Ready. Set. Launch.

Founder, Chief Culture Architect & CEO, Indelible Impressions Consulting

Yvonne Alston ’98 was mourning her late father when the pressures of corporate culture led her to make a decision that would alter the trajectory of her career. Citing the “transactional environment” that so often forces employees to forgo healthy boundaries in pursuit of career advancement, she flew to a work event shortly after his funeral to ensure a project would be completed. It made her feel complicit in a widespread issue but also opened her eyes to the impact she could have by advocating for and helping to build truly inclusive and empathetic workplace cultures. Since its founding in late 2019, her company, Indelible Impressions Consulting, has helped businesses big and small transform their culture through comprehensive surveys, workshops, coaching and other services designed to educate and inspire change. “The name was born out of the idea of making that indelible mark, that fingerprint in the hearts and minds of individuals that goes beyond the workplace,” Alston said. “This goes with you everywhere. Take it into your neighborhoods and your communities. This is how we create meaningful social change.”   

Independent Board Member, PT Practice Solutions

President & Owner, Physical Therapy and Sports Medicine Centers

Small business was a way of life in the Balavender household. Hank Balavender ’74 and Alan Balavender ’86 were the oldest and youngest of five boys born to Doris, the owner of Regal Real Estate, and Ray, a World War II veteran who owned and operated Regal Auto Service in New Britain, Connecticut. “We used to call it Regal University,” Hank said of their upbringing. “There was the right way, the wrong way and the Regal way.” Of course, everybody needs an outlet. “We had to work for them when we weren’t playing sports, so all of us played a lot of sports,” joked Alan. Sure enough, athletics helped steer Hank, Alan and their brother and fellow Quinnipiac graduate, Paul, towards careers in physical therapy, a field in which they followed their parents’ example to become trailblazing business owners. The Balavender brothers have built sprawling, world-class practices and implemented revolutionary business measures that yielded staggering growth.

Founder & CEO, Seaav

Hidden within the name of the athletic wear brand, Seaav, is the business philosophy of its founder, McKenna Haz ’21: Sea A Vision. From high school, Haz had the foresight and determination to make her business dreams a reality. This vision, combined with her passion for ocean conservation, led her to create a sustainably sourced brand where every garment is made with at least 80% upcycled plastic. Each purchase diverts one pound of ocean-bound plastic from shorelines, and the company donates 1% of its profits to fund coral reef restoration. A former Quinnipiac rugby player, Haz credits her trademark grit to her athletic background and her business acumen to her mother, Kristie, a successful land developer. While still an undergraduate, she was a finalist in the annual pitch competition sponsored by the M&T Bank Center for Innovation & Entrepreneurship. Haz applied the skills she honed while majoring in advertising and integrated communications and minoring in entrepreneurship and small business management to present the business plan she developed for Seaav in her dorm room.

Founder & CEO, Exposure

Tom Barton ’95 had just graduated from Quinnipiac with a finance degree when a fateful trip to Romania rerouted his career plans. A classmate was starting a real estate company in his home country and needed help devising a business plan. Barton assisted with the planning, gaining valuable experience. After a year abroad, he returned to the States and founded the company that would become Exposure, a full-service digital marketing and development agency that represents some of Connecticut’s most vibrant brands. He was able to harness the networking power of the internet at a time when that was still a novel concept. But Barton credits Quinnipiac’s entrepreneurial DNA with shaping him into the thoughtful business leader he is today. “It was just such a part of the culture,” Barton said. “I didn’t necessarily aspire to start a business, but the passion and the spirit of my classmates in the School of Business made an impression on me. I try to bring that same energy into my relationships with clients. I love seeing them succeed.”

Co-Founder & Managing Partner, Debut Capital

Bobby Emamian ’09 isn’t sure if it was persistence or naivete that compelled him to try out for every position on the Quinnipiac baseball team as an undergraduate, but it paid off in the form of a full-time roster spot as the bullpen catcher. He took the same approach to his studies in the entrepreneurship program, building apps and websites, and pursuing investment opportunities with an abiding try-everything attitude. “My learning style is a lot more hands-on,” Emamian said. “That’s what made the entrepreneurship such a great fit. You get your hands dirty. His company, Debut Capital, is an early-stage venture capital fund focused on investing in Black, Latinx and Indigenous founders. He previously owned and operated Prolific Interactive, an award-winning mobile product agency whose clients included SoulCycle, Saks, Gap and American Express. Ever the jack of all trades, Emamian said the artificial intelligence boom is a business frontier on par with the advent of the iPhone. He’s eager to keep exploring uncharted territory.

Founder & CEO, Torrington Properties

Torrington Properties is named for the street where Jay Bisognano ’07 grew up in Acton, Massachusetts. That’s where he first dreamed of being a business owner and real estate developer, so it’s a fitting title for the place where he gets to live out those dreams. Now with locations in Boston and Durham, New Hampshire, the firm specializes in transforming undermanaged and underutilized properties, such as shopping centers and apartment buildings, into modern, mixed-use destinations. From a young age, Bisognano was enamored with development — “seeing things being built or being renovated was just the coolest thing in the world to me, and still is,” he said. At Quinnipiac, where he majored in entrepreneurship and small business management, Bisognano’s ambitious career path began to crystallize. “They would invite entrepreneurs to speak to us in the Business School, and I was just over the moon,” he said. “I was asking all the questions and taking so many notes. I just had this fascination with how people created businesses and I wanted to know everything.”