2003 — Full-Time

Happy 2009, Class of 2003! We hope that you and yours had a wonderful holiday season and have gotten a great start to 2009. As usual, our class has been keeping busy. So, let's get the updates started!

The Baby Train…

The Behring family showing off their pearly whites (and gums). From left: Kate, Andrew and Jeff Behring '03
Ajay Chawan '03 being told by his wife Britta Watters to stop working on his tan.
Sharing the spotlight in Anna's first KW appearance are Catherine and Tony Chen '03
The Ekici family: Nevin Yuksel-Ekici '03, Erim Berke Ekici, and Taylan Ekici
From sunny Malaysia during better times in the banking industry are Manuel Ho and Fiona Tan, both '03, and their children
Ian Knox '03 and Manon Cypher happily walking down the aisle on their wedding day.
Beth Krettecos '03 and her new husband Demetri Nonas on their picture-perfect wedding day in Central Park
Karen Lee and Debbie Hartman, both '03 celebrating the outcome of November's presidential election.
Debuting in KW is Sienna (at two weeks), who is adored by her parents Hilda and Greg Lief '03
Proud Kellogg couple Dean Lindo '03 and Katja Lindo '04 show off their son Niklas
Proudly admiring his new son Lev is Josh Miller '03
Striking a pose in front of the opera house are Rodolfo Novarini '03, his wife Ingrid, and children Marco and Isabella
Trisha (Garces) Pomerenk '03 and husband Joel Pomerenk '04 with Joshua, who is all smiles and ready to battle the Chicago winters
Marteen Potjer '03 and family. From left, Charles (3), Maarten, Eva (5), wife Emily and baby Caroline
Mark Smolenski '03 and new wife Marilyn Underwood on their wedding day in St. Lucia
The Turitz family at the beach: Drew Turitz, Mindy (Barr) Turitz, both '03, and their daughter Madeline Francie
The Winarto family on Christmas Day in Singapore. From left: Andre Winarto '03 and family members Owen, Michelle, and Dean

The class of 2003 is continuing to provide the Kellogg Admissions Committee a steady stream of applicants for the class of 2038 and beyond. We also have created the opportunity for a lot of Kellogg alumni play dates.

Nevin Yuksel-Ekici and her husband Taylan welcomed son Erim Berke Ekici in October.

Tony Chen and his wife Catherine welcomed Anna Chen on Jan. 22. Anna came in at a svelte 5 pounds, 15 ounces and 18 inches, exactly the same dimensions as her brother Timmy. Tony and the family are doing great.

Greg Lief and his wife Hilda welcomed Sienna Rebecca Lief into the world on Oct. 25. Hilda and Sienna are doing incredibly well and we've been seeing a lot of the other "Kellogg babies" in the Boston area. Greg is still with Monitor Group, consulting for life sciences companies in the U.S. and Europe.

In Chicago, the Lindo family also grew by one this October. Katja Lindo '04 and Dean Lindo had 'Germaican' boy Niklas Michael Alexander on Oct. 21. Nik has brought much joy to the proud parents and keeps them very busy. Niklas looks forward to Katja's five-year Reunion to meet all the classmates and to start chatting up Beth Flye regarding a possible 2035 application.

Trisha (Garces) Pomerenk and husband Joel Pomerenk '04 welcomed their son, Joshua Delos Pomerenk, into the world at 9:08 p.m. Aug. 8. With the lucky birthday, he weighed in at 8 pounds, 5 ounces and stretched to 20.5 inches. Joshua amazes his parents daily and continues to grow off the charts, while his parents are finally getting some sleep again!

On the West Coast, Josh Miller and his wife Rachel welcomed Lev Samuel Goldmiller on Jan. 6. Lev finally made his debut after Rachel was in labor for 52 hours. Lev weighed in at 7 pounds, 1 ounce and 20.9 inches. Some of that weight may have been on his head, as he arrived sporting a full head of dark brown hair.

Manon and Ian Knox welcomed William Fergus Knox into the world on Jan. 18. The family is doing great.

Before play comes work…

Members of our class are continuing to make great progress in their careers, despite the tough economic conditions around us.

Paul Cuomo checked in from London to let everyone know he is the head of project and program management at Beazley. If you are in town and would like to grab a pint, get in touch with him at paolo.cuomo@beazley.com.

Bruno Carvalho updates us from New York. After seven years in Chicago as a business unit manager with Danaher, Bruno accepted a position as director of strategy and business development with Tyco in Princeton, N.J. and relocated to New York. He looks forward to connecting with '03 Kellogg alumni in the city.

After five good years with Hewlett-Packard, Jason Kasarda resigned last summer to accept a research and development finance position with Genentech, which has been an exciting change for him.

Jose Aragon reports that he is still employed by AIG.

On Jan. 1, Dominic Ivankovich took over as general manager of Datapaq Inc., the third of Fluke's industrial automation businesses for which he is responsible. The other two are the Raytek and Ircon corporations. He's looking forward to completing an integration of the global organization in the coming months.

Andrew Ingley is happy to be alive and happily married. Andrew is with Raymond James and living in Chicago.

Bill Nahmais and family are headed back to Chicago this summer after three years in Milwaukee. Bill is running commercial planning for MillerCoors and will be moving to the new headquarters opening up in the Loop in June. They will miss Milwaukee but are looking forward to spending more; time with the many class of 2003 alumni in Chicago. Bill sees a lot of Leo Torress and Jay Talbot '02 as the trio moved into the same department after the Miller merger with Coors last year.

Monica Shah launched the Web site for her company, Ideal Balance (idealbalanceinc.com). Ideal Balance is committed to being the premiere coaching company for busy women who would like to create more balance in their lives. Ideal Balance coaches women on health, nutrition, relationships and entrepreneurship. Ironically, Monica is still working on her own life balance, something she duly noted after dropping her precious Blackberry Curve in a puddle. Alas, no one ever said learning and teaching couldn't happen at the same time.

Karen Lee exited the Fortune 500 and joined the ranks of those she once mocked ... consultants. Now a senior admissions consultant for The MBA Exchange (mbaexchange.com), a leading MBA admissions consulting firm founded 12 years ago by a (gasp!) Harvard Business School alum, she provides strategic advice and counsel to young bucks desperately wanting to be like one of us (she assures them that we're not all that). She has also joined forces with none other than our own Monica Shah and has become a career coach for the career division of Monica's company Ideal Balance, which targets professional women in finding balance in health, career and relationships.

Ajay Chawan is still an aspiring entrepreneur. He is still working on the food technology company he co-founded while at Kellogg. In the past year, Ajay has shifted the business model from B2B to B2C. He plans to provide new food choices to consumers that enable them to enjoy great-tasting foods that are easy to enjoy and good for them. Hard to believe, he knows, but he plans to launch these products in third quarter this year. Watch for them on your store shelves!

Andre Winarto checked in from Down Under after his sighting at Reunion last May. Andre has been keeping busy with his family and moving up the corporate ladder. He was promoted in 2008 and looks after the construction and maintenance of the Western Australian state electricity distribution network. After a slow start to life in Perth, Andre reports that he has finally found a very sweet spot in life with a company that is focused on a companywide cultural transformation to ensure that we always have enough electricity for this power-hungry state. The Winarto children (4, 6) are growing like weeds. The Winartos escaped Australia last Christmas and had an awesome holiday visiting relatives in Singapore and Malaysia.

After five years in New York, Mindy (Barr) Turitz and Drew Turitz moved to Chicago last summer. Drew joined Dan Waters at Sandbox Industries, where he is managing a venture fund for Blue Cross Blue Shield. After moving to Chicago, Mindy and Drew welcomed daughter Madeline Francie in October. The new parents are happy to be back in the Chicago area.

Andrea Paiz is doing well professionally. She is the general manager and stockholder of Benetton and Segue Guatemala, two Italian franchises. Also, one year ago Andrea and her sister acquired the Central America franchise for Claire's, a retailer of accessories for girls and women. They opened three stores last year in Guatemala and will open their fourth store in April. Andrea also is passionate about helping the people of Guatemala and is an active member of Rotary International.

Maarten Potjer is still raving about life in the Twin Cities and has added three kids to the family since graduation. At our great five-year Reunion, it became clear that Maarten is one of the few people who are still working at the same place where he interned in 2002, which is Ecolab. Along with 14 other Kellogg alums, it has been a great place to work. Actually, Ravi Raghavapudi and Maarten work in the same team. Visiting Kellogg for recruiting trips is always a highlight of the year, where Maarten has bumped into several classmates over the years as well.

Finally, playtime!

No KW edition is complete without talking about the scores of Kellogg MBAs converging on a city for a friend's wedding. The student formerly known as Betsy Leis tied the knot with Tony Bagdy on Oct. 18 in Chicago with a sizable Kellogg contingent in attendance. Betsy used the opportunity to officially change her name to Rebecca Bagdy. In addition to getting married, Rebecca (aka the student formerly known as Betsy Leis) moved three times, sold a few homes and started a new job with Kaplan as a director of strategy. We all look forward to hearing about Rebecca's experiences in the witness protection program in subsequent issues of KW.

Beth Krettecos got married to Demetri Nonas on July 12 in New York City. It was an absolutely beautiful, picture-perfect day. Demetri and Beth went to college together at the University of Virginia and they ran into each other three and a half years ago in New York. They had a traditional Greek wedding (with Greek dancing but no breaking plates) and then spent three weeks in the Maldives and Dubai for the honeymoon.

Mark Smolekski tied the knot with Marilyn Underwood in St. Lucia in 2008. They live in Chicago and have two children and two dogs which provide for action-packed days and nights. Mark continues to work with Axios Investments.

Ian Knox married Manon Cypher in the fall of 2007 in Pennsylvania. Believe it or not, Ian met Manon in Nicaragua; when Ian spent four months there on a Kellogg Corps project for Fabretto Children's Foundation in 2003 (could be the first Kellogg Corps marriage?). Manon, who worked for Fabretto, picked up Ian from the airport and the rest, as they say, is history. When Ian returned to the U.S., Manon continued her two-year stint as a volunteer in Nicaragua before taking the plunge and joining Ian in Seattle.

The class of 2003 is continuing to explore and enjoy all corners of the world. In today's super-connected world, this means that our classmates can send in the KW updates from just about anywhere!

Rodofo Novarini and his family checked in from Sydney during a family trip. After spending time touring the local sites, they took a break and struck a pose in front of the Sydney Opera House. Rodolfo happily notes that daughter Isabella is starting kindergarten soon and is taking good care of her kid brother Marco.

Kellogg couple Manuel Ho and Fiona Tan checked in from London. Manuel and Fiona are working in the banking sector, he with RBS and she with Barclays. They settled in North London with two girls, Isabel (2.5) and Filipa (or Pippa) (8 months). They participated in an event that only a small percentage of Western residents have experienced — a home birth. Pippa was born in their home and is doing quite well.

Paul and Kaori Bray spent Thanksgiving in Tokyo. They caught up with the Kellogg Tokyo crowd at the home of Takuro Kubo and enjoyed a huge meal and were kept busy by many small children.

Leandro Torréss and Gustavo Gouvea spent the holidays with friends in Rio de Janerio.

Stateside, Ousman Jobe, his girlfriend Kathleen Lungren, Colby Maher Countryman, Brady Countryman and Amit Nag met up in Santa Monica, Calif., to hear how Ousman graced the Obamas with his presence at Inauguration Day and the Western Inaugural Ball and to hear how Amit almost took out Suge Knight while wearing a Salvador Dali painting.

Karen Lee and Debbie Hartman shared a chilly November evening with over a million jubilant people after learning that Barack Obama had won the general election.

Ajay Chawan and his wife Britta Watters (yes that is really her name) took a much-needed vacation over the winter holidays in Florida. For a week, they camped out on the beach and achieved a zen-like state while listening to the waves crash on the shore.

In addition to preparing for fatherhood, Josh Miller spent the past year settling into a great new job as program officer at the Jim Joseph Foundation in San Francisco where he is learning to be a grant maker in the field of Jewish education. He has also been cycling regularly, taking his biggest ride ever this summer from San Francisco to L.A. Rachel continues to enjoy her work this past year as in-house counsel at Solar Millennium, a large-scale solar thermal energy company here in Berkeley. In her free time, she has been doing yoga and gardening.

Jan Rohde has had a busy year on all fronts. At home, daughter Carolina (4) and son Adrian (1) continue to grow, develop and enamor their parents. On the professional front, Jan jumped from strategy to general management and is leading two small airlines at once, both part of TACA Regional.

Ousman Jobe, Monica Shah, Karen Lee and Ajay Chawan spent their fifth President's Day weekend together since graduating from Kellogg. This year, the group convened at the home of Ajay and Britta in Nashville, Tenn. Ajay used the opportunity to conduct market research for his company's new product line while Ousman, Monica and Karen discussed hot topics such as, "Whose laptop is cooler?" and "How do you best back up your computer's data?"

Jason Koehn reports: "Life took a number of turns for the Koehn family in 2008. First and most importantly, Emily and I welcomed twin boys Joel and Max on Sept. 22 and everyone, including big sister Natalie (3) is happy and healthy (and of course a little tired). Also in the midst of the chaos of the U.S. housing collapse, we sold our house and started building a new house in the western Chicago suburbs so we could hold all these children. I decided to leave GE Capital after more than four years to join the Village Green Companies in December to help them finance new apartment developments in the Midwest. Obviously with 'real estate' and 'finance' the best two words to describe my post-Kellogg career, the past year was challenging but educational as well."

Jeff Behring welcomed dirty diaper creator Andrew in June. He attempted to take a few photos of Andrew in a Kellogg shirt, but Andrew was in the not-smiling-for-the-camera phase. But by the time Thanksgiving rolled around, Andrew as showing his smile to the world.

Thanks for the great updates, class of 2003! We look forward to seeing and hearing more about your adventures in the next issue of Kellogg World.

Your representatives,

Tindley and Barry (and guest editor Ajay)