The annual meeting of the Alumni Association of the University of Michigan is scheduled for Friday, Sept. 13 at 3:15 p.m. at the University of Michigan Museum of Art, 525 S. State St., Ann Arbor, MI 48109
Members of the Association are welcome to attend and will be asked to vote to elect members of the board.
Officer candidates:
Kurtis T. Wilder, ’81, JD’84, Novi, Michigan
Wilder is a shareholder at Butzel Long, concentrating his practice in litigation and appeals; former Michigan Supreme Court Justice; former judge of the Michigan Court of Appeals and Washtenaw County Circuit Court; past president of the Michigan Judges Association; past chairman of the State Bar Judicial Conference; and former board chair of Interlochen Center for the Arts.
Board of Directors candidates:
Wayee Chu, ’97, San Francisco, (incumbent)
Chu is general partner of Reach Capital, a venture fund focused on early-stage entrepreneurs building across education and the future of work; co-founder of NewSchools Seed Fund, a fund focused on early-stage education technology companies across K-12; founding member of All Raise, Bay Area-based nonprofit organization that aims for greater access and parity in the venture capital ecosystem; and serves on the board of trustees of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and the leadership council of the University of Michigan Museum of Art.
Salene Hitchcock-Gear, ’84, Potomac, Maryland, (incumbent)
Hitchcock-Gear is president of Prudential Individual Life Insurance; previously served as president and CEO of Ameritas Investment Corp. and president and CEO of Acacia Life Insurance Company; serves as board chair of the American College of Financial Services trustees; is the 2023 Geneva Association Women in Insurance Award recipient; and hosted a group of LEAD Scholars at the Prudential headquarters in New Jersey.
Anup Popat, ’95, Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, (incumbent)
Popat is co-owner and executive board member of the National Women’s Soccer League’s Portland Thorns FC; chair and CEO of Systems Technology Group, which specializes in providing clients with digital transformation and software engineering outsourcing solutions to Fortune 500; a member of the board of directors to the United Way SE Michigan, Detroit Children’s Fund, and YPO Motor City; and chair of Tech United which is focusing on reducing the Digital Divide in K-12 education.
Emilie Rubinfeld, ’96, New York City
Rubinfeld is president of Carolina Herrera, a New York-based fashion house. She joined the organization as vice president of global marketing and communications in 2012 after serving in executive marketing roles at Giorgio Armani and Akris and was elevated to president in 2017. Rubinfeld is a member of the Fashion Scholarship Foundation board of directors, a founding member of the Social Justice Center advisory committee at New York’s Fashion Institute of Technology, and has been a supporter of Dress for Success, supporting fundraising efforts through participation in the New York City Marathon.
John Sabat, ’95, New York City
Sabat has been a portfolio manager in Point72’s quantitative business Cubist Systematic Strategies for more than 20 years, where he runs global mid- and high-frequency equities, futures, and fixed-income strategies. Sabat began his career at D.E. Shaw & Co. in the international equities statistical arbitrage group in 1995. He is an advisory committee member for the venture fund Upper90 and sits on the advisory board of Sortium, an AI-based software development company. Actively involved with education nonprofits, Sabat serves on the board of trustees of Education Reform Now and the advisory council for Johns Hopkins University’s Center for Talented Youth.
Sophie Wan Wong, ’97, Shanghai, China
Wong is co-founder and executive director of talent development at Cornerstone Global Partners, which operates as CGP in mainland China; has been in the recruitment industry for more than 20 years; her company has received numerous awards including: VOTY 2022 – Best Executive Search Firm, VOTY Hong Kong – Best Recruitment Agency of the Year; has been engaged with the U-M Shanghai Alumni Association as a board member since the formal club started in 2016 and took over as president of the club in 2018.
