1999

Having left St. Louis for a new job and a great apartment with a view in Switzerland, Juan Motta writes:

"Working at the headquarters for Nestlé is quite an experience. The international influence is amazing. I speak more Spanish than English or French in my group (which oversees the Americas). I'm learning a ton about business on a global scale and seeing all the juicy issues that you dream about in business school (M&A, restructurings, corporate strategy, etc.) but never get to see in real life!

	David Ain '99 with Marlowe and sons Jonah and Jakob

"We'll be here for two to three years and are taking advantage of every opportunity. Most of our vacation time has been spent visiting the various wine regions of France. In fact, we have a growing wine cellar with 60-plus bottles that have to be consumed before we leave! Yeah, life is rough.

"On the family front things are well. Nicolas is now almost 2. He is going to a nursery school where they speak both French and English. At home we speak only Spanish. So his Spanish is very good but he is very quickly learning English and French.  It truly is amazing how the human brain works!

"As for our other 'son' Addison (the five-year-old golden retriever), he is enjoying the opportunity to travel and swim in Lake Geneva. Yeah, he has a rough life too!

"We'll be staying in Europe for this Christmas. Alissa's mom will be spending it with us and we'll do some traveling to France and skiing in the Alps just after New Year's. Like I said, we are trying to take advantage of the situation since it's all downhill after this.

"If your travels bring you across the Pond let me know.  Or just drop me a line and let's catch up."

Jon Levey was recently named 2005's RE/MAX Humanitarian of the Year for his community work. He has served on the board of directors for the Jewish Council for Youth Services (of which board he is now president), and is currently a member of the boards of directors for the North Shore Center for the Performing Arts Foundation and the Chicago Advisory Board for The Posse Foundation. He has also been a member of the board of directors for The Standard Club in Chicago for the past six years, an executive jailbird for the Muscular Dystrophy Association's annual lock-up fundraising event, and previously sat on the development committee for LaRabida Children's Hospital and Research Center, where he also founded an auxiliary board targeted at raising funds for the hospital from small to mid-sized businesses.

Tricia Petersen Colbert and Norman Colbert '91 were married on May 14 at their home in Henderson, Nev. The couple met in San Francisco through mutual Kellogg friends. Tricia is the associate director of investor relations at Gilead Sciences, a biopharmaceutical company in the San Francisco Bay Area, and Norm is a managing director and head of global equity private placements at JP Morgan. The couple, along with their West Highland terrier, Scrabble, reside in San Francisco, Calif., and Henderson, Nev. 

Victor Sapphire was recently elected to the board of directors of the nonprofit organization Theatre of Hearts Inc. Founded in 1987, the theatre is a grass-roots, international, Los Angeles-based nonprofit corporation whose mission is to promote understanding between people through cultural and artistic forums, and to empower local communities through education in the arts. The mission of Youth First Artist-In-Residence Program of Theatre of Hearts Inc., is to prevent and intervene in youth-on-youth violence by involving youth and their families in ongoing, high quality, multidisciplinary fine arts educational workshops offered at school and community-based sites.

Raul Sekhar, Scott Jampol, Juan, Brian Gunn, Bryan Cannon and Rick Meyers recently met for their seventh annual trip to Las Vegas and had special treatment.  While there, the boys enjoyed a special suite at the Palms Hotel called the Kingpin (which was written up in Sports Illustrated that same week).  Among the visitors to the suite was baseball star Derek Jeter!