Tartan Athletics Club Adds Five to Board of Directors
(PITTSBURGH, Pa.) – Five Carnegie Mellon alumni have joined the Tartan Athletics Club Board of Directors, and will begin four-year terms this fall. Kelly Chin de Csepel, Joe Ferris, Shauna Grovell, Young Kang and Alejandro Villanueva will join a Board that has made a significant impact on the Carnegie Mellon Athletics program since its inception in August 2012.
“Our Tartan Athletics Club Board of Directors plays a critical role in the success of our department, and ultimately, the experience our student-athletes have at Carnegie Mellon,” said Director of Athletics Josh Centor. “I am excited to add five new members who bring great expertise in many different areas, and will help us continue to achieve our strategic goals and ambitions.”
Kelly Chin de Csepel is a 2002 CMU graduate with a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration. She was a four-year, three-season athlete in Cross Country, Indoor Track, and Outdoor Track, earning a total of 12 varsity letters. In 1998, she helped the Women’s Cross Country team achieve its highest-ever finish (fourth) at the NCAA Championships. As a post-collegian, Chin de Csepel moved to New York City, where she won the Brooklyn and Queens Half Marathons and qualified to compete in the 2012 US Olympic Team Marathon Trials.
Chin de Csepel had enjoyed a career in financial services technology, most recently as a Vice President at the Royal Bank of Scotland, providing electronic trading solutions in credit markets. Prior to RBS, she helped develop internal trading platforms at Nomura Securities, Barclays Capital, Lehman Brothers, and JP Morgan Chase. She is currently on hiatus after the birth of her two sons, Dean and Charles.
An alumnus of the football program, Joe Ferris is Deloitte Consulting’s National Clients and Industries Chief of Staff. He has 24 years of experience at Deloitte, spanning different roles with the consulting practice. In the first half of his career, Ferris focused his efforts helping state governments successfully navigate change in the area of public health. His work spanned organizational and process design, technology implementation and performance improvement. In his current role, Ferris helps to plan, manage and operate all aspects of the U.S. consulting business.
Ferris also serves as the Pittsburgh Consulting Office Managing Director. In this role, he’s responsible for implementing initiatives and programs to ensure culture is cultivated and maintained in the office. He is also responsible for aligning all local office programs with regional and national initiatives. Ferris earned both his undergraduate and graduate degrees from Carnegie Mellon University.
As founder/CEO of The Customer Experience Unleashed!, Shauna Grovell helps companies, nonprofit organizations, government entities, and institutions of learning improve their internal/external customer experience. Grovell’s consulting firm provides guidance to executives and employees in the areas of organizational effectiveness, operational excellence, human resources, employee/customer engagement, strategy development, inclusion/diversity, leadership development and employee communications. Some of her past clients include AT&T, Georgia Perimeter College, and the NYPD’s Washington Heights Precinct.
Prior to starting her own firm, Shauna worked as an executive in three Fortune 500 companies. She joined Walmart in 2007 as a customer experience leader, managing more than 30 front-end vendors. In 2006, Shauna became vice president of customer relations for the New Mexico division of Pulte Homes, leading the division’s charge to win their first JD Power & Associates Award. Grovell was a cheerleader and track and field athlete at Carnegie Mellon, where she obtained her Bachelor of Arts degree in Applied History. She received her Master of Arts degree in Higher Educational Administration and Organizational Development from The George Washington University.
A soccer standout during his time at CMU, Kang worked 11 years at Citi before departing in 2018. During his time at Citi, he was the head of Americas Electronic Cash Trading, overseeing algorithmic and DMA trading for the United States, Canada, Mexico, Brazil and other Latin American countries. Prior to his last position, Kang was the Global Head of Equities Electronic Products, and managed a global team of quantitative algorithmic product developers around the world.
Highlights of Kang’s achievements while at Citi include the implementation of globally consistent product lines, the launch of CITIBLOC in the U.S. and RPI in Mexico, as well as the launch of a new algorithmic trading engine and infrastructure. He was granted a patent on a machine learning and pattern recognition trading automation display called OPTiMUS. Prior to joining Citi, Kang served at Point72 Asset Management (formally SAC Capital) for four years, managing algorithmic strategies and front office trading technology. Before his time at SAC, he worked for JPMorgan as an equities trading technology programmer developing global order entry system. Kang holds a dual B.S. degree in Civil Engineering/Engineering and Public Policy from CMU.
A 2010 graduate of the United States Military Academy, Alejandro Villanueva is a starting offensive lineman for the Pittsburgh Steelers. After majoring in Systems Engineering at the Academy, Villanueva was commissioned a Second Lieutenant in the Engineer Branch with a branch detail in the Infantry. During his five years of service, Villanueva served as a Platoon Leader, Executive Officer, and Assistant Operations Officer. His service included a deployment to Afghanistan with the 10th Mountain Division and two deployments with the 1st Ranger Battalion. In 2010, 2012, and 2014, Villanueva tried out for different NFL teams in hopes of making a roster. After failed attempts with the Cincinnati Bengals, Chicago Bears, and Philadelphia Eagles, he made the final 53-man roster in 2015 with the Pittsburgh Steelers and has started 58 games during the past four seasons. In 2017, he was selected to his first Pro Bowl and made a return trip in 2018. Villanueva received his MBA from Carnegie Mellon’s Tepper School of Business in 2019 and runs an annual leadership session for the athletics department.