Alumni Return for Career Day

Andy Altman, Class of 2008
Andy Altman and his father, Steve, are founders of GigTown, (established in January 2015 in San Diego). GigTown is an app that supports local musicians and offers fans and live music venues a platform to discover, follow and book their favorite musicians. By eliminating the complexity of booking live music, GigTown empowers artists to pursue their passion and brings live music right to the door of their fans. His position in the company is “Grand Poobah”—someone who holds power but displays humbleness.

 

When he’s not “GigTowning,” Altman is also assisting with the marketing initiatives to bring Major League Soccer to San Diego. He enjoys playing the ukulele and experimenting with beats. He also enjoys attending live shows, traveling the world (fun fact: he’s been to 31 countries!) and wearing orange (orange is a lifelong obsession, even the company car is painted GigTown orange).

Altman graduated from Stanford University with a degree in Symbolic Systems and recently earned his MBA from the University of San Diego.

Katy Foltz Hastings, Class of 2003
Katy Hastings is an LJCDS Lifer. She is one of the charge nurses in the operating room at Scripps Memorial Hospital La Jolla. Hastings specializes in orthopedic, neurology and spine trauma surgeries but works in every specialty in the OR.

Her passion includes traveling and volunteering, and nursing has allowed her to pursue both. Hastings has traveled to various countries on mission trips to provide free surgeries to underserved areas of the world. Most recently, she went to Nepal after the earthquake to help aid victims and India to help women and children with burn injuries from domestic abuse. She volunteers for various nonprofit organizations and enjoys her volunteer work both here and abroad.

 

She holds a bachelor’s degree in sports studies from Miami University in Ohio and a nursing degree from the University of Oklahoma. Before nursing, she was a strength and conditioning coach, personal trainer and wellness coach.

She married Dan Hastings, who is a Navy veteran and works as a mechanical engineer. They have a 3-year-old son named James.  

Daniel Neukomm, Class of 1997
Daniel Neukomm is currently group CEO of surf brand O’Neill as well as chairman and CEO of Irvine-based parent company La Jolla Group, Inc. (LJG), which includes apparel brands in the active consumer space, including O’Neill, Spiritual Gangster, FMF, Hang Ten and Metal Mulisha. In addition, Neukomm is a founding partner at Revelstoke Capital, a private equity firm focused on investing in growth stage consumer companies in the outdoor and active lifestyle space with offices in Irvine and London.

Before LJG, he was an operating partner for a Silicon Valley-based family office, where he focused on early-stage venture investing and strategy for middle-market portfolio companies including La Jolla Group. Neukomm began his career starting Mountain Oxygen, a supplemental oxygen services company based in Aspen, Colorado.  

Neukomm earned a Bachelor of Arts in economics from the University of Vermont and an MBA in finance and strategy from the International School of Management in Paris.  

He currently resides in Rancho Santa Fe with his wife, Cheyenne, his twin daughters, Charlotte and Makenzie, and son Wyatt.

 

Alet Oury Taylor is an actress and writer living in New York and Los Angeles. She most recently played the role of Torrey and understudy Katherine in Disney’s new musical Freaky Friday at La Jolla Playhouse and is filming Panty Soldiers, a sitcom pilot she co-wrote. Her TV/film acting roles have included San Andreas Quake and Law & Order. In theater, she’s performed in The Producers and Clinton, the Musical, among numerous others.

When Taylor’s not busy auditioning, acting or writing, she teaches musical theater classes at the American Musical and Dramatic Academy and master classes in New York City at Pace University. She earned a bachelor’s from Trinity College in psychology.

Taylor permanently lives in New York where her children, Ruby (11) and Lucy (14), go to school, and her husband is performing in Sunset Boulevard. Her son, Dash (21), recently graduated from University of California, Santa Barbara. Click here to read LJCDS’ recent article on Taylor.

Porschia Talbot, Class of 2003
Porschia Talbot is a San Diego-based fine artist and the founder of My Art Shed (established in 2009) in downtown La Jolla. My Art Shed is a working gallery that offers art classes for ages 2.5 through adults, seasonal camps for children and teens, private parties and corporate team-building opportunities. Talbot believes that creative expression is an important avenue for the creation of a free-thinking and innovative society. My Art Shed works with many schools throughout San Diego and has provided free art activities to countless community events and festivals.

Talbot earned a bachelor’s in architecture from the New School of Architecture and Design in San Diego. During her three years in architecture, Talbot was a volunteer art teacher at the Monarch School, a homeless and at-risk school for children living in shelters and on the streets. There, she found her passion for teaching children. After graduating from architecture school, she moved to Oregon to attend Portland State University, studying fine art with an emphasis in drawing and painting.

Talbot is an Australian native, who attended an all-girls school in Melbourne before coming to LJCDS.