EMP-38

	Tom Hajduch EMP-38 walking his lovely daughter Katie down the aisle

Happy Spring everyone. Thanks goodness for LinkedIn. I’ve managed to track down a few folks I haven’t heard from in a while.

I heard from Darryl Branch. After working for Starbucks in Seattle, Darryl moved diagonally across the country and landed in Clearwater, Fla. He works at Tech Data Corporation as vice president of logistics and integration, where there is a Florida contingent of EMP-38 grads.

Rey Leon resurfaced after being "missing." Rey is vice president of quality at CIBA Vision and is living in the Atlanta area (along with Ernest Lucineo and Jeff Felton).

John Fernandes is retired. (Lucky him.)

Tom Hajduch resurfaced. He was hired by one of his clients, ITR America, and is commuting to Mississippi from Chicago. His son Andrew graduated from the University of Illinois and his daughter Katie finished her master’s degree in journalism at Columbia and got married.

Larry Kosinski continues to benefit from his Kellogg MBA. He writes: "I have been involved in a merger of our group with two other GI groups to create one of the largest GI practices in the state. The Illinois Gastroenterology Group will start with 30 physicians in 10 offices. It is our goal to grow this to more than 50."

Steve Goerth has started a new printing organization called North Campus Partners, which provides custom printing services.

Dave Lucas sounds great. After working at Polaroid, he was employed by a venture capital firm and served as a consultant. Currently, Dave is working with a company called Pallas Global. He’s back in the Philadelphia area after living in Boston and Las Vegas.

Steve Calk is in the second year of Harvard Business School’s owners and presidents program and enjoys it. He also writes: "I have become the de facto spokesman for community banks and lenders in America. I did three interviews on Fox Business News and CNBC in the last quarter. We are fighting to ensure that community banks and lenders are not swept up in the misgivings of the large money center banks who were involved in CDO, CDSs and hedge fund activity."

Mary Bouska’s role at Motorola has evolved in the last year. Mary is the director of global product reliability and continuous improvement. In this role, she manages global product qualification labs, digital Six Sigma and design for Six Sigma across the $8 billion EMS enterprise.

Betsy Finkelmeier, Susan Amato, Cindy Vanina and I continue to see each other regularly. In January, we resurrected our interest in collective learning and added a Wii competition to our Kellogg education.

Al Dente Marketing, Andy Martin’s current venture, aims to achieve a "just right" balance between digital strategy and cutting-edge online marketing execution that is customized to meet client objectives. Andy and I are working together to make connecting with EMP-38 classmates easier for folks who would like to stay in touch.

Marcia Dall became chief financial officer at Erie Insurance and is living in Erie, Pa.

Since I solicited input including works of fiction or haiku but didn’t receive the latter, I am adding my own.

Precipitation
E-mails arrive like spring rain
Requesting some news
Searching for classmates
Finding needles in haystacks
Please update info

Finally, once again, I’ll be participating in the Walk MS and Bike MS events this year. Several of you kindly supported my effort by sending checks or donating online. I ride because Mike Shelton, our classmate, my study group mate and friend, works to raise awareness and money so that he and other people with MS can lead better, more productive lives. I have raised my own fundraising goal this year and hope I will blow past it. I invite any of you to join me on the ride or ask that you might consider MS as a cause you might support. You can donate or sign up. Here’s a link to my page: main.nationalmssociety.org/site/TR/Bike/ILDBikeEvents?px=1644826&pg=personal&fr_id=13201. If you are considering donating, please take the time to do it now, while it’s fresh on your mind. Good intentions sometimes get lost in the frantic nature of our lives. Thank you for your patience and consideration.