The UConn School of Business will induct five alumni into its Hall of Fame on April 24, including former NBA player Emeka Okafor and executives from aerospace, health care and real estate sectors.
The inductees are Melissa Cummings, executive vice president and chief operating officer of Progyny Inc.; Robert Giglietti, chief accounting officer at GE Aerospace; Kevin Kulak, executive vice president of capital markets at Voyager Technologies; Edward Lange Jr., a retired executive and UConn adjunct professor; and Okafor, a member of UConn’s 2004 NCAA championship basketball team.
“These five alumni are true all-stars in their respective fields,” said Greg Reilly, interim dean of the School of Business. “Each has leveraged their UConn education to lead, innovate, and create meaningful impact.”
The ceremony will take place at the Hartford Marriott Downtown.
Cummings earned an MBA in health care management from UConn in 1998. Before joining Progyny, she served as executive vice president and chief customer officer at Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Rhode Island.
She serves on the board of Rhode Island PBS/NPR and chairs its development committee.
Giglietti graduated from UConn in 1992 with a degree in accounting.
He led GE’s transformation from an industrial conglomerate into three standalone companies between 2022 and 2024. The separations generated more than a 400% increase in value since the announcement, according to the university.
Kulak earned a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from UConn in 1985. He is working on Starlab, a commercial space station scheduled to launch in 2029 aboard a SpaceX Starship rocket. He also founded Fizio Health, a Connecticut company that provides artificial intelligence-based musculoskeletal care.
Kulak serves on the UConn Foundation board of directors.
Lange received an MBA from UConn and holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Massachusetts.
He held executive roles at publicly traded companies in multifamily and senior housing sectors, including as chief financial officer, chief operating officer and director. He now teaches at UConn and works with students in the Hillside Ventures STEM Fund.
Okafor graduated magna cum laude from the School of Business in 2004 with a finance degree. He was named NCAA Final Four Most Outstanding Player and was the second overall pick in the NBA draft. He played 10 seasons professionally with the Charlotte Bobcats, New Orleans Hornets, Washington Wizards and New Orleans Pelicans.
He now works as a commentator and analyst for ESPN, CBS and Fox Sports.
