1992 — Full-Time

In March, class marketing maven Jim Rossman, COO of Digitas, was appointed president and chief operating officer of digital marketing agency AKQA. Aaron Taylor was profiled in AdWeek as vice president of sports marketing for ESPN's consumer marketing department. Life sciences venture capitalist Andy Jay was named to the CorNova board of directors. Ryan Mullaney, former managing director at RBS Greenwich Capital, was appointed to manage the Chicago office of Amherst Securities Group. On the BBC, I heard that former Turkish foreign minister (and quant wizard) Ali Babacan was named state minister and deputy prime minister in charge of coordination of the Turkish economy.

On a rare visit to a location other than Columbus, Ohio, Kashif Chaudhry shared a Texas-style barbeque with Jim Kinney (he went all out in choosing the location) in the Boston suburbs a couple of weeks ago. Jim was in good spirits. KC reports that Paul Mistor has delayed his Mount Everest and K2 attempts and that he has been persistently harassed by storks circling overhead during his training in the North Carolina mountains. Kashif also noted that Dougal "The Legend" Henderson still needs to work on prettying up his Excel charts (and picking better ties), and that Phil Warren saw NIN and Jane's Addiction in Atlanta. Too bad he didn't invite Kashif. Perhaps Phil will take over on stage for Perry Ferrell after he hangs up his magenta leather pants in September.

The surfing bean, Gerard Beenen finally wised up and realized that the surf in Pittsburgh sucks. To remedy this, Bean finished his doctorate in organizational behavior and theory at Carnegie Mellon last August, and is wrapping up his post doc. He writes: "I've been teaching an organizational change class to MBAs, and doing research on learning in short-term, high-impact work assignments (remember MBA internships?). We're moving back to native Orange County, Calif., in July where I'll be a management professor at California State University, Fullerton. My wife Eun and I have really enjoyed our time and Pittsburgh. It's been a great place to raise kids. And yes, I'm looking forward to teaching our kids (Matthew 7, Hannah 5) how to surf!"

Mark McKechnie, his wife Michelle, son Grant (7) and daughters Lauren (5) and Claire (5) live in San Rafael, Calif., about 20 minutes north of the Golden Gate Bridge. Mark works in San Francisco as the senior telecom analyst and partner at Broadpoint Securities, an up-and-coming brokerage for institutional investors. The McKech (think of a peaty Islay single malt) picked up the bass guitar. His band, the Overcommitments, plays 60s cover tunes for unsuspecting fans. Look them up on YouTube.

Mark Pyper said that when he's not mountain biking and skiing at Alta, his wealth management practice at Smith Barney continues to go very well. He reports: "Most importantly, my wife Randi and kids (11, 13 and 15) are all happy and healthy. Visitors always welcome."

Bill Sharpe did a yeoman's job of getting news this quarter. Bill connected with Fred Christensen a while back. Bill reports: "Fred is living the dream in Bend, Ore., with a beautiful family, great part of the world and still works for IBM." Sounds like we need to get Fred back in a bunch of study groups. Bill also received an e-mail from Kevin Sidders a while back. Kevin has come out of retirement and is with a NY/NJ boutique investment bank specializing in technology deals among other things and commutes from his home in Virginia.

Bill gets back to Kellogg once or twice per year as part of Lazard's on-campus recruiting. Bill also noted that Charlie Cosovich left Kurt Salmon Associates after 17 years and heads Navigant's West Coast healthcare practice. While he doesn't hold any record for years spent at his first job after Kellogg, 17 years is still an impressive run. Apparently, Charlie doesn't get Kellogg World, so he'd better contact the alumni Web site or office to "get with the program."

Phil Archer is enjoying his current gig as a senior partner for Wiser Partners, a boutique, vertical agnostic, retained executive search firm focused on senior level marketing (brand/strategy, sales/business development and insights/research) positions. So, if you are looking for a senior marketing role or need world-class marketing talent for your organization, you can contact him at phil@wiserpartners.com. Phil loves Austin, Texas, and enjoys life with his wife of 16 years (Lulu) and their two boys Alex (7) and Christian (2). In his spare time, he serves on a couple of boards for Austin-based startups and has dabbled in angel investing. He enjoys his time wakeboarding on Lake Travis with the family and scratching the tires of his motorcycles on the track.

Matt Allgood reports: "I've moved offices and started my own franchise practice with Ameriprise Financial in Downers Grove, Ill. I had been an employee advisor, but in May I took the 'plunge' to self-employment and embarked on the path to equity ownership of my practice. I specialize in helping people work to attain and/or safeguard the acheivement of their 'bigger-picture' financial goals. My practice is more comprehensive and holistic than just asset management. I incorporate perspectives on tax, protection and estate concerns, in addition to the more traditional accumulation and investment planning. I also do a lot of work with people in (career) transition, since that's when people often have specific questions about their overall picture as benefits and rules changes occur. Finally, since I do a lot of networking as a natural part of my practice, I'm happy to be a contact resource for people who are targeting an introduction at a specific company or area. You never know, I may have a client or know someone who knows someone there. People are welcome to call me at my office 630.541.6520, or to e-mail me at matthew.d.allgood@ampf.com. My four kids are growing, with the first just becoming a teen. They've stayed in one school system, as Debbie and I have lived in the same town (Wheaton, Ill.) for 13 years. Amazing to a guy who attended four schools by sixth grade."

Vinod "Yo Vinnie" Dasari reports that the highlight of his U.S. trip in April was a visit to Kellogg where he was a keynote speaker at the 2009 India Business Conference. He writes: "It was an eerie feeling to be speaking in Coon Forum instead of sitting and taking notes. It was great to see how much Kellogg has grown. My son, who was born while I was at Kellogg, unfortunately chose to go to Penn. Two things wrong with this: a) he chose Penn because Northwestern does not offer an full undergrad degree in business so now he's attending classes at Wharton and b) while visiting Wharton with my son, I suddenly realized how many years had passed since Kellogg." (It's not so bad Vinnie. There's hardly an age gap between BBAs and MBAs at Wharton. But you'll have him deprogrammed after he graduates). "When he was born, I remember going up to Dean Jacob's office and offering him a cigar. His comment, 'Obviously, I didn't give you enough homework!'"

Brad Hafer was selected as one of the 25 participants in the New England Clean Energy Council Fellowship program. The program aims to educate successful high-tech entrepreneurs and executives about the renewable energy space so that they launch new cleantech businesses in New England. Beyond that, he writes: "I've stayed busy with my own 'outsourced corporate development' consulting firm and my three sons' school activities and sports."

Elaine Long's Ayurveda Medicine internship is now in full force. She continues to combine business planning and life coaching with 'alternative' practices of yoga, ayurveda and reiki. She helps people integrate their business and personal lives, providing them with a life practice that can be transformative.

Donna Moore was promoted from CFO to COO for WBEZ, Chicago Public Radio. In addition, Donna was accepted into Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government and will take a 10-month sabbatical to attend the mid-career master's in public administration program. Donna lives in Chicago and temporarily relocated to Cambridge, Mass., this summer. Donna also is a board member of the Chicago Finance Exchange.

On April 1, George Thornton became a father to another baby girl, this one born in Canada. Her name is Gillian James.

Amber Webb launched a new entrepreneurial consulting venture, Small Business Solutions Group Co. SBSG focuses on translating vision into actionable growth solutions for small businesses and her first two clients are healthcare companies. Amber transitioned from Abbott Laboratories, where she served in senior brand champion roles in managed care, diagnostics and packaged goods. Her career progression includes global marketing and sales leadership roles at Baxter, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Merck and nonprofits. She lives in Libertyville, Ill., with her husband Joseph and her two teenagers Miles and Paige.

The nearshore IT services company Isthmus founded by Andy Hilliard in Costa Rica partnered with Carlos Vasquez '08 company, PSL, in Mexico and Colombia to offer pan-regional nearshore IT services to U.S. companies and those of Kellogg alumni. Andy spoke at the Kellogg Latin American Business Conference this spring. Meanwhile Seth Bergstein still wants Andy to pass him the puck.

In 1990, a small group of Northwestern University cyclists, including Jim Kodjababian '91, Scott Forman and Brett Dobis, formed the NU Cycling Team. These three continued to race actively for the team the next year and were joined by Scott Sherman and Jay Osborne '93. Between 1990-1993, this group enjoyed a great deal of success and camaraderie. In 2005, Brett's life was tragically cut short as a result of Huntington's Disease, leaving behind his wife and two young children. Due to Brett's strength as a competitor and his relentless pursuit of ridiculous endurance events, Scott, Scott, Jim and Jay chose to ride in the Race Across the West to qualify for the Race Across America by beating a 68-hour time limit. RAW is a non-stop, non-drafting 1,044 mile bike race from Oceanside, Calilf., to the mountains of Taos, N.M., in which the men will encounter fatigue, exhaustion, extreme heat, cold temperatures and elevations in excess of 10,000 feet in their quest for victory. While the team says they have ambitions of returning to their former race glory, the real purpose is to provide a fitting tribute Brett and to raise money for the cure to Huntington's Disease. The race began on June 17 and the team says you can follows their training and race progress on their blog (wildcats4brett.blogspot.com). The team has updated the blog before the race began and also updated it after each shift during the race. They said they hope fellow alums will consider supporting their fundraising efforts to help find a cure for Huntington's Disease (firstgiving.com/jameskodjababian).David Valdes reports that despite loving his job running the World Wildlife Fund's Philippine office, David resigned to better accommodate his family and escape life in Manila, which had become oppressive. In February, the Valdes family moved to Wagga Wagga, New South Wales, Australia (hence the awful pun). In Wagga, David heads marketing for Bee Dee Bags, a supplier of paper shopping bags to retailers across Australia. He says: "Life is much better for us in this nice town of 60,0000." (If he means people, then I'll bet a lot of them do an inordinate amount of hopping or grazing). David spends 16 minutes biking to work each day which he says is just as fast as driving (as the sheep often block the road).

Tom and Teresa (Zepeda) Kelleher welcomed their second daughter, Ana Isabel, last December and couldn't be happier. Teresa loves parenthood. She spends most of her time on mommy duty and "supporting the nearby parent communities by serving on a couple of boards of organizations that help parents." She suggests checking out handinhandparenting.org as it is a fantastic resource for any parent.