Seven Florida Tech Outstanding Alumni Honored With Awards at Nov. 4 Homecoming Gala

By  //  November 12, 2017

Florida Tech 1972 Graduate Jim Thomas receives Jerome P. Keuper Distinguished Alumni Award

Jim Thomas, right, with Florida Tech Alumni Association President Andy Kirbach. Thomas, who earned a bachelor’s at Florida Tech in 1972 and would later serve on the university’s Board of Trustees, received the Jerome P. Keuper Distinguished Alumni Award Nov. 4 at the Homecoming Gala. (Florida Tech image)

BREVARD COUNTY • MELBOURNE, FLORIDA — From business to aviation, from IBM to KPMG, from Atlanta to Madrid, seven successful alumni of Florida Institute of Technology were celebrated Nov. 4 at the university’s Homecoming Gala and Awards Ceremony.

Graduates from each of Florida Tech’s five colleges and an international representative were recognized with Outstanding Alumni awards. A seventh alumnus received the night’s top honor, the Jerome P. Keuper Distinguished Alumni Award.

Here are the honorees:

Jerome P. Keuper Distinguished Alumni Award: Jim Thomas, ’72 B.S. Thomas is a business executive whose vision helped lead MapQuest through its initial public offering and who currently serves as vice president of corporate development for the automotive technology company Rivian Automotive. An operations and finance executive with proven leadership in technology-related public and private companies, Thomas has also served on the boards of public and private companies as well as non-profits. He spent nearly a decade on Florida Tech’s Board of Trustees starting in 2005, where he served as secretary and vice chairman, helping guide Florida Tech through an important period of growth and development.

College of Aeronautics: Huntley Lawrence, ’85 B.S. After a steady, three-decade rise through the ranks at one of the world’s major transportation hubs – The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey – Huntley was named the authority’s director of aviation in early 2017. He now manages an airport system that includes JFK and LaGuardia international airports and boasts $2.4 billion in revenues and more than 1,500 employees.

Nathan Bisk College of Business: Christine Deveney, ’87 B.S. Deveney is currently a director with KPMG’s Washington National Tax Practice, where she assists clients and KPMG’s global professionals in analysing complex international tax issues in connection with business decisions. Before she returned to the U.S. in March 2017, she spent the past 24 years in Australia as partner in charge of KPMG’s International Executive Services Practice for the state of Victoria.

College of Engineering: Steven Atkin, ’94 M.S., ’01 Ph.D. With 20 years at IBM, Atkin currently serves as distinguished engineer and chief globalization architect for the multinational technology company. Atkin has a long history of contributions in advancing development and testing methodologies for software globalization, maturing the globalization support of computer programming languages, and readying the deployment of cloud and cognitive solutions for a global market.

Florida Tech’s Evan Enders, Jan Hlavica and Brandon Smalley Named to Academic All-District TeamsRelated Story:
Florida Tech’s Evan Enders, Jan Hlavica and Brandon Smalley Named to Academic All-District Teams

College of Psychology and Liberal Arts: Hector Severeyn, ’13 M.S. A Venezuela native and former graduate assistant with Florida Tech’s athletics communications, Severeyn is the sports anchor for Telemundo Atlanta, an award-winning, Spanish-language television station. With over ten years’ experience in broadcasting, Severeyn has covered sporting events across the globe and earned six individual Emmy Awards, including Sports Reporter of the Year in 2015 and Sports Anchor of the Year in 2016.

College of Science: Hugh Thompson, ’98 B.S., ‘99, M.S., ’02, Ph.D. Thompson is chief technology officer for Symantec, the Silicon Valley-based software company behind the Norton suite of security software and other products. He has co-authored three books, written more than 80 academic and industrial publications on security, and been interviewed by BBC, CNN, MSNBC, Financial Times, The Washington Post and others.

Outstanding International Alumni: Alvaro Fuster,’92 B.S. A native of Spain, Fuster is following in the footsteps of his aerospace engineer father and now, with his brothers, helps lead Aerospacial Espanola and serves as managing director of Compania Aeronautical Espanola. Fuster also founded Spanish Power, a Madrid-based renewable energy power supplier that harnesses the wind to generate power throughout Spain, Sweden and Finland and solar photovoltaic power in Spain and Bulgaria. Fuster was a member of Florida Tech’s 1991 National Champion soccer team and was inducted as part of the team into the Florida Tech Sports Hall of Fame in 2008.

CLICK HERE FOR BREVARD COUNTY NEWS