The 2023 Awardees
Jeff Chapski
BSBA 1991Mamaroneck, N
Jeff Chapski, a New York-based entrepreneur and former president of the Georgetown University Alumni Association, received the John Carroll Award in ceremonies held at the Fairmont Hotel in San Francisco, CA on April 22, 2023.
The award release on Mr. Chapski noted the following: "Jeff Chapski is a strategic advisor and investor in early-stage startups. His prior experience includes business development, consulting, and product management for Fortune 100 organizations, SMBs, and start-ups. Chapski began his career in capital markets and worked for JPMorgan, Arthur Andersen, and Oracle Corporation.
He is currently a Board Member of the Georgetown Angel Investor Network (GAIN), a group he co-founded in 2019. GAIN members have invested almost $5 million in 20 Georgetown-related start-ups. His previous alumni-leadership roles include being the founder of the Hoya Gateway Program; president of the Georgetown University Alumni Association; member of the university’s Board of Directors; and co-founder and past president of the Georgetown Entrepreneurship Alliance (GEA).
Chapski received his Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from the McDonough School of Business in 1991. He was previously recognized for his volunteer leadership work with the Reed Alumni Award and the William Gaston Alumni Award."
Dr. Nancy Ripp Clark
AB 1977 MD 1981Potomac, MD
Nancy Ripp Clark, a Potomac, MD physician and alumni volunteer, received the John Carroll Award in ceremonies held at the Fairmont Hotel in San Francisco, CA on April 22, 2023.
The awards release on Dr. Clark noted the following: "Chair and co-chair of her undergraduate class for decades, Nancy Ripp Clark, MD, has planned reunion and inter-reunion events, wrote newsletters, and spearheaded class-wide fundraising drives, helping her class set records for reunion attendance, fund participation, and philanthropic support. She is a longstanding member of both the Alumni Association Board of Governors and the Medical School Alumni Board, having served on their respective executive committees, chaired other committees, and written each organization's periodic newsletters.
Clark served as president (and other leadership roles) for the Georgetown Clinical Society, a century-old medical school alumni organization that unites local graduates, faculty, and students. She has volunteered as an instructor, mentor, and host for students at the Medical School. For many years, Clark served on the Georgetown Parents Leadership Council, raising awareness and financial support for undergraduate academics and activities. Recently, she captained the Georgetown University Alumni Association team for the Georgetown Bellringer event, riding 50 miles to raise money for cancer research.
For more than 30 years, she has served as an active Alumni Admissions Program (AAP) interviewer. Clark is a loyal Georgetown Scholars Program (GSP) supporter, where she is a move-in day volunteer for first-years, a mentor for sophomores, juniors, and seniors, and a regular contributor to the Necessity Fund. For over 22 years, Clark has been a volunteer physician and medical director at Mercy Health Clinic, a free clinic for uninsured, low-income patients. In recognition of her contributions to her alma mater, she was awarded the Gaston Award for outstanding undergraduate service in 2011 and the School of Medicine Alumni Award in 2018.
Clark and her husband Kevin, a 2018 John Carroll awardee, have five children, all of whom are Hoyas."
John J. McDonald Jr.
BSFS 1988, JD 1993San Francisco, CA
John J. ("Jack") McDonald, a San Francisco-based business executive, received the John Carroll Award in ceremonies held at the Fairmont Hotel in San Francisco, CA on April 22, 2023.
The awards release on Mr. McDonald noted the following: "Jack McDonald is the CEO of PolySign, the digital asset infrastructure company founded in 2018. PolySign is the parent company of Standard Custody, a qualified custodian for digital assets licensed by the state of New York, as well as MG Stover, the largest digital fund administration firm servicing hedge funds, private equity funds, and venture capital funds.
Prior to helping start PolySign, McDonald was president and CEO of Conifer Financial Services from 2008 to 2016. Before he assumed the role of CEO, McDonald held the position of executive vice president, where he was responsible for business development within the organization. He also spent five years with UBS Investment Bank, where he was responsible for the institutional equity business for UBS's western region as managing director. His career in finance began with Schroder's in New York as a vice president of institutional equity sales.
He earned a bachelor's degree from Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service in 1988 and a Juris Doctor from Georgetown Law Center in 1993. McDonald has received numerous awards, such as the Gregory J. Carroll Award for outstanding service to Georgetown Athletics and the William Gaston Award to honor his contributions to Georgetown University. He is also a frequent contributor to industry press and has been featured by popular media outlets like CNBC and Bloomberg TV."
Dr. Francis Previti
BS 1969Northfield, NJ
Francis ("Frank") Previti, a a Northfield, NJ physician and alumni volunteer, received the John Carroll Award in ceremonies held at the Fairmont Hotel in San Francisco, CA on April 22, 2023.
The awards release on Dr. Previti noted the following: "A native of South Jersey, Frank Previti began his medical career with a general surgery residency from 1974 to 1979 at Georgetown University Medical Center. Following his residency, Previti returned to Atlantic City, New Jersey where he continues to practice general and vascular surgery. Previti has served as chairman of the Department of Surgery at the Atlanticare Regional Medical Center and is the recipient of the Atlanticare Foundation's Edward R. Knight Award for community service. He credits his professional achievements in large part to his training and tutelage in the Georgetown Department of Surgery.
Previti graduated from Georgetown in 1969 with a bachelor's in biology and earned his medical degree from Rutgers University in 1974. Since graduating from the Hilltop, he has served the university as an interviewer with the Alumni Admissions Program (AAP), and sat on the university's Board of Governors, Board of Regents, Jesuit Mission and Identity, Medical Alumni Board, and various athletic committees. He was inducted into the 1789 Society in 2017 and enjoys rowing and coaching with Friends of Georgetown Rowing, a pastime he has kept since his time as an undergraduate Hoya. Previti and his wife, Maureen, currently reside in New Jersey. They are blessed with three children, all of whom are Hoyas: Robert (SFS'06), Christina (C'08), and Regina (C'09), and four grandchildren, Francis II, Christian, Lucy, and Sable Rose."
Leslie M. Turner
JD 1985Sarasota, FL
Leslie Turner, a Sarasota, FL-based attorney and former senior vice president of the Hershey Corporation, received the John Carroll Award in ceremonies held at the Fairmont Hotel in San Francisco, CA on April 22, 2023.
The awards release on Ms. Turner noted the following: "Prior to joining Hershey in 2012, Turner served as associate general counsel for the Coca-Cola Company's Bottling Investments Group and then as chief legal officer of Coca-Cola North America. She previously was a litigation partner in the Washington, D.C. office of Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld.
Turner began her legal career in 1985 as law clerk to the Honorable William C. Pryor, former Chief Judge of the District of Columbia Court of Appeals. In 1986, she joined Akin Gump's litigation practice group. In 1993, she accepted the U.S. Senate-confirmed position of assistant secretary for the Office of Territorial and International Affairs in the U.S. Department of the Interior. In that role, she oversaw U.S. relations with territories and federated states like the American Samoa, the Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Micronesia, and Palau. In 1995, Turner became counselor to then-Secretary Bruce Babbitt and director of the Office of Intergovernmental Affairs within the U.S. Department of the Interior.
Turner is the recipient of numerous professional awards, including the Lifetime Achievement General Counsel Recognition Award from the NYSE Governance Services, Legends in the Law Award from The Burton Awards, the Wiley A. Branton Award and the M. Ashley Dickerson Award, and was featured as one of Savoy Magazine's 2015 Most Influential Black Lawyers."
A board member at FirstEnergy Corporation, Ms. Turner serves as the current chair of the Law Center Board of Visitors.
Winston Zee
JD 1981, LLM 1984Aberdeen, HK
Winston Zee, a Shanghai-based business executive, received the John Carroll Award in ceremonies held at the Fairmont Hotel in San Francisco, CA on April 22, 2023.
The awards release on Mr. Zee noted the following: "Zee was born and raised in Hong Kong. After graduating magna cum laude from Georgetown Law in 1981, he joined the global law firm of Baker McKenzie, where he served as Asia Pacific chairman during 2012- 2014. In 2015, he retired from the firm and joined the faculty of Shanghai Jiao Tong University KoGuan Law School, where he uses his Georgetown training and years of practice to help develop a new generation of transnational lawyers.
He has served as chair of the Asian Law Alumni Advisory Board of Georgetown Law since 2010 and served on the committee's Board of Visitors. In 2017, Zee began serving on the Council of Presidential Initiatives of Swarthmore College, where he chairs the Working Group on Connecting the Liberal Arts. In 2021, he became a member of the Board of Managers of Swarthmore College."