Alumni Accomplishments

Drew Bagnall ’07 has been signed by the Los Angeles Kings of the NHL, to a multi-year entry-level contract. At press time he was playing for the Manchester Monarchs of the American Hockey League. A first-team All-American, ECACHL Player of the Year, ECACHL Outstanding Defensive Defenseman award-winner and Hobey Baker award finalist, the native of Oakbank, Man., led all club defensemen in goals, assists and points. Bagnall served as captain of the Saints, who won the 2006-07 ECACHL regular-season title and advanced to the NCAA Northeast Regional semifinals. He also closed his amateur career at St. Lawrence by earning ECACHL All-Academic honors for the third straight season. He earned his degree in economics.

Josh Belsky ’89, "pitman" for the Swiss Team Alinghi, sucessfully defended the America's Cup last year.  On July 3, Alinghi captured the 32nd America's Cup, defeating Emirates Team New Zealand 5-2.  It is the fifth time he has participated in the event and the third time he has been a member of the winning team. Belsky began his involvement with the America's Cup in 1992, as a pitman on board the America3. He was also a member of Team Dennis Conner (1995), AmericaOne (2000) and Team Alinghi in 2003. His St. Lawrence degree is in sociology.

Cowen Group, Inc. has hired Jonathan Biele '92 as co-head of its Equity Capital Markets Group, based in New York City.  Most recently, Biele was a managing director in the Life Science Banking Group at Lazard, where he also served as head of the Equity Capital Markets Group and managed the growth of the firm's equity origination capability. Prior to Lazard, Biele worked with both the Equity Capital Markets and Equity Syndicate Groups at Lehman Brothers, focusing on healthcare and technology. He has also served as vice president and syndicate manager at ABN-Amro Rothschild and was a syndicate desk member at UBS. A history major, he has been a very active volunteer for the University, particularly in fund-raising and for Reunions. In December he was recognized as one of the top 40 under 40 in investment banking by IDD magazine.com.

Judy Long Bixler ’74, co-owner with her husband, Tom ’74, and captain of the oldest privately-owned ferry in the U.S.(the company observes its 325th year in 2008) took part in a charity event for the Cam Neely Foundation and other charities--they ran a “race” against two paddle-wheelers on September 22, raising $30,000 (see www.ferryboatraces.com). Judy was recently honored by the state of Maryland as one of the top 100 women of 2007. According to the site, in 1999 she was captain of a 40-foot sailing vessel and in 2000 was a ferry crew member, accumulating sea time for a Coast Guard captain’s license. Since 2001 Judy has been president of the Oxford Bellevue Ferry. Last year she was honored as a top minority business owner. And in 2006, when the Governor’s Office of Minority Affairs announced its first-ever Maryland’s Top 100 Minority Business Enterprise Awards, Judy was among the first 100 so honored.

Stephen Chantry ’76 is the best runner in the nation in his age group (50-54), as he proved by winning the 5,000-meter outdoor race at the National Masters Track and Field Championships in August in Orono, Me. Chantry starred on the track team at St. Lawrence, completed graduate school at the College of William and Mary, and has lived in the Williamsburg, Va., area ever since. He is the executive director for student services at Williamsburg James City County Schools. He is undefeated nationally during the past 2 1/2 years in his age group; is a two-time national indoor champion in the mile; is undefeated at 3,000 meters indoors; and has posted the two fastest times in the nation in the past five years at that distance. He won the 5,000-meter national masters road racing title in 2007, and anchored the world-record men's 50-54 3,200-meter relay team at the masters nationals in Hawaii in 2005.
IMAGE CREDIT: Poughkeepsie Journal/Pete Colaizzo

Sue Pidgeon Cronin has been inducted to the Nichols School Athletic Hall of Fame.  Cronin, a resident of Scituate, Mass., received the award during an induction ceremony and dinner reception to honor the inductees in September. She was honored for her excellence in soccer and basketball; she served as captain of both teams while at Nichols, an independent, coeducational, college preparatory day school in Buffalo, N.Y., from which she graduated in 1979.  She was a Kappa Delta Sigma and sociology major at St. Lawrence.

Navicure, a healthcare technology company founded by Jim Denny ’86, was awarded the top ranking of Deloitte’s 2007 Technology Fast 50; the award recognizes 50 fifty fastest growing Georgia-based companies over the past five years in the fields of technology, bioscience and media. Having founded the company in 2001, Denny has led it to growth of 4500% over the past five years. Navicure provides automated, Internet-based claims management solutions that help physician practices improve revenue, operational efficiency and profitability.

Todd E. Lehder ’94 was recently designated by Super Lawyers as a “Rising Star.”  The Rising Stars edition of Super Lawyers highlights up-and-coming attorneys who are either 40 or under or have practiced for 10 years or less.  Lehder, an associate with the firm of Wilentz, Goldman & Spitzer on the Commercial Real Estate Team and Redevelopment Strategic Business Unit, advises corporate and individual clients in all aspects of commercial and residential real estate transactions and finance matters. Its main office is in Woodbridge, N.J. where Lehder works; the firm also has offices in Eatontown, N.J., New York City, Philadelphia and Pittsburgh.

Rachel R. May ’02, an attorney with Carlton Fields in its Tampa, Fla., office, has been appointed to the editorial board of the American Bar Association’s Criminal Litigation Committee publication, Criminal Litigation. Practicing in the firm’s White Collar Crime and Government Investigations Practice Group, May has represented criminal defendants charged with firearms offenses, drug offenses, fraud offenses, immigration offenses and computer offenses. She has tried cases in the Federal District Court and argued appellate cases in front of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit.  She was also included in Tampa Bay Business Journal's "30 Under 30 Class of 2007."  May received her J.D., cum laude, from Stetson University College of Law in 2004.

Catherine Day Phillips is the first female trainer to win the Arlington Million horse race. She is the co-owner of Jambalaya, the first Canadian-bred horse to win the race, run at Arlington Park in Illinois August 11, 2007. A Canadian studies and government major at St. Lawrence, she also participated in the program of study in Vienna, Austria, and was a member of Kappa Delta Sigma sorority. She and her husband, Todd, are co-owners of King City's Kingfield Racing Stable in Canada; they bought Jambalaya in 2003. They and their two children make their home in Maple, Ont.

Grace Potter ‘06 and the Nocturnals performed on Good Morning America as part of the “Summer Concert Series” last summer.  They also made their television debut on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno and were on The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson. They released a new album on August 7; three songs from “This is Somewhere” were featured on ITUNES, and their first single, "Ah Mary," was the number-one most-added song by Triple A Radio in May.

ROAR Logistics, Inc. has received a Buffalo Business First newspaper Fast Track 50 Award.  In addition, Bob Rich III ’89, company president, has been nominated as Ernst & Young’s Entrepreneur of the Year. ROAR is an intermodal marketing company and third-party logistics provider that works directly with Class One Railroads to provide customers with cost-efficient transportation services throughout North America. Business First’s Fast Track 50 Award honors the 50 fastest-growing independent and privately held companies in Western New York; ROAR ranked fifth on the list. The Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year award recognizes the accomplishments of outstanding men and women who have made entrepreneurship the engine of economic growth. Rich was nominated by Bank of America.  

Steve Schultz ’82 was recenly named executive director of the Jackson Hole (Wyo.) Center for the Arts (www.jhcenterforthearts.org). He had been in for-profit business since graduation, and decided “it is time to give back.”  He has been painting landscape oils; a gallery in Jackson is showing his work.