Alumni

This page features profiles of some of our alumni who have made use of their Russian skills in their careers. You can find current job postings and many useful links on the Career Resources page.

Middlebury Russian students have gone on to careers in all different fields and in every corner of the world. Many still use their Russian language skills in their career fields that rage from Finance to Journalism, Translation, Education, Music and Law. Middlebury students and alumni also have access to current job openings through information provided by the REES program and also the Career Services Office.

Gail is currently a Senior Banker with the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, based in Moscow.

Jason works for Deloitte & Touche as a tax supervisor. Initially stationed in Almaty, Kazakhstan, he has recently moved to Kiev, Ukraine. His work involves helping multinational companies carry out business in the Former Soviet Union and comply with local and international tax, labor, and banking laws. Jason frequently travels to Georgia, and has traveled extensively in Kazakhstan as well as in Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan.

E-mail: jdutil@deloitte.ru,

Work Phone: +38 (044) 490-9000, Home Phone: +38 (044) 269-3781,

Fax: +38 (044) 490-9001

Cathe is finishing up a year abroad in Russia on the State Department funded "Russian-US young Leadership Fellows for Public Service Program". She was in Kazan for the academic year and is now doing an internship at the Russian Academy of Sciences at the Center for Study and Management of Conflict in Moscow.

E-mail: catheneely@yahoo.com,

Jane is currently an independent consultant specialising in emergency relief operations for countries in conflict (for example, Sierra Leone, Bosnia, Northern Iraq, etc). " The Soviet Studies/Russian language degree really launched my career - after Midd, I moved to San Francisco, where I worked for SF based NGOs such as the Center for US-USSR Initiatives and the Esalen Soviet-American Exchange Program I used Russian quite a bit during that time, interpreting, translating, working with visiting Russians on the various projects. I travelled to Russia a few times as a guide/interpreter- once with the Ben & Jerry's young leaders trip (great fun, lots of ice cream thrown in), once with another group and once for Peace Child (Moscow Music Peace Festival). During 1991, I spent a lot of time doing what I was really interested in -working with the then technically 'underground' Russian gay and lesbian movement and particularly working to support people with HIV and AIDS. Great work, but since it was volunteer, I soon ran short of cash ... I was then offered a job with CARE in the CIS supporting humanitarian aid distributions in St. Petersburg, Archangelsk/Severodvinsk, Kemerovo/Tomsk/Novokuznetsk. Although I was originally hired for my Russian language skills, from there I ended up learning about emergency relief program development and management - and went off to Tajikistan to set up the CARE mission there (great country), then to the Caucasus in the program department. After that, I transferred to Rwanda, where my Russian wasn't particularly useful, but my very rusty French came in handy. Then, off to Bosnia, where Russian both helped and hindered - I could understand and speak Serbo-Croatian, but with a bizarre Russian accent that often sent my staff into spasms of laughter..Overall, getting a Russian degree was the best decision I could have ever made - it set me off on a fascinating career path that I still love after 10+ years and many countries..."

E-mail: jane@barry.org,

"The Russian department quickly became my real home at Middlebury. The professors in the department gave us the feeling that we were doing something special, and that the late nights spent in the library conjugating verbs were worth more than a grade at the end of the semester. These professors shared with us the keys to understanding the culture that they loved. I'm still not sure why I love all things Russian with such intensity. However, it's a love that I share with my husband who I first met at the summer Russian school. (Don't ask me how a relationship can begin when the limits of dinnertime conversation are stretched to cover such basics as "I like soup" and "me too".) We continue to share this passion by welcoming Russian participants in an exchange program for entrepreneurs into our home. I have also continued to use my Russian professionally since leaving Middlebury. I currently work at a private equity fund for the Southern Caucasus region of the former Soviet Union (Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia). Our fund is investing in new and expanding businesses in several sectors, including telecom, agribusiness, real estate and transportation. It is exciting work, and we are bringing investment capital that is so important to economic development of this part of the world. I previously worked with an affiliated company that was engaged in similar projects in Russia and Ukraine. I find that my familiarity with Russian language and culture allows me to communicate more effectively with our local staff. It also allows me to be a better and fairer judge of character, than colleagues who simply cannot find a common language and have a poor understanding of the environment that they are doing business in."

E-mail: jp@caucasusadvisors.com,

Sarah works in the office of SUN Capital Partners. SCP is a Russia focused $155 million private equity fund who has thus far invested in confectionery, hotel, oil/gas, and fish industries and most recently Vesta Russia, a company dedicated to information technology and Internet related projects in Russia and the CIS. She works in the PR department - title: Executive Consultant - and use my Russian on a daily basis in conversation, translations, writing, and in just living in Moscow. "The Russian department was so wonderful when I was at Middlebury, the professors put every ounce of their energy, care and knowledge into teaching each individual student. It was not just Russian grammar, culture and history - it was a family, a community, and a support network. And even after leaving, the Russian community only continues to grow. I have had so many interviews this past year with people who also cried in Alya Baker's class. And this bond that we have - a love of language and of culture was fostered and nurtured at Middlebury. The department has reached so many people and I cannot imagine that I could have gotten a better education anywhere else. "

E-mail: SarahW@scp.ru,

Immediately after Middlebury Becky moved to Moscow. She worked for the International Finance Corporation (IFC) in Washington D.C., Moscow, and various provinces for four years, and was the project manager for the IFC's agricultural land privatization project. After the IFC, she received an MBA from the Amos Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth, and currently works for Inc. Magazine and CEOs of midsize businesses where she advises clients on investment opportunities in Russia.

Email: beckyfair@aol.com,

Phone: 703 448 9336

After graduation Karen free-lanced as a tour guide for US companies with programs in the Soviet Union and E. Europe and made about 20 trips in two years. She then worked as a program coordinator for Citizen Exchange Council, a nonprofit US-Soviet cultural exchange organization, organizing exchanges in the arts and education spheres. She then attended law school, studying Soviet law with specialist Harold Berman (including acting as his research assistant) and spending a semester at the Univ. of Leiden in the Netherlands. She now has been living in Moscow for almost 7 years - first as an associate at Baker & McKenzie, and now as Corporate Counsel Russia for Philip Morris.

Email: Moore.Karen@pmintl.ch

Phone: +7-095-705-9220, Fax: +7-095-705-9223

Alan went on to do his MA at the Middlebury Summer School. He then moved back to France and started working for Berlitz Schools of Languages as an English teacher. He later went into Sales and, after 2 years, was appointed Director of one of the schools in the Paris area. Since then, he has worked in 3 other Berlitz Centers and is currently managing the Opera Center, in the heart of Paris.

Bob studied further at Michigan State, where he earned a Master's in Russian Literature. He became interested in the Russian Church and its music, and in 1967 converted to Orthodoxy and began a career as choir director, first in Russian parishes and then for the last 23 years in Holy Trinity Cathedral in San Francisco. There he worked to translate the Slavonic texts into English for his almost entirely American congregation. His work continues today, and he has begun a small publishing venture.

After Middlebury, Dan went into the Peace Corps, then moved back to DC and was working as a computer geek for Peace Corps HQ. When the Peace Corps decided to go into the Former Soviet Union Dan was sent to help start up the posts in Kiev and Vladivostok. Peace Corps and then assigned him to Almaty, Kazakhstan for two years where a contact led to a job with IBM in Moscow for another year.

Email: driordan@rocketmail.com,

Phone: 732-219-1858, Fax: 732-758-0140

Douglas is currently a Ph.D. Candidate in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Michigan (Ann Arbor), where he will also receive an MA in Russian and East European Studies. His research, which he began as a junior at Middlebury, is on Russian Old Believers in the late Soviet and post-Soviet periods. In September 2000, he will begin a sixteen-month ethnographic field research project entitled "Conversion to Old Belief: Critiques of Modernity and Individualism in Post-Socialist Russia." The project will involve living and working in Moscow and the Perm' Region of Russia, and will rely on extensive use of Russian and Old Church Slavonic.

After Middlebury Erica worked at a private research institute specializing in legal and economic affairs in Europe and Russia. She then did domestic and international marketing for a publisher and ended up doing some Russian translation on the side Erica has also worked for Middlebury in Russia as Resident Program Coordinator in Yaroslavl. Currently she is working on an MBA at the Simmons Graduate School of Management.

Anne is editor of the Russian Far East News, an e-mail- and web-based newsletter about business, economics, and politics in the Russian Far East, published by the University of Alaska Anchorage American Russian Center.

E-mail: rfenews@mosquitonet.com

For the past three years Tim has been working for MCT Corp. This group of venture capitalists holds stakes in a number of wireless telecom joint ventures in the Former Soviet Union (Sverdlovsk & Chita oblasts, Uzbekistan, Tadjikistan). He uses his Russian daily to communicate with partners as well as professional firms (Arthur Andersen & PricewaterhouseCoopers) and third-party vendors (Motorola). For more information about MCT Corp. and their internship positions please visit www.mctcorp.net.

Email: TLouzonis@compuserve.com,

Phone: 703-683-8726.

Doug worked for five years in Baku, Azerbaijan in the oil industry and is now returning to the industry with Texaco after receiving an MBA from Columbia and expects to work further in the Former Soviet Union.

Oliver worked for one year in Washington for the International Finance Corporation and then for two years in Ukraine privatizing farms in Donetsk. While in the Ukraine, his wife Sara Morgan started the first English language theatre there that did three productions during that time. Sara was also on a weekly television program for a few months.

In the last few years, Lisa has used Russian while working with the YDFP (Yeltsin Democracy Fellowship Program). She works with Russians from the President's Administration, with various regional officials, and with private sector managers. As the only one on the program staff that can speak directly to these Russian officials without the aid of an interpreter, her skills are frequently needed. For more information on the YDFP please visit www.ydfp.org/.

Email: lisamvb@altavista.com

Chris has been working with the International Finance Corporation in Moscow for the last two years. Lately, Chris has been working mainly on developing new projects including writing proposals, budgets, and selling concepts to donor countries such as the United States and the Netherlands. Chris is now planning to attend business school in the fall at Michigan.

Email: chris_zeg@yahoo.com