Olin to honor 2022 Emerging Leaders on Friday

Olin Business School is proud to honor four recent Olin alumni with the Emerging Leader Award. These honorees exemplify leadership, innovative thinking and vision. We are recognizing them for their service to Olin, thought leadership, business acumen and impact. An awards luncheon is on Friday, April 22.

David Eckstein, BSBA ’09

David Eckstein is the chief financial officer of Menlo Security, a Series E cybersecurity company. In his role, he oversees all matters relating to finance, accounting, human resources and legal. During his tenure at Menlo, he has raised over $200 million across three rounds of financing.

In addition to his role at Menlo Security, Eckstein is a scout for Sequoia Capital, where he has made more than 50 investments across seed and Series A companies. He is also the sole GP of Eckstein Capital, an $8M mid-stage investment fund.

Previously, he was head of finance for Cisco Cloud Security, via its $635 million acquisition of OpenDNS, where he had served as senior director of finance. Before OpenDNS, Eckstein was a senior finance manager at Box, where he focused on corporate finance, capital markets, investor relations and treasury. He also has worked as a technology, media and telecommunications banker at Barclays in New York.

Eckstein obtained his BSBA from Olin and his MSc in finance from the London School of Economics. He lives in New York with his wife and two sons.

Elizabeth Frattura, EMBA ’16

Beth Frattura has spent the past 15 years with Morgan Stanley as a financial adviser for high-net-worth clients, helping them create a roadmap for their future and manage their complex financial affairs amidst ever-changing circumstances. As a certified financial planner and senior portfolio manager, she provides comprehensive advice on investment management, retirement planning, tax strategies, employee benefits, insurance and risk management. Her practice is based on implementing the best actions and strategies available to help her clients prepare for retirement and reach other financial goals.

She holds a BS in business administration from Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville (SIUE) and an MBA from Olin. She has been featured in the St. Louis Business Journal as a recipient of the NABCAP Top St. Louis Wealth Managers Award and as a 30 Under 30 Honoree in 2014. Frattura also received St. Louis Magazine’s FIVESTAR Wealth Manager Award in 2012, 2013 and 2014.

After struggling with infertility, in 2020 she founded a nonprofit, the Stork Foundation for Infertility. Its mission is to provide financial grants to low-resource couples who require costly medical infertility treatments to conceive a child. A strong advocate for education, she also serves on the board of directors for the SIUE Foundation and Endowment.

She resides in Edwardsville, Illinois, with her husband, Todd, and their two children, Mary and Ellis.

Ryan Rakestraw, MBA ’13

Ryan Rakestraw is a director at Temasek International, where he focuses on making venture capital investments in early-stage food and agriculture companies. Given the importance of innovation necessary to feed a growing global population, to support better nutrition and to increase the sustainability of global agricultural production, Rakestraw seeks to back promising entrepreneurs and teams that can profitably address these needs with new technologies and business models.

Previously, he was an early-stage investor with Monsanto Growth Ventures, Cultivation Capital and the Yield Lab, which he helped to found. Earlier in his career, Rakestraw was a systems engineer with Northrop Grumman, where he helped design and implement military platforms ranging from undersea to space applications.

He holds a BS in electrical engineering from Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology, a Master of Science in electrical engineering from Johns Hopkins and an MBA from Olin.

Jimmy Sansone Jr., BSBA ’10

Jimmy Sansone Jr. started The Normal Brand clothing company with the help of his family in 2015. He was quickly joined by his brothers, and they own and run it together equally.

He grew up in a big family that always encouraged an entrepreneurial spirit; both his mother and father run their own businesses. He inherited his love of clothes from his father and grandfather, the sharpest men he’s ever met.

Sansone graduated from Olin with a BSBA in finance and played football for Coach Larry Kindbom.

Pictured clockwise from top left: David Eckstein, Beth Frattura, Ryan Rakestraw, Jimmy Sansone Jr.