Two alumni have been honored by the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce. Alain Mathieu '12 and Chareeda Rustanavibul '18 have both been included on the 2023 list of Ten Outstanding Young Leaders by the Chamber and its young professional platform, City Awake.
Mathieu, an attorney who handles civil litigation matters for private and public companies, is an associate at the Boston-headquartered law firm Mintz. After Bowdoin, Mathieu, the son of Haitian immigrants who grew up on Long Island, NY, attended law school at Boston College.
His practice focuses on complex commercial litigation, including contract disputes, business litigation, and government investigations, as well as sports and entertainment, institutional class action recovery, and public finance and bankruptcy-related litigation. He is an active member of the firm’s sports and entertainment practice, for which he counsels clients in personal business, branding and licensing, league compliance, investigations, and litigation. Mathieu also maintains an active pro bono practice, in which he represents clients in matters related to domestic and sexual violence, asylum, and civil appeals.
He serves on a number of nonprofit boards for organizations that work to empower youths of various backgrounds, including Crossroads, The Wily Network, Harlem Lacrosse Boston, and The Foundation to Be Named Later. Mathieu also serves on Mintz’s advisory committee on recruitment and retention of Black attorneys, as well as the Boston Bar Association’s DEI Steering Committee.
Rustanavibul is vice president, startup banking, at Silicon Valley Bank (SVB). Born and raised in Maine, Rustanavibul is a first-generation Thai college student and startup enthusiast who has built a community of early-stage founders, connecting them with venture capitalists to provide more access to capital to grow their businesses. She helped lead a bank-wide initiative to allocate funding and resources to underrepresented founders and organizations.
Outside of SVB, Rustanavibul is the chief convention director at the National Association of Asian American Professionals (NAAAP). She led a national team of more than a hundred volunteers to deliver Boston’s largest leadership convention of Asian and Pacific Islander professionals. The convention brought in more than 780 attendees, 40 sponsors, and 75 speakers, including keynote addresses from actor and activist George Takei, Boston Mayor Michelle Wu, and Gold House CEO Bing Chen.
Rustanavibul is also a Community Fellow at Gold House, which is a nonprofit collective that unites, invests in, and champions API creators, founders, and leaders.
The Ten Outstanding Young Leaders Awards are presented annually by City Awake, Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce’s young professional network, which seeks to connect, engage, and celebrate the next generation of leaders.
The awards recognize the contributions of current and emerging young local leaders who have demonstrated professional, personal, cultural, and civic commitments to advance their community, organization, and region.
