1998

Class rep Melanie Brownrout '98 (left) meets with newly admitted Kellogg students during a London social event.

As I write this edition of class notes, it is only days after the horrible incidents that occurred in New York in September. Still in a bit of shock, I can only wish that by the time you read this, the pain we share will have been diminished enough to look for some hope out of all of this madness. I am relieved to be writing about such happy events in the lives of our friends. It reminds me, at least, of the good things that are still happening out there. On behalf of all our classmates, much love to those who have been affected by this tragedy. As resilient Kelloggians, we are trained to work hard and to get through times like this. And to remember as well that life, no matter how different, does indeed go on.

It’s been a wonderful summer for weddings and many of our classmates were married surrounded by the faces of fellow 98ers.

Elizabeth Henna was married to Tim Commons on July 3 on top of a 11,444 foot peak in Keystone, Colo. “The minister was our classmate, who made her wedding officiate debut as The Reverend Sarah Jo Sarchet Butter, just a month after her own wedding. Sarah Jo did an amazing job, and our friends and family are still talking about how she really personalized the ceremony. Jennifer Palmer did a reading, and other Kelloggians present included Christy Uchida and the Homans with their baby girl, Maya.”

Leigh Anne Albert has a new husband and a new employer. “I left A.T. Kearney in November and found more freedom, shorter hours and better pay as an independent consultant. I am currently negotiating my next contract, but I plan on giving up contracting for a permanent role in the new year. In March, Allan Wilson and I married in Franschhoek, South Africa (see www.geocities.com/franschoekwedding for pics). We were delighted that Kelloggians Ron Collins, Matt Holcolmb and Marcus McElroy were able to make the trip. My boss (me) gave me the summer off so Allan and I did some travelling and hiking in Europe and the U.S. The rest of our free time has been spent renovating our new house; it has plenty of extra room so if you are passing through London, be sure to call.

Amol Patel was married in Ahmedabad, India, on May 19 to Lajja Shastri. “We had a reception in Silicon Valley as well on July 15 (picture of the Kellogg gang in attendance can be found at www.amol-lajja.com). Having grown up in the same native town of Ahmedabad (India) as me, Lajja is an ophthalmologist by profession, and perhaps the reason why we see eye to eye on most things! Her ‘leisure’ during school days was predominantly spent practicing Bharatnatyam and Kuchipudi (traditional dances of South India), when she was an accomplished dance performer. Last year I started ConvergeLabs, a company that focuses on providing turnkey solutions for converged wireless networks. We’re past our second round of funding, with 100+ employees globally in three locations.”

Chris Tomseth writes, “After a four-month hiatus on unemployment, I got a job as a strategy consultant to a travel technology firm in Atlanta. I love it! My girlfriend of three years, Madelene Marzan, and I finally tied the knot in Atlanta on Sept. 8. It was a small wedding, just 30 people, mostly family, but with two Kelloggians in attendance: Walt Ling and The Truong ’99.”

Len Ross sent this note. “I had a great time with Rob Mcdowell and Wendy Hamas at their wedding in Saratoga, Calif., over Labor Day. The ceremony was held outdoors, in a grove of towering redwood trees -- an amazing scene, with light pouring down through the leaves. We boogied heartily at the reception, which was held outdoors, outside the tasting room of a vineyard overlooking Silicon Valley and mountains. Well done Roberto! It was good to catch up with Chris Rimpel and Kimberly and Michael Moran, who also made the scene.”

In addition to the various nuptials, many of our classmates welcomed new additions to their families in the recent months.

Cami Salant Kanofsky and her husband Robert welcomed a baby girl on July 10. “Things are really busy here in the Kanofsky (Salant) household. Robert (MMM ’97) and I had Sierra Eilene Kanofsky 6 pounds, 14 ounces and19 inches long.”

Anne and Jon Boris gave birth to a baby boy, Jack, on Aug. 8 in Los Angeles. She writes, “Jon and I are having fun with him but not getting much sleep.”

Jennifer and Brett Adams added to their household Aug. 12 with the birth of their daughter, Cecilia. “Mother and daughter are doing well adopting to an additional change in lifestyle after we moved from the West Village to Brooklyn. Still working at Marakon Associates.”

Patrick Marshall and wife Joanna are proud parents of a little girl, Madeleine Grace Marshall (MGM for you Hollywood types) born July 24. “We also moved, only five blocks west, but a move nonetheless -- especially given we had a three-week-old to keep us preoccupied.”

Lisa and John Haas gave birth to a baby boy, Ethan, in NYC on Sept. 8.

Michael Green has had many wonderful changes in his life of late. “I’ll start my update with the biggest news. On Aug. 27, Krissy and I became the parents of an 8 pound, 8 ounce baby boy named Jordan Anderson Green. Daddy/coach was there for the entire labor process (VERY appropriately named, mind you). Upon leaving the hospital, the Green family took what remained in their L.A. digs and headed south to La Jolla, Calif. I left my job as director of professional services at a software company in Santa Monica. Thanks in no small part to some terrific Kellogg professors, I will be taking advantage of a scholarship to get another master’s degree (this time in computer science) at the University of California at San Diego. Why the computer science degree? Well it was a Stanford economist, Thorsten Veblen, who predicted that one day engineers would rule the world. The high-tech meltdown notwithstanding, I’m still hedging my bets. Krissy and I look forward to contacting other Kelloggians in the San Diego area as soon as all three of us can sleep through the night.”

Lisa Hudson Acquistapace and Kyle Acquistapace are thrilled to welcome Lindsey Marie to the family. “She was born June 29 and looks exactly like her father (but, prettier). The summer has been busy with baby care and introducing Lindsey to her extended family including Janet and Scott Goss and Jennifer Schoeneman.

The ever-active and traveling alumni golf crew made a rather unusual journey this year. Rob Adams sent this note. “After a three-year string of stellar golf/hedonistic destinations (Maui, Sun Valley, Mammoth), our group’s 2001 golf destination was lovely (and low budget) Myrtle Beach, S.C. In a moment of weakness feeding off the whining of the marketers/unemployed ibankers/tech/consultants in the group, this year’s designated Julie McCoy, yours truly, picked Myrtle, home of the Grand Strand, the blue hair/blue plate special, and a thousand ‘steak joints.’ In attendance were Jim Reddinger, Erik Maurer, Jim Walsh, Mike Moran, Rob Adams, Mark Van Genderen, William Barbieri, Rob Kornblum, Will Adams, Tom Opdycke, Craig Sahli, and in absentia, Nick “sorry guys...a deal...had to close a deal...” Konstantinou who never got off the ground in Tampa. As Opdycke and Sahli will attest, it never pays to show up to the event last. As the motel slumlord assured the rest of us, their room had really dried out surprisingly well in the 48 hours since the sewage backed up and flooded the place six inches deep. Two and a half days of high class roach motel living and four rounds of quality courses but entirely mediocre golf later, we were all much humbled and sore. It was immediately apparent that three years out of Kellogg has had a devastating effect on handicaps — even on those of the temporarily unemployed among us with no good excuse. In sum, no one spent the night in jail, had an impure thought, or was mistaken for a real golfer. And of course, what really happened at the beach, stays at the beach.”

Gary Goren flew the corporate coup and opened his own interactive advertising agency called Goren Interactive. He’s spent a lot of time working for Martin Sansing’s company helping launch video on demand. Although he recently purchased a house in Santa Monica ficve blocks from the beach, he’s been spending most of his time at Home Depot trying to figure out how to fix this and that. The good news is that Gary, Leo Griffin, Rich Herman, and Brian Menzes all live within a few miles of each other.

Mike Nelson writes, “All’s well in the reliable world of consumer packaged goods marketing.”

Sachin Mithal reports from Silicon Valley, “Having worked the business development angle for last two years at Lucent/Avaya, I made transition to product manager at Sylantro Systems. Sylantro is a 120 person start-up in the telecom area, and I am very happy with the change. I would like to thank all the Kellogg friends who pitched in to help find the new job. Roshini George ’97, Rami Kahlon, Troy Anderson, Jill Fahlgren, Roark Pollock, Milind Gokarn, Eugene Ho and several others were a great help. Thanks!

Zach Vetter returned from L.A. to Montreal. “I moved back to Montreal last Christmas and am now working for a wireless service provider.”

Adriane Brigden McDermott checks in from Down Under. “Our Maddie turns nine months old soon and we are looking forward to lots of beachy weekends in our Southern Hemisphere summer (hint, hint, good time to visit folks). Dave and I are still doe-eyed parents trying to remember what a Sunday sleep-in felt like. We were very sorry to have missed both Rob Chesney and Andrew Calderwood’s weddings recently and hope to catch up in February/March 2002 when we are planning a trip to the States. I started a new job at Guinness United Distillers in early July in sales management (part of Diageo and distributors of brands like Johnnie Walker, Smirnoff, Bailey’s, and Guinness). Finally a job where alcohol tolerance is as admired as consumer marketing know-how!”

Grillo Grimoldi is still living La Vida Loca on South America. “Argentina is still in the middle of economic and social chaos. On the personal side, I am still happily married, with two daughters, playing soccer and a have great job at Egon Zehnder. I even managed to go with Maria (no kids) to the Andes and have a terrific ski week!”

Rob Fawcett checks in from the Northeast. “All is well in Boston, yes, Boston. Maria and I moved back to Beantown about a year ago where we purchased a two-family ‘fixer upper’ that has been consuming the bulk of our nights and weekends. We are seeing lots of Mark and Evelina Taber. And, this past weekend, we joined a big group of Kelloggians in NYC for Katharine and Andrew Calderwood’s wedding. We had fun and got to tell lots of stories from the ‘old days’.”

Robert Kennedy sends in this update. “Wistie and the (growing) family (Bentley, 3, and Lacy, 6 months) are doing well. I am now working for Miller Zell a large retail agency based in Atlanta with agency relationships with Wal-Mart, Circuit City, Ford, BMW, H&R Block, ExxonMobil, etc. I have been with Miller Zell for over a year now. We work with our clients on developing their brand strategy and integrating this strategy into their store media and customer experience. Currently, I am heading up our relationship with Circuit City -- and for this reason, we just moved to the thriving metropolis of Richmond, Va. in June. We enjoy our new surroundings but wish there were more Kelloggians around.”

Philippe Meyerson says, “Just a quick message to let you know that after one year under the sun of California, I am now moving back to the East Coast (more specifically NY). Having gone through the roller coaster of the dot-coms, I am moving to a boutique brand strategy/branding firm called The Brand Leadership. I can now go back to eating bagels instead of Asian fusion. Actually, the firm is located very close to Balthazar so I can even have good croissants.”

On a final note, I just would like to say how amazed and moved I have been with the scope and immediacy of concerned outpourings among our classmates in the days following the WTC incident. E-mails and phone calls have clogged our inboxes and voicemails as classmates have made contact with each other just to ask, “Are you okay?” Even in London I received these messages, from all over the world. People have needed to be in touch, to connect. Kellogg has truly shown itself to be a powerful, caring and faithful community and in times like this we have proven that we will be strong and be united for each other. Thank you for that.