JAMES A. GIARDINA ’77

JAMES A. GIARDINA, James Alfred Giardina (Wesleyan Class of 1977) died on Saturday 25th of August 2007 after a long battle with pancreatic cancer, at his home in Rheinfelden, AG. James was born in Santa Monica, California on May 17th 1955, son of James Alfred Giardina (?) and Barbara Helen Nordgren Giardina (?).James graduated from Cromwell High School in 1973, then attended Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut, graduating with a degree in European History in 1977. He began his career in Connecticut as a banker, then in 1979 moved to S?o Paulo, Brazil as a financial consultant. In 1983 he left Brazil to get an MBA from INSEAD, in Fontainebleau, France and subsequently began a 23-year career in finance with the Swiss pharmaceutical industry. From 1983 – to 1993 he worked with Sandoz AG, with postings in Basel, Jakarta, Indonesia, Guadalajara, Mexico and Dallas, Texas. In 1993 he joined the Roche Diagnostics Division, returning to Switzerland. James was married in 1980 in Smiths Parish, Bermuda to Wendy Suzanne Brown (also Wesleyan alumni of 1977), and they have two daughters, Stefanie Grace, born in 1984 in Basel, and Francesca Blythe, born in 1987 in Singapore. In March 2000, James and his family took on Swiss citizenship. He is also survived by a sister, Nancy Giardina Bennett, who lives with her husband and two sons in Farmington, Connecticut. A service was held in his memory on Friday 31st of August at the Christkatholische Stadtkirche zu St. Martin in Rheinfelden. Instead of flowers, the family would be grateful for a donation to a charity of your choice, or the Aargauische Krebsliga Ambulante Onkologiepflege (AOP) Postcheckkonto: 50-72019-9 or the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network, (www.pancan.org) 2141 Rosecrans Avenue, Suite 7000, El Segundo, CA 90245.