The Friends of Columbia Sailing Alumni Board
The Friends of Columbia Sailing Board is a partnership between the current team and alumni to build sustainability into the Columbia Sailing club program. We have recognized the need to continually fundraise in order to maintain and grow the program. This board is in charge of the Annual Fund. The current team is represented by the current captain and alumni chair who sit on the board. These individuals are responsible for all of the groundwork for the team's fundraising efforts including letter campaigns, dinners, and regattas. There are also three alumni on the board who are advisors for the students efforts. Through the alums involvement we hope to build better continuity and sustainability into the club's fundraising efforts since student leaders turn over every four years when they graduate. The objective of the board is to raise $30,000 annually.
Current Board Members
Weston Friedman | CC '08
Weston graduated with a degree in History and served as captain of CUST in 2007. He grew up sailing on Lake George in Upstate New York with his brother and participated in numerous Club 420 regattas around the country throughout high school. Since graduation, Weston now sails Vanguard 15's at Larchmont Yacht Club along with many other CUST alums and is currently working in Commercial Real Estate Investment at Brookfield. Weston has been an active participant in Columbia Sailing Alumni functions since graduation and is excited to help follow up the success of the recently concluded Crown Campaign.
Frank Rinaldi | SEAS '99
Frank started sailing during his freshman year at Columbia, and has come a long way since responding, “What’s that?” the first time he was commanded to “Tack” a boat during his first collegiate regatta in 1995. During his time on the Columbia Sailing Team (CUST), he held the positions of Regatta Chair, Mainsheet Editor and Co-Captain. After graduating,
Frank taught sailing to kids and adults for two summers at Sail Newport in Rhode Island before reluctantly moving on to a more lucrative career in technology consulting. Frank has continued to sail in many venues and boats over the past 10 years as his career and marriage has taken him around the country, and has been involved with fundraising for community sailing programs in Washington DC and San Francisco as the chairman of the BIG Team Regatta non-profit from 2006 - 2009, as well as fundraising for CUST via the first iteration of Friends of Columbia Sailing from 2001 – 2003.
Frank currently lives on Manhattan’s Upper West Side with his wife, daughter and dog, and gets his sailing kick in as the bowman of the J/105 “Joysea” which sails out of Cedar Point Yacht Club. When not on a boat or hanging with the family, he is a Director at PwC in their Information Management Consulting Practice.
Jon-Claude Zucconi | CC '00
Jon-Claude began sailing at the age of 9 at Indian Harbor Yacht Club's junior sailing program in Greenwich, CT racing Blue Jay's and Lasers. By the age of 16, JC began sharing his love of the water and one-design racing as a sailing instructor at Huguenot Yacht Club in New Rochelle and then as Program Director at Larchmont's Horseshoe Harbor Yacht Club. During his 4-year tenure on the Columbia University Sailing Team (CUST), he held the positions of Fleet Captain and Captain. After graduating in 2000, JC traded in weekend sailing excursions joining Salomon Smith Barney as an Analyst in the Fixed Income Division.
In 2002, JC joined Barclays Capital where he is currently a Director in the Debt Capital Markets group. JC re-entered the competitive sailing arena in 2004 as Main Trimmer and Tactician on Gumption3, a J/105 raced out of American Yacht Club that enjoyed several top 5 finishes in LIS regattas and National Events such as Key West Race Week, ROLEX Cup and Miami SORC. JC currently lives in Greenwich, CT with his wife, and son, and treasures the "free-pass" weekends serving as the main trimmer and tactician of the J/105 “Joysea” which sails out of Cedar Point Yacht Club.