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After building a successful Angel investing track record, D’08 Nick Moran has launched his New Stack Ventures fund.  While the SEC prohibits me from actually telling you any details per arcane solicitation rules (you have to hear it directly from Nick) I can attest that this is a great opportunity if you’ve ever considered allocating some of your investments to VC.  While I would love to say more about how his investment thesis and fund structure is truly innovative I’ll stop before I say something that gets him in trouble.  You can reach Nick via Nick@NewStack.vc or I can always make a personal introduction if you want to learn more.

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D’89 Marla (Stempler) Buerk is now Executive Vice President at Dairy Management Inc.
D’03 Peter Harrison is a Managing Director at Morgan Stanley
D’08 Nick Moran via New Stack Ventures is the lead investor in Print With Me
D’11 David Turco is now a Director at AloStar Capital Finance
D’14 David Cockerill is now Project Leader at The Boston Consulting Group
D’16 Katie Griffith is now a Senior Associate at Strategy&
D’16 Wei Liao is now a Senior Associate at Strategy&
D’16 Vivek Mehta is now a an Associate at McKinsey & Company

A personal note …

This week I had lunch with a Darden VIP that was passing through town who told a story about Scott Beardsley that I wanted to share.  Before starting his new role as Dean and months before he moved to Charlottesville, he made it his mission to meet with every professor in person for at least an hour – and often times longer (I think Ed Freeman set the record).  Week after week he traveled from Europe to Darden with the intent to do just one thing – before he did ‘any’ thing – and that was to listen.  Sure, this is the Consultant 101 playbook but it was also driven by a genuine interest in developing relationships, building trust and setting the tone for openness.   In the end, after dozens of flights and hundreds of hours of conversations, he personally met with all but three.

I wanted to pass that story along as context with the invitation to come meet Scott yourself.  While we all love Chicago, in reality we’re a second tier city when it comes to the alumni density hierarchy.  Ergo, outside of an annual prospective student event, we don’t see many folks from Darden making the trip (I’ve tried) and even fewer times when it is just us alumni in a private setting with a chance to glean new content from the top.

I have neither met nor do I know Scott, only knowing of him through the school’s various announcements.  However, drawing from the story above I believe there is more to his visit than just banging the drum with a new cadence that outlines his vision forward.  I also believe he is here to ask questions and listen to our ideas, thoughts, impressions, careers, industries, etc – just as he wanted to listen to every professor.

That said, I wanted to personally invite each of you to meet him yourself.  About half of our 250 local alumni open these emails so I charge everyone to reach out to your fellow classmates to spread the word and – even better – join you.  It could be a looooooooooong time before we have this opportunity again.

– D’08 Duke Best

D’84 Doug Varney is now Solution Architect at Nokia

D’90 Kristin Colber-Baker is now Director, Mars University, Global Programs and Learning at Mars, Inc.

D’04 Mehul Vora is now Cofounder and Partner at NexGen Housing Partners

D’04 Jason Uner is now Integrated Media Manager at Country Financial

D’08 Kelly Becker is now Vice President, Power Solutions at Schneider Electric

D’09 Aja Davis Isble is now Strategy, New products, Global Immunology at Baxalta

D’11 Larissa Hawkes is now ABM Bars and Fruit Snacks at TreeHouse Foods

D’14 Amanda Middlebrooks is now Marketing Manager at Uber

D’15 Laura Redden is now Business Strategy Consultant at Accenture

D’15 Adam Hazzout is now Senior Consultant at IBM Global Business Services

Let’s Brunch – June 14, 2015

You’re invited to Brunch with the Interns hosted at the home of D’08 Kelly Becker. Please RSVP so an appropriate amount of champagne and light snacks can be provided.  Location: 2600 N. Southport Avenue, Chicago IL 60614 (@ Southport & Wrightwood). Upon arrival dial Becker from the building phone.

The Best of Angel & VC Insight

D’08 Nick Moran, General Partner at New Stack Ventures has a highly acclaimed podcast for Angel and Venture Capital investors.  Check it out via The Full Ratchet.

Alumni Dinner @ Gari Sushi

We’ve been invited to join the UVaClub of Chicago to join them for dinner at Gari Sushi. Come and join fellow ‘Hoos next week for Wahoo Wednesday, an evening which promises to be a fun opportunity to network with fellow alums in the Chicago area.  We will be having BYOB sushi at Gari Sushi in the Ukranian Village.  Looking forward to seeing you there.  Wednesday November 6, @ 7:30pm Gari Sushi 2020 W. Chicago Avenue

“From personal experience, when I was new in town the UVa dinner group was a great way to meet people outside of work and expand my local social network.”  K. Becker D’08