EMP-64

After 40+ years of city life, Tom Ellis, his wife Leah and their two kids recently moved from downtown Chicago to Hinsdale, Illinois. They love it. On the work front, due to an organizational structure change, Tom decided to leave Nielsen earlier this year and is looking for his next adventure where he can apply the digital strategy, business transformation and IT execution skills he has acquired during his Accenture, Sapient and Nielsen roles. Tom can be reached through LinkedIn, or you can find him auditing a Sunday morning class with the EMP98/EMP100 group.

Svein Floden now lives in New York City and is working for Insight Investment, a UK asset management firm. His boys Aksel and Nico are now almost 8 and 5 respectively. He reports that life is good, and he is happily married with Marzia and enjoying life in NYC.

Frank Franzese reports that since the difficulty of his divorce, the focus is now on his wonderful kids, including John, who is looking to attend college on the west coast this fall. His daughter Grace will be a senior next year, and she plans to attend the University of Colorado. Frank says that work is still going great, and he enjoys staying in touch with his Kellogg group.

Dean Jablonsky reports that he and his wife now have seven wonderful children (one girl, six boys). They recently relocated from Indiana to Minnesota while Jablonsky transitioned from a plant turnaround leader to a global healthcare solutions role. He now has the distinct honor of working with fellow alum Carolyn Amato EMP-64 at Boston Scientific Corporation.

Matt McPartlin and his wife Barbara (Babs) are doing well, with their kids Spencer and Maura growing up far too quickly (2nd and 3rd grade). They are enjoying the rolling farms surrounding their property, situated just 25 minutes outside of Washington D.C. and Baltimore. Matt is in a career transition state at the moment. Most recently, Matt was working at a SaaS-based health care and data analytics firm and is currently focusing his job search on roles within software space. More specifically, he is pursuing senior management roles in Product/General management at target companies such as SAP, Adobe, Sales Force, Informatica, Anthem and United Healthcare to name a few. Matt would welcome any assistance you can offer within these organizations or similar companies and is available via LinkedIn or email.

Kevin Peters left WW Grainger in 2007 and moved to Florida for five years where he was the President of Office Depot North America. In 2012, he joined FleetPride Inc., as their CEO, and moved to Dallas, Texas where he still lives. FleetPride is the largest industrial distributor of maintenance and repair parts for the commercial transportation industry and has over 260 store locations across the United States. In 2014, the company surpassed $1 billion in revenue.

John Potter is enjoying life in Minnesota, having relocated here there in 2010. Will, Caroline and Owen are approaching their 10th, 7th, and 5th birthdays, respectively. Potter has taken up playing hockey at age 40 to blend in with the locals (and keep up with his kids), and he built an ice rink in the backyard this winter, and plans to enjoy upcoming long summer nights without the Chicago humidity.

John Vanderpool and his wife Julie are doing well, enjoying being empty nesters as their youngest son in now part of the engineering program at University of Iowa, and their daughter is in her senior year at Augustana College. John is in transition after 30+ years with Benjamin Moore. As a result of a company wide restructure, John is now looking for a new opportunity. He is optimistic and excited (and a bit nervous) about what lies ahead and is taking a targeted approach in his search. His desire is to be in Business Development/Sales or General Management/Leadership as part of a company with a strong brand, stable leadership, quality products and in significant growth mode. He has been targeting companies like Whirlpool, WW Grainger, Hillshire Brands and Johnson & Johnson. John would welcome any insight into these organizations, or similar companies, and can be reached via LinkedIn or by email.

Russell Walker has recently authored the book Winning with Risk Management (2013) and will launch his next book From Big Data to Big Profits: Success with Data and Analytics (2015). He is in his 8th year of teaching at Kellogg. His children are 5 and 2. If you are in Chicago or coming to campus, stop by to see him at Kellogg.

Frank Franzese EMP-64 with his children John (18) and Grace (16) on a recent winter escape to Cabo

Frank Franzese with EMP-64 classmates during a rare impromptu meeting this winter: Eddie Kubo, Frank Franzese, Joe Mase, Mike Palumbo, Jeff Alpaugh and Gerry Wondrasek