Bill Driscoll '90 with a local shopkeeper in Ramadi, Iraq
	Pete Miller '90 with children Gabi (16), Peter (14) and Natalie (12)

We open our next Class of 1990 installment with news from none other than the hardest-working alum in Chicago, Luciane Cimino. Lucy wears many hats, including that of the all-important social chair of the Kellogg Alumni Club of Chicago. Lucy writes:

"I am getting ready for a great summer and have already checked some of the scheduled concerts and added a few to my calendar: Ravinia, Millennium Park, United Center, Tinley Park, Allstate Arena. I will be glad to see some of you at these concerts, so say hi if you see me around or send me a message if you would like to join me! My family will be visiting in July and I have been making the arrangements. At the office, I have been working on a new line of consumer products that will be launched soon. These are high-end decorative products, and I am starting to make contacts with retail stores. I have been working in a few other projects too, still as a partner at Click & Mortar. I launched "e-business" for IBM, which was the product line that caused the turnaround there. I also worked in new products and new businesses for Unilever, J & J, Sears, Whirlpool and Booz Allen & Hamilton. On the alumni events front, we recently had our TGIF for multi-school MBAs at Rivers. We had a great group there and the pictures are on the Web site at topgradalumni.com.

"The most recent book we read in our book club was excellent: The Essential Drucker by Peter Drucker. We are also playing tennis every Sunday at the Grant Park/Randolph St. Tennis Courts, and it has been a lot of fun for this group of MBA tennis players."

It is encouraging to hear from many classmates whose names haven't graced these pages in quite a while, if ever. Let that be a kick in the pants to the rest of you to write to Kevin, Kathy or me with news. Trust us, the class wants to know.

From Jose Gutierrez: "In December 2005, I was named president/CEO of AT&T Southwest. I live in Dallas with my wife Diane and our two children, Elena (15) and Charles (13). Hope all is well with you."

Jeff Becker writes: "It has been about 15 years since I gave any updates to anyone from our class. So here is the short version of my update:

"More than 15 years after having written a business plan at Kellogg I can confidently say it was the most important class of my academic career. Those who took Prof. Amit's entrepreneurship class in the spring of 1990 may remember a b-plan written by myself and classmates Jonathan Nelson and Todd Daum involving a company providing remote support of off-the-shelf software. About a year after graduating Kellogg I started such a company in Philly (with a great deal of help from Jonathan), grew it to a full-time staff of 145 supporting over 4 million Fortune 1000 employees nationwide. This past fall I decided to retire and sold the company to two private equity firms in California with the help of the best investment banker in the industry, Sandy Haviland. My plans for the future will revolve around my family and making private investments."

Elaine (Angelopoulos) Melonides wrote to say: Hope you are well and glad to see you taking over the column. I do enjoy reading the updates on our classmates and would like to provide you with a brief one. My husband Stephen and I continue to live in Lincoln Park, pretty much within a few blocks of the same area for the last 16 years. We enjoy our 6-year-old twin boys with frequent visits to the zoo, planetarium and other local favorites, and are determined to raise them as Chicagoans! In February, we spent time in Naples, Fla., which is our annual winter vacation. I was recently promoted to managing director of Jones Lang LaSalle's tenant representation office in Chicago. Yes, this is the same firm I started with after Kellogg, although it was LaSalle Partners at the time. We have grown from about 300 employees when I joined the firm to more than 16,000 globally, and have been publicly traded for about 8 years now. It has been a dynamic place, yet the commercial real estate business is still relatively the same. Although several of my Kellogg colleagues started at the same time, none are left but me. I do, however, see George Conopeotis, who joined the firm later and was in our year at school."

Since you last heard from us, I had not one but two fun-filled adventures with Sam Sheagren. Sam was in town to lead a series of discussions at Kellogg regarding a case study written about Calloway. The night before, he invited a few local folks to join his mom and sister at Sage Grill in Highwood — a new restaurant opened by his cousin Paul. Chicagoans, please take note of this little gem. It is well worth the drive up there. A good pre-Ravinia dining option as well.

Then, a couple of weeks later, I was in Southern California visiting my family and had the pleasure of grabbing breakfast with Sam, Linnea and their two sons Calder and Powell just prior to Sam's departure for a quick business trip to London.

Not long after I returned to Chicago, I got an e-mail from Peter Miller, who informed me he was coming into town. We met for a drink, laughed about fun Kellogg memories like the great Chili Cook-off Caper and the Section 68 Olympics and Peter brought me up to date on what he's doing now. Peter left Johnson & Johnson to become the co-founder, CEO and president of Take Care Health systems. Take Care Health is opening medical centers within drug stores and staffing them with nurse practitioners, making health care more accessible and affordable and improving outcomes. On the family front, Peter and Karen have three children: Gabby (16), Peter (14) and Natalie (12). Many of us remember Gabby as "Elle" (her nickname at birth) since she was born during our second year at Kellogg. As you would imagine, all three kids are excellent athletes like their folks. If I remember correctly, Gabby is playing on the Junior Olympic Soccer squad. Peter (Junior) is an aspiring artist. Natalie has a knack for business and for practical jokes (guess the apples really don't fall far from the tree, eh Peter?). Peter cracked me up with two stories about Natalie. The first involved her printing up her own business cards identifying her as the "Assistant Head of the Household," passing them out at a company function that Peter and Karen were hosting at their home and telling guests to contact her if they needed anything. She's 12, remember. Then on that very business trip, Peter was in a meeting and his cell phone apparently rang. But rather than its normal ring tone, the mischievous Natalie had recorded her own voice as his new ring tone. Her new tone stated: "Dad, pick up the phone. Dad, this is a really important call from someone really important. Dad, pick up the phone!" Priceless.

And just the other day, I literally ran into Rob Capucci on the lakefront as we both were jogging during lunch. He's doing well and was about to leave for a trip to Taiwan. And I also ran into Geni Burke at the Old Town Art Fair. Geni and I joked about her recent inclusion in the May Report published by Ron May. Of course, he completely misquoted her, telling his readers that Geni was personally responsible for buying $50 million worth of advertising for Merisant each year. Yikes!

It is relieving to hear news regularly from Bill Driscoll, who is currently stationed in Ramadi, Iraq. In case you missed our last column, Billy decided to re-enlist into the Marines and help the rebuilding. Here are a few snippets from Bill's recent postings:

"Ramadi is a town of about 400,000 people nestled along the southern bank of the Euphrates river. The western boundary is set by a large canal, which cuts pretty much south, and the eastern boundary set by another, smaller canal. If you go south, away from the river and irrigation, it becomes desert really quickly. Along the river and where there is irrigation, it's very lush. Ramadi is the capital of Anbar Province and as such has a university and hospital.

"Ramadi is bound on the west by Camp Ramadi and the east by Camp Corregidor. Camp Ramadi is much larger — with perhaps 4,000 people — while Camp Corregidor and its two combat outposts have around 900. Camp Ramadi also offers a couple of amenities. First, they don't require helmets and flack jackets when walking around, and secondly, they have a PX (store). Wearing the helmets and flack jackets becomes a real pain in the rear simply because of the weight and hassle. Not having a PX isn't such a big deal because we have such a reliable supply line from home (Lisa and many others are proving to be second to none here) but it is a pain if you want to get something such as a flashlight or just want to go browse out of boredom (retail therapy).

"Military responsibility for Ramadi is split in two. The western two-thirds are the responsibility of the 3rd BN of the 8th Marine regiment. The eastern third and eastern suburbs are the 1/506th Army Battalion's responsibility — the unit to which I'm attached. Some of you might have heard of the Government Center (where the government of Anbar Province meets and a frequent target for the bad guys). It is located in 3/8's sector but is only a 5-minute drive for me. We go down there every Monday to meet with contractors and folks from the government.

"Temperatures are climbing and have breached the 100-degree mark. Not to worry, Lisa — I'm putting sun screen on."

That's all for this quarter. I'm quite surprised not to have heard any news about Jim Kingsley, considering the enormous reward I offered for information about him. I'm sure people are just waiting for me to raise the stakes. OK, fine. I'll pay a dollar — a whole U.S. dollar — for any news about Jim. For the rest of you, no financial rewards, but keep in mind that your classmates read this rambling and want to hear what you're doing. Don't be shy! Please take a moment to write to any of us. See you in the fall!