Welcome to our new Board members!

It is our great pleasure to announce the winners of our spring 2026 LIAA Board Elections

Read more about the new board members here!  We had an outstanding election cycle this year with 17 candidates and over 500 alumni who voted. Thank you to all who ran and all those who voted in the election.

Jacobson Global Venture Awards

On January 30th, the Institute celebrated the success and 10th anniversary of Marina ‘93 and Andrew Jacobson's vision for Global Venture Awards. On the 29th, as is tradition, Marina (also a Governor of the Institute) and Andrew host a dinner for the competitors, judges, and other supporters. This year the Institute celebrated Marina and Andrew’s gift and vision by highlighting GVA's evolution since its founding.

🏆Congratulations to the winners🏆

• Bellwether by Chad Williams ‘27 and Ari Brown -Bellwether provides predictive maintenance for electrical grid infrastructure using proprietary acoustic analytics and machine learning. It helps utilities detect equipment faults earlier, reduce maintenance costs, and improve system reliability.
• Élan by Sonia Alb ’26 - Élan designs stylish stiletto heels using dance footwear principles and foot anatomy to deliver true comfort without sacrificing aesthetics. It fills a gap in the market for women who want heels that look elegant and feel wearable all day.
• Kala by Rowa El-tohami ’26 and Maitreyi Menon ‘26 - Kala is a blockchain-powered royalty infrastructure that ensures transparent, near–real-time royalty payments for African artists, starting in Nigeria. By fixing metadata, tracking ownership, and automating payouts, it creates a trusted backbone for Africa’s creative economy.
• EruBase by Long Pham L’26 - EruBase is a community-driven platform that democratizes university admissions guidance through verified, experience-based Q&A. It empowers students who lack access to private counseling with trustworthy, personalized insights.

For the first time-ever previous winners were invited to be Judges:  Ron Kerbs ‘20 & Nestor Solari ‘19. 

LAC member Allan Kwan ‘87 returned for his 9^th year as a Judge. Tereza Nemessanyi ‘97 returned for her fourth year as a judge, serving with Matthew Addison ‘06 and Aniko Szigetvari ‘98. 

LGAW 2025 is Over - But Lauder Love Doesn't End Here!

It's hard to believe, but the weekend came and went so quickly. Over 800 of you joined us over 3 days for 17 sub-events across 50+ locations. LGAW 2025 was a living, breathing reminder of the enduring power of Lauder Love - the energy, laughter, and connection that makes this community unlike any other. 

See the photos from LGAW here.

A very special thank you to Jo Carole and Ronald S. Lauder, the Lauder Institute, our sponsors, donors and all the amazing volunteers whose hard work made the weekend a resounding success. And thank you to everyone who joined us - in person and in spirit - for making LGAW 2025 unforgettable. We did this together.

We'd love to hear from you. Please take a few minutes to share your feedback in our LGAW survey, to make future events even better.

Help us keep the Lauder Love momentum going by tagging LIAA in your social media posts with the hashtag #lauderlove, offering to help host or organize events in your area, and reaching out to your regional ambassador or just someone you met at LGAW!

UPDATE YOUR PROFILE!

Help us to update the entire Lauder database! Please spend a few minutes to update your alumni profile.

Make sure to share your interests by joining some of the new Affinity Groups.

The more robust our information, the more powerful the Lauder community can be!