1990

Many of you responded after the last issue; thank you for all the new material. For those of you who missed the last report, I'm currently giving Sarah Crewe a break from her valiant 10 years as our class rep. Keep sending news of yourselves or, if you're too shy, of other alums. (It'll be good for all of us if you can stave off any desperate attempt of mine to write creatively.) Photos are also appreciated, but Kellogg World is unable to publish them unless an alum appears somewhere in the shot. In the future, please do what you must to squeeze a likeness of yourselves into any photo you submit.

David Gavoor congratulated me on "taking up the mantle of class gossip," an honor I accept with due humility. David wrote, "I know it's hard to believe, but I'm on to yet another job! This time at Morgan Stanley in their Hi-Yield Department. I'm a salesperson (aka "smile and dial"). Most recently I was at CSFB, DLJ and Bankers Trust. For anyone passing through The Rotten Apple, call me at 212.721.4335." He also tossed out the challenge, "Has anyone in our class had more jobs than me? I count six Œreal' jobs post Kellogg."

David reported that he runs into Tim Furey on occasion "who is doing extremely well in his position as a research salesperson in the equity department at Goldman Sachs."

Susan Schaberg took an interesting path after Kellogg. She is now a second-year resident physician at University of California at Irvine. She relayed that she's doing well and saw Susie Forsen recently. Susie lives in Missouri with her husband and two daughters.

Virl Hill wrote that his wife Nancy Hall Hill delivered fraternal twin boys last September. "Brandon has the quiet, curious disposition of his mom. Connor inherited his dad's set of lungs. Big brother Ryan (3) is doing a great job supervising." Nancy won Immunex's Emerald Award this year and received a promotion to senior marketing director, oncology. "Practically the same day she was promoted, my parents arrived to visit and she was hospitalized with pre-term labor. I don't think these were correlated." Virl recounts that he's "doing business development for the consumer division of RealNetworks and joined the board of the Youth Theatre Northwest this fall. The organization produces theatre for children, acted by kids ages 5-18. YTN also has a popular outreach program bringing arts education to underserved communities throughout the Pacific Northwest. It's a great, growing organization and yes, we accept corporate grants and matching gifts! For more details, check out www.youththeatre.org." Virl noted that he and family "joined Scott Gode and wife Kelly for their holiday party. What fun to have a living room full of wide-eyed kids by the Gode's huge fireplace as Santa asked for Christmas wishes. Quite the Kodak moment!"

Recently, I was tickled pink to learn that Charlie Brown has dedicated his career to making rocks. He wrote, "I thought I could overcome my introverted nature and provide you with the long awaited summary of my past 10 years. In a nutshell, since Kellogg I married a southern belle, moved to Birmingham, Ala., bought a Œbig ole' pickup truck, and now enjoy country music. Along the way, Stephanie [the aforementioned southern belle, I'm hoping] "and I had two beautiful children -- our daughter Haley (6) was born in North Carolina, and our son Mason (5) was born in Pennsylvania. We have now settled down, and for excitement beyond the normal church socials, I handle the finance, accounting and investor relations for Vulcan Materials, the largest producer of crushed stone in the United States. In this e-commerce world, explaining how Vulcan delivers huge profits by blasting, crushing, and selling rock is somehow baffling to investors." For a long time now, I had thought I was the only alum whose career had really reached its glamour potential. Tough to compete with my heady world of recycling center management. Or the allure of my chemical production days. But making rocks -- Now that'll get your heart racing. Oh, yeah, getting back to Charlie, he "briefly ventured outside his southern wonderland, and recently participated in Gregg Anderson's wedding in Wisconsin." In addition, the rock man reports that Craig Stinebaugh and his wife Stephanie had their first child, Jackson Charles Stinebaugh, on Nov. 8.

Shaila and Jacquie Adair Bettadapur are adjusting to life in Waterloo, Belgium, where Shaila was transferred in September. Jacquie wrote, "If you happen to be coming this way, or are just passing through, please let us know. My e-mail address is jacbetta@yahoo.com. We're not far from the airport and are desperate for English speakers and peanut butter." She also noted that Ed Buckley is living in Belgium and that Uday Mathur is in Amsterdam.

Judi Urquhart-Brown submitted this 10-year update: "Dropped the "-Brown" in my last name. It became too cumbersome. It's a miracle I ever got married; with the hyphen already in place, guys just assumed I was already married. Anyway, I did finally take the marriage plunge. Husband, Gordon Harris, is an HR VP at Sovereign Bank and daughter Zoë is three years old. We're living on Cape Cod and loving it. If anyone is ever in the neighborhood, please drop in." You can send an e-mail message to Judi at jurquhart@newportcreative.com. After Kellogg, Judi had a short stint at American Express in NYC and "realized the corporate life was not for me. I then went to work for Outward Bound, an outdoor adventure non-profit and was their marketing director for three years and then a board member for a couple more years. Now I am senior vice president of marketing and operations for a small direct marketing firm (Newport Creative Communications) that helps non-profit organizations raise money."

Michele McCallion Ayoub recounted "My husband Robert Ayoub and I were blessed with our first child, Christopher Mark, on Sept. 9." She was plunged into the world of sleep deprivation when Christopher refused to nap during the first eight weeks of life. "However," she wrote, "those difficult days seem to be a distant memory now that he smiles and laughs at me. He is truly a blessing!" Last July, Michele and her team left the Private Client Services Group at Goldman Sachs and joined the Wealth Management group at Merrill Lynch. "This was a very difficult decision because I had worked at GS for 11 years including the two years before Kellogg and my husband works at the firm. Nevertheless, it was the right decision for my business." Michele, Robert and Christopher are living in New Canaan, Conn.

Bob Toy writes: "I'm working in eBusiness for a $2 billion business unit. There have been lots of twists and turns and team building. Kellogg's environment was perfect for this! We have three kids, ages 7, 4 and 2. All of them have individualism written all over!"

Hiroshi Sone wrote that Sandy Haviland, director at investment banking firm Pederson Kammert and Co, persuaded Hiroshi to change careers last September. Hiroshi is now a management consultant specializing in M&As between American and Japanese companies. He also is starting a new venture company in Tokyo that provides "high level English education service for both individuals and corporate training programs." His school, Creative English Learning Solutions, plans to explore on-line education, "an arena with high growth potential in Japan." Hiroshi's letter closed with, "I would be more than happy to obtain from you any information, inputs, suggestion and advice regarding two of my new jobs." I panicked. "Advice" from me? Fortunately, my husband (whose work actually takes him outside the Missouri state lines on occasion) gently suggested that perhaps Hiroshi's closing line was a simple example of gracious Japanese business protocol, not an invitation to consult. Perhaps, my husband intimated, Hiroshi might be better off if I didn't take that closing line personally. What a relief. If, however, the rest of you take things too personally, advise Hiroshi to your heart's content at SGP02762@nifty.ne.jp.

Jim Sellers

Jim Sellers writes: "Started work in August as president and CEO of Schwartz Electro-Optics, an Orlando-based manufacturer and distributor of laser systems for military training, transportation, materials processing, precision farming, and a variety of other markets. With $25 million in annual sales, 280 employees, and subsidiaries in Boston, New Jersey and San Diego, I've been working hard and doing a lot of traveling to lead a turnaround. Whether bringing your kids to Disney, attending conventions, or playing golf, I know all of you will be through Orlando soon. Call me when you're in town -- my new contact info is on the Web site (is yours?)."

Valentina Vavasis and her husband Ben Speiser were thrilled to announce the birth of Eva Marie Speiser on Oct. 13. Valentina states that she's currently "in the throes of the decision about whether to go back to work" and "rehabbing a big old 1897 house. This is actually our first house. We're hoping to move into the house in the summer. It's taking way longer and costing way more than we ever expected."

Monica Lorick sent a happy wedding reception photo of alums Lee Cotton, Jake Boxer, Jackie George '91, Alex Procopis, Ruthie Finn, Monica and her groom. Monica wrote, "I was married in April to a terrific guy, Norman Williams. I met him through his brother, whom I met while on exchange from Kellogg at IESE in Barcelona. Those b-school connections always seem to pay off." Monica recently left American Express where she was "extremely busy managing a large Web site build and marketing B2B e-commerce products." She hopes to pursue similar opportunities in Switzerland where she lives with her husband. Call her at 41.22.329.4951.

Monica Lorick '90 and Norman Williams were married last April. Several Kellogg alums joined them for the ceremony.

Ever the model of staid convention, Allison Plyer is back from Mongolia and has "started a doctoral program at the Tulane School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine. It's an executive doctorate in Health Systems Management. Meets one weekend a month for two years and then a dissertation. Why am I doing this? Because I love school. And I want to bolster my quantitative skills. Too often people design nonprofit programs based on passion, without researching national practices in their field, let alone analyzing the local data to determine what intervention would be most effective in alleviating the problem. As Sonya Grier always says, ŒEverything is marketing' and that certainly applies to nonprofit interventions. But maybe that's just a slanted Kellogg view -- very marketing oriented." Allison also sent a copy of her terrific yearly newsletter describing her travels in Mongolia and her life in New Orleans (excerpt: "I have become a southern belle. I no longer resist when men offer to open my beer for me"). I highly recommend a subscription to The Plyer Report. Inquire at aplyer@igc.org.

And finally, Bertrand Waché wrote to suggest that everyone keep addresses and telephone numbers current in the alumni directory and to assert, "it's easily done on-line." Great idea! He sends his regards, home e-mail address (brwache@aol.com) and no news of himself. Could someone less shy fill me in?