I admit that I had great intentions to reach out and gather gobs of news and updates this time around, but my life intruded on those plans. The very day that Susie Silver and I had long overdue plans to get together, I was summoned for jury duty. I thought, no worries — I’d read a book, bring change for the vending machines (as directed) and wrap up in time to meet Susie to catch up, hear about her January trip to Egypt and Jordan, and learn more about her firm, the Argentum Strategy Group. Surprise! Instead of a few hours and a minor hassle, I was selected to perform my civic duty as a juror in a civil lawsuit that was expected to last for four weeks! Not quite sure how I was going to swing that, I had to cancel and rearrange the rest of my life. Bottom line — more news from Susie next time around.

What’s been happening with you? Anyone else stuck with jury duty? Does anyone have any good pictures of digging out from the mountains of snow in the mid-Atlantic (hopefully all gone by the time you are reading this)? Did any of you make it to the Vancouver Olympics? Family additions, new jobs, trips, mini-reunions, updates or anything you are willing to share? If so, please send it my way.

On some of the above-mentioned themes, congratulations to Kate (Dello Stritto) and Mike Schoenle, who welcomed their sixth child and fourth daughter, Gabriella Joy, in September. The eight Schoenles live in Michigan, where Mike is working with Visteon.

Yvonne (Yueh) Humphreys is living in New Jersey and joined Hertz last fall as director of marketing, leisure.

Laura McKee is the CEO of a new organization, Autism Home Support Services Inc., which was launched last fall. Headquartered in Northbrook, Ill., the firm provides in-home services to children with autism.

Carlee (Semerdjian) Bilello has been consulting on marketing projects at Pactiv in Lake Forest, Ill. She just missed overlapping with Mike Axelrod, who joined Whirlpool last June as the vice president of global fabric care, with an emphasis on global. He has been taking care of business all over the place, including Italy, Brazil, China and India. Mike and Lisa (Foltz) Axelrod live in Wilmette, Ill. While at Kellogg recruiting for The Boston Consulting Group, Lisa ran into Ned Ward at the Orrington Hotel in Evanston. Ned was in town to interview for Mattel, where he is the director of boys/girls entertainment marketing. Lisa and I also ran into David Brown in Starbucks last fall while he was in town visiting his parents. David lives in South Hadley, Mass., where at the time he was with a local nonprofit and his wife was with Smith College.

Together with Sally (Peters) and Scott Pofcher, Lisa and Mike and I all had the chance to catch up over the holidays with Laura (Fink) Katter, her husband Bob and kids Julia and Justin. The Katters were in Chicago visiting family. Living in Piedmont, Calif., Laura has taken a break from independent consulting to lead the parent organization at her kids’ school. Always a big job, she has spent considerable time and effort negotiating the difficult school funding climate in California.

Jose and Kate (Kustermann) Rivera have been in Paris for about two years. Jose is the senior vice president of strategy for Schneider Electric’s global automation business and Kate is working for Deloitte in a diverse capacity, including global quality/risk management and nonprofit consulting. Work and play have taken them all over Europe, including Portugal, Belgium, Luxembourg, London, Greece, Switzerland, Denmark and Sweden. They could have (and may have) visited classmates at all of the above locations!

I’ve recently virtually reconnected with classmates on LinkedIn through the "People You May Know Feature" and gleaned the following updates:

Folke Friis-Frederiksen lives in Denmark and is executive director of Nordic mergers and acquisitions at RBS Global Banking and Markets. Wade Stokes is in Stockholm where he heads up group credit risk control analysis at Swedbank. Phillippe Laval lives in Belgium and is an associate partner with Qunteus, a consulting firm. He also serves as the president of the Benelux Kellogg Alumni Club.

Matt Levatich, a key member of my fin decisions group many years ago, is closing in on his first year as the president and COO of the Harley-Davidson Motor Company.

Jeff Cooper changed paths last summer, from management in financial services to education. He is working for the Cesar Chavez Charter School for Public Policy as the managing director and chief operating officer in the Washington D.C. area. He might still be working out how to make up missed school days due to the blizzards in D.C. in February.

Chris Abate joined Friend2Friend as director of sales in the Bay Area.

Doug Stebbins is a managing director at the boutique investment bank Consensus Advisors in the Boston area.

Caleb White is the CEO of Ensign-Bickford Industries, a privately held, diversified company operating in a number of different sectors, including defense/aerospace and real estate, in the Boston area.

Scott Pleiman works for Wal-Mart as senior vice president, finance and strategy and is responsible for merchandising, marketing and procurement.

Scott Rhodes is in Atlanta with Waste Management Inc. and is the director of the organic growth group. Is this the same Wealth Management whose president went on the show "Undercover Boss"? Yes, I admit to watching it, once, in a weak moment when I apparently had too much time on my hands.

Borrowing from "Law & Order’s" "ripped from the headlines" strategy, I took note of some of the news reported through the "In the Media" section on the Kellogg Web site. This may not all be new news, but it is the first time reported here.

Simon Cheshire joined Asset Control Systems in New York as vice president of strategy and business development. Asset Control provides financial institutions with data management solutions and is backed by Fidelity Ventures.

Jason Anderson joined Miller Buckfire & Co. in New York as a managing director in October. Also in October, Andrew Austin was promoted from president to president and CEO of Additech, a Houston-based company that offers at-the-pump (gas pump) services.

Sharmila Shahani-Mulligan joined Aster Data Systems in September as the executive vice president of worldwide marketing. Located in San Carlos, Calif., the company is in the data analytics sector.

In December, Sandy Stosz became the first female graduate of the Coast Guard Academy to become a flag officer when she was promoted to the rank of rear admiral (lower half). Sandy works in Washington, D.C., as director of Coast Guard enterprise strategy, management and doctrine oversight. Paul Brown is also in the Washington D.C. area and is the president of global brands and commercial services at Hilton Worldwide. He was also named to the board of directors of Borders, Inc.

 In August, Jon Pliner joined Jefferies as managing director and head of European credit sales and trading in London.

Alejandro Ballester is the president of Puerto Rico-based Ballester Hermanos Inc. He also serves on the board of directors of Popular Inc., a provider of retail and commercial banking services.

And that is all she wrote …