As they prepared to merge, Travelers Property Casualty Corp. and The St. Paul Companies Inc., named Samuel G. Liss ’78 executive vice president of strategic development. He had joined St. Paul as executive vice president of business development in February 2003 and had advised St. Paul on its exit from reinsurance and the formation of Platinum Underwriters Holdings Ltd. last year. Previously, he was a managing director at Credit Suisse First Boston. He pursued graduate studies at the London School of Economics and Political Science and received his master’s degree in business administration from New York University.
LYNNE MACFARLANE ’75 was named vice president of human resources for Jamba Juice, a leader in made-to-order fruit smoothies and freshly squeezed juices. MacFarlane joined Jamba after recently serving as vice president of human resources for The Limited, Inc., the specialty retailer. CEO Paul Clayton noted that MacFarlane, who has 25 years of professional experience, was chosen “not only because of her vast experience in employee relations, organizational development and employee/ performance management, but for her ability to anticipate organization and cultural changes as we enter the next expansion phase. Lynne impressed us as someone who clearly sees the big picture and has the skills to implement systems that will help us achieve the goals shared by everyone at Jamba Juice.”
Paul Macri ’70 has been elected to the American Academy of Appellate Lawyers after his work as a partner for the Lewiston, Maine, law firm of Berman & Simmons for more than 15 years. The Academy has recognized the premier appellate lawyers in the nation since 1990. A CSS major at Wesleyan, Macri has argued more than 125 cases in the First Circuit Court of Appeals and the Maine Supreme Judicial Court.
Gail Boxer Marcus ’78 has been named CEO and president of Caris Diagnostics (formerly Pathology Partners, Inc.), a leader in comprehensive gastrointestinal diagnostic services and technology support systems. A Spanish and mathematics major at Wesleyan, she earned her M.S.E. at the University of Pennsylvania, Moore School of Engineering, and earned an M.B.A. at the Wharton School. She has more than 20 years of leadership experience in health care services, most recently, as COO of UnitedHealth Europe. She also has been an adjunct professor for healthcare strategy at the UConn business school. This new position provides Marcus an opportunity to lead a high growth business; she looks forward to the opportunity to have a more direct impact on improving patient care at Caris. She is married to Peter Marcus ’77; Emilie Marcus ’82 is her sister-in-law.
Amy Montgomery ’77 was recently honored with a gold medal at the ForeWord Magazine Book-of-the-Year awards ceremony, held at BookExpo America. Montgomery’s novel, Just an Accident, is a record of the life of logger Scott Remington after he sustained spinal injury. The late actor Christopher Reeve praised her work as “captur[ing] not only the drama of an accidental tragedy but the power of the human spirit to overcome it. Montgomery, a CSS major at Wesleyan, holds a master’s degree from the University of Michigan.
Film location scout Bob Craft ’76 and his team won the 2008 California On Location Award (COLA), honoring their superior work on Eagle Eye. The other nominees included the scouts with Hancock, Valkyrie, and Milk. Although the story for Eagle Eye was set in the Midwest, most of the film was shot in Los Angeles. “It took a team of location scouts to make a movie as big as Eagle Eye,” says Craft. “Each person had certain locations to find and manage. One of my locations was the boyhood home of Shia LaBeouf. It took six weeks—and looking at more than 60 homes—before we found the right location, in Long Beach.” If you saw the film but can’t remember much about this setting, there’s a reason: “Except for a small interior scene, it was cut from the movie. Such is the life of a location manager,” Craft adds.
Alwyn Cohall ’76, M.D., director of the Harlem Health Promotion Center, recently received a $4.375-million award from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to study the impact of Web-based interactive health communication on improving health promotion in Harlem. Additionally, as director of Project STAY (Services to Assist Youth), he also received a $2.125-million award from the New York State Department of Health. “A unique component of the program is the formation of a mobile health team, who provide off-site education and screening services to youth in community sites, such as alternative high schools and alternatives-to-incarceration programs,” he notes. Affiliated with the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University, he received his medical degree from the University of Medicine and Dentisty of New Jersey.
The American Academy of Arts and Sciences welcomed Alan M. Dachs ’70, chair emeritus of the Wesleyan Board of Trustees, as one of its 2007 class of fellows. He joins this 227-year-old academy, whose current research is focused on science and global security, social policy, the humanities and culture, and education. Dachs is president and chief executive officer of the Fremont Group in San Francisco. He serves on the boards of directors of the Bechtel Group and the S. D. Bechtel, Jr. Foundation, the Brookings Institution, and The Conference Board. He is a member of the Corporation Visiting Committee for the Engineering Systems Division of MIT, the Advisory Board of the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies at Stanford University and chairs Wesleyan’s development committee. At the university’s Commencement in May, he was awarded an honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters.
CBS4 reporter Peter D’Oench ’73 was honored by both the City of Miami and Miami-Dade County for a journalistic career that spans two decades in the South Florida market, his dedication, and “acts of social conscience and benevolence, exemplary deeds that honor the traditional sense of rebirth and brotherhood.” In fact, D’Oench’s contributions were deemed so significant that he was awarded two certificates–one from the city of Miami and another from Miami-Dade County.
JOSHUA BOGER ’73, chairman and chief executive officer of Vertex Pharmaceuticals, was recently named as one of 40 Technology Pioneers by the World Economic Forum. Selected for their company’s innovative approach, potential impact, growth and sustainability, proof of concept and leadership, these individuals traveled to Switzerland to participate with other business leaders in the forum. Vertex Pharmaceuticals, a biotechnology corporation, applies an integrated, multi-disciplinary approach to discover, develop and commercialize drugs. In the last three years alone, Vertex has used its proprietary drug discovery capability to advance 12 new drugs into development with the potential to treat debilitating and life-threatening diseases. Boger, a trustee of Wesleyan, received both his master’s and doctoral degrees from Harvard University.
![Amy Montgomery '77 was recently honored with a gold medal at the ForeWord Magazine Book-of-the-Year awards ceremony, held at BookExpo America. Montgomery's novel, Just an Accident, is a record of the life of logger Scott Remington after he sustained spinal injury. The late actor Christopher Reeve praised her work as "captur[ing] not only the drama of an accidental tragedy but the power of the human spirit to overcome it. Montgomery, a CSS major at Wesleyan, holds a master's degree from the University of Michigan.](https://classnotes.blogs.wesleyan.edu/files/2013/11/montgomery.jpg)
