Santa Clara Magazine

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.

L.A. County Deputy Public Defender Luis Rodriguez ’89, J.D. ’92 is running unopposed for president of the State Bar of California for 2013-2014. Rodriguez, the current vice president, was admitted to the State Bar in 1994 after attending college and law school at the University of Santa Clara. He is a former president of the California La Raza Lawyers Association, the Mexican American Bar Association and the Latino Public Defenders Association. MABA, which Rodriguez headed in 2001, issued a congratulatory statement calling him “an exemplary role model for the next generation of Latino/Latina lawyers in the State of California.”

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.

Colleen Kannaday '89 was appointed president of Advocate BroMenn Medical Center, Normal, and Advocate Eureka Hospital, Eureka. Kannaday has nearly 20 years of experience as a health care executive. She served most recently as president of St. Francis Hospital and Health Center, Blue Island, and led a stabilization strategy for the 410-bed hospital, which had an operating budget of $170 million, 1,400 associates and 350 physicians. She also served as vice president of operations and interim president at Saint Eugene Community Hospital in Dillon, S.C., and worked at Good Samaritan Regional Hospital in Mt. Vernon.

Keith Jordan ’89, J.D. ’93 writes, "I work for an amazing company that is a disruptive game-changer for the betterment of business and employees. I partner with other companies and look for ways to bring value to their business with a measurable ROI. I determine how I can improve a company's 'PIERS': Productivity, Image, Expenses, Revenue, Safety, Security, Stability."

Denny Huebner ’89 and family (wife, Susan; son, Brian, 19; and daughter, Anna, 13) returned to the Bay Area from Nakuru, Kenya, after serving as missionaries for three years with Rohi Children Organization. They are now adjusting to the reverse culture shock of life in Livermore, Calif. and looking for jobs and/or new ministry opportunities.

Timothy S. Heher '84, MBA '89 was appointed vice president of finance at ZONARE Medical Systems, Inc., a developer of high-end ultrasound solutions.

Heher brings to ZONARE more than 25 years of experience in key financial positions within the medical industry, both in ultrasound and healthcare IT.  Heher brings direct senior level experience in reducing costs and improving administrative and operational efficiencies at leading organizations, such as Allocade, Siemens and Acuson. At ZONARE, he will direct the company's overall financial operations, including financial planning and analysis, cash management and financial statement preparation.

Prior, Heher was the CFO at Allocade, Inc. in Menlo Park, and was responsible for all the finance and accounting activities and key in securing significant funding from VCs. His ultrasound experience includes over 16 years at Siemens Medical Solutions' Ultrasound Division and Acuson for where he assumed responsibilities as director of finance overseeing supply chain management, service, sales, and service & marketing

Charm (Barber) Hartland '89 is a Senior Manager, Strategic Planning & Operations, Cisco Systems and just celebrated her 16th anniversary with the company. Charm lives in San Jose with her husband Andrew and sons Connor and Tyler.

Chrissy (Spencer) Hardcastle '89 is teaching her 15th year of English/AP Literature at Central High School-East Campus in Fresno, Calif. She and her husband Randy reside in Clovis with their daughters Kali (a junior at St. Mary's college-yes, she is a Gael), Meagan (a senior at SJM HS), and Hayden (a very active 2-year old). She appreciates the inspiration she received from her SCU professors.

Jens Gordon '89 was named the new coach of the Salinas High School boys basketball team. He becomes just the third varsity boys basketball coach at Salinas High in 65 years. 

Gordon, who earned a full-ride basketball scholarship to SCU, was an undrafted free agent for the San Antonio Spurs in 1989. After breaking his ankle, he went on to play basketball professionally in Europe and Japan for 19 years.  

In 2006 he returned to the Salinas area and earned his teaching credential at Cal State University-Monterey Bay. Last year he coached the Salinas High JV girls team to an 18-4 record.

Mark Delsman MBA '89 has been appointed the new vice president of engineering at Pliant Technology.

Tracy Garfinkel Darchini ’89 was promoted to Media Relations Manager for Daimler Trucks North America in Portland, Ore.

Robert Colaizzi ’89 has joined Atlona, a global manufacturer of cutting-edge digital connectivity solutions, as the CFO. Colaizzi brings more than 20 years of experience building world-class accounting, finance, and operational teams to Atlona. He has extensive global experience in optimizing operations and driving revenue and profitability by successfully developing and executing financial and operational strategies. Colaizzi holds a B.S. in economics from Santa Clara University and an M.B.A. in finance from the College of Notre Dame. Atlona supplies an extensive range of high-quality products—from cables, splitters, and extenders to distribution amplifiers, converters, switchers, and more—to a diverse client base spanning the consumer electronics, home theater, computing, retail, systems integration, professional A/V, broadcast, entertainment, medical digital imaging, and digital signage markets.