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ALUMNI BOARD

Introducing the 2022-2023 New Alumni Board Members

The eight new alumni board members come from diverse backgrounds, with unique perspectives across multiple industries.

The Crummer Alumni Board works to create a lifelong connection between the Crummer School and its alumni by providing meaningful opportunities, events and programs beneficial to alumni. The Alumni Board holds a full schedule of programs in the areas of continuing education seminars, career management forums, and social and networking opportunities.

With a strong emphasis on the board coming from diverse backgrounds and perspectives, it strives to be representative of the entire Crummer community.

This new class of eight alumni board members come from various Crummer programs, and work as operation managers, sales executives, hold President-level roles in various industries including finance, tourism, venture capital, and consulting, amongst others. They each graduated from Crummer in different years and different programs, spanning from the 1990s to the the late-2010s, giving each of them favorite experiences, professors, and projects that are unique to their Crummer experience.

“One of the greatest benefits of the Crummer School is the vast alumni network that spans across all 50 states and multiple countries across the globe,” said Mike Brown, Director of Alumni Relations. “We are so excited to welcome in this passionate group of Crummer alumni who are already demonstrating their commitment to the School and the betterment of the Crummer alumni experience.”

 

 

Name: Anthony Chessa ’20MBA

Program: PMBA

Current career role: Business Development Manager, CPA Solutions

Anthony Chessa serves as business development manager with CPA Solutions. In his role, Chessa is a liaison to the Central Florida community by connecting business owners across medical, legal and veterinary practices with CPA Solutions’ accounting professionals who provide a wide-variety of financial services. He is responsible for developing strategies for gaining new business and ensuring current client satisfaction. He focuses on making every experience with CPA Solutions as enjoyable and valuable as possible by nurturing client relationships.

Prior to joining the CPA Solutions team in August 2021, Chessa was a compliance consultant and director of acquisitions for a Central Florida real estate investment company. During his role as director of acquisitions, Chessa was responsible for researching, acquiring, and rehabbing properties to maximize investor returns. As a compliance consultant, Chessa partnered with business owners by assisting standard operating procedures, streamlining processes, industry best practices, and growing and scaling the companies in heavily regulated markets with an emphasis on compliance. He brings tremendous experience to CPA Solutions from these roles, specifically communication, customer service, networking, negotiation and problem-solving.

Chessa holds an MBA from the Crummer Graduate School of Business at Rollins College and a bachelor’s degree in legal studies from University of Central Florida.

Name: Bill Cook ’20MBA

Program: PMBA

Current career role: Executive Vice President of Business Development, BioPlus Specialty Pharmacy

Bill is an energetic, problem-solving executive with a proven ability to generate results. Extensive health care industry experience with special expertise in building and leading large sales teams, collaborating across functions, and developing and executing strategic growth initiatives. Fifteen years of leadership in specialty pharmacy with a primary focus on executive management, business development, sales, payor, trade, and marketing, all to drive recurring profitable revenue.

I’ve raised 3 great kids and enjoy many hobbies, including golf, snow skiing, and scuba diving. I am on the board of Wild Warrior Adventure, a 501c3 dedicated to helping struggling combat veterans get connected and on a better path through fly fishing adventures.

Name: Michael Hawkins ’14MBA

Program: EAMBA

Current career role: President, Sellati & Co. Inc.

Michael serves as president at Sellati & Co., Inc., an east-coast healthcare provider specializing in the opioid epidemic and headquartered locally in Winter Park. Multiple teams of medical, mental health, and administrative heroes help thousands of people win their own battles. Michael is honored to call these heroes his colleagues.

Prior to this role, he earned his BS in chemical engineering at Florida Institute of Technology. He managed to find his future wife, Kyan Ali (MS in chemical engineering…), who convinced him to join her at Crummer, where they graduated with MBAs together in 2014!

Michael spent five years at Siemens Energy (Wind, Gas Turbine, and then Generator) in: design, engineering, logistics, quality management, process improvement, root-cause analysis, and risk management. He brought this experience with him to Sellati & Co., Inc., as Director of Strategy and Innovation in 2018.

In August of 2020, Michael became President after Lourdes Hawkins passed away (his mother). In doing so, he became the fourth CEO and carries on a three-generation legacy in healthcare.

 

Name: Dr. Sachin Jaitly ’02 ’03MBA

Program: EAMBA

Current career role: General Partner, Morgan Creek Digital

Sachin Jaitly is a General Partner of Morgan Creek Digital and is also an entrepreneur, Web 3.0 expert, and investor. Prior to joining Moran Creek Digital, over the past 20 years, Sachin has built new technologies to address significant market demands. Sachin was co-founder of flexEngage (winner of the 2012 Crummer Venture Plan Competition), which is a patented digital receipt solution that was acquired by Klarna.

After flexEngage, Sachin joined Datalogix, which was the largest big data platform in digital media. Sachin led the business development efforts with Datalogix and helped scale the company to an exit, when it was acquired by Oracle.

Sachin understands the passion and challenges that come along with entrepreneurship. In 2018, Sachin launched Tessera Venture Partners to seed great entrepreneurs and help them through their startup journeys across Web 3.0. Sachin is now managing multiple funds with Morgan Creek Digital and investing across blockchain and cryptocurrency projects. Sachin graduated with an MBA in Finance and BA in International Business from Rollins College, holds an Executive Education Certificate from MIT in Blockchain Technologies, and a Doctor of Business Administration from the University of Florida.

Name: Dr. Katherine Johnson ’90MBA

Program: MBA

Current career role: President, Johnson Consulting Group

Dr. Katherine Johnson is President of Johnson Consulting Group, a woman-owned consulting firm specializing in the energy efficiency field, located near Washington D.C. For more than 30 years, she has directed program evaluations investigating the effectiveness of energy efficiency programs. For the past eight years, she has led collaborative forums in multiple jurisdictions that guide energy efficiency policies and initiatives.

Katherine received her Doctorate in Business Administration from the University of Southern Queensland in July 2010. She earned a Master’s in Business Administration from the Crummer School at Rollins College with concentrations in Marketing and Finance and an undergraduate degree in Business-Journalism from Indiana University.

She is honored to serve on the Crummer Alumni Board, as her father, H. Clifford Lee, was a long-time supporter of its MBA program. She maintains a family residence in Winter Park. She has remained active in the Winter Park community, including serving as the Chair of the Utilities Advisory Board for Winter Park for six years. She also completed her first novel, Grit & Granite, a fictional account of real-life events that led her family to relocate to Winter Park in the 1970s.

Name: Nicole Perez Gutierrez ’17MBA

Program: EAMBA

Current career role: Partner, NY Life Insurance Company

Nicole Perez Gutierrez is a Partner with New York Life – a Fortune 100 Company.

After acquiring her MBA at the Crummer Graduate School of Business at Rollins College, she was offered a role with an expedited track into the leadership position she holds today.

In three prior capacities, she served as an Associate Partner, Financial Services Professional and Agency Recruiting & Hispanic Market Coordinator.

Before joining New York Life, she was a Financial Analyst for Verizon Corporate as part of the Finance Transformation initiative.

In the community, Nicole serves as President of ALPFA Orlando – the Association of Latino Professionals for America – the largest leadership and professional development organization for Hispanics. ALPFA builds and develops Latino men and women as leaders of character for the nation in every sector of the economy.

Nicole graduated from the University of Central Florida with a Bachelor’s of Science degree in Finance and later completed her Master’s in Business Administration at the Crummer Graduate School of Business at Rollins College. She was born in San Juan, Puerto Rico and currently resides in Orlando, FL.

Name: Carmen Rasnick ’13 ’16MBA

Program: PMBA

Current career role: Planner for Housing and Community Development, Orange County

Carmen currently serves as the Senior Planner for Orange County Government’s Housing and Community Development division, where she manages land use policy and financial operations driving affordable housing initiatives for the region. Before this she held positions with the City of Orlando, Akerman LLP, GAI Consultants, and VelocityRED where she helped to usher in the development of Orlando’s $2 billion Creative Village district. Her experience working in the public and private sectors provides her with a unique perspective on how to grow communities by utilizing public-private partnerships, innovative policy, and sound financial planning. She serves in leadership roles for key professional groups in Central Florida including the Urban Land Institute, American Planning Association, and Congress for the New Urbanism. Carmen was recently selected to the Orlando Business Journal’s 2022 40 under 40 class.

Name: Michael Wallace ’19MBA

Program: EAMBA

Current career role: Operations Manager, The Walt Disney World Company

Michael Wallace has worked as an operations leader with Amazon and The Walt Disney Company. Currently, he serves as an operations manager supporting the merchandise line of business at the Walt Disney World Resort.

Michael began his professional journey with The Walt Disney Company in 2015 and has served within the Parks, Experiences and Products Business Segment at multiple resort hotel and theme park locations. Beyond Disney, he launched a location with Amazon in Central Florida. By improving core safety, quality and productivity metrics, the location was recognized as the number one location in North America with the coveted “Iron Smile Award” for delivering on a passion for strategic invention, committing to operational excellence, and demonstrating customer obsession.

Michael is an alumnus of the Crummer Graduate School of Business at Rollins College. During his MBA program, he co-founded: “Crummer Speaks: Ever Leader has a Story” and was recognized as the SunTrust Distinguished Leader of Merit. He obtained his undergraduate degree in American Studies and French from Siena College in Albany, New York and has also studied at Université Laval in Québec City, Québec, Canada for French language and EMLYON Business School in Lyon, France for international business.