EMP-46

Happy spring to all. It has been one very long winter. Many thanks to Jose Martinez for arranging our winter get-together at The Clubhouse in Oak Brook, Ill. All had a great time. We are eagerly awaiting the opening of Patrick Spencer's next venue so that we can all go and eat and drink for free.

Larry Bilello is excited about his first job change in 21 years. He has stayed in the food industry, however, assuming the title of executive vice president of sales and marketing for Kehe Food Distributors.

Larry was also pleased to report that for the seventh straight year, a Kellogg contingent — including himself and his family, Paul Herring and his family, Mike Jakolat and his family, John Giuliani, and Nizar Jiwani and his family — volunteered at Midtown Center for the winter holidays. "Together we delivered over 50 Christmas baskets, etc.," said Larry. "Next year we'll finally take some pictures."

We will now need to find someone else to balance out Charlie Chiappone, who has replaced Jose Martinez as the person who has moved the most since school. Charlie returned to his roots in plastics, as he joined Alloy Polymers of Richmond, Va., as president and chief operating officer. Unfortunately, he didn't call with the good news. We had to find out by searching the Web.

Mary Ann Lusk has returned to her roots in Chicago. She is the COO at Adeptia Inc. Once again, we had to go to the Web to find out that the company is a leading provider of business process management software.

Ro Kumar continues to make things happen as vice president and chief information officer for The Sun-Times Media Group.

Paul Herring was recently appointed the executive director of risk and regulatory matters for Grant Thornton International. He mentioned that he saw

Denis Bailey who was in the process of moving within Scottsdale, and continues to work in the heavily regulated insurance industry.

Ann Kloth continues to blaze new trails as the pioneer and leader in the rapidly evolving "retail healthcare" space. CVS/pharmacy acquired MinuteClinic last fall, so the pace of change and growth has increased accordingly. The Harvard Business Review even interviewed them for a case study. She may find herself in the Kellogg curriculum one day.

Therese McCall relates that her position at Takeda Pharmaceuticals has changed. She is now director, medical affairs for diabetes and metabolism. She admits that she is still adapting to the change and will let us know when she figures out the whole job.

In the not-much-else has changed updates, Ralph Mollenhauer sent news of a change in position at Trustmark. He is vice president, benefits administration. We think this is great news for the company and for healthcare.

Susan Nedza has accepted a position as lead for education and outreach in the special program office of value-based purchasing at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Her job is to explain the complexity to the healthcare providers that use Therese's products, to encourage access to innovators like Ann and to make sure that she and Ralph get what they pay for. She was thrilled recently to be asked by Professor Ed Hughes to teach a session on healthcare for EMP at Kellogg.

So that is it for now. If the trend continues, everyone will be joining us in the healthcare industry. Until then, we continue to be amazed by the diversity of achievements of our peers.