CSMAA BOARD OF DIRECTORS

The Alumni Association Board works closely with the Office of Alumni Relations to enhance relationships between alumni and the Colorado School of Mines. Board members are committed to supporting Mines’ overall interests among the entire alumni community and the world at large. Membership represents a diversity of departmental affiliations, class years, geographies, and personal backgrounds. Board positions include president, president-elect, secretary and treasurer, comprising the Executive Committee; an undergraduate and graduate student representative; a trustee representative; and directors focused on alumni programming, professional development, alumni recognition, communications, young alumni, admissions, student life experience, campus relations, development, and volunteer development. Directors are elected to three-year terms and the officers are one-year appointments. Board members meet three times per year in person and committee meetings are held periodically throughout the year.

Standing committees of the board include Executive, Finance, Governance, Nominating, Communications and Alumni Recognition Committees. The Nominating Committee welcomes your suggestions for future board members. Submit a nomination to csmaa@mines.edu.

See CSMAA bylaws for more information.

Paul Wareham '85, Golden, Colo.
President (term ends February 2014)
Owner, Superior Sales
pmwareham@q.com
Paul Wareham earned his BSc Eng degree as a civil engineering major and is a registered Professional Engineer in the State of Colorado. While at Mines, he was a Four-Year Letterman on the Varsity Football team and participated in Varsity Track and Field. Paul began his professional career at Zimmerman Metals, where he worked as a project manager, and then Sundyne Corporation (formerly Sundstrand Fluid Handling), where he held various positions including contract engineer, field service engineer, engineering manager and product line manager. From there Paul went into commercial aviation earning his Airline Transport Pilot Certificate and working first as a certificated flight instructor, then flight school manager which led to a stint as a BE-1900D First Officer with Great Lakes Aviation (dba United Express and Frontier Express). Currently, Paul continues to be an independent certificated flight instructor and co-owner of Superior Sales, Inc., a waterworks products supply company located in Golden, Colo. Paul's interests lie in family, sports, golf and flying, and prior to being elected to the CSMAA board served on the CSMAA Metro Denver Committee.

James R. Larsen '65, Aurora, Colo.
President-elect (term ends February 2014)
jrl@jrlarsen.comJim graduated with a degree in metallurgical engineering, and took a job as shift supervisor with Kaiser Steel in Fontana, CA. Eight years later, he began a second career as plant superintendent for NL Industries in Portland, Ore. Eighteen months later, operations were consolidated in Vernon, Calif., where as plant superintendent, he participated in the design of a state-of-the-art lead smelter subject to the regulations of the L.A. basin air quality management district. Three years later, Jim and his family returned to Colorado, where he worked as mine manager for Johns Manville in Antonito. For three years he led a team of talented, young engineers in establishing production records for the operation, resulting in a transfer to the Denver headquarters. This career in industrial minerals morphed into assignments in sales and marketing over the following 22 years, until he retired from the successor company, World Minerals, in 2000. Between 2000 and 2005, Jim worked in the municipal water industry as a consultant and as director of business development for a capital equipment company. Jim retired from his fifth career as a financial advisor with Waddell and Reed in Denver and volunteers as block captain for the Home Owner’s Association of Heritage Eagle Bend, where he lives. Other volunteer activities include participation with The Wildlife Experience museum in Parker, Colo., and as current president-elect of CSMAA.

Jafar Tabaian '00, Crested Butte, Colo.
Secretary (term ends February 2014)
Principal, North Arrow Consulting
jtabaian@gmail.com
“Mines has paved the way for many opportunities for me, both professionally and personally. I am excited to give something back to a community that has given me so much. The CSMAA is committed to ensuring CSM remains a world class institution.” Jafar graduated in 2000 with a BSc in engineering, mechanical specialty and a minor in economics. While at Mines, Jafar played football and served as assistant football coach under Bob Stitt from 2001 to 2004. Professionally, Jafar has worked for Bechtel Corporation as a mechanical engineer; Accenture as a management consultant; Eyeris, Inc. as a manager of professional services; Newmont Mining Corporation as a business analyst; and at Entegrity Wind Systems as a senior financial analyst. Jafar is currently principal of North Arrow Consulting, a firm based in Denver, Colo., focusing on enabling collaborative strategic planning and portfolio optimization in the extractive and financial services industries. Jafar is an active volunteer for several organizations and a member of several professional and hobby organizations.

Paul Roamer MS '97, Evergreen, Colo.
Treasurer (term ends February 2013)
President, Ethos Distributed Energy
proamer@ethosde.com
Paul Roamer has been in operations management for more than 20 years, from senior management of large casting manufacturing plants in the aerospace market to start-up ventures, including distributed wind manufacturing. His expertise is in operations management, project management, materials, products and process engineering. Paul has extensive background in design for manufacturability and concurrent engineering. He earned a master's degree in materials engineering from Mines and B.S. in manufacturing engineering from California State Polytechnic (Pomona).

Zach Aman '09, Golden, Colo.
Student life experience director (term ends February 2013)
Graduate student, Colorado School of Mines
zaman@mines.edu
Zach Aman is a graduate student studying chemical engineering at Colorado School of Mines. He graduated with a BS in chemical engineering and a minor in public affairs from the Guy T. McBride Honors Program. Zach’s research is focused on hydrates and flow assurance. The former editor-in-chief of the Oredigger newspaper, Zach sought to reposition the organization for long-term success through a ground-up structural redesign, development of cross-functional teams, implementation of a strategic five-year plan and utilization of comprehensive standards for personnel and content excellence. As editor of the Oredigger, Zach was approached by the New York Times to represent one of just 13 colleges/universities as a blogger during the 2008 pre-election presidential debates. He assembled an expert panel of students to best represent the school in the intense media spotlight. Zach organized an impressive Leadership Summit on campus in 2008 and helped to expand the scope and reach of the summit in September 2009. Zach also served as the student representative on the CSMAA board for 2008–2009. He would like to pursue a career in business leadership within the engineering and applied science fields.

Darek Bruzgo '95, Littleton, Colo.
Alumni programming (Colorado) director (term ends February 2014)
President, D&R CNC Machining
darek.bruzgo@alumni.mines.edu
Darek Bruzgo earned his BS in engineering, mechanical specialty, in 1995, and is proud to be a life member of the Colorado School of Mines Alumni Association. After working as a design engineer at Jetstream Systems, Darek and his brother Robert (Eng ’95) started D&R CNC Machining in 1996. Their company specializes in high precision CNC machining for several industries such as semi-conductor, packaging, medical, recreation and others. Darek serves as faculty advisor for Senior Design in the Division of Engineering and is a member of Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity. He has been an active volunteer for the CSMAA Denver Metro Committee since 2008, where he helped to create the annual BikeBikeQue event. He holds a leadership role on two other boards of directors and enjoys Golden City Brewery, photography, travel, cycling, hiking, skiing and golf.

Tracy Q. Gardner '96, MS '98, Golden, Colo.
Campus relations director (term ends February 2015)
Teaching associate professor and assistant department head, Colorado School of Mines
tgardner@mines.edu
Tracy graduated from Mines with BSc degrees in math and computer sciences and chemical engineering, and one year later earned a master’s degree in chemical engineering. She then went on to the University of Colorado at Boulder, where she earned her PhD in 2002 in chemical engineering for her work on measuring and modeling transport in zeolite membranes. She spent the next two years in the Netherlands at the Technical University of Delft conducting research on oxygen-conducting inorganic membranes, as well as teaching courses in catalysis engineering. Ever since she was a sophomore at Mines, Tracy’s dream career was to teach at her alma mater, so in 2004 she returned to the Chemical Engineering Department (now Chemical and Biological Engineering) at Mines, where she is now a teaching associate professor and the assistant department head. Her main research focus is in the area of pedagogy, though she also continues some research in catalytic membrane reactors. She is the faculty friend to the Adventure Leadership Community-themed housing group.

Brady J. McConaty '78, Houston, Texas
Development director (term ends February 2013)
bjmcconaty@yahoo.com
Brady J. McConaty earned a BS in petroleum engineering from Colorado School of Mines in 1978 and later attended Yale University’s Advanced Management Studies program, Leadership and Decision Making in Organizations. He also has participated in programs at the Center for Creative Leadership. Brady’s career spans extensive experience in building and operating oil and gas businesses, both conventional and unconventional, in the Gulf Coast, Rockies and Alaska. He got his start working for Tenneco Oil Exploration and Production and Tenneco Energy, serving as a senior drilling engineer, project engineer, project production engineer, and director of commercial operations for its Tennessee gas pipeline. In 1997 Brady left Tenneco (sold to El Paso Corp.) to start his own telecommunications company, C2C Fiber Inc., where Brady served as president and CEO. In 2003 he founded and became president of Merrimac Oil and Gas, a highlight of which was the successful drilling, completion and production of the first two horizontal coal bed methane wells in the state of Wyoming. In 2007 he transitioned to Venoco, serving as vice president of Texas operations and business development. In the first quarter of 2009, Brady successfully monetized assets and transformed business cultures in turnaround situations. This includes the sale of the Hastings Field (1.3 billion barrels of oil in-place) to Denbury Resources for $200+ million for enhanced oil recovery through CO2 injection. Brady currently is a member of the Houston Technology Center and sits on the Energy Review Board, providing counsel and support to new, emerging technologies and companies seeking financing for growth. He serves on the board of directors of the Potential Gas Committee, which publishes a resource estimate of domestic natural gas supply for the United States on a bi-annual basis. Brady is active in the CSMAA Houston’s section.

Susan Evers Matsushima '97, San Francisco, Calif.
Volunteer development director (term ends February 2014)
Senior project manager, Genentech
susaneevers@gmail.com
Susan Evers’ enthusiasm for Mines stems from the transformative experience she had as a student. While she describes herself as a shy 18-year-old freshman, by her senior year she was president of her sorority house, a student ambassador and a freshmen mentor. Her professional life has been similarly energetic. A chemical engineering major, she spent three years in the oil industry before launching her career in the biomedical arena. After spending seven years with Johnson and Johnson, she joined Genentech in 2007, prior to the company being acquired by Roche. Outside her professional life, she has served as CSMAA’s Bay Area section coordinator for four years, helping to forge a strong alumni community by sharing her infectious enthusiasm for the school at the various events and activities she’s helped organize. She also participates in CSMAA’s Mentoring Program, is a Lifetime Member, and attended the Guy T. McBride’s 90th birthday celebration and McBride Honors Program reunion held in Golden in 2009. Susan was honored with the CSMAA Young Alumna Award in 2010 for “notable service to the CSMAA and unlimited potential for lifelong success.”

Paula Nolan '05, Littleton, Colo.
Young alumni director (term ends February 2014)
Contract sales engineer, Siemens
nolan.pm@gmail.com
Paula Nolan earned her BS degree in electrical engineering from Mines with a minor in political affairs thru the Guy T. McBride Honors program. After graduation, Paula worked as a construction manager for a small firm in Boulder. Soon after she was hired by Siemens Industry to work as a sales engineer selling electrical distribution equipment throughout Colorado and Wyoming. Here she has worked with many different levels of the construction industry and learned first-hand how to navigate a large manufacturing company. She is currently working on earning her MBA from Colorado State University. While at Mines Paula was active in many organizations, including but not limited to ASCSM (vice president of Student Body and student representative on the CSMAA board), CSM Ambassadors, Engineers without Borders, and Varsity and Club Athletics. Paula has participated on the CSMAA’s Denver Metro Committee for the past couple of years and looks forward to inspiring young alumni to participate in the future of their school. She, along with her husband, Mark Nolan ’05, enjoy their two-year-old daughter and the great outdoors of Colorado.

Raymond Priestley '79, Dallas, Texas
Admissions director (term ends February 2015)
Reservoir engineer, EnCana Oil & Gas (USA) Inc.
raymond.priestley@encana.com
Raymond Priestley received BS and PE degrees in geological engineering from Mines and later earned an MBA in finance from the University of Tulsa. He started his career building underground storage for all types of materials; projects included the SPR (Strategic Petroleum Reserve), LOOP (Louisiana Offshore Oil Port) and WIP (Nuclear Waste Isolation Project). Most of his career has been focused in upstream oil and gas, exploring and developing both conventional and unconventional resources throughout North America. Ray has always been thankful for how his Mines training prepared him to take on numerous different roles during his career and to facilitate interaction between different disciplines. His outside interests include adventure travel, cycling and photography, but he is never happier than when he is playing handyman, riding around on his tractor at West Virginia Artist Retreat, which he and his wife opened. His desire to serve as Admissions Director for the CSMAA was a logical outgrowth of his 15-year involvement with the school's admissions department, during which time he traveled with and helped secure funds for Mines Discover and Preview programs to expose high school students and their families to Mines.

Matthew Showalter '99, Parker, Colo.
Communications director (term ends February 2015)
Co-founder and CIO, Swiftpage
mshowalter@swiftpage.com
Matt Showalter earned a BS in petroleum engineering from Mines in 1999. With 20 years of experience in technology and engineering, Matt worked first for Mammoth Micro Productions to provide a variety of interactive business products to Fortune 500 companies and children's CD-ROM games to the general public, and then as a reservoir engineer for Vertex Petroleum Systems where he had responsibilities in sales and product development. Matt transitioned to corporate sales engineer at MSHOW.com where he played a fundamental role in the research and development of a web conferencing product. Currently he is a co-founder and CIO for Swiftpage, a software development company focused on changing the way people communicate. Designed to make email marketing one of the most cost-effective tools in a company's arsenal, Swiftpage helps organizations create, send and track the performance of email campaigns.

Cooper Swenson ’04, Golden, Colo.
Professional development director (term ends February 2015)
Financial advisor, Edward Jones
cooper.swenson@edwardjones.com
Cooper's journey to Mines took him all over the Western U.S., but since arriving on campus 10 years ago, he has remained in Golden. Born and raised in Albuquerque, N.M., he started his academic study of chemical engineering at New Mexico State University. After two years and an internship at Los Alamos National Laboratories, Cooper moved to Oregon to complete his undergraduate degree at Oregon State University. Before attending graduate school at Mines, he worked with Agrium in Kenai, Alaska; Industrial Assessment Center in Corvallis, Ore.; and Pacific Northwest National Laboratories in Richland, Wash. At Mines, Cooper started on the PhD track, passed the Qualifier Exam, and decided instead to write a master’s thesis and pursue other passions. Since completing his thesis defense in the summer of 2004, when he earned his master’s degree in chemical engineering, Cooper has been solving financial problems instead of engineering ones. His passion for investing and financial planning started in his youth, when his father would have him read stock quotes from the newspaper on their daily 45-minute commute from Albuquerque. Today Cooper serves individuals, families and entrepreneurs with their long-term financial planning. Mines has been an integral part of Cooper's financial planning practice and he has been compelled to give back. Since 2006, he has been heading a small group of alumni who have lunch monthly in Golden (The Lunch Bunch), has served on the Denver Metro planning committee since 2010, and looks forward to success in his director role. In his spare time Cooper enjoys outdoor sports, including fly-fishing, sporting clays, hiking, snow boarding, and SCUBA. He and his wife Brenda live in Golden and look forward to starting a family very soon!

Mahesh Vidyasagar MS '00, Spring, Texas
Alumni programming (beyond Colorado) director (term ends February 2014)
Regional portfolio manager, ExxonMobil
mahesh.vidyasagar@exxonmobil.com
Mahesh Vidyasagar was born in Chennai, India, and moved to the U.S. in the mid 1970s. After completing a bachelor's degree in geological engineering from New Mexico State University, Mahesh moved to Colorado and enrolled at the Colorado School of Mines in 1999. He completed an MS degree in mining engineering in 2000 with a focus on tunnel boring machines. Mahesh landed an internship at Tetra Tech, an international earth sciences and environmental consulting firm. After graduation he joined the staff of Tetra Tech, where he focused on mine design, reclamation and closure. The work that Mahesh completed at Tetra Tech coupled with the technical skills learned at CSM resulted in an opportunity with a former client, ExxonMobil. Mahesh is currently a regional portfolio manager at ExxonMobil in Houston, TX, where he manages consultant teams and real estate transactions worldwide. While working for ExxonMobil, Mahesh completed an MBA at UCLA Anderson School of Management in 2010 with an emphasis in finance and international management. In his spare time, Mahesh enjoys travel, skiing, SCUBA, gourmet cooking and visiting Colorado every chance he gets. He successfully presided over Chakra Designs part-time, a venture where he worked with architects and designers nationwide to import antique doors and columns from abandoned estates in India and incorporate these into custom homes in the U.S.

Bill Warfield '75, Sacramento, Calif.
Alumni recognition director (term ends February 2013)
Manager of business development–GDE, Atlas Copco Drilling Services
bill.warfield@us.atlascopco.com
“Involvement with CSM has helped me get to where I am today. I believe that CSM is the ‘World’s Foremost School of Mineral Engineering’ and involvement with the alumni board is one way that I can help to repay everything I have gotten from CSM.” Bill followed in the footsteps of three relatives, including his father (Thomas Warfield '52), when he graduated from Mines in 1975 with a degree in mining engineering. After graduation, Bill began his mining career with Ingersoll-Rand Equipment in Albuquerque, N.M. He has worked in the mining industry for more than 30 years with employment at Domeq Mining Equipment in Albuquerque, Thyssen Mining Construction in Denver, Strohm Equipment Company in Sacramento, Calif., and back to Ingersoll-Rand. In 2004, he joined Atlas Copco CMT USA in Sacramento. Today he holds the position of manager of business development–GDE. As a student at Mines, Bill was active in Blue Key, Sigma Nu, student council, Centennial Homecoming 1974, assistant chairman of the 1974 Centennial E-Day celebrations and was president of the student chapter of SME. Bill has been the chair of the mining and exploration division of SME. He is also a member of ADSC (International Association of Foundation Drilling), DFI (Deep Foundation Institute) and the ISEE (International Society of Explosives Engineers).

Mohan Misra PhD '86, Littleton, Colo.
Trustee representative
CEO and president, ITN Energy Systems
mmisra@itnes.com
Dr. Misra received his BS, MS and PhD degrees in Metallurgical Engineering from Banaras Hindu University in India, University of Washington and Colorado School of Mines respectively. Dr. Misra was appointed to the Colorado School of Mines Board of Trustees for a four-year term beginning on January 1, 2010. Mohan Misra is the founder and CEO of ITN Energy Systems (ITN), a premier research and product development organization involved in identifying, developing, and commercializing emerging thin film and nano technologies. He is also the founder, chairman and chief strategy officer of Ascent Solar Technologies (AST), a state of the art, roll- to roll manufacturer of light weight, flexible, monolithically integrated thin film solar panels. ITN had previously, successfully, commercialized solid state lithium battery (SSLB) technology and established a small satellite manufacturing company, MicroSat Systems. Before founding ITN, Dr. Misra spent approximately 20 years with Martin Marietta in the areas of material research, development and manufacturing as the manager in Research and Technology division. He also served as the corporate strategic technologist for the advanced materials. Dr. Misra was instrumental in the development of several enabling technologies for aerospace applications including thin- film photovoltaic, advanced composites and lightweight structures. At Martin Marietta, Dr. Misra was the recipient of the Jefferson Cup—the corporation‘s highest award for outstanding technical achievements—in 1984 & 1987; and Inventor of the Year Award in 1982. He was awarded the American Foundrymen’s Society Gold Award in 1980.

Serena Bruzgo, Highlands Ranch, Colo.
Interim Executive Director
sbruzgo@mines.edu
Serena joined the Colorado School of Mines Alumni Association in 2006 as the associate director of geographic and special programs, where she managed section volunteers and events. In 2010, she was promoted to deputy director, overseeing Alumni Weekend and revenue-generating programs such as membership and the Alumni Job Center. Prior to CSMAA, Serena was the regional director of major gifts for the United States Air Force Academy after serving as director of alumni and donor relations at Avila University in Kansas City, Mo. After graduating from Hannibal LaGrange University, she lived in a homeless shelter for five years, managing a transformational program for homeless families. It was there that she witnessed the colossal impact volunteers have when they serve with love. Serena served on the Association of Fundraising Professionals' Board of Directors, where she launched its first mentoring program. Her hobbies include skiing, live music, running and spending time with her family.