Honoring a Loved One by Creating Opportunity for Others
“Kristen had a lot of gratitude for the opportunities she had been given, and she felt an obligation to help others.”
Kristen A. Hoey, IE 2008, accomplished a lifetime’s worth of achievements in 32 years. Fluent in French, with degrees from both the Institute and the Bordeaux School of Management in France, Hoey traveled the world over. A specialist in global supply-chain management, she worked in Chicago, Houston, Paris, Kuala Lumpur, and Dubai. “She was a risk-taker,” her father, Thomas P. Hoey, recalled. “Kristen always said, ‘If you don’t live at the edge of your comfort zone, you’re not living.’”
Kristen applied this philosophy to all areas of her life. “She rode camels in Morocco and traveled across Europe and Asia. And she witnessed extreme poverty in her travels, frequently engaging with people who had experienced horrendous life circumstances. She felt she had an obligation to help others,” Hoey said. She also impressed upon her father her personal belief that “90% of your success in life is directly related to where you were born and the family you were born into.”
In 2016, the ambitious Kristen and a colleague departed for Malaysia, where they launched their own global supply-chain company after leaving Schlumberger, the French oil and gas company. Kristen was diagnosed with metastatic melanoma shortly after the move. She died in a matter of weeks.
In honor of Kristen, her father and other family members have established the Kristen A. Hoey Memorial Scholarship through an estate gift. The scholarship will give preference to women of color from low- to middle-income families who are pursuing degrees in the H. Milton Stewart School of Industrial and Systems Engineering.
“Kristen was all about helping others,” he said. “When she was dying, she worried that no one would remember her." According to her father, the Hoey scholarship would have meant a great deal to her. Inspired by a life well lived, her family has made certain that Kristen Hoey’s memory and desire to help others will live on for many years to come.
Like the Hoeys, your gift will help transform the lives of Georgia Tech students. To learn more, please contact Gift Planning at 404.894.4678 or giftplanning@dev.gatech.edu today.