Current Alumni Council Nominees

ERA I

Douglas M. Bregman ’71, P’04

Douglas M. Bregman ’71 is the founder and managing partner of the law firm now called Bregman, Berbert, Schwartz & Gilday, LLC, where he has maintained a general civil law practice for more than 40 years. His practice focuses on real estate and business transactions, mediation and arbitration, civil litigation, and receiverships, trusts, and estates. Doug graduated from Colgate with honors in Political Science and earned his J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center in 1974.

Since 1992, Doug has served as an Adjunct Professor of Law at Georgetown University Law Center, teaching a course focused on commercial real estate transactions entitled “Drafting and Negotiating Commercial Real Estate Documents: Contracts, Loan Documents, and Leases.” He expanded his teaching venue in 2011 to Columbia Law School and in 2023 to Howard University School of Law. As a recognized leader in his field, Doug was elected as a Fellow of the American College of Real Estate Lawyers (ACREL) in 2004. Among other recognitions, in 2017 he was awarded the Distinguished Real Property Practitioner Award from the Maryland State Bar Association.

Doug has been a dedicated and active Colgate alumnus for decades. He co-edits the Alumni News section of Colgate Magazine, established a scholarship fund, and taught a course at Colgate entitled “Dispute Resolution.” He has supported admissions efforts by interviewing high school students in the Washington, D.C., area interested in attending Colgate and by hosting picnics at his home for incoming first-year students.

Doug currently lives in Bethesda, MD, with his wife Brenda. His daughter, Lauren, and her husband, Dan, are also proud Colgate alumni. In his free time, Doug enjoys playing tennis and traveling.

ERA II

Mary Kay Leonard ’71

Mary Kay Leonard is a seasoned leader with more than 40 years of experience in the public, private, and nonprofit sectors. She has served as an executive, board member, advisor, coach, and consultant to dozens of organizations, gaining expertise in a wide variety of fields, including child, family, and elder services, economic and community development, education, housing, health care, and workforce development. She received her J.D. from Northeastern University School of Law and now splits her time between Boston, NYC, and Cape Cod. Mary Kay now consults with organizations seeking to grow or scale their impact. She assists them in developing and executing their growth strategies and business plans, assessing and negotiating mergers, and serving as Interim CEO. She brings a data-driven, results-focused, and collaborative approach to her clients, and relies on her own executive and board experience to integrate solutions across an entire organization. Her experience includes resource development, governance, capacity assessment, product marketing, corporate social responsibility, public/private collaborations, grant making, and coaching of both senior
executives and boards. Mary Kay spent the last year re-connecting and working with an amazing group of volunteers planning their 50th Colgate reunion—the weekend was a huge success and plans will soon be underway for the 55th.
 

ERA III

Jayanth J. Chandrasekhar ’90, P’27

Director, writer, and actor, Jay Chandrasekhar has contributed to and appeared in a wide variety of acclaimed films and television programs. At Colgate University, Jay formed Charred Goosebeak, a sketch comedy group, which would eventually evolve into Broken Lizard.

With Broken Lizard, Chandrasekhar made the Sundance hit, Puddle Cruiser, Fox Searchlight’s comedy classics, Super Troopers, and Club Dread, and for Warner Brothers, Beerfest, and The Dukes of Hazzard.

After raising more than $4.5 million in crowdfunding money, Chandrasekhar directed Super Troopers 2. Then in 2022, Jay directed the film Easter Sunday for Amblin/Universal Pictures, which starred Jo Koy and Tiffany Haddish.

Jay can be seen in the new Broken Lizard film, Quasi. The film is set in 12th-century France, and Jay plays the King of France. Currently, he’s writing a film called The Golf Trip with Kate Angelo. 

Chandrasekhar directed various TV shows, including Arrested Development, Community, Psych, Undeclared, New Girl, The Grinder, Goldbergs, Good Trouble, and Animal Control. In addition to touring as a stand comic, in 2016, Jay wrote a memoir, Mustache Shenanigans.

ERA IV

Liza D. Snell ’94

Liza Gurall Snell ‘94, majored in art history and minored in philosophy and graduated from Colgate magna cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa. She started her career in brand marketing in Boston and New York City and earned her MBA from Harvard Business School. For more than 30 years, Liza has been helping global brands and start-ups alike to create compelling brand strategies. Liza is a member of healthcare and education non-profit boards, and she spends time each month serving at a food pantry in Lowell, MA.

At Colgate, Liza served in student government and was Student Association President her senior year. She was elected to Konosioni (now Tredecim) Senior Honor Society and is a sister of Gamma Phi Beta. A recipient of the 1819 Award while at Colgate, Liza also served as a young alumni member of the Board of Trustees, one of the first to serve in that role. Liza currently is a member of Colgate’s Presidents’ Circle Membership Council, and she has volunteered for Colgate planning reunions, advising students on their careers, serving as a regional leader in New England, hosting “Table for 13” events, and along with her husband, Travis ‘94, supports the Colgate Commitment. In June, the Colgate Alumni Corporation honored Liza with a Maroon Citation. Liza resides in Carlisle, MA, with her husband Travis, their children Susannah (Denison University ‘26) and Samuel (Colgate University ‘29), and their two rescue dogs, Willy and Astro.
 

ERA V

Saurabh Arora ’04

Sobby Arora ’04 is currently a global equities analyst and investor at Davis Funds and has been in similar roles since graduating from Colgate. He also earned an MBA from NYU. For the past four years, he has been serving on Colgate Presidents’ Circle Membership Council and is currently on the Executive Committee. He has also volunteered for the 2004 Class Gift Committee.

Sobby attended Colgate as an international student from India. He graduated with a major in computer science and a minor in economics. He was the Vice President of Student Government, on link staff for three years, co-founder of the Hindu Student Association, a tour guide, a member of the Konosioni (now Tredecim) Honor Society, and an enthusiastic member of Kappa Delta Rho. He lives in Brooklyn, NY with his wife,  daughter, son and a cat.
 

ERA VI

Michael E. Miller ’12

Michael graduated from Colgate in 2012, where he served as student body president and was a four-year member of the Student Government Association. Since then, he’s stayed closely connected to Colgate by leading the Colgate Club of Chicago for nearly five years and serving on the Presidents’ Circle Membership Council.

After Colgate, Michael earned his MBA from the Kellogg School of Management in 2020. His career spans over 12 years in finance and fintech, including six years at a high-frequency trading hedge fund, two years at EY-Parthenon, and almost three years as a product leader at Robinhood Markets. He recently joined Altruist to help make financial advice better, more affordable, and accessible to everyone, as a product leader, and advises fintech startups on the side.

When he’s not working, Michael loves running—often with other Colgate friends—skiing, mentoring Colgate students, and supporting his sister’s startup, WellCheq.com. He’s excited to give back and help strengthen the Colgate community through the Alumni Council.

 

ERA VII

Halley D. Weinreb ’17

Halley is an associate in investment banking at Morgan Stanley. She currently works on the transportation coverage team, executing various transactions to support Morgan Stanley's institutional clients, including but not limited to debt and equity offerings (e.g. IPOs), M&A transactions, and more. She previously worked as a member of Morgan Stanley's trading and portfolio solutions team within wealth management from 2017 - 2022. Halley joined Morgan Stanley as a summer analyst on the wealth management capital markets team and re-joined the firm upon graduation as a rotational analyst in the wealth management program. Throughout the program, she rotated through several strategy and product-oriented groups, including Morgan Stanley's Digital COO team, where she helped support digital engagement and adoption efforts and the development of the Salesforce platform, and the alternative investments product origination and development team focused on real assets, including real estate and custom funds. Halley holds a BA in English and a minor in economics and Middle-East and Islamic Studies from Colgate University.

Regional

John P. Ortiz ’10

After 15 years of service to Colgate including working for the Office of Admissions as an alumnus and serving as the Regional Chair for the Atlanta metro, John Paul “JP” Ortiz is excited to be nominated for the Alumni Council.  As a student, JP majored in Spanish and his campus highlights included: the OUS Summer Institute, living in Gate House freshman year, working in the Colgate Writing Center, and co-creating the inaugural Newman Community pilgrimage to Rome, Italy with the Office of the Chaplains. He lived abroad with the Madrid Study Group, interned in Spain as a Milhomme fellowship recipient, and served on the Link Staff under the legendary Bev Low.  Currently, JP works as an account executive for Google for education helping colleges and universities envision their future technology strategies. He arrived at Google after five years in tech sales at Microsoft and received his MBA from Emory University - Goizueta Business School in 2018. Prior to those roles, he worked in merchandising for Abercrombie & Fitch and brand marketing for The Coca-Cola Company. Outside of his life in the corporate jungle, he prefers the real-life jungles of Costa Rica. For the past few years, he has been an entrepreneur in a regenerative permaculture and conservation project on 13 acres of rainforest on the South Pacific coast with his collaborator, Emily Baselt ‘11. Inspired by his travels to the Brazilian Amazon and work with indigenous shamans and plant medicines, his vision is to create a retreat space where visitors can disconnect from their technological lives and restore their minds and bodies through the natural beauty and rhythm of the jungles. His goal in 2025 is to write more and to video-document this journey as plans develop for his online publication, “The Wall Green Journal”.

Regional

Janine Y. Daniels Rivera ’86

Janine Daniels Rivera is an attorney with over 30 years of New York State government experience and extensive knowledge of medicaid fraud, abuse, and program integrity.  For the last 15 years, she has served the State of New York in the capacity of General Counsel for the New York State Office of the Medicaid Inspector General.  As an attorney, Janine is passionate about being an advocate, creating opportunities and spaces for voices that are often silenced or unheard. She strongly believes that advocacy challenges the status quo, speaks to identified problems, and outlines opportunities for solutions, which once implemented result in change.

Janine has served as the prisoner advocate for Albany Medical College’s Institutional Review Board for over 25 years.  She is responsible for reviewing protocols that involve prisoners and human subjects to ensure their compliance with federal requirements for prisoners as a protected class of human subjects.  

In 2023, Janine became co-chair for student-alumni relations for the Executive Committee of Colgate’s Alumni of Color (AOC) organization.  A position that she approaches earnestly because it resulted from a nomination by her close sister-friend and Colgate classmate, Ziomara Foster ‘86, and from votes and support from the Alumni of Color at large that elected her to the position.  The position affords her the opportunity to be a “bridge” between the University and both Colgate students and Alumni of Color; cultivate engagement between Colgate Students and Alumni of Color, and work with the University and the AOC to achieve the diversity, equity, and inclusion objectives identified in the University’s Third Century Plan.  It also allows her to join her voice with others to raise awareness and speak collectively about solutions that can leverage meaningful change at Colgate for both students and Alumni of Color.  

Janine also serves as an advisor to Mercy University’s Women in Leadership Program, a position she has held since 2023. While it is important to have women in leadership positions, what is equally, if not more important, is to empower and equip women for those positions. Janine is a strong advocate for Mercy University’s program because it encourages women to embrace leadership, teaches women how to stand in leadership positions, and recognizes the value women’s voices bring to professional spaces.    
Janine holds a bachelor of arts degree in psychology and Afro-American studies from Colgate University. While at Colgate, Janine was the co-director of the Sojourners, Colgate’s acapella Gospel group, and was a disc jockey (DJ) for WRCU.  She also holds a juris doctor degree from Albany Law School.  Janine received a certificate for completing Mercy University’s women in leadership certificate program.  She also obtained a certificate of completion in diversity, equity, and inclusion from the NYS and CSEA Partnership for Education and Training. She is one course away from completing and receiving a diversity, equity, and inclusion certificate from Cornell University.  Janine supports German Shepherd Rescue of NY, Inc., in honor of her beloved breed, where she serves as a staff volunteer.
 

At-Large

Lauren Casella ’16

Lauren Casella is a senior manager on the Amex offers and business insights team at American Express. She joined the company in February 2022. Prior to her role at Amex, Lauren spent six years on the marketing sciences team at digital advertising agency, R/GA. In her role at American Express, Lauren manages partnerships with luxury merchants to launch shopping offers exclusive to American Express card members. American Express has a strong Colgate presence with almost 30 alumni working at the company currently. Lauren coordinates efforts between Career Services and alumni at American Express to help current students navigate the hiring process.

At Colgate, Lauren double majored in political science and religion. Her religion major led her to the St. Andrews study group focusing on philosophy in 2015. On campus, she was a member of the link staff, a business editor of the Colgate Maroon News, and a leader of the Colgate Women in Business group. Lauren is now the Class of 2016 class news editor for Colgate Magazine. She is the co-president of the Colgate Alumni Club of New York City and an active club volunteer for the past nine years. Lauren is a member of the Presidents' Circle Membership Council and launched the Instagram account for the Presidents' Circle in 2022. In addition to the PCMC, she is a member of her class fundraising committee. She has previously served as a reunion shair for the slass of 2016. A member of the Alumni Council for the past two years, Lauren is excited to begin her four-year term. Lauren currently resides in New York City.
 

At-Large

Jonathan Heuer ’99

Jon Heuer ’99 is a managing director in JPMorgan’s Private Bank. With the help of the Colgate alumni network, he joined Chase Manhattan Bank in 1999 as part of the management development program in New York. Over the subsequent 25 years with JPMorgan, Jon has led teams across investments, credit, business management, product, transformation, and strategy. In 2011, Jon had the opportunity to move with his family to Geneva, Switzerland, where he spent five years learning and exploring international markets, both personally and professionally. In 2016, Jon relocated again to London, where he, his wife, and three children continue to call home.  Currently, he leads operational risk and controls for the international business, covering Asia, Europe, and Latin America.

Jon earned his bachelor of arts from Colgate University in 1999. A few years later, he was sponsored by JPMorgan as part of the executive program, and he earned a Master of Business Administration from Columbia University in ’05.

From the liberal arts education to club sports, to the Theta Chi fraternity, to tutoring at Hamilton High School, Jon loved every minute of his time at Colgate. Coming from a Colgate family — beginning with father, Alan ’63, then sister, Kim ’91, and now nephew, Jack ’28 — Jon continues the Heuer’s support and passion for Colgate through financial aid scholarships, the Seven Oaks golf course and the Campaign for the Third Century.