Newsmakers

Don't be surprised if a few Dartmouth football players turn out this afternoon for a "Conversation with Jeff Blackburn" '91, Senior VP of Business Development at Amazon. Here's a posting announcing his talk:

If the name sounds familiar to Dartmouth football followers, it should. Blackburn was a three-year starter at linebacker for the Big Green, earning a berth on the All-Ivy second team as a senior when he posted 60 tackles and picked off one pass.

CNNMoney has labeled Blackburn as one of "Amazon's all-stars." (LINK) In addition to his BA from Dartmouth, Blackburn holds an MBA from Stanford. (LINK)

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Speaking of former Dartmouth football players in the business world, PR Newswire reports this morning that Rich Weissman '85 has joined the board of directors of Diomics, "an innovator in DNA capture technology." (LINK)

The report writes of Weissman, captain of the '84 Big Green:

Mr. Weissman has more than 25 years of industry experience in broad global financial investment banking. Prior to Diomics, he served as a managing director at Credit Suisse and JP Morgan, and held executive positions at UBS and Morgan Stanley/Dean Witter.

Weissman twice led the Big Green in rushing, running for 11 touchdowns in 1983. He's eighth on Dartmouth's career touchdown list with 21 and is in the school's top-20 for career rushing yards.

Here's the kicker on Blackburn and Weissman. They grew up in neighboring towns in Massachusetts. Concord and Sudbury actually touch on one corner (according to Mrs. BGA, who grew up in Sudbury ;-).

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Columbia's run in the NCAA baseball tournament came to an end with a 21-3 loss to Miami in the deciding game of the Coral Gable Regionals. (LINK)

From a Miami Herald story after Columbia forced the final game with a shutout of the No. 5 national seed:

They don’t often mix up the order on “student-athlete” in the Ivy League. You think of Columbia students winning résumés and job interviews — not baseball games.