1986

In case you were wondering -- there were no class notes in the last Kellogg World. I could blame any number of things -- children, travel, dogs, husband, "the recount" -- who knows. The bottom line is that I missed the deadline. In actuality the deadline was moved up three weeks and nobody told me. Nonetheless, if I have caused any of you any stress over this, well all I can say is that you need to find a hobby or two.

Let me fill you in on what I WOULD have reported in the last issue. Anthony E. Mann (a.k.a. Tony) was recently promoted to President of E-J Electric. E-J is the country's oldest independently owned and operated electrical contracting firm. Tony is a third-generation president of E-J. In addition, Tony is founder and president of E-J Communication Systems. It would have been nice to update you on other news about Tony and his family -- but heaven forbid he attach a note to the announcement that I received.

Speaking of not attaching a note, I finally heard from Austin Lehr. As I mentioned in a previous column, Austin is with DLJ in Colorado managing their real estate investments. He travels quite a bit, including a trip once or twice a month to New York City. Austin reports that one of his more interesting projects was in Montreal. The firm is part of a partnership that is redeveloping the old Montreal Forum hockey arena. It is being converted into an entertainment complex and their development partner is Simon Properties from Indianapolis. During one of his first meetings in Canada, he was pleasantly surprised when Kathy Shields walked in as Simon's representative. On the home front, Austin and his wife are keeping more than busy with their three kids -- Connor (6), Jami (5) and Anna (will be one in May). In the remaining eight minutes a day, Austin managed to complete his black belt in Tae Kwon Do (so don't mess with him) AND lectures at the University of Colorado's real estate school as well as serving on their advisory counsel.

Brad Kime wrote me with news of some other classmates, though he forgot to include himself -- maybe next time -- okay Brad? We would love to get an update. In the September 2000 issue of Inc. magazine, Sona Wong was featured. It was an article entitled "A network of her own" and had her photo. She has started her firm called Inroads in Chicago. It is a venture capital firm specifically for women entrepreneurs. Inroads is one of the largest of its kind with over $50 million under management.

Brad also mentioned that in the August 2000 issue of Sales and Marketing Management he read a feature article on Richard Hanks and his new dot-com company -- MyAssociation.com. The company helps associations and non-profits do business on-line. Richard had been the former EVP of sales and marketing at Marriott International.

As always, it was great to hear from Lars Hanan. Lars is currently a managing director in ING Barings M&A group as a generalist banker covering a broad range of industries. Recently, he spent most of his time working on Healthcare and Chemicals, many of which involve European companies. Lars and his wife, Susan, are still in Larchmont and have three boys -- Peter (10), Matthew (8) and Eric (3). They see Tim and Kristen Mendola and Matt and Ellen Smith.

Todd Brachman is the director of marketing and business development with the Perlick Corporation. Perlick is one of the nations largest manufacturers of beer draft systems. Todd's main job will be to develop some top-secret technology. As my sons would say -- "way cool job."

So how many of you are still at their first job out of Kellogg? Scott Sprinzen is! He has 14 years plus with Standard & Poor's, where he is responsible for coverage of automakers as well as for corporate rating development criteria. Scott and his wife live in Summit, N.J., with his two sons (ages 15 and 12).

I also heard from Josh Field. Josh is living in Dallas and is the managing director of Richmont Capital Partners, a private merchant bank that manages over $2 billion in assets including Mary Kay Inc. and Marketing Specialists Corp. Josh and his wife, Jaime, have two boys -- Adam (11) and Zachary (9). On his 40th birthday, Jaime threw Josh a big bash and one of the highlights of the event was having fellow classmate Glenn Deutsch and his wife, Lori, attend.

Last October, Carolyn Bolz Glah and her family moved from St. Paul, Minn., to Aspen, Co. (no fair!) Carolyn reports that she had already been recruited from US Bank, vice president of direct marketing, to take on the full time position of "Home/Family Manager." She and her husband Bob have two daughters, Sarah (4) and Kiki (3). Carolyn mentioned that in nine years in Minnesota, they only got the die-hard guests. Now in Aspen, they run a full time B&B for friends and family passing through -- and they love it. Diane Kyker was one such guest.

Greg Pomerantz reports that he is now the vice president of database marketing for Custom Research. He is looking forward to helping grow a consultancy practice that is only a few years old. One thing that I can tell you that Greg is NOT doing is aging. He and his adorable daughter, Sarah, were out visiting Greg's parents and brother in Los Angeles a few weeks back, and they were kind enough to pay us a visit. Without doubt, Greg looks exactly the same as the day we graduated. He is like the Dick Clark of our class.

That's all for now -- keep in touch. Looking forward to seeing everyone at the 15 (yikes) year reunion.