Ichabod Washburn Young Alumni Award for Professional Achievement: 2005 Recipients
Thomas A. Arseneault '85
Tom Arseneault, your career exemplifies the success parents wish for their children and faculty for their students. Your meteoric rise reflects your abilities, your dedication, and your drive.
After receiving your B.S. in electrical engineering, you earned a master's degree from WPI and an MBA from Boston University. Your career includes engineering and program management positions with General Electric Aerospace, The Analytic Sciences Corporation, and Weather Services International.
Within BAE Systems, you currently serve as vice president for Information and Electronic Warfare Systems (IEWS), a major producer of aircraft self- protection systems and tactical surveillance and intelligence systems for all branches of the armed forces. IEWS also develops microwave, missile and space electronics, infrared imaging, and automated mission planning systems.
Your talents were recognized with rapid promotions, first as engineering manager in the IEWS mission and space electronics business area, then as project manager for the infrared countermeasures product line, and later as director of engineering for the electronic warfare/electronic protection line of business.
In your current position you help ensure that the company retains its position as a pioneer in technology at the fore front of innovation, working to develop the next generation of intelligent defense systems. IEWS could ask for no better leader to preserve its heritage; the success of our armed forces in conflicts around the globe, and indeed in peacetime, are supported by the work done by you and those who work for you.
Most recently your alma mater and the nation have benefited from your talents. As a member of WPI's Electrical and Computer Engineering Advisory Board, your rise to leadership has been phenomenal. You initiated and provided funding to underwrite a program that provides support for summer graduate students to work with younger faculty on the development of their research programs. In addition to the grant, you have built relationships between WPI and BAE that will positively impact the ability of both institutions to improve programs in homeland security.
Tom Arseneault, it is with great pride that WPI awards you the Ichabod Washburn Young Alumni Award for Professional Achievement.
Stephen C. Hooley '85
Steve Hooley, your hard work, determination, and belief that if you take what you've been taught, use it as a base and then build, has brought you much success. You've used the experience and knowledge gained as an undergraduate at WPI. Your ability to face a problem and use the tools available to find a solution has been a constant practice in your life and a contributing factor to your successful career.
You began as a sales engineer for Texas Instruments in Dallas, later transferring to TI's operation in Waltham, Mass. Since then, in 12 years with State Street Corporation, you've held several executive positions, including that of leading the company's corporate pensions business.
Along with your extensive experience in IT re-engineering, you have been an enormous asset to State Street. As senior vice president, you supervised the integration of U.S. operations of Global Securities Services, acquired from Deutsche Bank, into State Street.
In January 2004 you assumed the positions of president and CEO of Boston Financial Data Services, a third-party service provider that manages assets, consults with client investments, and offers retirement services. A 50/50 joint venture of DST Systems and State Street, the company advises member clients in class-action administration, business continuity, and disaster recovery services. Boston Financial remains steadfast in the mutual fund industry, outsourcing to fund companies, shareholders, and financial intermediaries.
Steve Hooley, you have charted your own unique career. It is with great pride that WPI presents you with the Ichabod Washburn Young Alumni Award for Professional Achievement.
Stacey Cotton Bonasso '90
Stacey Bonasso, the drive and passion with which you embraced every challenge as an undergraduate have continued to propel you throughout your life and career. With a dream of becoming an astronaut, you joined the U.S. Air Force ROTC and majored in aeronautical engineering. Your academic performance and exceptional leadership abilities earned you numerous awards and recognition for excellence, including membership in three honor societies and a ranking as one of the top five Air Force ROTC cadets in the country.
Commissioned a second lieutenant in the United States Air Force upon graduation from WPI, and with help from an impressive number of military and athletic scholarships, you pursued your dream of earning a master of science in aeronautics and astronautics at Stanford University.
While stationed at Griffiss Air Force Base in New York, you worked at Rome Laboratory as an aeronautical development engineer. During a summer internship at the USAF Test Pilot School at Edwards Air Force Base, you became captivated with flying and applied for pilot training. Advanced to captain in 1994, you attended undergraduate pilot training at Columbus Air Force Base in Mississippi, where you earned your pilot's wings in 1995, together with two of four Top Gun awards for aviation and formation flying. You were only the third women in the country assigned to fly the F-15C fighter.
When a change of focus was in order, you served as deputy chief of public affairs at Columbus and chief of public affairs at Luke Air Force Base in Arizona, roles that enabled you to reach out to America's youth through educational programs and career days, and inspire them to seek careers in aeronautics and the military.
In 1998 you completed additional flight training at Randolph Air Force Base in Texas; the following year, you returned to Luke to complete your qualification training for the single-seat F-16 fighter. From there yo u became not only one of the first women assigned to fly the F-16, but the first woman to serve in the 4th Fighter Squadron, headquartered at Hill Air Force Base in Utah. After being reassigned to the 8th Air Force at Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana, you served as chief of fighter operations, 608th Combat Operations Squadron, before completing T-38 instructor pilot training at Randolph.
Now a major stationed at Vance Air Force Base in Oklahoma, you serve as a T-38 pilot-instructor, motivating, inspiring, and teaching students who have never flown a high-performance jet to navigate, fly in formation, perform aerobatics, and be ready to train in a combat aircraft.
Stacey Bonasso, your outstanding career has distinguished you among your peers. It is an honor for WPI to present you with the Ichabod Washburn Young Alumni Award for Professional Achievement.
Michelle Petkers Gass '90
Michelle Gass, as a successful alumna, you are a source of great pride to Worcester Polytechnic Institute.
During your undergraduate years, you participated in the Newman Club, campus hearing board, IFC, Washington Project Center, cheerleading, and Alpha Gamma Delta sorority. You were a member of Tau Beta Pi and Phi Lambda Upsilon and received several WPI honors, including the General Chemistry Award and the President's IQP Award.
After graduating with a degree in chemical engineering, you joined Cincinnati- based Procter & Gamble's health-care products research and development group. Along with your knowledge of chemical engineering, you discovered a knack for understanding the consumer and driving innovations from that perspective.
In 1996, you relocated to the West Coast and began your career at Starbucks Coffee Company as category manager for blended beverages, marketing, and category management. At Starbucks, your passion for discerning consumer needs and attitudes transformed the coffee giant's newly introduced ice-blended coffee and mocha drinks into a mini-empire. The Frappuccino grew from a small part of the business to a line of 10 flavors in three versions. At the same time, you attended the University of Washington's evening executive MBA program, earning your degree in 1999.
As Starbucks has grown, so have your responsibilities. In 2001 you were promoted to vice president of the beverage category. In May 2004 you were elevated to senior vice president, category management; you currently oversee a 150-person department and drive the company's beverage, food, coffee, and merchandise product line globally. Since your joining Starbucks, the coffeemaker's stock price has made an orbital leap of 451 percent. Today, with more than 7,500 retail locations in North America, Latin America, Europe, the Middle East, and the Pacific Rim, annual sales are at $5 billion.
Michelle Gass, it is with great pride that WPI presents you with the Ichabod Washburn Young Alumni Award for Professional Achievement.
Edward C. Lafortune '90, Kevin J. Buckler '89, and Peter L. Quinn '89
Ned, Kevin, and Pete, there are countless stories of campus friendships that grew into successful business ventures. There are few as perfect as the meshing of the skills you learned at WPI into your unique enterprise - Wachusett Brewing Company, the top brewery in Worcester County.
You incorporated in 1993, with loans, salvaged equipment, and some highly creative engineering. Within 10 years you were brewing up a million dollars in sales in a highly competitive market. With your homey logo and your quaint growler jugs, you built a customer base through person-to-person sales, driving the delivery routes yourselves in a rented truck. Today, your wares are on tap, on the shelves, and in high demand at more than 500 local establishments.
Your unflagging insistence on product quality brought honors, including the Nashoba Valley Best Taste Award. You have become a model micro brewery, and your advice is sought after - even by German brewers. Your handcrafted ales and lagers have brightened many campus events, and your brewery has served as a laboratory for WPI students to tackle industrial challenges. Your establishment has become a family-friendly tourist destination for the Wachusett region.
Wachusett Brewing Company's 10th Anniversary celebrations reaffirmed your commitment to staying fresh and local. You have successfully modernized operations and diversified your product line, but you continue microbrewing and bottling where you began, at the foot of Mount Wachusett. While other companies have yielded to commercial pressures to franchise and outsource production, you remain true to the values of a bygone era, when beer was brewed fresh and unpasteurized, to be enjoyed locally - in nearby homes, and in neighborhood taverns.
Ned, Kevin, and Pete, it is a great pleasure to present you with the Ichabod Washburn Young Alumni Award for Professional Achievement.
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