Col. Heather McGee 1993 (BS, Civil Engineering)

A resident of Arlington, VA, Col Heather McGee serves as the Chief, Cyberspace Strategy and Policy Division in the Office of the Chief, Information Dominance and Chief Information Officer, Office of the Secretary of the Air Force (SAF/CIO A6).  Col McGee leads a 10-person team in the analysis and development of cyberspace strategy and policy, and provides guidance and advice to Air Force and Department of Defense agencies on the implementation of cyberspace capabilities to support government, private, and public sector requirements.

Prior to her current position, she served as Chief Strategist, Commander's Action Group, NATO Air Training Command in Afghanistan; Chief of the Program Integration Branch HQ AFSPC, United States Air Force at Peterson Air Force Base, Colorado; Commander, 34 Student Squadron, Air University, Maxwell Air Force Base, United States Air Force; Director, Commander's Action Group, Hickam Air Force Base, Hawaii, United States Air Force, among many other distinguished positions.

In addition to NJIT, she has obtained advanced degrees from the University of Phoenix, the School of Advanced Air and Space Studies, Air University, and Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. In her personal time, Col McGee is an avid distance runner, swimmer, and triathlete. 

 

Ehsanollah Bayat 1986 (BS, Electrical Engineering Technology)

A residentof Ponte Vedra Beach, FL, Ehsan Bayat was born in Afghanistan and moved to theUnited States in 1980.  Since hisarrival, he has returned to his native country of Afghanistan to establishseveral successful businesses and a thriving nonprofit organization.  Seeking to improve the lives of Afghanistan’scitizens, Bayat founded Telephone Systems International (TSI). Together withthe Afghan Ministry of Communications, TSI currently owns and operates thefirst and largest mobile phone company in Afghanistan, Afghan Wireless. Bayatalso founded the Ariana Radio and Television Networks, which broadcast to largeaudiences in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

In addition to establishing communications companies, Ehsan Bayat hascontributed to the development of Afghanistan through the Bayat Foundation.Founded in 2006, the Bayat Foundation strives to improve living conditions forpeople across Afghanistan by providing food, clothing, orphan care,entrepreneurship programs and athletics. For his efforts, Bayat has receivednumerous awards, including the Mahatma Gandhi Humanitarian Award, Businessmanof the Year from the Afghan-American Chamber of Commerce and the Human RightsNational Award from the Afghanistan Human Rights Association.

 

Harry S. Ettlinger 1950 (BS Mechanical Engineering)

A resident of Rockaway, NJ, Harry Ettlinger was born in Karlsruhe, Germany in 1926 to a Jewish family. He and his family fled the Nazi regime in 1938 and traveled tothe United States. Ettlinger was drafted into the U.S. Army six years later. 

In May 1945, Ettlinger volunteered for service as a Monuments Man, assigned to the headquarters of U.S. Seventh Army in Munich, Germany by Capt. James J.Rorimer. There, he translated German intelligence documents, and acted as Rorimer’s personal translator during his interrogation of Heinrich Hoffmann, Hitler’s personal photographer. Ettlinger accompanied Rorimer to Germany, wherehe was among those who discovered thousands of masterpieces, jewels, furniture,and cultural objects stolen from French Jews by the Nazis.

Ettlinger returned to Newark in 1946, and served as Deputy ProgramDirector for a company producing guidance systems for submarine-launched nuclear weapons, retiring in 1992. Ettlinger is currently co-chair of the Wallenberg Foundation of New Jersey, named in honor of Raoul Wallenberg, awealthy Swedish-born Protestant who rescued approximately 100,000 HungarianJews during the Holocaust, and continues to speak about his experiences around the world.

 

Ramon Gonzalez 2009 (BS Information Technology)

A resident of Carlstadt, NJ, Ramon Gonzalez serves as Systems Reliability Engineer at IEX Group Inc., where hehelped build the IEX trading infrastructure. The system delays stock signals by a fraction of a second so that high-frequency trading mechanisms are unable to detect and outpace them, creating a market that aims to maximize shares traded at the best available price, decrease information leakage, eliminate informational disadvantages and persistent inefficiencies, and promote an opportunity for natural interest to interact without unnecessary intermediation.

Within a short time after arriving at IEX from NASDAQ, where he served in a similar position, he was featured in “Flash Boys (A Wall Street Revolt)” by Michael Lewis, the author of such Wall Street exposes as “Liar’s Poker” and “The Big Short,” who had followed the firm’s progress.  The book helped place the firm at the center of a growing public debate over poorly understood market practices, which undercut the value of a variety of investment funds, including retirement plans.

In his personal time, Gonzalez enjoys racquetball, and volunteers as a wrestling coach for young adults.  He also previously served as a firefighter inthe East Rutherford Fire Department. 

In addition to his role at NASDAQ, Gonzalez also served as Systems Administrator at the East Rutherford FireDepartment; Database Administrator at Prudential Financial; and Desktop and Engineering Support at Lehman Brothers.

 

Bob Rossi 1967 (BS Chemical Engineering)

 

A resident of North Bergen, NJ, Bob Rossi is the very definition of a dedicated alumnus.  Rossi has served on the Alumni Association of NJIT’s Board of Directors; member of the Department of Chemical, Biological and Pharmaceutical Engineering Industry Advisory Board;  member of the New York Alumni Club Steering Committee; and member of the Class of 1967 Reunion Committee.  That’s just for starters.

Rossi also volunteers as a docent for the American Museum of Natural History; assists with paleontological field and lab work for the Marmarth Research Foundation in North Dakota; serves as a full member of the American Chemical Society; the Technical Association of the Pulp and Paper Industry; The Metallurgical Society and is currently Chairperson for the North Jersey section of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers.

After graduating, Rossi’s career took him into the technical development, marketing and sales of large thermal processing systems for the petrochemical, minerals, paper, and specialty chemicals industries in over thirty countries with major activity in Poland, Israel, the Soviet Union, Brazil and India.  He later utilized his engineering skills to develop and market new "clean coal" and environmental control technologies for the electric utility industry, and worked as a senior project developer with the independent power affiliates of both PSE&G and Pacific Gas and Electric.

Prior to his retirement, Rossi worked for the Linde Group, developing new uses for industrial gases.  Post-retirement, he is serving as a senior consultant to Carbon Engineering in Calgary, Alberta that is developing a novel climate change remediation technology. He has been granted multiple U.S. patents related to carbon dioxide capture.