Northwestern University Alumni

McDonnell studied industrial engineering and computer science at Northwestern’s McCormick School of Engineering; she also has an MBA from Harvard Business School. Prior to Menlo Group, she held leadership roles at AT&T, Electronic Arts, McKinsey, Limelife, Mplayer, and Xfire. In her career, she has worked on teams that have built groundbreaking software products and services, acquired millions of customers, raised significant venture capital, and had multiple IPO and acquisition exits.

McDonnell has spoken at Northwestern alumni events about entrepreneurship, venture capital, and tech product management. In addition, she has been a judge for Northwestern’s VentureCat Startup Competition and has served as an executive mentor to entrepreneurs at Northwestern, Stanford University’s School of Engineering and start-up accelerator StartX, Harvard Business School, TechStars, and MIT Launch.

Kang is a longtime volunteer leader serving the Northwestern community. He is the past president of the Northwestern Asian and Asian American Alumni Association, also known as NU-A5. Under Kang’s leadership, NU-A5 was recognized as the Northwestern Alumni Association (NAA) Club of the Year in 2020 and 2023 for their exemplary alumni impact. In 2021, he was named NAA Club Leader of the Year for his leadership and service excellence. In 2024, Kang co-organized a live music event on campus while on the steering committee of One Book One Northwestern, the community-wide reading program hosted by the Office of the Provost. Today, he serves as president-elect of the NAA Board of Directors and is a member of the Northwestern University Board of Trustees. He is also a mentor in Northwestern’s Affinity Leaders and Learners (ALL) Mentorship Program.

After graduating from Northwestern with a bachelor’s degree in industrial engineering, Kang received an MBA from Vanderbilt University.

Manzone has more than 30 years of accomplishments in the consumer products and luxury industries. His work includes time at Whole Earth Brands, which he successfully listed on the NASDAQ as its chief executive officer; at PepsiCo and W.M. Wrigley Jr. Company; and at McKinsey & Company. He also serves on the boards of Perrigo Company plc, Syntec Optics Holdings, Inc., Banijay Group N.V., and the Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation for the Environment.

An active member of the Northwestern alumni community, Manzone serves as the immediate past president of the Northwestern Alumni Association. Manzone started volunteering after graduate school, serving as president of the NU Club of Switzerland and on campus as a visiting speaker in marketing strategy and innovation.

A native of the Principality of Monaco, Manzone holds an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern and a graduate degree in international business from Sorbonne University. He speaks English, Italian, and French.

Manzone and his wife, Nathalie, are the proud parents of three children: Charlotte, Clemence ’18, and Philippe ’22.

Babu is a “double purple” Northwestern alum, having first graduated from the McCormick School of Engineering with a dual major in industrial engineering and economics. As an undergraduate he participated in the Freshman Urban Program—where he met his wife, Laura Morsch-Babu ’05—and was active in community organizing. He received his MBA from the Kellogg School of Management in 2009. His career success has earned him recognition as one of the Denver Business Journal’s “40 Under 40” in 2021 and Progressive Grocer’s GenNext Award.

Babu lives in Denver with his wife and their two children. He sits on the boards of Naturally Boulder, an organization supporting natural and organic products companies in Colorado, and the Nathan Yip Foundation, which strengthens education in rural communities. He also served on the transition team for the mayor-elect of Denver in 2023. His family is proud to have started the Morsch-Babu Student Mental Health Fund at Northwestern, dedicated to making therapy, medication, co-pays, and other wellness services available for free or at a reduced cost to students in need.

Chen received a BA in Communication Studies with a minor in Business Institutions from Northwestern, and an MBA from Peking University and Vlerick Leuven Gent Management School in Belgium.

As a Northwestern volunteer, Chen helped re-charter the NU Club of Beijing in 2010, re-establish the NU Club of Shanghai in 2013, and incubated the Shenzhen alumni community in 2019. In her five years as president of the Shanghai club, she organized industry-focused alumni speaker panels, actively expanded the alumni community, and built a social media presence. She updated the governance structure and recruited new diverse volunteers for the club’s executive board. She was also a member of the NAA Global Connection Committee, the Alumni Admission Council, and the Northwestern Network Mentorship Program. Chen lives in Hong Kong with her husband and daughter.

Dalmas joined Constellation from Nestlé USA, where he led the consumer and marketplace insights team. He held previous leadership roles at McDonald’s and PepsiCo, and was a management consultant at Kearney in consumer packaged goods and retail practices.

He has also worked in several international markets, including Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, Europe (UK, Netherlands, Russia, and Turkey), Japan, Thailand, Saudi Arabia, and Canada. A native of Brazil who holds dual citizenship in the US, Dalmas is a graduate of Fundação Getulio Vargas, a top-ranked business school in São Paulo.

Dalmas serves as board chair of America Needs You–Illinois (ANY), a nonprofit that helps first-generation college students achieve their academic and career potential.

He and his wife, Carolina Dalmas ’02 MBA, live in Wheaton, Illinois.

Garratt earned her bachelor’s degree in journalism from the Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications. While at Northwestern, she served as president of the University’s chapter of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists—helping the chapter to become nationally recognized—and as news director of the Northwestern News Network. Before joining CNBC, Garratt worked as digital editor and communities and engagement manager at ITN Productions and as a multimedia journalist in the United States.

Since moving to London in 2013, Garratt has served on the board for the Northwestern Club of the United Kingdom. She was the club’s president when it won the NAA International Club of the Year award in 2018.

In addition to his day-to-day responsibilities at the YMCA of Metro Chicago, Goode is executive sponsor of the nonprofit’s African American Resource Network, an employee resource group that promotes mentoring, leadership opportunities, and networking for African American employees. He also oversees the Boys & Young Men of Color initiative, a YMCA of the USA strategy designed to empower boys and young men of color and help them identify pathways to success. Prior to joining the YMCA of Metro Chicago, Goode served as senior vice president of Bay Area operations for Covenant House of California, where he was responsible for two transitional living programs and two emergency shelters for homeless youth. Previously, he was vice president of operations for the Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Milwaukee, where he oversaw 43 clubs serving 5,000 youngsters daily.

He and his wife, Kimberley Crews Goode ’87, live in Chicago and are the parents of three children.

In 2014, she graduated magna cum laude from Northwestern University’s Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences with a BA in English and minors in history and Italian. She received English departmental honors as well as the Edwin L. Shuman Prize for Best Honors Thesis in Literature. Jones was a member of Alpha Phi, served on the Panhellenic Association, and was a member of Dance Marathon's 120-hour club. While an undergraduate student, she had two internships at Lionsgate and joined the company full time in 2015 after spending a year in Milan, Italy teaching English at a primary school and working for an Italian media company.

Jones met her husband, Jordan Jones ’14, during her freshman year at Northwestern. They currently reside in New York City.