1992 — Full-Time

Eric Degenfelder and family moved to Shanghai as Eric became the Asia-Pacific region Director for DuPont's Automotive Coatings business. Rick 'surf's up' Gallagher and family relocated to Sao Paulo, Brazil, where Rick is the president of Latin America for Experian. "We are all taking Portuguese classes and learning a lot about this city and Brazil.," he writes. "Although it is a long way from sunny Southern California, this is a great experience." Rick can be reached at rick.gallagher@experian.com.

Dmitry Paramonov and family enjoyed three weeks in Egypt defrosting and decompressing before diving back into Moscow's mayhem pace and his position with Bristol Myers Squibb. Dmitry intends to make his numbers in 2008 but is ambivalent about staying in Russia for the long term. "My son, Dennis, is a star middle-school athlete in tennis and basketball and plays guitar. My daughter, Sofia, is a joy and speaks Russian, and my wife, Minako, is getting involved in the Russian high art scene."

Tom Scarpello recently reconnected with Tucker Katagiri on a trip to Japan. After several years with Nissan Europe, Tucker is now running marketing for Nissan back in Japan.

Lydia and Kashif Chaudhry went to Marrakech, Morocco, last August for the wedding of our pal Herve Chomel '93, and then pushed on to Uganda. From Kampala, they drove on into Rwanda for a wonderful trip.

Jim Buck '92 and family
Yolanda Macias Watson, Donna Jensen Madier, Denise Luft Glassman, Lori Siegel Miller and Kate Brew Colin, all '92, met in February at Cookshop Restaurant in New York.
Luke (born Oct. 11), Janet and Paul Mistor '92 in Charleston, S.C.
George '92 and Grazi Thornton
John Welsch '92 and "Elvis" went to see the Packers and Giants play in the NFC Championship game in January at Lambeau Field.

Doug and Juliana Carlucci see Al Warms often as their daughters attend school together and both Doug and Al are Cubs and Giants fans. Besides having two girls, Doug and Al have the Monday to Thursday power commute from Chicago to California. Tom Finke is also doing the Chicago-New York power commute for FORSALE.com.

All the mediating in her yoga led Juliana to search for a new mission, so she started working at a nonprofit Mandarin Chinese Language-school in Chicago called Chinakids USA. "Currently, we have 100 students from ages 14 months to 65 years chanting Chinese rhymes and phrases in our new dedicated space," she writes. "While fluency is our goal, as our curriculum isultimately designed for students to pass AP exams, we are just happy that young people are having early exposure to a country and culture that will play a critical role in their future." Sounds a lot more rewarding than mac 'n' cheese, Juliana.

Angela Comstock and Jim Bell have now been married for 13 years and enjoy life in San Mateo, Calif., with two kids (ages 10 and 8). Angela is keeping their life intact while Jim works as vice president of marketing at Electric Cloud, a fast-growing Silicon Valley startup. Jim 'IronMan' Winett hosted a barbecue for Barbara and SteveRappaport, and the Mike and Kristen (Lofquist) Simmons clan. Jim says, "One of the companies that I've helped to start, The Agency for Cycling Ethics, is starting to take off (google the company name, and you'll find lots of details). I'm the CEO of the parent company, The Agency for Sports Ethics. We're providing anti-doping monitoring programs for professional athletes with a totally innovative and unique monitoring system. We have three international professional cycling teams in our program now, and we're getting a lot of inquiries from other sports worldwide."

Sally and Mark Hamm and Co, (four girls) report from Memphis that he became vice president of innovation for FedEx last July reporting to marketing and IT (yikes). "Our newly formed team has some exciting projects in the works and also has the pleasure of working with Doblin (Innovation consultancy based in Chicago) and its founder Larry Keeley, who teaches innovation at Kellogg.

Janet and Paul Mistor are happy to announce that Luke "Skywalker" Wilson Mistor was born in October. Paul tells me that the new Mr. Mistor enjoys being up in the middle of the night. Paul apparently got revenge by giving Luke a hillbilly Mohawk haircut (see photo of the three Mistors by the beach). Abi and Rob Grossman recently had their fourth child. Samuel Ethan ("Sammy") joins siblings Danielle, Michael and Jonathan. "Unlike my pal Pat Burns, four kids is our absolute maximum. None of this 'we have more seats in the Suburban' justification for pumping out kids like the Fed prints money. I continue in my role as a partner at Deloitte Consulting here in beautiful NYC." Keely and Sean Rollings had their third child, Cooper Sean Rollings, last July. Debra and George Thornton are proud parents of Grazi born in Brazil last autumn.

Paul also had lunch with Lee French in Winston-Salem a couple of weeks ago. Lee is now the CEO of Old Salem Museums & Gardens (oldsalem.org). Lee says "hello" and if anyone would like to support Southern cultural heritage, to give him a call to make a donation. Mark Andersen writes: "I'm busy during the day with Internet marketing and nights with dancing tango. Actually, I'm on a tango performance team now and recently launched a blog, which you can check out at ConfessionsOfATangoDancer.com." David Murphy is still with Aqua Sciences and commutes from Jacksonville to Miami a few days a week. He hopes to move to Miami soon to shorten the commute. Lana Slavitt is now getting to play Lana from Dr. Zhivago in Minnesota where January mornings have been -10 to -15 F. Suffice to say the former essence of SoCal pulchritude is not thrilled with the prospect of three more months of winter. "On the work front, I 'retired' from Target a few months ago. It was fun, but the hours were tough at times and never as much fun as spending more time with my boys and husband. Of course, the week after I retired I became campaign manager for a neighbor running for Minnesota State House. We are trying to unseat a 20-year incumbent. So much for slowing down. I'm also very busy building an igloo. I mean, a house. I guess that means we are staying in Minnesota. California remains in my dreams though. I had no idea that so much planning went into building a house.

Matt Collier is married with three boys (ages 3, 5 and 7) and lives in Hillsborough, Calif., "having just purchased the house I grew up," he writes. "I returned to the consulting world as a partner at Bain & Co.'s San Francisco office and love it. I went to Tim 'Timmy Jim Bob' Nelson's awesome new pad above the vineyard for swimming and barbecue along with Steve 'Tickle me' Elms and Doug Marks last fall." He adds that Tim is CEO of Map Pharmaceuticals which is performing exceptionally well and whose board includes Elmo.

Kevin Sidders family update: "We've finally settled into our house in Charlottesville, Va. I've been looking at various local investment opportunities, but still haven't closed on something yet. I've also been getting together with my new neighbor Matt Hantzmon '91, who's been very helpful in getting us integrated into the community. Finally, please remind our classmates that if they happen to find themselves visiting Darden for recruiting to give me a holler. I'd love to reconnect."

Rich Rennert checks in live from New York where he is vice president of quality at American Express. He and former Kellogg roommate David Trahan took in a couple of Mets games last season and look forward to cheering the Mets on in 2008. Jamie Crouthamel and John Welsch went to the NFC Championship game in January in Green Bay in zero-degree weather and minus-24 wind chill. Luckily we were only outside for the tailgating and enjoyed the game from a VIP box."

David McConnell finds life Down Under is ever busier. Business is going well with all parts of the McConnell Group expanding, he writes. "We came out with our first 'Group News' journal, which helped me understand what was actually happening in the business. We set up a large steel pipe plant in Perth, Australia, and I find myself doing the great lug from New Zealand to the far side of Australia all too often. Our property development biz is looking to announce a strategic relationship with a major investment bank to start up the property funds management platform in New Zealand, during the general fragility markets resulting from the global sub-prime problems. All exciting stuff." [Sounds a bit like Willard White, eh?]

"My wife, Sonia, is opening up another café and therefore I am becoming not only a sideline expert in the hospitality business and interior design execution; she's a tough client. The kids are well; Jake (10) does well in school and sports; Maddy (6) is into tap dancing and looks born for the stage; and Jamie (5) just started school and loves the monkey bars. As may have heard, I was awarded an Eisenhower Fellowship which involves carrying out a study program throughout the U.S. from March to May. I start and end in Philadelphia and expect to be in Texas, L.A., San Francisco, Portland and Chicago. Once my itinerary is definite I get in touch with those on the route for a beer. In Chicago, I will be attending a May leadership course at Kellogg."

Karen Offengard Robertson joined the Washington, D.C., office of the WWF (World Wildlife Federation, not wrestling, you chucklehead MMMs) in 2006 and was thrilled to hear that David Valdes is now running WWF in the Philippines. "My job, believe it or not, taps nicely into all I learned at Kellogg about teamwork, change management and strategy. My focus is working with consumer packaged good companies as well as food retailers on incorporating environmental sustainability in their operations and food supply chains. All's well on the home front with Larry '91 finishing up his forthcoming book on entrepreunership and Ella (5) and Noah (8) enjoying elementary school and all other things that make kids happy."

Jim Buck says he was sorry he missed the reunion but pleased to hear that his former rugby teammates including Scott Allan, Jeff Turi, John Trapnell, Dave 'Super Weka' McConnell and Gerry McGinley enjoyed a roast in his absence. "I live the good life in Raleigh, N.C., with wife Lisa, four kids (ages 8 and younger) and a big oaf of a Labrador retriever named Ike. I stay busy helping build a medtech startup called InnerPulse and preparing for his second cross-country cycling ride this time raising money for the education of kids left behind when their parents don't come home from Iraq or Afghanistan."

Susie and Dr. Bob Honigberg are currently in their second year in Milwaukee, and while Dr. Bob whines about the frigid winter, the Honigbergs enjoy the proximity to all four parents in Chicago and the ability to visit Kellogg and participate in a few healthcare panels. "Our boys, Jesse and Brad, (ages 10 and 13) and enjoy the schools in Milwaukee enjoying my time as chief medical officer at GE Healthcare and am building a global team to address key needs and gaps. I am also getting more involved in policy issues in the beltway. Susie is a member of the Aspen Health Stewardship Project, which is designed to advise the presidential candidates on their healthcare policy (and move it beyond just providing insurance coverage to all).

Donna Jensen Madier, Yolanda Macias Watson, Leslie Gordon Flatt, Denise Luft Glassman, Lori Siegel Miller and Kate Brew Colin recently met in New York for their annual reunion. Here's where they are living and what they are doing: Yolanda – L.A. – VP at Universal Music Group – two kids; Kate – Marin County, Calif.– stay-at-home mom, active in local politics – two kids; Donna – Granite Bay, Calif. – stay-at-home mom, starting new Internet business – two kids; Leslie – Toronto - stay-at-home mom – three kids; Denise – Short Hills, N.J. – stay-at-home mom – two kids; Lori – Chappaqua, N.Y. – stay-at-home mom – three kids.

As for the Riffman, it's been all work and no play as our business has been booming. After five months without a day off, it's probably time I start hiring more staff. We've had major successes with energy-efficiency projects for buildings from big-box retailers, to supermarkets, universities, warehouses, hotels, etc. If anyone is interested in 1- to 3-year paybacks for energy savings for larger buildings (and have lots of them), then drop me a line at drc@chesapeakesp.com. I also had the opportunity to visit Frank Wozencraft and his asset management firm, Texan Capital. He really loves the business and Texan is growing fast in both assets and with a small, but really sharp, management team. I wish him great success and billions of AUM. Hint, hint: call 'Willard White.'