Laurie Nash '96, Ned Ward '94, Eileen Gallagher '96, Carol Cannady Reber '96, Noriko Sato Ward '96 and families enjoy a weekend getaway near Tahoe. Elizabeth Duff '96 also attended.

1996

John Danahy, Brian Kiraly, Dave Stokes and Tim Leland ventured south to the University of Alabama one weekend in September to witness the Alabama versus Ole Miss football game. In 1999 John and Tim started what has become an annual tradition they've dubbed the "Football Pilgrimage" — visiting a different "big football" college campus for a long weekend each year with a growing number of fellow travelers to immerse themselves in the environment and enjoy a game.

Kim and DG Macpherson announce the birth of son Tristan in August. Tristan joins big brothers Cameron, 7, and Aidan, 5.

	Steve Bennett '96 with son John "Jack" Bennett
	DG Macpherson '96 and family enjoy baby's first Christmas on a blustery day in Chicago
	Mary (Caplan) Van Geffen '00 and Todd Bruechert '96 with new daughter Lucy
	David Berkowitz '96 and son Max at the top of Whistler Mountain last spring

Rob Hermann writes: "I'm the portfolio manager and recently became president of a money-management firm based in Cleveland called The Logix Group. I still split time between New York and Cleveland, but just officially moved to Cleveland in early January. So if there are any Kellogg classmates in Cleveland, I'd love to hear from them. More importantly, I got married in November to a great woman named Valerie Laser in our common hometown of Cincinnati. Kellogg classmates at the wedding included Steve and Liz (Klein) Brodsky, Amy and Rob Miller, and Mindy and Steve Schwartz. Jim Kaufman and Ken Brodkowitz had last-minute issues preventing them from making it, but were definitely with us in spirit.

Juan S. Mendoza is executive director and member of the board of Empresas Polar, the leading food and beverage company in Venezuela. Juan is married to Cristina Peña de Mendoza and they have four children.

Yiorgos "George" Bakamitsos, Yiannis and Nina (Ragone) Repoulis and Pablo Zurzolo met up in Boston recently for some lobster and laughs. Yiorgos is (mis) educating young minds at Dartmouth, where he is assistant professor of marketing. Yiannis is a vice president at PIMCO in London and Nina left Braxton Consulting to start their family (Dimitri, 21 months, and Vincent, 7 months). Pablo is finishing up an executive "sabbatical" after leaving Tech Data, where he was vice president of marketing for seven years.

David Berkowitz writes: "I'm probably a rarity among our classmates, still at the same job that I took after Kellogg. I'm a partner at Ventures West, a venture-capital fund based in Vancouver. We just raised a big new fund, so hopefully I'll be employed for another few years. My wife Kirsten and I live in west Vancouver with our kids Max, 7, and Olivia, 5. We do a ton of outdoor activities up here — mountain biking on the northshore mountains, skiing, triathlons etc. If any classmates find themselves in Vancouver or on the slopes of Whistler, drop me an email at dberkowitz@ventureswest.com."

Karl Brewer, co-manager of the William Blair Small Cap Growth Fund, was named to the Barron's "Top 100" mutual fund manager list published in August. This was Karl's second straight appearance on the list.

Rachel (Bass) Hyman and Jeffrey Hyman '95 welcomed Maxwell Jordan Hyman into the world in August. As if that wasn't exciting enough, they packed up and left the Bay Area (after nearly 15 years for Rachel) and moved back to Chicago the very next month!

Dave Stokes '96, Tim Leland '96, Brian Kiraly '96, John Danahy '96 and friend (center) enjoy the college football tailgating experience in Alabama.

Noriko Sato Ward writes: "Elizabeth Duff and Carol Cannady Reber organized a gathering in the Tahoe area near Truckee. Laurie Nash got the Marco Polo award for coming all the way from NYC. My family (husband Ned Ward '94 and daughter Maia and I) drove up from L.A. via San Francisco, where we picked up Eileen Gallagher. Elizabeth is with Union Bank of California; Eileen's in public finance with Stone & Youngberg (their office is in the newly renovated Ferry Terminal on the Embarcadero); Carol is mom to Carson (her husband is Robert) and she's with Beringer wines. Laurie is a nonprofit recruiter with the Phillips Oppenheim Group. We had a fabulous long weekend enjoying good food, wine and fun conversation in fresh mountain air! Of course we mean to do something like this more often, but reality sets in. Over this past holiday season I caught up in NYC with Amy Becker, Margaret Pomeroy Hunt, Laurie Nash and Eileen Gallagher for our annual pre-Christmas dinner. Amy's at AOL and Margaret's at AFS. Everyone works too hard! I've been selling the idea for our 10th reunion to everyone who will listen. I had fun at Ned's 10th last May. I had not been back to Chicago or Kellogg since graduating so it was a treat. Never did I think I'd spend a TG hanging out in our accounting classroom being entertained by my 3-year-old pretending to be the teacher. I have been a bad L.A. alumna, but motherhood takes priority. Since we live a mere 20 minutes from the terminals of LAX, anyone coming into town should look us up for a quick hello!"

Yiorgos Bakamitsos '96, Yiannis '96 and Nina (Ragone) Repoulis '96, and Pablo Zurzolo '96 spend time together in Boston.

Todd Bruechert and Mary (Caplan) Van Geffen '00 met and married in Florence, Italy. The couple now lives in Long Beach, Calif., where daughter Lucy was born on Sept. 27. Todd is an executive director at Disneyland, where he has held positions in marketing, strategy, finance and operations. Mary is taking a leave of absence from Neutrogena's marketing department to stay home with Lucy. The family would love to hear from you at toddbruechert@yahoo.com or maryvangeffen@hotmail.com.

Michelle and Steve Bennett announce the birth of son John (nicknamed "Jack") in July. They live in Tampa, Fla.

Sarath Ravipati writes: "Carla and I are doing well in the Bay Area and would love to see any visitors going through Marin. Our little ones are now 4 and 2 years old. I recently got promoted to general manager of strategic sourcing and supply optimization for ChevronTexaco. I manage a group of 25 responsible for negotiation and supplier selection for large corporate contracts. We have job openings in the Bay Area and Houston for folks interested in supply-chain strategy. I am one of the few people excited when gas prices are high! Carla and I recently caught up with Chris Summersgil, Eileen Gallagher and Michelle Snyder at Laura Kuo's wedding in the Presidio.

	Rob Herman '96 with new wife Valerie Laser

Quinton Jay recently accepted a position with Wine.com as director and general manager of its wine clubs business. Prior to that, Quinton founded Bacchus Consulting Group, a boutique consulting firm specializing in wineries, and was general manager at Bonny Doon Vineyards.

The McCormick Tribune Foundation (MTF) has announced the addition of Victoria Shire Dinges as vice president of external affairs — a new position created to direct the foundation's public outreach. Victoria will lead all marketing, communication and public relations efforts for MTF. In addition to functional responsibilities, Victoria will provide senior management guidance to the foundation's citizenship program and will oversee creation of a new museum designed to heighten public awareness of American freedoms and inspire an involved citizenry. The museum will be located on Michigan Avenue and is scheduled to open in spring 2006.

Other news from last year that wasn't submitted but that I heard through the grapevine: Melissa and Michael Wagner welcomed daughter Ava last spring, who joins big sis Alexandra. Jim and Kathleen Geils Fite gave birth in the fall to baby girl Lauren, who joins big brother James.