BIOS are below:
John DeVleming – Co-President
James Babb – Co-President
Nancy Brune – Board Member
Peter Caravella – Board Member
Sydney Glover – Board Member
Julian Hardman – Board Member
Gene Lee – Board Member
Cynthia Mun – Board Member, Past Co-President, ASC Director of NV
Montgomery Simus – Board Member, Past Co-President
Johanna Wise – Board Member Northern NV Yale Club Representative
John DeVleming (Hopper) – Co-President
John DeVleming is a former diplomat, lawyer, investment partner, girls’ volleyball club director, and school board trustee. Law was the least fun. He is married to Kathleen Fortier DeVleming, whom he met in Ethiopia in the Peace Corps. They have five adult children. At Yale, he took a Division IV major combining philosophy, psychology and political science, but far more important he rowed 7 seat on the lightweight Henley team and stroked the heavyweights against Harvard. In his dotage, he occupies himself with golf, wine, volunteer trusteeships, and travel.
James Babb (SOM) – Co-President
James Babb is an alumnus of the YALE SOM Global Executive Leadership Program 2015. He is a professional services executive having spent the past 28 years with Deloitte and KPMG, James has lived and worked in over 50 countries around the world during his career primarily based out of Dubai, United Arab Emirates. He is married for the past 25 years and has one son aged 19. James has served as a mentor to YALE SOM MBA students as well as having served on the SOM Career Development Committee. In his spare time he enjoys a variety of sports and community service activities and is a member of the Capital Club of Dubai and the Sterling Club of Las Vegas, NV.
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Peter Caravella (Branford)
Dr. Peter Caravella graduated from Yale in 1990 with a B.A. in Economics. While at Yale, he earned 3 varsity letters in Baseball and 2 in Football, as well as being All-Ivy in Football. In his senior year, Yale Football won the Ivy League Championship. After a short stint in Navy Flight school, Dr. Caravella entered the field of medicine. He graduated from the University of Maryland School of Medicine in Baltimore, MD in1997. He completed his General Surgery residency at St Louis University in 2002. He worked as a general surgeon in Las Vegas from 2002-2005. He then completed his Cardiothoracic Surgery Fellowship at Loyola University in Chicago in 2007. Dr. Caravella returned to Las Vegas and cofounded Las Vegas Surgical Associates in 2010.
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Sydney Glover (Ezra Stiles)
Sydney Glover graduated from Yale College in 2017 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in History. While at Yale, she was an outfielder on the varsity softball team and served as a Yale Ambassador for her hometown area of Hampton Roads, Virginia.
After completing multiple internships and programs within Major and Minor League Baseball, Sydney worked for the Indianapolis Indians, Triple-A Affiliate of the Pittsburgh Pirates. Her positions in Indianapolis included sponsorship activation and leading the organization’s Diversity & Inclusion Committee. Recently moving to Las Vegas, Sydney now works as the Diversity & Inclusion Specialist for William Hill.
Sydney was named an Ambassador for Change in Minor League Baseball and graduated from the Indianapolis Urban League’s Exchange Leadership Fellows Program in 2020. She also served as Acting President of the Yale Club of Indiana from January 2019 to July 2020.
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Julian Hardman
Dr. Hardman received his medical degree in 2010 from the University of Illinois at Chicago Medical Center after completing a double major in molecular biophysics and biochemistry as well as a degree in classical languages and literature from Yale University. In 2015, Hardman completed a diagnostic radiology residency at John H. Stroger Hospital in Chicago. He later completed a neuroradiology fellowship at the Cleveland Clinic in 2016 in addition to an endovascular surgical neuroradiology fellowship in 2018. Most recently, Hardman worked as an associate radiologist performing complex neuro-interventional procedures and final interpretations on multifaceted neuroradiology imaging cases. Hardman has also participated in various clinical research studies, contributed to scholarly publications and scientific exhibits. As an industry expert, Hardman has also partaken in several speaking engagements for national radiological meetings.
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Gene Lee
Gene Lee is SVP Chief Analytics Officer at Caesars Entertainment. His 180+ team of data analytics professionals support Caesars Digital and 50+ brick & mortar properties across the US. Functional support areas include Digital Sportsbook and iGaming, Property Finance, Marketing, Gaming, VIP, Hospitality, Labor Analytics, Data Logistics and Data Science. He graduated from UC Berkeley with a Bachelors in Applied Math and received his MBA from Yale School of Management.
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Cynthia Mun (Morse) – ASC Director, Past President,
Ms. Mun has two decades of experience in strategic and product marketing. She was most recently VP of Marketing for Tropicana Las Vegas and was responsible for overseeing the $125 million restorations and rebranding of the corporation. She served as Executive Director of Business Insights and Strategy at MGM Resorts International where she created and managed the research and strategy department that supported 22 entities within the MGM Resorts portfolio. Prior to joining the MGM Resorts, Ms. Mun acted as Leader of New Product Development at D&B where she led the development of new products and services for the $280 million Small Business division. She also launched Pandora.com as its Senior Vice President of Marketing. Ms. Mun served as Director of Product Marketing and Management for Gemstar TV Guide International, where she led the strategic market development and launch of the first electronic book. She writes novels for children and is represented by The Bent Agency. She was appointed to the Nevada Commission on Tourism in 2018 by the former Governor, Brian Sandoval and again in 2021 by Governor Steve Sisolak.
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Monty Simus (Branford) – Past President, Board Member
Educated at Yale University (Bachelor of Arts – Environmental History) and Harvard (Master in Public Policy – International Development), Mr. Simus has lived, worked, and traveled in more than fifty countries spanning Africa, China, South America, Europe, the Middle East, and Southeast & Central Asia. He has experience in building and obtaining finance for technology/telecommunications start-ups, holding accountability for P&L management, and developing and deploying technology-related services for new emerging markets worldwide. During his career, Mr. Simus has held executive officer positions with the Yale Clubs of Hong Kong and Silicon Valley and is presently also active in the Harvard Club of Nevada.
Possessing a keen interest in business, the environment, policy, and economic development of emerging economies, Mr. Simus has more recently started several entrepreneurial ventures to pursue his passions for environmental and conservation issues, primarily as they relate to freshwater scarcity, renewable energy, and national park policy. Working from a water-scarce base in Las Vegas with his wife and son, he is the founder of Water Politics (www.waterpolitics.com), an organization dedicated to the identification and analysis of geopolitical water issues arising from the world’s growing and vast water deficits, and is also a co-founder of SmartMarkets (www.smart-markets.com), an eco-preneurial venture that applies web 2.0 technology and online social networking innovations to motivate energy & water conservation.
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Johanna Wise (Stiles)
Johanna is a recent transplant to Reno, Nevada, having spent roughly the latter ½ of her life in Silicon Valley and the first ½ on the East Coast in New York City, New Haven, and Boston (with a brief stint in Texas).
Johanna holds a BS in Applied Mathematics from Yale University, an MBA from the Graduate School of Business at Stanford University, and a Certificate in Small Business Management from New York University’s Stern School of Business.
Her career includes:
- Management Consulting at Bain & Company in Boston, MA and Strategic Decisions Group in Menlo Park, CA,
- Mergers and Acquisitions and Financial Analysis at Goldman Sachs and Lehman Brothers in New York City
- Brand Management at Frito-Lay in Dallas, TX.
She is presently CEO of Connect•Work•Thrive, a company that helps mid-career professionals change careers or return to the workforce after a career break.
Johanna is a founding Council member of Yale Women: a Global Network of Yale Alumnae, the immediate past President of the Yale Club of Silicon Valley, and served for 10 years as the ASC Director for Northern California and Reno, Nevada. She’s excited about helping to create a vibrant community of Yale alums in Northern Nevada!
