New Trier High School names seven alumni as 2026 Alumni Achievement Award recipients
Seven distinguished New Trier High School alumni will receive the school’s Alumni Achievement Award this March, joining 78 of their peers in the Alumni Hall of Honor. The honorees, in their respective yearbook photos, are:
Keating Crown, Class of 1996. Keating Crown is Managing Principal of Sterling Bay, where he focuses on new acquisitions and development, as well as strategic capital pursuits and relationships. He also oversees Sterling Bay’s retail merchandising portfolio. During his tenure at Sterling Bay, Keating has pursued and acquired Sterling Bay’s land portfolios in both Lincoln Yards and Fulton Market, successfully aggregating strategically located industrial land for mixed-use redevelopment at a competitive cost in two high-demand emerging markets. He earned a BA from Duke University and a JD-MBA from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management and Pritzker School of Law. Keating currently serves on the boards of the National 9/11 Memorial & Museum, the 606/Bloomingdale Trail, Steppenwolf Theatre Company, the Northwestern Memorial Foundation, and the Trinity College Board of Visitors for Duke University. In 2014, he was recognized on Crain’s Chicago Business’ 40 Under 40 list.
John W. Madigan, Class of 1954. John W. Madigan is the retired chairman and chief executive officer of Tribune Company. He served as chairman from 1996 through December 2003 and was chief executive officer from May 1996 until December 2002. Tribune Company was a media industry leader with newspaper, broadcasting, and baseball operations in major markets throughout the United States. Madigan was a special partner of Madison Dearborn Partners and was also a director of Gilead Sciences, McCormick Tribune Foundation, Morgan Stanley, and Boise Cascade, a member of the Board of Overseers of the Hoover Institution, and a past chairman of the Chicago Council on Foreign Relations, the Commercial Club of Chicago, and the Chicago Cubs. He also serves as a trustee of Northwestern University and Rush University Medical Center, and he served on the boards of the Museum of Television & Radio in New York, the Associated Press, and the Defense Business Board of the Pentagon. Mr. Madigan served in the U. S. Marine Corps Reserves.
Ajay Maker, MD, FACS, Class of 1993. Ajay V. Maker is a surgical oncologist and chief of the UCSF Division of Surgical Oncology. He is an expert in the surgical treatment of complex gastrointestinal and hepatopancreatobiliary diseases (those affecting the liver, pancreas, gallbladder, and bile ducts), as well as melanomas and sarcomas. Maker's research aims to improve early detection of pancreatic cancer and to develop new therapies for treating metastases (cancers that have spread from a primary site in the body). Under grants awarded by the Department of Defense and National Institutes of Health (NIH), he works on designing novel immunotherapies (treatments that harness the immune system to fight tumors), particularly for liver metastases from colon cancer. Maker earned his medical degree at Yale School of Medicine and completed a residency in general surgery at Brigham and Women's Hospital, an affiliate of Harvard Medical School. He trained in surgical oncology at the NIH and completed postdoctoral studies in tumor immunology at the National Cancer Institute. He serves on the editorial boards of many surgical and scientific journals and has held leadership positions in numerous academic and scientific societies.
Marc Malnati, Class of 1973. Marc Malnati, chairman of Lou Malnati’s Pizzerias, graduated from Indiana University in 1977, eight months before his father and founder, Lou, died of cancer. Under Marc Malnati’s leadership, the business experienced tremendous growth, going from two pizzerias to 52 throughout the Chicagoland area, along with two outposts in Arizona. Malnati has built a relational business model that calls for investing time in the pursuit of personal and professional growth. As a result, management turnover at Malnati’s is only 7 percent in an industry where the norm is 30 percent. In addition, 2018 was the 9th year in a row that Lou Malnati’s was named one of the top ten workplaces by The Chicago Tribune. In 2019, Malnati and his wife, Jeanne, founded The Marc and Jeanne Malnati Family Foundation to promote peacebuilding, mental wellness, education, and workforce development.
LTJG Frank Ellis Sublett Jr. USNR (1920 - 2006), Class of 1938. Frank Sublett, Jr., was one of the first thirteen Black men to become commissioned officers in the United States Navy, following grueling tests that seemed designed to fail them, including an eight-week training period instead of the standard sixteen. Their group became known as the "Golden Thirteen." Following his commissioning as ensign, he was assigned to the Naval Local Defense Forces, San Francisco, and was also assigned to the Port Director’s Office, Twelfth Naval District. On July 1, 1945, he was promoted to the rank of lieutenant junior grade and briefly deployed as the Executive Officer of a stevedore battalion at Naval Operating Base, Eniwetok, Marshall Islands. He was released from active duty on February 11, 1946, but remained a member of the Naval Reserve until his honorable discharge on October 27, 1952. Sublett died September 27, 2006, at the age of 86.
Valerie Van Heest, Class of 1978. Valerie van Heest is an underwater explorer, historian, and award-winning author who serves as a director of the nonprofit Michigan Shipwreck Research Association, spearheading the search for and documentation of lost ships. van Heest has been involved in the discovery and archaeological documentation of numerous historic Great Lakes shipwrecks. van Heest shares her adventures through award-winning books, films, lectures, and museum exhibits in ways to educate, entertain, and inspire. She is an inductee in the Women Divers Hall of Fame, the recipient of the 2017 Award for Historical Interpretation from the Association for Great Lakes Maritime History, and the recipient of a Michigan State History Award for her work preserving and promoting the state’s submerged maritime history.
Suzanne Yoon, Class of 1993. Suzanne Yoon is the Founder and Managing Partner of Kinzie Capital Partners, a Chicago-based private equity firm focused on control investments in lower middle market companies in the manufactured products, business services, and consumer industries. Yoon has over 25 years of experience investing in and advising middle-market companies. Suzanne earned her B.A. in Economics from the University of Iowa and is an Executive Scholar of Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management. Mergers & Acquisitions named Yoon one of the Most Influential Women in Mid-Market M&A in 2020, 2021, 2022, and 2023; The Wall Street Journal recognized her as a Top Female Deal Maker Shaping Private Equity’s Present and Future in 2019, and Chicago United named her one of their Business Leaders of Color in 2021. Yoon has extensive experience serving on private company and civic boards, including the National Philanthropic Trust, Chicago’s John G. Shedd Aquarium, and the University of Iowa Center for Advancement.
The Alumni Hall of Honor Class of 2026 will receive their Alumni Achievement Awards at the Gala hosted by the New Trier Educational Foundation beginning at 6:30 p.m. on Friday, March 6, at the Renaissance Chicago North Shore Hotel in Northbrook.
All proceeds from the Gala will benefit the Foundation, which provides philanthropic funding for exceptional educational opportunities for New Trier students.
Gala 2026 will take place on Friday, March 6
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New Trier launched the recognition program during the 2010-2011 school year and has inducted 78 honorees since. Most of these honorees have returned to the school to share their memories in inspirational discussions with students at New Trier and at the Gala.
Recipients of the New Trier Township High School Alumni Achievement Awards:
- Are New Trier graduates who have had outstanding careers, resulting in a direct and significant impact in their fields for a minimum of five years
- Demonstrate outstanding leadership, character, and service to the community
- Have school and career records that reflect the values of the New Trier motto: “To commit minds to inquiry, hearts to compassion, and lives to the service of humanity”
In addition, alumni may be nominated in the Young Alumnus Award category. Anyone nominated in this category must:
- Be younger than age 40 at the time of the nomination
- Demonstrate potential for leadership in his or her chosen career and in service to the community
- Reflect the values of the New Trier motto
The decision to award an honoree in any category, including the Young Alumnus category, is at the sole discretion of the Alumni Achievement Awards Selection Committee. The committee includes alumni, community members, and representatives of the school.
Recipients of the New Trier Alumni Achievement Award are also inducted into the Alumni Hall of Honor, located on the Winnetka Campus.
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