EMP-50

Since graduation, EJ Donaghey left Baxter Healthcare and took on a new challenge at Hawthorne Bank in Naperville as EVP/COO. Will be attending a bank CEO school at Wharton in the fall of 2006. He also writes that his wife and family are great. However, he is always on the lookout for advice on raising teenagers. May the Force be with you, EJ!

Jim Gaffney accepted a position with Accretive Health as vice president concentrating on business development. Accretive Health is a revenue cycle consulting team that concentrates on hospital organizations. It was put together by a group of former Accenture partners. Jim is thrilled with where he is and feels that company's success has been nothing short of amazing.

	Chris EMP-50 and Cole Clawson
	Steve EMP-50, Eleanor, Audrey and Mitchell Brown

Wadah Attasi put the cake down for a moment to share that he has some new additions to his family! Two beautiful girls born on March 25 — the first is named Hala, the second, 10 minutes younger, is Maya. This brings him to a total of four children: two boys (6 and 4, respectively) and the two girls! Wadah is with the same company but in a different field, now focusing on a highly specialized area called interventional nephrology. Like the tireless entrepreneur, he is planning to make an enterprise of this new field

Scott Barnhart is working. All the time.

Randy Simms says that Kellogg connections have led him back to the Sunshine State. In the dead of the 2004/05 winter, he was somewhat surprised when a Dave Hebeda referral landed him a job interview with The Tribune Co. He rose above the referral and joined the Los Angeles Times in April 2005 as finance director. Effective at the start of this year, Randy assumed additional responsibilities as controller. Thankfully, the family (including a third daughter, Rachel, born August 2005) has adapted very well to the warm climate and the constant attention of grandparents. Tanya and Randy are once again enjoying date nights without the hassles of a babysitter. Freedooom!

Michelle Gile is still in Denver, still not a good skier but loving the mountains and sunshine of Colorado, still working for Pfizer (she bleeds blue) and weathered a major reorganization in 2005, still spoiling her niece and nephews and also looking forward to big travel adventures in 2006. She says that she needs to expand her horizons. Truth be told, she wants the 100k.

Scott Kell's company, Focal, was acquired by Broadwing Communications at the end of 2004. Post-close, he was promoted to vice president of engineering for Broadwing's telephony business. He recently gutted his house because Sarita needed to sell yet another kitchen to a classmate. When it's done, he's having a party.

We heard from Colin St. Clair. All he really did was update us on his e-mail, but we know he is in Frisco, Texas and works for Frito Lay.

Lori Harn and her family moved to San Antonio. Abby is now 2 and she is well adjusted to Texas living.

Sam Coady is in the throes of an incredibly busy year, as a member of the board for Gay Games, Sam has been busy raising funds and pulling together details of the games. Sam can be spotted all over town shmoozing with potential donors or having breakfast with the mayor. The Games are going to be held in Chicago this year and are open for all to participate and attend.

Rochelle Michalek has had an incredible six months. Though she is too modest to send in a submission, Rochelle has been extremely busy in the aftermath of last year's horrible hurricane season. As a director with PAWS (Pets Are Worth Saving), Rochelle could be spotted on all of the local networks and CNN sharing the details of PAWS rescue efforts of dozens and dozens of pets in the impacted area. Rochelle and her team worked tirelessly to reunite the animals where possible and to find them new homes (both permanent and temporary) so that they had a safe home. Rochelle can also be found on numerous street corners in the area as PAWS continues its fostering/adoption efforts throughout the year. If you are looking for a pet, give our resident expert a call.

A bunch of us got together for Rochelle's birthday (another excuse to drink together and for Michelle to fly in and rack up those FF Miles) and we had the chance to catch up with Bernie Birt, Jane Karpinski, Brigid Mattingly, Bill O'Connell, Claudia Temple and her husband Steve, and Cynthia Downes and her hubby Bill. Good times were had by all as these EMPers shared cocktails and a retro-dining experience. Cynthia shared that she is starting a new job as vice president of finance for CTE Engineering and will rejoin the commuting world.

Stephanie Ruyle flew into Chicago for a few days, and we got to catch up with her and Maya as we watched Northwestern in the unforgettable Bowl game. The beer and the company made up for the game. Steph is loving her job at MTV, enjoyed the transit strike in Manhattan, and just looks fantastic!

Jane (Jane, Jane) Karpinski hosted her annual New Year's Eve party and she reports (and we quote) "Roland (and Yvonne) Wikstrom made an appearance with, of course, the Gucci loafers, but also preppy red pants with little reindeer on them. Hysterical." Who needs a camera?

Cris Clawson writes: We've had some pretty wild changes in our lives over the past year including a new job and a move to Springfield, Mo., but none more amazing than the addition of a little Clawson known to the world as Cole. We have been told time and again he is the happiest kid anyone has ever seen because he's so often found smiling or laughing (where does that come from?). I have forwarded a candid photo of him riding a friend's horse and you can see a great deal of his personality in that simple shot.

Interesting classmate get together with Steve Zaruba and Jonathan Downer as we attended the first game of the White Sox playoffs with the Red Sox followed by an intimate dinner with several other guys. Jonathan is a much bigger hockey fan (Toronto Maple Leafs) and Steve leans toward the Cubs, but seeing the Sox kick some Boston rear ends was awesome for this lifelong fan of the Pale Hose. I also got to see the Sox play the Astros in Game 1 of the World Series when my brother-in-law exercised his connections with a former major-league umpire friend.

Deepak Agarwal was recently promoted to vice president/chief technology officer for the Chicago Tribune. He says he was hiding from everyone, but has felt settled for more than six months now. His wife Anita has her hands full with their daughter Simran (8) now in third grade and their son Avi (4) going to pre-K school.

Keith Belair accepted a CFO job at Corban Networks, in Plano, Texas. Corban is one of the largest cell tower owner/operators in the country. The kids, now 6 and 8, are doing well.

Network Miami magazine recently recognized Lisa Wilson as one of South Florida's most prominent and successful black businesswomen. She is the co-founder and chief operating officer of The Mentoring Center, a Florida-based nonprofit that provides free educational resources including standardized-test prep courses, tutoring and computer access to students whose schools failed to meet state proficiency requirements three or more years in a row.

Terrell Anderson is doing well. He has left BankOne and is now with CNA and reports that life at home is good and the kids are growing quickly. He says he checks his e-mail everyday waiting for Sam's plans for a sealed envelope team dinner.

Steve Brown writes that he still works for the same firm — Code, Hennessy & Simmons — but was elevated to partner in Dec. 2003. He and his wife Carolyn were blessed with the arrival of their third child, Eleanor Ruth Brown, in March 2005 and their two other children, Audrey and Mitchell, are maturing faster than they would like. Steve has kept in touch with his old group, Team Close Enough, and shares that everyone seems to be doing well. One thing continues to perplex him after graduation: where did those 20 to 30 hours a week we all dedicated to Kellogg go after graduation? If anyone has any ideas, please let him know.

Andy Cherna is currently a managing director in the fixed income department at JPMorgan in New York City. He arrived in New York with his family in August 2004 after being relocated from Chicago after the merger of JPMorgan Chase and Bank One. While Andy misses Chicago, he is enjoying the experience of working and living in "the Big Apple." (Yes, he wrote this himself.)

Ron Davidson writes (and we quote): "EMP seems like quite a long time ago. I miss all the good people from EMP-50, especially my amigos from Group Close Enough.

"Personally I have been quite busy since graduation (I did graduate, didn't I?) My firm, Bull Valley Asset Management, is dedicated to providing discretionary personal money management and family office services for high-net-worth clients. Since founding BVAM in March 2004, my clients have enjoyed some nice successes, as we have been lucky with some of our asset allocation decisions so far. The firm has grown substantially since inception, and every day is exciting and fun. In addition to my day job, I continue to provide consulting services for Fortune 500 Financials, specializing in the areas of ALM, risk management, and investment banking concerns.

"I have attached a picture of the 'management team.' My 15-month-old son Nicolas is the CFO and my wife Rebecca is head of marketing and security. Yes, they are better paid than the principal, and well they should be.

"I would like to hear from my colleagues, and wish everyone the very best in their lives. I still think we should all throw $10,000 in a hat and play a friendly, straight-up, 18-hole, all-or-nothing tournament, for fun. I promise I would show up on time.

"I have just two questions for my colleagues. Who in the hell is Itchy? And does he owe me money? God bless you all. You too, Itch." (Ron admits that there was some good vintage wine consumed as he wrote his submission.)

We did hear from Itchy (Kevin Icchpurani). He is alive and well and has taken on a totally different path from the rest of us. Kevin is chillin' in Cali and has become a rap artist and some promoters feel that he has great promise. His specialties are covers such as the Humpty and Ice, Ice, Baby. We wonder if he meant "wrap" artist in the SAP cafeteria.

Doug Yokala is at ATA and shares that the company is set to emerge from bankruptcy in February after a long and grueling restructuring period. As a result of the restructure, ATA removed most of the flights from Chicago-Midway to all of the fun, "vacationy" places, and is now concentrating on the East Coast. Doug recently accepted the CFO position for ATA, where he will be working with new investors and partners to (profitably) re-grow ATA's scheduled service business. Doug also shares that he and Carrie (Wismer, EMP-52) are doing well; she is working with Wells-Fargo, mostly out of New York during the week, and they spend weekends on the Indiana homestead. Work has overtaken their annual adventure trip, but they are planning to go to Argentina next year to ride horses, drink wine and uh, drink more wine.

I (Sarita) am still at AT&T and have successfully survived the SBC acquisition. Actually, it feels more like a merger than an acquisition so things are going very well. Every time I think of leaving, they have found me a new challenge so I am excited about the upcoming year. My entrepreneurial world is getting busier and busier as well. After landing one of the major new hotel/condo developments in the city, we have been able to sell into many other prominent buildings throughout the city. The retail side is going extremely well and though I still can't design a kitchen, I have been using the skills we learned in marketing class to update our logo and advertising. I never realized the importance of fonts until now! I wonder if Kate Spade spent this much time on fonts? The juggling is getting tough, but I have a great team and both places so the 95-hour work weeks feel like a cake walk!

My partner in crime, Reggie (I guess we shouldn't use the words "partner" and "crime" in the same sentence with Reg), is still in Minnesota and has adapted to life Up North quite well. He was last seen entering an ice fishing house in December. Let's hope he makes it out before the spring thaw, which should be around June for the new Minnesoooooootan. Kim and the kids, Andrew (4 ) and Avery (2 ) are all doing very well. 

On an unfortunate note, in July 2005, we lost a classmate, Marty French, to cancer. Marty will always be remembered as a true leader, loyal friend and a comedian. He made an impression on anyone who crossed his path, either through his acts of kindness for those less fortunate, his love for his family, his loyalty to his friends, his appreciation for the comedic side of life, his ability to lead diverse teams or his strong worth ethic. In October, Bill O'Connell ran the Chicago Marathon in remembrance of Marty. EMP-50 classmates, friends and family raised more than $6,000 in his honor to be used for cancer research. EMP-50 was fortunate to have Marty as a classmate and friend.