1997

As you will soon read, the Class of 1997 has been very busy over the past several months. Thankfully, Kellogg has invested in some great new technology to keep us all connected. Please be sure to log onto the alumni site and update your contact information. Now, on to the updates ...

Steve Farsht '98 and Stephanie Gordon Farsht welcomed their first child, Samantha Gordon Farsht, in November. Steve is already training her for the Kellogg basketball team as she was off the charts in length! Everyone is healthy and doing well. On the job front, Steve was promoted to partner at Norwest Equity Partners, a middle-market private equity fund with $1.8 billion under management. Stephanie returned to Target Corp. after maternity leave as a part-time finance manager. The couple welcomes visitors.

Chuck Smith and his wife Lora now have two children: Hannah, 3, and Harrison, 1. Chuck continues to work for Lafarge North Americ™a as vice president of operations for the Great Lakes Division. They live outside Cleveland, Ohio.

Emmanuel Mercier '97 and family recently visited with the family of Carlos Rubal '97.

Muriel and Emmanuel Mercier are still based in Geneva, enjoying the area with Marine, 16 months. They should still be in the area for few more years, as Emmanuel just got promoted within the Gillette international group. He now will be responsible for its male and female shaving lines across Europe. They recently visited Carlos Rubal and family in Madrid, where Carlos is in charge of strategic planning in the construction business. They also continue to meet regularly with Chris Meyer, who works as an independent consultant in Geneva. Anyone traveling through the Geneva area is more than welcome to contact Emmanuel at emercier1997@kellogg.northwestern.edu.

Ivey A. Webb III was born to Ivey A. Webb Jr. and Carolyn A. Bryant Webb on April 4. The happy couple says: "Our bundle of joy weighed in at 7 pounds, 7 ounces and was 20 inches long. Big sister Nyah, 3, is overjoyed!"

Karl and Ashley (O'Neill) Kleiderer recently moved to Charlotte, N.C. They now have two boys, Nick, 2 1/2, and Connor, 9 months. They've gotten together with Tracy and Jon Wilk and Chris Avery and welcome any and all visitors! Karl is still looking for work.

After more than a year of full-time acting school at HB Studio in New York and part-time studies elsewhere, Michael Teh has started auditioning for roles in American film and television productions. If anyone knows any producers, directors or agents he can suck up to, please let him know! Reach Michael at 917.361.0619.

Alessandro Duina (Lalo) moved to Shanghai last July, where he started The JLJ Group with his Chinese partners. JLJ provides market-entry services for companies coming to China (www.jljgroup.com). He reports that, "Shanghai is a great place to live, probably less so to start a family (thus, no marriage and no kids to report)." Among others, Marco Azzaretti and Felix Ahlers have visited Alessandro in Shanghai, fortunately without causing major damages to his still-respectable reputation in the city. The Kellogg alumni community in Shanghai is quite large, Alessandro reports.

Lydia Morris writes: "I am busy and well in NYC, juggling my job managing the small business credit card portfolio for Citigroup's CitiCards unit with parenting my two sons, Alex, 3, and Benjamin, 1. I keep up with a few Kellogg alums at work and a few that come to visit me at home in Brooklyn."

H.D. Vo welcomed her first child, Sebastian, on leap day. She jokes that "He will be young for a long time since his birthday comes every four years." HD recently got together with Hiro Yamanaka, who visited from Japan, and Joe Dierdorf, who works in the Bay Area.

After six years of "hanging in there," Addison Snell has left SGI (voluntarily even) to join IT analyst and consulting firm IDC as a research director for high-performance computing. IDC is headquartered in Framingham, Mass., but Addison is based out of the Mountain View, Calif., office, which will move slightly north to San Mateo at the end of September. Addison, Amy, Connor (now 4) and Casey (nearly 2) still live in Sunnyvale, Calif.

Mark Mitchell, who spent much of his post-Kellogg career overseas as a business correspondent for The Wall Street Journal, Time magazine and the Far Eastern Economic Review, recently set up an Asia-based public relations firm along with several partners. The firm is called Evanston Pacific, and provides media relations, government relations and marketing support to corporations in Asia. One of Mark's partners is Duc Doan, who has spent the last few years running one of Vietnam's best-known consulting firms, the Vietnam Consulting Group.

From San Francisco, Laure Fullerton Headrick and her husband Chris are please to announce the birth of their baby girl. Her name is Mariner Law Fullerton Headrick. She arrived on March 22. Tami Bohlig was the first one to the hospital!

Anne (Raveret) Obsitnik and Jim Obsitnik welcomed a baby girl, Chase Eva, to the world on Sept. 28. Her parents report that she is a healthy, happy baby, and that they have finally adjusted to the life change called parenthood! The Obsitniks still live in San Francisco. Anne is at home with Chase and Jim is at Navis, a software company in Oakland.

Chris Avery joined Lowe's Companies Inc. in May 2003 and lives in Charlotte, N.C. He is in the company's strategic planning group, focusing on new business opportunities for the company.

Paul Wythes and Mai Mai Tsai were married on May 24, 2003, in San Francisco. Other classmates in attendance were Warren Heffelfinger, Scott Gibbs, Rob McNamara, Andy Scott and Brad Marks. The couple spent their honeymoon in Australia, where they bumped into Menno Veeneklaas and his son Finn.

Ted Davis writes: "Lots of news from the Davis family, all at once! Lyle and I have a new addition to the family, I have a new job and we are moving back to the South. In October, we were blessed with a second daughter, Carrington Smith Davis, born Oct. 11. Big sister Mason is very proud and enjoys her 'leadership' role. After seven years with Vector Fund Management, we are not moving forward with a new fund, so I have moved on to join a small venture firm in Memphis, Tenn., called MB Venture Partners. I will still be focusing on the biotechnology and medical technology areas, but clearly in a more entrepreneurial situation. Obviously, since I am joining a firm in Memphis, we will be leaving Evanston after nine years. It's bittersweet to leave the shadows of Kellogg, but I guess most of our class did that long ago. If anyone is ever in Memphis, please stop by!"

Betsy and Patrick Flanagan announce the birth of their daughter, Madeline Elizabeth. Maddie was born on March 16 at 7 pounds, 5 ounces. All the Flanagans are healthy and doing well living in Chicago, they report.

J. Michael Locke is chief executive officer of Deltak edu Inc., a for-profit postsecondary education company based in Chicago and backed by Frontenac Co. and Salt Creek Ventures. Dr. Henry Bienen, President of Northwestern University, is a member of Deltak's board of directors. Michael, his wife Heather, son Skip and daughter Cate can be reached at 3909 Franklin Ave, Western Springs, IL 60559 or by email at mlocke@deltakedu.com.

Charlotte Vere and husband Alfredo welcomed daughter Alicia on Nov. 28. Her brother Hector, now nearly 4, is over the moon. Charlotte says she has been a "household supervisor" for the last three years, but is thinking about perhaps rejoining the working population later in the year.

Donald Evans and wife Jill had their second boy, Andrew Allen Evans, on May 13. Mom and dad are proud, but big brother William, 3, is the most excited. The Evans Family is living in Sherman Oaks, Calif., where dad is currently working at Disney as VP of marketing and promotions for the international film division.

Jeff and Carrie Barner are the proud parents of Luke Jeffrey Barner, born Nov. 18. Since Luke's birth, Carrie has taken on a new, part-time role with Darden Restaurants. She reports she is enjoying the balance.

Glen Dils writes: "Last fall, as a MMMer, I was excited to start as a manager with Archstone Consulting, a new firm specializing in operations and supply-chain strategy. We've been recruiting heavily among Kellogg alums, and we were glad to add Keith Bough '01, a MMM graduate, as a manager here in San Francisco. Keith and I are shaping the culture of the new firm by instituting TGs on a regular basis. Call us if you'd like to work here or work with us!"

Dara Mitchell writes: "I haven't been in touch in a while, but got married to Terry O'Sullivan (not a Kellogg alum, but he met many of you on his trips to Evanston!) back in 2001. We're very pleased to announce the birth of our first child, Calum --- or Cal for short, on June 16, 2003. So far, he's been a very chilled-out baby, and lists his favorite pastimes as eating, sleeping and giggling --- a man after my own heart. We're still living in London, and I'm still at 3i investing in tech companies, although I can't say it's been easy over the last couple of years! Would love to catch up with any old friends passing through London."

Last, but not least, Tim and I welcomed our second daughter into the world last fall. Alana Shay Kierstead was born Oct. 19, two years and one day after her big sister Olivia.