FALL 2023
Alumni Awards
2022
Every year, the Business Alumni Association honors alumni and friends for their professional achievements, leadership skills, and service to the University and the Pittsburgh community at large.
Pitt Business is proud to recognize the outstanding achievements of the alumni award winners from 2022.
2022 // 56th ANNUAL BUSINESS ALUMNI ASSOCIATION AWARD WINNERS
John Algie (BSBA ’03, JD/MBA ’09)
Distinguished Service Award Honoree
Algie is a partner at Davis+Gilbert in New York City. He represents privately held companies in domestic and cross-border mergers and acquisitions and other transactions across many industries, including entertainment, professional sports, marketing, and technology, and was named a Best Lawyers in America “Ones to Watch” 2023 for Corporate Law. Algie is currently a Pitt Alumni Association director. He is also a director emeritus for the Pitt Business Alumni Association and emeritus member of the College of Business Administration’s Alumni Advisory Board.
Ben L. Fryrear (MBA ’64)
Distinguished Alumnus Award Honoree
Fryrear retired in 2000 as president and chairman of Aerospace Optics, Inc., which was later renamed Applied Avionics. After serving in the U.S. Army, Fryrear worked as a chemical process operator and supervisor in the Coors Porcelain Company’s Atomic Energy Division. He also worked at Alcoa Research Labs, Firestone Tire & Rubber Company, McCall Publishing, and Conti Engravers. Fryrear’s generous support of education at the high school and college levels includes Pitt Business where a fund for faculty development, a research fellowship for doctoral students, and the Ben L. Fryrear Chair of Marketing are all established in his name.
Rosalie Myers (MBA ’98)
Distinguished Alumna Award Honoree
Myers is the vice president and finance manager at PNC Financial Services Group, Inc. She is also the past vice president, treasurer, and secretary of PNC’s Pittsburgh African American Employee Business Resource Group and co-captain of PNC’s Finance recruiting team for Pitt. Born and raised in the Caribbean, she now resides in Pittsburgh where she serves as
the finance chair and board member of the Fund for Advancement of Minorities through Education, treasurer and board member of the Pitt Black MBA Network, and member of the Pitt Business Alumni Board. She also served in the U.S. Army Reserves and completed the ROTC program at Pitt.
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Venkat Ramaswamy (MBA ’91)
International Distinguished Alumnus Award Honoree
Ramaswamy is vice chairman of Edelweiss Financial Services Limited and has three decades of experience in the financial markets. He has been one of the driving forces in transforming what was once India’s first new age boutique investment bank to a leading independent financial services company. Skilled in building and maintaining large institutional relationships, Ramaswamy has led the company’s Alternative Asset Management Business to become among the largest in India over the last five years.
Symone J. Redwine (BSBA ’04)
College of Business Administration Outstanding Alumna Award Honoree
Redwine practices law as a partner of Esquire Litigation Group. She has worked as an attorney at numerous firms, such as McCarter & English, LLP; Waters & Kraus, LLP; and her own law firm, The Redwine Law Firm, that she started alongside her aunt in 2012. While her primary focus is personal injury and wrongful death law, she is also committed to social justice, launching in 2017 a cutting-edge expungement division of her firm, called “My Record is Clean,” to expunge and seal Texas criminal records. She also provides legal analysis on TMZ and BuzzFeed News along with witty legal commentary on her YouTube channel, “Girl, Is That Legal?”
John P. Surma
H.J. Zoffer Medal for Meritorious Service Award Honoree
Surma is the retired chairman and chief executive officer of United States Steel Corporation. He started at the company in 2002 as vice chairman and chief financial officer. He was previously a partner at Price Waterhouse LLP and held senior management positions at Marathon Oil Company, Speedway SuperAmerica LLC, and Marathon Ashland Petroleum LLC. He was appointed by President Barack Obama to the President’s Advisory Committee for Trade Policy and Negotiations and served as vice chairman. He has served as board chairman of the National Safety Council and the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland and is a board member of UPMC and the Allegheny County Parks Foundation.
KPMG
Corporate Appreciation Award Honoree
KPMG firms operate in 145 countries and territories and, in FY21, collectively employed more than 236,000 people, serving the needs of business, governments, public-sector agencies, not-for-profits, and, through KPMG firms’ audit and assurance practices, the capital markets. KPMG is committed to quality and service excellence, bringing its best to clients and earning the public’s trust through its actions and behaviors both professionally and personally. In a world where rapid change and unprecedented disruption are the new normal, KPMG inspires confidence and empowers change throughout all of its work.
