Gridiron Engineer

Aja Atwood, E'02, glances at the clock. It's five-thirty in the afternoon. Time to call it a day at work.

The consultant engineer grabs her athletic bag and heads out the door for the Auburn Sportsplex, in Auburn, Massachusetts. Soon she'll don a black-mesh jersey, a helmet, and leg and shoulder pads. Why? Because she's also a football player-a professional football player with Mass Mutiny, a licensed team of the National Women's Football Association.

"I'm lucky to have a job where I make my own schedule," Atwood says. "On practice days, I schedule my appointments in the morning so I don't have to get anxious before practice."

But it takes more than good time-management skills for a career woman to play pro football. Especially after she breaks her hand during a game. Atwood's plaster cast slowed down her note-taking when she made field visits for her employer, FM Global, a commercial- and industrial-property insurance firm. But it didn't keep this running back from scoring the game-winning touchdown against the Baltimore Burn last season.

Atwood believes her sport amplifies her engineering abilities. "I think my job has benefited a lot from my playing football," she says. "It gives me confidence, which manifests in my work. I also have an outlet to release my angst and anxiety."

The Philadelphia native was involved in athletics in high school, playing varsity basketball and running track. At Northeastern, she opted to focus her considerable energy exclusively on her mechanical engineering studies.

After graduation, though, she dove right back into sports, joining a flag football league in Jamaica Plain. Two years ago, several Mass Mutiny players spotted Atwood's explosive running, and asked her to ditch the flags and don a helmet.

"I thought about it for a while," says Atwood. "I didn't think that I had the build or the stamina or strength."

Her performance on the field proves otherwise. In 2005, she was dubbed her team's Rookie of the Year. This year, broken bones and all, she averaged over five yards rushing per game, capping an impressive 7-1 season by being named offensive MVP in the final regular-season game. Mass Mutiny made it all the way to the conference title game in Oklahoma before being eliminated by the Oklahoma City Lightning.

In her bio on the Mass Mutiny website, Atwood describes an activity she enjoys: "Knocking someone in the secondary over." Given moxie like that, expect the squad's prospects next year to be even more solidly built.

—Katy Rank

  Photo courtesy Tuesday Evans

Queen of Tortes

The most wonderful time of the year can also be the most hectic. Just ask Tuesday Evans, MEd'86, owner of the Empire Torte Company.

"Seventy-five percent of our business happens during the Christmas season," she says. "We make two tortes at a time, and it takes two days to make each one. So, during the holidays, I work all day, everyday."

Evans's commitment to quality ups her workload. "We use the old-world approach," she says. "No automated processes, the best ingredients, care, patience, and attention to presentation." In other words: Chocolate, butter, sugar, eggs, vanilla, coffee—and elbow grease.

Striking the perfect blend of ingredients for her dense flourless treats was no cakewalk. "I was looking for something full, expressive, and lingering—something that had depth to it without a spongy mouth feel," says Evans.

This mother of three used an unusual tasting panel. "I'd take pieces [of torte] with me out to the school bus stop," she explains. "I'd say to the parents out there, 'Sample this.' I did that for about six months—this was in late spring 2002—until I got a good consensus, until I got a recipe that everyone at the bus stop liked."

The bus stop gang was skeptical at first. "They'd say to me, 'This is crazy. You can't do this!' But I love to cook, and, of course, I love chocolate," says the Osterville, Massachusetts, native.

Add to the mix Evans's husband—he's a marketing consultant—a generous helping of locally sourced ingredients, a mound of Internet research, cacao beans from Venezuela, coffee beans from Sumatra . . . and voil?.

An early customer was the Worcester Telegram & Gazette's food editor. Word spread. In 2003, upscale retailer Neiman Marcus selected the Empire torte for its famed holiday catalog. Suddenly, Brooke Shields and Michael J. Fox were clamoring for cakes. The company has since moved to a 1,500-square-foot commercial space in downtown Northborough, Massachusetts, and also does a brisk mail-order business.

Evans is one baker who's taken an unconventional path to chocoholics' hearts. Her career has led her from business education, to individual counseling, to entrepreneurship. The common thread, she says, has been passion. There's a recipe for success.

—Katy Kramer, MA'00

 Photo by Faith Ninivaggi

Have Plane, Will Travel

In olden days, if you needed to get somewhere faster than commercial-airline speed, you had to purchase your own jet. Later, buying access to a jet—for a substantial deposit—was an option for the well-heeled time-challenged traveler.

Today, with a trademarked service known as FlyPrivate offered by a company called Private Business Jets, you can charter a private jet in less time than it takes to down a bag of pretzels.

"We give our customers all the access of ownership, fractional ownership, or jet membership without the large upfront capital commitment," explains Don Smith, BA'86, chief operating officer at Private Business Jets (PBJ). "Our FlyPrivate service is simple: Pay as you fly."

Customers use PBJ for a range of reasons. "Corporate business travel and personal-vacation travel comprise our core business," Smith says. "But once-in-a-lifetime events and someone who needs to get home in a hurry also create a niche for this kind of service."

Smith should know about niches. After several years in the flight industry, he and Greg Goodwin, vice president of marketing, started PBJ in 2002 when they recognized an untapped opportunity.

"We don't 'own' the jets, so our customers don't have to either, which is how we have created a more economical business model," says the Centerville, Massachusetts, native. "We're a national charter brokerage with logistical access to a network of jets owned by high-net-worth individuals or corporations."

If these jets have empty seats, PBJ books the flight. Customers can fly almost anywhere, without having to slog through commercial airports.

Business has taken off. "After 9/11, the industry went into overdrive," Smith says. "There was a surge because big [airline] companies dropped routes and because of the delays at terminals." Another time saver: PBJ passengers are prescreened against the U.S. government's Do Not Fly list.

Smith uses a handy screen for his own crew: his alma mater. A string of Northeastern students have done co-ops at PBJ's Hingham facility. Smith credits the university for helping him spread his wings. "I got the confidence to start this company from my own co-op experience," he says.

—Katy Kramer, MA'00

Profile in Leadership

Valerie W. Perlowitz, E'86
President and CEO
Reliable Integration Services
Mclean, Virginia

Company description: Provides network services
Employees: 100

In a field where women are few, Valerie Perlowitz has made her mark. Named one of the 100 Top Women in Computing in 1996, Perlowitz brings more than a dozen years of expertise to her role as president and CEO of Reliable Integration Services, a McLean, Virginia-based leader in network services.

Her co-op at the MITRE Corporation served as an entree into the computing world. Before forming Reliable in 1988, she worked again at MITRE as a database engineer. She also worked as a real-time engineer for Sikorsky Aircraft and then as a systems consultant for numerous Fortune 500 companies, where she was responsible for a wide range of systems integration disciplines.

Perlowitz now gives back to the alma mater that helped set her on a course for success by playing an active role in Northeastern's Women in Engineering program. She has also contributed to her field by setting up a scholarship for women in electrical or computer engineering, and by talking to engineering students about leadership.

In addition to recognition for her work among women in computing, Perlowitz won a Federal 100 award in 1999, an award presented to a hundred leaders who made a difference in federal information technology.