1994 — Full-Time

Hello all! Finally, at the friendly nudging of several helpful classmates (thank you!), we have a lot of news from our class. Those of you who got my e-mail and responded, thanks much! Hopefully others will be motivated to send in news of their own. If you get an e-mail from me next go- around (hopefully it won't be filtered out as spam), please let us know how you are.

I'll start with my own news, since I know the details all too well. By the time this issue prints, I will be back in Chicago, very close to our old haunts. In late June I am moving to Wilmette with my husband, Steve Kahl, and our kids, Henry and Hattie. After close to eight years in Boston (the last four of which Steve was pursuing a doctorate degree), we are headed back to the Windy City where he is joining the faculty at Chicago GSB. I am going to continue working for Harvard Business School remotely, doing career coaching and admissions while also getting our kids settled into a new town, new schools, etc. I am looking forward to re-connecting with those in the Chicago area and especially friends in Wilmette, including Lisa Axelrod, who has already been a huge help in our transition from East to Midwest. We are also very much looking forward to being close to Sally and Scott Pofcher, who are moving to Wilmette this summer with their two girls, Nicole and Nina. Sally and Scott are moving from San Francisco back to Chicago, where Sally has the exciting opportunity to be CEO of the Paper Source. The Paper Source is a great fine paper store headquartered in Chicago with about 20 stores across the country. Scott will continue in private wealth management with UBS, maintaining clients in California while building new business in Chicago.

The aforementioned Lisa and Mike Axelrod also live in Wilmette with their kids Ben (7) and Emily (5). Mike joined Pactiv last July as vice president, new business development, and president at Pactiv Canada. Pactiv is headquartered in Lake Forest, Ill., and manufactures Hefty-brand consumer products and many other food-service and food-packaging products. Lisa and a friend recently started a nonprofit called The Kindness Connection, which brings service-learning projects into schools grades K-8. After piloting the program this spring, they are expanding to other suburban Chicago schools next fall.

Susie (Osborn) Baskin is "far too busy," but feels very satisfied with life. She finds balancing community service, work and kids is challenging but rewarding. She and her husband, Steve, had a long-desired goal come to fruition this year. They are now sole owners of Camp Champions, which has been their mission and passion for many years now.

Susie and Steve have four children — Wiley and Liam (both 10), Terrill (8) and Virginia (5) — as well as a newly adopted basset hound, Fenway. Fenway is "dumber than rocks but quite loving. A friend said that what she lacks in intelligence, she makes up for in immobility." Wiley is an avid reader, science enthusiast and fine gymnast, while Liam is a decent guitar player, a "big air" wake boarder and a definite type-A personality. Terrill is the "world's easiest child" who enjoys acting and singing, while her little sister Virginia "is capable of wrinkle-inducing mischief" as evidenced by her recent commandeering of the family golf cart, which resulted in $2,000 in damage to her dad's car.

The family is fortunate in that they have the ability to travel extensively during non-summer months. After years of patient instruction, they're thrilled that all six can ski the same slopes. What they were unprepared for was Virginia's desire to ski black diamonds with unbridled speed and few turns. Apparently, she skis like she drives golf carts.

Dan Evarts works for TRG, a turnaround and crisis management consulting firm. He is the practice leader for TRG's Valuation Services, which provides clients with bankruptcy and restructuring valuation services, distressed transaction advisory services and litigation support/expert witness testimony. He is also a certified turnaround professional and certified in distressed business valuations. In June, Dan received an award from the Association of Insolvency and Restructuring Advisors. He lives in Hingham, Mass., with his wife, Tray, and their four kids.

	Christine Elbert '94 with husband Abdelhay Elanbassi and daughter Sophia in Morocco

Christine Elbert sent the following update: "My husband, Abdelhay Elanbassi, and I welcomed our first child, Sophia Christine Elanbassi, on Nov. 9, 2006. She was born in Brooklyn and already exhibits a hip attitude as well as wanderlust — we took her to Morocco when she was 2 months old. On a related note, my (Moroccan-native) husband and I founded Sahara Soul Travel, specializing in private custom journeys in Morocco. Based in New York City and Marrakech, we help travelers uncover the spirit and soul of the country while taking in a luxury or two! Additionally, I am vice president of marketing strategy at Rochdale Investment Management in New York City, where I have been working for nearly 10 years.

Some of us may have seen Rick Smith's name in the news. Three years ago, he founded a company called World 50. The company has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, BusinessWeek and in Harvard Business Review. World 50 creates and facilitates executive peer groups for the top 50 global executives in marketing, HR, general management, supply chain and other areas. Guests at their meetings have included Robert Redford, Sonny Bono, Alan Greenspan, Lance Armstrong and others, including numerous Fortune 250 CEOs. Two years ago, David Wilkie joined the company, which continues to grow rapidly. Rick and David are having a great time in Atlanta.

Elizabeth Feng lives in Belmont, Mass., with her husband, Eric Woo, and son Colby (4). Eric works for Motorola and Elizabeth has been with Biogen Idec for the past 10 years, where she runs investor relations. Colby keeps Elizabeth and Eric on their toes — he loves cars, trucks, trains and Nascar and is giving it a go at the driving range as well. At the recent BIO industry conference in Boston, she met up with Bruno Larvol. He is running his own company based in San Francisco and has a son (1).

Kathryn Zimmerman lives in Maryland with her husband, Eric, and two girls. She has been happily working for a community hospital for the past 10 years. In November, Kathryn and Eric have plans to travel to Machu Pichu with Bruce and Alycia Angus in celebration of their 40th birthdays.

Lots of 40th birthdays for our class this year. Julia (Moore) Burke celebrated her 40th at a party hosted by her husband. She said a number of Kellogg friends came and a few others would have except for a big snowstorm in the Northeast. Catherine Craighead Briggs came all the way from California! Sadly, Betsy Holmes McKean got caught in the storm and didn't make it. Julia also celebrated with Class of 1995 members, including Amy Thornton, Kevin Charlton, Laura (Fitch) Mattson and Jon Mattson. Julia lives in Rye, N.Y., with her three young kids, spending lots of time running around to soccer, lacrosse, hockey and tennis. I am sure many of us can relate.

Catherine Craighead Briggs wrote that she is back home in the San Jose area of California after her husband's job with eBay relocated them to Toronto for a brief stint. They loved living in the heart of a city and picking up some Canadian-isms, such as ending sentences with "eh" and learning to play hockey. Their twin boys are nearly 10 and they keep Catherine very busy between their sports activities and her volunteering on the school board.

In other California news, I learned from the Kellogg wires that James Safka was named by business conglomerate IAC to be the CEO of a new venture entity (yet to be named) that will be based in San Francisco.

Ned Ward continues to market Hot Wheels for Mattel in Los Angeles. He had lunch with Brian Pope in the spring. Brian is an agent at IMG, so in Ned's words, "the lunch felt very Entourage-ish." On a trip to northern California, Ned had a mini Distractions reunion (remember our resident Kellogg band?) with Bill Geyer, Suzy Deline and Lisa Burhnam. Ann Gnuse stopped by as well. Highlights were playing a bunch of old favorites and helping the kids make s'mores on the grill. Apparently the kids like the s'mores better than the music.

Ann Gnuse and her husband, Dan, had a baby girl who they named Katie on July 15, 2006. Yuko Suzuki-Bischoff and Karen (Jones) Mak threw the baby shower.

Bill and Betsy (Day) Schmitt are busy in the Redwood City area. Bill runs corporate development for Borland and Betsy continues to build a marketing strategy consulting practice. Bill says their two girls are growing "way too fast, along with their attitudes and exuberance." They keep up with many classmates in California.

	Tom Perry'94, his wife, Martha, and identical twins Alex and Luke (or is it Luke and Alex?)

Living in a suburb of San Francisco, "where yuppies go to breed" (his words), are Tom Perry and his wife, Martha. They married in 1999 and have beautiful identical twin boys, Alex and Luke (3). Tom wrote: "After graduating, I went to SF for investment banking. I left banking in 2002 and started Quaris, a software company. We have 10 people, raised a little venture money last year and are growing slooowwwwly."

While talking twins, Tina and Tom Loose also have twin boys, Aaron and Gregory (8). The Looses moved last summer to Bucks County, Penn. Tom has been with Merck since graduation, and he is now a senior marketing director on Fosamax (for osteoporosis). Tina is home with the kids and doing a lot of volunteer work at their school. The last two years Tom and Tina have led their boys' Cub Scout den. Fourteen 7- and 8-year-olds keep them very busy during the school year! Tina wrote that she and Tom saw Andy Austin and Coleen Amatangel and their adorable munchkins, Max and MacKenzie, in the summer of 2004 on Cape Cod. Before that they caught up with the Austins and Chris Spahr (along with Alice, Lucy and Spencer) in Chicago back in February of 2003.

More twins! Rick Schiffman and his wife, Joy, welcomed newborn twins in March. Rick shared the following: "Rick and Joy moved from San Francisco to Newport, R.I., three years ago. We live in an 1880-ish Victorian right in downtown Newport, three blocks off the water and stumbling distance from the local watering holes. (During those busy summer weekends, we definitely know when it is last call.) Last summer, I stepped down as CEO of a small publicly traded high-speed wireless business and took six months to rehab a house with my wife, who is an interior designer; basically I just did the grunt work. It is now for sale, and if you know anyone who wants a great house in Newport, it can be seen at 37farewell.com. Now that the rehab is done, I've been doing a little bit of consulting and am looking around for new career opportunities.

"All of this news pales in comparison to the monumental news in our lives: On March 30, my wife gave birth to our first two children, Helen Elizabeth 'Libby' and Richard Francis III 'Rex.' Mom and children are doing well, and I'm learning to sleep in three-hour increments. If anyone is going to be in Newport, please look us up. We can use the adult stimulation, and the odds are very high that we won't be going that far from home for the next few years."

A couple of weddings to report: Yuko Suzuki-Bischoff sent word of her January marriage to Richard Bischoff. The two were "legally" married at San Francisco's beautiful City Hall on Jan. 26, followed a few days later by a beautiful, spiritual ceremony in Puerta Vallarta, Mexico. On April 29, Yuko gave birth to little Mari-Frances Suzuki Bischoff, all 2 pounds and 12.6 inches of her via emergency c-section.

Scott Peterson got married on Kiawah Island, S.C., in November. Scott and his wife, Katie, live in London, where Scott works for Revlon as the commercial director for the U.K. and Ireland. I heard from two very good sources that Kate Kustermann and Jose Rivera were married in Chicago in May. I had sent Kate an e-mail to see what she was up to and got an automated response saying she was out for a few weeks. I was imagining a great vacation somewhere and was very excited to learn that this was not just any vacation — congratulations to Kate and Jose! There were about 15 Kelloggians at the wedding, including Patty Comboy and her husband and daughter (in from Amsterdam), Doug and Sue Warshauer, Kate and Mike Schoenle, Janice and Kevin Lee, Nida McPolin, Lisa Bradner and others.

Kate and Mike Schoenle have been back in Michigan for the past year after several interesting expat experiences in the U.K. and Mexico. Mike is still with Visteon, and Kate has her hands happily full with their four kids. Doug and Sue Warshauer are also busy with four kids of their own. Sue is the treasurer of the Lynn Sage Cancer Research Foundation. Doug and Art Kessler are partners doing micro-cap private equity investing. They recently sold most of their latest investment, Rec Room Furniture and Games, to a venture capital firm and are now looking for new investments. Doug relayed that Art and his wife welcomed their second baby in May. Ryan joins older brother Ben (3).

John Kurtz sent the following update: "I continue to be based in Southeast Asia with A.T. Kearney, still living in Indonesia while running the region. This makes for extensive airport acrobatics as I try to devise ways to make connections within 20 minutes to avoid long layovers, especially as I scramble to get from, say, Bangkok to Yoygakarta for the weekend to see my family. My wife, Etty, and my two children (9 and almost 3) are doing well and the kids attend the little international school here, which is somewhat akin to a one-room schoolhouse. I get back to the U.S. a bit more often these days with committee work and some client meetings and would love to renew ties to Kellogg classmates." John recently attended a global partner meeting in Cannes with fellow partners and classmates Sherif Mityas and Rusla Korzh.

Amy Rose is happily living in New York with her husband, Allen, and two kids, Jack and Madeline. She has been with Avon for the past seven years and is currently marketing Avon's U.S. fragrance products.

Connie Walsh has a new job at Staples. She recently became the director of marketing for the supplies, technology and furniture businesses for Staples Brands Group.

MB Barron has returned to Chicago from Shanghai. She had a great time experiencing the rapid changes of daily life in China and had the opportunity to integrate into the business community a bit. On her way back to the U.S., she traveled to Thailand, Myanmar, Sri Lanka and ended up in Hong Kong, where she ran the HK half-marathon. MB is currently doing some strategic marketing and consulting work on the side, while looking for full-time opportunities, preferably ones that involve China and are based in the U.S. She has had the chance to catch up with a lot of Kellogg classmates, including Julie Roberts, Susie Silver, Audi Melsbakas (and her baby Fina) and Melissa Dagenhart, who recently left Ford and is planning a bike trip in Italy this summer.

Marci Chapman left FTD last fall after nearly 10 years to pursue entrepreneurial opportunities. She had been executive vice president of FTD's wholesale division. Together with two other women partners, Marci launched Acelera Nutrition LLC, a venture that produces and sells nutritional supplements.

Marci describes their first product, Acelera (which means accelerate in Spanish), as "a truly unique combination of natural vitamins, minerals, herbs and amino acids designed to give you an energy lift and to help restore and revive you anytime." I certainly could use some.

Melissa (Edison) '93 and Chris Barnes and their three kids, Rowan, Adin and Edison Charles, live in Denver. They keep very busy with ice hockey (Chris plays with 5-year-old Rowan on Sundays), ice skating, gymnastics, ballet, etc. Melissa recently joined the board of a new charter school that a friend is just starting. Several years ago Chris went out on his own and started Sarowdin Partners, a middle-market investment banking firm for companies in the $5 million to $25 million enterprise value range. They closed one deal in 2005, two deals last year and are hired on five things now. Chris is looking to hire a few folks and said he has outgrown Panera and Starbucks and is looking for actual office space now. While he will miss working from home, the time has come.

Here are the last updates: Amit Choudhury got married in Chicago last July. A number of members of the Class of '94 attended. They had both a Hindu and a Christian ceremony, and they will be calling Chicago home, although Amit spends most of his time on airplanes these days, getting his financial software product off the ground. Jay Grant his partner, Craig, adopted a baby girl. Alec Frisch left the Bay Area and moved to Connecticut to take a high-level marketing job and pursue his passions at a wine company. He and his wife also had a cute baby girl named Heather. Scott Buckhout is working for Honeywell and was transferred to France. He and his wife and toddler girl also added twin girls to the family.

Well, that's it for this time around. I am out of news and out of time. Thanks to all who shared their lives with us.