EMP-36

Hope the early summer is being enjoyed by all! It was nice to hear from some classmates who we haven't heard from in a while.

After six years in the auto industry, Dennis Webster is thrilled to be back in the agriculture and equipment sector. In January, Dennis became the president and CEO of Bush Hog LLC and will be relocating to Alabama. Dennis tried hard to convince his last son to go to Northwestern, but he will instead be attending the University of Pennsylvania in the fall.

We received a nice e-mail from Bob Aspell, who is now heading up a 40-doctor group with another 180 employees at eight locations around town. He never thought it would come to this; convincing conservative doctors to invest and move to electronic records has been a two-year project and the contract was finally signed last month. Meanwhile, Bob's wife Mauria retired last year to spend more time with the seven grandchildren.

Mark T. Nelson is a founding investor in Bioionix Inc., a Madison, Wis.-based startup. The firm has patents on a breakthrough electro-ionic process capable of water/wastewater purification, pulp bleaching and in-situ production of hydrogen peroxide. Compared with traditional methods, operating costs are lower and results more environmentally friendly. "We're reaching that exciting stage," says Mark, "where the first round of outside equity is almost complete, and we're hiring employees and looking forward to fulfilling our first letter of intent for a municipal wastewater system.

"Our oldest child, Peter, heads to Carleton College next fall. As I write this, he is participating in the National Ocean Sciences Bowl as part of the winning team in the Wisconsin-Illinois region. Coming from land-locked Marshfield, Wis., his Ocean Bowl team feels a lot like the Jamaican bobsled team!

"My wife and I continue very active involvement in the nonprofit Chestnut Avenue Center for the Arts, which we founded in 2003. Check it out at chestnutarts.org.

"I'd love to get together with classmates from EMP-36. I recently discovered Chris Linn is back in Wisconsin, when I saw him at Wisconsin Innovation Network meeting."

Please keep the e-mails coming, we love hearing from you all!