Ichabod Washburn Young Alumni Award for Professional Achievement: 2002 Recipients
George R. Oliver '82
George Oliver, your hard work and commitment have propelled your 20-year career at General Electric-most of which with GE's Aircraft Engines, the world's leading manufacturer of jet engines for civil and military aircraft. The business also manufactures gas turbines, derived from its highly successful jet engine programs, for marine and industrial applications. In addition, GE Aircraft Engines provides comprehensive maintenance support, through its GE Engine Services operation, for GE and non-GE jet engines in service throughout the world.
Upon graduation from WPI with a degree in mechanical engineering, you joined GE's Aircraft Engines business in Lynn, Mass., in the Manufacturing Development Program. Upon completing this two-year management training program, you held various positions, with increasing responsibility, in both the Lynn and Hooksett, N.H., facilities through 1992. You were plant manager in Hooksett until 1995, when you joined GE Appliances as general manager of LPO Refrigeration in Louisville, Ky.
You were elected an officer of General Electric in 1998, when you were promoted to the position of vice president and general manager of production and procurement for GE Aircraft Engines. In 1999 you were named vice president and general manager of the Supply Chain Division; the following year you were promoted within GE Aircraft Engines to that of president and chief executive officer of GE Engine Services. You have recently been named vice president and general manager of GE Betz, a water treatment services business recently acquire by GE Specialty Materials.
George Oliver, your outstanding career has distinguished you among your peers. WPI is fortunate to have within its alumni body a man of such exceptional professionalism and leadership. It is an honor to present you with the Ichabod Washburn Young Alumni Award for Professional Achievement.
Nancy M. Pimental '87
Nancy Pimental, your hard work, creative spirit and sheer courage have propelled your career in a most unconventional manner. As a comedienne, actor, television host and scriptwriter, you have distinguished yourself as a formidable force in the entertainment industry.
Your latest project, the screenplay for the movie The Sweetest Thing, opened earlier this spring. It also provided you the opportunity for your film debut, in a cameo appearance. However, the movie is just the latest coup in a long list of accomplishments for you in Hollywood.
Soon after graduating from WPI with a degree in chemical engineering, you enrolled in acting school and spent a year with a comedy improv group before heading to Los Angeles, where you toiled as a stand-up comic, actor, writer, waitress, valet, and in numerous other jobs. Your first break came with a script you wrote for South Park, an animated satire series for television. Then came the break that put you in the living rooms of millions of TV viewers almost every night-serving as co-host of Comedy Central's Win Ben Stein's Money. Serving as announcer, questioner and comic relief to Stein's dry wit, you held your own with the brainy Stein, who pits himself against three contestants in a battle over "his" money.
Your tenacity and courage were honed as an undergraduate at WPI. Much as in the male-dominated comedy industry, you learned how to be successful in a primarily male environment. You also credit WPI with developing one of the most important traits for a comic – self-assurance. Your success in mastering chemical engineering helped give you the confidence to succeed in other endeavors, as well. As you have commented, "Once you've survived organic chemistry, facing a television audience of millions just doesn't seem so scary anymore."
Nancy Pimental, your early accomplishments in a dynamic and ever-evolving career serve as a striking example of how an engineering education can be a preparation for nearly any career. It is with great pride that WPI presents you with the Ichabod Washburn Young Alumni Award for Professional Achievement.
Donald P. Zereski Jr. '87
Donald Zereski, beginning your career as a WPI legacy, earning both your bachelor's and master's degrees in electrical engineering, you became a veteran of Web technology, working your way to where you are today-CEO of StreetMail, an e-mail service with over a million subscribers that uses Web technology to connect people to their communities.
During the course of your career, you have served as vice president of community and communications products at Lycos, where you were responsible for the ongoing operation of the company's community and communication Web sites, including Angelfire, HTMLGear, MailCity, and Lycos chat clubs and message boards. You also built two successful properties, Intellicast and Tripod.
You led the creation of Intellicast, one of the Web's first commercial weather sites, taking it from conception to reality, where it would become a top-10 news and entertainment site.
Joining Tripod in 1997, you filled several roles, including vice president of technology and, more recently, general manager. You built and managed its software development and site operations staff, and successfully steered its technology through a two-year period of extraordinary growth that saw Tripod develop from a small community property into one of the world's ten most visited Web sites.
Don Zereski, for your exemplary record of achievement in bringing new and innovative uses of Web technology into the mainstream, WPI is honored to present you with the Ichabod Washburn Young Alumni Award for Professional Achievement.
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