Canadian Ambassador to the United Nations John McNee (BA ’73) was just one of 100 alumni and guests who turned out March 1 for the first reception the Alumni Office has hosted exclusively for York grads in New York City.
Held at the elegant Café Gray in the Time Warner Center overlooking Central Park, the event was hosted by York President & Vice-Chancellor Lorna R. Marsden and Naguib Gouda (MBA ’84), executive director, alumni & advancement services.
Left: from left, John McNee (BA ’73), Linan Wang and Michelle Ha (both BDes ’05), and Anatoly Veltman (BBA ’85)
There are over 600 alumni living and working in the New York City area, one of the University’s biggest concentrations of grads outside Canada.
"It was a pleasure to see alumni turn out from almost all of York’s faculties," said Gouda. "The group clearly enjoyed the event and spent the evening building personal and professional connections with one another."
Special guests also included John McNab, deputy consul general at the Canadian Consulate in New York City, and Reg Foster (LLB ’76), regional manager, IBM Corporate Community Relations.
Right: from left, Reg Foster (LLB ’76) and Naguib Gouda (MBA ’84)
The event coincided with the launch of IBM’s World Community Grid (see YFile story March 1). York is the first Canadian university to partner with IBM on this project, and Foster took the opportunity to share the latest news about the grid with the attendees.
Also present from York were Mickey Cohen (LLB ’60, LLM ’63), Chair of the University’s Board of Governors, Patrick Monahan (LLB ’80), dean of Osgoode Hall Law School, and Susan Mullin, vice-president, development at the York University Foundation.
Made possible with funding from York’s Alumni Perks Program providers, the reception proved to be a valuable opportunity for alumni to reconnect with their alma mater and to network with fellow alumni in New York. Guests expressed an interest in making the reception an annual event, and Marsden encouraged them to start a new branch of the York University Alumni Association (YUAA).
Left: from left, Stephen Vander Stoep (LLB ’04), and Neil Quartaro (BA ’98)
The New York reception followed on the heels of another hosted by Marsden and Gouda at Cube2 in the Hotel St-Paul in Montreal Feb. 28.