BIOGRAPHIES OF CANDIDATES FOR OFFICERS AND DIRECTOR OF THE PRINCETON AREA ALUMNI ASSOCIATION 2019

(A copy of the Constitution and of the by-laws of the Association describing the functions of officers and directors, terms of office and other matters may be found under the Governance tab)

Nominee for President  - Thomas M. Swift ‘76

Tom is currently Vice President of PA3, having previously served as a director.  He is also a member and past chair of the Alumni Council's Princetoniana Committee, an  ASC interviewer, and a P-rade marshal inducted into the Society of the Claw.  Tom is chief technical officer of Cat-Ears, a company that makes products that reduce wind noise.  He was formerly president of a privately held IT equipment manufacturer, and prior to that served in many capacities at Lucent Technologies, AT&T, and Bell Laboratories.  At Princeton Tom majored in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering. He also holds an M.S. from Stanford and an M.B.A from the University of Michigan.  In his spare time he is President of the local region of the Porsche Club of America and teaches high speed track driving.  He is married to Petra, and has a son Thomas and a daughter Logan.

Nominee for Vice President - Mo Chen ‘80

Mo is currently serving her first year of the Board of Advisors of the Asian American Alumni Association of Princeton (A4P) after serving 15 or so years as a governor, one term as chair and another as treasurer.  Within A4P she coordinated many events, including the annual Reunions and Lunar New Year activities. She was also an active supporter of the creation of the Asian-American Studies Program certificate. She has mentored new leaders for A4P by networking with alumni and students. Her other Princeton volunteer activities have been with the Friends of the Davis International Center as Coordinator of Individual English Instruction, Annual Giving as a participation solicitor, Alumni Schools Committee as an interviewer, and Council of the Princeton University Community as an alumni representative.   She is now a part-time event coordinator with the Department of Art & Archaeology at Princeton.   At Princeton, she majored in the Woodrow Wilson School and earned a certificate in the East Asian Studies Program.  She holds an M.A. in Law and Diplomacy from the Fletcher School at Tufts, with concentrations in International Business, International Finance, and Asian Diplomatic History and Foreign Policy. She and husband Arnold have two children.  

Nominee for Secretary - Frank Derby ‘84

Frank is a Montgomery-based trial attorney with thirty years of experience, now practicing on his own in New York and New Jersey.   Frank is the current chair of the Alumni Council’s Princetoniana Committee and has been deeply involved in the Committee's efforts to create a virtual museum of Princeton memorabilia. He has also served as the historian for the Class of 1984. He has volunteered for both the Alumni Schools Committee and Annual Giving and yet has no University building named in his honor. In addition to his volunteer work for the University, Frank was for many years a trustee of Trenton's Carolyn Stokes Preschool, the oldest active preschool in New Jersey, and is now a trustee and treasurer for the Mary Jacobs Memorial Library Foundation in Rocky Hill.  He also serves on his township's Environmental Commission. Frank majored in Soviet history, now passé, and rowed heavyweight crew badly before going to Duke to get his J.D. in 1987. His current hobby is cycling very slowly. He has two children, Lilly and Matthew.  Frank is currently serving as acting secretary of PA3 by appointment following a resignation.

Nominee for Treasurer - Dan Hayes Patterson ‘09

Dan currently serves as the acting treasurer of PA3 by appointment following a resignation. He also has served as the technology chair for PA3 since 2010, as well as for the Class of 2009 since '09's fifth reunion -- writing websites for both organizations. He is a former chair of the Technology Advisory Committee of the Alumni Council's Executive Committee (which has since been merged into Communications and Technology). Dan graduated with a BSE in computer science and a certificate in finance and is currently a senior software engineer at Google, where he has worked since 2012. He is married to Sara Hastings ’09.

Nominee for Director - Sev Onyshkevych ‘83

As a lifelong Princeton-area resident both before and after college, Sev has been associated with PA3 since its re-founding more than 10 years ago.   As a student, Sev’s mentor was Dr. Freddie Fox ‘39, who instilled a sense of service to, and admiration of, Old Nassau. Sev has been Vice-President and President of the PA3;  and Secretary, Treasurer, Class Historian and Technology Chair for the Great Class of 1983, as well as Chair of the Technology Advisory Committee, Chair of the Princetoniana Committee, Treasurer and Membership Chair of the Friends of the Princeton University Library, member of the Graduate Board of Colonial Club, Chair of the Alumni Schools Committee for Ukraine, an ASC interviewer in a dozen countries, and has numerous roles with entrepreneurial organizations on campus; he is a collector of all things Orange and Black, and recipient of the Alumni Council’s Award for Service.