2007— Full-Time

This column spans quite a few months, so please excuse the tardiness of some of these news items.

Danika Van Beek '07 married Chris Addy '07 in Chicago in August. Kellogg attendees from left, front row: Ananda Baron, Aaron Schweifler, Lisa Sweet, Danika (Van Beek) Addy, Chris Addy, Lauren Novita, Abby (Johnson-Reid) Phelps, friend Mason Phelps, Matt Ziser and Brannan Schell, all '07 unless noted. From left, second row: Glenn Pappalardo, Beth Wherry, Rachel Zlotoff, Stephanie Mann, Jessica (Moschner) Bargon, friend Kirsten Kenna, friend Michelle Sznewajs, all '07 unless noted. From left, third row: Katie Moran, Bhavan Suri, Dave Hegarty, Ben McConahey, Danika (Roj) Wiedman, Brad Wiedman, Bryan Kenna and Chris Sznewajs, all '07 unless noted.
A Kellogg gathering. From left, back row: Johhny Sundrani, Rajiv Bansal, Dhruv Patel, Sagar Mathur, Tejas Moogimani, Amat Bisht, Jessica Patel, Mithun Sundar, Guru Prasanna and Tarun Arora, all '07. From left, second row: Sirisha Bansal, Farzeen Naziri, Wasim Rasheed, Vatsala Misra, Meghna Mathur, Niloy Sanyal, Mariana Santos, all '07. From left, front row: Sucheta Gangwal, Abhishek Gangwal '07
Kellogg alumni celebrating Kelly Greenwood's '07 wedding. From left, top row: Doug Scott, Katie Brodnik, Shannon Jones '08, Meredith Papp, Jen Splansky, all '07 unless noted. From left, bottom row: Lisa Sweet, Kelly Greenwood, Jules Maltz and Bao Phan, all '07
John Haug '07 with his wife Amy and their son Oliver, who was born on Oct. 11 in Indianapolis, Ind.
Ammon Matsuda '07, wife Kara and their children Kale Samuel (born Oct. 14), Ainsley (5) and Marcus (3)
Lauren Nuechterlein '07 married Andy Louis in November in Philadelphia.
A Tsai Kellogg wedding celebration. From left, first row: Tim Moore, Angela Chou, Serena Chu, Renee Cherubin, Michelle Aleti, Diana Lee, Roger Tsai, Jeremy Hudson, Vidya Nagashwaran, all '07. From left, middle row: Janet Zhou, Tad Kittredge, Lebonnee Price Kitteredge, Amy Hsiao, Lisa Nagatoshi, Megha Vora, all '07. From left, back row: Alan Becker, Mike Sargeant, Pablo Bernal, Tiffany Bernal, Marie Kim, Jason Choi, Bryan Kim, Evan Frank, Ben Munoz, Janhavi Kumar, all '07
A group of Kellogg grads got together to celebrate the marriage of Janet Zhou '07 and Mark Dixon. From left: Brian Gum, Jeremy Hudson, Anita Barci, Amy Hsiao, Sara Borthwick, Ann Imsangjan, maid of honor Lindsay Chim, Janet Zhou, husband Mark Dixon, Lisa Ward, Tad Kittredge, bridesmaid Lebbonee Price, Fangning Zhang, David Sweeney and Jessica Patel, all '07 unless noted

A group of Kellogg alumni in Minneapolis organized a picnic at Lake Calhoun in order to celebrate the great (but short) Minnesota summer. Class of '07 alums in attendance included Jeff Uhrig, Jay Riley, Xavier Sanchez de Carmona, Seth Raley, Ivan Martinez and Brian O'Malley.

The European contingent got together for a summer reunion weekend July 11-13 in Prague. They enjoyed lazy sightseeing, great food and a variety of local "beverages." In an effort to honor the Kellogg global spirit, the group ate dinner at a Cuban restaurant and followed the meal with mojitos. Kellogg alums in attendance were Zsuzsa and Zsolt Toth, Ania Wrobel, Michal Skalsky, Tibor Friedrich, Rony Touma, Norbert Dworzynski, Francesco Gaini and Fabio Mainieri.

A group of '07 JD-MBAs and their friends converged on D.C. for the presidential inauguration in January. Highlights included the Illinois State Ball, which featured a "Proud of our Heritage" wall of Kraft products. Alumni in attendance included Beth Stevens, Frank Kumpuris, Sonia (Ahluwalia) Khanna, Anuj Khanna, Haley Arrindell, Nadia Majid, Cameron Smith, Chris Grogan and Amith Gupta. We were delighted that President Obama had such a successful and historic campaign despite his failure to produce his own version of the "I'm Amish Gupta" campaign video.

In February, 35 alumni attended Bring Kellogg Ski Trip Back, which was held in Park City, Utah. Attendees were too numerous to list but highlights included Paulita David's return to the slopes (her new ACL is better than the original) and Jay Choi's epic meltdown at the Euchre table, which was rumored to be his first loss ever. Brad Martin '08 channeled Mufasa while crashing the "Welcome to the Jungle" party in a lion suit but John Hamilton '05 did not represent his class properly, as there was no Pumba or Timon costume in sight.

There were quite a few Kellogg '07 weddings this fall, including at least three marriages of couples who met on KWEST. In these difficult economic times, the school might want to explore taking out ads in airline magazines to promote the trips as a dating service. The positioning could be similar to Valenti International, prescreened professionals who are 'just like you.' Can someone get in touch with Professor Hennessey on this?

Former KWEST legends Chris Addy and Danika Van Beek were married in August in Chicago. The '07 grads met on the Mystery Trip to Cairns, Australia, where yours truly had the pleasure of getting to know them. Chris reported that the wedding consisted of "lots of eating, drinking, dancing, laughing and sweating. We had a late night party at Fado and there was Miller High Life in abundance." A plethora of '07 grads were in attendance. Chris and Danika are living in Chicago and see friends from Kellogg regularly.

Krista Plaisted and Bryan Campell, who met on KWEST Costa Rica, were married in Yosemite National Park in September. The ceremony took place in a clearing in the woods and their self-written vows inspired everyone in attendance. The adventure-loving pair capped the evening with authentic campfire s'mores before heading off to Bali on their honeymoon. Bryan is still traveling to Africa monthly as he works to expand MicroEnsure into new markets, but the Campbells' official residence is in San Francisco's Noe Valley.

There must be something in the water in Costa Rica. Fellow Costa Rican KWESTers Alison Pitzer and Matt McCourt also were married last fall. They wed Oct. 12 in an outdoor ceremony on Ali's family farm outside Charlottesville, Va. Matt's love of heavy machinery was evident when the newly married pair drove up to the reception on a John Deere tractor (he was not wearing any McCourt Construction apparel at the time). There weren't any historical artifacts to deface, so the Kellogg crew was forced to rein themselves in by finishing up the night with a minor raid on the kitchen at the bed and breakfast where they were staying. The owners are still wondering what happened to all of the potato chips. The McPitzers live in Boston.

Roger Tsai and Diana Lee '06 tied the knot on Sept. 27 in Oakland, Calif., amidst guitar ballads, lion dance drumbeats and wild turkey gobbles. Roger and Diana write that they were overjoyed to be able to celebrate with friends and family from across the U.S. and abroad. Kellogg pride ran deep and fortunately, no T-rexes were harmed during the celebration.

Roger and Diana weren't the only '06/07 pair to wed in September; Lebbonee Price and Tad Kittredge '06 were married on Labor Day weekend at The Umstead Hotel & Spa in Cary, N.C. Lebbonee and Tad met at a Kellogg New Year's party, but their relationship grew (as their grades dropped) when they were assigned to the same Turbo Fin study group. Lebbonee wrote, "We dusted off spreadsheet modeling skills during wedding planning as we tried to estimate the number of drinks 150 guests and 12 Kellogg alumni would drink in an afternoon." The longest-distance-traveled award goes to Melinda (Phillips) Sukhla '06, who traveled to the wedding from Sydney, Australia, but numerous other alums from both classes were in attendance. Lebbonee and Tad reside in San Francisco where they work at Walmart.com and Clorox, respectively.

Janet Zhou married Mark Dixon on Oct. 11 at Murrieta's Well in Livermore, Calif. The group finished off the night with In-N-Out burgers and bottles of tequila back at the hotel after a party in true California style. Janet and Mark headed to India in December for their honeymoon and live in Redwood City.

"I married my longtime boyfriend, Rick Cloppert, in Miami on Nov. 28 (the day after Thanksgiving)," Carolina Patino writes. "After dating for five years, we were excited to tie the knot at the Spanish Monastery. It's still hard to fathom that I'm a Mrs."

Lauren Nuechterlein is now Lauren Louis since she married Andy Louis on July 19 in Philadelphia. She writes, "It was 95 degrees on our wedding day, but luckily Andy surprised me with a honeymoon to Peru, which was nice and cool." Lauren and Andy are living in Philadelphia where Lauren is a consultant for McKinsey.

Abhishek Gangwal married Sucheta Mujumdar on Nov. 22 in New Jersey. Numerous '07 alumni were in attendance including: Johnny Sundrani, Rajiv Bansal, Dhruv Patel, Sagar Mathur, Tejas Moogimani, Amat Bisht, Jessica Patel, Mithun Sundar, Guru Prasanna, Tarun Arora, Sirisha Bansal, Farzeen Naziri, Wasim Rasheed, Vatsala Misra, Meghna Mathur, Niloy Sanyal and Mariana Santos.

Kelly Greenwood married longtime boyfriend and Stanford GSB alum Jules Maltz in July at Viansa, a vineyard in Sonoma, Calif. Kellogg friends in attendance included: Katie Brodnik, Meredith Papp, Bao Phan, Doug Scott, Jen Splansky and Lisa Sweet. Kelly and Jules spent their honeymoon gallivanting through Egypt and Greece before moving to San Francisco. As if marriage and a new city didn't provide enough adventure, Kelly also started a new job as a nonprofit management consultant for The Bridgespan Group in August.

There are also quite a few babies that have joined the world in the past few months. Jon Haug and his wife Amy are happy to announce the birth of their son Oliver Charles Haug. Oliver was born Oct. 11 and weighed in at 7 pounds, 9 ounces. Jon writes that all are doing well, and if anyone is in Indianapolis, Ind., to be sure to drop them a line.

Nic Eliason wrote that he and his wife Katie had another baby boy. Alexander (Zander) Kyle Eliason was born on Sept. 30. Zander's older brother Asher turned 2 in November, so they have their hands full in Chicago.

Rick Dewhirst and his wife Lauren welcomed baby girl Isabella to the world in June. The Dewhirsts live in Chicago, where Rick works as an operations director for DaVita.

Ben Fritz wrote: "My wife Jen and I had a baby girl, Charlotte Fritz, on Aug. 18. Charlotte spent October staying up late to watch Red Sox playoff games, and in her spare time, she has been providing free modeling services for Jen's line of baby clothes (Bambeeno Cashmere — had to plug it)." I love that you can check out Charlotte as she grows up — check out the company's Web site.

Ammon Matsuda and his wife Kara welcomed a new addition, Kale Samuel, on Oct. 14. Older siblings Ainsley (5) and Marcus (3) are thrilled to have a younger brother. Ammon wrote that the house is busy but lots of fun.

In light of the recent economic turmoil (or maybe in spite of it?) many of our classmates have traded in their original post-Kellogg employment for new opportunities.

After 15 months as director of residential real estate development in White Plains N.Y., Evan Frank moved to Phoenix and accepted a new role with Starwood Hotels as director of eProcurement. His new role has him working in a more operational capacity that is more closely aligned with Starwood's core hotel business. Evan is loving the weather and the radical lifestyle upgrade (especially trading a one-hour commute from New York to Westchester for a five-minute bike ride to work), but he misses his friends. If you're in town, he'd love to get back in touch and promises dinner at the Phoenician.

In November Wendy Herm accepted a job as a brand manager at Red Bull in their New York Soho office. It only took her a year and half to figure out that working in corporate America on laundry detergent wasn't going to cut it, so she bolted traditional CPG in favor of extreme sports and clubbing. Wendy gives you wiiings!

Since our last update Neil Seyffert relocated to London to work for hedge fund R3's office there, and then returned to the U.S. to work out of the firm's New York office. At press time, he was still lamenting the fact that he had to give up his original apartment but was happy to be back on U.S. soil.

Husband and wife Neal Narayani and Angela Woodward relocated to Las Vegas with Harrah's and enjoyed seeing some of their Kellogg friends out there for New Year's.

Ashish Pandaya took a new job at Navteq as a manager in its corporate strategy group last fall. Based in Chicago, NAVTEQ provides digital map information and dynamic content used for navigation and location based services. The company is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Nokia but operates independently. He writes, "I was at Lehman Brothers before doing investment banking but have moved on to something a little different (and hopefully a little more stable)."

Michael Dickman and his family moved to Copenhagen for a year with BCG, although he's been working mostly in Helsinki and a bit in Stockholm. He writes: "The kids like their new schools and friends, and Hagar (my wife) is learning a lot in her study-abroad program at the University of Copenhagen Faculty of Law. If anyone happens to pass through the Scandinavian countries, they should feel free to send me a note."

Danny Resnick recently moved his practice to JP Morgan, in the Bear Stearns Private Client Services Division. He and Jen are still in Chicago rooting for Duke and settling into married life.

Eduardo Tyszka left Motorola's Mobile Devices Division where he had been a strategy manager for Latin America. Eduardo writes: "After about a year in Plantation, Fla., I decided to return to Santiago, Chile, with my family in September. Upon my arrival, I joined Principal Financial Group as commercial manager for the north region for retirement and savings products and lead a group of branch managers in Chile's northern region.

"I have managed to settle into my new position quickly and my wife and kids are also settled in and happy to be back in their hometown. In light of the timing of my departure from the U.S. (Sept. 17), I have been blamed (informally) by my colleagues for having caused the worst financial crisis in recent history."

Through his search fund, Matt Littell purchased Progressive Bronze Products. The Chicago-based manufacturer is one of a few companies that supply metal religious products for churches, including candlesticks, tabernacles, holy water sprinklers (not the kind for your lawn), candelabras and crosses. Matt is a Six-Sigma black belt and an expert on managing throughput, so if you're looking for a discount, we advise ordering during slower periods (not Christmas or the month before Easter).

Given the economic turmoil (and quest to find jobs that are cooler than the ones we have currently), I expect many more of our classmates to change jobs in the next few months. Please keep me informed so that I can pass your exciting news.

Kellogg grads have been very active in the charitable sector as well. Ben Munoz and Scott Orn launched two Web sites, avmsurvivors.org and livingwithtn.org, to provide an online community for survivors of Arterio-Venous Malformation and Trigeminal Neuralgia. Ben is a survivor of these neurological disorders and the cause is one that is very important to him. Please help Ben and Scott spread the word about these sites so that others can find the support they need.

Chicago-area residents Todd Auwater and Chris Addy raised funds for the Respiratory Health Association of Chicago by "Hustling up the Hancock" in February. The pair, who are part of the "No Bain, No Gain" team, climbed more than 2,200 steps in support of the fight against lung disease.