New Members Join Duquesne University’s Century Club

Four new members were inducted into the Century Club of Distinguished Duquesne University Alumni on Oct. 6, as part of the annual President’s Dinner.

The Century Club was established during Duquesne’s 100th anniversary in 1978 to recognize graduates with exemplary records of professional achievement and service to the University and their communities. Of more than 100,000 alumni since 1878, only 334 have been admitted to its elite ranks.

The 2017 inductees are:

Jeanine C. Hayden, Arts 1969
Member, board of governors, National Military Families Association

After completing her degree in psychology in 1969, Hayden began a non-traditional career as a volunteer and advocate for military families both stateside and overseas. Her activity and leadership increased in parallel with the career path of her husband and Duquesne classmate, Air Force General Michael V. Hayden, A’67, GA’69, who served for nearly 40 years and retired in 2008 as director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).

Hayden’s work began in the early 1970s as the couple was posted to Guam—then a key staging area for forces involved in the Vietnam War—using her psychology background as she helped to organize support groups and improve services for fellow military families

Later, Hayden developed a morale and education program for embassy staff—and collected intelligence herself—in then-Communist Bulgaria; ran a religious education program on a base in Korea; and counseled students at George Mason University in Virginia.

Following 9-11, with her husband based in Washington, Hayden’s efforts expanded to provide National Security Agency and CIA family members the tools to cope with the stresses of separation, deployment, combat and loss. As a volunteer advocate for CIA families, she traveled to more than 40 stations and bases, many in remote and dangerous locations.

Hayden is a member of the Board of Governors of the National Military Families Association and a frequent contributor to The Cipher Brief, an online publication focused on intelligence matters and the intelligence community. She has received the CIA’s prestigious Meritorious Service Medal and the National Intelligence Superior Public Service Medal for her work on behalf of military and intelligence agency families.

Hayden and her husband, a 2000 Century Club inductee, received the 2015 Anna C. Chennault Award from the National Military Families Association. They support veterans’ programs at Duquesne University and an annual crisis simulation program for Duquesne international relations students.

Leonard A. Komoroski, Arts 1982
Chief executive officer, Cleveland Cavaliers/Quicken Loans Arena

A journalism graduate and member of Duquesne’s men’s tennis team, Komoroski began his career in sports marketing and management with indoor soccer’s Pittsburgh Spirit.

After positions with hockey’s Pittsburgh Penguins and soccer’s Minnesota Strikers, Komoroski played a major role in the startup of the National Basketball Association’s Minnesota Timberwolves. As vice president of sales for the team and its arena, he quickly turned an expansion franchise into one of the most financially successful in the league.

Komoroski later served as senior vice president and chief operating officer of the Cleveland Lumberjacks hockey franchise and senior vice president and chief of business operations for the National Football League’s Philadelphia Eagles.  With the Eagles, he negotiated record-setting naming rights deals for the team’s new stadium and practice facility and built the team’s in-house media network into the largest in the league.

In 2003, Komoroski returned to Cleveland as president of the Cavaliers, a basketball franchise with a history of struggling both on and off the court. He restructured the team’s business operations, communications and relationships with the city’s civic leaders, laying the financial foundation for an NBA World Championship in 2016.

Komoroski’s organization—which includes the Cavaliers, Quicken Loans Arena, an Arena Football League team, and minor league hockey and basketball franchises—is a consistent finalist for the Sports Business Journal’s Team of the Year award.

In addition, Komoroski was instrumental in efforts to bring casino gaming to downtown Cleveland and attract and organize the 2016 Republican National Convention. His board memberships include the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum, Cleveland Clinic Hillcrest Hospital, Downtown Cleveland Alliance, Cleveland State University Foundation and the Cleveland chapters of the American Red Cross and the United Way.

A member of the Duquesne Athletic Fund advisory board, Komoroski has presented guest lectures for students in the Business School’s Sports Marketing program.

The Honorable Terrence F. McVerry, Arts 1965, Law 1968
Retired judge, United States District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania

Born on the Bluff and raised as the youngest of four boys in a Washington County coal mining community, McVerry commuted to Duquesne, where he studied political science as an undergraduate and stayed for law school. He worked in the family tavern and confectionery store, and in the mines throughout those years to pay tuition and expenses.

Following his graduation, McVerry entered active duty with the United States Army Reserve and later became a commissioned legal officer in the Pennsylvania Air National Guard, where he served until his honorable discharge as a captain in 1977.

McVerry also worked as a trial prosecutor in the Allegheny County District Attorney’s Office from 1969-1973, before beginning a 25-year career in general legal practice, including medical professional negligence litigation, corporate representation, estate and family law with the firms of Grogran, Graffam, McGinley & Lucchino and McVerry, Baxter, Cindrich & Mansmann. In 1978, he was elected to the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, representing Pittsburgh’s South Hills for six terms through 1990.

Among McVerry’s legislative achievements were the 1980 reform of the Commonwealth’s divorce code and the establishment of statewide criminal sentencing guidelines.

Gov. Tom Ridge appointed McVerry to a judicial seat in the Family Division of Allegheny County Common Pleas Court in 1998; he served in that position until 2000.

One of the architects of Allegheny County’s Home Rule Charter, McVerry served as the first county solicitor under the new form of government, before being nominated by President George W. Bush to the Federal District Court in Pittsburgh in 2002.  He became a senior judge of the court in 2013 and retired from the bench three years later.

McVerry was an active member and held leadership positions in both the Duquesne University Alumni Association and Duquesne Law Alumni Association, and served as a eucharistic minister at St. Anne’s Parish.

Brian L. Sullivan, Business 1982
Senior vice president and central region director, Putnam Investments

A native of New Jersey, Sullivan was a member of Duquesne’s swimming team as an undergraduate and credits the University and his experience as a student-athlete with spurring his success.

Sullivan began his career as a portfolio manager with Ormond Reinsurance and moved to Federated Investors as a vice president in 1982. After nine years with Federated, he joined Putnam Investments, a Boston-based firm with $165 billion in assets under management and operations across North America, Europe, Asia and Australia.

As Central Region Director since 2012, Sullivan is responsible for oversight, management, growth, development and sales results of 16 wholesalers in 18 states. He previously managed relationships with financial advisors, pension plans and corporate accounts in Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia. Sullivan holds multiple licenses with the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority and has appeared on numerous radio and television programs discussing mutual funds, insurance, private equity and other financial topics. He has helped to manage more than $30 million in investments for the National Basketball Association players’ pension fund and a major portfolio for the PGA Tour.

Sullivan serves on the board of directors of the Western Pennsylvania Chapter of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation and is a supporter of Childrens’ Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC. Also a member of Duquesne University’s board of directors, he has served on the Advancement Committee and has endowed both a scholarship fund and a co-investment fund allowing students to gain real-world experience in managing assets.

An advisor to the dean of the Donahue-Palumbo School of Business and the school’s Investment Center, Sullivan chairs an annual golf outing at Laurel Valley to benefit the Duquesne Athletic Fund. He previously served as a member of the alumni board of governors and the Advancing Our Legacy campaign steering committee.