1997 — Full-Time

Corrado Giaquinto was promoted to marketing director at Colgate-Palmolive Thailand and moved to Bangkok in February. His family is thrilled to see the sun again. After living in the U.S., Argentina, France, Russia and Poland, he happily continues the world cruise, still loyal to the employer who hired him from Kellogg. Corrado recently celebrated the ninth ski reunion in Val d'Isere with the "Fans of Pescivendolo" Kellogg Alumni group, which included Marco Azzaretti, Alessandro "Lalo" Duina, Patrick Imholz and the usual gentle host, Felice "Rikkio" Ahlers.

	Stephanie Gordon (Farsht) '97 and Steve Farsht '98 with their girls on Halloween
	Carlos Rubal '97 and daughter Cristina root for Spain
	Michelle Vidano '97 with husband Chuck and son Maxton

Keith Lender and his wife, Jill, adopted a baby boy from Korea. Jaden has settled into his new life in New York quite well, having already attended his first Thanksgiving parade. His older sister Maya (10) had to wait until she was five to see Big Bird and company. Keith is teaching high school part-time in the Bronx, while he is in his third year of managing his family's family office.

Andy Scott continues to enjoy living in San Francisco with his wife Stacey, Audrey (6) and Nathan (4). In September he joined a Kleiner Perkins and CRV-backed start-up company called RPX Corporation that is seeking to address the patent troll problem that many corporations are facing. In January, Andy had an intense lunch discussion with Steve Carlson, Wayne Hill, Brad Marks, Scott Gibbs and Paul Wythes regarding how to address the current economic crisis.

Menno Veeneklaas became CEO of a corporate advisory business in Sydney called Barrack & York (barrackandyork.com). B&Y specializes in helping owners of mid-size companies with mergers and acquisitions, debt and capital raisings, restructurings and turnarounds. Menno's family spent last Christmas in Ireland visiting his in-laws and enjoyed a week of skiing in Italy in January. His sons Finn (5) and Charlie (8) are actively involved in the local surf and soccer clubs. Menno continues to enjoy body surfing, cycling and flying remote control helicopters. His wife Mairead tries to keep her three boys out of trouble!

Paul Fichter is the founder and president of Taphandles Inc. in Seattle. Taphandles is celebrating its 10th year of business this year after a year of record growth in 2008. In January, Jeff Rea '83 joined Paul to lead marketing and new business development. Together they are helping breweries of all sizes around the USA and Canada market beer. Jeff is working to expand the Taphandles product line beyond point of sale items into marketing services.

John Ganz, Ryuji Kaneko, Ike Kawanabe, Yoshi Kaji and Alex Emery met for dinner in Tokyo in October when John took a vacation to Japan. John left the Chicago office of Latham & Watkins LLP to join Butler Rubin Saltarelli & Boyd LLP, a Chicago litigation boutique, which specializes in reinsurance and complex business litigation. Ryuji recently left Aristech Acrylics LLC in Kentucky and returned to Mitsubishi Corporation's Tokyo office.

Stephanie Gordon (Farsht) and Steve Farsht '98 just adopted a very furry 2-year-old black lab/German shepherd mix to add to the chaos at home. Their little girls both adore him and spend most of their day following him around and trying to teach him how to sit and stay (it usually does not work). Life is much more manageable since Steve left private equity last year to run a small portfolio company and Stef is still working part-time in strategy at Target. She also started teaching a strategy class as an adjunct professor at the University of Minnesota for seniors in the undergraduate business school. It pales in comparison to Kellogg but it's still fun to be back on campus, Stephanie notes.

Sue Gouws Korn and Brian Korn welcomed their second son, Justin, in November. Their first son, Jason (3), enjoyed starting preschool last fall. The Korns purchased a new home in Belmont, Calif., in February and have completely renovated the main level. They moved in two weeks before the baby was born. Since that wasn't enough to do, they purchased an existing concrete company and are enjoying running this local small business, and adding to the two bar/restaurants and real estate they own pieces of in New Mexico (in partnership with Liz and Nico Ortiz.) Sue's 10-year stint at Washington Mutual has been a roller coaster, with her falling victim to its historic demise in September (she joined in 2005 through an acquisition). They just hosted the 13th Annual Korn Superchilibowl and enjoyed seeing Beth and David Popler, Dee and Mike Hilberman, Sue and Gil Penchina, Amy and Addison Snell, Trina and Burt Lampl, and Brian's parents, Diane and Bill Korn '65.

Michelle Vidano and her husband Chuck had a baby boy Feb. 10, 2008. Their son Maxton Riley Vidano (1) is just about ready to walk. Michelle continues to work in marketing at Google, though she moved to part-time.

Members of the class of 1997 and their spouses celebrated the 40th birthday of Michael Hilberman at his home in San Jose, Calif. Some fine dining and excellent wine were enjoyed by all!

Carlos Rubal celebrated the victory of Spain's national football team (you know, the sport people play all over the world with their feet, hence the name) in the European Cup Finals last spring in Cracow, Poland, where he is currently starting up a subsidiary of a Spanish holding. None of his friends could share that special, eagerly awaited moment with him. But fortunately his daughters Cristina (9) and Beatriz (6) were there, which made it so much sweeter! Carlos is happy to announce that on May 31, he will be celebrating his 40th birthday with as many friends and Kelloggians as will dare make the trip to the same old, but beautiful, Cracow, Poland. So if you know Carlos but you don't know Cracow (or Poland for that matter), get your plane tickets and hotel reservations now. You can contact Carlos at crubal1997@kellogg.northwestern.edu. See you in Cracow! Czesc!

Policarpo Elizondo moved to Toronto with his wife, Lorena, and his five kids, Poli (12), Andy (10), Fede (8), Lorena (6) and Fernanda (1). He is hoping to contact alumni in the area.

After six years leading the project development effort for Shell WindEnergy in Europe and Asia, Michael Payne has moved back to the U.S. to put his three children closer to their grandparents. He is living on Whidbey Island, 30 miles north of Seattle. He continues to work on wind for Shell as their head of strategy and portfolio in North America. In addition to three kids under seven years old, he makes time for the apple orchard, garden and chickens. Yes we can.