2003

After a 7-page winter Kellogg World submission, leave it to the Class of 2003 to come back fighting — with even more great news about weddings, births, travels and new jobs! In the spirit of the Oscars, there are some unexpected twists, turns and additional surprises that will keep you at the edge of your seat.

First, we head to the wedding of none other than:

Chris Tucker! Yes, our favorite Brit and his gorgeous new bride Carone ran off to Vegas to tie the knot recently, in their words "in order to: a) avoid taxes; b) get better health coverage; c) because we'd have to have a really long engagement otherwise and that's really not our thing." He stated that as many of those married know, it was a lot easier and faster to have Elvis run the show! Not one to miss an opportunity to celebrate, Chris and Caroline will be having a bash in London next year! Promise you'll send in pictures?

	Adrienne and Charlie Agulla (both '03) and their new baby boy, Evan Charles Agulla
	Elena Dobinda '03 with daughter Katrina at home in Chicago.
	Gina Schaer '03 and daughter Margaret (Maggie) Carolyn Schaer
	Dan Waters '03, Lee Walton '03 and 16-month-old Hayden

Rachel Spector and Greg Obenshein were married Aug. 27 in Chicago and several Kellogg friends were there. Adam Eisenberg (who couldn't make it back from Poland for the wedding) introduced them at Day at Kellogg in 2002. Adam, Rachel, and Greg all went to high school together, but for some reason Adam decided to hold off on the introduction for 10 years. Greg and Rachel dated for the rest of Kellogg and then for two years while Rachel was in business school at Stanford and Greg supported Jet Blue through flights from Connecticut to San Francisco every other weekend. After two bonus years of business school and Stanford versions of TG, cheesy wine and general debauchery, they finally had to grow up. Rachel moved east and they are now living in New York and, sadly, working.

Jenny Liang and Ian Milward '02 were married on May 28 in London. They say that they were so lucky to have so many Kellogg people from both of their classes come for the wedding.

As our theme moves from "Father of the Bride" to "She's Having a Baby," we are proud to welcome the future of Kellogg.

Gina Shaer and Brian are excited to announce the birth of Margaret (Maggie) Carolyn Schaer, born Dec. 2. They were expecting a New Year's baby, so Maggie caught Gina and Brian completely by surprise, arriving exactly four weeks early. Her birth was quite an adventure. Gina went into labor the last day of the last business trip of her pregnancy, so Maggie was born at Duke University Hospital in North Carolina. Brian and Gina's parents were able to fly in before Maggie's birth and Gina and Maggie spent about a week there under observation before they could fly home. All things considered, mom and baby are doing very well.

Gina wants everyone to know that after finding out they were expecting, she and Brian moved back to Kansas City this summer. They took the road to the suburbs, not too far from Gina's parents, which has already made life so much easier for them. Their new address is 14710 NW 62nd Circle, Parkville, MO 64152, and their mobiles are still the same.

Michele '02 and Paolo Mesnik had their first baby back in September. Attached is a picture of Max Mesnik at 3 months old with his proud parents.

The big news from Atlanta is the arrival of Adrienne and Charlie Agulla's beautiful baby boy, Evan Charles. Astute Kelloggians will note that his name is a shout-out to the fine town where they met. In case some of you want to borrow this idea, they thought they'd share a few of their rejected ideas:

5. J.L. Agulla4. Pete Miller Agulla 3. Jim Tripp Agulla2. Mark Agulla II1. Andersen Leverone Agulla

They are having a blast, and are especially fired up over the fact that they'll still be paying off their student loans when his start kicking in.

Catherine Vaughn '02, Carrie Bischel, Ankel Engelking '03, Sam Barnes '03 and Tindley Gilbert '03 prepare for their 4-hour karaoke fest with margaritas from Rosa Mexicana in New York City.

Belinda Marcus and her husband Tony are proud to announce the arrival of their baby girl, Cate Emilia Roth, born Nov. 23. She is wonderful and they feel so, so lucky!

Ludivine and Pierre-Andre Rebeyrat still can't believe that 2005 is already over. Having moved to North Carolina in late 2004, they barely had the time to enjoy the beautiful Smoky Mountains and the Atlantic seashore before baby Charlotte arrived, on a beautiful (and very hot!) day in August. The remainder of the year was then spent between diaper changes and family reunions. As for 2006, it promises to be equally busy, with a new job at John Deere for Pierre-Andre in February, and a move back to Chicago for the whole family in March. Just couldn't stay away from the Windy City and friends too long!

Karen Lee and husband Andy Van Horn ('02-'03 Special K band director) added to the Kellogg family when Lee-Shing Van Horn arrived on Oct. 30, 2005. Little Shing (which means "heart" or "feelings" in Chinese) was showered with many gifts from Kellogg classmates far and wide, for which the Lee-Van Horns are very grateful. Karen returned to work at UCLA Anderson's MBA admissions office in February to pay the bills and continue to torment prospective MBA's wide and far.

Karen Lee and Andy also recently hosted a mini-reunion in their Los Angeles home.

Somewhere between "How does she do it?" and "Where does she find the energy?" is Margaret Paproski, who with husband Guy and sons Peter and Henry, is pleased to announce the arrival of Richard Mostyn Paproski on Nov. 4.

Argentinians use the opportunity of a trip home to celebrate the holidays to get back together for a Christmas lunch in Buenos Aires. From left: Esteban Gringberg '02, Jose Etchegoyen, Martin Longo, Fernando Gallino '02, Arnaud Beernaert, Irene Rizzi, Rodrigo Cejas Goyanes, Rodolfo Novarini

Matt Ross and his wife Sue welcomed their first child, Hailey Eilena, to the world on Sept. 15. She entered their lives a few weeks early but has been absolutely healthy and fabulous — a true bundle of joy for them. Matt is a product manager at Abbott Laboratories just up the road from Kellogg. He works on Kaletra for the treatment of HIV/AIDS. Sue graduated from the Chicago GSB in June 2005 and is also at Abbott.

From "She's Having a Baby" to "Office Space," our fellow classmates never cease to amaze us.

Brian Gauck quit Clorox to take a product management job with a small medical device company the Bay Area called Thermage, which manufactures a device that non-invasively tightens and contours skin. He said he's extremely excited to help vain people around the world look younger — quite a change from marketing trash bags!!

Ryan Ross '03, Brooke Ross, Kate Segerdell-Behring, Jeff Behring '03, and Babar Khan '03 at the Behring wedding.

Since August 2005, Sam Barnes has been kicking butt and taking names in her new, fabulous job working at Vogue magazine. She has also recently been promoted to marketing director for automotive and liquor.

Bruno Carvalho moved to Stockholm, Sweden, in January for a 6-month transfer with Bain. He's working as a case team leader on private equity cases in Scandinavia until July, when he plans to go back to Chicago. Bruno's excited about the opportunity and career prospects this experience will open up, and is trying to adjust to longer work hours than in the States (about 14 to 16 a day), and the lack of sun light at this time of the year (9 am to 3 pm). Open your homes and hearts, as he hopes to travel when the weather improves. In the meantime he'll cope (read: work) while dealing with the Swedish winter.

Shaking things up in San Francisco is none other than our own Rob Levak, continuing to rock the house beyond Kellogg.

Rob is also happy to announce that through interviewing current students (aren't they lucky!?), he found out that the Rocket Pockets are still in existence!? Should we have a reunion and ask them to play?

Is that Rob Levak '03 standing just to the right of Hootie and the Blowfish frontman Darius Rucker? It sure is.

Edward Zhou is proud to announce that he just closed his company's first early-stage venture capital fund of $150 million. In the photo, taken recently, is the entire founding partner team. Edward would like to take this opportunity to thank all Kellogg alumni who extended their great support to him during the fundraising process — especially Jeremy Kranz '04.

Josh Miller announced that as of June, he will leave his job as a social entrepreneur in the Jewish community in Seattle when Rachel graduates from law school at UW. Over the summer he'll be studying intensive Spanish while Rachel studies for the California Bar exam, and then after the Bar they are planning to sell their house and move to Cordoba, Argentina, for 10 months. Rachel has an internship lined up working for an environmental nonprofit and Josh plans to study Spanish, working part-time, and exploring the Argentinian countryside! In May of 2007 they plan to return to the San Francisco Bay Area to find work and close to family and friends.

	Belinda Marcus '03 and her new baby girl, Cate Emilia Roth
	Ludivine and Pierre-Andre '03 Rebeyrat with baby Charlotte
	Karen Lee '03 with husband Andy Van Horn and baby Lee-Shing
	Matt Ross '03, wife Sue and their gorgeous sleeping daughter, Hailey Eilena

Dave Fleck has some great news. In October, Dave moved from New York  to San Francisco. As you may recall, he went to Bain & Co. after school, and while he acquired a great skill set there, he disliked "advising" rather than "doing." A great opportunity arose in San Francisco, specifically head of marketing for Google's media and entertainment practice. He now loves his job (and swears he's never said that about a job!). Maybe it's that he's also able to enjoy mountain biking and snowboarding — his two favorite sports — almost whenever he wants?

Dave travels for about 50 percent of his job, but looks forward to catching up with the great crew of Kelloggians in the area. Until then, when he travels for work to places like New York and Los Angeles, he'll find time to see other Kellogg friends. Dave did have a recent funny anecdote from the Sundance Festival, where a little birdie learned he also ran into Jesse Marmon! Dave worked out a deal for Google to sponsor this year's Sundance Film Festival. It was very last-minute as he had just moved into his new role. So, Dave went to the Festival to meet the entire wonderful Sundance staff (the skiing, great movies and celebrities were also probably a nice draw). At the awards ceremony, Dave was introduced to and spent a good part of the evening with "Bob" Redford (Dave reports that he really does go by Bob). Anyway, Dave adds that he is "just a fantastic guy, everything you think he is and more. Pretty weird — and inspiring — to be kicking it with him, though."

Finally, Dave wanted everyone to know that Google is hiring like crazy. If anyone is interested in joining, please review the job listings and send him your resumes. He says they need serious help!

After graduation, Ousman Jobe was mistaken for a 45-year-old woman on his first day at Neutrogena as he immediately began marketing women's moisturizers to his "peers" for two years. Alas, lightning hit about Ousman's true talents, and he was promoted to work on the Neutrogena men's brand. He discovered hidden talents in the process: completely revamping a line (check out the hot new charcoal grey Neutrogena men's line of skin care products at your local food/drug/mass grocery outlet). Thanks to Ian Powell, Ousman will be moving to London this March to sell the Corporate Executive Board's benchmarking and best practice solutions to busy executives. Karen Lee, Monica Shah, Kerry Mar, Ajay Chawan, Bran Petranovic and Elikem Kuenyehia all promise to visit during Fashion Week.

Mike Funk is excited to announce that almost three years after graduation, "I finally have a paying job!" After ignoring Professor Rogers' advice, he gave up (for now) on both companies he was working on trying to help launch. One came close to closing an angel round, but he was tired of eating Taco Bell for every meal — which just wasn't the same without Suresh Khanna. Mike now works for a company called Aptimus on their business development team and lives in both Chicago and San Francisco for the time being, because let's face it, San Francisco summers are really cold!

From left: Edward Zhou '03, Rich Tong, Gary Rieschel, John Zagula and Duane Kuang

How's this for moving quickly up the career ladder? After being promoted in June to director of corporate strategy for Pillsbury, Mike Zechmeister announces that as of Dec. 1, he was promoted to vice president and has moved to the Pillsbury division. Be careful, all newly minted MBAs, as Mike now has financial responsibility for Pillsbury in the United States.

After taking a transfer with Bain to Australia, Chris Dupre is excited to announce that he, Michelle and their gorgeous girls are heading "back to God's Country" (Texas, to non-Texans). The Dupres are on their way back to the United States, and after being recently promoted to manager with Bain, we can only imagine how great it will be to have Chris' talents back in Texas!

Chad Mizee, Francine Wang and Debbie Hartman (all '03) visit Anne Tsai '03 in Hong Kong.

Kelly Vergamini moved back to Chicago to be with the hubby. "I am now working for Sears as the business finance manager for women and kids on the Kmart side. It's really nice living in the same city again, although I think Jeff is upset that his bachelor days have ended.

The other exciting news is that Jeff Vergamini just got promoted to vice president at Lehman. All of those long hours finally paid off.

Our own Barry Grant has big news to share! After 12 years working in the auto industry for GM and Ford, as both a human factors engineer and a marketing manager, Barry has recently made the decision to pull up his Detroit roots and head west. Way west. He has accepted a role as a senior product manager at PayPal in San Jose, working in the area of merchant risk. Barry looks forward to getting reacquainted with the Kellogg gang out in the Bay Area, and downsizing living quarters from a house to a Ford Expedition.

Front Row: Juanita Haron '03, Diane Gomez '03, Sue Lee '03, Jenny Liang Milward '03, Ian Milward '02, Vicki Tung, Belinda Marcus Roth '03, Tony Roth. Second Row: Severine Fleishman, Jeff Fleishman '03, Nancy Rosen '03, Sara Thomas Monopoli '02, Rowena Villaneuva '02, Juan Carlos Gay '02, Irene Tarkov '02, Brooke Brandes Warren '02, Brian Buenneke '02, Alan Hudson '02, Gizman Abbas '02, Omar Hourani '02, Andrew Garner '02. Back Row: Jim Nollsch '02, Rich Monopoli '02, Laura Nollsch, Dyson Bogg '02, Tom Stokes '02, Adam Sabow '04, Jonathan Cutler '03.

From "Office Space" to "Out of Africa," we move to the wonderful travels and excursions of our classmates.

After about a year of planning, Kyle and Michelle Peterson took their trip to Africa and climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro (the highest free standing mountain and highest peak in Africa). After five days of climbing, they were thrilled to reach the Summit, Uhuru Peak, at 7 am on Dec. 22 (5,895 meters or 19,336 feet). Definitely the hardest thing either of them had done but a cool achievement!

Who would have thought after his struggle on the Cranberry Factory ops case that McKinsey would tolerate Attila Toth for more than two years? In October, Attila joined Miriam Claes in Amsterdam for a training program to learn about how value is created and shared in the worldwide travel and logistics sectors. In case you wondered; yes, they stopped by the redlight district.

From left: Ana Claudia Gouvea, Gustavo Gouvea '03, Luiz Felipe Gouvea (lap), Lu Gallucci's boyfriend, Lu Gallucci '03, Elaine Schulze '03 and Brian Fitzpatrick '03 in Brasil

Attila and Edit spent Thanksgiving at the 5-star Resort Sim in Charlotte, N.C. They were pampered by world-class chef Helen Kim and husband gourmet Edward Sim. In November Gustavo Gouvea and Ana Claudia introduced their son, Felipe, to Edit and Attila in Atlanta. In December, Attila made a quick surprise visit to Eduardo Meynet, Philip Goyeneche, Cindy Ruff, Pilar and Alberto Bezanilla in Santiago, Chile, where they reminded him how much he misses the laid-back Southern Cone lifestyle including welcoming people, beautiful landscape, great steak and lots of wine.

	Kyle and Michelle Peterson (both '03) at the summit of Mt. Kilimanjaro
	Paolo Mesnik '03 and wife Michele '02 with son Max Mesnik, 3 months
	From left: Peter, Margaret '03, Henry, Richard and Guy
	Ben Frewin and Tim Peterson (both '03) at the top of the Sydney Harbor Bridge
	Mareike Willimsky and Janice Farrell Jones (both '03) at the Taj Mahal

In January Attila set up a meeting with Mike Simonton in a Chicago pub. To his biggest surprise, Mike confused his long-not-seen B-school buddy with a very fat and very bald stranger. Attila also visited Barry Grant in his natural habitat in good ole Detroit, home of the world finest U.S. carmakers. Still, Attila learned two things about German cars to his biggest surprise: first, they get frequently vandalized by angry union workers when parked in the Ford lot, which is why Barry hides his Audi half a mile from his office. And second, German engineers are extremely precise in calibrating the gas gauge of their cars, which is why when the Audi indicates "Gas sufficient for four miles," the damn thing will stall in exactly four miles, even if you are speeding 80 miles per hour on the busiest highway chased by drunken Superbowl tailgaters in their monster pickups

In their attempt to bring back the energy of Kelloggarhythms and Special K! rehearsals, Ankle Engelking, Sam Barnes, Tindley Gilbert, Catherine Vaughn '02, along with Ankle's friend Carrie Bischel, took karaoke to new limits with four hours of singing and dancing at a New York City karaoke bar. Look out, Simon Cowell — these girls mean business.

Kanchan Patkar, Dnyanesh and daughter Ruhee (19 months) had a wonderful trip to India in December visiting family, and Kanchan couldn't get enough of the delicious homemade food and warm weather. Kanchan continues her role as associate brand manager at Kimberly-Clark. Dnyanesh is still at Schneider National and has transitioned into a new role as director in their corporate development group focusing on strategic planning and M&A.

It's been a big year for Andre Winarto and his family! Working backward: his younger son Dean turned one in early January, and decided to start walking on his birthday, which was very exciting for the Winartos. They were visiting family in Kuala Lumpur and Singapore for Christmas holidays and also caught up with Byron Paul and his better half, Charmaine Ong '06. Back in Sydney, the 02/03 Aussie gang (Jacqueline Chow, Anouk Lee, Dyson Bogg '02, and expat Kasper Leschle) caught up for some authentic Indonesian food just before Christmas. The highlight of the year was going nuts with Andy Grimes '04 as they cheered on the Aussie Socceroos to qualification for the World Cup for the first time in 32 years! Andre has also been active in the arts and nonprofit sector this year, and recently joined the board of a small dance company. He also worked pro bono on the strategic plan for an Indigenous arts company that puts on arts festivals for aboriginal kids in remote communities to encourage them to stay at school. Andrew was lucky enough to spend a few days in the remote outback of western Australia near the desert to attend the Halls Creek festival — an experience never to be forgotten!

Chad Mizee, Francine Wang and Debbie Hartman were able to visit Anne Tsai in Hong Kong over the holidays while we were traveling through Southeast Asia.

Lee Walton recently did recruiting at Michigan's MBA program (Deutsche Bank stopped recruiting at Kellogg last year, if you can believe it!) but it gave Lee some time to reflect on how great our Kellogg experience was. Lee is still surviving in investment banking, but now that he has moved from Manhattan to Staten Island, he sees less and less of our classmates. However, Dan and Alicia Waters came to New York City back in November and they were able to celebrate Drew Turitz's birthday, along with Mindy Barr, Drew and Mark Kushemba. The next day Lee specifically remembered to get this picture taken for the next Kellogg submission! (Lee — thank you!)

Class of 2003 Kelloggians crammed into Karen Lee '03 and Andy Van Horn's postage-stamp sized condo in Los Angeles for a mini-reunion in February 2006. Pictured from left: Andy Van Horn, Monica Shah '03, Sam Hopkins, Kerry (Mar) Hopkins '03, Ajay Chawan '03, Britta Waters, Karen Lee '03 and Ousman Jobe '03.

Tindley Gilbert, Sam Barnes and Catherine Vaughn '02 hosted a New Year's Eve party in New York City and were proud to have so many Kellogg alums join in toasting the New Year. Those at the party included Tindley, Sam, Catherine, Nancy Rosen, Beth Krettecos, Johnette Kao, Tim, Rob Zamacona and Yelena Yungin.

Javier Rendon has a new cell phone number (415.971.1196) and a new address: 2040 Franklin Street Apt 602, San Francisco, CA 94109.

Top row from left: Neil Pardasani '03, Farnoz Pardsani, Ian Know '03, Heather Levy, Joe Levy '03, Andrew Obenshain '04, Tom Gilmore '04, Herman Chian '03, Heather Chiang. Front row from left: Mark Hamachek '03, Stew Meyer '03, Rachel Spector (the bride), Greg Obenshain '03, Andy Pollack '03. Not pictured, but there: Greg Lief '03

Being on the road Monday through Thursday has become a bit of a drag. Plus, with Amy and Javier trying to set some roots in the Bay Area, it was becoming more and more necessary for Javier to start spending more time at home. So if anyone has any good job leads in the San Francisco area, please let him know. He's focusing on business operations and strategy-type roles.

For those that are aware, Javier really enjoys the triathalon. Multi-sport training is definitely the way to go, and in his case, it consists of running, biking and swimming. However, being on the road four days a week can make it real difficult to keep to a normal training schedule. Regardless, Amy and Javier have signed ourselves up for a half-ironman race called The Vineman that is scheduled to take place July 30 in the Napa/Sonoma region of California. Aside from Amy's recouperating knee injury and Javier's challenge to stay consistent with training, they will both be able to race come July. If anyone is interested in visiting Napa/Sonoma in the July timeframe, they would love to see you! Otherwise, they ask that you don't forget to look them up if you happen to be in the Bay Area. They are still getting settled in the city, but it's always good to see friends.

From left: Florencia Cersosimo '02, Vladimir Grlica, Adriana Vizcarrondo '03, Irene Rizzi and Arnaud Beernaert celebrate Thanksgiving in London.

In a shocking move, just before the "Trade Deadline" had passed, Huw and Tindley Gilbert officially traded their Wrigley-Field blues for New York pinstripes, and can now officially call Manhattan their home. In true New York City fashion, this home-purchase experience came with its own story that is sure to stand the test of time. Please update your contacts with their new home address: 270 Seaman Avenue, #F4, NY, NY 10034, and know that you always have a free place to stay in NYC! No worries to the Cubbie-faithfuls — they still DVR every game and will never stop believing!!

Gustavo Gouvea spent New Year's eve at Elaine Schulze's parents home in Rio de Janeiro, Brasil. We all got together to celebrate the new year, with lots of drinks, food, Brazilian music and celebration at the beach at midnight!

As we round out our review of the last several months, there are still some roving reporters who help keep us apprised of all of our classmates. First, from Danielle Bozarth '03, an update on the 4Qs.

"If first comes love, then comes marriage, then comes the baby in the baby carriage, well there must be a run on both rings and carriages because folks are moving fast. Let's start with the marriages.

Andre Winarto '03 at an aboriginal festival in Western Australia

"Frederick Sy has broken hearts across Asia after tying the knot with Melissa Vergara last May in Manila. Together they have established a happy home in the hills of Hong Kong. Jeff Behring has done some settling down of his own marrying the lovely Kate Segerdell late last summer in front of fellow alums Babar Khan and Ryan Ross.

"And as for babies, many 4Qs seem not to have been deterred by the first child and have moved onto their second, including Chris Jones who is outnumbered in Cleveland by his three girls: wife Mandee and daughters Emily Lynn, born last June, and Abby. He happily claims he 'wouldn't have it any other way.' Also outnumbered is Mark Fleischhauer who has 'not fallen off the face of the earth Š just moved to Kansas!' with his wife Colleen and their two girls. (His second, Caroline Elizabeth, was born in July.)

"Jason Koehn reports that he and family (including his first daughter Natalie Johanna, born last March) have moved within blocks of Val and Mike Hessling and their two little ones in the Chicago 'burbs. Together they are sharing the trials and tribulations of child rearing. Elena Dobinda reports that she is not only managing to raise two daughters (her second, Katrina, was born in October 2004) and surviving her new busy job with Goldman Chicago. She is more importantly becoming a real Midwesterner and learning how to ski (this Colorado girl never knew this was a big Midwestern sport), to drive on highways (overrated in my view), and to cook a 20-pound turkeyŠ

Michelle Lew, Owen, Andre & Dean Winarto, Byron Paul '03, Charmaine Ong '06 in Kuala Lumpur

"On the reunion front, Janice Farrell Jones, Priti Chinai, Mareike Willimsky, Dina Silverman and Danielle Bozarth spent a long and eventful weekend late summer in Toronto to celebrate Janice's birthday. The reunion continued this January as Janice and Mareike headed to India for two weeks to explore both the north (Delhi, Agra, Jaipur) and the south (Kerala).

"Tim Peterson has also been busy relocating to D.C. and traveling the world to reunion with fellow 4Qs. He was recently seen in Vegas with Mike Blastick, Mike Ilczynski and Justin Pettit and in Australia with Ben Frewin and Mike Ilczynski.

"And in other news, Bernard Sfeir, everybody's favorite globe trotter, is happily spending more time partying in Paris after spending several years splitting time between London, Paris and Switzerland (a tough life Bernard!) And finally, did you ever wonder if Dina (Lifshin) Silverman would ever escape the cold she so despised? She is happy to report that she and hubbie Justin Silverman (JD/Kellogg '05) have found sunshine in Los Angeles, where she now wears the mouse ears at Disney and is happily stalking celebrities in her spare time.

"Folks, that's all the news that's fit to print.....Happy childbirth to all and to all a good night!"

Michelle Lew, Anouk Lee '03, Paul Rinder, Jacq Chow '03, Dean Winarto, Kasper Leschly '03, Dyson Bogg '03, Andre Winarto '03 and Owen Winarto enjoy an Indonesian dinner.

And last but not least, our LAHIMA update from Juan Martinez!

This year, there's only one thought in any LAHIMA mind: going to Germany. For all of you who get excited with a "World Series" that includes only two countries, or a "Super Bowl" that occurs every single year, let me remind you that this is the year of the greatest sport event on Earth: World Cup Germany 2006!

There's already an online discussion thread between a bunch of Brazilians, Mexicans, Argentineans, Spaniards and one American (Aaron Martin), about whose country is going to perform better in this World Cup. Above everyone else, Jan Rhode is the one with the highest chance of celebrating the championship, since he has arguments to support the teams from Mexico, Germany, Spain and Costa Rica. At this rate, in a few years his chance of supporting the winning team will surpass 50 percent.

After moving back to Monterrey, Jorge Martinez is changing the automobile retail industry in Mexico. After a few months as the general manager of a Toyota dealership, he is now in charge of introducing Fiat cars to Mexico. As the commercial director of Fiat Mexico, he will be up and down Mexico developing the franchise and finding local dealers.

Tomas Lange survived the merger of Allied Domecq and Pernod Ricaud, where 180 people in Mexico (20 percent of the headcount) were cut, and it seems that there was only one promotion: the former German-Argentinean financial manager has become the finance and planning director of Casa Pedro Domecq.

Jose Luis Guerra started a new chapter in his life when he married Florencia last November, thus creating a Mexican-French-New Yorker couple. The wedding was in Florencia's house in Careyes, a small town in the Pacific coast, near Puerto Vallarta. Santiago Rivera and Georgina assisted the wedding, where a polo tournament and wearing guayaberas on a night colder than expected were the main attractions.

Andy Grimes '04, Dominic Ong, Michelle Lew and Andre Winarto '03 cheer on the Socceroos.

Rumors say that Selman Careaga has been promoted to some sort of marketing director in The Coca-Cola Company in Mexico, although he is too freaking humble to let people know about it. Still, several of us are still waiting for our free Coke samples.

Francisco Covarrubias is still happy at Dell. He has been seen traveling from Austin to Houston back and forth to spend time with Betiyna, his Brazilian girlfriend.

Mariano Ramos traded the Latin flavor of L.A. and the sunny beaches of the West Coast for the international glamour of London and the dark alleys where you have to "mind the gap." Still, he will continue to fulfill children's dreams by marketing Mattel toys.

As usual, Juan Martinez has a story of his own. Last year, Juan left his 3-percent partnership in the boutique I-Banking firm Pablo Rión y Asociados for a job in strategic planning in a large corporation: Grupo Modelo. Although the company name may not ring any bells, it is the maker of Corona beer (talk about getting a job you have been ready for your whole life).

But just three months after finally joining a "vice-industry," Juan caught hepatitis A due to eating on the street, although he doesn't know if it was the chicken-entrail tacos on the highway to Veracruz, the wild mushroom soup on his way to Cuernavaca, the fried bananas on a beach in Acapulco, or the carnitas tacos on a corner in Mexico City. So, he spent two months in bed watching the four seasons of "24," playing PS2 and visiting every sightseeing spot he could find on googleearth.com.

And sorry, but this year there are no clowns and wrestlers pictures. Juan was not able to organize his traditional massive b-day party, and considering that he'll not be allowed to drink alcohol for a year (his liver needs to rest), his 30th birthday in November will have to rock!

Nowadays, he's back in Mexico City, working hard trying to find newer and better ways of selling and drinking beer. In fact, in April he will move to Monterrey in order to lead several new initiatives to sell more beer in supermarkets. With his fifth career change in eight years, Juan has finally been tempted by the dark side and joined the force of sales and marketing.