Dec. 17, 2019: Yovanovitch ’80, Williams *16, and Holmes *02 Featured Among Time’s ‘Guardians of the Year’

Three Princetonians — Marie Yovanovitch ’80, Jennifer Williams *16, and David Holmes *02 — are among the public servants featured as Time magazine’s “Guardians of the Year.” — Time
 
Julie Brill ’81, Microsoft’s chief privacy officer, says California’s new consumer-privacy law is a good start but adds that companies should “share the burden” of protecting individual data and design systems that minimize the amount of data that is collected. — The New York Times
 
Amazon Fashion head Christine Beauchamp ’92 is among the executives recently added to the company’s “S-team,” a senior-leadership group that works closely with CEO Jeff Bezos ’86. — CNN Business
 
University of British Columbia professor emeritus Peter Suedfeld *63 was invested as an Officer of the Order of Canada, one of the nation’s highest civilian honors, for his groundbreaking research in psychology. — Vancouver Sun

“The idea of what we think is beautiful has expanded. ... Skin color. Body type. Curly hair. If you look at all this year’s winners, they look like themselves.”

— Hilary Levey Friedman *09, who is writing a book about beauty pageants, on the recent success of black women in major pageants. Black contestants have won Miss Teen USA, Miss America, Miss USA, and Miss Universe in the last year. Read more in The New York Times.

Architecture Research Office, also known as ARO, a New York-based firm led by Stephen Cassell ’86, Adam Yarinsky *87, and Kim Yao *97, will receive the 2020 Architecture Firm Award, the highest honor given to practices by the American Institute of Architects. — Architect Magazine
 
Bettina Korek ’00, the executive director of Frieze Los Angeles, will become the new chief executive of the Serpentine Galleries in London. — Art Forum

NBC’s Writers on the Verge, a program for talented aspiring writers of diverse backgrounds, selected Shani Am. Moore ’02 as one of eight members of its incoming class. — Deadline.com

David Willard ’06, founder and CEO of 52 Capital Partners, talks about the economic consequences of tariffs on the United States and China in a recent radio interview. — Bloomberg Daybreak Asia
 
Following the release of new research about Major League Baseball’s increase in home runs, MIT professor Peko Hosoi ’92, a co-author of the study, says that tiny variations in the height of a baseball’s seams appear to be a key factor in how far the ball flies. — Yahoo! Sports
 
Chris Young ’02, Major League Baseball’s vice president of on-field operations, and physicist Alan Nathan *75, a co-author of the new study on the increase in home runs (above), discussed the findings in recent interviews. — New York Daily News
 
Cornell mechanical and aerospace engineering professor Silvia Ferrari *02 was named co-leader of the new Veho Institute for vehicle intelligence, a partnership between Cornell, two Italian universities, and several luxury automakers. — Cornell Chronicle
 
Alison Badgett ’01 was named the new executive director of the Petey Greene Program, a prison tutoring nonprofit based in Princeton. Badgett succeeds founding executive director Jim Farrin ’58. — PeteyGreene.org