1993

After 12 years in Chicago, teaching marketing at Kellogg for eight years (1995-2002), managing the Center for Retail Management at Kellogg (1993-1998), and consulting to companies around the world, Eric Sorenson finally moved back home to Seattle with his family — wife Meagan and children Eliza (8) and Max (5) in 2002. "We love it! In Seattle we're surrounded by extended family, which is wonderful for all of us." The Sorensons live on Capitol Hill, and often escape into the mountains for hiking and skiing, or to the Sound for canoeing, kayaking and exploring tidepools with the kids.

Now Eric is the founder and president of Strategies 360, a 15-person strategic consulting firm with offices in Seattle and Washington, D.C., that operates at the intersection of business and public policy. The firm helps companies in the United States and Pacific Rim with strategic positioning, marketing strategy, public policy implementation and communications.

	Rose Tsou '93 married Philip Hu on Oct. 22.
	Front, from left: Jeffrey Korman '93, Maia Korman, Keshia Korman; back, from left: Rafi Mustapha, Noah Korman, Ruka Mustapha
	Albert Manzone '93, recently appointed president of the North America shelf stable juices division at PepsiCo
	Ava DeGhetto '93 with husband Scott, daughter Ellee (7) and son Jack (9)
	Jose Carlos Azcarraga '93 with wife Karla; sons Diego (12), Alvaro (10) and Alonso (7); and daughter Maite (9)
	K-T and Jamie Overby (both '93) with Juliana, Kate and Scott
	Asim Demir '93 and wife Gabriela Poremba tied the knot on Jan. 20
	Andy Whitman '93, skiing in Colorado
	Alla Grinshtat Wexler '93 with husband Michael and son Sammy
	Brett '93 and Lydgia Jarvis, with Elise (1), Zach (7) and Haylie (5)

Eric stays in touch with Kellogg through the Seattle alumni club, and reconnected with Dean Dipak Jain when he spoke to the club last year. Eric serves on a few corporate boards and stays very active in his kids' activities.

After graduating from Kellogg, Peter Rasco went on a motorcycle trip through North America and then started work in Los Angeles for an environmental company, ENSR, doing business development in the fall of 1993. He stayed in Los Angeles for about a year before ENSR transferred him to San Francisco, where he worked in business development and national account management. He was promoted to general manager of the northern California business unit, where he stayed until June 2005. He went from urban to rural, moving to the Puget Sound area of Washington (near Anacortes). He is currently in the process of finding and buying a small company which he plans to improve and then sell in about five years. 

Peter married Stephanie Delich in 1996 and they have three wonderful boys, Jack (8), Henry (6) and Charlie (4). Peter keeps in touch with Sam Lawrence who is now in Auburn, Ala. doing venture capital. If anyone wants to reach Peter, contact him at peter_rasco@yahoo.com or 360.630.9376.

Jeff Korman has loved living in Evanston since moving from New York for the MMM program in 1991. Noah and Maia were born in Evanston, and Jeff and Keshia became guardians of Ruka and Rafi in Evanston (although both were born in Nigeria).  Add in their cat, "what you talkin' 'bout" Willis, and they have a truly rich home experience. In 2004 they celebrated Noah's bar mitzvah with wonderful music provided by the Ethiopian Hebrew Congregation choir from Chicago's South Side. For those of you who remember the infant Noah at TGs, he's now 14 years old and 5'11"! Jeff is the systems development director for the College of American Pathologists, providing information-technology-based services to support the college's mission of fostering excellence in the practice of pathology and laboratory medicine. Keshia has been teaching science in Chicago for the past 10 years. They continue to develop plans for "having a sustainable lifestyle in an energy-independent home in a world with more enlightened leadership and compassion."

Since leaving Kellogg, José Carlos Azcárraga has lived in New York, Mexico City and Orlando, and is now back in Mexico City. He has kept busy moving and having children; José and wife Karla have four children: Diego (12), Alvaro (10), Maite (9) and Alonso (7).  José works at Grupo Posadas, the largest hotel chain in Mexico, where he is in charge of hotel sales and the Vacation Club business. He keeps in touch with the Kelloggians who live in Mexico and hopes to meet with others when they travel there. 

Paul Rowady writes that his Chicago-based company, Precision Investment Technologies, established in 2004 to develop a next-generation research platform for the global financial services industry, now has a live-data prototype of Alpacution, a fully automated catalyst mapping system. "It is designed to deliver unprecedented information density in a single computer screen as well as unsurpassed drill-down, browsability and navigation capabilities."

K-T and Jamie Overby had an exciting 2005. From swimming and soccer to choir and ballet to Cub Scouts and Brownies, their children Juliana (third grade), Scott (first grade) and Kate (preschool), keep them on their toes. K-T continues to work in the feminine fare division of Proctor & Gamble, with her main project being the global launch of a new product, coming in May 2007. This required her to keep up her travel to Europe last year, but with slightly fewer trips than in 2004. As for Jamie, he made a recent career transition from corporate America to entrepreneur — a lifelong goal. After four years at Cincinnati Bell, in November Jamie joined a private real estate development firm called The JFP Group as its senior vice president of corporate development and project administration. The company is poised for explosive growth, so Jamie has had his hands full since starting. 

Jackie (Connelly) Pearson and her husband Keir had their third daughter, Alexandra Marie, on Dec. 19. She joins older sisters Samantha (4) and Anna (2). The family recently moved to Dove Canyon, Calif., where Jackie has taken a break from the workforce for a while, with the exception of helping her husband with his production company in her "spare time."

Scott  Kratzer recently joined a consulting and financial advisory firm called ipIQ as a managing director. As the name implies, the primary focus of the firm is on intellectual property and patents. Scott works with companies venture capitalists and I-banks as well as private equity firms to better understand their IP portfolio or that of a competitor or a company they may want to buy. Scott lives in San Clemente, Calif., with his wife Tanya, their two boys Alexander and Zachary, and their basset hound Winston.

Albert Manzone was recently appointed president of the $800 million North America shelf stable juices division at PepsiCo. Key brands include Tropicana, Dole, Twister and Looza. Albert has been with PepsiCo in various roles since 1996. He was previously a consultant with McKinsey & Co. Albert, his wife Nathalie and their three children live in Chicago, which gives Albert the opportunity to remain involved at Kellogg as a visiting speaker and a member of the Kellogg Intrapreneurship Research Advisory Board.

Despite all of the issues resulting from Katrina, the hurricane proved, in part, to help David Darragh more publicly demonstrate many of the disciplines learned at Kellogg. He was recently promoted to president of Zatarain's after having served as general manager for a year. He is serving on a few committees helping with the rebuilding efforts here in New Orleans. And the home front continues to be active with wife Edie and son Thomas (5).

While Ava Spanier DeGhetto stopped working professionally seven years ago after the birth of her second child Jack (7), she still has been active outside the home (currently located in Short Hills, N.J.). She has done quite a bit of volunteering in the community for her children's schools, her church and other nonprofit organizations. This past year Ava served as president of the Junior League of the Oranges and Short Hills, one of the oldest leagues in the country and consisting of 350+ women volunteers committed to improving the communities in which they live. "It was an exciting and exhausting year, thoroughly rewarding and truly an amazing experience." Her league was honored by the state of New Jersey this past year for its work on behalf of children in the state foster care system and it was one of three nonprofits nationally awarded with Verizon's HopeLine^TM  grant, aimed at issues of domestic violence. Since her stint as league president, she has been invited to serve on several nonprofit boards but is trying to take it as easy as possible for the sake of her family. "We are just getting to know each other again! My husband Scott, who was a regular visitor at Kellogg while I was there, says I worked harder at running the league than any paying job I ever held."

Andy Whitman continues to enjoy life after being in the big company world. He loved his 12+ years at Kraft (before and after Kellogg) and this summer will mark five years that he has been on the private equity side with 2x Management LLC as investor and operator for branded consumer products businesses. Plus, he gets a chance to see many classmates as he travels (or in some cases skis).

Eric Digman had an interesting year in Belgium, "trying to learn my job, some basic cultural sensitivity (mixed results, as my stepbrother has dubbed me the "bombassador"), still trying to pass the Belgium theoretical drivers test (failed three times already), learning more about how to work with Brazilians than Belgians, struggling to find salads amongst the 'moulles et frittes' (but at least I can eat the Dingemans brand of moulles)!"  Eric misses his friends and family — and the sunshine! But Eric was off to Canada and Arizona for the holidays to reconnect with many friends and family and hopefully get some sun. And he has also made some great new friends in Belgium so things are looking up! 

Richard Jackim is pleased to report that he recently wrote a book, The $10 Trillion Opportunity — Designing Successful Exit Strategies for Middle Market Business Owners, published by The Exit Planning Institute. "Designed specifically for attorneys, financial advisors, accountants, insurance professionals and other trusted business advisors, the book teaches readers how to use exit planning as a way to generate new business from existing clients and bring highly qualified prospects to your door."

Terry Ryan, wife Pauline '92, and children Alexandra (6) and Colby (3) had another action-packed year in 2005. From hiking Red Rock Canyon outside the "City of Sin," to horseback riding at a dude ranch in New York, to swimming with dolphins off Grand Bahama Island, this family gets around! Pauline is now Senior vice president of corporate development and operations at ImmunoGen. Although she did manage to sing one concert this summer with the Back Bay Chorale and Boston Landmarks Orchestra in Boston Common, she discovered that it really is impossible to have a full-time career and be a mom to two young children and expect to have any hobbies of her own. Terry continues as a freelance marketing/strategy consultant, contracting primarily with EMC but also doing some work for Monster.com and a photo company.

2005 was an exciting year for Rose Tsou, both personally and professionally. She married Philip Hu on Oct. 22 and is very happy! Philip has an adorable 11-year-old daughter, Sunny. 

On the work front, Rose still works at Yahoo! Taiwan as managing director. She entered her seventh year with Yahoo! in February. "The past six years have been extremely exciting and rewarding," she writes. "Taiwan has now become Yahoo's third-largest market globally in terms of revenue, after the United States and United Kingdom." Last year, Rose participated in Yahoo's largest M&A with China marketplace company Alibaba, acting as transitional China general manager for a few months to help hand over Yahoo! China to Alibaba. "China's Internet industry is booming, and it won't take long to be world's largest Internet market. In Taiwan, although much smaller in scale, Yahoo! Taiwan is a dominant leader with 97 percent Internet reach and local staff of more than 500 people this year."

Rose hopes to reconnect with many classmates in the coming year, and hopes to see you if you find yourself her part of the world.

After being together for seven years, Asim Demir and Gabriela (Poremba) tied the knot on Jan. 20 at the Bellagio Hotel in Las Vegas, Nev. The Las Vegas reception was their first reception; the second and third will be in Germany and Turkey, Gabi's and Asim's respective home countries.

Asim has been living in Frankfurt, Germany for nine years now. Six years ago he started a company that provides market data in the healthcare industry, and he sold it to an American firm shortly thereafter. In June 2005, he successfully reacquired the company; he has been the CFO of the company from the beginning. Asim and Gabriela invite anyone traveling to Frankfurt to look them up.

I heard through the grapevine that Hope Wolman was recently married and is living in New York City. Hope, we'd love to hear more details!

Gloria Addonizio was also married last fall to her longtime boyfriend Kevin. Harald Fett, Hans Lidforss and Ghia Griarte were present for the festivities in Princeton, N.J. 

While I was unfortunately unable to attend Gloria's wedding, I have been in touch with a few Kelloggians of late. I helped Sumin Eng celebrate her 40th birthday last November.  Says Sumin, "It didn't make me feel old Š that had already happened when I turned 35!"  I visited Diana Chiou and Lisa Bishop in Manhattan Beach last fall and caught up with Elizabeth "Buffy" Eilert over the holidays. In January I spent my 40th birthday with a bunch of friends in one of my very favorite places: Yosemite National Park. I was glad that Diana Chiou and Mark Andersen '92 were there to celebrate with me.

Thanks to all of you who sent in submissions. Keep the updates coming—it's fun for all of us to hear what you're up to!