1990 — Full-Time

Hello classmates. I hope you will forgive me for skipping the class notes in the last issue of KW. Are you sitting down? Well, the reason I missed the deadline is that I was in Greece on my honeymoon. For those of you who haven't heard the news, Hell has frozen over and the blue moon has been seen. Yes, I got married over Labor Day in Chicago. I'll share more about that at the end of the column. There is much to write about given that it has been so long since my last column and so many classmates have written in to say hello. Please take note of the new address for writing in.

Marie-Pierre (Bourguignon) Barbieri wrote last summer to say: "I received yesterday the Kellogg magazine and thought I could not let one more issue come to my house without saying hi and giving news. First of all, I don't know if you received my letter and family picture sent at Christmas but I am really glad you are taking care of the column. I don't feel so cut out from my years at Kellogg knowing the author of the lines I'm reading. The distance and the fact that I am not part anymore of the professional world make my MBA appear like an old story, even maybe like a dream. I don't regret my choice though but I have to confess I look at my friends' testimonies about career progressions and whereabouts with some envy. But I feel always proud when I hear good things about people. I really enjoyed reading the last issue, I read it all and remembered a lot from our Kellogg classes.

	Marie-Pierre (Bourguignon) Barbieri '90 and her family

"You spoke about a surprise. My first thought goes to you getting married, or being close to fatherhood. One or the other would make me happy for you. You also spoke about our next reunion, and I am counting the years now, hoping I will be able to make it. It was such a disappointment not being able to come last time. I looked at all the pictures I could find on the Kellogg site. Three years from now, no more babies should be on the way (six is enough, don't you think?) and it would be such a treat for me to come. We'll see.

"My husband is still working in Geneva and we are still living at the French border. The kids are growing fast: My oldest is 14 and the youngest is 2 and in kindergarten. Well, believe it or not, this is the first time in my 15-year marriage that I won't have any child at home during the day. It's like turning a new page of my life.

"Bill Zeeb, with whom I worked in teams at Kellogg several times, lives three miles from me. As I have been looking for au pairs on a Web site, I saw a partial picture of him (leaning on his child) so I couldn't see his face...only his first name and 'American' appeared. So the Web site communicated his family my mail and they confirmed it was him. The beauty of the Internet. The world is getting smaller. I hope to be able to send you a picture of both us with our families for the next Kellogg World issue."

Speaking of marriage and weddings, Wade Thomas, took a moment to write: "I'll send something more complete, but the quick update is that I'm in L.A. (since March 2000) doing marketing for the home entertainment (a.k.a. DVD) division of 20th Century Fox. I got married last October. Lisa and I live in Santa Monica, but we just bought a house in Sherman Oaks. So it's been quite a busy year." Congratulations to you Wade.

I also heard last summer from Shaila Bettadapur. "Just thought you should know that we have moved — reentered is more like it. After seven years overseas, six of them in sunny Singapore, we have moved to the balmy climes of Milwaukee. Can't wait until January. I'm heading up the captive finance company for Johnson Controls, which is very small today, but we have big growth plans. The move represents a big culture shock for us — the kids have never gone to school in the States — but likely the biggest shock will be for me. I will no longer get to fly Singapore Airlines, which is far and away the best airline in the world, and now have to get on the Greyhound buses with wings that we call airlines here in the U.S. Anyway, for anyone who wants to contact us, our e-mails are shailabe@yahoo.com and for Jacquie jacbetta@yahoo.com."

My fellow Hash House Harrier, Steve Kish (a.k.a. his HHH nickname: "the Religious Adviser") wrote in last summer to call to my attention a July 21, 2007, Wall Street Journal article he had read which mentioned our classmate, Craig Marino. Steve wrote, addressing me by my HHH nickname: "Floppy, greetings from your religious adviser. Hope things are well. I don't know if you saw the Journal on Saturday but an article (in the Pursuits section) about increasing the longevity of major league pitchers past the age of 40 referenced the New York Mets hiring an "investment banker-turned-stats-guru" namedCraig Marino to work with their pitching staff. Could this be the pride of Class of '90? Let me know if you have any info and how to best get in touch with Craig. If so, Craig may have surpassed Sam Sheagren in snagging the ultimate dream job."

I wrote back to Steve confirming that yes, indeed, the Marino in question was our classmate. For those of you who may have forgotten, Sam went to work for Calloway Golf after Kellogg and is still there today, which for those of us who enjoy the game of golf, has always seemed like a dream job. And for Sam, it really is. And for Craig, too — a great opportunity and one that has been keeping him busy lately.

I was pleased to hear from our tallest classmate, Drew Freeman, and learn what he's been up to lately: "A year and a half ago I left the high-tech world and started a company called Aardvark Adventure Stories, a company that lets kids star in their very own adventure book, by incorporating their photos, name, hometown, etc. This is a really fun project, filing for patents, beta testing, scaling via school fundraising events, and soon letting people create their own stories online. You can check out my company at AardvarkStories.com. Prior to Aardvark, I worked at Microsoft, Netscape and Onset Technology, a little company that makes software for BlackBerry devices. I'm living in Santa Cruz, Calif., enjoying a fun and interesting community and having fun playing beach volleyball whenever I get a chance."

And we received more news from overseas classmates when Dennis Kelleher wrote to say hello: "My wife Kristina and I are relocating from London (where in my last role I headed up strategy and planning for BP world-wide exploration and production) to Buenos Aires, Argentina. While there, I will be chief financial officer for Pan American Energy LLC (an oil and gas company producing the equivalent of around 250,000 barrels oil a day with operations stretching from Bolivia to Tierra del Fuego in Argentina and Chile). Our next big challenge will be learning Spanish, which as it turns out is far more necessary in Buenos Aires than we experienced while visiting Spain on holidays. Working overseas has been a great experience; we have been able to see a lot of places we probably never would have had we stayed in Chicago. However, we have decided it is necessary to have a base in the states, so we now own a house on Cape Cod that serves as a great summer gathering place for family and friends."

There is much to fill you in about Sandy Haviland. First, Sandy, ever the world traveler, was overseas and met up with Dennis Valdes. Sandy wrote: "Attached are some photos of me and Dennis taken in Manila last month when I was in Hong Kong on business and was able to get to Manila for a weekend and see him and his wife, Tessa. I was also able to meet Cesar Purisima '83 and his wife, Corrie." Sandy came to Chicago in December and he and I caught up. Last year, Sandy decided to start his own business. He began a software company that created a product called Confidant which has been licensed by FranklinCovey, and Sandy has been actively seeking additional distribution channels. Turns out that Sandy connected with our classmate Sarah Merz who happens to be the president and general manager of the consumer and small business unit at FranklinCovey to close the deal, which shows how important it can be to keep up your Kellogg network. The product is phenomenal and is essentially a database that is designed to store your most private and important information. It is great for sharing information with loved ones in case of emergency and covers a wide range of information categories. To learn more about the product, visit confidantsolutions.com. Aside from starting Confidant Solutions, Sandy and Kate have been busy raising their two children, Charlie and Grace. Kate has recently taken a job as an executive director for a micro lending agency in Bridgeport. After seeing my honeymoon photos, Sandy and Kate have decided to take a vacation to Greece in May.

And while I haven't heard directly from Sarah, I've copied her biography from the FranklinCovey Web site: "Sarah E. Merz, has been president and general manager of the consumer business unit since October 2003. Ms. Merz joined FranklinCovey in May 2000 as vice president of marketing. Prior to joining FranklinCovey, Ms. Merz was a partner and co-owner of Kannon Consulting, Inc. and an associate for Booz, Allen & Hamilton, where she created marketing strategies for Fortune 100 businesses throughout the U.S. as well as major corporations overseas. Ms. Merz also served as vice president of international sales and business development for Revell-Monogram, Inc."

In my column last summer, I repeated my plea for information about Dean and Laura Egerter. I'm happy to report that I've recently heard from Dean, who gave me the lowdown: "Laura is busy managing the Egerter brand, organizing all our lives and still having time for the occasional consulting project (currently working on one for Peapod). Our kids are all well; Jenny is in seventh grade and Colin and Claire are loving fifth grade. I am a principal at Harrison Street Real Estate, which I started with a few partners a couple years ago. We invest in education, healthcare and storage real estate, which includes off-campus student housing, senior housing/assisted living, medical office buildings, self-storage facilities and boat storage (marinas). We've been very fortunate to raise and deploy capital in these areas. We also just got back from California, where we saw Kelley and Eric Warner and their three kids, Annie, Patrick and Jack. Eric is doing real well at Dodge & Cox, an investment manager based in San Francisco. Having seen Jack off to first grade, Kelley is getting some entrepreneurial itches."

Thank you all for writing in to say hello and share your news with the class. I've been doing this column for a couple of years now and want to encourage all of you who haven't written in since I started writing the column to get off your butts and drop us a note. It only takes a couple of minutes and you'll be bringing a smile to your classmates' faces.

How's this for an idea? In addition to telling us what you've been doing lately, please write in to tell me about one of your fondest memories of our years at Kellogg. I'll start by telling you a couple of mine. Hands down my fondest memory has to be the 30th birthday celebration that Rick Friedman and many more of our classmates threw for me during second year. Another would be the Section 68 Olympics held during graduation week and finally, I'll never forget the Chili Cook-Off caper — which may mean nothing to many of you but for those of us involved, it was a ridiculously fun night.

I'll close with more news about the main event in my life from 2007. I met my wife, Stephanie, at a party on the roof deck of my building. We started dating eight months later and within five months we were engaged. We got engaged at Ravinia and were married 12 months later to the day. We had a small wedding here in Chicago and were lucky to have Nathalie and Christophe Jeannin, Dean Dussias, Kathy (Monahan) and John Baglivo and Rick Friedman on hand to help us celebrate. Stephanie is a nurse practioner who works at a clinic within the Northwestern Memorial Hospital Physicians Group. I consider myself the luckiest guy in the world and have had a smile on my face every day since we began dating. I realize that I've gotten a late start considering how many of our classmates have been married for nearly 20 years or more but Stephanie was worth the wait.

I wish you all the best in 2008 and please keep in touch. We all want to hear from you. For example, wouldn't it be great to hear from Alex Chefetz, Rosalind Chen or Jamie Ferro?