EMP-56

Hello Class of EMP-56! Summer is here and hopefully we are all enjoying the warm weather and activities these months bring for work and fun. Keeping in touch has gotten easier for the EMP-56ers who have connected on LinkedIn. We now have 43 members in the Kellogg EMP-56 group. While this is encouraging, I’m looking for 100-percent participation. If you haven’t joined yet, check it out and keep us up to date on your news in real time. Here’s our class news:

Kirsten Bird is vice president of food service marketing at Sara Lee and continues to enjoy family life in the Chicagoland area.

	Kendra Fuson EMP-56 and Tracy Shumway, married on April 24 in Hawaii. Congrats to the bride and groom!

Arne Brage joined The Private Bank and Trust Company in March as the associate managing director of the internal audit group.

Todd Chalem has stepped into a new venture, taking his expertise in the financial markets directly to the customer with investment planning services. As the financial representative at Rabjohns Financial Group, he is building his business and client base. Todd continues to live in Chicago with his wife Lisa and their two boys. EMP-56 wishes you great success in your newest business!

Scott Corley is also keeping the pace up with his latest role as a senior software engineer at Jump Trading LLC. Joining the firm in April, Scott’s work is “top secret,” so we’ll have to be on the lookout for news coming from Jump’s product development activities. Scott continues in his role as president at Red Mercury. On another note, we should all ask him about being a “reveler” at Spring Break 2010. What does it mean to be creative and get great results as a “reveler”?

Matt DesRosiers is continuing to enjoy the great outdoors in the Northwest Territories. He was in Homer, Alaska, and was spotted halibut fishing and shrimping. Anyone looking for some adventure, call Matt!

Kendra Fuson’s life is full of joy and good news. On April 24, Kendra married Tracy Shumway in Hawaii. The weather and views of the oceanside wedding were spectacular, and our own Anju Ahuha was there to witness the beautiful ceremony. The couple has relocated and is living in Des Moines, Iowa. EMP-56 offers our heartfelt congratulations to the happy bride and groom and wishes you a life of adventure, laughter, and blessings together!

Tony Hirschritt joined Quest Diagnostics in February as director of physician sales for the Midwest.

Dan Masterson and Lisa Flynn welcomed new baby girl Mackynzie Reese into the world in March. Mackynzie is a lovely addition to Dan’s family — and more motivation for invention at Guardian Angel Enterprises. Congratulations!

Steve Prokup and his lovely wife Chaoran are very pleased to announce the arrival of their twin babies on April 8. Cason and Alaina are getting comfortable at home with their parents in California. Congratulations on the twins!

Jim Rothschild accepted a new challenge at Cirrus Logic in April as manager for strategic accounts. He is responsible for designing solutions with architects and engineers and developing long-term partnerships. Jim continues to live in the Chicagoland area.

Curtis Smith was named general manager for the West Central region at Crown Imports.

Rob Stoppek is back in the U.S. from his international assignment with Sauer-Danfoss. Welcome back, Rob!

Dave Sulfridge continues his international travel, spending time with business development activities for The Warranty Group in Brazil. Dave is also continuing his world marathon quest – participating in the London event. Keep it up, Dave — EMP-56 is ready to cheer you on in Chicago later this year!

Sheila (Sullivan) Tierney took on a new challenge with Ingersoll Rand in March as vice president of global procurement. She lives with her husband in Charlotte, N.C.

Ping Yu continues to keep very busy with his work at Pearson Education Asia. He is managing several programs, from the post-merger integration of a premium educational company Pearson acquired in China to joint venture operations with Nokia for a mobile solution to the turnaround operations of a Pearson business unit in Beijing.

Vicky Free is the vice president of 360 Consumer Marketing in the animation and young adult media division at Turner Broadcasting Systems. Vicky is balancing her challenging work life with some fun, enjoying the 2010 Fantastic Voyage cruise through the Caribbean in May.

Nurzhan Kapparov is doing well as the head of KazMunai Gas’ Moscow office and director of its investment and acquisition group. KazMunai is the second-largest oil producer in Kazakhstan and has completed many acquisitions under Nurzhan’s leadership.

Rich Montbriand accepted a new challenge in May with IBM. He was named director for the IT strategy cloud and middleware services group and is focused on developing its consulting services in the areas of strategy, architecture, cloud computing and middleware.

We can see that our EMP crowd continues to move and shake the business world, as well as add to the population of future Kellogg recruits. Congrats to everyone on their new challenges and keep the updates coming via our EMP-56 LinkedIn group. Enjoy summer!