May 9, 2017: Hobson ’91 to Chair Economic Club of Chicago; Singer ’97 Talks World War III; Deford ’61’s Farewell; and More

Mellody Hobson ’91, the president of Ariel Investments, will become the first African-American woman to chair the Economic Club of Chicago, succeeding the first woman chair, Ilene Gordon. — Chicago Tribune

P.W. Singer ’97 discusses the impact of his 2015 book Ghost Fleet: A Novel of the Next World War, which covers the different kinds of attack scenarios in a potential World War III, such as a “hardware hack,” and has led to policy changes at the Pentagon. — San Diego Union Tribune

NPR sports commentator Frank Deford ’61 delivered his final commentary on May 3. Deford, a 2012 National Humanities Medal honoree, broadcast 1,656 commentaries over the last 37 years on Morning Edition. — NPR

Eric Lander ’78, president of MIT’s Broad Institute, and Eric Schmidt ’76, executive chairman of the Google parent company Alphabet, write that the federal government’s investments in science and technology drive a “Miracle Machine” that’s now in need of a funding miracle. — The Washington Post

Conor Madigan ’00, president of the electronics firm Kateeva, testified to the U.S. Senate about the importance of intellectual property and highlighted laws that protect innovation. — Yahoo Finance
 
Dwight McBride ’90 has been named the provost and executive vice president of academic affairs of Emory University, where he will oversee all nine of Emory’s schools and colleges. — Emory News Center
 
Barbara Krauthamer *00 has been named dean of the Graduate School at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. — University of Massachusetts

National Counterterrorism Center Director Nicholas Rasmussen *90 explains that the center is “incentivizing technology companies by sharing intelligence with them to battle terrorist-recruiting strategies on the web.” — The Washington Times

Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan ’81 says that the death of Justice Antonin Scalia had a silver lining: With just eight members, the court learned to work together in new ways. —ABC News

Rich McKay ’81, the CEO of the NFL’s Atlanta Falcons, discusses his work on the team’s new Mercedes-Benz Stadium, which will open in August. — Gwinnett Daily Post
  
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Professor Dan Wasserman *04 has been named a distinguished lecturer of the IEEE Photonic Society for 2017-2018 for his work on laser physics. — Novus Light

Lawyer C.J. Chapman ’01 explains his path from playing basketball at Princeton to playing a key role in redeveloping Denver’s Union Station, a catalyst for the city’s downtown development. — University of Denver Magazine

Harvard Kennedy School Professor Leah Wright Rigueur *09 is the winner of the 2017 Crader Family Book Prize in American Values for her first book, The Loneliness of the Black Republican: Pragmatic Politics and the Pursuit of Power. — Southeast Missouri State University News
 
Former teacher and deputy state schools superintendent John Buxton *99 has been named the at-large representative to the North Carolina State Board of Education by Gov. Roy Cooper. — North Carolina News Network

The Sea View JCC on Staten Island awarded the JCC Next Generation Award to Wagner College History Professor Lori Weintrob ’88 for facilitating “greater understanding of the Nazi persecution of Jews and others during World War II.” — Staten Island Advance

Bart McGuire ’62, a winner of six U.S. and Canadian national squash titles, remembers balancing his job at a law firm with his squash and tennis competitions, as well as expanding coverage of women’s tennis as the CEO of the Women’s Tennis Association. — Summit (Colo.) Daily

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