1985

There is snow and ice on the ground as I'm writing this column for the spring edition of Kellogg World. I am looking forward to the warmer weather that the spring edition will bring! I must say, I must have sounded completely desperate in the last column, as I heard from so many of you that I haven't heard from in years! So, for once, I have a fair amount to report. Here's the news:

I was thrilled to hear from Tom Kamp. I think it was graduation that we last spoke. After 13 years, Tom left Alliance Capital, where he was a senior member of the large-cap growth equity team. He joined Cornerstone Capital Management Inc. as chief investment officer. In doing so, he went from the group with the most assets under management in U.S. large-cap growth to a start-up company! As you may remember, Tom was an entrepreneur straight out of Kellogg, so you can imagine how exhilarating it is for him to be building something again. The start-up process required hiring new employees, launching a new mutual fund (the Keystone large-cap growth fund, KLGAX) and beginning to raise institutional assets. Prospectuses are available on the Cornerstone Web site. Tom has also offered to mail them to interested parties.

Tom reports that he continues to interact with David Tenney '86 and Greg Glyman. David and Greg still have their big smiles and are as charming as ever! Speaking of David Tenney, Ted and I ran into him at our daughter's school and David's alma mater, the Hill School. David was back at Hill to help dedicate the school's new ice hockey rink. David played ice hockey for Hill and is on the school's board of trustees. Our daughter is the co-captain of the girls' varsity team, so she had a small part to play in the dedication ceremony

I received another e-mail out of the blue from Henry Dubois. He later called and we had a great conversation. Henry is currently the CFO and EVP (strategy) for a company called GeoEye Inc., which provides satellite imagery and information products from a couple of satellites owned by the company (two currently, one under construction). In addition to working, Henry and his wife, Kala, are busy with their three kids (11, 10 and 7).

Marlene Gumbs and her seven adopted children recently took a 27-day vacation to St. Maarten, from whence Marlene's French parents hailed.

Lisa Tracy and Scott Jenkins report that Lisa had a busy 2006, being on the active board of EcoStwards Alliance, playing tennis and being "carpool mom." Scott says he is "living an analog life in the digital age." He returned to Sprint/Nextel after a 16-month outsourcing stint with IBM. When not dealing with the transient nature of the telecom industry, Scott is very involved in Boy Scouts with his son, Tracy. Together they have made some very ambitious hikes. Tracy also loves playing the bagpipes. Daughter Marina is in eighth grade and loves to play soccer. Scott and Lisa also voluntarily added another teenager to their family (now why would anyone do that?). Sofia is an exchange student from Germany and is staying with the Jenkinses for the school year.

Andy Birol continues to stay in touch with his holiday letter. He reports that CareerPress released his fifth book, The Five Catalysts of Seven Figure Growth. Andy has been speaking on and teaching the book to audiences across the United States as well as in Montreal, Istanbul and Amsterdam. This is helping him to grow his business nationally, both out of a desire to expand his reach and to rely less on Cleveland's tough climate. In addition, Andy launched his business owners' forum, Andy Birol's Arena, which gave his circle of business owners a great forum for growing their businesses.

Henry and Gretchen (Lux) Reed found out how to connect with their classmates: Enroll your child in boarding school. When they were out "school-shopping" for their son, they noticed that the lovely daughters of Jan and Jon Pease were featured in one school's publications. When moving their son in to his new school, they ran into Tori and Jamie Macmillan — who were moving in their son, too — just around the corner. There are only 250 students at this school, so for three families to be from the same class is quite a coincidence.

Lastly, but not least, Adnan Rukieh and Becky Folds have moved back to Chicago from North Carolina. They are within walking distance of Wrigley Field and Cubs baseball. They write: "When you are coming to town, let us know! If you are here already, we need to get together!"

I'll end this as I did the last one, with the hope that I hear from more of you. I hope you all are well and happily busy. Please keep in touch. We all would love to hear from you. Remember that no matter how "boring" your news seems to you, it's always news to us! Take care.