President: Jarett Wait ’80
jwait@jfwaitadv.com
Professional Experience: Jarett Wait is managing principal of JF Wait Advisors, a consulting firm based in New York City. He is senior advisor and board member at CoVenture. Prior to this, Jarett was a managing director, member of the executive committee and global head of the Capital Formation Group at Fortress Investment Group. Jarett spent the vast majority of his career at Lehman Brothers in various senior executive roles. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, advisory board member for Center on Law and Security NYU School of Law, board member of Workforce Opportunity Services (WOS), and member of the board for CityLax. Jarett is a 1980 graduate of the College of Art & Sciences, Cornell University.
Jarett is president of the alumni board of Mu Chapter of Sigma Pi Fraternity. He is a board member for the Mu Chapter of Sigma Pi Educational Foundation. He previously served on the Cornell University Council, the College of Arts and Sciences Advisory Council, and Cornell Athletic Advisory Board. He is an active supporter of both Cornell men’s and women’s lacrosse teams.
Professional Experience: Steve took his Cornell experience back to New York, his home town. He has worked in the hospitality industry, focusing his work in food and beverage departments at a number of restaurants and hotels.
Cornell Involvement: Steve is an active supporter of Cornell’s hockey and lacrosse programs. He is committed to ensuring that Mu Chapter will continue to be a leader within both the Cornell and Ithaca communities.
Treasurer and Chapter Faculty Advisor: John Haggerty ’78
jjh56@cornell.edu
Professional Experience: Before retiring in 2003 to pursue a doctorate degree at Cornell (received in 2010), John spent 27 years as a human resources manager, including 21 years at General Electric where he was the vice president of human resources for the Industrial Systems business. He is now teaching at Cornell.
Cornell Involvement: John is a senior lecturer in Industrial Labor Relations (ILR) at Cornell.
Secretary: Slater Goodman ’18
jsg325@cornell.edu
Professional Experience: Before retiring in 2003 to pursue a doctorate degree at Cornell (received in 2010), John spent 27 years as a human resources manager, including 21 years at General Electric where he was the vice president of human resources for the Industrial Systems business. He is now teaching at Cornell.
Cornell Involvement: John is a senior lecturer in Industrial Labor Relations (ILR) at Cornell.
General Counsel: Peter Muth ’74
pmuth@roadrunner.com
Professional Experience: Peter currently works in Buffalo, New York, at Hodgson Russ LLP, the largest law firm in upstate New York. Specializing in bankruptcy and commercial law, he has also been an enthusiastic public speaker, presenting at close to 100 seminars over the last 40 years. He has been lucky enough to be able to ease into “semi-retirement”, continuing specialized work for many longstanding bank and credit union clients.
Cornell Involvement: Class of 1974, serving as alumni secretary in his sophomore year and sage in his senior year. He was steward in both my junior and senior years. Outside of Sigma Pi, Peter was a member of the Cornell Glee Club, participating in its historic Eastern Europe tour.
David C. D’Orlando ’79
ddorlando@comcast.net
Professional Experience: Principal of Baldwin and Welsh & Parker Insurance Agencies in Massachusetts since 1990. Prior to that, served as export transportation manager and folding carton division administrative manager at Westvaco Corporation and as an environmental engineer with Dynamac Corp. and Proctor and Gamble.
Cornell Involvement: Cornell Engineering Ambassador in the ’90s. Class of ’79 fundraising for 30th Reunion Gift in 2009.
Jonathan M. Fordin ’80
jmfordin@yahoo.com
Professional Experience: Jonathan M. Fordin is a partner in the Miami office of Shutts & Bowen LLP, where he is a member of the Insurance Practice Group. A Martindale-Hubbell AV-rated litigator and certified mediator, Jonathan has over 30 years of experience handling cases involving life, health, and disability insurance. He regularly represents securities brokers and dealers, corporations, and other business entities on claims under ERISA and state law, as well as issues related to HIPAA and first party claims. Jonathan is certified by the Florida Supreme Court as a civil litigation mediator. He is a member of the Defense Research Institute, an international organization of attorneys defending the interests of business and individuals in civil litigation. He’s also a graduate of the National Institute of Trial Advocacy Program, where he has been on the faculty for numerous NITA sponsored trial advocacy programs.
Yordanos Goshu ’18
yorgoshu@gmail.com
Professional Experience: Software engineer intern at Facebook, software engineer for Goldman Sachs, and machine learning engineer at Goldman Sachs.
Cornell Involvement: Co-founder and president of Underrepresented Minorities in Computing and product manager for Cornell Data Science Club Work Experience.
Professional Experience: Ricky Melasecca has spent the past two summers as an intern at EY-Parthenon and MediaOcean. He will be returning to EY-Parthenon next year as a full-time generalist first-year associate.
Cornell Involvement: As an undergraduate, Ricky was his Sigma Pi pledge class president, a recruitment chair as a sophomore, and then sage in the 2022–2023 academic year. Additionally, Ricky has served as an orientation leader and the vice president of judicial affairs for the IFC. He is also a member of the a cappella group Last Call and a business consulting club, International Business Consulting.
John Morrison ’75
johnmorrison236@comcast.net
Professional Experience: John’s degree in mechanical engineering and participation in NROTC led to more than five years as an officer in the U.S. Navy Nuclear Power Program, including more than three years on the submarine, USS Jack (SSN-605). His naval service was followed by 31 years at the PSEG Salem and Hope Creek Nuclear Power Plants in Southern New Jersey. After starting in plant operations as an NRC licensed Senior Reactor Operator, John held jobs in maintenance, engineering, Corrective Action Program, quality assurance, supply chain, work management, and project management. His positions included direct supervision (of shift operators, staff, and engineers), project manager, department manager, and assistant to directors and vice presidents. He retired in December 2011, and is working part time in the nuclear industry.
William Murphy ’18
wsm64@cornell.edu
Professional Experience: Mechatronics Engineering intern for Tesla, founder and CEO of YNot Bike, and mechatronics engineer for Uber.
Cornell Involvement: Intern, co-founder, and team lead for Cornell Autonomous Bike Project, Sigma Pi philanthropy chair, FSAE RaceCar project team, winner of Cornell Hospitality Business Plan Competition, and Cornell lightweight rowing.
Matt Pens ’00
spirozzi1@nyc.rr.com
Professional Experience: Matt is a lead specialist with PepsiCo. Matt has been with PepsiCo since graduating from Cornell, and he currently works within the PepsiCo Enterprise Business Solutions Group. Matt leads a team of developers, consultants, and specialists tasked with the technical design and construction of business applications that deliver powerful analytical solutions to the company. Matt lives and works in New York City, but business frequently takes him to Chicago and Dallas.
Professional Experience: After spending three years as Milkboy at Sigma Pi, Michael left the dairy business and Cornell for a career in technology. Six years at a startup interspersed with two round-the-world trips was followed by another six years back in graduate school. After receiving his doctorate in computer science at SUNY Stony Brook, Michael spent time at Lucent Bell Labs and Avaya Labs as a research scientist, primarily working in the area of video communication systems. He recently left the industrial-lab environment to work for Worldnow, a small technology media company in New York City. Michael lives on the Jersey Shore with his wife and two children. He is the organizer of the Sigma Pi Procrasticup Golf Tournament.
Professional Experience: Since graduating, Dennis has been involved in corporate and securities law for both private practices and corporate counsel teams. For the past 15 years, he has served as the acting general counsel for a company engaged in mergers and acquisitions and served as the in-house counsel of two financial services firms. He is currently the executive vice president and general counsel of Oppenheimer & Company, Inc., a New York-based financial services company with offices in New York City, London, Hong Kong, Tel Aviv, and Beijing.
Cornell Involvement: Dennis has, for the past several years, served as a Cornell Alumni Association ambassador, meeting with and interviewing prospective students.
Professional Experience: Kurt Rasmussen, PhD, is the chief scientific officer at Delix Therapeutics, a biotech company focused on developing neuroplasticity, promoting therapeutics for neuropsychiatric disorders, including depression, schizophrenia, and substance-use disorders. Dr. Rasmussen’s career spans 30 years of highly innovative scientific research in neuroscience pharmaceutical discovery, from hypothesis generation to clinical candidate evaluation. Prior to Delix, Dr. Rasmussen was at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), where he was the director of NIDA’s (National Institute on Drug Abuse) Division of Therapeutics & Medical Consequences. In this role, he directed the medications development program and played an integral role in evaluating the safety and efficacy of pharmacotherapies, behavioral therapies, and devices to treat substance-use disorders. Prior to the NIH, Dr. Rasmussen served as a senior research scientist and head in neuroscience research at Eli Lilly, where he led multiple R&D teams and projects, resulting in multiple neuropsychiatric therapeutics. A Fellow in the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology, Dr. Rasmussen has amassed over 100 publications and patents. He received his BA with honors and distinction from Cornell University, his PhD in neuroscience and psychology from Princeton University, and was a postdoctoral associate in the Department of Psychiatry at the Yale University School of Medicine.
Professional Experience: Stephen Ryan is an ILR graduate who practices law in Washington, DC, at the international law firm, McDermott Will and Emery, where he heads the firm’s lobbying, congressional investigations, crisis management, and government contracts lawyers. Steve married Lisa Ryan, and two of his three sons, John Lincoln ’10 and William ’14, also attended Cornell, while son Matthew played soccer for nearby Binghamton. Steve went to the University of Notre Dame Law School, clerked for a federal judge, served as a federal organized crime prosecutor, and as chief counsel of a Senate Committee chaired by Senator John Glenn.
Cornell Involvement: As a Pi man, Steve, along with a group of brothers, could often be found working as bartenders or night managers of the Thirsty Bear Tavern, game room, and other facilities of the North Campus Student Union. Steve, a mediocre athlete at best, captained successful Pi house soccer and lacrosse teams.
