EMP-31

As we write this, Mark Rohde writes to say he's home from work, buried under 2 feet of fresh fallen snow, built on top of a couple feet since Thanksgiving. He adds, "Very pretty — New England! Reminds me of CHICAGO, except the hilly and curvy streets make it a real challenge!" Mark also updates us with the following: "My daughter Carla started college this fall in Kentucky and seems to be enjoying it. Ed Wolf is still doing well at Tribune, he is doing work in circulation strategy for all of the Tribune properties; Jay Pensler, no change as far as I know, although we keep missing each others' calls. Donnita Meredith left the ad agency to head up a nonprofit children's group in the Caprini Green area affiliated with, I believe, Moody Bible Institute. And Larry Venturelli got tired of soup and nuts at Campbells in New Jersey and — get this — landed a job as head of planning for Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines in Miami! (Lucky Larry)"

Daniel Penovich, dppenovich@gatx.com, writes, "Tim, thanks for staying in touch with all of us. I've been terrible about returning the favor, so I'm attempting to live up to one of the many resolutions I made for 2003. I've already blown most of them. I've managed to stay employed through the downturn in the economy, leaving Union Tank Car in 1998 and knocking on the door at GATX Corp. They needed help in business development at GATX Rail (same kind of business as Union Tank), to look for opportunities beyond equipment leasing domestically and exploring equipment leasing in Australia, Europe and India. I was involved in a couple of acquisitions and learned a great deal going through those exercises. Investment banking and due diligence became my life for about a year. The opportunity then arose to head up a services business unit at GATX Rail. After spending about six months investigating, it ended up being a dry hole. Luckily, through a senior management departure, I was offered the job as head of sales and marketing at GATX Rail in June of 2000. Since that time, we've merged some of our businesses, working on saving SG&A and closing down some of the less profitable ones. In all of it, I've managed to come through OK. My latest position includes senior management responsibility for sales in Canada, Mexico and the United States, managing a railcar fleet of some 110,000 cars. Business has been tough, but hopefully, we've been through the worst of the down cycle.

"My kids are growing up fast. Laura is 15, played sophomore volleyball on Naperville North's high school team and club from January through May. Her social life is of paramount importance, and so the mom and dad taxi service is burning up the gas. New Year's Eve we hosted a teen-age party for 35, a neighbor party for 12 and a kid party for five. Hard to believe, but dad had no alcohol that evening. Pretty tough duty. I hate having to be a good example. I'm not fit for the role. Everything went well except when the fog machine in the basement filled the whole house with fog. It made for some interesting looks from the parents picking up teen-agers. Mark is 11, plays baseball and basketball and is just discovering girls. As you can imagine, my wife Cindy is busy shuttling kids and offering tidbits of wisdom on growing up to both the kids. (Most of which has the appearance of being summarily dismissed by both of them!)

Just finished up a yearlong renovation on our house in Naperville, Ill. We probably should have torn it down and started over. It's hard to believe that eight years have passed since we were standing on the bar at the 'log cabin' celebrating our completion the program. Somewhere I saw a picture of us on that bar. Hope all is well with you and your family. Greetings to everyone else (except Keefe — I have a special salutation for him). Hope to get together in some capacity soon. Take care."

Lynn Monica updates us with the following, "Thanks for the update. Sounds like life is going well for you. I, on the other hand, did not survive the market downturn. Thought I had, but was laid off unexpectedly at the end of October, and given that the holidays were approaching, my dad (who has Parkinson's disease) was not doing too well and the end of the year is not a good time to be looking for a new job, I decided I needed a long overdue break from the work world! Time I used up all those free miles I have accumulated. So, I decided to spend time with family out East, visit friends and do my favorite thing — travel to some faraway places that I have been anxious to visit.

"Last year I made it to Peru (Macchu Picchu) and completed my first marathon (many EMP-31ers sponsored Lynn and her efforts to raise money in the 'eleemosynary space' — thanks to all, Tim) in Alaska (so visited Denali while there). This year I decided to start with Thailand (where I am writing to you from, currently in Chiang Mai) and then visit my closest friend, (not by location) who lives in Christchurch, New Zealand, but used to live in Chicago (my next stop after the beaches). The trip so far has been wonderful (today learned how to cook several Thai dishes, including Pad Thai). The southern beaches and more Thai massages are next on the list.

"Next trip will be back East to see family again, then maybe I will start looking for jobs, (actually have talked casually to a few folks, but not yet working on that part of my life) or I may decide to take another trip to another wonderful place in the world. If, however, any of you have some leads on some great job opportunities for someone like me that can be done from San Francisco, let me know."

Then, while searching for more gainful employment, Larry Silman wrote to say, "I'm heading off to the Auto Show. I figure, what better time than now to buy a new Ferrari." Larry and Tim Koch have hooked up for lunch a few times since the last issue, and have also attended several functions offered by the revamped Kellogg Alumni Club of Chicago (Tim's a member of the board), including the Digital Leadership Conference (featuring keynote speakers including Chicago's Mayor Richard M. Daley, the CEO of Google and the former CEO of Napster), a review of the SuperBowl commercials and a career development seminar.

Larry also reports, "Greetings and Happy 2003! I hope the New Year finds you happy, healthy and wise (or, at least, two out of three). Like my good friend Lynn, I also fell victim to the economic downturn of the last year. I was working for EDS (as a result of an acquisition EDS made back in 2001) but the IT services business is in such a tailspin that our Chicago office came under the cost-reduction knife in October.

"Like Lynn, I've also been taking advantage of the slow holiday season to do a little traveling. Today, I'm writing from Darwin, Minn., where I've just seen the world's largest twine ball. As the last great work by the late Francis A. Johnson, I feel privileged to have finally seen this symbol of our nation's freedom. In December, I traveled to O'Donnell, Texas, to see the famous Dan Blocker Monument. The life-size bronze bust of the man we all knew as 'Bonanza's' Hoss Cartwright was a real inspiration. The plaque beneath the head reads, 'Thanks to film, Hoss Cartwright will live, but all too seldom does the world get to keep a Dan Blocker.' Truer words have rarely been spoken (or written).

"While in Texas, I couldn't resist a side trip to Seguin to see the world's largest pecan. I, too, took in a few cooking classes (pecan pie, pecan chicken, peking duck etc.) and got a nice foot massage from a woman named Irma Lou Buckely. Good town, good people, good pie. But it's back to the job search for me as soon as I get home. (My bus leaves in an hour.) So please keep your eyes and ears open for me."

Larry concludes Lee Esler is "doing very well. Seems to really like his job. Family is good too. They added a baby boy last year to the two girls. Greg Oslan is trying to decide what to do next. He made some money several years ago when he went to Dallas and that firm was purchased and, since then, he's been dabbling."

Lynn Monica continues to send postcards from around the world. Most recently, "Well the beaches in Thailand were wonderful, but New Zealand was even better — especially for those who like trekking, kayaking, mountain biking and fun people!"

Great news from Gary Binkowski. Gary reports, "In June 2002, I left ACNielsen after nearly 13 years. I was the senior vice president of strategic planning. We were acquired by VNU Inc. (a Dutch firm in the media/research/publishing business). The rest is history. In September, I accepted a position with Office Depot in Delray Beach, Fla., as vice president, finance and chief financial officer — retail division. Cathy and the children (Christina, 14, and Nichole, 10) will be relocating to South Florida within the month. We are building a home in Wellington, Fla. Wellington is about 20 miles Northwest of Boca Raton, Fla. Our home should be complete in mid-April. Until then we will be in a temporary home.

"This is the first major move (relocation) we have undertaken as a family. I am sure that the transition will be challenging, but very exciting as well. As you know, Chicago and South Florida are very different in almost every way. We are lucky in that the children are very active: Christina is a very focused cheerleader, and has a passion for dance (tap, jazz and ballet) and, as Dan outlined, the social life of a 14-15-year-old is nothing short of staggering. Nichole is quite the opposite. She is a Purple Belt in Karate, an avid horseback rider and loves football and street hockey. Both of the children are outstanding students. Cathy and I are confident that the children will assimilate very well to South Florida.

"I wanted to give special thanks to Tim Koch, Mike Collins, Mike Morison and Mark Rhode for their assistance and support during my transition. If anyone ever needs assistance with anything please give me a call. (Gary had a truly exemplary search. By all means, reach out to him if needed. -Tim.) Take care, safe travels and stay in touch (gbinkoski@officedepot.com).

David Stropes laments, "As you can see, I don't do a great job of keeping current with my emails. After reading Lynn's and Larry's excellent adventures of the unemployed, I'm starting to rethink this whole work thing! I'm still working at BNSF Railroad. Shortly after graduation, I transferred from Chicago to our corporate headquarters in Fort Worth, Texas. It's hard to believe that I've been in Texas for seven years. Up until about three months ago, I had been in our finance department as BNSF's assistant controller. I recently accepted a position in our marketing group as assistant vice president of consumer accounts. My group is responsible for marketing transportation services to food, beverage and other end consumer goods product shippers. The good part of this job is that some of my largest customers are the major U.S. breweries and wineries (a product that I learned a lot about, somehow). Unfortunately, I'm now wishing that I had paid a lot more attention during all of those marketing classes."

The elusive Mike Mulica EMP-31 and family have been found, and wish all a Happy New Year!

Mike Mulica, in responding to Tim's email updates between issues of Kellogg World, states, "I have to admit I'm getting a little annoyed at these emails, as I am sure I did not attend Kellogg, as I remember nothing from the experience. I will provide a quick update because I do live in Evanston and feel a certain affinity to the university based upon my proximity to it. The first item to be noted is that there seems to be some confusion on how many years it has been since your class graduated — some think seven, some eight. I'm amused by this basic level of confusion from supposed graduates of the No. 1 business school.

"As for me, I'm still at Openwave, but only by a thread, I'm working 10 hours a week through the rest of the year on a few items, sitting on a four boards, but mostly just re-engaging with my kids (we now have five) and reinvigorating now-distant friendships. The Internet rush and subsequent bust has been both an exhilarating and exhausting experience that I'm glad to have participated in, but frankly, I'm really in need of a breather. My plan is to do some fun stuff for the next nine to 12 months that I've put off for the last seven years. As an example, my 12- and 10-year-olds got scuba certified at NU before Christmas and went diving over the holidays. A much better use of human brain power than scrubbing sales forecasts. Irrespective of my memory, you all seem like a nice bunch, so I wish you the best, and if you're in Evanston look me up. I'd enjoy meeting you! Cheers!"

Jay Crookston chimes in with, "I, too, have a new gig. I joined PlaceWare, an investor-funded pre-IPO 6-year-old company in September, after more than 20 years at MCI/WorldCom. PlaceWare is based in Mountain View, Calif., and has the leading Web-conferencing technology (although my primary competitor, WebEx, has done a much better job of executing on the sales and marketing front — hence my challenge!).

"Despite the Silicon Valley HQs, the PlaceWare worldwide sales HQ may soon be in Chicago. With three teen-agers, I'm not about to move from Chicago! My most recent EMP 'brush with fame' was with Mike Mulica on a Sunday night flight to SFO from Chicago. Man, I had forgotten how damn tall that dude was. What is he, about 7 feet tall?

"I can't believe how old we're all getting. Anyone else out there unable to read email or a newspaper without their reading specs? I just started sporting my reading glasses on a Croakie 24-7 — you know, the ol' 'librarian look.' (The younger chicks really dig it). I also just had my 2003 sales kick off. You know you're really getting to be a crusty old fart when you're the oldest guy at the kick off (except for your CEO). It is hard to believe that we graduated from Kellogg seven years ago. It is great to see the efforts of Tim to keep us connected (jay@placeware.com) and how well folks seem to be doing. My best to all."

Gloating from his (again) upset victory of Boston College over Notre Dame (I love the way Mike Keefe correctly pronounces "No tra Dame" versus the more pedestrian "No ter Dame."), Mike reports, "Tim, we beat you again this year, so I am assuming you will be my guest in Boston next year as you seek revenge. Of course, I know high school football will probably get in the way, but let me know if you are in, as I will reserve the tickets." (Tim's HS alma mater, Immaculate Conception High School, where he's the "Voice of the Knights," won the state of Illinois 3A Football Championship in 2002!)

Mike continues, "Glad to hear all the gang is doing well in the eight years since we have been study partners. Gary (Binkowski), you are going to love Florida and I am glad all worked out for you. Lynn, you continue to amaze me in your travels. I am envious and hope to someday get back in the travel mode. Dan (Penovish), my salutation is the same for you as yours is for me. Not having a beer at a party — are you feeling all right? Why have a party, no matter what the age? All that travel car information was quite informative! You go brother. Jay (Crookston), you are getting old, my man, with the glasses. I am sure the Silicon Valley 25-year-old girls are digging it. Mulica, I've written too much already. If anyone is ever in the D.C. area, give a shout! My number is 800.633.2330 Ext. 2444."

Congratulations and Best Wishes to Linda Radtke (formerly Ramos), who married Phil around Easter. "Phil is such a sweetheart he agreed to take my boys on a family 'honeymoon' to Disney World over Easter break. Of course, he says I owe him a real honeymoon."

Some older news which didn't make it into the previous edition of Kellogg World: Mark Rohde is coming back into Chicago (albeit briefly), so we had a mini reunion and in addition to Mark and Tim, Ed Wolf, Mike Morison and Larry Silman quaffed a few at the Alumni Club on Michigan Avenue.

Mike Collins and I again hooked up with Mike Mulica at his annual Northwestern pig roast tailgate party. A good time was had by all.

Jim Freeburg missed the NU/Ohio state game due to a wedding in Michigan (no, not his), as did Lori Craven, who was in Chicago that weekend, but attended the Shakespeare Repertory Theater. She adds, "Things are going quite well here. It was definitely the best business decision — the job is. We're adjusting. North Carolina isn't Chicago, and I have to keep reminding myself that there are pros and cons to that."

Please remember to update your contact info on the Kellogg Web site, and remember, we always need more class information. Please send it regularly. Thanks, Tim