Showing their dedication to building a connected community of Fisher graduates, nearly 100 Fisher alumni gathered recently for the college’s second annual Alumni of Color Network Weekend.
The two-day event provided alumni with opportunities for speed networking, personal and professional development, mentorship and advocacy. Two groups of graduates — established-career and early-career — were also honored with achievement awards.
“When we began this event last year, it marked a culmination of decades of dedication, accomplishment and positive impact made by so many business graduates of color,” said Anil K. Makhija, dean and John W. Berry, Sr. Chair in Business. “Those legacies were our foundation and the cornerstone upon which Fisher’s diversity, equity and inclusion efforts continue to be built. And events like this one are proof of this enduring effort.”
The event’s Evening of Celebration dinner recognized five individuals with Legacy Awards for their professional excellence and service to Fisher, and their Black, Hispanic, Latinx and Asian Pacific Islander Desi American communities.
2022 Alumni of Color Legacy Award recipients
Mohit Bathija is an angel investor and the founder of Adquizition, a Chicago-based media and advertising company. After graduating from Fisher, he started his career in various finance, strategy and marketing roles at P&G, including working on the company’s integration of Gillette.
Mohit decided to follow his passion and transitioned into the sports, media and entertainment world after getting his MBA from Harvard Business School. Some of his notable projects include working with the city of Sacramento on a new NBA arena, a sports investment bank on Michael Jordan’s purchase of the Charlotte Hornets, and the NBA to internationally expand league television and radio deals.
Eric Lenard is responsible for providing worldwide financial and strategic leadership to J&J’s digital and robotic surgery businesses across its Ethicon general surgery franchise and MedTech sector.
Eric has been with J&J since 2004, holding several financial leadership roles in the company’s vision care, general surgery and orthopaedics businesses along with three years as the head of corporate treasury. His accomplishments include standing up the enterprise’s first ophthalmic pharmaceutical business, creating a controlled foreign corporation and management logistics center, leading the spine finance organization following J&J’s second-largest acquisition in company history, serving as the inaugural finance leader for its global orthopaedics franchise and serving as chair of the African-Ancestry Leadership Council for J&J’s global finance, orthopaedics, general surgery and vision care chapters.
As a Business Buckeye, he earned his BSBA and MBA in finance and is a Certified Management Accountant and Certified Finance Manager. Eric is a member of Fisher’s Alumni Board, a former chapter president of the National Black MBA Association and has been honored by the National Diversity Council as one of the top 50 financial leaders in the U.S.
A native of Cincinnati, he is happily married and currently lives and works in the San Francisco Bay area.
Terina Mathews-David leads campus service in the Americas region and is actively involved in regional campus growth activity. She also leads people engagement and development activity for all early careers and campus team members within the Americas region.
Terina maintains a deep expertise in academia, retail, campus recruiting and financial services, having led the strategy and execution of large-scale campus recruitment campaigns for JPMorgan Chase, S&P Global and Wells Fargo.
Before joining corporate HR, Terina worked in various leadership roles at Ohio State, including the director of student affairs orientation, student judicial affairs, and associate director of MBA admissions and recruitment.
Terina received her BA from the University of Louisville and masters degrees in higher education and human resources from Ohio State. She has served on the alumni board of both of her alma maters, created the Darlene Matthews Scholarship (in recognition of her mother) to support underrepresented students in the College of Education and Human Ecology at Ohio State, and founded the Terina Matthews-Davis scholarship to support underrepresented, out-of-state students at Louisville.
A 32-year member of Delta Sigma Theta sorority, Terina loves walking, watching all Real Housewives franchises, cooking, traveling and speaking to college students. She and her husband, Benjamin L. Davis, PhD, are the proud parents of “Littles,” a 13-year-old Chihuahua “fur baby.”
Cathy Wahl is a bilingual therapist who works with victims of domestic violence. Prior to earning a master’s degree in social work, she spent seven years working in experiential marketing, events management and advertising for a number of companies, including McDonald's, the University of Miami and Nissan.
Born and raised in Miami, Florida, Cathy is the youngest of three and followed in the footsteps of her older brother, Ricky Wahl, in choosing to attend The Ohio State University, where she studied marketing and logistics management at Fisher. In her free time, Cathy enjoys hiking, traveling and exploring Texas with her fiancé, Andy.
Born in Bogota, Colombia, and raised in Miami, Florida, Ricky Wahl and moved to Columbus to study marketing and logistics at The Ohio State University Fisher College of Business.
He is an accomplished leader in the automotive industry with over 17 years of experience, including 13 years at Ford Motor Company and the last four years at Southeast Toyota Distributors, LLC. Ricky has held many management positions and uses his positive attitude and tireless energy to encourage others to work hard and succeed.
He is inspired daily by his wife, Sylvia, and his three children, Jovanni, 8, Milana, 5, and newborn Valentina. In his free time, Ricky likes to play soccer, golf and spend time with family.
The inaugural Thaddeus Spratlen Alumni of Color Distinguished Educator Award was presented to James Hill, chair of Fisher’s Department of Operations and Business Analytics for his dedication to scholarship, education and mentorship. Named in honor of trailblazer and academic pioneer Thaddeus Spratlen (BSBA ’56, MA ’57, PhD ’62), the award also recognizes thought leadership that brings about positive impact and change in the world.
“James’ work perfectly embodies what we at Fisher are striving to do: to connect our students, our experiential programming and our faculty thought leadership to empower current and future business leaders, leaders of color, for success,” Makhija said. “It is an example of our commitment to Ohio State’s modern land-grant mission of serving those in the communities in which we live.”
The weekend also offered opportunities for current students to connect with alumni and to honor graduates who, as recipients of the Alumni of Color Emerging Leader Awards, are making impacts as early or mid-career business leaders
2022 Alumni of Color Emerging Leader Awards
Christian J. Bonner has been with Wells Fargo since joining the company’s Wealth and Investment Management Analyst program in 2014. He graduated from the program in 2016 and transitioned into a role with its commercial real estate (CRE) group in Washington, D.C., where he did credit underwriting and portfolio management for complex CRE transactions in the northeast.
Christian began working as a senior relationship manager in Middle Market Banking in San Francisco before moving to Atlanta. He was promoted to vice president to manage a larger and more complex portfolio of clients. In 2021, Christian was selected to serve as the Diverse Segments Pod leader for the firm’s Southeast Division, where he leads its focus on growing existing relationships and acquiring new relationships with minority-owned and minority-led businesses with annual revenues of $10MM to $1B.
Christian is also a part-time real estate investor and enjoys flipping houses. In his spare time, he serves on Fisher’s Alumni Board and is very involved with his fraternity, Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, Inc. He also is a world traveler and has visited 21 countries solo. His favorite destinations have been Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe; Tokyo, Japan; and the Great Barrier Reef in Australia.
Captain Juan F. Hurtado Gomez is executive officer to the commander of the 55th Electronic Combat Group, Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Arizona. He attended The Ohio State University as a Morrill Scholar and served in various leadership roles as a member of the Business Scholars Program, Beta Theta Pi fraternity and the Hispanic Student Business Association. After graduating from Ohio State, Juan worked for Nationwide Insurance as a customer service and sales representative.
Juan then completed officer training school, after which he began undergraduate combat systems officer training at Pensacola Naval Air Station, Florida, where he served as class leader during the rigorous 11-month program. Juan was assigned to Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Arizona, becoming an evaluator navigator in the EC-130H. He has served in numerous positions including training, group weapons and tactics, squadron executive officer and flight commander.
An avid runner and hiker, Juan was selected as the Air Combat Command Language Capable Airman of the Year, Group Navigator of the Year, and he was the squadron nominee for Air Combat Command Instructor Navigator of the Year. He is also the recipient of two Air Medals, earned in aerial combat over Afghanistan.
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s a business and development manager, Rekha Voruganti utilizes Clinical Pathways Program (CPP) methodology experts to coordinate pathway development with representatives from clinical and data analytics to standardize clinical excellence. The CPP is overseen by the offices of the chief medical officer and the chief nursing officer.
Rekha graduated from The Ohio State University with a bachelor of science degree in 2011 and a Master of Business Operational Excellence degree in 2018. Her area of research includes health literacy, health equity and community health.
As a finance manager at Microsoft in Seattle, Washington, Aisha Watkins specializes in treasury and corporate accounting. A proud Buckeye, she is pursuing her MBA with a concentration in human resources at Louisiana State University-Shreveport, with the goal of connecting her passion for people, talent development, and diversity, equity and inclusion with lived experiences.
Aisha is a native of Cincinnati and has earned her CPA. She is an engaged member of NABA, Inc. (formerly known as the National Association of Black Accountants), where she serves on the planning committee for the Accounting Careers Awareness Program (ACAP-Ohio), as well as audit chairman for Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Inc.’s Psi Eta Omega Chapter.
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