Five Alumni Fill Forbes’ “30 Under 30” Feature

Five Exeter alumni, ranging from ‘03 to ‘09, have been featured in the fourth edition of the Forbes’ “30 Under 30” annual celebration. The list is composed of 30 influential entrepreneurs under the age of 30 that have “changed the game” in 2014 and will be “moving the world” forward in the years to come. Exonians who have been included on the list range from app inventors to online clothing store founders to ornithologists.

Among the 30 individuals, Brij Khurana ‘03 was recognized on the list. He is currently a vice Ppresident of PIMCO, an investment solutions provider that serves in 12 different countries. Khurana played squash and lived in Webster Hall South during his time at Exeter.

William Glennon, physical education department chair and Khurana’s dorm head of Webster Hall, was not surprised that Khurana made the list nor that he is making an impact on the world. “Brij was a terrific young man and always conscientious about getting his work done,” Glennon said. From a faculty’s perspective, Khurana was “an excellent dorm mate” and “a positive role model for others in the dorm; a terrific member of ‘The Men of Webster!’”

Glennon added that he felt his expectations of Khurana for most Exonians: that they would make a splash beyond the bubble. “I am never surprised when an Exonian makes an impact in the world….Our students always have a desire, dream and dedication to hopefully make an impact,” Glennon said. “To be on the Forbes’ 30/30 list is quite an honor and Brij is not a surprise to me!”

Abena Agyemang ‘03, was also recognized in Forbes for her work as the national director of school partnerships at Families for Excellent Public Schools. Agyemang “works closely with school leaders in Connecticut, Massachusetts and New York” to help families “advocate for better schools in their communities.”

At Exeter, Agyemang lived in McConnell where dorm faculty and English instructor Rebecca Moore remembered her as “hard work[ing] at her studies and always seem[ing] both focused and personable around the dorm.”

John Mittermeier ‘04, an ornithologist and current Ph.D. candidate at Oxford University, “discovered three undescribed taxa of birds on a single expedition,” according to Forbes. Mittermeier is currently working to conserve endangered species of birds. Along with Mittermeier, Scott Crouch ‘09 made it onto the list along with his co-founders, for creating Mark 43. Crouch is currently leading the company as the chief executive officer. Mark 43, as described by Forbes, is an “easy to use law enforcement cloud software platform.” The app is used to help the police force with records management and analysis and is planned to launch with the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department next year.

Noah Ready-Campbell ‘06 was recognized by Forbes as a co-founder of the website Twice, an online marketplace for secondhand clothing and accessories geared towards making, buying and selling second hand clothing: an easier substitute to websites such as Ebay.

Ready-Campbell spent his time here rowing crew, e-proctoring, hosting an electronic-music centered radio show and proctoring in Knight House his senior year. Science instructor Jeffery Ward, Ready-Campbell’s advisor and Knight House dorm head at the time, said that he was “pleasantly surprised, but not shocked,” that Ready-Campbell made the list. “He was hard working and accomplished all he put his mind to here at Exeter,” Ward said. “I’m glad to see he carried on that work ethic.”

Ready-Campbell said that Exeter was incredibly helpful in preparing him for the challenges of business.

“I definitely learned the value of working hard. That was the main thing I remember about my time at Exeter. It takes a ton of work and it can be stressful, and I think that going through a challenging academic environment like Exeter was actually really good preparation.” Ready-Campbell added that, although it “was not fun at the time in most ways,” it helped him build character, and ultimately, “made a lot of challenges easier.”

In a 2014 Exeter Bulletin article, Ready-Campbell remarked that Harkness in particular helped train him for the business setting. “A lot of times, when you get in a room with investors and you're convincing them to give you money, it very quickly turns into a Harkness-type discussion where they fire questions at you and you have to come up with well-reasoned, data-driven responses,” Ready-Campbell said.

Upon hearing that alumni from Exeter had been recognized for their outstanding achievements, some in the community have started thinking about what it means to have “success” after graduation.“I find it so inspiring that someone once in such a similar position as me is now so accomplished so quickly after graduation,” lower Kate Haering said about the graduates.

Faculty members mostly shared the sentiment that all of their students have the potential for success and find success in their own ways. “I guess I assume that all students are somewhere on their path to finding satisfying life and work—my definition of success—and so I guess I expect that as a matter of course for all,” Moore said.

Exeter celebrates the success of these alums and the success of those to come, even if what most Exonians spend time on now is something Ready-Campbell himself said there was a lot of during his time at Exeter. “I did a lot of homework,”  Ready-Campbell said. “That’s a big thing I remember.”