Chris K. Brigham '77
Chris K. Brigham, BBA '77 (Marketing), of Roxbury, Conn., is an Executive Producer in the motion picture industry. Chris' career in the film industry began in 1983, when he worked as a location assistant for the movie Easy Money, starring Rodney Dangerfield. Chris has held the positions of associate producer, co-producer and executive producer from 1995 the to present.
His work as producer includes numerous box office hits, such as The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor, with Brendan Fraser; The Good Shepherd, with Angelina Jolie and Matt Damon; The Aviator, with Leonardo DiCaprio; Analyze This and Analyze That with Robert DiNero and Billy Crystal; The Count of Monte Cristo, with James Caviezel; The Legend of Bagger Vance, with Will Smith and Matt Damon; Before and After, with Meryl Streep and Liam Neeson; Extreme Measures, with Hugh Grant; and Kiss of Death, with Samuel L. Jackson and Nicholas Cage; Interview with a Vampire, with Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise; Six Degrees of Separation, with Will Smith and Donald Sutherland; Lorenzo's Oil, with Susan Sarandon and Nick Nolte; and Born on the Fourth of July, with Tom Cruise.
Chris is Executive Producer on the recently released film Argo, starring Ben Affleck, and Christopher Nolan's award-winning and thought-provoking drama Inception and Shutter Island, both starring Leonardo DiCaprio. He is also Executive Producer for Noah (due out in 2014), starring Emma Watson and Russell Crowe.
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Richard W. Cheston '79
Richard "Rich" W. Cheston, BS '79 (Chemistry and Business/Management), of Pittsboro, N.C., is Chief Technical Architect, Distinguished Engineer & Master Inventor at Lenovo.
Rich has been in the PC industry almost from the beginning (1982) and has held key areas of responsibility worldwide, first within IBM and now within Lenovo, such as product strategy, marketing and new product development. Rich spent 23 years at IBM and achieved the status of Master Inventor and in 2004 was appointed a Distinguished Engineer for sustained technical leadership.
Rich is recognized worldwide for his insight from technology companies like Intel, customers like The Coca Cola Company, to the leading technology analyst group, Gartner, where he was active in the development of Gartner's original Total Cost of Ownership model (TCO). Rich is one the most sought after speakers consistently presenting to customers and at major technology shows over 100 times a year.
Rich's passion has been working directly with corporate customers and developing new manageability solutions. In fact, he has around 70 patents or patents pending between his time at IBM and Lenovo. In addition, Rich was the original creator of what has become the industry standard for remotely waking a PC – Wake-On LAN.
In 2005 Lenovo purchased IBM's PC Division and Rich choose to join this new organization. Over the next 7 years Lenovo has grown from a Chinese only company to the world's largest personal computer company.
In 2010 Rich was named Chief Technology Architect for Lenovo's Software & Peripherals Group and today, Rich is leading Lenovo's Cloud strategy.
Rich and his wife, the former Laura Duke '81, received the U.S. Department of Agriculture's, "Outstanding Stewardship Forestry" award in 2009.
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Shirrel Rhoades '64
Shirrel Rhoades, BA '64 (Art), of Key West, Fla., has enjoyed a successful career as a writer, publisher, entrepreneur, filmmaker, and philanthropist. Prior to retiring in 2005, he was vice president for business development for the Reader's Digest Association, Inc. He was publisher of a number of Reader's Digest books, including Medical Breakthroughs and The Healing Power of Vitamins, Minerals and Herbs.
In 1996, he was appointed executive vice president of Marvel Entertainment and publisher of Marvel Comics. Earlier in his career, he was the associate publisher of Harper's Magazine. He also served as vice president of consumer marketing for Charter Publishing, which at the time, published Ladies' Home Journal, Redbook, and Sport magazines. Rhoades joined Scholastic, Inc. as vice president to launch Family Computing magazine in 1988. He then purchased his own publications aimed at small business entrepreneurs, Opportunity Magazine and Income Plu$. Books written by Rhoades include Magazines: A Complete Guide to the Industry (with Dr. David E. Sumner), Comic Books: How the Industry Works, and A Complete History of American Comic Books.
He is the author of more than 500 bylined feature articles published in popular magazines, as well as hundreds of other essays on history, book reviews, and film critiques. Rhoades has served on the board of directors of American Family Publishers and on the advisory board of the New York Academy of Sciences.
During the 1980s, he was chairman of the Consumer Marketing Committee for Magazine Publishers of America. His marketing campaigns have won numerous industry awards. He was inducted into the FMA Hall of Fame in 2012. The FMA is a professional association of executives involved in the magazine publishing and circulation business.
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