Olin to honor three 2023 Distinguished Alumni on April 21

Olin Business School will honor three distinguished alumni on Friday evening, April 21. They are Chris Bloise, BSBA 1997, Lal Karsanbhai, MBA 1995, and Ari Lewine, BSBA 2009. Please register here to join the celebration.

The Distinguished Alumni Award is a tradition—now in its 36th year—in which Olin recognizes the accomplishments of outstanding alumni who have become leaders in their community and have attained distinction in their careers. Those who are honored embody the core values of vision, innovation and leadership and have each made a positive impact on business and the communities in which they live and serve.

Chris Bloise, BSBA 1997

Chris Bloise serves as president and managing partner at Court Square Capital in New York City. Bloise joined the firm in 2003, focused on technology and communications investments. He currently serves on the boards of GoEngineer, Momentum Telecom, Smart City and Virtium.

Bloise previously served on the boards of AHEAD, Connatix, Conterra Ultra Broadband, Encompass Digital Media, Fibertech Networks, IWCO Direct, Mosaic Sales Solutions, nTelos, SPS, System1 and Thrive.

He received his BSBA, summa cum laude, from Washington University in St. Louis and his MBA from the MIT Sloan School of Management.

Lal Karsanbhai, MBA 1995

Lal Karsanbhai is president and chief executive officer of Emerson. He was named CEO of the $18.2 billion global technology and industrial software leader based in St. Louis in 2021. Under his leadership, the company is modernizing its culture and transforming into a global automation leader advancing sustainability, safety and productivity for the world’s most essential industries.

Karsanbhai began his career at Emerson in 1995 as an international planner and has held global roles of increasing responsibility for strategic growth, technology investment and digital transformation innovation. His global career has taken him from St. Louis to France and London.

He serves on the boards of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis and the US-China Business Council. He is a member of Business Roundtable and The Business Council.

Karsanbhai has a bachelor’s degree in economics from the University of Michigan and an MBA from Washington University in St. Louis.

Ari Lewine, BSBA 2009

Ari Lewine is the co-founder of TripleLift and from 2012-2022 served as its chief strategy officer. TripleLift is one of the world’s largest advertising technology firms and a pioneer in native programmatic advertising. TripleLift has been named an Inc. 5000 Fastest Growing Company in America for five years in a row. Lewine led TripleLift’s direction on sales, strategy and product innovation. Vista Equity Partners acquired the company in 2021.

Previously, Lewine served as head of the performance sales team at AppNexus. He started his business endeavors at 17 as co-owner and CEO of University Trucking, which has been operated by WashU students since 1977. He was named Forbes “30 Under 30” for his contributions to the online advertising industry.

He holds a BSBA in finance and entrepreneurship from the Olin Business School at Washington University in St. Louis.