Class Notes

Katsuyuki Yamashita, GB99, was appointed dean of the Graduate School of Business Administration and Economics at Otemon Gakuin University, a private university at Ibaraki, Osaka, Japan, in April 2020.

Chad West, BU99, was honored with the Public Servant of the Year Award by the Oak Cliff Chamber of Commerce, Dallas, in addition to the Dallas Association of Young Lawyers Foundation Award of Excellence in honor of his philanthropic and community contributions. West has conducted school- supply drives and is a co-founder of the Dash for the Beads 5K/10K race, which supports health, wellness and nutrition programming at local schools.

Adam Stoltz, LA99, returned to HOK as director of global consulting, based in the firm’s New York studio. Stoltz, who for 15 years has addressed the issues involving people, organizational performance and the built environment, was the regional consulting leader for HOK’s New York studio from 2013-15.

Stephen D. Feldman, BU99, whose expertise is in complex litigation, antitrust and appeals, recently joined Robinson Bradshaw as a shareholder, based in the firm’s Raleigh, N.C., offices. He is vice chair of both the North Carolina Bar Association Appellate Practice Section and the North Carolina Business Court Rules Committee.

Adam Schwartz, GR99, who has taught high school in Baltimore for 22 years, is an award-winning author. His collection of stories, The Rest of the World, won the Washington Writers Publishing House 2020 prize for fiction, and other works have won prizes sponsored by Poets & Writers, Philadelphia Stories and Baltimore City Paper. His fiction has appeared in numerous literary journals, and his nonfiction in the Sewanee Review, Baltimore Sun, New York Daily News and other publications.

Joseph Straus, PMBA98, is president of Imagine Bio, Ltd, in Beit Shemesh, Israel. The company advises global health-care leaders and emerging startups on strategy, partnerships and investments by leveraging Israel’s health-tech ecosystem.

Michael Finley, GM98, in April 2020 received the Philip B. Hofmann Research Award for 2019, the second-highest award for research conducted within Janssen Pharmaceuticals Research and Development, at a virtual (Zoom) ceremony.

Benjamin Edlavitch, LA98, recently founded Edlavitch Law PLLC in Minneapolis, specializing in intellectual property strategy and electrical engineering patents. Before entering private practice, he was the sole in-house counsel for an enterprise software company. Edlavitch has more than 22 years of experience serving clients from startups to Fortune 500 companies.

Peter Vogel, LA97, is a co-founder and the CEO of Leafwire, an online platform connecting investors to cannabis companies looking to raise funding. The company, which has gained a reputation as the LinkedIn of the cannabis industry, has grown quickly to become the largest professional network in cannabis, with 30,000 members representing more than 10,000 companies.

Joshua Mandell, AR97, is a vice president at FGM Architects. As principal he specializes in municipal and law enforcement facility assessment. He is currently leading the design of a new regional PSAP/911 facility with Emergency Operations Center and 311 Citizens’ Service Bureau for the city of St. Louis.