Santa Clara Magazine

Peter Verbica ’82 joined the Global Wealth Management Group at Merrill Lynch's Silicon Valley Complex. He is the proud dad of four talented daughters. His oldest daughter serves as an IT petty officer for the U.S. Navy aboard an aircraft carrier. His second daughter, a ballerina, just graduated from Walnut Hill School for the Arts near Boston, Mass., and is doing a Summer Intensive at Princeton Ballet. His third daughter is on the varsity tennis team at Fountain Valley School in Colorado, and his youngest daughter is an avid long-distance runner.

Tom Squeri '82, J.D. '85, longtime vice president and general counsel of Granite Rock Co., was named as the company's president and CEO. Squeri worked for two private law firms in the San Franciso Bay Area that specialized in construction litigation prior to joining Graniterock: San Francisco's Pettit and Martin, where he became a partner in 1993, and the San Jose office of Coudert Brothers.

Paul Russell '73, MBA '82 was appointed senior vice president of engineering at ArrayPower, a Silicon Valley-based power electronics company.

Russell has more than 25 years of experience in technology development for companies in the solar, aerospace and defense industries. Prior, he served as senior vice president of engineering for concentrated photovoltaic solar systems provider Amonix. Additional experience includes multiple executive positions with Northrop Grumman and Space Systems/Loral, as well as systems engineering roles with Ford Aerospace.

Larry Murnane ’82 joined Breakwater Equity Partners, a commercial real estate workout consultancy and investment firm, as a senior strategist.

Murnane has more than 20 years of extensive practical experience in commercial real estate transactions and litigation involving purchasing, selling, leasing, financing and loan restructuring. Prior, Murnane was a principal at one of San Diego’s oldest and most respected real estate law firms. More recently, he founded and managed a commercial real estate investments firm.

He also served as an adjunct professor at the University of San Diego, teaching real estate courses to both undergraduate and post-graduate students. His experience includes having served on the San Diego County Property Tax Assessment Appeals Board, and as a Judge Pro Tem and Arbitrator for the San Diego Superior Court.

Albie B. Jachimowicz J.D. ’82 writes: “Would love to see how young everyone looks [at the reunion], but my son Josh J.D. ’11 is getting married the same weekend to Caitlin Robinett J.D. ’10. See you at the 60th reunion!”

Freshman Dorm: McLaughlin

Dan Greco ’82 writes, "I've been a prosecutor my entire career, helping victims and the police. I work in the Washoe County District Attorney's Office. The county includes Reno, Sparks, Lake Tahoe, Washoe Valley, and stretches all the way up to the Oregon border. After graduating from law school, I worked on general felony cases. I was lucky enough to be promoted to the Major Crimes Unit in 1995, and I have been the Chief Deputy District Attorney in charge of that unit since 1999. Never a dull moment. I spend 75 percent of my time prosecuting murders. The rest of my time is split between handling "special assignments" and supervising the other attorneys in the Major Crimes Unit. In 1996 I married Melissa. She was a court reporter for many years, and then in 1994 she went to work for the United States Probation Office. After years of trying--it's complicated--God finally blessed us with a daughter, Adelyn ("Addi"), on July 22, 2011. (See attached photo.) Melissa had to spend 58 days in the hospital, but she eventually had a full recovery. We are very happy and Addi has remedied the one thing that was missing in our lives."

Pete Dunbar ’82 is retiring at the end of September as  Pleasant Hill police chief after 30 years in law enforcement. Dunbar joined the Pleasant Hill Police Department in February 2006, replacing current Contra Costa Sheriff David Livingston, who had left to take over Concord's police force.

Chris Walker '83 has recently joined IBM Global Business Services as healthcare training program manager for the Middle East and Africa. He now lives in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, with his wife of 20 years, Hassania, and their youngest son, Norm, who is a freshman at American Community School of Abu Dhabi.

Karen Drury Russell J.D. ’83 practices and promotes collaboration and mediation as alternatives to litigation in divorce proceedings through her law practice in Campbell, for a “peaceful, respectful divorce.”

Lucy Paliwoda '83, a director of engineering in Northrop Grumman's electronic systems sector, received special recognition at the 17th annual Women of Color in Technology STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) Conference for her leadership. Paliwoda was cited for her commitment to helping others and her distinguished service in advancing science and technology.

Paliwoda's technical leadership and interpersonal skills have been instrumental in her appointment to leadership positions within Northrop Grumman. Currently, she is director of engineering for several company campuses in California and Colorado. Paliwoda is responsible for technical and process excellence for hardware engineering, software engineering, test engineering and flight operations. Her primary program areas support the payload and mission processing programs for various satellite programs.

Matthew C. McGlynn '83, J.D. '86 is now serving as a judge on the Superior Court of Tehama County.

Henry Manayan J.D. ’83 was appointed chief operating officer of Discovery Minerals Ltd.

Manayan was appointed to a White House advisory group on Asian-Pacific affairs by U.S. President Bill Clinton, served three terms as the mayor of Milpitas, and was the first Asian-American ever elected to the position.

Manayan is the president of Transpacific Companies, LLC, a finance and investment company based in Silicon Valley. He was also a co-founder of ViaGold Capital, a private equity and venture fund holding company, which went public on the Australian Stock Exchange. He was involved in the merger and acquisition of Culturecom Holdings, Ltd., which is listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. While at Culturecom Holdings, his focus was in mergers and acquisitions. He served as chairman, CEO, board director or executive officer to numerous portfolio companies including Terra Solar Global, which was recently sold. He also has been an officer, director or legal counsel to numerous companies and organizations in four countries.

George Kemble ’83 has been appointed to the Scientific Advisory Board of Mymetics, a leader in the development of mucosal and virosomal-based vaccines for infectious diseases. Dr. Kemble is currently the CSO at 3-V Biosciences, a biotech company with a unique approach to antiviral drug discovery and development. He is a leading authority on vaccine development and in particular the development of vaccines for RSV. Dr. Kemble was responsible for the research and development of multiple products, including the successful launch of FluMist.

P. Gregory "Greg" Frey '83 has again been selected to Hawaii Super Lawyers, a distinction afforded to approximately 5 percent of Hawaii's lawyers. Frey has been selected in the areas of both family law and mediation for the last three years. He continues as the managing attorney at Coates & Frey, AAL, LLLC, Hawaii's largest and best-known family law firm. He and his wife of almost 27 years, Maria "Mia" Fialho Frey '84, have two adult children, including Samantha Io'ana Malia Frey ’10. Currently Greg works with several energetic class members on the Class of 1983 30th Grand Reunion Committee and looks forward to seeing the entire class at the reunion.

Paul Hoen ’84 received the Director's Guild award for his children's show Let It Shine on the Disney Channel. This is Mr. Hoen's sixth DGA Award nomination. He won the DGA Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Children's Program in 2007 for Jump In and was previously nominated in this category in 2000 for the Even Stevens episode "Take My Sister? Please," in 2004 for Searching for David's Heart, in 2008 for Cheetah Girls: One World and in 2010 for Camp Rock 2: The Final Jam.

Bob Reid MBA '84 has been admitted to the PhD program in business at Oklahoma State University.

Mary Mathews-Stevens ’84 has been elected to SCU’s Board of Trustees. Along with her husband, Mark, a former partner in the venture-capital firm Sequoia Capital, Mary has been active in education philanthropy with their support of numerous educational organizations in California. Earlier in her career, Mary spent 14 years in the commercial real estate industry in Silicon Valley. She served as a Vice President at Cornish & Carey Commercial Newmark Knight Frank in Santa Clara. Their philanthropy has included a $500,000 gift to endow a fellowship program for graduates of the high school Mary attended in Portland, St. Mary's Academy, who wish to attend SCU. In a gesture to honor the late former president of Santa Clara University, in 2008 the couple donated $7 million for the Paul L. Locatelli, S.J., Student Activity Center.

Michael Dillon J.D. ’84 was appointed general counsel of Adobe Systems Incorporated. Dillon comes to the company with 25 years of corporate legal experience, much of it in the technology industry. Before signing on with Adobe, he was general counsel at Silver Spring Networks, a networking solutions provider. He also spent 14 years in the legal department of Sun Microsystems, including a stint as general counsel, prior to its acquisition by Oracle Corporation. He took a few years’ break from Sun to serve ONI Systems Corp., an optical networking company, as it was being launched.

Rick Martig '84 was appointed CFO of Nexenta Systems. Most recently, Martig served as the vice president of File & Content at Hitachi Data Systems, following the company's acquisition of BlueArc in September 2011.

Martig has 26 years of senior leadership, finance, and accounting experience in the public and private sectors. Prior to joining Nexenta Systems, Martig served as BlueArc's chief financial officer where he managed the finance, human resources, and IT departments. Prior to BlueArc, Martig was CFO at Genesis Microchip, and he spent 12 years at Xilinx, where he was responsible for managing a global organization of 80+ in Asia, Europe, and California. 

Frankie Wong M.S. ’85 joined Brinks Hofer Gilson & Lione in Chicago as a patent agent with particular focus on patent prosecution in wireless and network communications and the computer arts. Before joining Brinks, Wong prosecuted more than 230 patent applications in the areas of 3G and 4G wired and wireless communication systems. He began his career as a design engineer, working for CTT Inc., Microsource Inc./Gigatronics and Nexyn Corp., in the Silicon Valley. He also worked as a patent engineer for Patent Planet, Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories Inc. and as a patent agent at McAndrews, Held & Malloy.
 

Royce Roberts J.D. ’85 explores the public's misconception of public defenders, as well as the importance of our public defense system, in his new book Public Pretender. A public defender for more than 20 years, his book began as a way of understanding what he was experiencing at juvenile court with his clients and the child-welfare system. He works as a public defender in Washington state for the King County–funded nonprofit agency, the Society of Counsel Representing Accused Persons (SCRAP).