Join Ivan Allen College Dean Amanda Murdie for an insightful fireside chat with distinguished alumni Ed Byrns, M.S. AE 1988, M.S. ECON 1991, Ph.D. AE 1991, and Amy Phuong, INTA 2005, MBA 2014. Attendees can ask these alumni about their time in IAC, how their careers evolved, what skills they found most helpful, and any advice they have for current students.  

This event is part of the Ivan Allen Advantage Alumni Speaker Series. Refreshments will be provided. All Georgia Tech students, faculty, and staff are welcome to attend. A limited number of 1:1 and small-group mentorship slots will be available to students who RSVP for the event.    

About the Speakers

Edward V. Byrns Jr. is a triple-degree recipient from Georgia Tech, holding a Ph.D. in Engineering, an M.S. in Economics, and an M.S. in Engineering. While a graduate student, he realized that his academic interests spanned engineering and social sciences. Georgia Tech was the ideal institution to build a bridge between both. For over 25 years, Byrns has been working in commodity and weather markets, and he currently heads the climate risk team at Atrium Underwriting, a syndicate of Lloyd’s of London. Byrns has been an entrepreneur at the intersection of insurance underwriting, commodity trading, and analytic technology. He founded a startup, held quantitative leadership positions, and briefly served as an adjunct professor. His career trajectory reflects a consistent drive to translate technical insights into market-based tools for addressing large-scale global challenges.   

Amy Phuong is vice president of government relations for the Atlanta Hawks and State Farm Arena. This position is an expansion of the Atlanta Hawks’ External Affairs efforts to unite the broader Atlanta community through the play of basketball while deepening the organization’s relationships with local and state leaders. Amy is responsible for the Hawks’ strategic government and external affairs strategy which includes managing various lobbying efforts and policy regulation. She served as Chief Operating Officer for Saving Our Atlanta Region’s Residents (SOARR), a regionally coordinated, cross-sector response to the growing eviction crisis of renters in Atlanta, as an Executive on Loan in 2021. In this role, she was responsible for helping to operationalize this effort by bringing together public and private resources and a diverse set of civic leaders to keep families stabilized and housed for the duration of Covid-19.