Beyond the Summit

Welcome to Beyond The Summit, Trinity College’s podcast that looks at  accomplished alumni and asks them how they became who they are. Welcome  to our third season where we’re spending time talking with alumni whose  post-college careers have involved working or volunteering in the  sports world.

I’m your host Paul Sullivan, Trinity class  of 1995. With me today is Dave Lynch, class of 1993. He was a swimmer  for his four years at Trinity and turns out he and I played water polo  togther for two years.

Dave is vice president of  sponsorships & partnership management at the National Football  League, where he’s been for the past 15 years. Dave oversees the NFL's  portfolio of official sponsors and leads some of the League's largest  partnerships including Microsoft, Bose, Visa, Verizon, USAA, Marriott,  Oakley and Nationwide. Prior to the NFL, Dave spent 5 years at the NBA  within its Corporate Partnerships group overseeing various high-profile  relationships such as Verizon, AOL, and General Motors.  Dave started  his career at Advantage International / Octagon in both Event Management  and Corporate Consulting roles.

Beyond The Summit looks at accomplished Trinity College alumni and asks them how they became who they are. Welcome to our third season where host Paul Sullivan, Trinity College class of 1995, talks with alumni whose post-college careers have involved working or volunteering in the sports world. 

Kat Conlon, class of 2008, was an Arabic language and literature major. She played field hockey and basketball at Trinity. Kat is the executive director of The Mamba & Mambacita Sports Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to creating a positive impact for underserved athletes and young women in sports. It was founded through the vision and loving memory of Kobe and Gianna "Gigi" Bryant. She  assumed that role in 2021. Before that she was the President of the Friends of the American University of Afghanistan.

Beyond The Summit looks at accomplished Trinity College alumni and asks them how they became who they are. Welcome to our third season where we’re spending time talking with alumni whose post-college careers have involved working or volunteering in the sports world.

Host Paul Sullivan '95 speaks with Oded Carmi, class of 2005. Oded was a wrestler for his four years at Trinity in the 174 and 184 and 197 weight class. He had at least 50 wins – which is the line for a good career. After graduating, Oded formed DN Van Lines, which is a moving company with locations in MA, VA, and FL but whose main line of business is as a contractor for the Department of Defense. An active business leader in Boston, Oded was appointed last year to the Massachusetts State Athletic Commission. The commission regulates, licenses, and sanctions all amateur and professional combat sport events in the state, including Boxing, Muay Thai, and Mixed Martial Arts.

Continuing season 2 of Beyond the Summit, New York Times columnist Paul Sullivan ’95 speaks with Trinity College alumni who have devoted their  post-college careers to serving and helping others. In the final installment of this season, Paul speaks with Walter Harrison '68 H'18. Walt Harrison’s career embodies service in many forms—education, military, and a dedication to the Hartford community. After graduating from Trinity, Walt served as a captain in the Air Force before earning his doctorate and pursuing a career as an educator. He was president of the University of Hartford for nearly 20 years, and he has had many positions on local boards, including Saint Francis Hospital and Medical Center, Hartford Promise, and Capitol Squash (located on Trinity’s campus). In 2018, Trinity awarded him an honorary degree. Walt is currently a member of Trinity’s board of trustees.

Continuing season 2 of Beyond the Summit, New York Times columnist Paul Sullivan ’95 speaks with Trinity College alumni who have devoted their post-college careers to serving and helping others. Femi Faoye '08 is CEO and co-founder of D.R.E.A.M., a financial education and advocacy 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization committed to empowering underrepresented, urban youth by equipping them with the essential knowledge for life’s challenging financial decisions. Femi is a passionate financial literacy advocate and leading personal finance expert. He is a native of Brooklyn, NY and has witnessed, first-hand, the crippling effects that a lack of financial illiteracy has on communities.

Continuing season 2 of Beyond the Summit, New York Times columnist Paul Sullivan ’95 speaks with Trinity College alumni who have devoted their post-college careers to serving and helping others. This episode, Paul speaks with Kristin Duquette ’13, a five-time American Paralympic record holder in swimming, a globally recognized disability rights advocate, a former political appointee to the Obama administration, and listed by the Clinton Foundation as one of 12 people “who will inspire you to make a difference.” Kristin is currently a preparedness officer for FEMA’s Transportation Security Grant Program and is a student at the Naval Postgraduate School Center for Homeland Defense and Security Program. In 2020, Kristin was honored as one of Trinity’s 50 for the Next 50 in honor of the college’s celebration of 50 years of coeducation.

Christopher Hatch ’80

Continuing season 2 of Beyond the Summit. This season, we’re talking with Trinity alumni who have devoted their post-college careers to serving and  helping others. Chris Hatch serves as the CEO of Food Banks Canada, a national charitable organization dedicated to helping Canadians living with food insecurity. Food Banks Canada supports a network of Provincial Associations, affiliate food banks, and food agencies that work at the community level to relieve hunger.

Welcome to season 2 of Beyond the Summit. This season, we’re talking with Trinity alumni who have devoted their post-college careers to serving and helping others. In the first episode of the season, Paul talks with Fay Stetz-Waters IDP’01. Fay is the director of civil rights for the Oregon Department of Justice, and she supervises Oregon’s Bias Response Hotline. She earned a bachelor’s degree in history, with a concentration on social movements, but in her life, before and after graduating from Trinity, there has been an emphasis on service. Listen in as Fay shares her journey, from growing up in Baltimore to joining the Marine Corps, pursuing her education at her own pace, and ultimately building a career as a lawyer and judge. All along the way, Fay’s curiosity about the world around her made her particularly attuned to people’s experiences, and helped her become an advocate for change.

In this episode, Paul talks with Ross Buchmueller ’87. Ross founded and is the president and chief executive officer of the PURE Group of Insurance Companies (PURE) and he's a Trinity College Trustee. His career spans more than 30 years exclusively focused on the high-net-worth property and casualty insurance market. Ross began his career after Trinity at the Chubb Group of Insurance Companies, where he spent more than a decade before founding AIG Private Client Group and then launching PURE in 2006. Listen in as Ross walks us through how he saw the opportunities for innovation in the insurance business—taking a customer-centric view that anticipates needs and delivery—and how he built PURE to solve problems that are important to consumers.

Host: Paul Sullivan

Producer: Helder Mira

Production consultants: Mary Mahoney, Caroline Deveau

Music: Winter In Liverpool, by Mullaha

In  this episode, Paul talks with Rhoden Monrose ’09. Rhoden is the founder  and CEO of CariClub, a premium networking platform that connects young  professionals to causes they care about through philanthropic engagements and  nonprofit board service. Rhoden began his career after Trinity at  CitiGroup where he traded interest rate derivatives. After five years on  Wall Street, he knew it was time to change course and create a way to help young professionals like him who wanted to make a  social impact but didn’t know how. Listen in as Rhoden walks us through  his journey from what he expected would be a predictable path to a  successful career in finance, but instead became an exciting opportunity to create social change in a way that no other  company is doing.

Host: Paul Sullivan

Producer: Helder Mira

Production consultants: Mary Mahoney, Caroline Deveau

Music: Winter In Liverpool, by Mullaha

In  this episode, Paul talks with Liz Elting ’87. While in business school at NYU, Liz founded TransPerfect, a global languages solutions company. That was in 1992. In the past three decades, the company has grown to over 5,000 employees in 90 countries with $700 million in annual revenue. In 2018 she sold her stake to her co-founder. For several years before that, she was featured on lists of the wealthiest self-made women in America. Since the sale, Liz has turned her attention to philanthropy.

Listen in as Liz walks us through how she built a premier language services  company at a moment when the growth of the internet and globalization of business created a demand for what TransPerfect was delivering: top-notch end-to-end language technologies and services. It’s a future that Liz could never have imagined for herself as a  student at Trinity who struggled to decide whether her love of languages made for a practical major.

Host: Paul Sullivan

Producer: Helder Mira

Storylab Fellow: Maxwell Norteman

Production consultants: Mary Mahoney, Caroline Deveau, and Ellen Buckhorn

Music: Winter In Liverpool, by Mullaha

In our second episode, Paul talks with Danai Pointer ’07. She founded  Bergen Consulting Group in 2018, an all-women’s strategic consulting business. She’s also the founder of TruNude, a women’s undergarment company that makes bras and underwear in a  variety of skin tones. Recently she was named the communications  outreach director for the Democratic National Committee. At Trinity, Danai majored in music with a focus on ethnomusicology, and minored in community action. And while many Trinity students have study  abroad experiences, Danai’s undergraduate global research experiences  took her from the Czech Republic, to Brazil, South Africa, and France  (all in one year!).

Listen in as Danai walks us through how she built a startup that meets a  deeply personal need for her customers, drawing on earlier experience as  a data-driven communicator and champion for cultural institutions in her positions at New York City firms, part  of Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s administration, and at Bloomberg  Associates.

Host: Paul Sullivan

Producer: Helder Mira

Storylab Fellow: Maxwell Norteman

Production consultants: Mary Mahoney, Caroline Deveau, and Ellen Buckhorn

Music: Winter In Liverpool, by Mullaha

In  our first episode, Paul talks with David “Dave” Schnadig ’86,  co-president at the Cortec Group and Trinity College trustee. At  Trinity, Dave was an economics major and a double-minor in art history and religion. After graduating from Trinity, his path wound  through consulting, the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern  University, a stint at Lehman Brothers, and he eventually landed at  Cortec Group, a private equity investment firm that has invested in some of the great entrepreneurial stories of the past  few decades, including Yeti. Tune in as Dave walks us through the Yeti  story—from burgeoning cooler company to a renowned lifestyle brand—and  gives an inside look at private equity investing. Dave is a proud Trinity Bantam, but while many alumni show their Trinity  spirit on hats or stickers, you’ll never guess where the Bantam has a  place in Dave’s everyday life.

Host: Paul Sullivan

Producer: Helder Mira

Storylab Fellow: Maxwell Norteman

Production consultants: Mary Mahoney, Caroline Deveau, and Ellen Buckhorn

Music: Winter In Liverpool, by Mullaha

Beyond the Summit is a podcast that looks at accomplished Trinity  College alumni and asks them how they became who they are. Season one is  hosted by New York Times columnist Paul Sullivan, class of 1995, and focuses on five entrepreneurs. In each episode, Paul has a 1:1 interview  conversation with an alum.