2024 Alumni Awards

Frank Mensia

Neptuna Pumps Ltda.

Liz Lefkofsky ’91 President, Lefkofsky Family Foundation UW Major: Sociology In 2015, videos began to appear online of teenagers across the United States giving checks for $1,000 to people in need, courtesy of an anonymous project called VING. Eventually, the benefactor was revealed: Liz Lefkofsky. A decade and more than 1,000 gifts later, VING is still going strong — and Lefkofsky still watches every tear-jerker video of teens presenting gifts to special adults in their lives who are experiencing financial challenges. VING is only one of several core initiatives that the philanthropist leads at the Lefkofsky Family Foundation, which she established with husband Eric Lefkofsky, a tech entrepreneur, in 2006. One of their most impactful is the Success Bound program for middle-school students, which is a research-informed curriculum that prioritizes self-exploration and skills to help students build the social capital, awareness, and life goals to succeed in high school, college, and beyond. Success Bound will be fully integrated into every public middle school in Chicago after this year, and the foundation is currently piloting the curriculum in several schools nationwide. The foundation also makes medical, arts, and human-rights grants. Lefkofsky’s philanthropic vision evolved from watching her mother cofound the American Brain Tumor Association in the early 1970s, after Lefkofsky’s older sister died from a tumor in her brain stem. “Our family business was raising money for brain-tumor research,” she says, recalling that the whole family would sit at the table stuffing envelopes for mailings. And just as her mother did, Lefkofsky involves her three children in the family foundation’s efforts, in the hopes of sparking a deep passion in all of them to make a difference.

Petar Ostojic MS’05 CEO, Neptuno Pumps | Executive Director, Center of Innovation and Circular Economy UW Major: Mechanical Engineering Petar Ostojic grew up in the Atacama Desert, the driest desert in the world. While in college in Chile, he spotted a flyer for a scholarship sponsored by the late UW professor Eduardo Neale-Silva MA’28, PhD’35, who made it possible for science and technology students from his home country to finish their degrees at the UW. Ostojic applied, won, and moved to Madison for an immersive experience in both humidity and sustainable tech. After graduation, Ostojic returned to his hometown of Iquique to take on a leadership role in his family’s business, a pump manufacturer for the mining industry. Ostojic offered a new vision: to produce pumps refashioned from recycled industrial parts. Neptuno Pumps is now a multimillion dollar company with a global reputation for eliminating waste in every step of its processes. Neptuno’s success garnered Ostojic several invitations from other businesses and government agencies to speak about the importance of sustainable manufacturing practices. In 2017, he founded the Center of Innovation and Circular Economy — the first of its kind in the region — to advocate for policy changes and more sustainable corporate practices in Chile, Peru, Mexico, Ecuador, and Argentina. He also launched a podcast called Revolución Circular, which connects hundreds of sustainability-minded entrepreneurs and innovators across Latin America. “What is going on in Chile now is amazing,” he says. “We’re one of the most conscious countries in the world in terms of mixing technology and sustainability.” Ostojic is proud to play a part in that.

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