Nicole Alam – Daniel Sullivan Engagement
The newly engaged couple Nicole Alam and Daniel Sullivan with their families. To the left of Nicole, the Alam family, Ryan, Polly and Sohail. To the right of Daniel, his parents Eleanor and Patrick Sullivan. Photo: Jawahar Malhotra
By Jawahar Malhotra
HOUSTON: The huge backyard, with the tennis court on one side, of the Meyerland home of Sohail and Polly Alam was transformed into a garden party setting with white tables and chairs under a white tent and a buffet line clustered around the ash tree in the middle, white Chinese lanterns strewn above. Guests and family nestled together in the early evening, as the heat subsided and the waning light played patterns with the shadows.
It was the house that their eldest child Nicole, known to most as Nicki, had left several years ago to go to Washington, DC where she has worked at the Brookings Institute for the past four years. Nicki, 31, received her undergraduate degree in Corporate Communications and later a Masters in Government and Public Affairs, both from the University of Texas-Austin. Her younger brother Ryan works in finance in Los Angeles. Polly is a Vice President at Amegy Bank where she has worked for 8 years and Sohail – also known as Sam by his close friends – is the CEO of Drisonline, a website patient care company with headquarters in Houston.
Three years ago Nicki met Daniel Sullivan at a professional networking event in Washington and the two of them hit it off and have been inseparable. They plan to have their wedding on September 13 in Washington, DC where they have many friends and the Sullivans have family. After a honeymoon in Hawaii, they will make their home in the DC area.
Daniel, 34, who is much taller than Nicki (“opposites attract!” she chuckled) works in the NGO United to End Genocide, focusing on African genocide issues. He has an undergraduate degree from Harvard and a Masters in Public Policy from Columbia University. His father Patrick is a retired engineer who worked in the pulp and paper industry and his mother Eleanor is a nurse who still loves to work. They both live in Maine but their grown children live elsewhere in the north east. They have a daughter who will be tying the knot in a month and then moving to Denver,
Nicki and Daniel celebrated their engagement with family and friends who spanned all over the world. Sohail is originally from Karachi, Pakistan and his college friends from University of Houston days were at hand with their families. His twin sister and her family also came for the occasion. Polly is of Mexican heritage and her uncles, aunts and six other siblings all came for the engagement. A few others guests were from India. “This is what the American melting pot is all about,” laughed Polly. “To top it off, the Sullivans come from a German-Polish-Irish lineage and the family name used to be O’Sullivan. And coincidentally, Patrick also has a twin brother!”