Latest news with #BowdoinCollege
Time of India
23-07-2025
- Business
- Time of India
Pete DeJoy education qualification: How a science grad from Bowdoin College is now steering Astronomer as interim CEO
In the startup world, leadership transitions are often swift and strategic. But few unfold under the kind of spotlight that recently surrounded Astronomer, the data orchestration company best known for commercialising Apache Airflow. When former CEO Andy Byron stepped down amid a wave of media attention and controversy, the company didn't look to external talent or polished executive search firms. Instead, it turned to someone who had been there since the beginning, Pete DeJoy. DeJoy, a co-founder of Astronomer, wasn't just another name on the leadership bench. He had spent years helping shape the company's technical and cultural identity from the ground up. His educational journey, which began in the chemistry and physics departments of Bowdoin College, reflects a grounding not in corporate theory, but in systems thinking, scientific discipline, and analytical rigor. Dejoy's powerful foundation at Bowdoin College Bowdoin College, located in the quiet town of Brunswick, Maine, has long been known for its strong liberal arts tradition. It is not a school typically associated with Silicon Valley-style disruption, but it has a history of producing thinkers with the curiosity and depth needed to lead in complex environments. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like No annual fees for life UnionBank Credit Card Apply Now Undo DeJoy's bachelors in chemistry and physics gave him exactly that, a foundation built not just on formulas and lab reports, but on critical thinking, research-based inquiry, and long-term problem-solving. Unlike many startup leaders who lean on business school pedigrees, DeJoy's path has been shaped by his exposure to scientific complexity and intellectual versatility. The cross-disciplinary nature of his education seems to have quietly influenced his leadership style. Whether debugging a data pipeline issue or navigating a boardroom conversation, he brings a methodical approach rooted in the habits of a trained scientist. Building Astronomer from the ground up DeJoy's role at Astronomer predates the company's rapid growth and recent media buzz. In his own words, shared via LinkedIn, he has 'poured his entire professional life' into the company. What began as a focused mission to help businesses adopt and manage Apache Airflow more effectively has, over time, evolved into a central player in the global data and AI infrastructure stack, as he also noted. Much of that growth happened under the radar, with DeJoy at the helm of product and platform development. The pandemic years tested the startup's agility, scaling the company from 30 to 300 employees without ever gathering in the same room. Through these challenges, DeJoy remained a constant, solving hard problems, staying late to fix what was broken, and mentoring new engineers who joined the ride. Rising to lead in an unexpected moment When Astronomer recently found itself under public scrutiny, DeJoy stepped into the interim CEO role with quiet clarity. His LinkedIn post announcing the transition struck a rare balance of realism and resolve. 'The spotlight has been unusual and surreal,' he acknowledged, while quickly redirecting focus to the company's mission, team culture, and customer trust. DeJoy's rise to the interim CEO role is not a conventional tech story. He didn't major in business or computer science, nor did he leap from a top-tier accelerator into a unicorn valuation. His journey has been slower, more embedded, and arguably more hands-on. His education in physics and chemistry shaped a mindset that values experimentation, persistence, and clarity, all qualities that now serve him in the CEO seat. In an ecosystem often obsessed with scale and speed, DeJoy's story reminds us that leadership can come from the lab bench as much as the boardroom. His Bowdoin education didn't just train him in scientific theory, it taught him how to think critically, navigate ambiguity, and stay anchored in complexity. As interim CEO, these are precisely the skills Astronomer seems to need most. As of mid-2025, Astronomer stands at a pivotal juncture. With Pete DeJoy now leading the company through a sensitive transition, attention has turned to how the platform will evolve in the growing world of enterprise AI. While it remains unclear whether he will stay on as permanent CEO, his appointment signals a vote of confidence in technical stewardship, founder commitment, and educational depth. DeJoy's story offers an encouraging message to students and early-career professionals: you don't need to take the obvious path to end up at the top. Sometimes, the scientist really does steer the ship. TOI Education is on WhatsApp now. Follow us here . Ready to navigate global policies? Secure your overseas future. Get expert guidance now!
New York Post
16-07-2025
- Politics
- New York Post
Zohran Mamdani followed in dad's footsteps to found SJP
Zohran Mamdani followed in his father's path by setting up a branch of a US radical Muslim group at his elite alma mater in Maine, The Post has learned. The Democratic mayoral nominee co-founded a branch of Students for Justice for Palestine at Bowdoin College in 2013, two years after his professor father, Mahmood Mamdani, gave the keynote address at the inaugural national conference of the group in October 2011. 'Whereas Apartheid South Africa was reluctant to claim that it was a white state, a white democracy, Israel is not. Advertisement 6 Zohran Mamdani at a 2014 meeting of Students for Justice in Palestine, a radical anti-Israel group he helped set up at Bowdoin College in Maine. Bowdoin SJP/ Facebook 'Israel publicly claims it's a Jewish state and it demands that Palestinians acknowledge it as such…Israel was not South Africa. In many ways, it was, and is, worse than South Africa,' said Mamdani Snr., a professor of government and anthropology at Columbia University, in his speech. The professor, 79, also claimed Israel admired the US for 'dealing' with its indigenous populations after it was settled by Europeans. 'The Zionists think of that particular part of American history as inspirational,' he said. Advertisement 'Like father, like son,' said Ari Shrage, co-founder of Columbia University's Jewish Alumni Association. 6 Zohran Mamdani was influenced by his father, Mahmood Mamdani (right), who gave the keynote speech at the first national convention of the Students for Justice in Palestine at Columbia. His mother, filmmaker Mira Nair, is pictured left with Zohran and his wife Rama Duwaji center. Getty Images 'It's not a surprise that he learned from his father who teaches at the epicenter of anti-Israel indoctrination,' he added, referring to Columbia. The 2011 national conference, titled 'Students Confronting Apartheid Students for Justice in Palestine: First National Conference 2011' drew 350 student activists from across the country to Columbia, according to a report, which also noted participants headed to the Occupy Wall Street encampment in the Financial District to protest corporate greed. Advertisement Following Zohran Mamdani's stunning victory in the Democratic primary earlier this month, the spotlight has turned to his family's ties to anti-Israel groups. His father sits on the advisory council of the recently formed London-based Gaza Tribunal, which accuses Israel of committing genocide. 6 Hatem Bazian, a professor at UC Berkeley, is the founder of American Muslims for Palestine and co-founder of Students for Justice in Palestine. UC Berkeley Mamdani Sr. also made it on to a list of 'Professors to Avoid' along with AMP founder Hatem Bazian published by Campus Watch, a project of the Middle East Forum, a conservative think tank. The list includes professors across the country who 'are most responsible for the politicization and bias sadly endemic to Middle East Studies,' according to the Campus Watch web site. After Zohran founded the SJP chapter at Bowdoin, the group had an active Twitter account promoting lectures such as 'The Winter of Arab Discontent' in Nov. 2013 and support for the American Studies Association's boycott of Israel. Advertisement That same year the Bowdoin College chapter of SJP invited a radical Lebanese-American academic As'ad AbuKhalil, to speak. Among his rhetoric he has called Israel a bigger threat than Hamas and said that the US had brought the Sept. 11 terrorist strikes on itself. 6 Mahmood Mamdani, a professor of government and anthroplogy at Columbia University, was included on a list of 'Professors to Avoid' in Middle East Studies by Campus Watch. Robert Miller for NY Post 6 A picture of Zohran Mamdani from the archive of the Bowdoin student newspaper in 2010, which he contributed articles for. The Bowdoin Orient 6 (L-R) Zohran Mamdani, mother Mira Nair, father Mahmood Mamdani and friend Nishant Tharani at the world premiere of 'Queen of Katwe,' directed by Nair, at the 2016 Toronto Film Festival. Getty Images for Disney The Bowdoin SJP's Twitter account remained active until late 2015 after Mamdani graduated, while a Facebook group lasted a few more months, posting until March 2016. Last year, Students for Justice in Palestine organized student encampments across the country, including a large one at Columbia. Its umbrella group, American Muslims for Palestine has been named in US federal lawsuits brought by victims of the October 7 Hamas attacks, as well as the family of David Boim, the first victim of the terrorist group, who was gunned down at a bus stop in Jerusalem in 1996. 'If Hamas has practiced versions of indiscriminate and aimless violence — which I personally reject on principle – it should be pointed out that Israeli terrorism, in scale and in magnitude, by far exceeds that of Hamas, but nobody has noticed here in the US,' Mamdani Snr. wrote in a blog post in 2006. Advertisement He's also come under attack on social media where an excerpt from one of his books recently surfaced. 'Suicide bombing needs to be understood as a feature of modern political violence rather than stigmatized as a mark of barbarism,' the elder Mamdani wrote in his 2004 book 'Good Muslim, Bad Muslim: America, the Cold War, and the Roots of Terror.' Hedge fund billionaire Bill Ackman reposted the excerpt on X earlier this week, noting 'The apple @zohranmamdani doesn't fall far from the tree.' On Tuesday, Mamdani told a group of business leaders that he would not use the phrase 'globalize the intifada,' adopted by anti-Israel protestors as a rallying cry for violence against Israel, following the October 7, 2023 attacks that left 1,200 Israelis dead. Columbia Students for Justice in Palestine and Mahmood Mamdani did not return requests for comment Wednesday.
Roya News
15-07-2025
- Politics
- Roya News
Unearthed 2014 article shows Zohran Mamdani's early advocacy for Palestinian rights
A resurfaced college article has shed light on Zohran Mamdani's long-standing support for the Palestinian cause, years before he became a leading figure in New York politics. Mamdani, now 33 and the Democratic nominee for New York City mayor, co-authored the piece as an undergraduate at Bowdoin College, where he co-founded the school's chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP). Published on January 10, 2014, in Bowdoin's student paper, The Bowdoin Orient, Mamdani's article strongly endorsed the American Studies Association's (ASA) decision to join the academic boycott of 'Israeli' institutions, a move aimed at pressuring 'Israel' to end its occupation of Palestinian territories. 'The American Studies Association, a group of scholars on American culture and history, recently decided to honor the call of Palestinian civil society to boycott Israeli institutions,' Mamdani wrote. 'This academic and cultural boycott aims to bring under scrutiny the actions of the Israeli government and to put pressure on Israeli institutions to end the oppressive occupation and racist policies within both Israel and occupied Palestine.' The piece criticized 'Israeli' universities for what Mamdani described as active and passive complicity in 'Israel's' military occupation. He accused them of prioritizing soldiers in admissions, discriminating against Palestinian students, developing remote-controlled bulldozers for home demolitions, and conducting research for the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF), with some institutions operating from illegal settlements built on occupied land. Mamdani rejected claims that the boycott stifled free speech, arguing instead that it had sparked wider debate about 'Israeli' human rights abuses. He specifically challenged then-Bowdoin College President Barry Mills, who opposed the boycott, accusing him of ignoring Palestinian suffering: 'Mills regrettably makes no mention of Palestinians or Palestine… When Mills speaks of the 'free exchange of knowledge, ideas, and research,' he does so while privileging partnerships with Israeli institutions over basic freedoms for Palestinians, including the rights to food, water, shelter and education.' The mayoral nominee praised Bowdoin professors who supported the ASA resolution and urged students and faculty to sign a pro-boycott petition.
New York Post
13-07-2025
- Politics
- New York Post
Radical college group Mamdani co-founded wanted justice for convicted terrorist deported from US
The Bowdoin College chapter of radical group Students for Justice in Palestine, co-founded by socialist NYC mayoral frontrunner Zohran Mamdani, went to bat for a terrorist convicted of deadly bombings in Israel — and was then later booted out of the US for immigration fraud. Rasmieh Yousef Odeh, 70, was convicted for a pair of bombings in Israel she helped execute in 1969 — one at a Supersol supermarket that killed two college students and a second at the British Consulate in the country. Odeh helped carry out the heinous crimes under the flag of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), a US-designated terror group. Advertisement 3 A radical anti-Israel group Zohran Mamdani helped launch during his time at Bowdoin College defended the arrest and deportation of a convicted terrorist bomber in 2014. REUTERS The Palestinian-Jordanian radical was sentenced to life in prison in Israel after she was convicted in 1970, but was released in 1979 as part of a prisoner exchange. Odeh then arrived in the US from Jordan on an immigrant visa in 1994 and became a citizen in 2004. The terrorist was ordered deported in 2017 for lying about her involvement in the bombings on both her visa and US citizenship application. Advertisement Still, in 2014, the year Mamdani graduated from Bowdoin College, SJP shared an article about her case from The Hill on Facebook, and crowed, 'Justice for Rasmea Odeh!' A Facebook account linked to Mamdani also 'liked' the statement, which was viewed by The Post. The upstart socialist helped launch the Bowdoin chapter of SJP during his time at the elite college. Advertisement The same group in 2013 also invited radical Lebanese-American speaker, As'ad AbuKhalil, to address the student body. AbuKhalil has sensationally called Israel a bigger terror threat than Iran and boasted he was greatly influenced by a Palestinian leader with the nickname the 'godfather of Middle Eastern terrorism.' Independent New York City mayoral candidate Jim Walden hit out at Mamdani on X for SJP's social media post in support of Odeh, saying it 'praised her as a victim' and calling it 'radical extremism and antisemitism.' 3 Rasmieh Yousef Odeh, 70, was convicted in 1970 of two terrorist bombings in Israel the year before, including an attack on a supermarket that left two college students dead. REUTERS Advertisement Remi Kanazi, an author and poet affiliated with SJP, also tweeted his support of Odeh in a 2014 post on X, writing, 'Why is the Obama administration prosecuting torture victim Rasmea Odeh? Drop the charges: Write or call in TODAY,' he wrote with a link to an article that has since been taken offline. In her 2017 plea agreement, Odeh admitted lying about her criminal history and convictions in her US immigration applications, and that she knew it was against the law to provide false information to the US government. 'Had Odeh revealed the truth about her criminal history, as she was required to by law, she never would have been granted an immigrant visa, admitted to the United States, allowed to live here for the last 22 years or granted United States citizenship,' the plea read. 3 Odeh was deported in 2017 based on charges filed by the Obama administration Justice Department in 2014. AP She was stripped of her citizenship, barred from the country for life and deported to Jordan. Though Mamdani graduated from Bowdoin in spring 2014, the SJP chapter he founded has continued to engage in increasingly radical activism. Earlier this year, the group occupied a campus building as part of a protest against the school's investment practices and President Trump hinting at taking control of war-torn Gaza, the Bowdoin Orient wrote. Meanwhile, Mamdani himself has raised eyebrows with several past statements and social media posts that appeared to be sympathetic to known terrorists. Advertisement In one resurfaced tweet, Mamdani appeared to defend al Qaeda menace Anwar al-Awalaki, who was later taken out in a drone strike approved by then-President Barack Obama. In his days as a rapper, Mamdani praised the heads of the so-called 'Holy Land Five,' the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development, an infamous nonprofit convicted of funneling more than $12 million to the terror group Hamas. Mamdani's camp did not immediately respond to The Post's request for comment.
The Hill
12-07-2025
- Politics
- The Hill
America's ‘useful idiots' — the left calls for revolution as the ultimate virtue signal
During the Cold War, Soviet communists reportedly referred to American liberals as 'useful idiots.' Although the origin of the quote has been challenged (and attributed to both Lenin and Stalin), it captured many of the adherents of communism after World War II. From higher education to Hollywood, dilettantes on the left embraced Marxism with little real understanding of the philosophy or its implications. We are now seeing the rise of a new generation of armchair revolutionaries who are calling for everything from the overthrow of the U.S. government to the seizure of factories and homes. Democratic New York mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani personifies this new movement of young people lacking any memory of the failure of socialist and communist systems in the 20th Century. Mamdani is perfect for trust-fund baby Trotskyites. The privileged son of a radical Columbia professor and a Hollywood producer, Mamdani went to the elite Bowdoin College, which charges over $70,000 annually in tuition. He is part of the 'radical chic' of American higher education, where extreme views are fully mainstream. Mamdani shows the appeal of mouthing Marxist manifestos as manifest truths. It is Marxism-lite — promises of everything from rent control to making 'Halal eight bucks again.' In one speech before the Young Democratic Socialists of America conference, Mamdani even stated matter-of-factly how one of the goals is to 'seize the means of production' in America. 'Right now, if we're talking about the cancellation of student debt, if we're talking about Medicare for all, you know, these are issues which have the groundswell of popular support across this country,' he said. 'But then there are also other issues that we firmly believe in, whether it's [boycott-divestment-sanctions against Israel] or whether it is the end goal of seizing the means of production, where we do not have the same level of support at this very moment.' Mamdani offers few details of what it would mean to seize all industry in this country or how such a system would work in the United States after failing in literally every nation where it has been attempted. He has also called for the seizure of unoccupied luxury condos in New York to turn over to the homeless. With pledges of state-run grocery stores and other proposals, many are thrilled by the prospect of Marxism coming to America. Polls show increasing support among young people for socialism and even communism. That is reflected in the New York primary, where Mamdani received significant support from wealthy and young college-educated voters. Like Mamdani, these young voters have no inkling of what life was like under socialist and communist governments. They were not alive when radical shifts to socialism in Great Britain and France destroyed their economies and had to be reversed. They did not see the collapse of the Soviet Union or the move toward capitalism by China to avoid economic meltdowns. Yet, as Mamdani stated, the radical left has to wait to seize such powers until it has 'the same level of support at this very moment.' Unfortunately, socialist programs can produce the very dire conditions that lead to even greater consolidation of state controls and power. Notably, most of Mamdani's proposals would violate the Constitution or bankrupt the city. For example, efforts to seize multimillion-dollar luxury condos would constitute unconstitutional takings unless he was prepared to buy the units at their market value — a virtually impossible proposition. Such considerations are rarely raised, let alone resolved, in radical conferences. Earlier this month, University of Minnesota liberal arts professor Melanie Yazzie joined others for a 'teach-in' in which she delighted the audience with calls for the overthrow of the country by 'people who come from nations who are under occupation by the United States government.' She added, 'it's our responsibility as people who are within the United States to go as hard as possible to decolonize this place because that will reverberate all across the world. Because the U.S. is the greatest predator empire that has ever existed.' That includes forcing '[the] U.S. out of everywhere,' including 'Turtle Island' (the Native American name used to describe North America). Yazzie insisted that 'the goal is to dismantle the settler project that is the United States for the freedom and the future of all life on this planet. It very much depends on that.' Yazzie is an example of how most faculties in this country now run from the left to the far left. Applicants who espouse center-right viewpoints are often rejected as lacking 'intellectual rigor' or depth. However, you cannot be too far left to secure a position in many departments that do not have a single Republican or conservative. Take University of Chicago Assistant Professor Eman Abdelhadi, who used her recent appearance at the Socialism 2025 conference to denounce the University of Chicago as an 'evil' and 'colonialist' institution. Nevertheless, she insisted that she wanted to remain at the evil institution — not for its intellectual community, but to 'organize' and 'leverage' to build a socialist coalition. Keep in mind that the faculty not only decided that Abdelhadi was worthy of a faculty position in the university's Department of Comparative Human Development, but then also made her the Director of Graduate Studies. For some, the calls of professors like Yazzie to 'dismantle' the U.S. constitute the ultimate virtue signal. Like demands to seize factories and homes, the willingness to burn down the system is a cheap and easy way to establish your bona fides as one of the enlightened — something to brag about with your other 20-something fellow travelers as you order your $7 latte on the way to your Hyrox workout. Lenin once mocked many in the West as idiots who would 'transform themselves into men who are deaf, dumb and blind [and] toil to prepare their own suicide.' What he never imagined was how some would still be transforming themselves decades after the revolution failed. Jonathan Turley is the Shapiro Professor of Public Interest Law at George Washington University and the best-selling author of 'The Indispensable Right.'
