KR-04

	Stuart Ballan

Having returned to China soon after completing his MBA, Shulin Liu is now general manager for the overseas department of China Shanxi Construction Group, working as an international developer in real estate and as a contractor, specializing in civil and industrial construction works, with offices throughout the Far East. Shulin invites visitors to the region to contact him at liu_il@yahoo.com.

Shannon and Michael Pirron are delighted to announce the birth of a baby girl, their first child, Talia, on March 1. Soon after the completion of the KR MBA, the Pirron family moved to the United States.

On March 21, the first day of spring, a baby boy was born to Orna and Avi Shai, a brother to Nitsan. Named Aviv, the Hebrew word for spring, his parents hope that he will be the spring of a peaceful era. In January, Rami Wiesel became CEO of Teutza, the largest private pension fund in Israel.

Six months after the Kellogg-Recanati Executive MBA handbook, a comprehensive, quality summary of all 27 courses of Kellogg's Israeli "sister" EMP program, was distributed in print form to all Kellogg-Recanati alumni and published on the Web at www.kr04.net, KR-04's Stuart Ballan, the founder of the handbook, reflects if it was all worth it: "With 20,000 visitors to the kr04.net Web site, the team of 60 people who helped make this project happen, including KR-04 students, professors and the KR administration department, should feel proud of the clear value they created for many people around the world; both from within and outside Kellogg. To put things into perspective, registrations from the Web site have flooded in from every corner of the globe, including Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Israel, Japan, Pakistan, Malaysia, Philippines, Romania, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Africa, Spain, U.K., USA and Yugoslavia!

Recent national and international press coverage, which included related articles in Israel's Ha'aretz and Globes newspapers, BusinessWeekOnline and most major MBA Web sites, has produced excellent publicity for Kellogg, Kellogg-Recanati and therefore for Israel, at a time when good news is very much needed.

"However, the message from this project extends far wider. It demonstrates how students of a Kellogg-related program can produce something of their own initiative, of significant value to themselves and to others, and on a global basis, above and beyond the already very demanding executive MBA curriculum, while still maintaining their career and family life. I sincerely hope that future MBA classes, whether from within the Kellogg environment or outside of it, will rise to what I have called the Kellogg-Recanati Challenge,
and create and deliver new projects, on their own initiative, that will have global value.

"Finally, many people have asked about the future of www.kr04.net. Will it be
developed, and if so, how? I have received so many requests and ideas. With the right cooperation and support from the Kellogg environment, the Kellogg-Recanati Executive MBA Handbook could be developed into a product that could be positioned as yet another clear differentiator between the Kellogg School and other business schools, while adding significant additional global value to visitors of the Web site. Time will tell."