1999

Despite the downturn in the economy and the unfortunate news that many of our classmates are job-hunting once again, this update brings lots of good news mostly in the form of weddings and babies!

	Paul Ark '99 married Nichapat Samakkheenitch in December. The couple held ceremonies in both Thailand and California, the festivites attracting many Kellogg School friends.

The extra time was also put to good use in preparing for his wedding; in December, Paul married Nichapat (“Nicha”) Samakkheenitch, whom he met at Kellogg when she studied on exchange from Sasin’s MBA program in Thailand. Never taking the easy route, Paul and Nicha opted for wedding receptions. They held traditional Chinese nuptials in Bangkok on Dec. 26, followed by a reception and Thai blessing ceremony in Irvine, Calif., in January. Of the 700 guests at the Bangkok reception, Graeme Alexander, Chanin Ponpipom, Teerin Ratanapinyowong, Paniti Sutabutr, Naoko Tanouchi, Joey Wat ’00 and master of ceremonies Pathom Yongvanich were on hand to represent the Kellogg School. Kellogg was even better represented at the 220-person Irvine reception, with Albert Chin, Drew Edwards, Ang Gao, Steve Hartman, Wynne Kwee, Hugh Olliphant, Connie Siu, Chung Wu, and Mike Yuzon in attendance. Nicha joins Paul in Hong Kong, and they both welcome any alums who find themselves passing through the territories.

Greetings from Jeneane Kee, who following the events of Sept. 11 wrote: “I was very fortunate and made it out of the area safely during the World Trade Center attack. I have just been trying to comfort those who have lost friends and family. I recently started a new job at Salomon Smith Barney in sales and trading. Prior to starting my job I took four months off and traveled throughout southern and northern Italy, the Greek Islands, the coast of Turkey and the Caribbean.”

Erik Attkisson and Jill Sharp were married on Sept. 8 in Door County, Wis. They were psyched to have a bunch of fellow Kelloggians there to celebrate, including: Rashaanda Cook, Paul Smurl and his wife Eva Jerome, Irene (Shing) Wu and Jason Wu, Brian Lessig, Jen Roskopf and her husband Kevin (TMP 2001), Heather (Funke) Helle and her husband Chris, Geoff Bolan and his wife Lynn Schnaiberg, Elmer Choy, Jason Lebovidge and his fiancee Jen Soriano, Jeff Hughes and his wife Sarah, Mike Keefe and his wife Kirsten, Doug Kenshol, Rebecca Mayne and her fiance Rory Altman ’98, Jacqueline Shohet-Zabin and her husband Jeff Zabin, and Gordon Lau. As Jill said “We had a blast, honeymooned in Hawaii and are back to work.”

A crowd of Kellogg school peers joined Krista Kaur and Rick Meyers when they married in California's Napa Valley last May

Krista Kaur and Rick Meyers were married in California’s Napa Valley on May 27. Many Kellogg alumni were there to share in the celebration: Ari Ackerman, Graeme Alexander, Juan Altamar, Sally Babcock, Mason Cardwell, Laurie Caravajal, Matt Compton, Lily Datta, Brian Gunn, Shawna Gwin, Sara Heckscher, Dave Iwan, Michael Jaffe, Scott Jampol, Peter Jarman, Kevin Kirkpatrick, Evan Krasts, Greg Lyons, Kelly McClenahan, Susan Morrow, Brock Moseley, Dan Reid, Pam Skonicki, Jason Spero, Karyn Wachtell and Crista Zimmerman. In September, Krista and Rick moved from San Francisco to Chicago where Krista is opening a women’s apparel boutique and Rick is working as a financial adviser for Sanford C. Bernstein.

Despite the abundant rain this winter season, Seattle continues to attract a steady stream of Kellogg visitors, who drop in to say hi to the 1999 regulars. Recent guests included Eric Berg, up from San Francisco, and Brian Warren (with wife Annie), out from Denver. Eric, a Pacific Northwest native, is toying with the idea of returning to his roots, and naturally got plenty of encouragement from Seattleites Sean O Neill, Sharon Goldstein, and Mark Pendergrast. All three are still fully engaged with in local high tech community with Sharon continuing to prosper at Real Networks and Sean still working furiously over at Amazon.com (now in a neat marketing position within the company’s operations department). Mark recently made the career jump from Amazon across the Lake to Microsoft, where he s now a product manager in the nascent Windows eHome division.

Other 1999 Kellogg Seattleites also had recent job changes: Jackie Erickson moved from Drugstore.com to join Sharon at Real Networks, Erik Carlson (who had moved out to Seattle from the Big Apple in 2000) left Onvia.com to join Microsoft’s MSN Money group, and David Medd left the consulting world behind to also join Microsoft’s Small Business Server group. The Seattle Kellogg crew of 1999 is also excited to report its first baby birth announcement: in early October, Sara Morris and husband Will Rava (NU Law School) were happy to have twins Abigail and Celia Mae join their family. When not at work, the Seattle crew has spent the winter happily enjoying the bountiful mountain snowfall skiing at Whistler and local resorts, and snowshoeing in the nearby hills a winter wonderland that exists an hour from downtown.

Andy Marolda dropped me a line to say he and Diane are well. They are living 25 miles from New York City, and enjoying life with daughter Giulia who is now a year and a half old, and a veteran daddy’s girl. Andy is currently working at Phillips on what sounds like some very interesting new technology!

Last month we celebrated Annika Lane’s 30th birthday here in Chicago at a party hosted by JP and Krista (Edlund) Gallagher. Those helping Annika celebrate included Billy Baumann, Mike Lane, Thad Wilson, Paul Earle, Rick and Krista (Kaur) Meyers and out-of-town guests Caty Supper and Nicole Ginsburg.