Pilar Wolfsteller (X) joined A³ by Airbus Group as Director of Communications in December. A³ is the advanced projects and partnerships outpost of aircraft manufacturer Airbus in Silicon Valley. The mission of A³ is to disrupt Airbus and the aerospace & aviation industry before someone else does. The A³ model centers on executing a small portfolio of high-risk, time-constrained projects which, if successful, could find a home in Airbus’ core business areas. Prior to joining A³, she was Head of Communications for the Americas at Infosys. She spent the first 20 years of her career (following the Bosch Fellowship) based in Germany and Switzerland, where she reported for Bloomberg News and Reuters before moving into various corporate communications roles. She now lives in the San Francisco Bay area with her husband René and her rescue dog Jet.
Keith R. Allen, Ph.D. (XVIII) has a book titled Interrogation Nation: Refugees and Spies in Cold War Germany coming out in June.
Susanne Ollmann (XVI) is embarking upon a one-year, round-the-world travel adventure with her 10-year-old daughter, Elise, starting in July 2017. They plan to travel through South America, Asia, Australia and Africa, and do a number of treks, such as the Inca Trail, Kilimanjaro, and New Zealand’s Milford Trek, and – given that Elise wants to be a veterinarian – visit places with incredible wildlife, such as Komodo Island, Patagonia, an elephant rescue station in Thailand, and the like. If you’re interested in following their progress – and possibly meeting up in some cool, remote village! – please subscribe to their blog: worldtravelmama.com.
Paul Glader (XXVIII) has been selected to be the David Laventhol / Newsday Visiting Professor at Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism in Spring of 2018.
Markos Kounalakis (V) was appointed to the Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board by President Barack Obama in January 2017.: His wife just announced that she is running for Lt. Governor of California.
Additionally, Marcos co-lead a joint Hoover Institution-State Department workshop at Stanford University in March, titled “Public Diplomacy in a Post-Truth Society” and co-lead it with Francis Fukuyama (Center on Democracy, Development and Rule of Law) and Shawn Powers (United States Advisory Commission on Public Diplomacy).
After spending the last two years in London, Nadeem Sheikh (XXII) is returning back to San Francisco to find the next adventure. For the last few years, he had been working at a startup called Opower, which made software to help consumers save energy in their homes. They sold the company last year to Oracle, he’s finally been freed from his management handcuffs, and after one last fun summer in London, Italy, and Berlin Nadeem and they’ll be heading back to the US.
In personal news, in November 2016, Jessica Lewis (XXVIII) got married in Virginia to JJ Singh, who works in real estate development. She was actually introduced to JJ through her friend Bilal, whom Jessica met during her Bosch year! They were also able to bring everything full circle by going to India on their honeymoon, where both tons of JJ’s extended family members live, and where Bilal happened to be living at the time! In professional news, Jessica was recently promoted to Senior Analyst on the Natural Resources and Environment team at the Government Accountability Office, where she will lead projects reviewing energy and infrastructure issues for Congress.
Driven by a powerful belief in the value of free expression, Sheryl Oring (XVI) has for more than a decade been helping people across the country voice concerns about public affairs through her “I Wish to Say” project. This book uses that project as the starting point for an exploration of a series of issues of public interest being addressed by artists today. It features essays by contributors ranging from art historians and practicing artists to scholars and creators working in literature, political science, and architecture. All the contributors offer a different approach, but they share a primary goal of sparking a dialogue not just among makers of art, but among viewers and readers, and the concerned public at large. The resulting volume will be an essential resource for politically engaged contemporary artists searching for innovative, cross-disciplinary ways of making and sharing art.
Sheryl Oring is assistant professor of art at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, as well as a practicing artist.
Henry A. J. Ramos (VIII) has recently affiliated with University of Houston-based Arte Publico Press (APP), where he serves as senior editor and strategic development consultant. APP is the nation’s oldest and largest Latino-focused publishing house with subject matter ranging from literary history and criticism to arts and culture and from U.S. Latino civil rights history to contemporary issues in Latino politics. In partnership with APP, Ramos recently completed a three-part book series on the status of Latino men and boys in the United States (with allied commentaries on the issues from leading Americans, including actor and activist Harry Belafonte, United Farmworkers Union co-founder Delores Huerta, and the late California state senator and peace activist Tom Hayden). Presently, he is curating a timely art exhibit on Latino/a immigrant artists and themes at Paso Robles, CA-based Studios on the Park, that will run for the month of June. Finally, Ramos and his wife Claudia Lenschen-Ramos (a German citizen) recently initiated a scholarship to support youth foreign exchange opportunities for low-income Americans interested in international relations careers, in partnership with Cultural Vistas. The scholarship is in honor of recently-deceased Bosch Fellow Thomas A. Hagemann (VIII), who was a close family friend. Tom passed in a cycling accident in Vermont in late 2015. Several other Boschies have contributed to the fund. Please contact Henry at: if you are interested to assist in this effort.
Gale A. Mattox (I) will be in Brussels as the Fulbright NATO Senior Scholar for Security Studies from June-August, Summer 2017.
The documentary “Running from Cops,” which Mary Wiltenburg (XXIII) and a friend have been working on for two years, since the Baltimore riots, is airing this month on the national radio show Reveal.
Nicole Blumner (XXII) joins Green Street as Vice President of Development. With over fifteen (15) years of urban development, finance and community planning experience, Nicole enhances Green Street’s ability to structure, evaluate and execute complex development projects on behalf of our principals, entities and investors.
Cordell Carter, II (XXIV) is now the Executive Director of the Aspen Institute Socrates Program.
The Socrates Program is a global leadership forum for emerging leaders from various professions to convene and explore contemporary issues through expert-moderated dialogue. Socrates also provides the opportunity for participants to enter into a diverse professional network, and into the broader range of the Aspen Institute’s programs.
On March 11, 2017, Robert J. Devine (III) was appointed Honorary Professor by the UAC Global School of Management. The Universidad Autónoma del Caribe (UAC), is headquartered in Barranquilla, Colombia and is a private co-ed higher education institution with its U.S. branch, the UAC Global School of Management, located in Doral, Florida.
Aaron Fishbone (XXXI) recently had a revised version of his Boschie final paper titled City Networks – Evaluating the Next Frontier of International Relations published by the German Marshall Fund.
Ebru Uras Herzog (XX) is happy to share that she got married last summer to her husband Erik, who works at the EPA in Ann Arbor. She’s been back in her hometown for eight years now and she is very much enjoying midwestern living. Work has been going well. Her father and Ebru have a small engineering R&D boutique firm, and she’s happy to announce that she’s been promoted to Vice President and will be taking majority ownership by the end of the summer. They work on safety technology and blast mitigation, primarily contracting with the US Army. She’s looking forward to utilizing her transatlantic connections as they scale up and explore how technology could be helpful in other allied armed forces.
Ebru is happy to connect with any other Boschies in the metro Detroit area.
Cameron McCosh (XXXI) and her family are happy to be newly minted Portland, OR residents. She continues to spread the good word about seaweed, leading communications for Blue Evolution; and recently became Chief Operating Officer of The Perlene, a social club and workspace for ambitious women. But most importantly, she’s hiking every area hike she can get the time for.
Joellen Perry (XXI) moved with her daughter from Hamburg to Frankfurt last year and has been leading the European Central Bank’s digital communication division since June 2016.
About a year ago, Hannah Kuhn (XIV) pulled up stakes from her long-time home in Portland, Oregon and started a job as a civilian Government Relations Advisor with the US Army Garrison in Wiesbaden. The US militeray presence there is much smaller than it used to be, but it seems it could be increasing again to provide greater deterrence in Eastern Europe. Hannah says that it’s great being back in Germany, which seems more diverse and open than it did 16 years ago. It’s great to be able to use German language and cultural skills again. Thanks, Onkel Bob.
Nicole Harkin’s (XXII) book, Tilting, A Memoir, is coming out June 22nd. The best description of the book might be The Pilot’s Wife meets The Griswalds! A funny/sad exploration of her childhood. She started working on her book soon after her Bosch year and many fellow Boschies have helped her along the way.
Nicole is hosting a book release party on Tuesday, June 27th, at East City Books on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC. She would love to have any Boschies attend who are in town! It is at 6:30 pm and will include wine and snacks.
Katharine Burgess (XXXI), Michael Pavey and Tessa Pavey are continuing to enjoy DC, where Katharine is director for the Urban Resilience program at the Urban Land Institute. They recently hosted Tim Stumhofer for drinks on their porch on one of his whirlwind trips to DC and hope to see more Bosch XXXIers in the near future! They are also excited to spend time with fellow XXXIers Clare Waldmann, Annie Mark-Westfall, Erick Fejoo, Kate Polin, Allison Wildman and families during a trip to Berlin this summer, which will definitely include a toddler Spielplatz tour.
Here is one final update from our newest Bosch class:
After a wonderful year with Bosch that included working with SAP to quantify their indirect social and environmental impact, and building the 2030 Sustainability Agenda for HeidelbergCement, Evan Matzen (XXXIII) and his family will be relocating to Houston, Texas, where his wife, Cara, will help establish a high school attached to an existing pre K-8 school that their boys will attend. They are excited to start this new chapter in their lives, and will look back fondly at their year of European adventure.