WINTER SEASON

While the season is just underway, it already feels like a huge win! I speak for all the coaches and boys when I say how good it is to have the Panther Pack back in full effect. It’s so nice to go to the games in the Upper Gym, at Equinox, at other schools—and see the familiar faces, both younger and older, supporting our boys and sporting Red and Black with pride.

This season has brought us a further boost with the addition of extra basketball coaches, who bring a lot of knowledge and experience to our group of longtime staff. The teams are off to strong starts across the board, with 19 wins already racked up before we went on break for the holidays. Go, Panthers!

Jerry Pi ’95 thinks purpose triumphs over motivation

By Jan Abernathy Chief Communications Officer

Touting the merit of Browning’s four values, the Trustee and current parent said, “You can get motivated to do something, but it’s often to meet a short-term objective or goal. At Browning, we raise men who are very purposeful and life is so much better when you are doing things that you believe in.”

Jerry should know. As the founder of Pi Capital Partners, a family-owned real estate development firm with a portfolio of more than 40 properties throughout the country, he speaks with passion and purpose about a business that started small and grew to encompass high-rise office and mixed-use buildings. Following in his father’s footsteps, Jerry came to a deeper appreciation of the purpose of his relationships with his tenants and employees during the darkest days of the COVID-19 pandemic. “We had to pick up rent checks and help our tenants file for PPP loans. It was a surreal experience but also a bonding one,” he says. “At that time, I relied on what Browning taught me about being resilient.”

Jerry notes that the structure and accountability baked into life at Browning are characteristics he still sees today as he looks at what is expected of his son, Jameson ’32. At the same time, he says, the school remains nurturing, with the same intellectual rigor that he experienced in his own education. He notes with pride that when he left Browning after Grade 6 to move to Manhasset, Long Island, the material being taught to him in seventh and eighth grade there were concepts he had already learned while still here.

But Browning did more than develop Jerry’s mind; it also built character. “Two of the main things I learned here were empathy and perspective,” he says. “Especially as we get older, we need to be able to look at situations through a variety of lenses. I’m a child of immigrants, a person of color, a child who was commuting to Browning, and it was good to be exposed to others with an understanding that we can learn from one another.”

As a typical Browning boy, Jerry is an avid athlete. He is an ultrarunner of over 200 races, including some of the hardest races in the world. He has finished the Marathon Des Sables, UTMB Mont-Blanc, Moab 240, three Boston Marathons, 15 NYC Marathons, Transgrancanaria, ITU World Triathlon Championships, and countless other endurance events. “The ultrarunning community emphasizes toughness, community building, and teamwork. We learn to balance the highs and lows in ultrarunning the same way we deal with highs and lows in life.”

And he has not forgotten the lessons he learned about service at Browning, as he supports Pi Capital’s former tenants, the

Chinese-American Planning Council. “Asian Americans have the largest income disparity in the city,” Jerry says, “and this is an organization that can provide people with basic necessities.”

Enrolling Jameson at Browning was easy, Jerry says. With his two older children at Spence, Jerry and his wife, Grace felt that it was important for Jameson to attend a school where the emphasis is on educating boys. “We wanted him to be in a place where the emphasis is on a boy becoming a good man,” he said, adding that, “the so-called ‘soft skills’ and communication that you see in independent schools is really important. My industry is built on relationships. Even teaching a young man the proper way to shake hands is important.”

After earning an undergraduate degree at Boston University, Jerry started his career as a financial consultant and coding developer at BTS, Inc. He was team leader for the manufacturing and financial services division. From there, Jerry joined what he describes as “the chaotic world of real estate development” at Pi Capital, where being able to coordinate groups remains crucial to a successful deal. He says,”Most people would be stunned at how the governmental agencies don’t really interact with one another; they count on the developer to bring all of the parts together.” Currently building two projects in Manhattan, the firm is also very proud that it owns its developments, and has employees who have worked there for generations. While Jerry started at the ground floor “installing toilets and electricity,” he now works on institutional lending relationships, acquisitions, and development.

As chair of the real estate committee and an advancement committee member on Browning’s Board of Trustees, which he joined in 2021, Jerry is leading the exciting project to create a modern Upper School facility on East 64th Street, scheduled to open in 2025. “This will be the first expansion of an independent school post-COVID and will address so many of the needs of today’s boys,” Jerry says. He notes that a new building was sought by Browning for some time, particularly crediting the previous real estate chair Phil Hofmann and S9 architects, who have worked on this project for several years.

The building—which will include a green roof and expansive spaces for STEM and the arts, as well as a regulation size gym—will also free up space at the 62nd Street schoolhouse, to allow for a reimagining of that space for K–8 students. “It’s a win-win for everyone,” Jerry says.

In the end, Jerry says, the project helps him give back to Browning all that it has given him. “I deeply appreciate all that Browning did for us as kids,” he says. “This building celebrates that.”

By Jan Abernathy Chief Communications Officer

For Chris Russo ’15, Founder and CEO of marketing agency Russo Strategic Partners, success in life connects to some of his first experiences at Browning. “I learned early on that you’re not going to get very far if you don’t put in the work— and as an entrepreneur now, I understand that the amount of effort you put into something is directly related to what you’ll get out of it.”

Chris, who entered in Grade 9, says Browning impressed him with its small community and college guidance program. “Mr. Pelz’s fervor for guiding students towards the best college experience was amazing,” he says, adding, “There was never an opportunity that was out of my reach. The faculty treated me like an adult and a gentleman, which really impacted the way that I felt about school.”

Describing transformative extracurricular experiences on the Green Team and as editor in chief of the Grytte, Chris has fond memories of the clubs’ advisors, former science chair Emilie Wolf and Jeremy Katz ’04, respectively. While interviewing Honorary Trustee Jim Chanos for a Grytte feature, Russo recalls, “He flipped the script and took a really genuine interest in me and gave me lots of advice. I remember feeling so grateful that someone on the Board of Trustees would be so generous with their time.”

A marketing and communications major at Boston College, Chris started the Boston College Media Alumni Network in his senior year as a way to build the community of alumni in that industry. With over 1,000 members, the group provides educational and networking opportunities. Chris launched his marketing agency, Russo Strategic Partners, at the start of COVID-19.

Among its signature projects is a podcast by MuddHouse Media created in partnership with Silverstein Properties called Top of the World: Lessons from Rebuilding the World Trade Center, which chronicles the 20-year rebuilding story of New York’s World Trade Center. “While the World Trade Center has been featured in documentaries and magazine spreads, it’s never been done in a podcast form. And it felt so right with the boom in podcasting to tell this story in that way,” Chris says. His agency also represents Tamsen Fadal, a news anchor on New York City’s PIX-11. Chris worked with her to launch the podcast Coming Up Next, and suggested she join TikTok, where her following grew exponentially. “She’s been featured in Forbes and Oprah Daily and Bloomberg as a menopause TikTok influencer. You might not expect a 25-year-old guy to be coaching a 51-year-old woman on how to talk about menopause on TikTok, but here we are,” Chris says.

As Chris continues to grow his business, his advice for other young alums and Upper School students is to continue making connections. “Even if you’re still in school, maybe you can share an article that you found helpful or insightful and give your take on it on LinkedIn. My number one piece of advice is to not be afraid to put yourself out there.”

The brand advisor and marketing strategist also noted that Browning’s small community and emphasis on relationships has been pivotal in developing his client base. “Part of my business now involves strategic partnerships, where I bring together businesses, creators, and brands for different campaigns, and I honed the skills that allow me to do that at Browning.”