Category Archives: NDP Professionals

We visited with Dr. Stephen Weber, who earned his Doctorate of Philosophy from Notre Dame in 1969. He has served as the President of San Diego State University since 1996 and provided us an inside look at what it takes to run a major state university serving 30,000 students in 85 undergraduate majors, 75 master’s programs and 14 joint doctoral degree programs. He spoke about his participation in helping local grade schools improve their programs to prepare students for college. He also noted that the previous San Diego State President who served from 1978-1996, Thomas Day, was also a Notre Dame alum. Under their tutelage, San Diego State has made great strides to become one of the most desired universities in California, receiving over 60,000 applications a year. Dr. Weber proudly welcomed Notre Dame Alums to San Diego State by posting large VIP and Notre Dame Alumni signs from the parking lot to the meeting room.

First up was Steve Weber from the class of ’75. He provided us a rare opportunity to take a lunch time tour of the NBC studios in San Diego. We started with lunch and staff presentations, touching on such subjects as TV advertising, website advertising, commercial production, and newsroom decisions. We then took a tour of the newsroom, control room, and studio, meeting some well known TV personalities along the way, including Steven Luke, Catherine Garcia, and Marty Levin. Some members had the opportunity to sit at the anchor desk and read from the teleprompter while others stood in front of the green wall to learn the challenge of presenting the weather with imaginary maps on the wall. NDP was very grateful to go behind the scenes of our favorite San Diego newscast.

Panelists from Intuit, Non-Profit Solutions, KForce, SEDC

Considering the current economic slowdown, timing could not have been better for the Notre Dame Alumni Association to create a new Career Resource program called ONWARD Notre Dame. On September 21^st, Tracey Janesheski flew out from South Bend to introduce the program to San Diego based alumni in coordination with a free career event sponsored by the Notre Dame Club of San Diego.

Tracey described the resources being provided by the University at the ONWARD Notre Dame web site. Programs include online career development seminars that provide guidance on such topics as preparing resumes that get read, writing cover letters that sell your skills, and making a strong impression during job interviews.  She also spoke about the Notre Dame networking opportunities through the social networking site LinkedIn.com and the free trial period on CareerShift.com, a site that provides extensive career background information on people you are likely to meet on job interviews.

A panel of local employers followed Tracey’s presentation with advice on finding jobs in the San Diego market. Panelists included Glenda Nieva from Intuit, Ron Bell from KForce, Lenore Lowe from Non-Profit Management Solutions, and Brian Trotier from the Southeastern Economic Development Corporation.

Hall of Fame Speaker Tony Alessandra '69

A fellow alumnus, author, and Hall of Fame Speaker Tony Alessandra ’69 capped off the night with the topic of creating instant rapport on the job interview. Alessandra spoke with the charismatic style that has won him numerous awards over the years. He described the various styles of personalities we meet on job interviews from Thinkers and Directors to Relaters and Socializers. Alessandra then taught the audience that a different approach is needed for each style. For example, Directors want you to get straight to the point on a job interview because their main focus is bottom line results whereas a Relater wants you to take the time to listen and develop a personal rapport with them.

Career Networking among ND Alums

The event, held in Rancho Bernardo, attracted a number of North County alums who appreciated having an evening event held in their neck of the woods. Due to the strong response, the club is looking forward to additional opportunities that will attract alumni from other parts of San Diego County.   If you have any suggestions, please let us know.

Alums Touring the Sysco Warehouse

Pete Holohan ’81 provided ND alums a tour of Sysco, the world’s largest distributor of food. With annual revenues of $37 billion, Sysco is ranked 62nd on the list of Fortune 1000 companies. Sysco is headquartered in Houston and run by CEO Bill Delaney, a fellow Domer.

Chances are, each time you eat out, you are eating food delivered by Sysco. Locally, they supply everyone from the San Diego Zoo to Scripps Hospital, the Cohn Restaurant Group and Seau’s. Over 51,000 cases of food are delivered nightly from their warehouse in Poway.

Alums were served lunch while they asked the local President of Sysco questions about the company’s growth, operations and food safety issues. Afterwards, alums took a tour through the distribution facility, including the freezer where temps are kept at 10 below zero. For those who braved the freezer, it brought back plenty of memories of our winters in South Bend.

NDP Chair Brad Owen in front of Shell Trading

Ten percent of the energy needs west of the Rockies flows through a trading floor right here in San Diego. A fellow Domer, William McKone (’94 MBA) hosted 20 NDP members during a recent lunch time tour. The top managers for Shell’s trading operations gave an in-depth presentation and answered numerous questions on energy issues covering the past, present, and future. We were given an insiders look at market and regulatory variables that affect prices for Oil, Gas and Power, LNG, and Renewables. One takeaway was no one for sure knows how prices will fluctuate in the short-term but we should expect them to rise to record levels in the years ahead. The challenge appears not to be in terms of finding sources of energy but developing the technology to bring stability and reduced prices to acceptable forms of energy that meet ever increasing regulatory and environmental standards. We also learned that traders come from all types of backgrounds ranging from engineers to secretaries. Certain people seem to have a knack for knowing the energy markets and where they are headed and have the ability to quickly forget about a bad trade when they do happen.

Alums on deck of the USS Ronald Reagan

The largest and most modern operating aircraft carrier in the world is home ported in San Diego, CA. Named after the 40th President of the United States and 33rd Governor of California, the USS Ronald Reagan is home to more than 5,500 military members, 60 aircraft, and 2 runways. Fifty Notre Dame alumni and friends spent a couple hours of their Saturday afternoon taking a tour of the hanger, flight deck, and captain’s bridge. To give you some perspective on the size of the ship, take into account that its flight deck is nearly as long as the Empire State Building is high. It has more runways than the San Diego airport (two vs. one). When you step into the hanger, which is just one stairway up from sea level, there are seven floors above you (including the flight deck) and eight floors below you. Despite the awe of standing in a floating structure of such a large scale, the most moving aspect was talking with the sailors who seek to operate this ship flawlessly in foreign waters. It is all the more impressive when you consider the average age of the crew is 19. Finally, for fans of the Gipper, you’ll appreciate that in the hanger is a mini-museum dedicated to the life of Ronald Reagan and the first thing you see is a video of Ronald Reagan playing George Gipp in Knute Rockne – All American.

The Notre Dame Professionals (NDP) had another successful year in support of  our ND San Diego professional alumni.  The two core functional areas of NDP include Networking Mixers and Business Tours.  In 2009, the group held 3 mixers at 3 different venues. The first of the year was hosted at Epazote’s in Del Mar.  With 60+ attendees, raffle prizes and lots of food and drinks it was one of our most successful events of the year.  This was followed by a group networking mixer that included Notre Dame, Duke, Harvard and Villanova at Clay’s in La Jolla . We ended the year with a holiday-themed wine tasting event at Wine Steals in Hillcrest.  NDP averages between 45 – 55 guests per mixer and we’re always looking to expand our network and make these events as fun and functional as possible.  Look for information about our February 2010 mixer soon…and don’t forget to join us on Facebook.