Alex Benepe, CEO, Commissioner & President
Hometown | New York, NY
School | Middlebury College, 2009
Alex Benepe is the Commissioner, CEO, President, and Janitor of the IQA. Xander Manshel invented the game, but Alex propagated it. His inability, according to Michael Campbell, to have non-epic facebook profile pics has helped him found and guide the IQA, lead organization of the past four World Cups, and share the new game with thousands of new players and millions of spectators and fans worldwide. Alex’s extensive work with media on Quidditch even won a PR Event of the Year award from PR Week Magazine in 2008. He is not, contrary to popular belief, a rabid Harry Potter fan. In fact, there is one book in the series that he has never read. Alex has been with the game since its conception, when Manshel, a Middlebury College classmate, first came up with the idea of trying to play the fantasy sport in real-life (hint: back then, players who got hit with a bludger had to spin around five times). Although Alex hasn’t played competitively since he pushed Quidditch towards becoming an interscholastic sport, he did play Seeker and made the championship snatch at Middlebury’s first intramural, ten-team World Cup in 2005. His favorite email sign-off is “Mischief, Managed.” He also really likes commas.
Alicia Radford, COO, Secretary & Treasurer
Hometown | Seattle, WA
School | University of Washington, 2010
Alicia started the Quidditch club at the University of Washington in spring 2008 after watching Middlebury play UMass Amherst on CBS. The next fall she brought a team to the World Cup. She is the IQA’s Chief Operations Officer, secretary, and treasurer, overseeing day-to-day operations of the company and personally managing the Communications, Marketing, IT, and Human Resources departments. She works full-time as a web developer at the Jewish National Fund and volunteers full time for the IQA. In the little spare time she has, she enjoys reading, dancing, cooking, window shopping, and planning projects she’ll have no time to finish.
Alex Terry
Hometown | Dallas, TX
School | Ringling College of Art + Design, 2012
Alex began his college experience in the heart of school pride at Texas A&M, a school enriched with tradition and largely into football. Camaraderie was spawned and friends begat. However, after just two and half semesters at this great school he transferred to a sleepy town in the west side of Florida, to the prestigious Ringling College of Art & Design. Upon arrival he found there were none of the aforementioned characteristics, so out of necessity he looked for a sport that could rally the same companionship that football could. Through facebook and a former girlfriend, he heard about the endeavors of the Howarth sisters at A&M, who were starting a crazy sport called Quidditch. He is proud to be at the forefront of this great sport, and working with the Ringling administration to explore the possibility of building the first official Quidditch pitch.
Alex is an Advertising Designer by trade and an avid web developer, particularly with innovative mobile applications. He enjoys cycling and hopes to change the world one step at a time. He is starting a blog in August 2010 that will chronicle his efforts to live with a lowered carbon footprint while in college. Lastly, he has just recently filed his first U.S. patent that includes some of the revolutionary web design elements he has created in partner with his first internship out of Dallas.
Ziang Chen
Hometown | West Lafayette, IN
School | Purdue University, 2013
Ziang Chen is on the board of directors but also serves as IQA’s Midwest regional director. In this role, Chen provides general management amongst teams in the Midwest region. Originally the founder of the Purdue University Intercollegiate Quidditch Association in December of 2010, Chen joined the IQA in April 2010, after holding a tournament for literacy and helping establish a network between schools in the Midwest. Chen likes to do a myriad of things from engaging with youth to filming and editing videos. Chen currently holds a job with the USDA as a research aide and St. Elizabeth Regional Health as a pharmacy technician. Chen plans to graduate from Purdue University with a degree in pharmaceutical sciences specializing in medical chemistry and molecular pharmacology and plans to attend medical school in the fall of 2013.
Max Kaplan
Hometown | Gettysburg, PA
School | Chestnut Hill College, 2011
Chestnut Hill College’s Quidditch program has grown very big, very quickly. After only one on-campus tournament, its team placed third in the 2008 Quidditch World Cup; a year later they placed fifth. Its annual Quidditch on the Hill tournament, which won the College’s Program of the Year Award, attracts everyone from community members to the College President. It will include competition from outside teams this fall. Max, CHC’s Commissioner, has just returned from a semester abroad in London, England. As an English and Communications major he’s interned all over the map, including with branding agencies and for the U.S. government, but he still has no idea what he wants to be when he grows up. This fall he’ll also be the editor-in-chief of CHC’s student newspaper and the Vice President of its Student Government. He loves photography, traveling, and pretending he’s a good cook.
Jared Kowalczyk
Hometown | Keene, NH
School | Emerson College, 2011
Jared has been running Quidditch at Emerson since the team first started in April, 2008. Emerson runs a 4 team league in the fall, winter and spring, and the team has attended the world cup twice finishing 5th, and 2nd, won the Veteran’s Day tourny at UMass Amherst and have come in 2nd and 1st in the New England Cup hosted by Emerson two years in a row. Jared is a film production major currently producing his BFA western film to be shot in LA this summer, called Maya Anderson and the Gem of the West. He is also interning for a studio movie called What’s Her Number, a production that includes Anna Faris and Andy Samberg. Jared also works as a bartender in Boston.
Aimee Howarth
Hometown | Houston, TX
School | Texas A&M University, TWU, 2010
Kristen and Aimee founded the quidditch team at Texas A&M in 2008. Their team attended the 2009 World Cup and hosted the first Southwest Quidditch Tournament in 2010. Kristen and Aimee also organized the first Yule Ball (which will now occur yearly) at Texas A&M, with over 650 guests!
Aimee Howarth graduated from Texas A&M in 2010 with a B.S. in Psychology. She is currently pursuing her M.A. in Counseling Psychology and Women’s Studies at Texas Woman’s University. She will continue to do research on women in occupational settings, specifically sports. Aimee spends most of her time studying for school, interning at a substance abuse rehabilitation center for women, making various crafts for her new small business, and working on outreach events for Quidditch. She really enjoys reading, painting, and music (she plays the Oboe & Flute) in her free time.
Kristen Howarth
Hometown | Houston, TX
School | Texas A&M University, 2010
Kristen, her sister Aimee, and Elizabeth Witt founded the Texas A&M University team in 2008.
Aside from Quidditch, her other interests include Harry Potter, music, reading, learning, Europe, traveling, and trying to figure out what she wants to do with her life. She is currently completing her MS Marketing degree at Texas A&M University.
Kate Olen
Hometown | Saint Helena, CA
School | Middlebury College, 2011
Kate made her first debut in the world of Muggle Quidditch on the intramural team B.A.M.F. (Bad Ass Muggle Flyers) at Middlebury in 2007. Since then she has taken part on the first Quidditch traveling team road trip and played on the winning World Cup team for two years in a row, and she helped with logistics for the 2008 World Cup. In 2009 she was elected to the position of Middlebury Commissioner and was one of three individuals leading the organization effort for the World Cup that year.
In her spare time Kate enjoys eating double quarter pounder cheeseburgers, Philly cheese steaks, cheese waffle fries, blooming onions, fried dough, and extra large milkshakes. She also likes going to concerts, playing whiffle-ball, and exploring her newfound passion for twitter.
Xander Manshel
Hometown | Burlington, VT
School | Middlebury College, 2009
In the fall of 2005, Alexander Manshel began organizing the first Muggle Quidditch matches at Middlebury College, adapting the rules from JK Rowling’s Harry Potter novels. Since then, he has enjoyed assisting the IQA as an organizer, World Cup Announcer, and now as a member of the organization’s board.
