I thought I would start this update by revisiting some previous updates and/or inserting items that I missed in the last edition. I figure by revising on a six-month period we can approximate EMP-63's content in the past month. At least that is the hope. If not we'll try a technique David Summers perfected in just about every marketing class, known as adjusting the font and margins.

Group D (that's D for DOMINANCE, people) members Carolyn Amato, Jon Pace, Michael Phillips and David Summers enjoyed our class dinner at Tizzi Melloul back in November.

	Ted Winslow EMP-64 and newest grandson, Peter Michael

In February, Gerry Wondrasek sent news of an adventure at a Bears game, where he became a quasi-celebrity, albeit for a rather specialized audience: Chicagoans who tune into Channel 5 and who care about the Bears. Anyhoo, the story goes like this, "As background, I have season tickets to the Bears. A neighbor (who also has tickets) and I decided we needed a dedicated tailgating machine for the 2007 season. We purchased an old ambulance and renovated the inside to accommodate our purpose. At the final game of the season on Dec. 30, we were parked in our lot next to the Field Musuem by 9 a.m. (our usual arrival time). By 10, we had served our appetizers (prawns wrapped in pancetta, marinated in sambucca) and I was grilling the main course (flank steak stuffed with garlic and horseradish). I had invited Joe Mase to attend. I had also given tickets to John Potter, but he was late as usual and had not yet arrived. We were visited by Anna Devlantes and some Channel 5 crew members and appointed Tailgaters of the game. We conducted a short interview, which aired on the JumboTron in Soldier Field in the second quarter. The Bears went on to be victorious that day, we ate well and Potter eventually showed up."

In more grown-up news, Joe Klauser writes about the new venture that he launched immediately following graduation (while the rest of us were taking long leisurely weekend naps). According to Joe: "In the past year I have fully established two operating companies, Cassandra Capital Partners (an alternative investment management company aka hedge fund) and Diermeier Consulting Associates (an issues and brand management consulting company), both in partnership with Kellogg Professor Daniel Diermeier. We have 35 on staff with offices and operations in Newport Beach, Calif., Denver, Evanston, Washington, D.C., Montreal and the Cayman Islands.

"The basis of both firms is a technology co-developed by us that detects and determines issues that may positively or negatively impact a publicly traded company's ability to execute its growth strategy. For the hedge fund we can make these determinations prior to market participants being able to know, digest and react in sufficient numbers to move the price of a particular stock. The portfolio returns are astounding with essentially attributes of zero beta and zero correlation. The technology on the investment side has a broad range of applications to most hedge-fund investment strategies, more traditional investments, I-banking, etc.

"On the consulting side, we have several engagements with Fortune 100 companies. We are close to signing a JV deal with one of the most important former corporate executives to become a free agent since Jack Welsh left GE. Once completed, this news will have high coverage in the media."

Joe is exceedingly happy in his venture and speaking on behalf of EMP-64, we hope that happiness leads to an invitation for the class on a very legitimate business development retreat perhaps in the Newport Beach or Cayman Islands location.

Fitz (aka Paul Fitzpatrick) recently founded Ephikacy, a niche service provider specializing in marketing interactions for the pharmaceutical industry. "We have built our services and solutions from the perspective of a product marketing team. We look at the various constituents that a brand team engages with and have developed a wide range of technology-enabled, innovative services to maximize the return from each constituent group."

Cheryl Hyman writes, "I was named director of governmental affairs and legislative automation for ComEd." Cheryl asks that folks please stop calling her regarding special "Kellogg pricing" on their utility bills. She has never heard of these types of discounts and can't look into it further.

Things are going very well for Yolanda Daniel, who was invited to be the guest speaker at the DePaul University National Association of Black Accountants (NABA) Banquet on May 9. Yolanda has yet to report back whether there were lampshades and table dancing at the event. It is rumored that super friends Angela Talton and Carolyn Amato were in attendance. Yolanda, in case you didn't know, recently accepted the position of vice president, internal audit at W.W. Grainger Inc. Congratulations and thanks for the update!

Michelle Hua writes with very exciting updates: "I had a baby boy (Andrew Cun) last August. I took a maternity leave after the birth and recently came back to work. My husband and I have decided to move the family back to Beijing, and I have taken a director role in an online advertising division within Microsoft. Beijing has become such an exciting place. Please let me know whenever you travel to Beijing/China. I look forward to seeing you here." Hooray Michelle!

In addition to exciting work at Forefront, where he is basically rejiggering (a technical term) things, David Mohr sends not only the original picture he submitted to Cristina (who dropped the ball in not sending it along in time for the last class update) but also an update of himself with wife Courtney '02, son Alex, and new baby, Oliver Mohr. Oliver was born Dec. 26 and shares a birthday with Carolyn Amato.

Ted Winslow has some exciting news. He writes, "I am continuing with Sg2 (14 months, a long time for many of us). We are having our annual business and technology forecast (ABTF) for medical planning on June 11 and our CV membership meeting in Westlake Village (near L.A.) on June 12. My son Ward in Chicago and his wife, Tracy (parents of Kate, who was born January 2005, while we were in school together), made me a grandfather for a fourth time. Everyone's doing well. Some Fridays I still miss the Allen Center. However, I do get a charge out of being able to do things that I couldn't have done in 2004, thanks to EMP-64. You guys all helped make me better. Thanks." Ted graciously invites all of EMP-64 to a cookout party in the backyard this summer, including little ones. If that doesn't work out, definitely a football game come fall.

Phew! Thanks to everyone for the updates and a very special thanks to Carolyn Amato, our stellar classmate who continues to poke, prod, and in some cases actually invent news in order to supply a very disenfranchised (hey, I live in a country called Texas) Cristina. Thanks so much, Carolyn!