1996 — Part-Time

Steve Hilton and his wife, Ruth, live in Brookline, Mass., with their two kids: Ana (8) and Donny (6). Aside from dodging crazy New England drivers and properly pronouncing lobstah (lobster), cah (car), and beeah (beer), Steve is busy working at Yankee Group as vice president of enterprise and small business research. Steve says, "While Boston is great, this summer we're going to be lounging with extended family in the rainforest-esque humidity of rural Maryland as my wife and I telecommute. It's a whole new adventure in modern living and technology for us."

Mark Nelson writes, "The past year has been a busy one. I was recently promoted to national marketing director at DeVry University, headquartered in Oakbrook Terrace, Ill. I'm now responsible for all local marketing activities at our 80-plus nationwide locations. I also married Ruth Gallagher Nelson in Chicago on Aug. 5, 2006."

Jeffrey Cohen reports, "April and I are the proud parents of Victor (5) and Lucas (3), and we live on the North Shore. I'm the managing vice president of professional services for Siemens IT Solutions and Services. I work in Lake Zurich, Ill., when not traveling."

Don Kreski is celebrating the five-year anniversary of Kreski Marketing Consultants Inc., which he started in July 2002. "The firm provides creative and marketing planning services for companies in electronics, focusing on the audiovisual industry. When I took Professor Greg Carpenter's class at Kellogg, he suggested that any successful firm must figure out what is the one thing that it can do better than anyone else. Then he added, 'That applies to your own careers as well.' So when I was planning my new business I thought, 'I can focus on the one industry I know really well.' That market is obviously a lot smaller, but my expertise there is unique."

Kreski says he runs a very lean business, relying on freelancers. "I'm able to give my customers the benefit of using creative people with five to 20 years of experience in their respective fields, and I avoid most of the personnel issues. The single-industry focus and the 'virtual company' approach have worked very well for me."