EMP-42

I recently heard from Stephan Achs, who is now president and a member of the board of Kabel Schlepp. Stephan and his wife were in Germany on business at the time of the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11. He shared with me his fear of the uncertainty of what was actually happening at home in the United States, as there were so many conflicting stories circulating Europe. It was not until they arrived home 48 hours later that they learned of what had taken place.

Stephan summarized his thoughts:”Looking back at this entire event, it had a profound impact on my wife, family and I — and all Americans. Our innocence had been lost and the world would never look quite the same. I believe that we are now much closer, hug our kids tighter and much more. We say with a new meaning that we love them all the time. We spend more time together and realize what an insane world we live in and how incredibly lucky we are to be Americans.”

Sonny Bal announced the birth of his third child, a boy born on May 24, 2001. Himmat Bal was 7 lbs. and joins his two big sisters, ages 5 and 6.

Steve Blank, his wife, Janet and their four children have moved back to the Sacramento, California area. He left Monsanto in July 2001 to take a new position as western regional sales director at Merial Limited. Merial Limited makes animal health products and are best known for their two flagship products, Frontline Plus and Heartgard Plus.

Gopal Lalmalani has recently been elected to serve as president of the Medical Staff at Holy Cross Hospital in Chicago.

I received a note from Mark Lamb, who relocated to St. Louis back in February 2000 and is now the business development manager for Federal-Mogul’s business services group.

We have a new addition to the Scholar family! Eric Scholar announces the birth of his son, Christian who was born on Dec. 28. Christian joins his big sister, Madison who is almost four.

Bob Stein started his own consulting business, R.C. Stein & Associates. He has relocated from Michigan to Pinehurst, N.C. (By the way, his new office happens to be located on the 3rd fairway of a local golf course. Way to go, Bob!). His practice specializes in business performance improvement and is currently under a long-term contract with SPX Corp. in Charlotte.

Bob is working on his company’s Web site but you can contact him at rstein1999@kellogg.northwestern.edu. In other news, Bob and his wife, Shoshana, celebrated their 33rd wedding anniversary in December.