| 1993
— Full-Time
Congratulations to Bianca Lacson, who just had a baby girl, Christianne Gabrielle, in October — her third child in the family of all girls. She was 7 pounds, 7 ounces, and very healthy. Bianca says, “Everything else is the same except for this new bundle of joy whom I'm thoroughly enjoying.”
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John Kwant ’93, wife Carolyn and their kids vacationed in Thailand and visited the Tiger Temple. |
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Toru Mizuno ’93, wife Takako and son Shinya (7) in the Glover Garden in Nagasaki, Japan |
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Ava DeGhetto ’93 with husband Scott, son Jack (12), and daughter Ellee (10) at the Paper Mill Playhouse's Annual Fundraiser, where both children performed and Ellee was a featured soloist |
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Leticia Ponce ’93 joined Roman Pongracz ’93 and his children Franz and Katharina earlier this year for some skiing in Kitzbühel, Austria |
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Ken Yager’93 |
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Roddy Urquhart ’93 and fiancée Ali |
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Gregg Arends ’93 |
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Roman Pongracz and Yves Arrouet, both ’93, met for lunch last fall in Sofia, Bulgaria. |
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Roman Pongracz ’93 and family celebrate the birthday of his youngest son, Karl (3) |
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John Hattery ’93 with son Joseph at the Great Wall last year. |
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Bart Miller ’93 charging Mavericks, the world-renowned big wave break located one-half mile off the coast of Half Moon Bay, Calif. |
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All is well with the Yagers. Ken Yager is still busy turning around companies in his crisis management practice. He was promoted to chief marketing officer for MorrisAnderson, a financial and operational advisory firm, which just added its tenth office. Ken will oversee the firm's national brand management and the expansion of its industry practice areas. As MorrisAnderson’s first CMO, he will be one of the few professionals within the turnaround management industry to hold this title.
Ken says: “While we keep expecting demand for our core services to decline in the near term, as of Q2 it has not happened. Oley (15) is already 6 foot 2 inches and all indications are that he will be bigger than me – yikes! CJ (13) is hitting his first teenage growth spurt with hopes of catching his brother and evening the score." Both Oley and CJ are in football and lacrosse, “which is sweeping the Midwest these days.” And congratulations to Ken and Cary, who just celebrated their 21st anniversary.
Thano Chaltas has completed work on the UST/Altria transition and is now seeking another senior marketing role in the Northeast. In the meantime, he is doing consulting work in the spirits category and in social media. His wife, Alison ’94, is still focused on building brands through retail with her thriving sales and marketing consulting firm, Interscope. He updates: “In classic Chaltas family fashion, we continue to be overextended, with community involvement in education, the arts, kids’ sports and church. Son BJ (10) and daughter Katherine (8) keep us extremely busy and grounded, reminding us every day of what is really important. Would be great to hear from fellow Kellogg alums.” You can reach Thano at TAChaltas@aol.com.
After a tough year of looking, John Morris started a great new role as the chief financial officer of commercial credit cards for J.P. Morgan. Congratulations, John! It’s a great role and one of his team members is a recent Kellogg grad.
Michelle Pastrana has taken the big jump and started her own marketing consulting agency, Pastrana NuMarketing Group, specializing in traditional CPG marketing and digital marketing. She landed a contract with a company just six miles from her home in Atlanta and ... “so far, so good!” Feel free to contact Michelle at michelle.pastrana1@gmail.com — she’d love to hear from you.
Toru Mizuno is still with Japan Airlines, despite the bankruptcy filing of January this year. JAL is going through a complete restructuring and downsizing. Toru managed to find some time during the Japanese Golden Week holiday in late April/early May to travel to the city of Nagasaki with his wife Takako and son Shinya. Shinya (7) is in second grade and enjoying his school life.
Gregg Arends founded a consumer marketing consulting practice, BrandPro Marketing & Sales LLC. Prior to the founding of BrandPro, Gregg served as vice president of marketing at Hansen Beverage Company. Gregg has also worked on both the agency and client side for companies including Jim Beam, P&G and ConAgra.
BrandPro just completed the development of a new protein recovery drink, Fitness Edge (drinkfitnessedge.com), with a family-owned dairy in Wisconsin called The Galloway Company. BrandPro is now working on the national marketing launch of Fitness Edge while establishing distribution for the drink and another client, Sambazon Acai Juice, in California. The company is also working with several new ventures to develop new products and brand identities primarily in healthy, natural and functional food and beverage categories. Both Gregg and BrandPro are based in Irvine, Calif., but Gregg gets back to the Midwest to visit friends and family in Chicago and Wisconsin often.
Last summer Margy Stratton Norman and her husband Greg Norman ’94 moved the family to a newer (late 1800s instead of mid-1800s, like the last one) and newly renovated old farmhouse. Margy is busy with the kids (3, 7, 9) and their various soccer/baseball/piano/theater activities; the four pets and their various ailments; and with a lot of nonprofit work (United Way of Greater Milwaukee, Wisconsin Humane Society, YWCA of Greater Milwaukee, Columbia Health System, First Stage Children’s Theater and the school’s children’s book author visits) plus some marketing/communication consulting on the side. She’s also laying the foundation for launching her own ventures, which include a “family story hour” radio show and a “fascinating women” speaker series. Margy enjoys being an occasional Daisy Scout troop leader and running her own fun book club as well. Life is full! On a related note, Margy would love to hear about classmates or other Kellogg alums who have written good books lately.
Last September, Leticia Ponce started teaching management to first-year undergrads at the Universidad Instituto de Empresas and is enjoying it very much. She commutes once a week to the beautiful city of Segovia, an hour's drive from Madrid, and spends the morning with a very international group of students (the classes are in English). She says: “This new activity forces me to keep updated on management issues, while allowing me to study new projects. Furthermore, I love the compatibility with my children's school calendar.” Also, Leticia is still involved in a real estate development project in Mérida, Yucatán. On a personal note, Leticia had a chance to go skiing earlier this year with Roman Pongracz and his family in Kitzbühel, Austria.
Roman Pongracz also met with Yves Arrouet in Sofia, Bulgaria, last fall. Yves is there with Sociétè Génerale and leads the consumer business. Roman says, “We had a great lunch together and explored the old days.” Thanks to LinkedIn, Roman has had the chance to touch base again with some friends and invites classmates to reconnect — and visit. With the economy in a downturn, he says, “Our activities have switched more to cost-cutting and restructuring. While all hope and expect a fast ‘back-to-normal,’ I am more skeptical. We’ll see.”
Roddy Urquhart is still based in London and working as a marketing and communications consultant. He just launched a new company, Nae Bother, “which means 'No Problem' in Scottish speak!” Roddy still serves in the Royal Navy Reserve and was out in the Gulf last summer on a mine-warfare exercise with the U.S. Navy. He saw Warwick Nash, Sean Capstick and Peter Harrison for a holiday lunch, although he says, “I'm now missing my good friend Peter, as he's just moved the family to Lake Tahoe.”
John F. Kwant and Carolyn Kwant '95 are celebrating their first-year anniversary living in Shanghai, commenting, “Wow, that went by fast!” The family has settled in and everyone seems to be thriving. John has travelled the Asia-Pacific region as head of Ford's government affairs, and the family has been able to visit Beijing, Thailand, and Korea over the past year, with several trips occurring due to their son's travel hockey schedule because, “Yes, there is ice hockey in Shanghai!” The family vacationed over the holidays in Thailand and visited the Tiger Temple, appropriate in the Year of the Tiger. John and Carolyn would be happy to see anyone who finds themselves travelling to Shanghai during the year.
Linda Lin took over as editor of the U.K. figure-skating monthly iSKATE magazine. Linda says, “British skating is currently experiencing a bit of a renaissance, so it’s been fun getting acquainted with the skating glitterati. I’ve dusted off graphic design, print production, and journalism skills that have been lying dormant for nearly 20 years.” In the meantime, Linda is still living in beautiful rural England (about 70 miles north of London) and has kept up with her consulting practice, Butternut Design. She says: “My projects vary a lot, but the ideal clients don’t. They’re typically savvy executives who have the expertise to lead their own projects, but without the budget to hire a BCG or McKinsey case team, and without the time to train staff to get things done in-house. In other words, a typical Kellogg grad! Visitors are always welcome, and we’re always looking for excuses to meet friends on the continent.”
In March, Brent McKim left patrol after four years (he was a San Jose police officer) to begin a three-year move to detective in the financial crimes unit of the San Jose Police Department. He and wife Janice Austin McKim ’94 keep busy with their boys, Kyle (10) and Cole (8). In Brent’s spare time, he coaches them in Little League baseball and Pop Warner football.
Stuart Burgdoerfer sends greetings from Columbus Ohio … via Chicago, Dallas, Columbus, and Atlanta: “What a difference a year makes! Profit and cash flow at Victoria's Secret and Bath & Body Works improves significantly along with success of the Big Ten in high-profile football bowl games. Almost everyone in Columbus is a Buckeye fan. Our children (11, 13 and 15) and our health remain our greatest blessing.” Stuart invites you to call or e-mail if find yourself in Columbus at SBurgdoerfer@LimitedBrands.com or 614.415.2403 (direct work line).
Matthew Shapiro spent two weeks in Egypt and Jordan with fellow Susie Silver '94 and their friend Mary. He comments: it’s “a trip all should take at some point.”
Last year, Ava DeGhetto took a trip to Austin, Texas, where Molly Halloran Biglari was kind enough to play hostess for a few hours, “while I fell in love with her gorgeous twins, Texas Hill Country, and cowboys.” So much so, that the DeGhetto family has decided to lay root out west, in Scottsdale, Ariz., where they are building a retirement home high in the McDowell Mountains overlooking Phoenix and the valley of the sun. Ava is still involved with local theatre and is a member of several New York City-based theatre organizations, including the Theatre Development Fund, the Drama League, and Broadway Cares. Ava says, “I've been doing a lot of writing, which has led to many new adventures including a foray into stand-up and being a creative consultant on an independent feature film currently in pre-production mode.”
John Hattery has spent the past few years living and working in Singapore, while his family (wife Martha and son Joseph) remain at home in the Cleveland area and “as a result, we have come to appreciate our rare times together even more than before.” In December 2008, John joined the Singapore office of his consulting firm (Accenture) on an ex-pat assignment to build up Accenture's newest service line, which was formed when they bought out another firm. In Singapore, John has avoided the worst of the U.S. economic downturn, including several rounds of layoffs made by his firm. John consults in the area of process and innovation performance for Accenture, and his year has been filled with interesting assignments and clients. John’s travels for work in 2009 have taken him to Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Australia, India, Dubai, Thailand, Hong Kong and the U.K. (Editor’s note: I’m jealous.) John manages to visit home for a "working week" visit about every other month. He's even gotten involved in the Singapore Kellogg Alumni group.
During 2009 summer vacation, Martha and John headed to Asia to take a family “whirlwind Asian vacation” to Singapore, Hong Kong and mainland China. John says:“In China, we saw the giant pandas in Chengdu (Sichuan province), the 2000-year-old Terra Cotta Warriors in the city of Xi’an, and finally Beijing’s major sights, including the Great Wall, Tiananmen Square, the Forbidden City, and the 2008 Olympic Village.”
Chip Hardwick was vacationing in Hong Kong, where he was also preaching at an international congregation. Chip still lives in Bloomington, Ill., (slightly less cosmopolitan than Hong Kong), where he is pastor and head of staff of the Second Presbyterian Church. He’s been there for nearly two and a half years now and moved there after finishing his doctorate at Princeton Seminary in 2007.
After leaving the corporate world nearly four years ago, Chuck Phillips enrolled in a traditional furniture-making program in the Boston area. Since graduating two years ago, he started his own one-man business specializing in hand-made traditional furniture on an individual commission basis. He is living in the Boston area, but plans to move back to Connecticut within the next year or two. He can be contacted through his website furnituretoorder.com and would be happy to hear from any of his old friends from Kellogg.
Things are proceeding nicely for Dominic Rispoli and his new firm, Catalyst Brands. He and his partner are really enjoying helping young, emerging brands grow their distribution, refine their strategy, and ultimately position to raise capital. They are doing work for a natural and organic skin-care brand called Duchess Marden; a fashionable compactable bag company called RuMe Bags; and a high-growth baseball equipment company called Mattingly Sports. Dom works out of a small office in Westport, Conn., and they have their primary office in Tiburon, Calif. So, who knows, perhaps one more relocation back to the SF Bay area is in his family’s future? Dominic says: “Over the past six months (thanks to no longer being an investment banker!), I have been able to connect with a number of our classmates, including Eric Kahn, Thano Chaltas, Kenny Nova and Alistair Goodman. All my best to everyone.”
Since last summer, Steve Schultz has been putting together Moveable Feast Mobile Media. Moveable Feast is reinventing travel journalism from the ground-up, for a 3G, GPS, multimedia world. Steve shares:“We’re starting by building a publishing platform for city walking tours, beginning with New York. The initial tours will be available on iPhone (we hope!) in time for this year's tourist season. What's really crucial is that my media and database background are giving me a completely different view of walking tourism than anyone else seems to have: I see guided walking tours as a media business. Think about it.” Steve has a prototype and is actively seeking a seed round of funding to get the product fully built out. He’s put together an amazing board of advisers. Steve stays in close touch with Paul Nunes, and has stayed loosely in touch with John Sheputis, Dan Malven and Canh Tran. He’s also reconnected with Bill Jacobs.
Robert Taylor writes, “Got snow? El Niño storms continue to bury the Sierra Mountains, making for an epic spring ski and snowboarding season.” Kellogg alumni have a standing invite to come vacation "on the cheap" year-round at the scenic south shore of Lake Tahoe in Robert’s 21-unit resort (PineConeResort.com) or in one of the 86 vacation rental houses which are managed by his Tahoe Management Company (tahoevacations.com). He says: “I'm happy to extend to Kellogg alumni our steeply discounted friends and family rate that we give our employees and their family members. Southwest Airlines has great airfares to Reno out of Chicago Midway and dozens of other cities. Feel free to e-mail me at RPTGlobal@gmail.com.”
Bart Miller has been in Northern California since graduation, but he’s only recently integrated his adventurous outdoor passions (mountain biking, big wave surfing, etc.) and his business chops. He has been working as an executive coach for the last few years, commenting: “The work engages my creativity and heart, leverages my sports instincts and allows me to connect immediately with my business clients through my years of consulting experience. It's fun and I love the impact I make on people's lives. Yes, I get paid and I don't feel guilty about it at all. (Ok, maybe just a little.)” One of Bart’s passions is surfing. He has surfed the waves on the same day as all seven Mavericks contests over the years (Editor’s note: Mavericks is a world-renowned big wave break located one-half mile off the coast of Half Moon Bay, Calif.). These were the tallest waves he’s seen yet. It’ll be a few more years before his sons Quentin (10) and Owen (8) jump into the big waves with him!
Geoff Hyatt wrote that he noticed via Facebook that his dad, Gerald Hyatt, knows my dad, Mac Forsythe. Turns out they’re neighbors on Cape Cod. Small world.
As for me, Heather Forsythe, I took a job earlier this year as senior director of global brand strategy at Plantronics, a world leader in Bluetooth headsets and enterprise audio communications solutions. The company is based in Santa Cruz, so I now have two homes — one in Alameda, across the Bay Bridge from San Francisco, and one in Santa Cruz. Now that I’m not too far from Half Moon Bay, I’ll have to be sure to check out the Mavericks next year and cheer on our friend Bart!
Many thanks to all of you mentioned above for the many wonderful contributions to this issue. I enjoyed compiling them and I’m sure our classmates will enjoy reading them as well. If you submitted a photo but you don’t see it in the printed publication, check out the online version of Kellogg World. In an effort to cut costs, they are no longer including all photos in the printed magazine. Still, please keep the updates and photos coming! And note my new e-mail address: heforsythe@gmail.com. I’m been having trouble with my Yahoo account so I’m migrating to Gmail. Enjoy the summer everyone! |
