2003

Hot diggity, it’s great to see our class staying so closely connected after graduation! We’re doing a lot of traveling, emailing, phone calling, and getting married to keep those ‘03 bonds intact, and we now have even more ways to strengthen our class network.

Of course, you all know that our first reunion (sniff -- ) is rapidly approaching. Yep, Reunion 2004 will be April 30 to May 2, and it’s going to be outstanding! By now, you should have received lots of info about the action-packed weekend, which will include an evening at the Rock Bottom Brewery planned just for our class. Visit the Reunion ‘04 Web site for more details ─ alumni.kellogg.northwestern.edu/reunion and sign up to join many of your old friends.

Brian Fitzpatrick '03, left, and Stephen Koven '03 abandoned their respective coasts to meet up in Dallas for this year's Cotton Bowl. It was Stephen's 14th straight year to volunteer for this college classic, while Brian is officially not a rookie anymore when it comes to sideline security.

And have you checked out the new alumni network? It’s at alumni.kellogg.northwestern.edu. It’s pretty impressive, with tons of new resources for alumni, including our own dedicated Class of ‘03 Web site. Please take a few moments to update your personal info, including your forwarding email, so we can all more easily find each other and you can be informed of upcoming events for our class ─ including future Kellogg World submission deadlines! Also, please feel free to use our Class of ‘03 discussion boards and Web site (photos welcome) to share the love.

Finally, continue to send us news about what’s happening in your lives in between editions of Kellogg World! We hold on to these snippets of hot press, as well as photos that you send, and save them for the next publication so we can share them with our whole class. Fifteen minutes of fame, served up on glossy 8.5 by 11 paper.

So what’s up with the Class of ‘03? You asked for it -- Let’s begin this edition in an old familiar way, Lahima-style!

Celebrating the wedding of Arturo Vera '03 and Denise Lazo '03 as they stand before the mighty Machu Picchu in Peru are, starting fourth from left, second row, Adam Eisenberg, Denise Lazo, Arturo Vera, Karren Levis, Greg Kerman, Elaine Schulze, and Brian Fitzpatrick, all '03.

We’ll start with our beloved Mexican introvert, Juan Martinez. And why shouldn’t we? After graduation, Juan “became a college student again” when he embarked on a road trip with his 22-year-old brother and 18-year-old cousin. (Anyone else thinking “Y Tu Mama Tambien?”) Their journey took them all over Mexico, from pre-Colombian ruins to jungles, anthropological sites, and untouched beaches. Alas, Juan finally settled down -- so to speak -- with a boutique investment bank in Mexico City, Pablo Rion y Asociadios. He currently shares an apartment with Tomas Lange (finance manager with Allied Domecq Spirits and wines), and he visits his hometown of Veracruz twice a month. Of course, he has already spent long weekends in Cancun, Acapulco, and Monterrey. Can any of those hot spots compare to McManus 208, however? As if.

Mexico City isn’t big enough for just two ‘03 grads. Jorge Martinez and Roberta have just moved into their new house there as well, where Jorge works at Cargill and Roberta at ITAM (a renowned finance university in Mexico).

Juan Martinez '03, center, stops to rest with his brother and cousin in front of a Pre-Colombian temple at Palenque in Chiapas, Mexico.

Where in the world is Selman Careaga? Well, he’s landed in Mexico City, too, where he’s working for BoozAllen. But there’s even bigger news for the Careaga clan. He and Paola just celebrated the baptism of their first baby son, Nicolas, who was born in September in San Diego! Some of Kellogg’s finest attended the big celebration, including the German-Argentinean-now-Mexican Tomas Lange, Jorge Martinez, Eduardo Meynet, Juan Martinez, and Santiago Rivera.

Speaking of Santiago Rivera, he, Georgina, and Santiago Jr. have settled down in -- you’ll never believe this -- Mexico City, where Santiago began working in investment banking and has now entered the world of entrepreneurship.

All right. Time to leave Mexico City and travel around South America a bit in search of some classic Kellogg love.

Arturo Vera and Denise Lazo were married in Peru over the summer and were joined by a number of Kellogg family members in Lima, Cusco and Machu Picchu.

Pedro Mej”a and Carolina were joined in holy matrimony in Manizales, Colombia, before Pedro started his job with McKinsey Bogota (of course, he’s now married to McKinsey). Kellogg pals in attendance at the wedding were Eduardo Meynet, Francisco Covarrubias, Mariano Ramos and Enrique Carrizosa.

Congratulations are also in order for our own Mauricio Angulo. He and Daniela Damant were married in Sao Paulo, Brazil, on Dec. 21. Must’ve been Mauricio’s dance moves.

And now we bring it back stateside for some more updates.

Jan Henrich '02 and Pam Supanwanid '03

We heard from Pam Supanwanid, who is living in Bangkok until mid-summer with Jan Henrich ‘02. Pam is currently planning to return to the States for a residency in physical medicine and rehabilitation. In the meantime, she’s been brushing up on her German, taking dancing lessons, and squeezing in some skiing in the Alps.

Moving to the weddings: Alicia Fang was married in San Francisco the week after graduation. Guests from the Class of ‘03 included Michael Liu, Ashishi Suri, Eric Whaley, Miguel Hernandez and Megumi Naito.

Belinda Marcus married Tony Roth in a ceremony on Cape Cod in July. Of course, Kellogg was well represented in the cheerful crowd.

Belinda Marcus '03 (now Roth) with husband Tony Roth and their Kellogg School wedding-day crowd

On July 26, Esteban Delgado married his college sweetheart, Tiana, in Fort Worth, Texas. Then they celebrated their long-awaited marriage with a two-week trip through the South Pacific (Tahiti, Moorea, and Bora Bora). They definitely recommend this vacation to anybody who wants to get away from it all! In November, Esteban returned to the “real world” as a strategic business analyst for Zyman Group LLC. The management consulting firm was founded by Sergio Zyman, former CMO for The Coca Cola Company and author of The End of Marketing as We Know It, to assist companies in developing and aligning their corporate and marketing strategies. Esteban’s current client: one of the largest breweriesin the world! How’s that for combining work and play?!

Dina Lifshin and Justin Silverman were married Sept. 7 at Oheka Castle in Cold Spring Hills, N.Y. It was a beautiful day and a number of Kellogg friends joined in a great celebration. Dina and Justin honeymooned in South Africa in December.

Kellogg classmates also gathered for the wedding of Dean Peterson and Christy in Atlanta in September. Dean is currently enjoying life as a product manager at Bosch.

Kellogg friends smile for the camera at the wedding of Natasha Salij '03 and Doug Deckmann in October. Pictured, from left, are Shari Gordon ë03, Brian Schaer, Gina Schaer ë03, Julie Sneider ë03, Brian Peller '02 and Greg Lief '03.

On Oct. 4, Natasha Salij and Doug Deckmann made it official. Several Kellogg grads (‘03 and ‘02) were in attendance. The happy couple honeymooned in Greece and visited another Kellogg alum, Elly Andriopoulou ‘01, who has moved back to Greece. They are now back in Boston, and Natasha is working for Mercer Management Consulting.

Darren Olson married Amy Antoniolli on Sept. 13 in Trento, Italy. The couple currently resides in Chicago.

Kelloggians from the Class of '03 made the trip to Chicago in November for the wedding of classmates Laura Schulman and Sam Pollack. Pictured, from left, front row, Amy (DiMarzio) Zella, Stacy Arend, Denise (Lazo) Vera. Back Row, Dan Cohen, Arturo Vera, Todd Solow, Laura (Schulman) Pollack, Sam Pollack, Shari Gordon, Kim (Rosenkoetter) Powell, Julie Sneider, Jason Ross and Brian Peller

Laura Schulman and Sam Pollack married in Chicago on Nov. 2. Quite a few Kellogg friends were on hand to share in the celebration, including Stacy Arend, Dan Cohen, Shari Gordon, Geoffrey Lasry ‘02, Mike Masters, Jerome Ng, Brian Peller ‘02, Kim (Rosenkoetter) Powell, Jason Ross, Julie Sneider, Todd Solow, Arturo Vera, Denise (Lazo) Vera and Amy (DiMarzio) Zella.

Dec. 13 was a memorable day for Alyssa Pohl and Matt Barrett, as they joined the ranks of the Kellogg newlyweds in a Chicago wedding.

And what comes next? You guessed it -- the kids.

New dad JJ Betts '03 spends some quality time with his daughter, Ellie.

J.J. Betts and Mandy are proud to announce the birth of Eloise (Ellie) Manning Betts. Their beautiful baby girl was born Oct. 3 and everyone’s doing great!

Jeb Trowbridge and wife Ali welcomed Annabelle Durand Trowbridge on Oct. 3. Annabelle weighed 8 pounds, 3 ounces, and was 21 inches long. Jeb writes, “Ali and Annabelle are doing great. Ali is working at Kenilworth Union Church as associate pastor for youth and family ministry. She was ordained by the Chicago Presbytery this past fall. I am working at The Tribune Co. as marketing manager of the Chicago edition of Hoy, the Spanish-language daily that launched in September. We look forward to seeing everyone back in Evanston at the reunion!”

Jeb Trowbridge '03 with Annabelle Durand Trowbridge, born Oct. 3.
Ravi '03 and Padmaja Raghavapudi received the ultimate gift Dec. 25 — their son, Rishi.
Chuck Scholpp '03 and wife Elaine introduce Alexander Henry to the Kellogg community. Alexander was born Jan. 10.
Josh Miller '03 and wife Rachel Gold snowshoeing in the Cascade Mountains in Washington State.

Christmas day brought an adorable baby boy, Rishi, to Ravi Raghavapudi and Padmaja. Rishi, which is a Sanskrit word meaning “seer,” is defined as “man of right vision and action,” or “sage.” Yoda, anyone? Ravi and Padmaja’s little fella is doing very well, and we’re glad to have him as part of the extended Kellogg family.

Chuck Scholpp and Elaine welcomed Alexander Henry into the world on Jan. 10. Mom and baby Scholpp are doing fine, and Chuck is savoring the many coos, yawns, stretches, inquisitive glances, hand clenches and attempted smiles. Nice work, Chuck and Elaine!

That brings us to all the remaining news about jobs, Kellogg gatherings and the like.

Life’s been pretty exciting for Fabio Sisinni since graduation in June. Instead of returning to Italy, he and Cristiana decided to stay in Chicago for at least another couple of years and settled into an apartment in Lincoln Park last July. Fabio rejoined AT Kearney around that time and restarted traveling, working late hours and substituting milk with Red Bull at breakfast. At the end of September, they celebrated their religious wedding in a 6th-century church in Rome, followed by a short honeymoon in Tuscany. Cristiana recently began doing marketing for a company that imports goods from South America and sells them to large retailers.

After spending two months in Japan following graduation, Jan Sodprasert moved back to Thailand in early September and started working with McKinsey in October. She’s working in Jakarta through the first part of the year.

Leti Pearman finally landed her dream job in Boston. Starting in mid-September, she began working at Digitas, an integrated marketing agency/consulting firm, as a manager in its strategy and analysis group. Leti and Mandy Taft, who’s working for The Bridgespan Group, are enjoying their new apartment in Jamaica Plain, a neighborhood just south of Boston.

Josh Miller reports that he and his wife Rachel Gold moved to Seattle last September so Rachel could begin studying environmental law at the University of Washington. Josh is now the director of Jconnect Seattle, a nonprofit venture that is helping Jewish grad students and young professionals network and build community. They are enjoying their return to the Left Coast, are eating a lot of smoked salmon and have picked up a new hobby: snowshoeing!

Anyone notice the cool new Diet Coke with lime in stores by now? Well, that’s what’s consumed John Kim’s life over the last six months. He reports that launching a new product was a great introduction to The Coca-Cola Co., and he enjoyed seeing how stuff he learned at Kellogg impacted the launch. He loves Atlanta and the 60-degree weather in January.

Michael Liu has been happily working at the Chicago office of BCG since October. Prior to that, our international Kellogg ambassador was spotted globetrotting to San Francisco for Alicia Fang’s wedding, Houston to golf with Jie Zhang, Washington D.C. (traveling with Ankur Malik and Miriam Claes) to visit Britta Iwen and Asia for three weeks ─ where he saw Jan Sodprasert, Urapa Nontasut ‘04, Nori Ueno and Dan Koh.

Cheers to the Class of '03 from Melbourne! Pictured, from left, Dnyanesh Patkar, Kanchan Patkar '03, and Naveen Chandra '03

Kanchan Patkar and her husband, Dnyanesh, are well settled in Wisconsin and surviving the brutal cold. Kanchan is enjoying her new position in marketing at Kimberly-Clark in Appleton. They recently visited Melbourne in December and met up with Naveen Chandra for dinner.

Heard what happened to Francisco Covarrubias? He was so moved by Michael Dell’s inspirational words during his Kellogg visit that he moved to Austin, Texas, to work for Dell Computers. Now that’s passion, dude.

Our favorite Sprinties, Matt Gunter and Jessica Yang, tell us that Sprint local telephone division hosted Kellogg’s own Professor Christie Nordhielm at the Overland Park, Kan., headquarters for a full-day marketing seminar featuring “The Big Picture” framework. During this day-long session, the 145 members of the telco’s consumer markets group were drilled on the business objective, marketing objective, source of volume, and STP. Jessica claims Professor Nordhielm did a great job of cold-calling senior execs. Nice!

Badri Amurthur is currently working at Guidant Corp., leading its emerging technology investment initiatives.

Friends forever! Jeff Fleishman '03 makes a pal quickly in his new job on 'The Street'.

And talk about a dream job. Jeff Fleishman landed a job on the Street -- Sesame Street, that is. He’s doing business development for its interactive media group.

David Fleck has settled into his life as a consultant with Bain & Co. in Boston. Clearly, they haven’t seen the Special K ‘02 video.

Ian Powell is working in Washington, D.C., as an associate director of marketing and sales for the Corporate Executive Board. Clearly, they haven’t seen the Special K ‘03 video.

Kasper Leschly writes (and we don’t dare try to edit the words of the CPO): “Despite numerous attempts by the Firm, I am still keeping the clubbing spirit high in continental Europe. Latest stunt was an all-nighter followed by a day of personal testing during a rigorous training session in Prague. A clubbers club reunion is being planned sometime soon somewhere around or in between Brussels and Amsterdam. Those interested in joining should give a shout via email. One potential obstacle may be the Firm’s latest wicked attempt to ship me off to China, probably to do some kind of pro-bono work studying best-practice cooking of the Nuang minority in Southern Guangxi. Stay tuned, your CPO.”

Andre Winarto '03 and his son, Owen, pause for a photo while chatting about their mutual fondness for global affairs, football, and Kiss music.

Andre Winarto has traveled around the globe twice for work, taking in both Europe and Asia. Andre is an innovation leader at Akzo Nobel Polymer Chemicals, and writes business plans for new ventures funded by the company. On his recent trip back from Taipei, Andre bumped into fellow cash cow Daisy Hatch in L.A, who was also heading back to Chicago to attend a wedding. And the Kellogg reunion continued when Daisy and Andre met Dean Jain and Brian Gauck at their gate from San Francisco. Although traveling is fun, Andre prefers spending time at home with the family, though, and still has high hopes that his son Owen will one day play for Liverpool Football Club. Andre is also starting up the Kellogg Aussies Abroad Alumni Club to help all expat Aussies to build their network while overseas.

Gina Schaer '03 and Claudine Coto '03 enjoy post-graduation life on an elephant trek adventure outside Kanchanaburi, Thailand.

Don Lee, trader in interest rate derivatives at Barclays Capital, has gone on assignment to London to trade dollar swaps and options.

Jason Kasarda is currently a financial analyst with Hewlett-Packard in Fort Collins, Colo. Having started work July 1, he does not have an exciting two-month post-graduation round-the-world trip to report on, but he did have fun in the sun in Miami and Rio over the holidays. If anyone is passing through the Denver area, be sure to drop him a line.

Mark Moore is senior financial analyst at Hewlett-Packard in its supplies division. He is working just outside Portland, Ore., and he, his wife Sandy, and son Joseph love living in the town of Camas, Wash. They have welcomed visitors such as Rob Zamacona, Yelena Lungin, Rob Stephenson, Ben Burke and Laura, Joey Olivier and Barry Grant. Mark and Sandy believe that everyone will one day end up living in Camas.

Brian Helm recently joined Diageo as the new commercial marketing manager for key markets.

Vicki Nakata is back at Bain & Co. (in the Los Angeles office) and looking forward to seeing all of the Kellogg Bainies at training in Miami in March. She reports that John Schweiger is working in Afghanistan as a field officer for USAID (U.S. Agency for International Development).

On a journey to Laos, Joey Olivier '03 makes new friends in a tiny riverside village.

Joey Olivier is now working for Booz Allen in Houston, and he’s diggin’ it.

Adam Eisenberg is living in Lower Silesia on the banks of the Odra River. He is working in private equity for MCI Management S.A. in Wroclaw, Poland, and Innova Capital in Warsaw. During his free time he enjoys skiing in Karpacz (the jewel of the Karkonosze Mountains) and driving his Skoda. That all sounded extremely exotic until the “Skoda” part, Adam.

Kellogg friends gathered in Lake Geneva, Wis., in early January to celebrate the 30th birthday of Chris Nolte with a weekend of food, fun, and board games. Chris and his lovely wife, Sue, are living in Kenosha, Wis. Kenosha is like Chicago, on a smaller scale.

What a surprise for Chris Nolte '03, as a group of Kellogg classmates showed up (thanks to his wife, Sue) at his cabin in Lake Geneva, Wis., for his 30th birthday! Pictured, clockwise from front left, Joann Nahmias, Amit Nag '03, Bill Nahmias '03, Barry Grant '03, Tom Brown '03, Amy (Tom's friend), Sue Nolte, Chris Nolte '03, Dan Gingiss '02, Jodi (Matthes) Gingiss '03, Maria (Jodi's friend), Kim (Rosenkoetter) Powell '03 and Andy Powell '03