Alumni Share Their Experiences in CIA, Entrepreneurship
The "How Do I Become A..." program brought overflow crowds of students and young alumni to Alumni House on two different occasions in the past month. Joe Kiehl, ESIA BA '72, MA '86, returned to campus to share advice with aspiring CIA officers, and Dan Simons, GWSB BBA '92, visited Foggy Bottom to offer tips to would-be eco-entrepreneurs.
Kiehl recounted his experiences as a CIA operations officer to a packed Alumni House on Oct. 21 (video below). A former overseas operations officer, Kiehl has extensive experience working for the Central Intelligence Agency. His 26 years as an operations officer and senior manager with the CIA, including a dozen years overseas, provided Kiehl with detailed knowledge and understanding of counterterrorism operations and programs, foreign governments, security environments, business climates and political and civic cultures. He equated the job most closely to that of an investigative journalist who has to find and cultivate sources and reminded his audience that this was no 9 to 5 position.
Dan Simons, GWSB BBA '92
On Nov. 3, Simons shared advice with students and young alumni on how to become an eco-entrepreneur. Simons has led successful and profitable businesses while demonstrating his commitment to environmentally friendly operations. Simons is a principle of Vucurevich Simons Advisory Group, a food service consulting firm. The group's new restaurant, Founding Farmers, is LEED® Gold certified and is the first such restaurant of any type in D.C. and the first full-service, upscale-casual LEED® Gold restaurant in the entire U.S. Learn more about Dan Simons and Founding Farmers in this article.
The "How Do I Become A..." lecture series is sponsored by The George Washington Alumni Association, Career Center, and Class Council. The series, which debuted in 2005, was designed to bring distinguished alumni to GW to speak to current undergraduate students. More information is available on the program Web site.
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