Santa Clara Magazine

Taryn Hook J.D. 88's short story,"Pluto Rising," is included in the Literary Journal TheWritingDisorder.com's Anthology, Volume II. The Anthology presents the best short fiction published by the WritingDisorder.com in 2011. Hook is an author and private investigator living and working in the South Bay Area.

Taryn Hook, Esq., J.D. '88 writes that she "is credited with bringing a mysterious disease killing snakes all over the world to the attention of renowned scientist Dr. Joe DeRisi, Vice Chair of the Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics at UCSF. Hook, an amateur herpetologist, wrote DeRisi a letter imploring him to find a cure for Inclusion Body Disease, which killed two of her pet snakes and potentially affected another, Larry. In response, Dr. DeRisi researched the disease, and discovered that the cause of the illness appears to originate from a new set of viruses similar to the Ebola virus. A news article published by UCSF in August of this year relates that this new discovery potentially leads to diagnostics and treatment, making it possible to someday eliminate the disease from snake collections worldwide. Hook is featured in an UCSF and NPR story about Dr. DeRisi's groundbreaking discovery as well as on other major media outlets."

Holly (Mallory) Fidrych '88 and Bob Fidrych were married in October 2007 in the Mission Church. They had their daughter, Mallory, in September 2008. The family lives in Campbell, Calif.

Holly (Mallory) '88, Bob, & big sister Mallory welcome Robert John (RJ) on December 5th, 2011. The family lives in Campbell, Calif.

Steve Erbst ’88 has joined Egnyte, a provider of hybrid cloud file server solutions, as VP of sales. Erbst was most recently director of worldwide sales for Cisco’s collaboration products after itsr $215 million acquisition of PostPath. Prior to Egnyte, Erbst held management positions at RSA Security (acquired by EMC), Network Chemistry (acquired by Aruba), and Sana Security (acquired by AVG Technologies). Egnyte’s unique technology provides the speed and security of local storage with the accessibility of the cloud. Users can easily store, share, access and backup files, while IT has the centralized administration and control to enforce business policies.

Laura Draxler M.S. ’88 writes: “This is my fifth year working in the clean technology/energy industry with early stage companies and at the Cleantech Open. I am proud that my son is graduating from Woodside Priory School this year and is hoping to attend Santa Clara University!”

Henry Dehlinger '88 released his new solo piano album, Evocations of Spain, in November. Showcasing a fresh, New World interpretation of the piano music of Isaac Albeniz and Enrique Granados, the album will speak to “folks with broad musical tastes who listen to classical music with some regularity.”

“If you’re a fan of solo piano and love the sensuous Spanish sound,” Dehlinger says, “you’ll love this album.” The music draws on the beautiful melodies of Andalusia with its Flamenco rhythms and exotic overtones. Also prominent is the use of cante jondo, or “deep song” of the Spanish gypsies.

For nearly a decade, the former tech executive had led sales and marketing teams on three continents, most recently as global VP of an IT company in Northern Virginia. Well before venturing to the corporate world, Dehlinger distinguished himself musically on celebrated stages, from the White House in Washington, D.C., to the War Memorial Performing Arts Center in San Francisco. His first mentor was conductor Dr. William “Doc” Ballard, legendary director of the San Francisco Boys Chorus. Dehlinger credits Doc for his early success. By the time he was ten, Dehlinger was part of the Bay Area music scene, performing with Luciano Pavarotti and Montserrat Caballé and entertaining VIPs from the President of the United States to the Prince of Wales. At twelve, Dehlinger was invited to study with piano virtuoso Thomas LaRatta, founder of the Crestmont Conservatory of Music and student of the great Rudolf Ganz. Enchanted with Spanish music, Dehlinger traveled to Spain, where he enrolled at the University of Valencia. He later graduated from Santa Clara University.

Greg Dalcher ’88 is a senior software engineer with McAfee Corp. in Beaverton, Ore.

Maryvette Backhus '88 lives in Sacramento and shares a dental practice with husband Mark. The couple has two daughters: Alexa, 12, and Kailey, 9.

Colonel Roy Agustin ’88 lives in Georgia and is the deputy director for Installations and Mission Support for Headquarters Air Force Reserve Command.

Deanne Sprinkle Wilsted '89 has had her second book published. Untangling the Knot is a contemporary romantic comedy set amid a Catholic wedding. She, husband Jeff, and their daughter live in Portland, Ore.

Gary Waldeck MBA '89 is running for Los Altos Hills City Council. Waldeck worked for 35 years in various technical and management jobs with aerospace companies including Ford Aerospace, TRW (now Northrup Grumman), and Lockheed.

Kristin Valente '89, a veteran account leader at Ernst & Young's Seattle office, was promoted on May 2, 2011 to the firm’s Advisory Services practice in Portland where she is now an Advisory Services partner. Valente will help mature and emerging Oregon businesses realize their growth plans and accelerate their success with fresh thinking and insights. “Kristin brings more than 20 years of client service experience to our Portland practice, with a strong focus on helping clients manage risk, transform business performance and sustain improvement,” said Peter Doubleday, managing partner of the firm’s Portland office. “She’s a strategic problem solver and is well-respected by her clients for helping them realize their business goals.” Prior to joining the advisory practice in Seattle, she worked as an auditor for the firm in Silicon Valley, where her clients included some of the Valley’s top technology firms. She later served as leader of the firm’s Global Innovation team, addressing issues of privacy, systems reliability, outsourced relationships and intellectual property protection across a wide range of industries and business models. In 2000, Valente was recognized by the AICPA for issuing the first SysTrust report on systems reliability for a client. She also pioneered Ernst & Young’s CyberProcess Certification methodology, which offered the first examination-based, online certification for Internet businesses. Valente is a certified public accountant and a Certified Information Systems Auditor. She is licensed to practice in California, Ohio, Oregon and Washington, and is a member of the American Institute of Public Accountants and the Washington State Society of CPAs and the Information Systems Audit and Controls Association.

The newest future Bronco, Ashley Elodie Tsu was born to Ben Tsu '89 and Jill Tsu on 1 June 2011. Born at 8:42 AM, Ashley weighed in at 8 pounds and 7 ounces. She joins her brother Aidan, born in 2009. The Tsus live in the Seattle, WA area.

Jenni Symons '89 has been inducted into the Los Gatos High School Athletic Hall of Fame for her outstanding accomplishments in soccer, field-hockey, and softball during her high school career.

Edwin R. Stafford MBA '89 has won the Seven Summits Award Best Mountain/Environmental Film at the Mountain Film Festival in Mammoth Lakes, California, for his co-produced documentary entitled, Wind Uprising. The film chronicles Utah's four-year struggle to establish the state's first commercial wind project at the mouth of Spanish Fork Canyon, about 50 miles south of Salt Lake City. Describing the story from the entrepreneurs' perspective, the documentary highlights the social, political, and market barriers hurdled by the developers and the lessons learned from jumpstarting a new cleantech industry in the state. Edwin is a marketing professor and co-director of the Center for the Market Diffusion of Renewable Energy and Clean Technology at the Jon M. Huntsman School of Business, Utah State University, Logan, Utah (www.cleantech.usu.edu).

Bricken Sparacino '89 received the 2008 People of the Year award from the website nytheatre.com for her work in independent theater. She lives, acts, directs, and writes in New York City with her husband, Michael Birch.

Eileen Silva ’89 joined the Department of Surgery at the U.C. San Diego Medical Center as a senior editor in March, after a layoff and contracting for 18 months.

Mickey Pierce '89 and Nancy (Schnetz) Pierce '89 joyfully welcomed a baby boy, Dominic James, on October 6, 2010. Dominic weighed 7 lbs., 6 oz. and was 19.75 inches long. The family lives in San Jose.

Wayne Montgomery JD ’89 was appointed Vice President of legal affairs and intellectual property of iPierian,  a biopharmaceutical company focused on the industrialization of induced pluripotent stem cell. Montgomery comes prepared with over twenty years of experience as an intellectual property law attorney in the biopharmaceutical industry. He most recently served as vice president of patents at Exelixis. Previously, he served as vice president of intellectual property at Nektar Therapeutics. He held the position of vice president, assistant general counsel & chief patent counsel at Axys Pharmaceuticals prior to its acquisition by Celera, and subsequently vice president of intellectual property at Celera Genomics. Mr. Montgomery began his legal career with Syntex Legal Affairs. Prior to entering the legal profession, he served as a pharmacologist with Syntex Research. He received a J.D. degree from Santa Clara University School of Law and undergraduate degrees in biochemistry and pharmacology from the University of California, Santa Barbara.

Fred Mendez '89 was named director of the Office of Corporate Social Responsibility at Rabobank NA. He was previously senior vice president of community and economic development. He and his wife Nicole live in Sacramento with their two boys, Alejandro and Santiago.

Edward Kwok J.D. ’89 joined Hogan Lovells as a partner in the intellectual property practice, based in Silicon Valley. Kwok's practice focuses on patent prosecution, patent and trade secret litigation, IP portfolio assessment and development, infringement and validity opinions, and licensing. He has extensive experience in representing clients in intellectual property litigations in state courts, federal courts, and the ITC.

Since 1993, he has participated in patent infringement and trade secret trials before the ITC. Kwok has prosecuted patents for analog and digital electronic circuits, computer architecture, network systems, software, semiconductor equipment, semiconductor materials and processing, mass storage media, optical and laser instrumentation, controllers, telecommunication systems, digital signal processing, image processing, wireless communication systems, global positioning system applications, and software and Internet applications.

Before becoming a lawyer, Kwok held various engineering and management positions in the semiconductor industry.