1993 — Full-Time

Despite some major health challenges in 2008, Melinda Myers Cook is "the luckiest person in the world" because one of her friends was willing to donate one of his kidneys to her. Melinda had polycystic kidney disease, which is genetic, and the cysts on her kidneys grew so large that they were impacting the function of both of her kidneys. Thus, she needed a transplant. However, before she could have the transplant, she had to have her native kidneys removed to make room for a new kidney. Melinda had her kidneys removed in March 2008 and went on dialysis immediately thereafter. She writes: "Dialysis was really hard for me because my body did not respond well. I got used to it after six months, but it was never easy." The fact that she was on dialysis and that didn't feel well were the reasons that she missed our 15-year Reunion last year and adds: "I was very sad to miss it." On Sept. 24, Melinda had her transplant and felt better immediately. She actually left the hospital before her donor did, and she was back at work part time after two months and full time after three months. The fact that she is still at HP and has been since we graduated really paid off because she had earned the right to be off work for so long. She was not working more than she was working for nine months. Melinda also writes: "What a difference a year makes! I am so much better now than I was a year ago. I have much more energy, which I need to try to keep up with my daughters, Kaitlin (13) and Kendall (10)." Her girls are both are active in sports and play soccer and basketball year-round. Melinda's tenure at HP also has given her the flexibility to participate in her daughters' activities. To celebrate her improved health and the sacrifices that her husband Kelly and girls made while she was sick, they spent spring break in Maui.

She also adds: "While I was sick, I talked to Jim Owens a few times. My situation was not even close to what he went through for more than 10 years. I so admired his positive attitude and outlook throughout his illness, and I tried to emulate that. I still don't understand why mine ended up positively while his didn't. I miss him."

Bryan Beak '93 and his son Parker heli-hiking and mountain climbing in the Canadian Rockies
Melinda Meyers Cook '93 with her husband Kelly and daughters Kaitlin (13) and Kendall (10) in Maui
Heather Forsythe '93 exploring some caves at Bandelier National Park near Santa Fe, N.M., over Memorial Day weekend
Ghia Griarte '93 (top left) and her daughter Natalie (bottom center) visited Leticia Ponce '93 and her daughters Clara and Sofia in Madrid.
Leticia Ponce '93 in front of St. Basil's in Moscow
Bienvenido (Donnie) Tantoco '93 and his wife Crickette in the Chocolate Hills of Bohol (which is in the central part of the Philippines) on Mother's Day
Jeff Urdan '93 with his kids
Rusen Yildirim '93 with his new twins Rana and Bora

Eric Shapiro and his family left the sun and warmth of their San Antonio community and moved to sunny and warm Atlanta. After working for 14 years for the same company since Kellogg, Eric took some time off to see his family again. They decided after 18 months that that they had enough "quality" time with him and needed him to get back into the real world. Eric is vice president of marketing for the Americas for Given Imaging, an Israeli company with U.S. headquarters in beautiful Georgia. He is very interested in reconnecting with fellow Kellogg alums in Atlanta.

Congratulations to Eric Kahn, whose Friendly Honda dealership received the 2008 Honda President's Award, Honda's top dealership award. Friendly Honda was recognized for excellence in all areas of operation — customer service, sales, training, and facility operation. Eric purchased Friendly Honda, located in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., in October 2007. He is also the owner of Capital Volvo of Albany in Colonie, N.Y.

At the end of last year Antonio Tellez moved from Mexico City to the U.S. to work in the new market entry division of Walmart International. His wife Erika and their three kids (Mateo, Ines and Mariano) are having a wonderful time in the very peaceful and family-oriented Bentonville. He writes: "It's a big change coming from Mexico City as you can imagine." Antonio will be in the U.S. for at least two more years before going back to Mexico — or somewhere else. But he adds, "In the meantime, I will continue enjoying this great family experience and participating in the global expansion of Walmart."

After working for a number of banks and trade associations, Ted Padilla joined the Philippine Senate as executive director of a congressional oversight committee on tax reform. If you are on LinkedIn, Ted would love to connect to you and keep in touch. Ted adds: "It's very interesting work, and my first foray into public service. With the way jobs have been cut, working for the government is one sure way to stay employed."

On a trip to London in May, KV Dhillon met up with Roddy Urquhart at the Military Club.

Having left Wells Fargo in January, Brian Vogel is in Santa Rosa, Calif., and continues to look for the next great opportunity in wealth management.

Buffie Eilert Grewal is enjoying marketing viral-style for a mobile phone startup in Menlo Park, Ill., where she lives with her son. They are testing their beta product on the Blackberry and are accepting beta testers and angel investors.

After 16 years, Bryan Beak is still at Target headquarters in Minneapolis. He's had several different merchandising jobs at Target, and is spending most of his time moving processes to their operation in Bangalore. Bryan has been in touch with Linda Adeson and many other Kellogg alums at Target, saying, "There are so many Kellogg folks there it can get hard to keep track." Last summer Bryan took the family on a heli-hiking trip in the Canadian Rockies. After a few days of hiking, Byran's son Parker asked for something a little more adventurous, so they did some mountain climbing!

Brett Jarvis and his wife Lydgia welcomed their fourth child, Jett Jarvis, on April 8. Brett reports, "He's doing great and is (often) the pride and joy of his older siblings, Zach (10), Haylie (8) and Elise (5), but of course they have plenty of other things they're doing as well."

Jeff Urdan and his wife had a second baby. Jeff updates: "He was born in January and we had a lot of other excitement around that time. The house next door caught fire and took half our house with it." The family has been in a temporary house since then and they moved back home this summer. After that, Jeff plans to get back into job-search mode after being a "part-time house rebuilding project manager, part-time consultant, part-time nanny and full-time exhausted."

Jeff spoke to Craig Asher, who is living in Bethesda, M.D., and seems to love his work buying and fixing distressed software companies. Jeff has also been in touch with Steve Davies, who started a software company called Perfect Job Software. Steve has created a cool tool to help people structure and manage their job search. Jeff also heard from Gwen Foster, who took a Private Placements role at Guardian Life and sounds happy to be doing new deals (and not workouts) for a change of pace.

Rusen Yildirim was appointed CEO of Kent Hospital in Izmir, Turkey. Kent Hospital is private health group that owns hospitals and outpatient clinics. The group is accredited by JCI and receives a lot of international patients, including Americans and Canadians. They also have a close relationship with Blue Cross and Blue Shield of South Carolina. Rusen encourages any Kellogg alumni with an interest in medical tourism to contact him. Rusen and his wife Asli had twins late last year: Bora and Rana. He reports, "Despite the continuous sleepless nights, we are enjoying immensely the new formation of our family."

Michelle Pastrana is still working at J&J doing digital marketing for the Johnson's brand. She's been there seven years. Amazing! She was in Chicago in April for her 25th high school reunion at St. Ignatius College Prep. She comments, "It was fantastic...now I just have to make it to a Kellogg reunion." Soon she'll be visiting San Francisco (where her middle daughter was born) and then off to Hawaii.

Michelle Rider was featured in Black MBA Magazine. She is running her interior decorating business while also working as director of marketing for United Health Care in Plano, Texas. Michelle is looking for opportunities to spread the word about her business (inspiredredesign.com) and also to teach others how they can create a beautiful space.

In January Dominic Rispoli left Barclays Capital to explore entrepreneurial opportunities, a career change that he had been thinking about for some time. In April, he launched a company called Catalyst Brands with Rick Cusick, a senior merchandising, marketing and branding executive with more than 27 years of experience. Catalyst Brands is a designer, marketer and wholesaler of innovative new consumer products targeting large and growing market segments, including health and wellness: fitness and sporting goods; baby and kids; and healthy foods, among others. Dominic says: "Our consumer brands will incorporate significant graphical and technical enhancements to existing consumer products that are tired and undifferentiated."

Catalyst Brands has several products under prototype development and/or under investment consideration. The company is headquartered in Tiburon, Calif., but also has an office in Westport, Conn., where Dominic spends the majority of his time. He comments: "I'm really excited by the opportunity to innovate and create new brands as well as invest in young brands and help them grow. Here's a shout-out to all our classmates, many of whom are likely also re-inventing themselves during these unprecedented times!"

Bienvenido (Donnie) Tantoco and his wife Crickette have three children: twin girls Nicole and Camille (20) and son Christian (15). Donnie continues to work for a grocery retail chain that he helped start about 15 years ago. He writes: "One of the schoolmates that I see quite often over here in Manila is Billy Valtos. He runs one of the few private equity funds that I know of that is delivering positive returns in spite of the crisis."

In March, Eileen Sweeney was promoted to group president of the global manufacturing sector for CSC. She writes: "It is about a $2.7 billion business and quite a challenge in the economic times. I travel all the time. It makes balancing work and home life an even bigger challenge." Eileen and her husband Phil Tan '92 have two daughters, Meredith (8) and Elizabeth (6), and live in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Beth MacLean took a role leading organization development and change management for Levi Strauss' global supply chain in San Francisco. She comments, "It's nice to be back in the apparel industry." You may recall Beth worked at The Gap for nearly 15 years after Kellogg.

In April, Debbie Muller was elected to her local school board in Deerfield, Ill. She writes: "It's an interesting new challenge, and hopefully an opportunity to do some good. As I write this, I'm cramming to learn all about public school law and public school finance, both of which bear only the slightest resemblance to their private-sector counterparts." In other news, Debbie's daughter had a bat mitzvah in January and comments, "Though I drove myself (and my family) fairly crazy during the preparation, it was a wonderful, proud day for us." Debbie is still at BCG in Chicago as director of training and development.

In May, Section 67ers Tina James, Vickie (Chan) Lents, Susie (Belgrad) Hayes, Suzanne Beitel, Jean (Kircher) Mixer and Sandy (Pickel) Barger all got together in San Antonio, Texas, for a Kellogg girls' weekend. Tina heads up human resources for HEB grocery stores in Texas; Vickie does marketing for Amarr, a national garage-door manufacturer and distributor in North Carolina; Susie runs her household in Boulder, Colo.; Suzanne is at JP Morgan in New York; Jean runs Mixer Consulting in Boston and Sandy leads Disney marketing in China, Japan and Russia.

A highlight of the year so far for Leticia Ponce was a visit from Ghia Griarte and her daughter Natalie and the fun afternoon they spent together in Madrid with Leticia's daughters Clara and Sofia. Leticia will be seeing Roman Pongracz and his lovely wife Katharina in July, since Leticia's and Roman's eldest daughters are off to summer camp together in Granada. Leticia is working on a real estate development project in Merida, Yucatan, while she dedicates her afternoons to her three kids who are "growing up too fast." She took a wonderful trip with her family to Moscow and Saint Petersburg in early May and loved it.

As for me, Heather Forsythe, although I was happy to have survived several rounds of layoffs at SanDisk last year, I decided to leave the company when an interesting opportunity presented itself. In April, I began a new job as head of brand marketing and communications for PayCycle, the No. 1 online payroll service in America, focusing on small businesses with up to 150 employees. I've never seen such high net promoter scores for a product/service. I just need to get the word out so more people know about it.

Keep those updates coming. It's fun to hear what everyone is up to. Why not send in a picture from your summer travels or an update on your job?