1992 — Full-Time

After 16 years, Kevin Hykes resigned from Medtronic to become the chief commercial officer of a venture-backed ophthalmic startup in Irvine, Calif., called Visiogen. "At the last Reunion I think I was one of only three classmates who were still at their original post-KGSM employer. The final impetus for the decision came in the form of a blizzard that hit me mid bike-ride April 25 in Minneapolis. No sign of global warming up here." Actually, we hear it was the house rebuilding that drove the Hykes out of the Land o' Lakes.

After more than six years building NPR's digital media presence, Maria Thomas is leaving NPR to become COO of Brooklyn, NY-based Etsy (etsy.com). Etsy is a global marketplace for handmade items. Maria will continue to live in Washington, D.C., and will commute to Brooklyn weekly. You can contact her at Maria@etsy.com or look for her on Amtrak's Acela.

Rick "Shades" Gallagher and family have relocated to Sao Paulo, Brazil, where he is the president of Latin America for Experian. "We are all taking Portuguese classes and learning a lot about this city and Brazil. Although it is a long way from sunny Southern California, this is a great experience! I can be reached at rick.gallagher@experian.com, if anyone finds themselves in Sao Paulo." He'll even lend you a pair of Oakleys.

Kentaro Kuroiwa said goodbye to New York City after seven enjoyable years when he was transferred back to Marubeni's Tokyo headquarters in April. "My next assignment in Marubeni will be as part of a new business development team. We will focus on new opportunities outside the Marubeni's traditional businesses, by means of M&A, strategic investment, alliance and joint venture setting. We will also target the U.S. as one of our markets and also as a source to bring in new business or ideas to the Japanese market." E-mail: kentaro.kuroiwa@gmail.com.

Bernie Armstrong ‘92 and family doing their bit to conserve energy as they traverse Australia’s Outback
Mike Miller ‘92
Maria Thomas ‘92

Apparently two years of the Chicago-San Francisco power commute was enough. Juliana and Doug Carlucci and family are moving to Marin County, Calif. Doug is now vice president and manages Leapfrog's e-commerce division. Now he only has to drive across a bridge to get home for dinner. "While his passion is still airlines, the position at Leapfrog keeps his rock-star status with our girls as he is fully in-the-know about Hannah Montana and the Jonas Brothers." Chicago (and United Airlines) will sorely miss the Carluccis. In January, Doug joined up with Tom "Sparky" Morrison at the Superbowl. The two Giants fans were ecstatic with the G-Mens' victory. Juliana also tells me that the Carol Gollob Tennis Clinic is still going strong. The clinic started in Chicago in the spring of 1991 and Lisa Gollob Finke still packs it in at Mid-town Tennis Club with a strong showing from the North Shore, Chicago and Kellogg. Tony Hoban and Mike Pytlinski and their wives are regulars. After 15 years, Steve "Sarge" Slaughter, Bob Armour, Doug Struckman are still in charge of chilling the beer while Tom Finke supervises the process. The Foundation was recently honored by Northwestern's Feinberg School of Medicine at a formal evening event at the Four Seasons Chicago. The foundation has raised more than $400,000 for breast cancer research. The Carluccis also spend time with other classmates at their children's school events. "We see Tori and Al Warms often at school pick-up as our girls all go to Latin and are in a lot of programs together." Al still power commutes Chicago to L.A. working for Yahoo! (who recently purchased his company, BuzzTracker). Al is now the general manager of the news business.

Always the prototypical Kellogg leadership role model, Juliana keeps busy as president of ChinaKids Chinese Language Center in Chicago, a nonprofit organization committed to helping young people study the language with the goal of reaching AP level-4 fluency. "The reward is in seeing the number of committed students and families grow each year," she says.

Michael "Q" Giaquinto joined investment bank Greenhill & Co. in N.Y. as a managing director, with a focus on medical devices. Q previously was co-head of the U.S. healthcare group at Citigroup Global Markets, where he spent the past decade. Eight years prior to that he was at UBS healthcare banking group.

Apparently some of our classmates have had enough of SOX: Vince Arnone just resigned as CFO at Fuel-Tech Inc. to take some time off and then pursue more entrepreneurial ventures. Alfredo Garcia has stepped aside as CFO of Eagle Rock Energy Partners and now takes over as SVP of corporate development. Given that Eagle Rock is now public, the new position sounds like way more fun to me. Fellow Houstonian Bruce Busmire was promoted to VP, treasurer and chief accounting officer of Anadarko Petroleum. William Emmons was promoted to officer in the banking supervision division of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. He is also an adjunct professor of finance at the Olin School of Business at Washington University.

Dr. Bob Honigberg told me that he and wife Susie were surprised (and thrilled) to learn that she is now a member of the Aspen Health Stewardship Project to advise presidential candidates.

While not as prolific as Kim and Pat Burns, Abi and Rob Grossman welcomed the birth of their fourth child. "Samuel Ethan was born on Jan. 10 and joined big sister Danielle and big brothers Michael and Jonathan in rounding out the Grossman pitching rotation."

As for the Riffman, I recently had dinner with Jim 'Ironman' Winette in Beverly Hills while on business. Jim is doing great and enjoying a stint of reduced travel by spending more time with his wife and children. Steve Rappaport reports that all is well in Prague; his venture has expanded to the point where he acquired a new warehouse to accommodate his firm's burgeoning business.