2015 Alumni Council

Executive Committee
	Peter Cafiero CE’83: President Peter is Chief of Operations Planning for NYC Transit. In 1986, he earned an MS in Civil Engineering from Northwestern University. He was at Metro-North Railroad before joining MTA New York City, where he has worked for over 23 years in the Operations Planning Department, serving as its head since 2006. He has served on the Alumni Council, and the Tellers and Gano Dunn committees. In 2008, he helped plan his class’ 25th Year Reunion. He participates in Engineering Career Evening and Mock Interview Night, and speaks each year to the School of Engineering Transportation Planning class. He is Class Rep Eng’83. He serves as CUAA President.
	Lawrence Hausman EE’94: VP/Faculty & Student Liason Lawrence is Senior Engineer and Department Head of the Control Components Group at Miteq, Inc. He is a licensed Professional Engineer, a registered US Patent Agent and Principal of L Stuart, Inc. He is Chairman of the Long Island Section of the IEEE Communications Society. He is a member of the Adjunct Faculty of the Electrical Engineering department at The Cooper Union. He is serving on the Alumni Council and serves as the Alumni Representative to the School of Engineering Faculty Committee and on the Constitution Committee.
	Rocco Cetera CE’99: VP/Alumni Activities Rocco is a Project Manager for the Port Authority of NY&NJ. He is a licensed engineer in the State of New York, a certified Project Management Professional and a LEED Accredited Professional. He has a master’s in Public Administration from Columbia University. He has worked to create a more vibrant alumni community through Pop-Up/Meet-Up Activities planned, produced and run by alumni. In 2011, he helped organize Free Cooper Union!: A Community Summit, the first alumni forum in response to the financial crisis. He serves as the CUAA VP/Alumni Activities and on the Executive Committee. He has served on the Alumni Council, the Inaugural Alumni Film Festival Planning Committee and is Co-Chair of the Events Committee. In 2009, he was named Young Alumnus of the Year.
	Robert Tan AR’81: Secretary/Treasurer Robert is a Partner at Gerrard + Tan Architects. He is on the Alumni Council and the Annual Fund and Nominating committees. He has served as Co-Chair of the Annual Fund Committee. He and Judy Gerrard AR’83 were co-chairs of the 2009 Founder’s Day Dinner Dance. He serves as CUAA Secretary/Treasurer.

Alumni Trustee (four year term begins December 2012)

Edgar Mokuvos EE’78
Edgar is CEO and Founder of Kasaken Capital, a private equity firm. He worked for two decades with Accenture and retired as a senior partner in its financial services practice. He is a member of the President’s Council at The Cooper Union, has served on the Alumni Council and its Executive Committee, and chaired the Annual Fund Committee. He currently serves on the board of education of Summit, New Jersey and is the chairman of its finance committee.

2015 Alumni Council
	Peter Adler A’54 Peter is Creative Director of Peter Adler Advertising Design, LLC. Previously, he was President and Creative Director of Adler, Schwartz Inc., an advertising and sales marketing agency. After graduating in 1954, he volunteered for Cooper’s PR Department. He has taught graphic design at the School of Visual Arts, Parsons and Bergen Community College, where he served as Chair of the Art Advisory Council. He serves on the Alumni Council, the Editorial and Augustus Saint-Gaudens Award committees and is Class Rep A’54.
	Charlie Cassella EE’68 Charlie is an Electronics Engineer with the Federal Aviation Administration. He has served on the Alumni Council and the Nominating, Events, Tellers, Alumni Recruitment, Alumni/Student Career Dinner, Cooper Couples Evening, Gano Dunn Award, Mock Interview Night and PE Review Course committees. He serves on the Annual Fund Committee and was Chair of the Alumni Day Committee. He participates annually at Phonathon. In 2010, he was named Alumnus of the Year.
	Sean Cusack BSE’98 Sean’s focus is computer programming and education. While writing infrastructure software for Bloomberg from 1998 to 2007 and Merrill Lynch from 2007 to 2009, he also ran Manhattan Scout Troop 999 at the Icahn House West homeless shelter, and began teaching EID102 at Cooper in 2003. He works part-time at Merrill Lynch and teaches CS102 at Cooper. He is starting his own company, learnosaurus.com, to turn elementary school homework into education games, and administers cooperuniontaskforce.com. He actively participates in CUAA events, including Engineering Career Evening and Mock Interview Night, and was a co-organizer of the Free Cooper Union Summit and Friends of Cooper events.
	Janet Gardner A’65 After completing an MFA at NYU’s Graduate Institute of Film and Television, Janet began her career at NBC News, WNBC-TV’s NewsCenter 4 and CBS News. In 1991, she founded The Gardner Documentary Group, producing a film about the United Nations entitled The United Nations: It’s More Than You Think; a series on homeless children; followed by an award-winning trilogy on post war Vietnam. Other credits include Mechanic to Millionaire: The Peter Cooper Story, which won a CINE Golden Eagle Award and has been broadcast on PBS stations nationwide. She has served as Vice President and Faculty Liaison on the Alumni Council, and on the Augustus Saint-Gaudens Award and the Cooper Union Alumni Film Festival committees.
	Jesicka Alexander Labud AR’06 Jesicka is a Project Manager at the NYC Dept. of Design & Construction, in the Cultural Institutions Unit. In 2011, she co-founded an internet start-up with the mission to provide a steady source of income for Cooper Union through its profits. She is also Founder of the Light & Structure Institute, a multidisciplinary school of arts. She was Student Council Representative of her class and later Administrative Co-Chair. She co-organized several large student events, including the AIAS North American Quad Conference. In 2006, she received the Service to the School Award. She has been an educator since 2001, and taught in the Saturday Program. While pursuing her Fulbright Research Grant in S. Korea, she taught design at Hongik University, and continues to serve as guest professor at institutions including NYIT, NY CityTech, and various others on a continuing basis.
	Gary Kazin ChE’69 Gary is retired from a long civil service career at the US Army Picatinny Arsenal, including ordnance system production and testing, and facilities construction project management. He earned a master’s in Chemical Engineering in 1972 from NYU and is a licensed Professional Engineer in New Jersey. His current interests include photography, cycling and railroads, and he drives a senior citizens’ bus part-time. He actively participates in CUAA events and initiatives, including Phonathon.
	Scott Lyne ChE’92/MChE’95 Scott is an attorney in the New York office of Jones Day, where his practice focuses on technology transactions, licensing and intellectual property law. He received his J.D. magna cum laude from Tulane Law School, where he was Editor-in-Chief of the Tulane Environmental Law Journal, and subsequently served as law clerk to the Honorable Mariana R. Pfaelzer, United States District Court, Central District of California. Before earning his law degree, he was an environmental engineer at Banner Pharmacaps, a global drug and pharmaceutical company. He has served on the Alumni Council and as the Co-Chair of the 2007 CUAA Art Auction and Casino Night. He is Chair of the Gano Dunn Award Committee.
(Photo by Deborah Garwood)	Margaret Matz AR’83 Margaret is Founder and President of Milestone Architecture PLLC, a global architectural and design practice. She has 20 years of experience designing new, restoration and sustainable renovation projects for academic institutions, health care institutions and corporate and retail organizations. She is a visiting assistant professor at the New York Institute of Technology and the Pratt Institute schools of architecture. Her work has received many awards, and she has published and lectured both in the US and abroad. She is LEED AP certified and an AIA registered architect. She has volunteered for Phonathon and participates in CUAA events.
	Yash Risbud EE’92/MEE’94 Yash is Director of The Cooper Union’s C.V. Starr Research Foundation and is an Adjunct Professor of Electrical Engineering at Cooper. He received the CUAA’s first Young Alumnus of the Year Award. He has served on the Executive Committee of the Alumni Council as Secretary/Treasurer, VP/Alumni Activities, VP/ Faculty and Student Liaison, Chair of the Young Alumni Committee, and Chair of Phonathon and the Annual Fund Committee. He has been a member of the Nominating, Gano Dunn Award, Tellers, CU2000, Constitution and Phonathon committees. He is Class Rep Eng’92.
	Susan Shaw A’72 Susan is a graphic designer and Principal of Susan Shaw Design. She is an adjunct instructor in the Art Department at Queens College of the City University of New York, teaching typography and design. She is married to Jack Freeman (AR’69) and and her father Arnold Shaw graduated Cooper Union night School in 1946. She serves on the Annual Fund Committee and participates in Phonathon. She is Class Rep A’72.
	Kelly Smolar ME’07/MME’11 Kelly is an Assistant Project Manager at Zubatkin Owner Representation, serving on projects ranging from the National September 11 Memorial & Museum to Broadway Housing Communities’ Sugar Hill project. Previously, she was a Construction Mechanical Engineer at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. She is a member of the Northern New Jersey Professional Chapter of Engineers Without Borders and the American Society of Mechanical Engineers. At Cooper, she was on the Student Council. She is on the Editorial and Tellers committees and participates in Phonathon.
	Johnny Wong ME’03 Johnny is a weather and commodities originator at Swiss Re, structuring and originating financial risk solutions for energy companies in the North and South American markets. Previously, he was an engineer at Con Edison. He actively supports those within the Cooper Union community in seeking job opportunities through the Financial Services Group and continues to expand opportunities to the graduating class by his involvement in the recruitment process at Swiss Re.