This year’s Alumni Achievement Award recipients were selected for their outstanding professional achievements and their service to the public and country. Honored alumni this year are Marlon Young ’77 B.S.Ed., Col. Andrea L. Thompson ’88 B.A. and Darcy Kuronen ’82 B.M. ’86 M.M.

Young, originally of Manila, Philippines and Salem, S.D., is chief executive officer for HSBC Private Bank, Americas. After 27 years at Citigroup, where he was head of private client lending at its Smith Barney division, Young joined HSBC in 2006 as head of the company’s U.S. banking operation. He was appointed to his present role in September of the same year. He is a member of the HSBC Bank USA Executive Committee, and the HSBC Global Private Bank Management Committee.

Young also has extensive corporate banking experience covering the commercial real estate, automotive and energy industries. Throughout this career, he has received numerous awards for his dedication and volunteer work, including the U.S. President’s Volunteer Service Award. Additionally, he is an active volunteer in Junior Achievement and the Doe Fund. He is frequently invited to speak on diversity and leadership by not-for-profit institutions, including: the Asia Society, the International Leadership Foundation (ILF) and Ascend. He has also served as Chairman and Trustee of the U.S. Asia Institute since Nov. 2003.

Thompson, originally of Sioux Falls, S.D., was the highest-ranking military intelligence officer with the 101st Airborne Division in Fort Campbell. During her two tours of Iraq, she served as the military intelligence task force commander in the 25th Infantry Division and as the senior intelligence officer (G2) of the 101st Airborne Division.

Informed by her experiences overseas, in 2008, Thompson co-authored “Achieving Victory in Iraq,” a detailed account which examines how the war evolved since it began 2003 and provides an outline for the way forward. The strategy she and her co-author describe relies heavily upon creating an independent Iraqi security force capable of effectively meeting the insurgency, rather than winning over the civilian population or crushing the enemy with military might.

In addition to Iraq, Thompson has served in Germany, Honduras, Nicaragua, Belize and Bosnia. Thompson’s awards include the Bronze Star (with oak leaf cluster), Meritorious Service Medal (with five oak leaf clusters), Joint Service Commendation Medal, Army Commendation Medal, Joint Service Achievement Medal (with two oak leaf clusters), Army Achievement Medal (with three oak leaf clusters), the Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal, Iraq Campaign Medal, Afghanistan Campaign Medal, Humanitarian Service Medal, NATO Medal (with one star), Army Staff Badge and Parachutist’s Badge.

In 2009, Thompson graduated from the National War College, earning a Master’s Degree in National Security and Strategic Studies. She then deployed to Afghanistan, serving as the ISAF CJ2 Chief of Staff. She proudly took command of the 902nd Military Intelligence Group on 6 July 2010.

Since 1986, Kuronen, originally of Sturgis and Rapid City, S.D., has worked at Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts. As the MFA’s Pappalardo Curator of Musical Instruments, he oversees one of the country’s oldest and most important collections of historical instruments, with examples from all time periods and regions of the world. In 2000, he organized the critically acclaimed exhibition Dangerous Curves: Art of the Guitar, celebrating the diversity of guitar design over the past four centuries with 130 rare instruments from private and public collections. He has also written and published numerous articles, particularly about early American pianos, reed organs, violins and guitars.

Kuronen has been interested in music from a young age, playing the piano, trumpet, and double bass in a variety of ensembles and settings throughout his school years. During his time at USD, he worked as a research assistant at the National Music Museum, where he assisted in laying out and refurbishing the galleries, designing and constructing display cases, and creating installation fixtures for many of the instruments on view there today.

He is an active member of the American Musical Instrument Society and the International Committee of Musical Instrument Museums and Collections. He also serves as volunteer curator for the collection of historical instruments owned by Boston Symphony Orchestra. Kuronen continues to enjoy performing music of all sorts, both avocationally and as part of his current job.

For more about the Alumni Association or to register for this year’s Dakota Day activities, including the awards dinner referenced in this release, please visit www.usdalumni.com or contact the Alumni Association office at (605) 677-6734 or 800-655-2586.

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