Please join President Michael Roth '78 and the Wesleyan Board of Trustees at a reception celebrating members of the Wesleyan Leadership Societies. Wesleyan Leadership Societies—the Wesleyan Circle, the 1831 Society, the Olin Associates—recognize the extraordinary commitment and support of Wesleyan leadership donors and volunteers. By invitation only.
President’s House Lawn

Homewood Suites by Hilton, Glastonbury, CT

Speakers: Michael S. Roth '78 became the 16th president of Wesleyan University on July 1, 2007. Formerly president of California College of the Arts (CCA), Roth is known as a historian, curator, author and public advocate for liberal education. A professor in history and the humanities since 1983, Roth was the founding director of the Scripps College Humanities Institute in Claremont, Calif., a center for intellectual exchange across disciplines. He developed a reputation as a leader in the arts community through his accomplishments as associate director of the Getty Research Institute in Los Angeles and his success as President of the California College of the Arts in enhancing that institution’s academic quality, national reputation and financial strength. Roth describes his scholarly interests as centered on "how people make sense of the past." He has authored six books, most recently, Beyond the University: Why Liberal Education Matters (Yale University Press, 2014). Leon Wieseltier is the Isaiah Berlin Senior Fellow in Culture and Policy at the Brookings Institution. He has had a long and distinguished career as a writer, editor, and social and political commentator. From 1983 to 2014, he was the literary editor of The New Republic and currently serves as a contributing editor and critic at The Atlantic. Wieseltier holds a bachelor's from Columbia University and was a member of the Society of Fellows at Harvard University. At Oxford University, he studied under Isaiah Berlin. He holds honorary doctorates from Brandeis University and the Jewish Theological Seminary, and was awarded the Dan David Prize in 2013. He is the author of several books, including the widely acclaimed Kaddish (Knopf, 1998).
Commons, Fries Center for Global Studies, Fisk Hall

Take a scenic bike ride through Middletown, Middlefield and Durham with Bob Russo '82. The ride is open to all ability levels, no one gets dropped. The group will meet in front of OIin Library (on Church Street) at 9am. The 25 mile loop runs out Long Lane and
into farm and orchard country. Stop and have coffee afterward at Pi Café.
Meet in front of Olin Library (on Church Street)

Admission Deans Nancy Meislahn, Chris Lanser and Cliff Thornton, and University Relations Assistant Director Kate Quigley Lynch ’82, P’17, ’19, will host a “fireside chat” with the Class of 1992 to discuss parenting children through the college admission process. Parents from other classes are welcome.
Note: This session is specifically for parents. The Office of Admission offers information sessions and tours on Thursday, 5/25, and Friday, 5/26, for interested families.
McKelvey Room, Stewart M. Reid House, Office of Admission

Speakers: John Borthwick ’87 is betaworks CEO, founder. Betaworks is a startup platform that builds and invests in companies across the social, data driven media internet. Its platform combines three areas of expertise. A studio for building products like Giphy, Dots, bitly and Tweetdeck. An investment fund for early stage start-ups related to the areas the company is building in. Previous investments include: Tumblr, Kickstarter, Medium and Gimlet. And camp, a thematic accelerator program for start-ups in frontier technology such as Bots, AI and Verbal Computing. Betaworks works to bring together these three areas to create extraordinary companies and work with exceptional people combining art and science. Prior to betaworks, John was CEO of Fotolog. Fotolog was one of the first and largest social photo sharing sites — pre Flickr and Facebook. John was an angel investor in Fotolog and then stepped in as CEO. In less than a year he turned the company cash flow positive and sold the business for $96M. Before Fotolog, John was SVP of Alliances and Technology Strategy for Time Warner Inc. He came to Time Warner from AOL. At Time Warner he worked with the management team and the divisions to drive technology strategy across the company and lead several large technology partnerships for the company, including Microsoft, Google, Sony and Intel. During this period John got involved in driving technology policy for the company, and as part of this effort he became an expert witness in the Microsoft Antitrust trial. Prior to Time Warner John was an executive at AOL, leading the new product development studio. John arrived at AOL after they acquired his first company, WP-Studio, founded in 1994, one of the first internet companies in New York. Since 1994 he has been a leader in New York technology. John holds an MBA from Wharton and an undergraduate degree in Economics from Wesleyan University. He sits on the board of WNYC, NYPR, Data and Society, Giphy, Dots and Blade. Jim Friedlich ’79, P’17 is a media and philanthropy executive. He serves as Chief Executive Officer of The Lenfest Institute for Journalism, a non-profit foundation that supports journalism innovations and technologies nationwide and is the owner of The Philadelphia Inquirer, winner of twenty Pulitzer Prizes. The Inquirer is now the largest newspaper in America operated as a public benefit corporation and owned by a non-profit foundation. Friedlich served as group publisher of The Wall Street Journal for Europe, Asia, and Latin America, was a Board Director of CNBC International, and a co-founder of WSJ.com. He is an active media venture capital investor and was a seed investor in Business Insider before its sale to Axel Springer in 2015. Laura R. Walker ’79, P’21 is President and CEO of New York Public Radio, the largest public radio station group in the nation. Ms. Walker led New York Public Radio during a period of dramatic growth and innovation. Under her leadership, New York Public Radio has increased its audience from 1 million to 23.9 million, has raised more than $150 million in long term investment, created WNYC Studios, the second largest podcast producer in the country, and has been described by Neiman Lab’s Ken Doctor as being on “innovation overdrive.” She has established New York Public Radio as a place that produces award-winning enterprise journalism, nurtures today’s most creative talent, and creates innovative products that bring the best of public radio to listeners everywhere. Ms. Walker holds an MBA from the Yale School of Management and a BA in History, magna cum laude, from Wesleyan University where she was an Olin Scholar.  
Introduction: Brad Lubin '87 P'20 graduated from Wesleyan with a BA in economics, where he was a rower on the Varsity Crew team, and received an MBA from New York University School of Business in 1990. He was an Associate in the Citibank Global Information Group until 1992, before moving to Israel to participate in a training program with the Israeli Defense Forces. In 1993 he returned to the United States to lead his family's specialty chemical manufacturing businesses, Sanolite Corporation and Cavalier Corporation. Over a twenty year period he developed their national distribution of products and services and in 2011 he spearheaded the sale of Sanolite Corporation to a publicly traded global corporation. He currently consults for several companies in related industries and is developing his former manufacturing facilities in Sunset Park, Brooklyn (deemed "one of "New York's Next Hot Neighborhoods" by the New York Times in 2016) into residential and mixed-use commercial real estate. He lives in Westchester, NY and is married with three children, Gillian (Wesleyan Class of 2020), Ethan and Jake.
Hansel Lecture Hall (001), Public Affairs Center

This year's featured speaker is distinguished alumnus award recipient, Nicholas J. Rasmussen '87, Director of the National Counterterrorism Center who will speak on "The Pursuit of Public Service in a Politically Divided America: Reflections of a Career Civil Servant." 

The 2017 Distinguished Alumni, McConaughy, and Outstanding Service Awards are presented at this time.

Distinguished Alumni Awards are presented to alumni in recognition of achievement in their professions.
Michele A. Roberts '77
Amy Schulman '82, P'11
Tos Chirathivat '85, P'14,'17
Nicholas J. Rasmussen '87
Isaac O. Shongwe '87
Santi White '97
Robert Lewis Allbritton '92

The James L. McConaughy Jr. Award was established in 1959 by the class of 1936 in memory of James L. McConaughy Jr. '36, the James L. McConaughy Jr. Memorial Award recognizes a member of the Wesleyan family (including students, faculty, alumni, parents, and members of their respective families) whose writing, or other creative achievement, conveys unusual insight and understanding of current and past events.
Matthew H. Weiner '87, P'18

The Outstanding Service Award is presented to alumni, parents, or other members of the Wesleyan community in recognition of outstanding volunteer service to Wesleyan, their community, or the nation.
Rick Nicita '67
Memorial Chapel

Many of us unwittingly sent messages to our future selves while we were students; it is high time we opened these time capsules. Chances are you have a few of your old Wesleyan papers, essays, stories, plays, or poems stashed in a banker’s box or an accordion file folder somewhere. Now here’s the part that requires just five minutes of homework: find one (don’t worry, you probably only saved the good ones). Re-read the piece. Recognize the author? At all? What did you just learn about the subject or yourself then and now? Come to our session to share.
Speakers: David Brancaccio ’82 is host and senior editor of public radio’s Marketplace Morning Report. David has reported from all over the world, hosted the weekly public television news program Now on PBS, and co-produced the documentary film Fixing the Future. He hosts the Esquire Classic podcast with Esquire Magazine. His book about money and values, Squandering Aimlessly, was published by Simon & Schuster. Virginia Pye ’82, P’15 is the author of two critically acclaimed novels, River of Dust and Dreams of the Red Phoenix, short fiction in literary journals, and essays at The New York Times, Literary Hub, The Rumpus, and elsewhere. She is married to art museum director, John Ravenal ’81, and is mother of Eva Ravenal ’15. After Wes, Tom Wu ’72, P’16, ’20, did an MBA at NYU and then auditing/taxes with KPMG, HR at GE, marketing with Colgate and M&A at Sara Lee. After working in Asia for fifteen years Tom relocated to the balmy climate of Seattle. Tom served as an alumni-elected Wes trustee and is the proud parent of two Wes students.
Putnam Classroom (114), Boger Hall

Join entertainment industry experts – leaders in film and television production, documentary filmmaking and management – for a conversation about lessons learned in show business.
Sasha Alpert ’82 is Executive Vice President in charge of both casting for Bunim/Murray as well as BMP Films, where she started the documentary division in 2006. Her television casting and production credits include Project Runway and The Real World, and her work with BMP Films has earned her two primetime Emmy Awards. Bradley Fuller ’87 is a producer, known for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and The Purge, and Partner at Platinum Dunes, along with Michael Bay ’86 and Andrew Form. The company, established in 2001, creates opportunities for first-time directors to make commercial, high-concept movies on modest budgets for a global audience. David Kohan ’86, P’17 is the Creator/Executive Producer of Will & Grace, Good Morning, Miami, and Executive Producer of The Stones. For his work on Will & Grace he has been honored with an Emmy Award for Outstanding Comedy Series and a People's Choice Award for Favorite New Comedy. Rick Nicita ’67 is the former Co-Chairman of Creative Artists Agency (1980-2008) and Co-Chairman and COO of Morgan Creek Productions (2008-2011). He recently executive produced Mel Gibson’s Oscar-nominated Hacksaw Ridge.
Moderator: Jeanine Basinger, the Corwin-Fuller Professor of Film Studies, is the founder of the Wesleyan Cinema Archives and the originator of Wesleyan’s distinguished Film Studies Department, for which she defined a liberal arts approach that combines history/theory and production as a unified subject of study.
Goldsmith Family Cinema, Center for Film Studies

All are welcome to honor members of the faculty who retire this year.
Retiring Faculty 2017:

• David Beveridge, Joshua Boger University Professor of the Sciences and Mathematics and Professor of Chemistry (attending)
• John Finn, Professor of Government
• Albert Fry, E.B. Nye Professor of Chemistry (attending)
• Peter Patton, Alan M. Dachs Professor of Science and Professor of Earth and Environmental Sciences (attending)
• Rex Pratt, Beach Professor of Chemistry
• Michael Roberts, Robert Rich Professor of Latin and Professor of Classical Studies (attending)
• Ruth Striegel Weissman, Walter A. Crowell University Professor of the Social Sciences

In addition, we will honor faculty who retired in 2016:

• Abraham Adzenyah, Adjunct Professor of Music, Emeritus
• Philip Bolton, Professor of Chemistry, Emeritus
• Alex Dupuy, Professor of Sociology, Emeritus (attending)
• Mark Slobin, Winslow-Kaplan Professor of Music, Emeritus

Susan B. and William K. Wasch Center for Retired Faculty, 51 Lawn Avenue

WESeniors: Andersen Meeting Room (110), Usdan University Center
1952: Andersen Meeting Room (110), Usdan University Center
1957: Taylor Meeting Room (108), Usdan University Center
1962: Olson Commons, Gordon Career Center
1967: Campbell Reference Center, Olin Memorial Library
1972: Patricelli '92 Theater
1977: Mink Dining Wing, Usdan University Center
1982: Daniel Family Commons, Usdan University Center 
1987: President's House Lawn
1992: Beckham Hall, Fayerweather
1997: Tent with red flag, McKelvey Green (lawn in front of College Row)
2002: Tent with black flag, McKelvey Green (lawn in front of College Row)
2007: The West Wing, Usdan University Center
2012: Russell House Lawn

The Rooks, formed at Wesleyan in the fall of 2011, are equal parts kick-back, head-knock, and get-down; the music you rock to at the party, and the perfect soundtrack for the ride home.

Hard-hitting performances at NYC's Irving Plaza, Mercury Lounge and Brooklyn Bowl, as well as highly successful residencies at Arlene's Grocery and Pianos NYC (second highest grossing residency in venue history) have earned them further acclaim, including Deli Magazine's Artist of the Month award (Feb 2014) and win of the 14th Annual Independent Music Awards in the R&B/Soul category.

After their 2013 EP "Something You Can Take," their 2015 follow-up "Wires," several tours, and more hours watching Beyoncé videos on YouTube than they care to admit, The Rooks are getting into the studio to work on their first full-length album.

Band members: Graham Richman '11, Guitar; Spencer Hattendorf '12, Sax, Vox; Garth Taylor '12, Lead Vox; Connor Schultze, Bass (Manhattan School of Music 2016); Donnie Spackman, Drums; Daniel Papson, Keys (Skidmore College 2012)
Tent, Andrus Field