Date: Sep 15, 2009

Hofstra Celebrates Annual Alumni Awards Dinner, Honoring the University’s 50th Alumnus of the Year and the First Alumni Organization Lifetime Service Recognition Award

Friday, October 9, 2009, at 6:30 p.m., Garden City Hotel

Hofstra University, Hempstead, NY … Hofstra University and its national Alumni Organization will celebrate nine individuals who have distinguished themselves professionally and been supportive of Hofstra University and its students. The annual Alumni Awards Dinner will take place Friday, October 9, 2009, at 6:30 p.m. at the Garden City Hotel. For reservations and sponsorship information call (516) 463-5284.

Among this year’s recipients, Hofstra will present its 50th annual Alumnus of the Year Award as well as its first Lifetime Service Recognition Award. This year’s honorees are:

Alumnus of the Year Award

* Kurt Lambert ’88, partner/president of the board of directors, Zegora Investment Management, Ltd.

Dr. Lambert of Zurich presently serves as president of the Board of Directors and partner of Zegora Investment Management Ltd., a company he co-founded in 2005.  Zegora Investment Management, based in Zurich, Switzerland, invests in companies which develop or offer technologies, services and products that directly or indirectly benefit the natural environment by reducing environmental footprints. Dr. Lambert is a member of the Advisory Board of the FTSE Hedge Fund Index.  He is also a member of the Board of Trustees of the Africa Foundation (africafoundation.org) as well as Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Zegora Foundation.  The Africa Foundation facilitates the empowerment and development of people living in or adjacent to protected areas in Africa, by forging unique partnerships between conservation initiatives and communities. Dr. Lambert recently founded the Zegora Foundation to provide support to disadvantaged sections of the Barbadian community in the areas of education, social development and entrepreneurship.

In 1997, Dr. Lambert founded Harcourt Investment Consulting, a Swiss-based provider of hedge fund products and services.  Prior to founding Harcourt, Dr. Lambert worked at Bank Leu and Union Bank of Switzerland (UBS).

Award for Alumni Achievement recipients:

*James K. Donaghy ’90, chairman, Structure Tone, Inc.

Structure Tone is a $3.1 billion construction services firm headquartered in New York City. Jim Donaghy of Old Tappan, NJ, personifies the entrepreneurial spirit that is a hallmark of Structure Tone. He has spearheaded innovation within the organization to both better serve his clients and provide an enhanced workplace for Structure Tone employees. He plays a key leadership role in setting the strategic direction of his global organization and has helped guide his firm through a challenging period marked by steady growth.

* Kathryn V. Marinello ’84, chairman and CEO, Ceridian Corporation

Kathy Marinello joined Ceridian on October 9, 2006. Prior to joining Ceridian, Ms. Marinello was president and chief executive officer of multiple large GE businesses, including Fleet Services, Inc., Consumer Financial Services, Auto & Home Insurance, and the GE Financial Network. She currently resides in Minneapolis, MN.

* Stanislao Pugliese ’87, Hofstra Cultural Center fellow and professor of history at Hofstra.

A professor of modern European history at Hofstra University, Stan Pugliese of Rockville Centre, NY, is a former research fellow at the Italian Academy for Advanced Studies in America at Columbia University, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C., and the University of Oxford. A specialist on the Italian anti-fascist Resistance and Italian Jews, he is author, editor or translator of a dozen books on Italian and Italian-American history. His first book, Carlo Rosselli: Socialist Heretic and Antifascist Exile (Harvard University Press, 1999) has been translated into Italian, Russian and Romanian. In 2009, Farrar, Straus and Giroux published Professor Pugliese’s newest biography, Bitter Spring: A Life of Ignazio Silone.

* Joseph Sparacio ’89, CEO and managing partner, The Island Financial Group

Joseph Sparacio, currently of Sag Harbor, NY, began his career with Prudential Financial, Inc. in 1989 as a financial service representative and became a sales manager shortly after his second anniversary with the company.  In 1995, he relocated to manage Prudential’s Connecticut office and was asked to lead the company’s Boston office in 1996.  Mr. Sparacio returned to Long Island in 2000 as the managing director of Prudential’s Uniondale office.  In 2005, he joined MassMutual, and is currently the CEO and managing partner of The Island Financial Group, in Woodbury, New York. In 2009 he was selected to serve on Hofstra’s Board of Trustees. He also serves on the Hofstra Honors College Advisory Board, the Hofstra Pride Club board of directors, and is past president of the Hofstra University Alumni Organization. Mr. Sparacio has established The Joseph Sparacio Endowed Scholarship to assist students majoring in speech communications at Hofstra University.

Young Alumnus Award:

Carlton B. Hickman ’01, CTO and co-founder, CPX Interactive
Michael Seiman ’01, CEO and co-founder, CPX Interactive

CPX Interactive, a progressive online ad network and global marketing company, is the brain child of CTO Carlton Hickman of Roslyn, NY, and CEO Michael Seiman. As Hofstra students, Carlton and Seiman bonded over a common interest in the Internet and a hunger for innovation. They became business partners, initially developing their own entertainment Web sites and then building the ad server that was the foundation for CPX Interactive.

The ad server they built in 1999 set new standards for the industry and developed into a global company that now employs more than 90 people and serves more than 30 billion online ad impressions, in more than 60 countries, every month. CPX Interactive was recently named by Inc. Magazine as the sixth-fastest growing privately held advertising and marketing company in the United States.

Honorary Alumnus Award:
Larry Bloom, former director of athletic facilities at Hofstra

Larry Bloom joined the Hofstra administration as director of sports facilities in 1987, and he remained in this position until his retirement in 2006.  During his tenure as director of sports facilities and eventually director of athletic facilities, Mr. Bloom was actively involved in the construction of the University Recreation Center, the renovation of Margiotta Hall and James M. Shuart Stadium, the installation of several artificial athletic fields (including the installation of the Hofstra Soccer Stadium), and the construction of the David S. Mack Sports and Exhibition Complex. 

Mr. Bloom’s most memorable accomplishment actually occurred after his retirement from Hofstra: he was asked by President Rabinowitz to return to the University to coordinate the University’s bid and subsequent hosting of the 2008 third and final presidential debate. He lives in Bayville, NY.

For the First Time!
Alumni Organization Lifetime Service Recognition Award

Madelyn Leibowitz ’64, president, ML Realty Group, Inc.; vice president of business development, Atlantic Agency/DCAP Insurance & Taxes.

Madelyn Leibowitz, a Holtsville resident, has been an enthusiastic and active alumna for more than 40 years, and has held numerous leadership roles within the Hofstra University Alumni Organization.  Her involvement began with Delta Chi Delta Alumnae Association, which she continues to serve as president.  She was a member of the Board of Directors of the Hofstra University Alumni Organization and its predecessor, the Alumni Senate, for many years, including serving two years as president of the Alumni Organization.  She has been a member of the Hofstra Pride Club Board of Directors since 1993, and currently serves as co-chair of membership.  Moreover, she has been a member of the Hofstra Advisory Board since 1996.