Once a Panther, always a Panther. Stay connected with each other, and your Pine Crest family by sharing your success, life events, the good and bad, and everything in between.

Once a Panther, always a Panther. Stay connected with each other, and your Pine Crest family by sharing your success, life events, the good and bad, and everything in between.

Mara (Aronson) Geronemus ’95 and Lisa (Dean-Kluger) Jerles ’97 did not know each other during their Pine Crest School days. 

A graduate from Pine Crest’s Class of 1988, Paul Keung did not expect to find himself living and working in Hong Kong.

Growing up in Fort Lauderdale, Paul spent a majority of his time as a teenager working in his family’s restaurants. While that took up most of his time outside of school, Paul has fond memories of his time playing football.

“I was not very good, but it was my escape,” said Paul. “I had a variety of friends who I spent time with when I wasn’t working. I was safe, and I had a school community that supported me despite my unusual upbringing.”

Paul says he had many wonderful teachers at Pine Crest, but Mrs. Marcia Hunt ’12H, had the greatest impact on his career path.

“My parents made it very clear that I was to attend either an Ivy League school and pursue a career as a doctor or lawyer, or attend a state school and return home to run the family restaurants,” said Paul. “Mrs. Hunt encouraged me to apply to Cornell and highlighted the Hotel School program. I applied to Cornell’s Arts and Sciences program and attended pre-med classes my freshman year. What Mrs. Hunt told me stuck with me and I transferred to Cornell’s Hotel program the following year. I had no interest in working in hotels or restaurants, however, the program was a lot more interesting than economics, and they had a wine and cooking class — free food and drink!”

Starting his career as a valuation consultant for hotels, Paul traveled to properties across the country.

“I loved the travel,” said Paul, “although as a fresh graduate, I was often assigned to due diligence hotels in places that more senior colleagues would prefer not to go. During that time, one of my early clients was an investment bank, and that connection introduced me to a 16-year career on Wall Street.”

Following the crash of the dot-com boom in 2000, Paul transitioned to cover the internet travel sector.

“I jumped at the opportunity,” he said. “I met Priceline and Expedia that year when these companies were trading for just a few dollars. In 2002, I started to look at ecommerce and covered Amazon and Ebay. Shortly after that, I started traveling to China to visit Chinese internet companies.”

“I have met many incredibly talented entrepreneurs in my career,” he continued. “I love learning new things, and I find new technologies fascinating. The icing on the cake is when you have a real conversation with someone who has a vision to change our lives for the better with innovation.”

Once a Panther, always a Panther. Stay connected with each other, and your Pine Crest family by sharing your success, life events, the good and bad, and everything in between.

Spending her senior year at Pine Crest, Jill Cressy ’91 has fond memories of her time diving and pursuing her studies.

When Jonathan Williams ’21 first arrived on Pine Crest’s Fort Lauderdale campus in the ninth grade, his classmates and teachers quickly realized that they had a superstar among them. 

Once a Panther, always a Panther. Stay connected with each other, and your Pine Crest family by sharing your success, life events, the good and bad, and everything in between.

A dual sport student-athlete, Jonathan Valdes ’21 used his final year as a Pine Crest Upper School student to move into leadership positions. 

A musician since the fourth grade, Connor Norris ’21 says his love for music started with his dad.

Daniela “Dani” Tejada ’21 has been an engaged leader in the Pine Crest community since starting on the Fort Lauderdale campus in seventh grade. 

A dancer since the age of three, Sabrina Kreiss ’21 has taken advantage of every dance opportunity available at Pine Crest.

As the grandson of an Armenian immigrant, Alexander Edep ’17 has drawn on his family’s painful history as a source of education and strength in his work as a filmmaker. 

Once a Panther, always a Panther. Stay connected with each other, and your Pine Crest family by sharing your success, life events, the good and bad, and everything in between.

Once a Panther, always a Panther. Stay connected with each other, and your Pine Crest family by sharing your success, life events, the good and bad, and everything in between.

Michele (McNichol) Stocker ’83 has been a valued member of the Pine Crest School community for more than 40 years, most recently as the Chair of the Board of Trustees. 

Recent college graduates, college roommates at New York University (NYU), and friends since their sophomore year of Upper School, Jonathan Farchi-Segal ’16 and Mateo Pugliese-Bassi ’16 knew that the corporate world was not for them.

It took incredible tenacity and dedication to turn Lance Oppenheim’s passion for filmmaking into a career.