Club & Network News

The Kellogg Alumni Club of Boston welcomed five new at-large directors to its board for the 2019-20 year: Dave DuBois ’17, Aakash Desai ’14, Colin Blaney ’10, Christopher Sherrill ’08 and Dustin Clinard ’05.

The club continues to garner strong engagement from its diverse alumni in the Boston Metro area through a variety of new program offerings as well as popular annual events. For the first major new program of the year, KACB partnered with Professor Craig Garthwaite to host an inaugural Kellogg in Healthcare – Boston event. Professor Garthwaite spoke about market-based reforms for drug pricing, addressing a group of Kellogg executives assembled from across the healthcare spectrum. The event was highly successful with future related programs already in the works.

As for annual events, the club’s emphasis on women-focused events continues to draw strong attendance, with the fall brunch networking series being a huge hit. Similarly, the club welcomed the newest alumni at the annual fall happy hour. Many alumni continue to give back to the community through Community Consulting Teams of Boston, assisting local nonprofits with various consulting engagements. The last event of 2019 allowed alumni to give back to the community through a partnership with Open Table, a local food pantry. Kellogg alumni and their children helped prepare Thanksgiving meals, sort food for distribution and decorate snack bags.

In 2020 the club will continue to offer its most popular events while also launching new programming on technology and privacy, spearheaded by several of our new members.

The Kellogg Alumni Club of Chicago (KACC) kept busy in 2019 hosting 22 events with more than 1,100 alumni and guests in attendance and nearly all events selling out early. The year started off with learning how to Job Hunt Like a Rockstar, hosted by Professor Jeff Hyman ’95, who teaches Recruiting and Retaining Talent in Growth Companies. Additionally, local alumni learned that Visionaries Are Made Not Born, led by Professor Lloyd Shefsky and two local visionary leaders, Wendy Lewis ’95, global chief diversity officer at McDonald's, and Marc Schulman (JD ’79), president of Eli’s Cheesecake. Alumni were treated to the wonderful Chicago summer with outdoor happy hours and the annual Kellogg and Chicagoland B-School boat cruise, in which Wharton, Booth, HEC Paris, Stanford and Harvard joined.

In the fall, the KACC celebrated both Veteran’s Day and Hispanic Heritage months with networking and panel events, including Jaime Valles ’16, managing director at Amazon Web Services in Latin America, who discussed innovation culture at Amazon. KACC capped off the year with a presentation by Professor Adam Waytz who discussed his new book, The Power of Human: How Our Shared Humanity Can Help Us Create a Better World. The club also hosted several networking breakfasts on the North Shore and networking lunches at the Mid-America Club downtown. KACC looks forward to more programming and encourages all alumni to join us at an upcoming event!

Kellogg Alumni Club Chicago-West (KACC-West) hosts quarterly breakfast clubs, which provide opportunities for networking and reconnecting, and to learn information on topical subjects. 

Recent events were held at Republic Bank, where the bank’s EVP/chief financial officer gave a short presentation on current economic factors and their local and national impact, and at Fifth Third Bank, where the bank’s chief investment strategist provided insights into the present state of the U.S. economy and economic considerations and implications for businesses and investors.

The Kellogg Alumni Club of Cleveland held two events this past quarter, welcoming Professor Timothy Calkins and hosting an end-of-year holiday happy hour. In November, Professor Calkins facilitated an interactive discussion on the art of mastering business presentations, which was based on his recently published book, How to Wash a Chicken. The event drew more than 200 attendees and demonstrated Professor Calkins’ outstanding skills as an educator, speaker and author. In December, the Kellogg club, along with several other local MBA alumni clubs, hosted a joint holiday gathering that provided a unique networking opportunity for those in the Cleveland area. The club is planning an active 2020, so please reach out if you are interested in participating in or running an event this year.       

Life has been good as Kellogg alumni in the GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council, now renamed as the Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf). Representing the countries of United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain and Oman, the vast majority of Kellogg Alumni choose to live in the United Arab Emirates, mostly in Dubai, and many members travel for work during the week around this fascinating and up-and-coming region.

Currently the club has around 80 members, and this year, the club has welcomed Aditya Harneja ’17 to the board.

Despite challenging agendas, the Kellogg Alumni Club of the GCC has been busy throughout the year. Highlights have included a polo club brunch in conjunction with Chicago Booth and a yacht cruise with INSEAD and Wharton.

The club has managed to build a strong network with other leading schools through the initiative of the joint alumni committee, in which Kellogg is prominently represented, and therefore has also been invited to numerous speaking and networking events with other schools, including Harvard, Stanford, Oxford and London Business School.

The club is looking forward to another fun-filled year in 2020, which started with its very own Northwestern Connects event on January 24.

In the past few months, the DFW Kellogg Alumni Network hosted several new and existing programs.

On October 24, the Kellogg and Northwestern Clubs of DFW hosted NU Opens Doors, where nearly 75 alumni were given private tours of American Airlines' new headquarters and heard from an esteemed panel of AA executives that was moderated by Jim Butler ’02, senior VP of international and cargo. 

In early November, Microsoft’s principal director of engineering and AI discussed Applied AI — Separating the Hype from Impact, with nearly 80 attendees on Microsoft’s campus. Participants were given eye-opening views of the evolving AI landscape, showing its impact on manufacturing, education and customer service delivery, while providing a glimpse into the future of Microsoft’s vision and plans for AI within its products and services. 

On November 14, the club hosted its inaugural Women’s Networking Event, titled Lessons Learned from Kellogg/NU Women. The day brought out nearly 50 women who relished in the opportunity to network, fellowship, share and bond with other like-minded women, discussing topics ranging from career growth to how to thrive in today’s corporate environment. The panel discussion was hosted by Holly Briedis ’14, associate partner at McKinsey and Company, and panelists included Nicole Small ’99, CEO of LH Capital, Audrey Pinkerton ’99, co-founder of Valasso Partners, and Shontelle Mixon ’03, audit director at USAA. Over half of the attendees indicated this was their first alumni event and gave it rave reviews. It took no time for the women's leadership team of Teri Gordon ’97 and Laura Gordon ’90 to immediately engrave this as the newest recurring marquee event for the club. The DFW Kellogg Alumni Network brought 2020 in with a bang, hosting the 14th Annual Leadership Symposium at the SMU Cox School of Business in February. This year’s theme was Transformation — Personal Transformation, Leading Transformation through Social Impact and Leading Transformation with an Anticipatory Mindset. The sold-out crowd of nearly 300 included Kellogg alumni, DFW business leaders and MBA colleagues from several other business schools. Attendees had the opportunity to hear from Kellogg Executive Leadership Institute executive director, Rob Apatoff, who shared his experiences transforming companies in a variety of industries. Kellogg professors Karin O’Connor and Megan Kashner gave real-life examples of social impact in action, followed by an interactive case study that focused on Kellogg alumnae Megan Zamora’s ’14 social impact initiatives at Starbucks. The symposium continued the legacy of being one of the most attended business events in the DFW metroplex.

More exciting programming and events are being developed, including an expanded Senior Executive Networking Lunch Series, industry focus groups and a resurrection of the monthly Keg Happy Hours.  Please visit www.kelloggdfw.org to learn how you can get involved and more details on upcoming events.

The Kellogg Club of Japan hosted 96 members at its annual meeting on December 1. Following the annual reporting, as a response to the new leadership team’s request, Haruo Naito ’74, Akihiro Okumura ’75, Asako Hoshino ’88 and Yoshimitsu Kaji ’97 shared their views on the past, present and future of the club. Fed with good food for thoughts, participants from a broad generation, including Hidetoshi Kurahashi ’72 to Shun-Ya Wu ’19, Kazuki Miyazawa ’19 and Kiwamu Sato ’19 from the class of 2019 split into small groups to discuss five different themes: engaging junior members, senior members and EMBA alumni, attracting applicants, and socially contributing as the club. Based on the outcome, president Hiroshi Odawara ’11, with VP Katsuhiko Dendo ’05 and Keita Suzuki ’09, will lead in identifying new initiatives which will be discussed at the board meeting in February. On December 17, the club had the privilege of welcoming Dean Cornelli, who made her first trip over the Pacific to meet alumni in Tokyo. The reception was joined by Dean Mazzeo and 15 faculty members who were visiting the city during the week on a faculty GIM trip. All participants, including the first round admitted students and second round applicants, enjoyed getting to know each other, especially Dean Cornelli.

On November 26, KCJ members also enjoyed Mastering the Business Presentation directly from Professor Calkins, whose recent book How to Wash a Chicken was translated and published in Japan.  Alumni from Wharton and Columbia were also invited to join Tim’s inspiring lecture and the mingling that followed.

Around the middle of 2019, the Kellogg MBA - Alumni Club of Palestine met with more than 30 members in attendance. During the meeting, a new board for the club was nominated. The five new board members include Omar Al-Jabari ’11, Shireen Shelleh ’15, Samia Darwish ’18, Hani Taha ’07 and Yazan Eideh ’13. During the second half of 2019, the new board actively worked on a new initiative to further activate for the club and to take more responsibility in helping the startup ecosystem in Palestine in particular and in the MENA region in general. Within the first Quarter of 2020 the alumni club will be holding another main event in Ramallah, Palestine, to present this initiative to all its members and to explore the ways to materialize it.

The NU-Kellogg Alumni Club of Singapore continued to offer compelling and engaging programming for Northwestern Alumni in Singapore and those visiting the city.

In 2019, the club celebrated three key milestones:

1. The club achieved the Northwestern Alumni Association's Arch status.
2. The club won the Northwestern Alumni Association's International Club of the Year award.
3. The club welcomed a new board member.

The Kellogg Club of St. Louis gathered at Edward Jones' headquarters for a lunch meeting during which alumni were briefed by one of Edward Jones' key economists on the strengths of the U.S. economy and the influence of several socioeconomic factors. John Rahal ’15, a partner at Edward Jones, was the host and asked Penny Pennington ’12, managing partner, to stop by and share a few remarks. 

Edward Jones is one of St. Louis' great locally headquartered companies and home to many Kellogg alumni. With more than $1.3 trillion under care, 47,000 employees and 17,000 financial advisors, the company and its strong connection to Kellogg is something about which St. Louis is very proud.

The Kellogg Alumni Club of Wisconsin began its fall programming with a September breakfast hosting Dr. John Raymond, CEO of the Medical College of Wisconsin. The discussion focused on community health challenges and solutions in large metropolitan areas.

A joint meeting was held with the Harvard Business School Club of Wisconsin in October at the Fiserv Forum, the new home of the Milwaukee Bucks. Peter Feigin, president of the Bucks, and Kevin Steiner, CEO of West Bend Mutual Insurance, explained their strategic collaboration designed to grow each respective business and support the community.

Eric Resch ’04, founder and managing director of Stone Creek Coffee, hosted a November roastery tour and provided insights into his entrepreneurial journey to rapidly expand in the coffee business.

2020 kicked off with an event co-sponsored with the Milwaukee Rotary Club (thanks to Mary McCormick ’80, the club’s executive director). Dr. James Hedrick (PhD ’19) discussed HARP, the disruptive 3D printing technology invented within Northwestern’s Chemistry research labs, currently being commercialized in a three-year-old startup company, Azul 3D. Jim Hedrick is CEO of Azul 3D. 

Many new and exciting ideas for the 2019-20 academic year were discussed during the Kellogg Executive Women's Network Annual Planning Meeting held in Chicago in August 2019. These included developing programming to increase diversity on corporate and nonprofit boards, increasing coordination of programming for Kellogg alumnae across regions and developing peer groups or cohorts designed to provide support and guidance for Kellogg alumnae as they continue to grow their careers. The response to the first cohort formed in December, the new moms’ cohort, was significant. Other cohorts will be developed as interest is expressed.

The Annual New Member Fall Social, held at Latinicity in September, provided an opportunity for new alumnae to connect with KEWN members and to network in a vibrant setting. It was great to meet both new graduates and alumnae who were new to KEWN. 

For the third consecutive year, KEWN partnered with Kellogg Cares in October, providing a luncheon to the women residents at Sarah’s Circle, a nonprofit serving women who are homeless or who are in need of a safe place.

In December, KEWN continued its tradition of giving during the holidays with two signature events that benefited Community Alternatives Unlimited (CAU), a nonprofit that provides social services to individuals with disabilities and families with economic challenges.

The first event was a holiday shopping opportunity with Kendra Scott Jewelry. A portion of the evening’s receipts and registration fees were contributed to CAU. In addition, KEWN held its 13th Annual Holiday Brunch/Networking Event to benefit CAU with KEWN members bringing and wrapping gifts for babies and children.