2007— Full-Time

I had heard that the summer after business school was a popular time to get married, but I had no idea so many of our classmates would be tying the knot in the months immediately following graduation.

Jessica Moschner felt lucky in love as she said "I do" to Kevin Bargon on Aug. 7. The ceremony was held at St. Mary's Church in Lake Forest, Ill., with the reception at Exmoor Country Club. Jess and Kevin felt so blessed to celebrate with close friends and family, including many Kellogg friends who mean so much to them. The couple honeymooned in Bali and Thailand and now resides in Chicago's Wrigleyville neighborhood.

Mark Himmelsbach wed Annie Hynick at her undergraduate alma mater, the University of Virginia, on Nov. 3. Best man Tony Kahn reportedly had some trouble untying the rings from the ring pillow and they went flying across the church in the middle of the ceremony. This added quite a bit of laughter to the otherwise emotional occasion and had both Mark and Annie laughing so hard that they were close to tears. Kellogg '07ers in attendance included: Amit Bouri, Amish Gupta, Johanna Hamilton, Paulita David, Meredith Papp, Erica Krablin, Micah Murphy and Glenn Pappalardo.

Christine Anthony '07 and husband Jeremy welcomed SierraLynn in August 2007. Sierra celebrated her first Christmas in December.
Karsten Fruechtl '07, with his wife Meike and son Anton, got together with Sebastian Bachmann '07, his wife Laura and son Walter over Christmas. Both Walter and Anton were born during Karsten and Sebastian's final year at Kellogg. The Fruechtl family lives in Munich, Germany, while the Bachmann family lives in Cincinnati.
James C. Hundt '07 (left) works in the Executive Office ofthe President. He is pictured with First Lady Laura Bush, President George W .Bush and his wife, Anneliesa Hundt, at the White House Christmas party last year.
Gaurav Jain '07 married Neelu Jain in Jaipur, India, in a traditional ceremony on Nov. 30.
Melissa Jones '07 and Chris Gregory '07 wed in August in Santa Barbara.
Petronella Lugemwa, Danielle Robinson, Kailei Richardson and Ayo Lawal, all '07, got together in New York for a joint birthday bash in September.
A group of Kellogg '07 grads attended Cameron Smith's wedding to Erica Fishman in December in Baltimore. Attendees included, top ,from left: Jon Haug, Avi Oler, Amish Gupta, Susan Chusyd (Northwestern Law'07), Frank Kumpuris, Sonia Khanna, and Anuj Khanna; second row: Haile Arrindell and Cameron Smith with his new wife, Erica Fishman.
Attending the wedding of Emily (Shultz) Thomas '07 were, back row: John Hamilton '05, Joanna Hamilton '07, Emily (Schultz) Thomas '07, Elizabeth Mahler '07, Micah Murphy '07, Cara Sylvester '07, Tom Kenney, Megan Hitchner '07, Elizabeth Cantlin '07; front row: Jennifer Splansky, Caryn Zieses, Elizabeth Kessler, Jessica (Moschner)Bargon, all '07
Matt Tingler '07 and his wife, Tracy, welcomed Braden on July 25 in Chicago.
A group of Minneapolis-based grads and their JVs got together for a holiday dinner in December. Back row, from left: Jay Riley '07, Brian O'Malley '07, Seth Raley '07; middle row: Kristen Forgea, Xavier Sanchezde Carmona '07, Rebecca Valdivieso, Marie Vu, '07, Matt Dobson '07; front: Jeff Uhrig '07

Emily (Schultz) Thomas wrote: "Matt Thomas and I were married on Sept. 2, in Wayzata, Minn. We got married at a church, St. Philip the Deacon, where we grew up together, and the reception was held at Wayzata Country Club. It was an absolute blast. After a quick weekend getaway to the North Shore of Minnesota, we moved to Seoul, South Korea, where Matt is stationed with the U.S. Army. I'm working for General Mills Korea, and while it's been a wonderful experience, we are looking forward to returning to the U.S. in June. On our way home, we're going to spend a week in Hawaii on a honeymoon (finally) before moving back to Minneapolis."

Tracy Johnson reported that she attended Karen Shea's wedding in August. Other Kellogg alumni in attendance included: Jon Dreyfus, Yvonne "Ivi" Ruggles, Emma Blaylock, Rick Blaylock, Eddie Meder, Michele Perez, Sara Borthwick, Kailei Richardson, Chas Carol and Amanda Carol '06.

Janhavi Kumar and Dhruv Patel attended Gaurav Jain's wedding to Neelu Jain in Jaipur (India) on Nov. 30.

Tiffany (Brooks) Bernal reported that she and Pablo Bernal were married at her parents' home on the lake in Holland, Mich., on June 23. Both the ceremony and reception were bilingual and bicultural affairs, and the event ended with a late-night South American-style Carnaval.

Cameron Smith married Erica Fishman in December in Baltimore. Class of 2007 classmates attending the wedding included: Jon Haug, Avi Oler, Amish Gupta, Susan Chusyd (Northwestern Law '07), Frank Kumpuris, Sonia Khanna, Anuj Khanna and Haile Arrindell. After the wedding, Cameron and Erica honeymooned in Thailand where they met up in Bangkok with Pupong Nathikanchanalab '06 and Peeyada Aksharanukrah (exchange '06). Cameron and Erica live in Chicago's River North neighborhood. Erica is a residential interior designer and Cameron started a job in February as a vice president at private equity firm Code Hennessy & Simmons in the Chicago Loop.

Melissa Jones and Chris Gregory, both '07, married in August in Santa Barbara, Calif., with an assortment of Kellogg friends in attendance. They enjoyed a relaxing honeymoon in Bora Bora and are now settling back into life in San Francisco.

It seems that our classmates who weren't getting married were busy circumnavigating the globe last summer.

Betsy Cantlin reported that she was with Stephanie Mann, Brannan Schell and Alison Pitzer when they ran into Neil Seyffert in the Ngorongoro crater in mid-July. They shared boxed lunches, Snickers bars, and tales of their recent big game sightings.

Two groups of Kellogg ladies climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro's Machame route under a full moon in late July. The first group to summit included Carolyn Starrett, Louisa Sadler and Liz Henry, all '07, as well as Angela Russo. Liz had a cellphone that was so powerful it seemed to be designed for communication with aliens. She put it to good use keeping the families of the climbers updated on the group's progress throughout the trek. The second group included Betsy Cantlin, Meghan Coles, Deidre Stoken and Ashley Hartmann, all '07, as well as Jeff Kline. Both groups reported being fatigued and disoriented on summit night, but all nine climbers powered through the pain and made it to the top (and back down) without incident.

Also summiting Kili, a week later, were Danika Van Beek, Beth Wherry, Rachel Zlotoff, Chris Addy, all '07, and Rod Feuer '06. They choose the Rongai Route, which was predominately populated by black and white Colobus monkeys, as well as a group of loud elephants, presumably from Kenya. They didn't encounter many other climbers until the last night, when they began their summit attempt around 1 a.m. The group made it to the crater rim and took in a beautiful sunrise, and summited about an hour later. A few of the hikers spontaneously vomited en route to the top, but the whole crew made it up, and back down, safely.

With so many Kellogg students spending the summer in Tanzania, perhaps Dean Jain should consider starting up a Kellogg outpost, or at least an executive MBA program, in Arusha.

The Kellogg community has also gained a few more potential students during recent months. Christine Anthony and her husband, Jeremy, welcomed Sierra Lynn on Aug, 15. Christine writes: "Jeremy and I have had such fun this fall with our new daughter. She is absolutely thriving by rolling over, babbling and learning the concept of cause and effect by calling out when we leave the room until we come back. I've enjoyed being at home with her this fall and while I am excited to start at Baxter with their marketing rotation program in January it will be sad to leave her."

Emma Rose Silverman was born on July 20 to proud dad Joe Silverman and mom Wendy. Joe wrote: "Emma is already up to 21 pounds and her favorite food is anything you put near her mouth; she's well on her way to being a future sumo wrestling star. She also recently said 'da-da,' but she said it while looking at a dirty diaper, so I'm pretty sure it was just babble and she doesn't really know what it means. She's an absolute sweetheart and we can't imagine life without her."

Matt Tingler's wife Tracy also gave birth during the summer. The couple welcomed a boy, Braden, into the fold on July 25 in Chicago. Matt reported that the little one weighed 6.15 pounds and was 18 inches long at birth, but that he has grown up a lot in the past few months.

Quite a few Kellogg grads organized events around the world to celebrate the holidays with their friends from Kellogg. Xavier Sanchez de Carmona wrote that seven Minneapolis-based grads and their JVs got together for a holiday dinner in December.

Rony Touma and Akshaya "Aks" Gulhati organized a "Thanksgiving" reunion in November in London for the Class of 2007 alumni and their families in Europe. Kellogg alums from all over Europe flew in to attend including Silvia Gussoni (from Milan), Michael Jaun and Katrin Frutiger (from Switzerland), Anna Wrobel (from Poland) and Antonia Karbe (from Germany). London-based alumni in attendance included Greg Borel, Jonathan Steitz and his wife Kelly and their two sons, Sasha Kupriyanov and his wife Suzanne, Temitayo Osundosumu and his family, Stathis Christofi and his wife Maria, Campbell Lyle and Stephane Roy.

Aks and his wife Kalyani and daughter Shireen couldn't get enough Kellogg apparently, so they also flew to Dallas to take part in a similar extravaganza in December that included Sagar Mathur and his wife Meghna, Ben Toronto his wife and two daughters, Nicolas Valenzuela and his wife Marian and son Tomas, Sweta Modi, Wasim Rasheed and Farzeen Naziri.

Sebastian Bachmann reported that during Christmas vacation in Germany two Kellogg family reunions took place. Sebastian, his wife Laura, and their son Walter got together with Karsten Fruechtl, and his wife Meike and son Anton. The Fruechtl family lives in Munich, Germany while the Bachmann family lives in Cincinnati, and both Walter and Anton were born at Kellogg. The Bachmanns also reunited with Mikko Rieger (MMM '06, his wife Satu and daughter Taika during their trip. The Rieger family resides in Helsinki.

Sandra Anderson got a group of alums together for an authentic Chinese dinner in San Francisco's Chinatown in September that had absolutely nothing to do with any kind of holiday — just a bunch of Kellogg peeps getting together for good old fashioned fun. Attendees included Sara Borthwick, Janet Zhou, Josie Ortega, Tracy Johnson, Jon Dreyfus, Jeremy Hudson, Lebbonee Price, Hubert Liu, and globetrotter Dave Shreni, who I hear has settled down in Chicago after more than 6 months on the road.

The Three Monterrey Amigos from the Class 2007, Manuel Rivera, Carlos Garza-Galan and Mauricio Maldonado, reunited in their Mexican hometown for a traditional carne asada after two years of freezing gatherings in Evanston locales, including McManus, Davis Beach, Optima Horizons and The Reserve. The event took place during a perfect Saturday afternoon in January, and the 75 degree weather was welcomed by all. JVs and the three Evanston-born Kellogg Kids also enjoyed the day together.

I received a few work updates. Dave Silverman is running Amphenol's smallest business and has a staff of nine. He reports that it is "pretty interesting to say the least. It's very Dunder-Mifflen-esque (if you watch "The Office"), but it's a great experience. Connecticut is really nice too. It has been a really easy adjustment."

Horatiu Stefan is settling nicely in Seoul, South Korea, where he works for Samsung's Global Strategy Group. Within weeks of arriving, Horatiu met fellow Poets Aya Tokunaga and Eric McGimpsey in Tokyo, where they celebrated this mini-reunion in high style at the Park Hyatt (nothing was lost in translation). Poet love was also flowing when Horatiu met Guido Kruse in Vienna, where they enjoyed the chilly weather from inside a handful of classic Viennese cafes. Most recently, the '07 Poets made their presence felt in Seoul when Bryan Kim dropped by for short visit. The poets are everywhere.

Deepak Jha reported that he is picking up new skills, expanding his network and logging copious amounts airline miles as a member of Accenture's strategy consulting practice. Keep an eye out for him if you're ever in the Admiral's Club in S.F.

Petronella Lugemwa is living in northern N.J. and working at Wyeth on the Advil brand as an assistant product manager and loving it. She got together with Danielle Robinson, Kailei Richardson and Ayo Lawal in September for a joint birthday bash.

Victor Kucek reported that he launched his company, TIXEM, in the fall. TIXEM provides free ticketing services to anyone that needs them, including nonprofits, theaters, music venues, and sporting events. Their software allows users to set-up an event and start selling tickets online within minutes. According to Victor, the real innovation is that, in addition to purchasing tickets over the Web, TIXEM allows users to purchase directly through text messaging on mobile phones and also provides a full suite of free mobile marketing applications. After a successful launch in Chicago this fall, TIXEM is expanding to other major metros around the country. This winter Victor is relocating himself, and TIXEM HQ, to the Bay Area. Drop Victor an e-mail at victor.kucek@tixem.com if you want to learn more or catch up.

Many of our classmates are spearheading efforts to make sure that the TG tradition lives on in their respective cities. Stephanie Pirishis and Nadia Majid have started a TG that takes place on the second Friday of every month in New York. The bar changes monthly, and they would love people to get involved who aren't already on the e-mail list; drop Nadia a line at nmajid12@gmail.com if you're interested in attending.

There is a similar effort in Chicago, and Chris Addy reports that 25 to 35 Kellogg alums attend the TG there each month. E-mail Chris at christopher.addy@gmail.com if you're interested in getting in on the action.

In Seattle, unofficial city social chair Ben Nimmergut took the TG concept a step further. Mike Fairchild reported Seattleites headed up to Whistler in mid-January to relive the ski trips of the past. No word on whether they were chauffeured around in Hummers, a la Vail 2006, but I bet it was still pretty cool.

A group of Kellogg ladies climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro together in August. Climbers included, from left, Meghan Coles, Betsy Cantlin, Carolyn Starrett, Ashley Hartmann (all '07), Jeff Kline, Angela Russo, Louisa Sadler'07 and Liz Henry '07. Not pictured: Deidre Stoken '07.