Happy Birthday! | Duke’s Fuqua School of Business

We asked the graduates below, who celebrate their birthdays today, October 20, “Where are you now?” Here’s what they had to say…

Gretchen Brigden MBA ‘95
I found what I hope will be my forever home when I moved to Vail, Colorado, seven and a half years ago. My current favorite activities include skiing, hiking, biking, and running a macroeconomic research company I founded in 2011. My daughter attends boarding school in Connecticut, so between that and serving on the board, I travel east quite a bit. I miss my old friends, but we have a lot of visitors here, and I have made some great new friends, and I ski about 75 days a season.

Karolina Calderon MBA ‘14
After living in Chicago for seven years, I recently moved to Florida, where I spend most weekends at the beach with my husband and two daughters. I currently work in customer service strategy at Best Buy.

Austin Carpenter ‘12, MMS ‘13
I work at Westchester Medical Center in New York City and just got engaged to my fiancée, Emma!

Andrew Fox ’85, MBA ’91
Where am I now? I live in Chapel Hill, North Carolina with my wife Julie and dog Riley. I spend my free time hiking, doing yoga, and traveling. I just climbed Mt. Marcy, the highest peak in New York State. When I’m not doing that, I run a software company called Vivaspot.

Denis Kelly MBA ’02
Where am I? Born and raised in Buenos Aires, Argentina, a few years after graduating my family and I started moving to different places including Geneva, New York, Montevideo and since 2015 sunny Miami! I happily blow out 33 candles in the banking industry while my wife Silvina now works as a successful interior designer. My daughter Lucila graduated last July and is already working at JPMorgan (oops! another banker). My son Angus is in his last year at FSU and is a serious rugby player who has already represented the US national team! Plans? Let’s meet up with my fellow graduates next year and celebrate 20 years since graduation! Here’s a picture of my last birthday by the sea.

Ningyuan Liu MMS ’16
Fuqua Family, Hello from Beijing! I have been working at an investment advisory firm since graduation and we have over 3 Fuqua graduates on our team! October is a special month for my Fuqua friends Cecilia and Kennith because we are all born in October and celebrate our birthdays together every year! Happy Birthday

Kelsey McDonald, Master of Science in Quality Management ’18
I currently work in Brooklyn, New York as the Director of Ticket Analytics for the Nets, as well as supporting other events at the Barclays Center, such as the New York Liberty games. My team includes two Fuqua alumni that I recently hired from the MQM graduating class of 2022! Outside of playing ping-pong, our team spends most of their days building Tableau dashboards and predictive models to monitor demand so we can adjust ticket prices accordingly.

Joy Simpson MBA ’16
I still work in the food industry for an ingredient manufacturer in new business development and on the M&A team. I recently moved to Steamboat Springs, Colorado. I will still spend a lot of time in New York, but Colorado will be my home. I spend my free time fly fishing, riding my side-by-side, and snowmobiling.

Marco Vanetti, MBA ‘20
Hey guys! Paola and I are back in São Paulo, Brazil with our dog Susie. I am currently working as a CISO Chief of Staff at Nubank. Below is a photo from our visit to Chapada dos Veadeiros, Goias, Brazil, doing what we love most, trekking and traveling to remote places.

Aleksandr Wolynets MBA ‘01
Hey Fuquan colleagues! I have been living in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil since graduating in 2001. Last June I started working as a CFO at Tegra, a Brazilian real estate developer, Brookfield. The family is doing great! During the pandemic, we built a pool to better enjoy our home, but this year we are going out and traveling a lot.