E, '47E (PhD), Scott Huston '41E, '52E (PhD), Ulysses Kay '40E (Mas), Homer Keller '37E, '38E (Mas), Kent Kennan '34E, '36E (Mas), Gail Kubik '34E, John LaMontaine '42E, Robert Palmer '38E, '39E (Mas), Burrill Phillips '32E, Gardner Read '36E, '37E (Mas), Vladimir Ussachevsky '39E (PhD), and Robert Ward '39E. Through their composing, teaching, writing, and concertizing, they had an enormous impact on the future of music in America.
Many Eastman composers were featured in the famous Mercury recordings of the 1950s and early 1960s--those of Howard Hanson with the Eastman-Rochester Orchestra and Frederick Fennell '37E, '39E (Mas) with the Eastman Wind Ensemble. The Eastman Philharmonia, conducted by David Effron, later followed suit, as did the Wind Ensemble under Donald Hunsberger '54E, '63E (DMA).
A total of eight Eastman faculty and alumni have won the Pulitzer Prize in music: faculty members Howard Hanson (1944), Joseph Schwantner (1979), and Christopher Rouse (1993), and alumni Gail Kubik (1952), John LaMontaine (1959), Robert Ward (1962), Dominick Argento '58E (PhD), and George Walker '56E (DMA), '57E (DMA). In another sphere, Charles Strouse '47E, composer of Annie, has won multiple Tony Awards.
Can a concert have appealing variety if it features works solely by Eastman composers? You bet it can! They represent a wide range of styles, with perhaps the neo-romantic and neo-classical predominating. Howard Hanson, a romanticist, influenced legions of students--so we see a conservative streak in many, perhaps most, of the Eastman composers from his era. With the triumph of the avant-garde and atonalism in the 1950s and 1960s, conservatism became the object of derision in many quarters. Now, in the last 15 years or so, we've seen the return of traditional, tonal music to a position of honor in this country. Concert audiences don't have to react with fear and loathing to the mention of all new music any more. Even Hanson himself is enjoying a renaissance. Thus it can be said that both he and the Eastman ethos of his time are enjoying the last laugh at this point.
Looking at the prodigious output of the first 75 years, one can predict that the school's faculty and graduates will continue to be heard in the world of music.
Sandra Lee Kawano '69 says she never thought she'd go into the family business--but today, she and a cousin are the fourth generation to run Harold Lee Insurance Agency, the oldest insurance agency in New York City's Chinatown. The firm was founded by her great-grandfather in 1888 and operates today out of its original offices.
"We do what the big houses do," she says. The company's 12 employees offer property, casualty, home, business, life, and health insurance. Most recently, the firm provided insurance for the 1992 Democratic National Convention in New York, and Kawano is also an insurance broker for the City of New York, as part of a consortium.
She's active in other spheres as well--to the extent that, in September, Avenue Asia magazine listed her as one of the 500 most influential Asian-Americans in the United States. She serves on the board of the New York Downtown Hospital, an affiliate of NYU; she's active in the Asian business community; and she also gives her time to the Democratic National Committee as a member of the Women's Leadership Forum.
In that role, she's gotten to know Hillary Clinton--and finds her to be a caring and down-to-earth person. "The first time I met her was in April of 1994, when I was very active in promoting health-care reform. I thought that she was really open to hearing the kind of ideas and views that I had. In a more recent meeting, I just found her to be very sensitive to the problems of women in the marketplace."
Copyright 1996, University of Rochester